The Battle of Mount Longdon was fought between the British 3rd Battalion, Parachute Regiment and elements of the Argentine 7th Infantry Regiment on 11–12 June 1982, towards the end of the Falklands War. It was one of three engagements in a brigade-size operation that night, along with the Battle of Mount Harriet and the Battle of Two Sisters.
A mixture of hand-to-hand fighting and ranged combat resulted in the British occupying this position above Port Stanley, allowing its capture and the surrender of Argentine forces on the islands.
Background
British forces
The British force consisted of the Third Battalion, the Parachute Regiment (3 PARA), under Lieutenant Colonel Hew Pike. Artillery support came from six 105mm light guns of 29 Commando Regiment Royal Artillery and the 4.5-in gun of HMS Avenger, Second Battalion, the Parachute Regiment (2 PARA) were in reserve.
British paratroopers carried the semi-automatic L1A1 Self-Loading Rifle (SLR) and the L7A2 General Purpose Machine Gun (GPMG). Longer-range precision fire was provided by the bolt-action L42A1 sniper rifle.
For clearing bunkers, the M72 LAW, 84mm Carl Gustaf & L2 fragmentation grenades, were widely used and the battalions MILAN anti-tank guided missiles, played a critical role in neutralizing Argentine defensive positions.
Argentine forces
The Argentine forces included B Company of the 7th Infantry Regiment (RI 7), part of the 10th Mechanized Infantry Brigade, along with detachments from other units. Paratroop-trained Major Carlos Carrizo Salvadores, served as RI 7’s second-in-command. The regiment, reinforced by two Marine Infantry platoons, defended positions at Mount Longdon and Wireless Ridge along with Cortley Ridge, outside Port Stanley. At San Miguel del Monte, outside Buenos Aires they had prepared for a potential conflict with Chile, training with the 601st Combat Aviation Battalion where about 50 hand-picked national servicemen and NCOs, were trained in commando tactics by Commando-trained Major Oscar Ramón Jaimet, a veteran of Operativo Independencia (Operation Independence), the counter-insurgency campaign in the northern province of Tucumán.
The defenders, mostly reservists with a year of training, were equipped with FN FAL rifles, including the heavier-barrelled, FAP light machine gun, PAM submachine guns and FN MAG general-purpose machine guns. Teniente de Navío ( Marine Captain) Sergio Andrés Dachary oversaw the heavy machine guns teams and protecting rifle squads from the Puerto Belgrano-based Batallón Infantería Comando (BICO, Marine Headquarters Battalion) and Marine Military Police that had arrived as reinforcements.
Battle
British advance
3 PARA and the supporting Royal Engineers from the 9 Parachute Squadron RE crossed the hills North of Mount Simon to seize the high ground above the settlement known as Estancia House. The weather conditions were atrocious, with the Paras traversing steep slippery hillocks to the objective. Private Nick Rose, 6 Platoon, B Company under Lieutenant Jonathan Shaw:
The terrain dictated exactly how we advanced. A lot of the time if we were going along on tracks – what few we did go on – we used Indian file, which is staggered file on either side of the track, like a zig-zag. But there are great rivers of rock – big white boulders – and you have to cross them and then there's the heather and the gorse and its constantly wet. So the wind chill factor was – I think somebody said minus 40 degrees – and storm force winds and horizontal rain – a nightmare scenario. ... We are horrible, we're miserable as sin, all of us – we're missing home, want a dry fag [cigarette], warm, dry boots, a cheese and onion sandwich and a bottle of blue top milk. I used to dream of these.
Captain Matthew Selfridge from 3 PARA's B Company and Captain Robbie Burns from the 9th Parachute Squadron (Royal Engineers) set up a patrol base near Murrell Bridge, two kilometres west of Mount Longdon on 3 June, protected by 4 Platoon (under Lieutenant Ian Bickerdike) also from B Company.
From their forward operating base, Selfridge and Burns sent out patrols to scout and disrupt the Argentine positions on Mount Longdon. During one of these earlier missions, Lance-Corporal John Hare of 2 Troop, Royal Engineers, was seriously wounded.
Terry Peck, a former member of the Falkland Islands Defence Force (FIDF), participated in these reconnaissance and patrol operations. In early June, while pretending to have lost his way while riding his motorbike, he engaged in conversation with a group of five conscripts under the command of Corporal Remigio Gerónimo Díaz of the 1st Rifle Platoon from B Company 7th Regiment. These soldiers had been assigned to guard supplies that had been airlifted forward and were resting in the sun after consuming several cans of beer and tinned meals at the eastern end of Mount Longdon.
Shortly after this, Peck, while leading a close-target reconnaissance patrol (under Corporal Peter Hadden) from Murrell Bridge, mistakenly opened fire on Sergeant John Pettinger's patrol in the nearby area, which also belonged to 3 PARA's D Company. No British casualties were fortunately recorded in this particular case of friendly fire.
During the night of June 4–5, a three-man British patrol from D Company, comprising Corporal Jerry Phillips with Privates Richard Absolon and Bill Hayward, was deployed to the northern slopes of Mount Longdon. Their objective was to infiltrate the position then held by Sub-Lieutenant Juan Baldini's 1st Platoon on the western slopes and capture a prisoner for intelligence gathering purposes. The British patrol was supported by a battery of six 105mm field guns, to provided covering fire. The British snipers involved targeted Baldini's command postn and fired a 66mm anti-tank rocket at a mortar position under the command of Corporal Óscar Carrizo. In response, the Argentine forces returned fire, subjecting the British patrol to machine gun and mortar fire. Despite this exchange, no casualties were recorded on either side.
The Argentine 7th Infantry Regiment's Reconnaissance Platoon, led by Second Lieutenant Francisco Ramón Galíndez-Matienzo, was stationed on Wireless Ridge but could not carry out their own patrols, as they had been designated as the reserve force for the area. Instead, Argentine Army Commando and National Gendarmerie units, typically assigned to deep reconnaissance missions, assumed this responsibility.
In the early hours of June 7, a combined patrol from the 601 Commando Company and the 601 National Gendarmerie Special Forces Squadron advanced toward the Murrell Bridge following intelligence reports from Major Jaimet indicating enemy activity in the area. At the same time, two British patrols, led by Corporals Peter Hadden and Mark Brown, had just arrived at a bluff on the western bank of the Murrell River to join Sergeant Ian Addle's patrol that was protecting the forward patrol base.
Shortly after, a British sentry detected movement near the bridge, prompting the three British patrols to open fire. A chaotic firefight ensued in the darkness, with both sides exchanging small arms fire, British LAW rockets and Argentine Energa rifle grenades. The engagement escalated when Captain Rubén Teófilo Figueroa's 2nd Assault Section of the 601 Commando Company initiated a counterattack. Under mounting pressure and unable to sustain their position, the British forces were forced to retreat before dawn, leaving behind a substantial quantity of their equipment. The official history of the Parachute Regiment later acknowledged the outcome of the action.
They were forced to evacuate their position rapidly, leaving behind their packs and radio, but succeeded in withdrawing without suffering any casualties. The location was checked on the evening of 8 June by another patrol, but there was no sign of the packs or radio, which meant the battalion's radio net could have been compromised.
From then on, British patrols were mounted closer to their own lines.
That same night, an eight-man section led by Corporal Oscar Nicolás Albornoz-Guevara from the 4th Regiment's C Company, stationed on Two Sisters, attempted to scout and map the British positions near Estancia House. However, they were spotted by British sentries, and 3 PARA's Mortar Platoon successfully repelled the Argentine patrol.
Nevertheless, despite evidence of Argentine patrolling, Colonel Pike and his company commanders on the eve of battle still held the Argentine field-grade officers and NCOs in low regard and did not expect them to put up much resistance. For this reason, the British hoped to surprise the Argentine platoon and section commanders by advancing as close to their forward platoon as possible under cover of darkness, before rushing the Argentine trenches. The three major objectives – 'Fly Half', 'Full Back' and 'Wing Forward' – were named after positions in Rugby football. B Company would attack through 'Fly Half' and proceed to 'Full Back', while A Company, followed by C Company if necessary, would do the same that night on Wireless Ridge.
Private Fabián Passaro of B Company served with Baldini's 1st Platoon and remembers Argentine morale at the time on the western end of Mount Longdon:
Most of us had adjusted to what we'd been landed in, we'd adjusted to the war. But some boys [identified in the book "Two Sides of Hell/Los Dos Lados Del Infierno"] were still very depressed and, in many cases, were getting worse all the time. Of course, we were very fed up with wearing the same clothes for so many days, going without a shower, being so cold, eating badly. It was too many things together, quite apart from our natural fear of the war, the shelling and all that. But I think some of us were adapting better than others. There were kids who were very worried, and I tried to buoy them up a bit. 'Don't worry,' I told them. 'Nothing will happen, we're safe here. 'Don't you see they could never get right up here? There's one thousand of us; if they try to climb, we'll see them, we'll shoot the shit out of them."
When 3 PARA's B Company (under Major Mike Argue) fixed bayonets to storm the Argentine 1st Platoon positions on Mount Longdon, they found themselves trapped in a minefield. British sappers subsequently counted some 1,500 anti-personnel mines that Lieutenant Diego Arreseigor's platoon of Sappers from the 10th Mechanized Engineer Company had laid along the western and northern slopes of Mount Longdon. Corporal Peter Cuxson recalled,
but only two exploded because the rest were frozen. Otherwise, the final battle for Port Stanley would have been an altogether different story.
Assault on Mount Longdon
As dusk fell, 3 PARA advanced to their start lines and commenced a four-hour march toward their objectives. While B Company approached the western slopes of Mount Longdon, Corporal Brian Milne triggered a antipersonnel mine, alerting Sub-Lieutenant Juan Baldini's 1st Platoon. While the bulk of Baldini's platoon were still in their tents inside their sleeping bags, Corporal Carlos Roberto Cascio was on sentry duty and he opened fire sounding the general alarm before he roused up the men from his rifle section. These Argentine troops soon emerged from their tents and opened fire on the British just as Lieutenant Ian Bickerdike's No. 4 Platoon arrived in the middle of the Argentine platoon defensive position. At the same time, there was much initial confusion in the Argentine 3rd Platoon sector with Sergeant Rolando Mario Spizuoco ordering Private Félix Benjamín Barreto armed with a FAP light-machine-gun and others to cease firing for he at first believed they were opening fire on fellow soldiers from the 1st Rifle Platoon.
During the engagement in the Argentine 1st Platoon sector, Corporal Stewart McLaughlin was spotted eliminating an Argentine 7.62mm machine gun positioned on high ground overlooking the western slopes.
Lieutenant Jonathan Shaw's No. 6 Platoon, positioned on B Company's right flank, secured the summit of 'Fly Half' without resistance. However, they had overlooked several Argentine soldiers from the 3rd Platoon, who later fired on the platoon's rear, causing several casualties before the area was finally secured. Meanwhile, intense hand-to-hand combat erupted in the 1st Platoon sector, lasting three hours until the Paras successfully forced the defenders out.