Battle of Mount Longdon
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The Battle of Mount Longdon was an engagement of the Falklands War between British and Argentinian forces, which took place on the 11th/12th June 1982.
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The British force consisted of 3 Para under Lieutenant-Colonel Hew Pike with artillery support from a battery of 29 Commando Regiment, Royal Artillery. 2 Para were in reserve. Naval gunfire support was provided by HMS Avenger's 4.5-in gun. The Argentinian force consisted of B Company of the 7th Infantry Regiment, as-well as other detachments from other units. The local Argentine commander was Major Carlos Carrizo-Salvadores, the second-in-command of the 7th Regiment. The 7th Infantry Regiment, reinforced by two of the Marine Infantry platoons, held Mount Longdon, Wireless Ridge and Cortley Ridge to the east.
Mostly conscripts with a year of training, the young 7th Regiment soldiers were not cowards and most were prepared to hold their positions. Private Fabian Passaro, spent nearly two months huddled in a hole on the western end of Mount Longdon, with Second Lieutenant Juan Baldini's 1st Platoon of B Company of the 7th Infantry Regiment:
"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.'" (Source: Daniel Kon, Los Chicos De La Guerra/The Boys Of The War, New English Library, 1983)
3 Para had set up a patrol base near Murrell Bridge, two kilometres west of Mount Longdon on 3 June. Sergeant Roque Nista, the Argentine Rasit ground-surveillance radar operator on Mount Longdon first picked up a three-man sniper patrol on the night of 4-5 June. The Argentinian platoons stood to while Major Carrizo-Salvadores telephoned 7th Regimental Headquarters for an artillery fire mission. During the night of 6-7 June a 601 Commando Company fighting patrol, investigating further reports of enemy activity around Murrell Bridge, came under heavy fire from three sections of paras under Corporals Haddon, Brown and Sergeant Addle near the bridge. The Argentinian Army Commandos counter-attacked and found rucksacks and a radio set with signals instructions. (Source: Nicholas van der Bijl, Nine Battles To Stanley, Pen & Sword Books, 1999, p. 163)
The plan was for 3 Para to launch a full-frontal assault on the western end of Mount Longdon due to it being impossible to attack from the flanks, for a large minefield and a 6th Infantry Regiment company was located in well camouflaged positions on the valley between Mount Longdon and Two Sisters Mountain.
The three major objectives Fly Half, Full Back and Wing Forward were named after positions in Rugby. A Company would attack Wing Forward to the north, where they would then set up a fire-support base for B Company who would attack Fly Half and then proceed to Full Back, while C Company would remain in reserve. The mountain was heavily defended with a 7th Regiment company of conscripts and a Marine Infantry Platoon equipped with six heavy calibre machine-guns.
As dusk set-in, 3 Para moved to their start-lines and, after a brief stop, began to make their four-hour long advance to their objectives. As B Company approached Mount Longdon one NCO stepped on a mine, which after a very silent approach, alerted Second Lieutenant Juan Baldini's 1st Platoon of B Company of the 7th Regiment who launched a withering hail of fire. 6 Platoon, on the right flank of B Company, captured the western-half of Fly Half with no fighting taking place. However, they had missed half a dozen of Argentinian conscripts of Baldini's platoon, having grenaded several bunkers, and they launched a fierce attack on the unsuspecting platoon, resulting in a number of casualties before the area was cleared. 5 Platoon were coming under heavy fire from Argentinian machine guns until one was silenced by Carl Gustav and LAW anti-tank rocket launchers, and the other was grenaded in a daring attack by two privates.
Throughout most of the night the Marine Infantry platoon positions held, snipers from the Argentinian Marine heavy machine-gun company of the 5th Marines proving particulary deadly to the Paras on Mount Longdon.
Major Carrizo-Salvadores on Full Back had remained in touch with his regimental headquarters, at Wireless Ridge in the rear, and at about 2 am First Lieutenant Raul Castaneda's platoon of conscripts of C Company on Wireless Ridge was sent forward to recover the positions earlier lost by Baldini and in the words of British historian Nicholas van der Bijl the officer 'burst into' the Argentine major's command bunker on Full Back. Mainly reservists from the same suburbs of Buenos Aires, his soldiers knew each other well and most had head-mounted night vision goggles. Carrizo-Salvadores briefed him and, after giving him soldiers from his Command Platoon to act as guides, he ordered Castaneda to counterattack from the northern slopes.
Meanwhile 4 and 5 Platoons were now forward of the objective of Fly Half and were coming under heavy-fire. 4 Platoon's platoon commander, Lieutenant Ian Bickerdike and a signaller and Sergeant Ian McKay and a number of other men were attempting to perform reconnaissance on First Sergeant Raul Gonzalez's 2nd Platoon, in doing so, the platoon commander and signaller were wounded. Sergeant Ian Mckay realising something needed to be done, and with a number of other men, decided to attack the Marine machine-gun position that was causing much trouble and much misery. In the ensuing action, one man was killed and two wounded, yet he carried on alone, attacking the Marines with grenades. McKay managed to throw a grenade into the heavy machine-gun position before falling mortally wounded but contrary to popular mythology failed to silence the machine-gun. (Source: [1] (http://www.britains-smallwars.com/Falklands/mt-longdon.htm)). But for his valour he was awarded the posthumous Victoria Cross.
Castaneda's platoon used rifles, grenades and bayonets to clear the positions with skill and dash and killing and wounding twenty-five of the paratroopers.
The British historian and author of the book Para!: Fifty Years Of The Parachute Regiment, wrote that the ferocity of the Argentine counterattack forced B Company (4, 5 and 6 Platoons) to withdraw from Fly Half.
Colour Sergeant Brian Faulkner seeing that several Paras were about to fall into the hands of the enemy, deployed anyone fit enough to defend the British aid post. "I picked four blokes and got up on this high feature, and as I did so this troop of twenty, or thirty Argentinians were coming towards us. We just opened fire on them. We don't know how many we killed, but they got what they deserved, because none of them were left standing when we'd finished with them." said Faulkner remembering in the book Above All, Courage (Cassells Military Paperbacks, 2002)
The British 3rd Commando Brigade commander, Brigadier Julian Thompson was reported as having said:
"I was on the point of withdrawing my Paras from Mount Longdon. We couldn't believe that these teenagers disguised as soldiers were causing us to suffer many casualties." (Source: recollections of Argentine veteran Miguel Savage (http://www.geocities.com/viajesavage/page2ingl.html))
When the platoon came down from the battle they were exhausted. One of them was sporting a maroon beret - a grim trophy lost by a British paratrooper. Private Leonardo Rondi having dodged groups of Paras to deliver messages to Castaneda's section leaders, in a gunfight with British Paratroopers, shot a Paratrooper and grabbed his red beret and SLR which he later gave to Major Carrizo-Salvadores as a present, and was awarded the Gallantry In Combat Medal.
Following fierce fighting on Fly Half, Major Argue pulled back 4, 5 and 6 Platoons, and began pounding Fly Half from the sea with barrages fired from HMS Avenger, after which a left flanking attack is put in. Under heavy fire, 4 and 5 Platoons advanced upon their objective of Wing Forward, taking some casualties from the Argentines on the eastern end of Mount Longdon as they did so. The Paras could not move any further without taking unacceptable losses and so were pulled back to the western end of Mount Longdon, with the orders for A Company to move through B Company and assault, from the west, the eastern objective of Full Back, a heavily defended position, with covering fire being given from Support Company. They soon attacked the position in bitter close-combat, clearing the position of the Argentinian defenders with rifle, grenade and bayonet. The Argentines rigorously defended Full Back. The wounded Corporal Manuel Medina, a well known and popular drill instructor among the conscripts, of Castaneda's platoon took over a recoilles rifle detachment and personally fired along the ridge at Support Company killing three paras, including Private Heddicker, who took the full force of the round, and wounding three others. Major Carrizo-Salvadores abandoned his command bunker on Full Back only when a Milan missile smashed into some rocks just behind him.
The battle had lasted twelve-hours and had been costly to both sides. 3 Para lost eighteen killed during the battle, one Royal Engineer attached to 3 Para was also killed. A total of forty British paratroopers were wounded during the battle. A further four Paras and one REME were killed and seven Paratroopers were wounded in the two-day shelling directed from the Argentinian 5th Marine Infantry Battalion positions on Tumbledown Mountain that followed. The Argentinians suffered over thirty dead, with fifty also being taken prisoner.
References
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- 3 PARA'S APPROACH TO and BATTLE FOR MOUNT LONGDON, on www.naval-history.net (http://www.naval-history.net/F54longdon.htm)