Battle of Mount Kent | |||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Part of Falklands War | |||||||
| |||||||
Belligerents | |||||||
United Kingdom | Argentina | ||||||
Commanders and leaders | |||||||
Lt. Col. Mike Rose Maj. Cedric Delves Cap. Gavin Hamilton Cap. Peter Babbington | Cap. Eduardo Villarruel Cap. Tomás Fernández Cap. Andrés Ferrero | ||||||
Units involved | |||||||
Royal Air Force | 601 Commando Company 602 Commando Company 601st Helicopter Battalion Special Operations Group 601st National Gendarmerie Special Forces Squadron 6th Infantry Regiment (B Company) | ||||||
Strength | |||||||
1 destroyer HMS Glamorgan 1 Scorpion light tank 4 helicopters 1 Chinook 3 Sea king | 7 helicopters 1 Puma, 4 Hueys 2 Chinooks | ||||||
Casualties and losses | |||||||
5 killed (4 from friendly fire) 11 wounded 3 Royal Marines, [1] 4 Gurkhas, and 4 SAS 1 Harrier shot down | 9 killed 18 wounded 5 captured 1 Puma helicopter shot down | ||||||
The Battle of Mount Kent was a series of engagements during the Falklands War, primarily between British and Argentine special forces.
Mount Kent and the surrounding hills is an area of high ground on East Falkland, five miles West of the capital Stanley. At 1,093 ft (333 m) [2] it dominated the British axis of advance from San Carlos to Stanley and its proximity to the capital, made it of strategic interest to both British and Argentinian Forces.
In late May 1982 Special Air Service patrols from G Squadron found that a number of high peaks overlooking the Argentine defences around Port Stanley were largely undefended, after the Argentine heliborne reserve 'Combat Team Solari' (B Company, 12th Infantry Regiment) had been dispatched to support the fighting at Goose Green and the 4th Infantry Regiment had received orders to abandon Mount Challenger and take up positions on Mounts Two Sisters and Harriet.
An initial reconnaissance by Major Cedric Delves' 'D' Squadron was deployed by helicopter on 25 May, with the remaining of the squadron arriving on 27 May in time to counter the arrival of an Argentine Special Forces unit under the command of Captain Eduardo Marcelo Villarruel, second-in-command of 602 Commando Company. [3] His commander, Major Aldo Rico, had instructed Argentine patrol leaders to move into positions around Mount Kent, secure the area and await reinforcement by Major Jose Ricardo Spadaro's 601st National Gendarmerie Special Forces Squadron, and Major Oscar Ramon Jaimet's heliborne trained. [4] B Company, 6th Infantry Regiment who had also undergone night-combat training the previous year. [5]
SAS patrols from Air and Boat Troop squadrons and Major Delves' tactical headquarters (THQ) fought a number of actions with the Argentine Special Forces before the Argentines were forced to withdraw. The SAS's Air Troop patrol was at first driven but managed to hold onto the summit of Mount Kent until Royal Marine reinforcements arrived.
The first engagement occurred during the night of the 29–30 May 1982 when the 3rd Assault Section of 602 Commando Company, led by Captain Andrés Ferrero, ran into Air Troop from D Squadron, 22nd SAS, on the slopes of Mount Kent, sustaining one badly wounded (First-Sergeant Raimundo Viltes), abandoning much of its equipment to the anger of Major Aldo Rico, their Commanding Officer. [6] The SAS sustained two wounded during the contact. [7] Another SAS man suffered a broken hand in the confusion of battle. [8]
That night, HMS Glamorgan (D19) shelled Wing Commander Esteban Correa's 40-man Argentine Air Force Special Operations Group (GOE) at Stanley Airfield guarding the Skyguard fire-control radars, killing Lieutenant Luis Castagnari and wounding four others who were preparing to take part in the occupation of Smoko Mount in support of Argentine Army commandos. [9] The Argentine survivors thought the missile was a Shrike anti-radar missile, [10] but it was a Seaslug missile launched in the surface to surface role.
The next day, around 11.00 local time, Captain Tomás Fernández's 12-man, 2nd Assault Section attempted to seize Bluff Cove Peak. The radio operator, First Sergeant Vicente Alfredo Flores,sent out the following radio message from the slopes of Bluff Cove Peak at about 5 PM on 30 May: "We are in trouble" and then forty minutes later: "There are English all around us... you had better hurry up". [11]
First Lieutenant Rubén Eduardo Márquez and Sergeant Oscar Humberto Blas were both killed and showed great personal courage in the firefight [12] and were posthumously awarded the Argentine Nation to the Valour in Combat Medal. The Argentine Commandos under Captain Fernández confronted a camp occupied by 15 SAS troopers, with the SAS reporting two wounded (Corporals Ewen Pearcy and Don Masters) repelling Fernández's patrol. [13] [14] [15]
On Mount Simon, Captain Jose Arnobio Verseci's 1st Assault Section, listening to Captain Fernández's patrol attempt to escape British encirclement, decided to abandon the feature and attempt to link up with the platoon under Lieutenant Darío Horacio Blanco from the 601st Combat Engineer Company that was guarding Fitzroy. [16]
That following day, another SAS ambush took place when Lieutenant-Commander Dante Camiletti's Marine Special Forces patrol (minus Camilletti and Corporal Juan Carrasco who had been captured at Verde Mountain and Teal Inlet respectively) were returning from reconnoitring San Carlos and were ambushed by Captain Gavin Hamilton's Mountain Troop on the lower slopes of Estancia Mountain. Sergeants Jesús Pereyra and Ramón López were seriously wounded and captured along with Corporals Pablo Alvarado and Pedro Verón who were unwounded. [17] During their reconnaissance of San Carlos, a British gunner, (George Joblin) was shot and wounded by friendly fire. [18]
On the night of 30 May, Captain Peter Babbington's K Company of 42 Commando, Royal Marines and a supporting field artillery battery boarded three Sea King helicopters and the surviving RAF Chinook ( Bravo November ) and moved forward from San Carlos. At about the same time, the 2nd Assault Section under Captain Fernández, having hidden all day, emerged from their hides intending to withdraw from the area under the cover of darkness but came under prompt and heavy fire from Mountain Troop. [19] The Marines took cover and after the firefight had died down Major Cedric Delves of D Squadron, 22 SAS appeared and assured them that all was well. There were no Argentine casualties, although one member, Sergeant Vicente Alfredo Flores with the Thompson Manpack Radio, was captured after knocking himself out in a fall. [20] One Spanish-speaking British Intelligence Corps NCO on loan to the SAS is reported wounded in this action. [21] The SAS claim to have come under mortar bombardment while evacuating their wounded, and the Royal Marines from 7 'Sphinx' Battery of the 29th Commando Regiment Royal Artillery report the loss of one gunner (Van Rooyen), who suffered a broken arm while taking cover among the rocks during the bombardment. [22]
Flight-Lieutenant Andy Lawless, the co-pilot of the sole surviving RAF Chinook, took part in the mission to deliver artillery guns and ammunition to the SAS and describes the crash of the helicopter as a result of severed wires;
We had three 105-mm guns inside and ammunition pallets under-slung. Then the fog of war intervened, we could not find anywhere to land and spent time manoeuvring as we had to put them exactly where the gunners wanted because they could not roll the guns across the terrain. Once we dropped off the guns we went straight back to San Carlos to bring in more guns and ammo. Then we hit the water at 100 knots. The bow wave came over the cockpit window as we settled and the engines partially flamed out. I knew we had ditched but I was not sure if we had been hit. Dick said he thought we had been hit by ground fire. As the helicopter settled the bow wave reduced and the engine wound up as we came out of the water like a cork out of a bottle. [23]
The action in the Mount Kent area continued on the morning of 31 May, the recently arrived Royal Marines spotted Major Mario Castagneto's 601 Commando Company advancing on jeeps and motorbikes to rescue the stranded patrols of 602 Commando Company. Castagneto's men were forced to withdraw after coming under mortar fire injuring Castagneto and Drill Sergeant Juan Salazar. [24]
There were aircraft losses on both sides from operations carried out by British and Argentine Special Forces. On 30 May, Royal Air Force Harriers were active over Mount Kent. One of them, responding to a call for help from D Squadron SAS, was badly damaged by small arms fire while attacking Mount Kent's eastern lower slopes. Sub-Lieutenant Llambías-Pravaz's platoon was later credited with the destruction of Harrier XZ963 flown by Squadron Leader Jerry Pook [25] with another claim going to 35 mm Oerlikons of the 601st Anti-Aircraft Artillery Group under the command of 2nd Lieutenant Roberto Enrique Ferre that had been moved forward to cover the retreat of the 4th Regiment that had been occupying Mount Challenger, according to Captain José Fernando Trindade from the 601st Air Defence Artillery Group. [26] [27] [28] The Harrier crashed into the South Atlantic 30 miles from the carrier HMS Hermes, Squadron Leader Pook ejected and was rescued.
At about 11.00 am on the same day, an Aerospatiale SA-330 Puma helicopter was shot down by a shoulder-launched Stinger surface-to-air missile (SAM) fired by the SAS. Six National Gendarmerie Special Forces were killed and eight injured. [29]
Before the end of May, according to Marine First Corporal Horacio Núñez, the 1st Amphibious Commando Grouping (under Lieutenant Commander Guillermo Sanchez-Sabarots) embarked on two Argentine Air Force Fokker F-27 Friendship turboprop transports to reinforce the Argentine Army Commandos and National Gendarmerie Special Forces attempting to take over control of the Mount Kent area. The Marine Special Forces NCO recalls "We were given the orders to carry out a counterattack. And we got on board the Fokkers but the two landings had to be aborted." [30] This is corroborated by Marine First Corporal Jacinto Eliseo Batista in the lead transport that says the Fokker had to practically abort the landing while flying over the runway that was under heavy naval bombardment. [31]
The only British death in the SAS operations to counter Argentine commando patrols in the Mount Kent area, occurred when a SAS patrol fired on an SBS patrol near Teal Inlet who had strayed into an area patrolled by the SAS in the early hours of 2 June. SBS Sergeant Ian ‘Kiwi’ Nicholas Hunt was killed. [32] [33]
The Special Air Service won praise for defending Mount Kent and the surrounding peaks, the citation for the Distinguished Service Order won by Major Delves:
Following the successful establishment of the beachhead in San Carlos Water, Major Delves took his squadron 40 miles behind enemy lines and established a position overlooking the main enemy stronghold in Port Stanley where at least 7000 troops were known to be based. By a series of swift operations, skilful concealment and lightning attacks against patrols sent out to find him, he was able to secure a firm hold on the area after ten days for the conventional forces to be brought in. [34]
After sustaining significant losses in the form of four wounded (Carl Rhodes, Richard Palmer, Don Masters and Ewen Pearcy) in 16 and 17 Troops and a fifth SAS casualty that had broken his hand taking cover in the fighting, the exhausted men in Air and Boat Troops were withdrawn from the frontline for much-needed rest and replaced by 23 Troop, G Squadron SAS. [35] 18 and 19 Troops, in the meantime, commenced operations against the Argentine garrisons at Fox Bay and Port Howard in West Falkland. Mount Kent would come under sporadic but intense Argentine long-range 155 mm artillery fire with Kim Sabido from Independent Radio News reporting on 31 May, "For me it was just another version of hell and the shower of shrapnel which accompanied each explosion was just a reminder of how close to the margins of life these men are now fighting. Kim Sabido with the British forces overlooking Port Stanley." [36]
Brigadier Julian Thompson would later defend his decision to send SAS patrols to reconnoitre Mount Kent ahead of 42 Commando:
It was fortunate that I had ignored the views expressed by Northwood [British Military Headquarters in England] that reconnaissance of Mount Kent before insertion of 42 Commando was superfluous. Had D Squadron not been there, the Argentine Special Forces would have caught the Commando before de-planing and, in the darkness and confusion on a strange landing zone, inflicted heavy casualties on men and helicopters. [37]
A Scorpion tank from the Blues & Royals helped clear Mount Kent from the remaining Argentine special forces and engaged the 4th 'Monte Caseros' (Jungle) Infantry Regiment troops digging in on the lower slopes of Two Sisters Mountain, opposite Murrell River. [38]
3 PARA reached Estancia House on 1 June, and shortly thereafter D Company patrols came across blood stains and field dressings indicating that the wounded First Sergeant Raimundo Viltes under the care of First Lieutenant Horacio Lauría had received first aid there [39] along with the Argentine Marine special forces wounded and National Gendarmerie commandos injured, before they were evacuated. In their march to Estancia House, a British paratrooper in D Company was seriously wounded by a negligent discharge. [40]
With 23 Troop thinly spread in the forward British lines, the 3rd Assault Section from 602 Commando Company was able to return to the area on the night of 3–4 June, reaching the summit of Mount Challenger after a difficult approach. Upon returning to Port Stanley, Major Aldo Rico along with First Lieutenant Jorge Manuel Vizoso-Posse, (second-in-command of Ferrero's patrol) tried to convince Brigadier-General Oscar Jofre to helicopter forward a rifle company in order to attack the recently arrived British artillery batteries the commandos claimed to have located using their night binoculars, but an irritated Jofre told them to go and leave the decision-making process up to 10th Brigade Headquarters. [41]
The Argentine 4th Regiment also carried out patrolling, and on the night of 6–7 June, Corporal Nicolás Albornoz-Guevara with eight conscripts from the Two Sisters Mountain stronghold crossed Murrell River and reached the area of Estancia Mountain where they spotted a number of British vehicles, but the patrol came under mortar fire and had to withdraw. [42]
On 9 June, the two Argentine Air Force Boeing CH-47 Chinook helicopters in the Falklands returned to the Argentine mainland. The plan was to collect Major Armando Valiente's 75-strong 603 Commando Company [43] together with petroleum shaped charges which had been seized from a French company operating in southern Argentina and insert this force behind Mounts Kent and Challenger in order to attack British artillery. [44] [45]
With the loss of the high ground, Argentine Air Force Canberra bombers carried out several bombing runs against British troops in the area. In the first raid on June 1, six Canberras attacked British troop positions in the Mount Kent area after Captains Ferrero and Villarruel were given a map of the area and told to pinpoint the British positions. [46]
On 8 June, a British helicopter inserted a 3-man special forces team to establish an observation post on Mount Kent but were discovered and long-range Argentine artillery fire wounded one man, forcing the remainder to vacate their hide and retreat with their wounded man to the rear positions of the 29th (Commando) Royal Artillery Regiment. [47]
During the night of 9–10 June, a Royal Marines night-fighting patrol fired on several members of a mortar platoon from 45 Commando on the lower slopes of Mount Kent, killing four and wounding three British Marines. [48] According to Captain Ian Gardiner, the company commander of 45 Commando Battalion's X-Ray Company, the sergeant commanding the fighting patrol spotted the mortar section approaching from the direction of the enemy positions in the valley between Mount Longdon and Two Sisters Mountain and ordered his men to open fire believing them to be an Argentine Special Forces patrol. [49]
Early on 10 June, a Gurkha company moved forward from Bluff Cove to a position near Mount Kent [50] to establish a patrol base but the Forward Observation Officer on Mount Harriet, Captain Tomás Fox spotted the company and directed 155 mm artillery fire against it, wounding four Gurkhas. [51] On 11 June, the Royal Marine and Parachute battalions of 3 Commando Brigade attacked and captured Mounts Longdon, Harriet, Goat Ridge and Two Sisters Mountain, ending Argentine Special Forces plans (Operational Plan No. SZE-21) in winning back control of the Mount Kent area. [52]
The Falklands War was a ten-week undeclared war between Argentina and the United Kingdom in 1982 over two British dependent territories in the South Atlantic: the Falkland Islands and its territorial dependency, South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands. The conflict began on 2 April 1982, when Argentina invaded and occupied the Falkland Islands, followed by the invasion of South Georgia the next day. On 5 April, the British government dispatched a naval task force to engage the Argentine Navy and Air Force before making an amphibious assault on the islands. The conflict lasted 74 days and ended with an Argentine surrender on 14 June, returning the islands to British control. In total, 649 Argentine military personnel, 255 British military personnel, and three Falkland Islanders were killed during the hostilities.
The Battle of Goose Green was fought from 28 to 29 May 1982 by British and Argentine forces during the Falklands War. Located on East Falkland's central isthmus, the settlement of Goose Green was the site of a tactically vital airfield. Argentine forces were located in a well-defended position within striking distance of San Carlos Water, where the British task force had positioned themselves after their amphibious landing.
The Battle of Mount Harriet was an engagement of the Falklands War, which took place on the night of 11/12 June 1982 between British and Argentine forces. It was one of three battles in a Brigade-size operation all on the same night, the other two being the Battle of Mount Longdon and the Battle of Two Sisters.
The Battle of Two Sisters was an engagement of the Falklands War during the British advance towards the capital, Port Stanley. It took place from 11 to 12 June 1982 and was one of three battles in a Brigade-size operation all on the same night, the other two being the Battle of Mount Longdon and the Battle of Mount Harriet. It was fought mainly between an assaulting British force consisting of Royal Marines of 45 Commando and an Argentine Company drawn from 4th Infantry Regiment.
The Battle of Wireless Ridge was an engagement of the Falklands War which took place on the night from 13 to 14 June 1982, between British and Argentine forces during the advance towards the Argentine-occupied capital of the Falkland Islands, Port Stanley.
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 key position around the Argentine garrison at Port Stanley. The battle ended in a British victory.
The Battle of Mount Tumbledown was an engagement during the Falklands War. The engagement was an attack by the British Army and the Royal Marines on the heights overlooking Stanley, the Falkland Islands capital. Mount Tumbledown, Mount William and Sapper Hill lie west of the capital. Due to their proximity to the capital, they were of strategic importance during the 1982 War. They were held by the Argentine 5th Naval Infantry Battalion, a reinforced, cold weather trained and equipped Marine battalion.
The 5th Marine Battalion is a battalion of the Argentine Marines.
This is a list of British ground forces in the Falklands War. For a list of ground forces from Argentina, see Argentine ground forces in the Falklands War
This is a list of the ground forces from Argentina that took part in the Falklands War. For a list of ground forces from the United Kingdom, see British ground forces in the Falklands War.
Operation Paraquet was the code name for the British military operation to recapture the island of South Georgia from Argentine military control in April 1982 at the start of the Falklands War.
The 602 Commando Company is a one of three commando units of the Argentine Army (EA).
The Skirmish at Top Malo House took place on 31 May 1982 during the Falklands War between Argentine special forces from 602 Commando Company and the British Royal Marines of the Mountain and Arctic Warfare Cadre (M&AWC). Top Malo House was the only planned daylight action of the war, although it was intended to take place in darkness. The Argentine commandos were part of an attempt to establish a screen of observation posts. A section that occupied Top Malo House was sighted by a British observation post of the Mountain and Arctic Warfare Cadre that was screening the British breakout from the lodgement around San Carlos. The action at Top Malo House was one of a series of mishaps and misfortunes that afflicted the Argentine effort.
Captain Gavin John Hamilton, MC was a British Army infantry soldier. He was educated at The Royal Masonic School, Bushey. He was the Officer Commanding 19 (Mountain) Troop, D Squadron, 22 Special Air Service during the Falklands War when he was killed in action behind enemy lines on West Falkland.
On 10 June 1982, in the closing days of the Falklands War, Many Branch Point, a ridge near Port Howard in West Falkland, was the site of a minor skirmish between the Argentine and British Armed Forces. The engagement ended with the death of the SAS patrol commander, Captain Gavin Hamilton. The action was the only ground engagement of the British and Argentine forces on West Falkland during the conflict.
Mario Benjamin Menéndez was the Argentine governor of the Falklands during the 1982 Argentine occupation of the islands. He also served in the Argentine Army. Menéndez surrendered Argentine forces to Britain during the Falklands War.
Operation Mikado was the code name of a military plan by the United Kingdom to use Special Air Service troops to attack the home base of Argentina's five Super Etendard strike fighters at Río Grande, Tierra del Fuego, during the 1982 Falklands War. Brigadier Peter de la Billière was in charge of planning the operation.
The 25th Mechanized Infantry Regiment is an infantry unit of the Argentine Army belonging to the 9th Mechanized Brigade, 3rd Army Division, and based at Sarmiento, Chubut, Argentina. This Regiment was the first army unit to land in the Falkland Islands on 2 April 1982 and fought in the Falklands War.
The 601 Commando Company is a one of three commando units of the Argentine Army (EA).
The Special Air Service (SAS), along with men from the Special Boat Squadron (SBS), attempted to carry out a diversionary amphibious raid on Port Stanley Harbour on the east coast of East Falkland island on the night of 13–14 June 1982. The plan was, as 2 PARA attacked Wireless Ridge, four Rigid Raider fast landing crafts and carrying some 30 SAS soldiers from D Squadron and six SBS reinforcements from 3 section, would travel across the harbour and destroy the oil storage facilities on Cortley Ridge.