The Falklands Conflict, Forty Years Later

[Slim]

9th June, 1982

Early in the morning, Lieutenant David Stewart leads a 45 Commando troop strength fighting patrol to Two Sisters. They cross 1,000 metres of open ground undetected, kill two enemy sentries and engage the enemy on the western slope for thirty minutes, killing seven Argentines before they withdraw with no casualties to themselves. This is one of a number of patrols carried out around this time in order to harrass and establish moral dominance over the enemy.

Task Force helicopters busily resupply front-line troops with stores and ammunition, in preparation for the advance on Stanley.

Harriers from Hermes carry out two sorties. One pair attacks Argentine artillery positions on the northern slopes of Mount Longdon with two pods of two-inch rockets each. A second pair attacks a 155mm gun position adjacent to Sapper Hill. One aircraft takes minor damage from anti-aircraft shrapnel, but all return safely to the carrier.

The Mountain & Arctic Warfare Cadre observation post established behind enemy lines overnight observes enemy activity during the day and prepares a detailed map of enemy dispositions before withdrawing three hours after dark. Their information causes alterations to plans to attack Two Sisters and Mount Harriet. Grid references of enemy positions seen on Tumbledown are passed to 5 Infantry Brigade.

[Slim]

10th June, 1982

In good flying weather the carriers launch forty-four combat air patrols, sometimes with as many as sixteen aircraft over the islands simultaneously.

Harrier GR3s perform photo reconnaissance missions low past Two Sisters and Mount Longdon and past defensive positions at Port Stanley. Film from one of the aircraft shows a remarkable shot of Argentines on the ground attempting to aim their Blowpipe missile launcher at it as it speeds past at an altitude of three hundred feet.

Yarmouth performs a naval gunfire bombardment of Argentine positions in the mountains.

Captain John Hamilton leads a 22 SAS patrol on the hills above Port Howard, in West Falkland. Two miles north of the settlement, he moves forward with a radio operator, Sergeant Fonseca, to observe Argentine positions there.

Shortly after dawn, Hamilton and Fonseca realise they are being surrounded by a large force of enemy soldiers. Hamilton decides that they will fight their way out, ordering Fonseca to move first while he gives covering fire. The SAS captain is shot in the back and unable to move, but continues to cover his comrade's escape until killed. Fonseca is captured when he runs out of ammunition.

The Argentines at Port Howard will bury Hamilton with full military honours. Their commander, Colonel Juan Ramon Mabragaña, later describes him as "the most courageous man I have ever seen". Hamilton, also the commander of the SAS recon patrol landed and rescued from Fortuna Glacier, will be awarded the Military Cross posthumously.

British forces are now in control of East Falkland up to two lines of high ground held by the Argentines in defence of Port Stanley. Brigadier Julian Thompson now gives orders to his commanders to capture the westernmost "outer crust" of the Argentine defences: 3 Para will capture Mount Longdon, 45 Commando will capture Two Sisters and 42 Commando will take Mount Harriet. 2 Para will remain in reserve between and behind 3 Para and 45 Commando, ready to reinforce either if required.

To reduce their vulnerability in approaching well defended positions in exposed, open ground, the British will attack in darkness during the following night, 11/12 June. All of the British ground forces are well trained in night-fighting. Thompson knows that most of the enemy soldiers facing them aren't.

[Slim]

11th June, 1982

Sea Harriers from both carriers carry out combat air patrols over the islands, occasionally flying offensive missions against Argentine ground positions. A group of four Sea Harriers attacks the airfield at Port Stanley using radar-fused air burst bombs delivered several miles from the target.

Harrier GR3s engage ground targets all around the islands. Enemy positions on the slopes of Two Sisters are attacked using cluster bombs and 30mm cannon fire. Artillery and troop positions on Mount Harriet and Mount Longdon are also subjected to cluster bomb attacks.

Ground force commanders brief their men for a night assault on Two Sisters, Mount Longdon and Mount Harriet.

Shortly after 21:00, one of the Paras approaching Longdon steps on an anti-personnel mine, severely injuring his leg and alerting the enemy to their approach. One platoon of conscripts is still struggling out of its sleeping bags when a platoon of Paras is among them, machine-gunning and grenading the helpless Argentines in their tents. As they gain a foothold on the mountain, the British are forced into narrow, rocky gullies down which the enemy, well dug in in the rocks and crags further up, hurl grenades. They face a battalion of the enemy's 7th Regiment, supported by snipers with night vision equipment.

The assault by 42 Commando on Mount Harriet begins with a blistering naval bombardment from Yarmouth. The advance company starts to make its way up the mountain undetected. Two Argentine sentries are killed quietly with knives.

Men from Ardent, Coventry and Antelope return home on the QEII.

[Slim]

12th June, 1982

In the early hours, men of 42 Commando, 3 Para and 45 Commando press their attack on Two Sisters, Mount Longdon and Mount Harriet.

45 Commando captures the southern peak of Two Sisters, its first obective, without difficulty but men are pinned down by heavy fire as they attack the northern peak. They break the deadlock using 66mm rockets to great effect against the Argentine positions.

After two hours of fighting their way to the summit, despite sustained machine gun and mortar fire from the enemy, Two Sisters is in British hands, at a cost to 45 Commando of four men killed and seventeen wounded. The Argentines have lost twenty killed. Fifty-four are taken prisoner. Many of the Argentines have trickled away into the darkness before the British can reach them.

But the most serious British casualties of the battle for Two Sisters are inflicted miles from the mountain. The destroyer Glamorgan, having bombarded Argentine positions during the battle, is withdrawing to rejoin the battle group at 02:35 when a streak of light is seen to break away from the shoreline. It is an Exocet, fired from an improvised land-based launcher.

The sea-skimming missile plunges through Glamorgan's upper deck abreast of the hangar and into the galley, where it explodes. Her Wessex helicopter blows up, killing six men instantly. In all, thirteen men aboard the British ship are killed, and more wounded. But the crew have put out the fires and got her underway again a few hours later. The destroyer is badly damaged but not out of action and will survive her encounter with an Exocet.

At Mount Harriet, men of 42 Commando scale the hill under cover of heavy naval and artillery bombardment. They are within one hundred yards of the summit when the Argentines detect them and open fire. The British troops take on the enemy soldiers dug into the rocks with 66mm rockets and machine gun fire, clearing bunkers with grenades and small arms as they work their way uphill in the darkness. They take the summit with the loss of only one man killed.

Argentine officers and senior NCOs fight doggedly, attempting toward the end of the battle to prevent their men from surrendering by shooting at them. The British solve this problem by shooting the officers and NCOs.

Eighteen Argentines are killed, and over one hundred are taken prisoner.

A dozen prisoners gathered at the base of Harriet are told in sign language by a Royal Marine, to walk, not run. They misunderstand this, and think that they are being ordered to run so they can be shot. When the battalion padre appears wearing his cross, the prisoners scramble to hide behind rocks, thinking they are about to receive the last rites.

On Longdon, the Paras push forward and upwards under murderous fire. As they claw their way uphill in the darkness, the British soldiers are sometimes upon their enemy as soon as they see them, skewering them with bayonets or firing into them at point blank range. In brief lulls in the fighting, the screams of dying soldiers from both sides can be heard. Some of the wounded Argentines are finished off with bayonet or bullet when the Paras reach them as they move forward.

At one point in the battle, most of a Para company is pinned down by a heavy machine gun position. Sgt Ian McKay takes command when his platoon commander is hit in the leg. He and two other soldiers attempt to outflank the enemy positions, but as they move forward, they come under fire. Two soldiers fall, one dead, one wounded. McKay charges forward and attacks alone, clearing the enemy positions with grenades to allow his men to move forward at the very moment he is killed. For his selflessness, perseverance and courage, he will be awarded the Victoria Cross posthumously.

Two Paras manage to crawl up undetected to each side of an Argentine machine gun bunker and post grenades through the firing slit. As soon as their grenades explode, they jump into the bunker and finish off the enemy conscripts with their bayonets. Both Paras, Privates Ben Gough and Dominic Gray, will be mentioned in despatches.

After ten hours of brutal fighting under heavy punishment from well dug in machine gun positions and accurate sniper fire, the Paras have gained the summit by first light, at a cost of seventeen lives and forty wounded. Argentine casualties are much higher. Fifty enemy soldiers are taken prisoner. Many more are killed or wounded, some by British support groups as they attempt to withdraw.

As dawn breaks to reveal the debris of battle - abandoned packs, sleeping bags, tents, blood-stained medical dressings, dead bodies - the British are in command of the first line of high ground leading to Stanley, only a few miles away. But they continue to take casualties from Argentine artillery fire aimed into their newly gained positions through the day.

In the early morning, a British Wessex helicopter slides over the ridge north of Port Stanley's harbour and approaches the town. The pilot fires a missile at the Town Hall, where senior Argentine officers are known to be holding a conference. Unfortunately he misses, but gets away unscathed under a hail of fire.

His effort is not entirely wasted. Minutes later, an Argentine helicopter returning to Stanley is shot down by a nervous Argentine anti-aircraft gunner.

Another 'Black Buck' Vulcan raid is carried out, this time against Argentine positions to the south of Stanley airfield, using 1,000 pound bombs.

The Harriers also carry out ground attacks over the islands. In the afternoon, two GR3s perform armed reconnaissance of the road east of Mount Harriet. As they reach the target area, Argentine troops in the open are seen and attacked with cluster bombs and 30mm cannon. This brings cheers from British troops on Harriet who hear the explosions, and know that no-one within 100 metres of a cluster bomb attack is likely to survive.

The Argentines send a formation of Skyhawks from the mainland to attack British positions near Darwin. But as they approach the target, they see a pair of Sea Harriers silhouetted against cloud in the distance. They jettison their weapons and external fuel tanks, and turn and run for home.

[Slim]

13th June, 1982

British ground forces regroup and resupply to prepare to assault the last line of Argentine high ground defences before Port Stanley.

The Second Battalion, Scots Guards will assault and capture Mount Tumbledown, assisted by mortar detachments from 42 Commando and the Gurkha Rifles, as well as support from the Blues and Royals, equipped with two Scorpion and two Scimitar armoured vehicles.

2 Para will attack and capture Wireless Ridge.

The Ghurkas are tasked with capturing Mount William, once Tumbledown is secure. This will allow the Welsh Guards to attack Sapper Hill, the final obstacle.

In the morning, the Scots Guards are helicoptered from their position at Bluff Cove to an assembly area near Goat Ridge, west of Tumbledown.

The Argentine patrol craft Rio Iguazú is strafed by a Sea Harrier from 801 Naval Air Squadron, then engaged with a Sea Skua missile fired by Penelope's Lynx helicopter, before dusk.

The Argentines launch eleven aircraft from the mainland against British ground positions. Seven Skyhawks attempt to bomb the headquarters of 3 Commando Brigade on the western slopes of Mount Kent, in an attempt on General Moore, his staff, and all his unit commanders as they discuss the night's operations. But their bombs fall harmlessly away away from the British positions, only causing light damage to two helicopters, which remain operational.

3 Para's positions on Mount Longdon are attacked by four Skyhawks, without success. The only casualty is a helicopter rotor blade which is replaced within hours.

British Forward Air Controllers are now in place on hills overlooking Argentine positions. They provide aiming for laser-guided bombs delivered by Harrier GR3s, one scoring a direct hit on an Argentine company headquarters position. An Argentine artillery position is also engaged and destroyed in a GR3 strike.

After dark, a formation of Canberra bombers is sent to attack British ground positions. One of the Canberras is engaged and destroyed by Sea Dart, fired from Exeter.

2 Para begin their attack on Wireless Ridge at 21:45. As D Company move forward to to the positions from where they will begin their assault, a devastating volume of artillery fire, augmented by naval gunfire from Ambuscade and Yarmouth offshore, is poured onto the Argentine positions by the British.

As the big guns fall silent and the Paras fix their bayonets to assault the hill, a chilling instruction is issued:

"No prisoners, lads".

The battle's momentum cannot be compromised. The Paras cannot afford to secure prisoners while fighting uphill in pitch darkness.

As they reach the first enemy trenches, they find them empty. Their occupants, mostly teenage conscripts, have already fled under the fierce bombardment from the British ships and 105mm guns. But as the Paras start out along the ridge, they come under heavy fire from entrenched positions further uphill.

At 20:30, just as the Paras are commencing their attack on Wireless Ridge, a reconnaissance platoon of the Scots Guards supported by four light tanks commences an attack on an Argentine marine company dug in on the lower slopes of Mount William. It is a diversionary attack, intended to draw the enemy's attention from the assault on Tumbledown, to the west.

As they approach, one of the tanks hits a mine, but the occupants are unharmed. When the troops make contact, a heavy firefight breaks out. Two British soldiers are killed and four more wounded, before the position is secured by the Guards after two hours of fighting, clearing trenches one by one with grenades and small arms.

Having mounted a successful diversion, the platoon withdraws, carrying their wounded through a minefield - where they suffer more injuries, though none fatal.

The main body of the Scots Guards launches their attack on Tumbledown in the cold darkness at 21:00, thirty minutes after the start of the diversionary attack. They secure the western end without opposition, but as they continue, supported by naval gunfire from Yarmouth and Active, they meet fierce enemy machine gun and small arms fire. The guardsmen attempt to dislodge the Argentines, protected in their rock bunkers, using grenade launchers, mortar fire and light anti-tank weapons.

[Slim]

14th June, 1982

At midnight, the Scots Guards are pinned down by three enemy platoons as they attempt to capture Mount Tumbledown, aided by the 4.5 inch guns of HMS Yarmouth and HMS Active offshore. The British troops face withering fire from well-entrenched positions further up the summit. They reply with rocket fire, but with little apparent effect.

The Argentines can be heard shouting abuse in Spanish, taunting the Guards in the odd word of English and even singing as they defend the mountain from the British. For hours, Argentine snipers, machine guns and small mortars slow the advance of the British as they claw their way upward under the chatter of machine guns, from rock to rock and crag to crag. The fighting is fierce, hand to hand, in darkness or the dead light of flares. Several Argentines die by the bayonet.

But when a detachment of thirty Scots Guards gains the high ground to the northern end of the summit, the tables are turned, and it is now they who are able to bring down withering fire on their enemy. Led by a British Major who personally kills three Argentines, shooting two and bayonetting a third, the British soldiers storm the summit in a bayonet charge. A brief counter-attack in which several of the Guards are injured by machine gun fire on the summit is defeated, and Tumbledown is in British hands by 08:00.

Of the ninety or so Argentines who had defended Tumbledown, roughly forty have been killed, and thirty are captured. The Guards have taken the mountain for the loss of ten men killed.

From their hard-won summit, the Guards can see street lights and moving vehicles in Stanley, less than five miles away. As the Argentine survivors withdraw, they are shelled mercilessly by British artillery.

As the Scots Guards push up Tumbledown, 2 Para continues to exchange fire in the early hours with the Argentine 7th infantry regiment, tasked with defending Wireless Ridge. They find themselves up against punishing fire from well armed, well motivated enemy soldiers. The Paras call in artillery support - with unfortunate consequences. Ten of the rounds hit their own positions, causing casualties.

But slowly, supported by gunfire from British light tanks with night vision equipment and aided by their own machine gunners, the Paras make their way up and along the ridge, fighting in small groups or pairs, taking Argentine positions with grenades and small arms, fighting at close quarters, often upon their enemy as soon as they see them.

Some of the Argentines fight to the death; usually their own. But some of the young Argentine conscripts just pull their sleeping bags over their heads, wishing it would all go away. The Paras take no chances, neutralising them quickly with bayonet or bullet, then moving on into the darkness.

One young Argentine soldier jumps to his feet with his hands in the air, attempting to surrender. As he pleads for his life, the Paras in front of him hesitate. But they can't afford to compromise their momentum by taking prisoners. As the boy crumples to his knees in despair, one of the Paras throws a tarpaulin over him, shoots him, and finishes him off with a bayonet.

At one stage the Argentines attempt a counter-attack against the light tanks supporting the British assault, but the tanks respond by inflicting what even an Argentine account of the battle describes as a "great slaughter". The gunners in the British tanks are so moved by the carnage before them that they hold their fire, to allow their enemy to recover their wounded and withdraw.

As dawn breaks, the Paras are in control of Wireless Ridge. From the summit in the first light of day they make out lines of Argentine soldiers retreating to Port Stanley, silhouetted against the rising sun. No quarter is given. The Paras engage them with powerful belt-fed machine guns, cutting many of them down as they flee.

But the battle is not quite over yet. Shortly afterwards, a group of about fifty Argentine volunteers enlisted by an Argentine major at Stanley attempts a bayonet charge counter-attack, singing the Malvinas March. The Paras are alarmed to see this, though it is, as a British officer describes it, "quite a sporting effort, but one without a sporting chance". The Argentine attack is quickly defeated by artillery, mortar and small arms fire.

Two Harriers are tasked to perform a cluster bomb attack on Sapper Hill. The Harrier GR3s have already engaged Argentine anti-aircraft positions to great effect with laser guided bombs earlier in the day. But a British observer reports a white flag flying from the Argentine position which is their target. The RAF liaison officer receives a frantic message from Brigadier Thompson: "FOR CHRIST'S SAKE STOP THAT ATTACK!" The Harrier pilots are warned off, and disengage their attack.

With Tumbledown and Wireless Ridge now secure, the Ghurkas are ordered to assault Mount William, to the east. They meet spasmodic shelling, but to their great disappointment, the Argentines flee as soon as they see them coming. They sweep forward to take the position with no resistance. The Welsh Guards advance to capture Sapper Hill.

Argentine resistance now crumbles. Across the British radio network, the news is passed quickly - "The Argies are legging it - they're running everywhere". Along the length of the British line, officers watch Argentine soldiers running across the hillsides back to Stanley. British gunners hasten their retreat as artillery observers call shellfire down upon the tiny, stumbling figures in the distance, from their newly captured high ground. One of the Royal Artillery officers will recall that "it was a most pathetic sight, and one which I never wish to see again".

And in Stanley, as frightened and dejected survivors of their encounters with the British stream into the town, the situation for the Argentine garrison deteriorates rapidly. The British now own the last defensible positions in front of them. The defenders have been beaten decisively by the British everywhere they have fought them. As thousands of Argentine soldiers, already poorly fed and supplied, prepare to face the British onslaught on Stanley that must surely come soon, their discipline and morale collapses. Some of the conscripts come to blows with their superiors.

Menéndez calls General Galtieri in Buenos Aires. He reports that the situation is hopeless. In standard fascist dictator style however, Galtieri orders him to gather his forces and fight the British to the last man. Menéndez replies "My general, you do not know what we are fighting here".

With their enemy in obvious disarray and retreating from the hills, 2 Para now takes advantage and immediately advances toward Stanley. As they approach, white flags begin to appear from the Argentine positions. The British paratroopers exchange their helmets for red berets and stride triumphantly into the outskirts of the town.

At 13:00, a senior Argentine officer broadcasts a short message to the British: General Menéndez wishes to negotiate. A few hours later, a delegation of British officers arrives in Stanley, on a Gazelle helicopter dangling a white flag. When they meet the first Argentine Governor of the Malvinas, it is soon clear to them that he has no intention of continuing to fight.

At first Menéndez offers to capitulate only on East Falkland, leaving his few forces on West Falkland, who have not been pressed by the British, to fight on. He also insists on returning his troops home in Argentine ships. But he reluctantly drops these conditions when the British representatives make it clear that they will not accept them.

Menéndez sheds a tear, then shakes the hands of the British officers.

At 10:15 UK time, The Prime Minister rises from her seat to address the House of Commons:

After successful attacks General Jeremy Moore decided to press forward and the Argentines retreated. As our forces reached the outskirts of Port Stanley large numbers of Argentine soldiers threw down their weapons. They are reported to be flying the white flag over Port Stanley.

Her statement is met with loud cheers. As she returns to Downing Street, crowds gather there, and sing Rule Brittania.

News of the Argentine capitulation reaches Buenos Aires. Where it had erupted with joy weeks earlier, the Argentine capital now erupts in anger and dismay. Crowds fill the streets, expressing their fury not only toward the British, but to the military Junta who have presided over the loss of their beloved Islas Malvinas. British TV news will show enraged, red-faced Argentines shaking their fists and shouting at TV cameramen and reporters from car windows.

Galtieri will be removed from power in a matter of days.

Major General Jeremy Moore flies into Stanley at 21:00, to formally accept the Argentine surrender. Moore and Menéndez exchange salutes as they meet. Moore is careful to treat Menéndez with dignity and respect.

Moore allows Menéndez to cross out the word UNCONDITIONAL preceding SURRENDER on the instrument of surrender. He is not allowed to insert the words ISLAS MALVINAS.

The Argentine general applies his signature to the document, surrendering all Argentine forces on the islands, and bringing to an end his seventy-four days as Governor of the Islas Malvinas.

Moore sends the following message, to London and all Task Force commanders:

The Falkland Islands are once more under the government desired by their inhabitants. God save the Queen.

Nearly ten thousand Argentine troops lay down their arms, defeated. The Junta sullenly refuses to declare a cessation to hostilities from the mainland, but they too know when they've had enough. They will not provoke the British further.

Britain in 1982 is not the global superpower it had been decades earlier. But it remains a historic military power with an indomitable spirit, and the art of war deeply ingrained in its DNA.

The men of the British Task Force have completed their mission.

[Slim]

By far my favourite of the Falklands Conflict books I've read is Sharkey Ward's Sea Harrier Over The Falklands. It's a real page turner; my only qualification would be that for some reason he has a visceral resentment of the RAF and this colours everything he writes about them. And he definitely enjoys his status as a maverick.

I have two editions of this book, the original paperback that I bought in the '90s and a Kindle version, acquired years later.

Sharkey met the son of one of the men he killed in the encounter described above, nearly thirty years later.

https://wander-argentina.com/porteno-corner-ezequiel-martel/

In the original edition he writes that he didn't lose any sleep over the fate of the men who died when he shot down their aircraft, but in the later edition, published subsequently to this meeting, he discreetly removes that remark.

Early on in the conflict, before they'd flown a combat mission, Ward and his pilots discussed what they'd do if called on to shoot down an unarmed transport plane. They agree that they'd pull up alongside the cockpit and signal to the crew to bail out.

On this occasion he didn't have enough fuel to do that. But I wonder if the Argentine crew could have saved their lives by ditching their aircraft?

I've just heard that Sharkey Ward died last week.