If the Gurkas went first, then the Commandos and Paras would have no one to assault, to say nothing of their tripping over Argentine dead!
HMS EAGLE in the Falklands
- Thread starter flasheart
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If the Gurkas went first, then the Commandos and Paras would have no one to assault, to say nothing of their tripping over Argentine dead!
A Night To Remember & A Night To Try To Forget
There can be no sight in the world more terrifying than that of a soldier screaming a blood curdling war cry as loud as his lungs can manage, overcome with the red mist but eyes fixed firmly on you and charging with bayonet fixed straight towards you personally. The soldier knows that his best way to survive the next few seconds is to kill you.
Watching recruits practising bayonet drill for the first time might be found by the casual observer to be almost comical as young men probably not even out of their teens yet with slightly higher voices make an attempt at an intimidating scream will poking a sand bag with the end of their rifles. What the casual observer wouldn’t know and the recruits wouldn’t have yet grasped is that for the bayonet only becomes truly effective and terrifying weapon in the hands of a man overcome by fury, hatred for whoever is unfortunate enough to be on the sharp end and the resurfacing of his primal desire to spill blood.
When the shooting starts and the real bullets start to fly and real men start to go down then it’s a whole different ball game. Seeing a bayonet charge for real unless your taking part in it can be a frightening sight even if its charging away from you.
Coming towards you however there are three ways in which you are likely to react. You may attempt to shoot or fight the man coming towards you. You might try to run as fast as your legs will carry you. Or you may find yourself frozen with either fear or a moment of indecision. Whereas the first two options might give you some chance of survival doing nothing even for a few seconds will seal your fate. Something more than one Argentinian found out on the night of the 29th of May.
The Battle of Two Sisters
The battle plan for the assault on the twin peaks that formed Two Sisters could be accurately described as a Warminster style assault. This means an orthodox infantry attack plan of the kind that British infantrymen of all cap badges had practised again and again at the infantry training centre in Warminster in Wiltshire. Although the approach towards the enemy was to be silent the battle itself would be extremely noisy with the maximum weight of artillery hurled at the Argentines as the marines attempted to storm their positions.
45 COMMANDO’s start line for this operation was at Murrell bridge, a rickety structure over the Murrell river at the foot of Mount Kent which had become a sort of dividing line between what was considered British and Argentine held ground.
X-Ray Company which was the lead company for the assault led by the able and articulate Captain Ian Gardiner RM had taken rather longer than expected to even reach the start point. The commandos had been bogged down by the peat ground and slowed down by fearsome rock-runs over which they had had to hump the heavy weapons. Irritated at this delay and the knock-on effects to his plan things had even gotten to a point where 45 COMMANDO’s commanding officer Lt Col Whitehead had threatened over the radio to “come down and kick” the company into action.
With his men having made it across Murrell bridge Captain Gardiner’s company had silently made their way across the dead ground towards the base of the hill when murphy’s law had reared its ugly head.
The Argentine force occupying Two Sisters was comprised of the now consolidated 4th Infantry Regiment. Originally positioned on both Two Sisters and Mount Harriet the regiment had suffered grievously at the hands of repeated British airstrikes which had seen the use of large quantities of cluster bombs and rockets. Due to the casualties that the regiment had sustained it had been decided by the Argentine commanders in Port Stanley that occupying and holding such a large area was now too big of a task given the regiments weakened condition. Therefore the 4th Infantry Regiment had been ordered to abandon its positions on Mount Harriet including its forward position on Mount Wall and consolidate its strength on Two Sisters. 6th Infantry Regiment had been positioned to the SE of Port Stanley in conjunction with the 3rd Infantry Regiment to defend the area where the British had been expected to land. Now that the British had already made a landing it was decided that the threat of an amphibious assault in the Port Stanley area was much reduced and that 3rd Infantry Regiment could be left to guard the area. 6th Regiment had been moved westwards to take over 4th Regiments positions on Mount Harriet.
As the British had previously noted the Argentines had been patrolling the area west of their positions on the heights with patrols leaving and returning to their positions under the cover of darkness. Unfortunately for both X-Ray company and the Argentines one such patrol had been in the process of descending down from the peaks at the start of their mission when they had encountered the marines of 45 COMMANDO who were trying to make their way up towards the southern peak.
The firefight had been brief as a result of the Argentines being taken by surprise and the 8 man patrol being vastly outnumbered but the damage had been done. With the Argentines in the fighting positions further up the hill now aware that something was afoot they had unleashed a ferocious hail of machine gun and mortar fire. Having prepared for this eventuality Captain Gardiner immediately called for artillery fire onto the prearranged coordinates and under the cover of the explosion’s courtesy of 29 COMMANDO Regiment RA led his company up the hill as they attempted to close with the enemy.
Something that is drummed into all infantrymen during training is that when attacking uphill the absolute worst thing you can do is to stop. Once you have stopped you have lost momentum and taken pressure off of the enemy. Once you’re no longer moving the enemy will have a better chance of spotting you and the temptation is to dig yourself into your position and before you know it the attack has bogged down and the enemy shooting down onto you from above has the advantage and the next stage is usually they will attack and drive you off of the hill. Therefore, the marines had been taught when attacking uphill keep going forwards no matter what even if it means ignoring your wounded. If men go to the aid of their wounded rather than pressing the attack then the effect is the same. Sometimes it was better to leave wounded men to the follow up units to deal with rather than increasing the likelihood of becoming one yourself.
Unfortunately for X-Ray Company they realised that they had somewhat underestimated the enemy’s strength there was one well dug in Argentine platoon in the line of advance that was refusing to be dislodged which was stalling the company’s attack.
As Gardiner’s men scratched what cover they could from the rocks and peat ridges and tried to pin point enemy bunkers and work out routes to their trenches they were also burning through their supply of ammunition as they answered the Argentine fire.
At this point Lt Col Whitehead had decided to alter the entire battleplan. It was clear that X-Ray company had no hope of storming the twin peaks without taking massive casualties and so Yankee and Zulu Company’s were ordered to assault the northern peak.
A night battle on this scale is and extraordinary experience. Most of the young marines who had never seen action before had expected some sort of visual impact, with men running, guns firing, targets falling and so on. In fact, it is nothing like that. Sound is the predominant impact: the whoosh and thunder of incoming artillery, the steady pok-pok of the Argentines 0.5in heavy machine guns sending a stream of red tracer from the bunkers above and the rapid chatter of the British GPMG’s replying. A lasting impression is that of the general confusion compared to the well-ordered training exercises which these men were so used to.
With argentine attention focused on X-Ray Company attacking the southern peak Yankee and Zulu company had been able to get rather close to the northern peak before they were spotted. Rather than let themselves get bogged down like X-Ray Company Yankee and Zulu Company’s had rushed forwards and managed to throw the Argentines slightly of balance with their rapid advance and ferocious weight of fire. Sensing an opportunity and ignoring the risk posed by the Argentine machine gun, rifle and mortar fire Zulu Company’s commander had ordered his men to fix bayonets and charge forwards and get to grips with the enemy in the most literal way imaginable. As they charged forwards the men chanted their company battle cry “Zulu, Zulu, Zulu”. The fighting on the northern peak was brief, extremely vicious and extremely one sided as the Argentines feeling was one of sheer terror which couldn’t stand up to the all-consuming feelings of aggression felt by the British marines as they were overcome with the red mist.
With the northern peak now in British hands and the surviving Argentines running for their lives down the eastern slope the men in positions between the peaks now saw that they were facing an enemy and taking fire on three sides and withdrew down the eastern side. The southern peak fell almost immediately after and the British now in command of the high ground began to fire down onto the Argentines on the eastern slope.
The Argentines at this point were in a state of shock and utter confusion. Morale had already been low due to the casualties from the repeated air and artillery strikes and now the heavy fighting and casualties and bayonet attack was to much for the Argentine conscripts. Despite the officers attempts to bring some sort of order to the chaos and counter attack the heights before the British could get themselves established morale was shattered and all sense of order and cohesion vanished. What started as the men retreating from the northern peak quickly turned into a route as confused and disoriented troops unable to find officers or anyone to give them any idea of what to do decided in the heat of the moment that the best thing to do was to follow their comrades who all seemed to be running down the mountain triggering a cascade effect. In this melee of chaos and confusion many men were cut down by the British rifle and machinegun fire.
The assault on Two Sisters had been a short but violent affair. Lt Col Whitehead when he inspected the enemies positions had been amazed that they had so quickly abandon what he judged to be very strong positions and remarked “with 50 Royals I could have died of old age holding this place”.
The Battle of Mount Harriet
At the briefing Lt Col Hunt had told his men “surprise and absolute silence are vital. If necessary, you must go through the old business of making every man jump up and down before he starts, to check that nothing rattles. Persistent coughers must be left behind. If you find yourself in a minefield remember that you must go on. Men must not stop for their oppos, however great the temptation. They must go through and finish the attack or it will cost more lives in the end. The enemy are well dug in in very strong positions but I believe that once we get in amongst them, they will crack pretty quickly”.
The plan for 40 COMMANDO to secure Mount Harriet was fairly simple. J Company would make a direct assault on the western slope with plenty of fire support. Rather than to take the mountain this was actually to distract the Argentines while K and L company made a flanking attack from the south and enveloped the mountain.
As planned the attack on Two Sisters commenced ahead of the assault on Mount Harriet. This unfortunately meant that the Argentine defenders were now alert and prepared to receive an attack. Knowing that a stealthy approach was unlikely to succeed the marines of J Company instead relied on murderous amounts of artillery from both the 105mm guns of the batteries at Firebase Kent and also from the 4.5 inch gun of HMS SHEFFIELD which had sailed around to the east of the islands and taken up station to the SSE of Mount Harriet in order to provide naval gunfire support.
The bombardment took its toll on the Argentine defenders with 6 killed and 24 wounded. More importantly it kept them mostly lying as close the ground as they could and not looking for an advancing British force. This gave J Company the opportunity they needed to cross the flat open ground and close with Mount Harriet. The advance was an extremely nerve-racking affair as they Argentines while keeping their heads down for now surely knew that they were coming and there was still the small matter of navigating their way across a minefield in the dark. The men kept themselves well-spaced apart as they took extreme care with each step. While they had been told that the frozen ground meant that the mines would likely be visible or above ground and the detonators may be frozen all it would take would be one misstep. With the Argentines distracted by the bombardment J Company were able to close to approximately 100 yards from the enemy positions before they were spotted. Then all hell broke loose.
The Argentines now aware of the immediate danger in front of them opened fire. The men of J Company knowing that stealth was no longer needed returned fire and began to get stuck into the Argentine defences. Using tactics similar to those employed in building clearing the marines used grenades, 66mm LAW and 84mm Carl Gustav anti armour rockets and 81mm mortars to methodically clear each enemy position as they advanced slowly up the rocky mountain slope. The artillery fire switched from a saturation bombardment to an on call infantry support weapon used to cover advances or crack open especially well prepared enemy positions with some shells landing only a mere 50 yards away from the men of J Company.
During the reconnaissance missions that had taken place in the days before tonight’s assault a four-man SAS team had made two startling discoveries. The first was that there was a large minefield to the south of Mount Harriet, evidently an attempt by the Argentines to secure their flanks. When the men had moved to map the extent of the minefield and examine the mines themselves, they had made an even more important discovery almost purely by chance. An Argentine patrol had descended down the southern slope of the mountain and had met a returning patrol which had proceeded up the mountain. Despite the dark the SF men had been able to observe that while the outgoing and incoming patrol had taken slightly different route’s they had both used the southern slope of the mountain. This was proof that there were at least two safe paths through the minefield. It was these routes that the men of K and L company were no quietly making their way up as they advanced to make their flanking attack.
Amazingly it later transpired that the commander of the 6th Infantry Regiment defending Mount Harriet Lt Col Halperin was not aware that there was a route through the minefield protecting his flank. As far as he was concerned the threat came from the west which dictated how he had deployed his men. His northern flank was protected by 4th Regiment occupying Two Sisters and this southern flank was secured by a dense minefield which would prevent any assault. His support components were positioned on the eastern side of the mountain close enough to do their job while being able to stay out of the firing line.
It later emerged that 6th Regiment had only relived 4th Regiment less than 48 hours before the attacks and that the handover between the commanders had been a bit of a rushed affair as 4th Regiments commander Lt Col Soria had been more concerned with redeploying his now consolidated force into their new positions before it became dark and when the threat of British attack was at its greatest. The safe paths through the minefields existed mainly to give patrols a safe way in and out of the defensive perimeter. While the subject of patrols had been touched upon Lt Col Halperin had somewhat forcefully stated his intention of no longer mounting patrols considering the dangers to the men to great and that they served no purpose as the detonation of landmines would be more likely to give warning of a British attack. In His rush to get back to Two Sisters and see to his own men Lt Col Soria had simply neglected to mention the existence of the safe paths which his counterpart wouldn’t use anyway. This oversight would prove to be fatal.
Though there were sentries watching the southern slope of the mountain with the Argentines belief that there was no way anyone could approach them from that direction that was all they were. Sentries as opposed to a defending force. The men who should have been looking out to the south were instead more focused in the artillery bombardment and heavy fighting taking place a mere few hundred meters from them. Worse the bright flashes and loud booms produced by the shells, rockets, mortars and whole array of small arms destroyed the sentry’s night vision and masked the approach of K and L Company’s. even if the sentries had seen what was coming by that point due to the sheer noise it is doubtful that anyone would have heard their warnings or cries of alarm. Three of them died at the hands of the Royal Marines point men who had gone on ahead of the rest of the force and used their famous Commando Fighting Knives to deadly effect without producing so much as a sound.
With the two companies now safely through the minefield and established upon the southern side of the peak they went their separate ways with L Company moving around the western edge flank the Argentines currently engaging their comrades in J Company while K Company moved around to the east. To the Argentines on the western slope who were having a hard enough time fending off the heavily supported British attack from the west suddenly being hit in the flank from and in many cases from above by an equally strong British force that had appeared out of nowhere came as a terrible shock. Despite this they were still perfectly able to put up a fight forcing L Company to dig them out of each and every position often having to resort to the use of MILAN anti-tank missiles (Lt Col Hunt would later admit to having literally burned through quite a lot of the British taxpayer’s money at £10,000 a missile). Being attacked from two sides put the Argentine defenders in a difficult position as they could not properly defend against the attack from one direction without exposing themselves to the threat from the other. Gradually they found themselves being pushed out of their positions.
K Company meanwhile had moved around the eastern or reverse side of the Argentine defenders’ positions. Action on that side of the mountain began when the company opened fire upon the first enemy, they came across which was 6th Regiments 120mm mortar platoon. While they had been taken by surprise the Argentines on this side of the mountain were not about to roll over and die and K Company were forced to more than once make use of the Naval Gunfire Support capability provided by HMS SHEFFIELD. The Argentine positions on this side of the mountain however were not the dug defensive positions found on the western side however and the defenders found themselves obliged to fall back again and again. This however opened up an opportunity which a platoon of K Company was ordered to exploit. With the Argentines having been pushed back the had lost possession of the ground that led up to the peak where it was believed the Argentine post was located. The platoon was ordered to attack upwards and take possession of the peak. Realising that the Argentines up on the peak would rapidly work out what was happening the marines had fixed bayonets and under the cover of suppression fire from GPMG’s charged up the hill. In scenes similar to those that had taken place on the northern peak of Two Sisters the argentines had either been slain or driven off of the peak by the marines bayonets and Stirling submachineguns.
Lt Col Halperin had escaped by running down the western slope where he had re-joined his men and quickly restablished command. His situation was now dire. His men were taking fire from three sides, the British now controlled the heights and were shooting downwards into the rear of the Argentine positions. His men’s positions were rapidly becoming untenable and they were steadily taking casualties as a result. To attack in any direction would simply see his men cut to pieces by flanking fire and to stay where they were would see them gradually wiped out. They had to extract themselves from their current location but the only direction they could go was north to Two Sisters which was itself under attack. While Halperin had been too busy with defending his own positions to worry too much about what was happening on Two Sisters he had got the sense that things there were not going well. Worse the attack on his command post on the peak had come from the east meaning that there was a British force on the eastern slope of the mountain. There was a real danger that this force would attempt to move around the peak and flank him from the north while cutting off the only route out of here.
While the Argentines did try to extract themselves from the western slope the heavy British fire and need to maintain a strong enough rear guard to hold off the British coupled with the defeat of 4th Regiment on Two Sisters saw them make next to no progress. The defenders dwindling supply of ammunition coupled with the steady casualties as they were pushed out of or died in one position after another saw the British grind them down into submission. While some elements of the regiment on the eastern slope were able to retreat the 6th Regiment was effectively disembowelled in its unsuccessful defence of Mount Harriet with almost 100 men killed and wounded and nearly 300 forced to surrender.
The Battle of Mount Longdon
Having a much longer distance to travel to reach their starting points for the assault on Mount Longdon the men of 2 PARA had had a prime view of the fighting taking place on Two Sisters and Mount Harriet beyond. The maroon bereted men had watched in awe at the unbelievable number of explosions of artillery shells and the weight of small arms fire flying around. Knowing that the marines battle plans had relied to a larger extent on stealth and surprise the PARA’s with their rather more overt plan which relied on aggressiveness and heavy firepower wondered what was awaiting them to the east. Some men where nervous while others having gotten themselves into the mindset were eager to put all of their years of training into practise.
2 PARA under Lt Col H. Jones had been handed the task of taking the now looming mass of Mount Longdon which lay like a fortress between them and the west of Port Stanley. Between the minefield to the south and the enemy known to be on Wireless Ridge the Paras would have little room for manoeuvre.
Defending the mountain was the complete 7th Infantry Regiment along with specialist elements of 601st Commando Company and snipers. Lt Col Omar Gimenez had had weeks to prepare and position his men for this moment. In order to defend this long, narrow, craggy mountain his men prepared numerous bunkers and sangars. These positions were supported by 120mm heavy mortars, Browning 30 cal and 50 cal heavy machineguns, 105mm recoilless rifles, anti-tank missiles and sniper rifles equipped with second generation image intensifying night sights.
The reason why 10th Mechanised Infantry Brigade’s commander Brigadier General Joffre had given the task of defending this feature which formed the lynchpin of the Argentines defences of Port Stanley to 7th Regiment was because of their impressive and capable commander.
When the conflict had begun Lt Col Gimenez had taken things rather more seriously than his counterparts in some of the other regiments. When he had been handed his orders to prepare to deploy to the Malvinas whereas other officers had assumed that there either wouldn’t be a war or if there was then the navy and air force would defeat the British long before they had the chance t get close enough for any ground combat Lt Gimenez like the consummate professional he considered himself to be had approached things with the attitude that his unit would be involved in some heavy fighting. To this end he had ordered that the raw conscripts which had at that time made up the bulk of his regiment be dismissed and replaced with reservists form the class that had most recently completed their one year’s mandatory service with his regiment. Argentine conscripts of the time would perform a year’s service with a regiments entire complement of junior ranks being made up of conscripts from the same class as in they had all joined at the same time and would all depart at the same time. This naturally resulted in a massive turnover of manpower which placed an enormous training burden on a regiment’s officers. The result of this was a repeating yearly cycle of training and exercises of gradually increasing complexity and difficulty as the recruits gradually matured into effective soldiers. The problem was by the time the regiment had finally gotten a degree of cohesiveness and fighting effectiveness the conscripts would be discharged and replaced and the process started all over again. The conscripts in 7th Regiments ranks at the start of the conflict were at the start of their service and still fresh out of training whereas the previous class had only a few months before proven themselves in a brigade sized exercise with the rest of 10th Brigade and would still have the physical fitness and fresh memories of what they had learned. Therefore, it had made more sense to send the new conscripts away somewhere and bring back the experienced reservists. Despite having taken some losses from British air attacks in common with the other infantry regiments morale in the 7th Regiment was notably higher.
Had anyone thought to ask him Lt Col Jones of 2 PARA would have probably said something along the lines of any one of his men being more than a match for any grubby conscript from a line infantry regiment in some second rate army. Professional soldiers with many years experience under their belts and the products of a legendarily tough training course the PARA’s considered themselves the elite unit of probably the best army in the world and had a rather disparaging view of other outfits and cap badges which they considered to be beneath them. It was telling that more than half of the men selected to become members of the SAS came from the ranks of the PARA’s. A fact which they were extremely proud of.
Like the Argentine 7th Regiment 2 PARA were here tonight to a large degree because the higher ups believed in the capabilities of their leader.
The summit of Mount Longdon dominated the very open ground around it for several thousand yards making even night movements hazardous. To try and even the odds 2 PARA would be able to call upon heavy supporting artillery fire from both 29 COMMANDO Regiment RA and the 4.5-inch gun of HMS AVENGER. 2 PARA’s own support company reinforced by men and weapons from 3 PARA’s support company would provide heavy machine gun and mortar fire.
Having completed the four hour march to their start lines the PARA’s stopped briefly to take on some water and make sure that everyone was ready A, B and C Company’s had set off I slightly different directions into the darkness to attempt a pincer like assault. They were led by men from D (Patrol) company who having conducted the battalion’s reconnaissance work knew the area and more importantly the locations of the minefields. The first men to make contact with the enemy were B Company. Trying to work their way around a minefield in the dark one of the men had lost track of where he was and ended up stepping on a mine. This had alerted a platoon of 20 Argentines up ahead who had been sleeping in their tents and now struggled to extract themselves from their sleeping bags. Most of them were not quick enough as the lead platoon of Para’s rapidly advanced forward and poured grenades and automatic fire into the helpless Argentinians. Attempting to make the most of the element of surprise Lt Col Jones had ordered his men to sprint forwards and take as much ground as they could before the argentines could respond. Men surged forward throwing grenades and pouring fire into Argentine defensive positions. While they were able to take some ground, the leading men had somewhat over extended themselves and found themselves and ended up being caught out on open ground when the argentines had managed to stop them in their tracks and forced them to withdraw to cover. The Argentines had prepared for the possibility of an attack from the west and the PARA’s found themselves having to pause their advance and call in artillery fire to attempt to break the Argentine defensive positions holding them up. This was all a part of Lt Col Gimenez’s plan as with the enemy for now halted he quickly ordered his own men to move to the western slope. Snipers and heavy machinegun teams repositioned themselves and began pouring fire down onto the Para’s to try and keep them in place as a company of riflemen which had been acting as the regiment’s quick reaction force attempted to counter attack and drive the British back down the slope. Things started to become rather difficult for the Para’s as they were forced to start digging themselves in to hold on to their newly acquired territory and start to recover the men lying wounded out on the open ground while fighting off an enemy counter attack. While the enemy attack was countered through the use of heavy and accurate machine gun and mortar fire from the support company a sort of stalemate was rapidly developing with that Para’s at a distinct disadvantage. Lt Col Jones would receive a DSO for his actions on Mount Longdon and ultimately retire from the army as a Lt General. Recognising that the longer his men stayed where they were the greater the odds of failure became Lt Col Jones ordered the attack to be pressed on with. Heavy artillery support was called in onto the Argentine positions taking advantage of the batteries that were now free to support 2 PARA with the actions on Two Sisters and Mount Harriet now complete. Gradually and methodically the PARA’s silenced or destroyed each individual enemy position ahead of them as they slowly pushed forwards even going as far as to call down a volley from an entire artillery battery to deal with a single sniper that was holding up a platoon’s advance. In an action which saw him recommended for (but ultimately not awarded) a Victoria Cross and earned him some criticism for effectively abandoning his command post during a battle Lt Col Jones personally led a platoon in a successful attack against an Argentine machinegun and riflemen position that had had the platoon pinned down. In doing so he was able to create a breach in the Argentine line which A Company quickly moved to exploit enabling them to engage the defenders in close quarter combat in amount the rock formations. Close Quarter Battle or CQB even when done right is often a bloody affair for both sides (The Germans losing an entire army fighting in Stalingrad is a testament to that). The aggressiveness, skill and training of the PARA’s coupled with the skill of their gunfire support observers who were able to call in repeated danger close fire missions saw the Para’s gain the upper hand and the Argentines losing the initiative as they were pushed back and sustained casualties. Keeping the pressure on the Argentines so they couldn’t get themselves organised into an effective defence the PARA’s pressed the attack using fire and manoeuvre tactics and heavy and accurate fire support as they advanced up the mountain. Despite making a determined defensive stand on the peak the Argentine defenders were unable to hold on as the Para’s moved to attack the peak from both the north, south and west enveloping them. The final straw came when the bunkers housing the heavy machineguns that had stood up to artillery bombardment began to be silenced one by one by MILAN anti-tank missiles. This allowed the Para’s to charge forwards and wrestle control of the peak from the defenders using grenades, automatic fire and bayonets. Seeing that he had now lost possession of the high ground and effectively the battle Lt Col Gimenez decided that there was little he could gain but much he could lose by continuing to try and hold onto the eastern parts of the mountain that remained in his possession. Therefore he decided to cut his losses and gave the order to retreat to Wireless Ridge to the east where he could make a defensive stand from a strong position. It is a testament to his leadership abilities that his regiment was the only regiment in battle that night that was able to maintain unit cohesion and fighting capability and withdraw to a new position relatively intact.
It had been one of the longest and most violent nights of the men’s lives. As dawn came helicopters now flew low along the contours of the hills to extract the dead and the wounded of both sides. Company Sergeant Majors began conducting headcounts to write ascertain how many casualties there were. In a small and homogenous group like an infantry battalion the loss of each man is noticed and felt by each man and there had been more than a few losses that night.
There was much work to do as Paratroopers and Marines who had taken the heights now occupied the former defenders’ positions. Some rested and began to try and process what they had seen and done during the night while others prepared for the possibility of an enemy counter attack.
Prisoners both living and dead had to be disarmed and processed. While the British dead were loaded onto helicopters and flown away the Argentine prisoners were organised into burial parties to look after their own dead. Standing orders to as far as possible identify the dead threw up a problem. Whereas soldiers of both nations wore dog tags the Argentine ones unlike the British which displayed the wearers name, rank, service number, blood group and religion the Argentine ones held only the wearers blood group and no name making identification difficult.
Many of the Argentine dead from the nights battles are still officially listed as missing in action as the Argentine authorities even today have no idea which of the many graves bearing the words “a soldier of Argentina” contain which bodies.
In Port Stanley Brigadier General Menendez sat in his office and thought to himself while he waited for the radio connection to be made with Lt General Galtieri in Buenos Aries. The British had finally attacked as everyone had known they eventually would. He had held out hope that his men who were well dug into strong defensive positions on the heights would be able to hold off the British for a while and make them bleed but quite the opposite had happened. In a matter of hours the British had forced 3 regiments of infantry from strong defensive positions, inflicted crippling casualties to those regiments and destroyed the outer ring of his defensive perimeter. 6th Regiment had suffered the worst with only a company or so’s worth of men having avoided being killed or captured on Mount Harriet leaving it a regiment in name only. 4th Regiment had unbelievably actually broken and routed in battle and were scattered to hell god knows where all over the place. This fact did throw considerable doubt onto Lt Col Soria’s claim that he had conducted an orderly withdrawal and that he was still in control of his men. 7th Regiment while largely still intact had still been knocked about quite a bit by the British.
He had had a rather frank discussion with the senior officers under his command regarding the future of the campaign. In truth deep down they all knew that defeat had become the most likely outcome when the British had destroyed the navy and effectively besieged the islands. The only real hope for turning things around had evaporated with the air forces fast jet fleet. To be honest things had only gotten this far to satisfy the nations and army’s pride but now after what had happened overnight the writing was on the wall and the aim was to save as many lives as they could. He had felt extremely uncomfortable when he had brought up the subject of what he believed the only remaining course of action to be. The officers had begrudgingly agreed with his assessment of the situation but had insisted that if they were to do the unthinkable, they wanted permission from high command on the mainland, pointing out that army regulations forbade surrender unless 50% of the men were casualties and 75% of the ammunition was expended. Plus, the need to pass on the decision and ultimate responsibility to someone higher up the chain of command than them. This was why Menendez was now waiting for the radio connection to be made and thinking very carefully about what was going to be said. It was not going to be a conversation either party would have wished to be a part of if it could have been avoided and certainly not one that they would enjoy having.
Watching recruits practising bayonet drill for the first time might be found by the casual observer to be almost comical as young men probably not even out of their teens yet with slightly higher voices make an attempt at an intimidating scream will poking a sand bag with the end of their rifles. What the casual observer wouldn’t know and the recruits wouldn’t have yet grasped is that for the bayonet only becomes truly effective and terrifying weapon in the hands of a man overcome by fury, hatred for whoever is unfortunate enough to be on the sharp end and the resurfacing of his primal desire to spill blood.
When the shooting starts and the real bullets start to fly and real men start to go down then it’s a whole different ball game. Seeing a bayonet charge for real unless your taking part in it can be a frightening sight even if its charging away from you.
Coming towards you however there are three ways in which you are likely to react. You may attempt to shoot or fight the man coming towards you. You might try to run as fast as your legs will carry you. Or you may find yourself frozen with either fear or a moment of indecision. Whereas the first two options might give you some chance of survival doing nothing even for a few seconds will seal your fate. Something more than one Argentinian found out on the night of the 29th of May.
The Battle of Two Sisters
The battle plan for the assault on the twin peaks that formed Two Sisters could be accurately described as a Warminster style assault. This means an orthodox infantry attack plan of the kind that British infantrymen of all cap badges had practised again and again at the infantry training centre in Warminster in Wiltshire. Although the approach towards the enemy was to be silent the battle itself would be extremely noisy with the maximum weight of artillery hurled at the Argentines as the marines attempted to storm their positions.
45 COMMANDO’s start line for this operation was at Murrell bridge, a rickety structure over the Murrell river at the foot of Mount Kent which had become a sort of dividing line between what was considered British and Argentine held ground.
X-Ray Company which was the lead company for the assault led by the able and articulate Captain Ian Gardiner RM had taken rather longer than expected to even reach the start point. The commandos had been bogged down by the peat ground and slowed down by fearsome rock-runs over which they had had to hump the heavy weapons. Irritated at this delay and the knock-on effects to his plan things had even gotten to a point where 45 COMMANDO’s commanding officer Lt Col Whitehead had threatened over the radio to “come down and kick” the company into action.
With his men having made it across Murrell bridge Captain Gardiner’s company had silently made their way across the dead ground towards the base of the hill when murphy’s law had reared its ugly head.
The Argentine force occupying Two Sisters was comprised of the now consolidated 4th Infantry Regiment. Originally positioned on both Two Sisters and Mount Harriet the regiment had suffered grievously at the hands of repeated British airstrikes which had seen the use of large quantities of cluster bombs and rockets. Due to the casualties that the regiment had sustained it had been decided by the Argentine commanders in Port Stanley that occupying and holding such a large area was now too big of a task given the regiments weakened condition. Therefore the 4th Infantry Regiment had been ordered to abandon its positions on Mount Harriet including its forward position on Mount Wall and consolidate its strength on Two Sisters. 6th Infantry Regiment had been positioned to the SE of Port Stanley in conjunction with the 3rd Infantry Regiment to defend the area where the British had been expected to land. Now that the British had already made a landing it was decided that the threat of an amphibious assault in the Port Stanley area was much reduced and that 3rd Infantry Regiment could be left to guard the area. 6th Regiment had been moved westwards to take over 4th Regiments positions on Mount Harriet.
As the British had previously noted the Argentines had been patrolling the area west of their positions on the heights with patrols leaving and returning to their positions under the cover of darkness. Unfortunately for both X-Ray company and the Argentines one such patrol had been in the process of descending down from the peaks at the start of their mission when they had encountered the marines of 45 COMMANDO who were trying to make their way up towards the southern peak.
The firefight had been brief as a result of the Argentines being taken by surprise and the 8 man patrol being vastly outnumbered but the damage had been done. With the Argentines in the fighting positions further up the hill now aware that something was afoot they had unleashed a ferocious hail of machine gun and mortar fire. Having prepared for this eventuality Captain Gardiner immediately called for artillery fire onto the prearranged coordinates and under the cover of the explosion’s courtesy of 29 COMMANDO Regiment RA led his company up the hill as they attempted to close with the enemy.
Something that is drummed into all infantrymen during training is that when attacking uphill the absolute worst thing you can do is to stop. Once you have stopped you have lost momentum and taken pressure off of the enemy. Once you’re no longer moving the enemy will have a better chance of spotting you and the temptation is to dig yourself into your position and before you know it the attack has bogged down and the enemy shooting down onto you from above has the advantage and the next stage is usually they will attack and drive you off of the hill. Therefore, the marines had been taught when attacking uphill keep going forwards no matter what even if it means ignoring your wounded. If men go to the aid of their wounded rather than pressing the attack then the effect is the same. Sometimes it was better to leave wounded men to the follow up units to deal with rather than increasing the likelihood of becoming one yourself.
Unfortunately for X-Ray Company they realised that they had somewhat underestimated the enemy’s strength there was one well dug in Argentine platoon in the line of advance that was refusing to be dislodged which was stalling the company’s attack.
As Gardiner’s men scratched what cover they could from the rocks and peat ridges and tried to pin point enemy bunkers and work out routes to their trenches they were also burning through their supply of ammunition as they answered the Argentine fire.
At this point Lt Col Whitehead had decided to alter the entire battleplan. It was clear that X-Ray company had no hope of storming the twin peaks without taking massive casualties and so Yankee and Zulu Company’s were ordered to assault the northern peak.
A night battle on this scale is and extraordinary experience. Most of the young marines who had never seen action before had expected some sort of visual impact, with men running, guns firing, targets falling and so on. In fact, it is nothing like that. Sound is the predominant impact: the whoosh and thunder of incoming artillery, the steady pok-pok of the Argentines 0.5in heavy machine guns sending a stream of red tracer from the bunkers above and the rapid chatter of the British GPMG’s replying. A lasting impression is that of the general confusion compared to the well-ordered training exercises which these men were so used to.
With argentine attention focused on X-Ray Company attacking the southern peak Yankee and Zulu company had been able to get rather close to the northern peak before they were spotted. Rather than let themselves get bogged down like X-Ray Company Yankee and Zulu Company’s had rushed forwards and managed to throw the Argentines slightly of balance with their rapid advance and ferocious weight of fire. Sensing an opportunity and ignoring the risk posed by the Argentine machine gun, rifle and mortar fire Zulu Company’s commander had ordered his men to fix bayonets and charge forwards and get to grips with the enemy in the most literal way imaginable. As they charged forwards the men chanted their company battle cry “Zulu, Zulu, Zulu”. The fighting on the northern peak was brief, extremely vicious and extremely one sided as the Argentines feeling was one of sheer terror which couldn’t stand up to the all-consuming feelings of aggression felt by the British marines as they were overcome with the red mist.
With the northern peak now in British hands and the surviving Argentines running for their lives down the eastern slope the men in positions between the peaks now saw that they were facing an enemy and taking fire on three sides and withdrew down the eastern side. The southern peak fell almost immediately after and the British now in command of the high ground began to fire down onto the Argentines on the eastern slope.
The Argentines at this point were in a state of shock and utter confusion. Morale had already been low due to the casualties from the repeated air and artillery strikes and now the heavy fighting and casualties and bayonet attack was to much for the Argentine conscripts. Despite the officers attempts to bring some sort of order to the chaos and counter attack the heights before the British could get themselves established morale was shattered and all sense of order and cohesion vanished. What started as the men retreating from the northern peak quickly turned into a route as confused and disoriented troops unable to find officers or anyone to give them any idea of what to do decided in the heat of the moment that the best thing to do was to follow their comrades who all seemed to be running down the mountain triggering a cascade effect. In this melee of chaos and confusion many men were cut down by the British rifle and machinegun fire.
The assault on Two Sisters had been a short but violent affair. Lt Col Whitehead when he inspected the enemies positions had been amazed that they had so quickly abandon what he judged to be very strong positions and remarked “with 50 Royals I could have died of old age holding this place”.
The Battle of Mount Harriet
At the briefing Lt Col Hunt had told his men “surprise and absolute silence are vital. If necessary, you must go through the old business of making every man jump up and down before he starts, to check that nothing rattles. Persistent coughers must be left behind. If you find yourself in a minefield remember that you must go on. Men must not stop for their oppos, however great the temptation. They must go through and finish the attack or it will cost more lives in the end. The enemy are well dug in in very strong positions but I believe that once we get in amongst them, they will crack pretty quickly”.
The plan for 40 COMMANDO to secure Mount Harriet was fairly simple. J Company would make a direct assault on the western slope with plenty of fire support. Rather than to take the mountain this was actually to distract the Argentines while K and L company made a flanking attack from the south and enveloped the mountain.
As planned the attack on Two Sisters commenced ahead of the assault on Mount Harriet. This unfortunately meant that the Argentine defenders were now alert and prepared to receive an attack. Knowing that a stealthy approach was unlikely to succeed the marines of J Company instead relied on murderous amounts of artillery from both the 105mm guns of the batteries at Firebase Kent and also from the 4.5 inch gun of HMS SHEFFIELD which had sailed around to the east of the islands and taken up station to the SSE of Mount Harriet in order to provide naval gunfire support.
The bombardment took its toll on the Argentine defenders with 6 killed and 24 wounded. More importantly it kept them mostly lying as close the ground as they could and not looking for an advancing British force. This gave J Company the opportunity they needed to cross the flat open ground and close with Mount Harriet. The advance was an extremely nerve-racking affair as they Argentines while keeping their heads down for now surely knew that they were coming and there was still the small matter of navigating their way across a minefield in the dark. The men kept themselves well-spaced apart as they took extreme care with each step. While they had been told that the frozen ground meant that the mines would likely be visible or above ground and the detonators may be frozen all it would take would be one misstep. With the Argentines distracted by the bombardment J Company were able to close to approximately 100 yards from the enemy positions before they were spotted. Then all hell broke loose.
The Argentines now aware of the immediate danger in front of them opened fire. The men of J Company knowing that stealth was no longer needed returned fire and began to get stuck into the Argentine defences. Using tactics similar to those employed in building clearing the marines used grenades, 66mm LAW and 84mm Carl Gustav anti armour rockets and 81mm mortars to methodically clear each enemy position as they advanced slowly up the rocky mountain slope. The artillery fire switched from a saturation bombardment to an on call infantry support weapon used to cover advances or crack open especially well prepared enemy positions with some shells landing only a mere 50 yards away from the men of J Company.
During the reconnaissance missions that had taken place in the days before tonight’s assault a four-man SAS team had made two startling discoveries. The first was that there was a large minefield to the south of Mount Harriet, evidently an attempt by the Argentines to secure their flanks. When the men had moved to map the extent of the minefield and examine the mines themselves, they had made an even more important discovery almost purely by chance. An Argentine patrol had descended down the southern slope of the mountain and had met a returning patrol which had proceeded up the mountain. Despite the dark the SF men had been able to observe that while the outgoing and incoming patrol had taken slightly different route’s they had both used the southern slope of the mountain. This was proof that there were at least two safe paths through the minefield. It was these routes that the men of K and L company were no quietly making their way up as they advanced to make their flanking attack.
Amazingly it later transpired that the commander of the 6th Infantry Regiment defending Mount Harriet Lt Col Halperin was not aware that there was a route through the minefield protecting his flank. As far as he was concerned the threat came from the west which dictated how he had deployed his men. His northern flank was protected by 4th Regiment occupying Two Sisters and this southern flank was secured by a dense minefield which would prevent any assault. His support components were positioned on the eastern side of the mountain close enough to do their job while being able to stay out of the firing line.
It later emerged that 6th Regiment had only relived 4th Regiment less than 48 hours before the attacks and that the handover between the commanders had been a bit of a rushed affair as 4th Regiments commander Lt Col Soria had been more concerned with redeploying his now consolidated force into their new positions before it became dark and when the threat of British attack was at its greatest. The safe paths through the minefields existed mainly to give patrols a safe way in and out of the defensive perimeter. While the subject of patrols had been touched upon Lt Col Halperin had somewhat forcefully stated his intention of no longer mounting patrols considering the dangers to the men to great and that they served no purpose as the detonation of landmines would be more likely to give warning of a British attack. In His rush to get back to Two Sisters and see to his own men Lt Col Soria had simply neglected to mention the existence of the safe paths which his counterpart wouldn’t use anyway. This oversight would prove to be fatal.
Though there were sentries watching the southern slope of the mountain with the Argentines belief that there was no way anyone could approach them from that direction that was all they were. Sentries as opposed to a defending force. The men who should have been looking out to the south were instead more focused in the artillery bombardment and heavy fighting taking place a mere few hundred meters from them. Worse the bright flashes and loud booms produced by the shells, rockets, mortars and whole array of small arms destroyed the sentry’s night vision and masked the approach of K and L Company’s. even if the sentries had seen what was coming by that point due to the sheer noise it is doubtful that anyone would have heard their warnings or cries of alarm. Three of them died at the hands of the Royal Marines point men who had gone on ahead of the rest of the force and used their famous Commando Fighting Knives to deadly effect without producing so much as a sound.
With the two companies now safely through the minefield and established upon the southern side of the peak they went their separate ways with L Company moving around the western edge flank the Argentines currently engaging their comrades in J Company while K Company moved around to the east. To the Argentines on the western slope who were having a hard enough time fending off the heavily supported British attack from the west suddenly being hit in the flank from and in many cases from above by an equally strong British force that had appeared out of nowhere came as a terrible shock. Despite this they were still perfectly able to put up a fight forcing L Company to dig them out of each and every position often having to resort to the use of MILAN anti-tank missiles (Lt Col Hunt would later admit to having literally burned through quite a lot of the British taxpayer’s money at £10,000 a missile). Being attacked from two sides put the Argentine defenders in a difficult position as they could not properly defend against the attack from one direction without exposing themselves to the threat from the other. Gradually they found themselves being pushed out of their positions.
K Company meanwhile had moved around the eastern or reverse side of the Argentine defenders’ positions. Action on that side of the mountain began when the company opened fire upon the first enemy, they came across which was 6th Regiments 120mm mortar platoon. While they had been taken by surprise the Argentines on this side of the mountain were not about to roll over and die and K Company were forced to more than once make use of the Naval Gunfire Support capability provided by HMS SHEFFIELD. The Argentine positions on this side of the mountain however were not the dug defensive positions found on the western side however and the defenders found themselves obliged to fall back again and again. This however opened up an opportunity which a platoon of K Company was ordered to exploit. With the Argentines having been pushed back the had lost possession of the ground that led up to the peak where it was believed the Argentine post was located. The platoon was ordered to attack upwards and take possession of the peak. Realising that the Argentines up on the peak would rapidly work out what was happening the marines had fixed bayonets and under the cover of suppression fire from GPMG’s charged up the hill. In scenes similar to those that had taken place on the northern peak of Two Sisters the argentines had either been slain or driven off of the peak by the marines bayonets and Stirling submachineguns.
Lt Col Halperin had escaped by running down the western slope where he had re-joined his men and quickly restablished command. His situation was now dire. His men were taking fire from three sides, the British now controlled the heights and were shooting downwards into the rear of the Argentine positions. His men’s positions were rapidly becoming untenable and they were steadily taking casualties as a result. To attack in any direction would simply see his men cut to pieces by flanking fire and to stay where they were would see them gradually wiped out. They had to extract themselves from their current location but the only direction they could go was north to Two Sisters which was itself under attack. While Halperin had been too busy with defending his own positions to worry too much about what was happening on Two Sisters he had got the sense that things there were not going well. Worse the attack on his command post on the peak had come from the east meaning that there was a British force on the eastern slope of the mountain. There was a real danger that this force would attempt to move around the peak and flank him from the north while cutting off the only route out of here.
While the Argentines did try to extract themselves from the western slope the heavy British fire and need to maintain a strong enough rear guard to hold off the British coupled with the defeat of 4th Regiment on Two Sisters saw them make next to no progress. The defenders dwindling supply of ammunition coupled with the steady casualties as they were pushed out of or died in one position after another saw the British grind them down into submission. While some elements of the regiment on the eastern slope were able to retreat the 6th Regiment was effectively disembowelled in its unsuccessful defence of Mount Harriet with almost 100 men killed and wounded and nearly 300 forced to surrender.
The Battle of Mount Longdon
Having a much longer distance to travel to reach their starting points for the assault on Mount Longdon the men of 2 PARA had had a prime view of the fighting taking place on Two Sisters and Mount Harriet beyond. The maroon bereted men had watched in awe at the unbelievable number of explosions of artillery shells and the weight of small arms fire flying around. Knowing that the marines battle plans had relied to a larger extent on stealth and surprise the PARA’s with their rather more overt plan which relied on aggressiveness and heavy firepower wondered what was awaiting them to the east. Some men where nervous while others having gotten themselves into the mindset were eager to put all of their years of training into practise.
2 PARA under Lt Col H. Jones had been handed the task of taking the now looming mass of Mount Longdon which lay like a fortress between them and the west of Port Stanley. Between the minefield to the south and the enemy known to be on Wireless Ridge the Paras would have little room for manoeuvre.
Defending the mountain was the complete 7th Infantry Regiment along with specialist elements of 601st Commando Company and snipers. Lt Col Omar Gimenez had had weeks to prepare and position his men for this moment. In order to defend this long, narrow, craggy mountain his men prepared numerous bunkers and sangars. These positions were supported by 120mm heavy mortars, Browning 30 cal and 50 cal heavy machineguns, 105mm recoilless rifles, anti-tank missiles and sniper rifles equipped with second generation image intensifying night sights.
The reason why 10th Mechanised Infantry Brigade’s commander Brigadier General Joffre had given the task of defending this feature which formed the lynchpin of the Argentines defences of Port Stanley to 7th Regiment was because of their impressive and capable commander.
When the conflict had begun Lt Col Gimenez had taken things rather more seriously than his counterparts in some of the other regiments. When he had been handed his orders to prepare to deploy to the Malvinas whereas other officers had assumed that there either wouldn’t be a war or if there was then the navy and air force would defeat the British long before they had the chance t get close enough for any ground combat Lt Gimenez like the consummate professional he considered himself to be had approached things with the attitude that his unit would be involved in some heavy fighting. To this end he had ordered that the raw conscripts which had at that time made up the bulk of his regiment be dismissed and replaced with reservists form the class that had most recently completed their one year’s mandatory service with his regiment. Argentine conscripts of the time would perform a year’s service with a regiments entire complement of junior ranks being made up of conscripts from the same class as in they had all joined at the same time and would all depart at the same time. This naturally resulted in a massive turnover of manpower which placed an enormous training burden on a regiment’s officers. The result of this was a repeating yearly cycle of training and exercises of gradually increasing complexity and difficulty as the recruits gradually matured into effective soldiers. The problem was by the time the regiment had finally gotten a degree of cohesiveness and fighting effectiveness the conscripts would be discharged and replaced and the process started all over again. The conscripts in 7th Regiments ranks at the start of the conflict were at the start of their service and still fresh out of training whereas the previous class had only a few months before proven themselves in a brigade sized exercise with the rest of 10th Brigade and would still have the physical fitness and fresh memories of what they had learned. Therefore, it had made more sense to send the new conscripts away somewhere and bring back the experienced reservists. Despite having taken some losses from British air attacks in common with the other infantry regiments morale in the 7th Regiment was notably higher.
Had anyone thought to ask him Lt Col Jones of 2 PARA would have probably said something along the lines of any one of his men being more than a match for any grubby conscript from a line infantry regiment in some second rate army. Professional soldiers with many years experience under their belts and the products of a legendarily tough training course the PARA’s considered themselves the elite unit of probably the best army in the world and had a rather disparaging view of other outfits and cap badges which they considered to be beneath them. It was telling that more than half of the men selected to become members of the SAS came from the ranks of the PARA’s. A fact which they were extremely proud of.
Like the Argentine 7th Regiment 2 PARA were here tonight to a large degree because the higher ups believed in the capabilities of their leader.
The summit of Mount Longdon dominated the very open ground around it for several thousand yards making even night movements hazardous. To try and even the odds 2 PARA would be able to call upon heavy supporting artillery fire from both 29 COMMANDO Regiment RA and the 4.5-inch gun of HMS AVENGER. 2 PARA’s own support company reinforced by men and weapons from 3 PARA’s support company would provide heavy machine gun and mortar fire.
Having completed the four hour march to their start lines the PARA’s stopped briefly to take on some water and make sure that everyone was ready A, B and C Company’s had set off I slightly different directions into the darkness to attempt a pincer like assault. They were led by men from D (Patrol) company who having conducted the battalion’s reconnaissance work knew the area and more importantly the locations of the minefields. The first men to make contact with the enemy were B Company. Trying to work their way around a minefield in the dark one of the men had lost track of where he was and ended up stepping on a mine. This had alerted a platoon of 20 Argentines up ahead who had been sleeping in their tents and now struggled to extract themselves from their sleeping bags. Most of them were not quick enough as the lead platoon of Para’s rapidly advanced forward and poured grenades and automatic fire into the helpless Argentinians. Attempting to make the most of the element of surprise Lt Col Jones had ordered his men to sprint forwards and take as much ground as they could before the argentines could respond. Men surged forward throwing grenades and pouring fire into Argentine defensive positions. While they were able to take some ground, the leading men had somewhat over extended themselves and found themselves and ended up being caught out on open ground when the argentines had managed to stop them in their tracks and forced them to withdraw to cover. The Argentines had prepared for the possibility of an attack from the west and the PARA’s found themselves having to pause their advance and call in artillery fire to attempt to break the Argentine defensive positions holding them up. This was all a part of Lt Col Gimenez’s plan as with the enemy for now halted he quickly ordered his own men to move to the western slope. Snipers and heavy machinegun teams repositioned themselves and began pouring fire down onto the Para’s to try and keep them in place as a company of riflemen which had been acting as the regiment’s quick reaction force attempted to counter attack and drive the British back down the slope. Things started to become rather difficult for the Para’s as they were forced to start digging themselves in to hold on to their newly acquired territory and start to recover the men lying wounded out on the open ground while fighting off an enemy counter attack. While the enemy attack was countered through the use of heavy and accurate machine gun and mortar fire from the support company a sort of stalemate was rapidly developing with that Para’s at a distinct disadvantage. Lt Col Jones would receive a DSO for his actions on Mount Longdon and ultimately retire from the army as a Lt General. Recognising that the longer his men stayed where they were the greater the odds of failure became Lt Col Jones ordered the attack to be pressed on with. Heavy artillery support was called in onto the Argentine positions taking advantage of the batteries that were now free to support 2 PARA with the actions on Two Sisters and Mount Harriet now complete. Gradually and methodically the PARA’s silenced or destroyed each individual enemy position ahead of them as they slowly pushed forwards even going as far as to call down a volley from an entire artillery battery to deal with a single sniper that was holding up a platoon’s advance. In an action which saw him recommended for (but ultimately not awarded) a Victoria Cross and earned him some criticism for effectively abandoning his command post during a battle Lt Col Jones personally led a platoon in a successful attack against an Argentine machinegun and riflemen position that had had the platoon pinned down. In doing so he was able to create a breach in the Argentine line which A Company quickly moved to exploit enabling them to engage the defenders in close quarter combat in amount the rock formations. Close Quarter Battle or CQB even when done right is often a bloody affair for both sides (The Germans losing an entire army fighting in Stalingrad is a testament to that). The aggressiveness, skill and training of the PARA’s coupled with the skill of their gunfire support observers who were able to call in repeated danger close fire missions saw the Para’s gain the upper hand and the Argentines losing the initiative as they were pushed back and sustained casualties. Keeping the pressure on the Argentines so they couldn’t get themselves organised into an effective defence the PARA’s pressed the attack using fire and manoeuvre tactics and heavy and accurate fire support as they advanced up the mountain. Despite making a determined defensive stand on the peak the Argentine defenders were unable to hold on as the Para’s moved to attack the peak from both the north, south and west enveloping them. The final straw came when the bunkers housing the heavy machineguns that had stood up to artillery bombardment began to be silenced one by one by MILAN anti-tank missiles. This allowed the Para’s to charge forwards and wrestle control of the peak from the defenders using grenades, automatic fire and bayonets. Seeing that he had now lost possession of the high ground and effectively the battle Lt Col Gimenez decided that there was little he could gain but much he could lose by continuing to try and hold onto the eastern parts of the mountain that remained in his possession. Therefore he decided to cut his losses and gave the order to retreat to Wireless Ridge to the east where he could make a defensive stand from a strong position. It is a testament to his leadership abilities that his regiment was the only regiment in battle that night that was able to maintain unit cohesion and fighting capability and withdraw to a new position relatively intact.
It had been one of the longest and most violent nights of the men’s lives. As dawn came helicopters now flew low along the contours of the hills to extract the dead and the wounded of both sides. Company Sergeant Majors began conducting headcounts to write ascertain how many casualties there were. In a small and homogenous group like an infantry battalion the loss of each man is noticed and felt by each man and there had been more than a few losses that night.
There was much work to do as Paratroopers and Marines who had taken the heights now occupied the former defenders’ positions. Some rested and began to try and process what they had seen and done during the night while others prepared for the possibility of an enemy counter attack.
Prisoners both living and dead had to be disarmed and processed. While the British dead were loaded onto helicopters and flown away the Argentine prisoners were organised into burial parties to look after their own dead. Standing orders to as far as possible identify the dead threw up a problem. Whereas soldiers of both nations wore dog tags the Argentine ones unlike the British which displayed the wearers name, rank, service number, blood group and religion the Argentine ones held only the wearers blood group and no name making identification difficult.
Many of the Argentine dead from the nights battles are still officially listed as missing in action as the Argentine authorities even today have no idea which of the many graves bearing the words “a soldier of Argentina” contain which bodies.
In Port Stanley Brigadier General Menendez sat in his office and thought to himself while he waited for the radio connection to be made with Lt General Galtieri in Buenos Aries. The British had finally attacked as everyone had known they eventually would. He had held out hope that his men who were well dug into strong defensive positions on the heights would be able to hold off the British for a while and make them bleed but quite the opposite had happened. In a matter of hours the British had forced 3 regiments of infantry from strong defensive positions, inflicted crippling casualties to those regiments and destroyed the outer ring of his defensive perimeter. 6th Regiment had suffered the worst with only a company or so’s worth of men having avoided being killed or captured on Mount Harriet leaving it a regiment in name only. 4th Regiment had unbelievably actually broken and routed in battle and were scattered to hell god knows where all over the place. This fact did throw considerable doubt onto Lt Col Soria’s claim that he had conducted an orderly withdrawal and that he was still in control of his men. 7th Regiment while largely still intact had still been knocked about quite a bit by the British.
He had had a rather frank discussion with the senior officers under his command regarding the future of the campaign. In truth deep down they all knew that defeat had become the most likely outcome when the British had destroyed the navy and effectively besieged the islands. The only real hope for turning things around had evaporated with the air forces fast jet fleet. To be honest things had only gotten this far to satisfy the nations and army’s pride but now after what had happened overnight the writing was on the wall and the aim was to save as many lives as they could. He had felt extremely uncomfortable when he had brought up the subject of what he believed the only remaining course of action to be. The officers had begrudgingly agreed with his assessment of the situation but had insisted that if they were to do the unthinkable, they wanted permission from high command on the mainland, pointing out that army regulations forbade surrender unless 50% of the men were casualties and 75% of the ammunition was expended. Plus, the need to pass on the decision and ultimate responsibility to someone higher up the chain of command than them. This was why Menendez was now waiting for the radio connection to be made and thinking very carefully about what was going to be said. It was not going to be a conversation either party would have wished to be a part of if it could have been avoided and certainly not one that they would enjoy having.
Nice update.
Menendez knows really that the game is up, he cannot stop the British from retaking the islands only slow them down and make Argentina pay the price with more dead. But will the junta in Buenos Aires see the truth as given that there navy has been sunk and there air force so battered it's to all intents and purposes combat ineffective they're certainly getting desperate by now.
Menendez knows really that the game is up, he cannot stop the British from retaking the islands only slow them down and make Argentina pay the price with more dead. But will the junta in Buenos Aires see the truth as given that there navy has been sunk and there air force so battered it's to all intents and purposes combat ineffective they're certainly getting desperate by now.
Really good chapter @flasheart.
Lt Col Gimenez sounds like a sound bloke - I hope he is not a Junta supporter as sound chaps will be needed to rebuild Argentina after the regime crumbles.
I have a suspicion that Brigadier General Menendez is going to get a 'fight to the death' order which he might have to 'forget' to save his men.
Lt Col Gimenez sounds like a sound bloke - I hope he is not a Junta supporter as sound chaps will be needed to rebuild Argentina after the regime crumbles.
I have a suspicion that Brigadier General Menendez is going to get a 'fight to the death' order which he might have to 'forget' to save his men.
Great work. So war is slowly entering its final stages I believe, with British in control of most, if not all high terrain surrounding Port Stanley. In regards to Argentinians on the Islands, what option do they really have, even if Junta orders them to fight on? British have just pushed their forces out of relatively stong positions, in doing so shattered 2 regiments, and now the way is open for them to attack Port Stanley directly.
Now, I do not believe that either the British nor Argentinians would like to fight it out in Port Stanley itself, civilians are still present, and Argentinians are more likely to pull out of the city itself if they decide to fight on. What forces do the Argentinans have at this point on the Islands, that are actually in fighting condition, since it seems they are pretty much battered by last few days of combat.
Lastly, what changes to the British military will happen postwar ITTL, in comparison to OTL?
Now, I do not believe that either the British nor Argentinians would like to fight it out in Port Stanley itself, civilians are still present, and Argentinians are more likely to pull out of the city itself if they decide to fight on. What forces do the Argentinans have at this point on the Islands, that are actually in fighting condition, since it seems they are pretty much battered by last few days of combat.
Lastly, what changes to the British military will happen postwar ITTL, in comparison to OTL?
Menendez' quandry reminds me of those WWII german generals who, knowing their position was lost, wanted permission to either surrender or retreat, but knew full well what Hitler would say... another consequence of working for a dictator...
"The officers had begrudgingly agreed with his assessment of the situation but had insisted that if they were to do the unthinkable, they wanted permission from high command on the mainland, pointing out that army regulations forbade surrender unless 50% of the men were casualties and 75% of the ammunition was expended."
I'm sure firing off more ammunition so reducing the stock remaining to below 25% can be arranged and justified. )Bombardment of enemy positions, harassing fire etc.). Casualties can be defined creatively (PTSD would be reasonable for most survivors of the night battles), given a tacit conspiracy amongst senior officers and medical staff.
Wait too long and a few more bombardments or air raids would get to that figure anyway.
Don't even have to be too creative - just keep the troops out until the cold takes its toll, and let them shoot at shadows.
Yeah, frostbite would qualify and having the troops mount patrols from inadequate bivouacs could be seen as 'aggressive defence' no matter what the cost.
Would hangnails count?
He could then send a message like this and end the war:
"My men have hurt their fingers and can't shoot, oh and while we're at it somebody was stupidly smoking by the main ammo dump and its now a crater. Now can I please surrender and save some lives? Viva las Argentina!" <Bunch of stupid glory hounds, trying to get my boys killed... Mumble... Mumble... >
Of course the "smoker" would be the biggest Junta loving moron in the army, who nobody will actually miss when he gets blown up. Terrible bad luck that...
I would be wary of that idea. Allegedly some German troops tried that in Italy, fired off all their ammunition towards the advancing allies. There were allegedly a small, but significant number of cases where the Germans were shot during the act of surrender as a result.
If a prisoner is interrogated and divulges that the newly constructed ammo dump well away from Stanley is unguarded with no anti-air cover, that would work better. Even if no aircraft fly that night, it's amazing how accurate British bombing is...
If a prisoner is interrogated and divulges that the newly constructed ammo dump well away from Stanley is unguarded with no anti-air cover, that would work better. Even if no aircraft fly that night, it's amazing how accurate British bombing is...
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"We don't have any ammo left, we fired it all at the shapes we saw advancing up the beach. We were sure it must be the British landing even more troops. How were we to know differently in the dark? Who would have thought that penguins could look like soldiers, eh? Oh, and more than half our men are now casualties - turns out penguin steaks aren't good for you. Can we please surrender now?"
Part of me sad the harriers will never gain the fame and love they did originally now due to them being underdog of the falklands.
Its sad but inevitable, in any case as fighters they were always borderline due to the low top speed. As GA aircraft they are much better and hopefully they'll take their proper place alongside the A-10 and the SU-25 as exemplars of that role.
The RN can now save money on not buying an FRS1/2, focusing on the conventional models. The RAF will have to justify it's versions...
Really enjoying this timeline, @flasheart. Glad to see you're keeping it going through to the endgame.
Great treatment of the 3 land battles. Makes me want to see and play an Advanced Squad Leader scenario for the Paras hill assault.
One question I'd have, especially after comments about mine reliability in the weather: How much unexploded cluster bomblets are about - enough to create their own mini-minefields?
One question I'd have, especially after comments about mine reliability in the weather: How much unexploded cluster bomblets are about - enough to create their own mini-minefields?
Some of the defenders of the Pegasus Bridges were Ost Truppen and after beign 'forced' away from the Bridges by the Paratroopers - did the same thing - fired off all thier rifle ammo and headed abck to their HQ.