Battle of Mount Tumbledown

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Battle of Mount Tumbledown
Part of Falklands War
Date 13 June – 14 June 1982 Location Mount Tumbledown, Falkland Islands Result British victory
Combatants
United Kingdom	Argentina
Commanders
Tony Wilson	Carlos Robacio
Strength
900 Troops	502 Argentine Marines
Casualties
9 killed 43 wounded	30 killed 30 captured
The British capture of heights above Stanley lead to the surrender of the city shortly afterwards.

Falklands War
Pebble Island – Goose Green – Top Malo House – Mount Harriet – Two Sisters – Mount Longdon – Wireless Ridge – Mount Tumbledown

The Battle of Mount Tumbledown was an engagement of the Falklands War, one of a series of battles that took place during the British advance towards Stanley. The battle took place on the night of 13 June–14 June 1982. In the battle, the British launched an assault on Tumbledown Mountain, one of the heights that dominate the town of Stanley, and succeeded in driving the Argentine forces from the mountain.

The attacking British force consisted of the 2nd Battalion, Scots Guards with mortar detachments from 42 Commando, Royal Marines and the 1/7th Duke of Edinburgh's Own Gurkha Rifles with support from a troop of the Blues and Royals equipped with two Scorpion and two Scimitar armoured vehicles. The attack was supported by naval gunfire from HMS Active's 4.5-in gun. The Argentines defending the mountain were Commander Carlos Robacio's 5th Marine Infantry Battalion (BIM 5). Prior to the British landings, the marine battalion had been augmented by a company of the Amphibious Engineers Company (CKIA) and a battery of the 1st Marine Artillery Battalion (BIAC), as well as a heavy machine-gun company of the Headquarter's Battalion (BICO). The 5th Marine Battalion was further strengthened by three Tigercat SAM batteries of the 1st Marine Anti-Aircraft Regiment and was close to the size of a small brigade.

Contents 1 Early moves 2 Diversion 3 Night attack 4 Morning 5 Aftermath 6 Reference 7 See also

[edit] Early moves

On the morning of 13 June the Scots Guards were moved by helicopter from their position at Bluff Cove to an assembly area near Goat Ridge, to the west of Mount Tumbledown. The British plan called for a diversionary attack to be made south of Mount Tumbledown by a small number of Scots Guards assisted by the four light tanks of the Blues and Royals, whilst the main attack came as a three-phase silent advance from the west of Mount Tumbledown. In the first phase, G company would take the western end of the mountain; in the second phase Left Flank Company would pass through the area taken by G company to capture the centre of the summit; and in the third phase Right Flank Company would pass through Left Flank Company to secure the eastern end of Tumbledown. A daytime assault was initially planned, but was postponed at the British battalion commander's request. Having held a planning meeting with his company commanders the consensus was that the long uphill assault across the harsh ground of Tumbledown would have been suicidal.

[edit] Diversion

At 8.30 p.m. on 13 June the diversionary attack began. The 2nd Scots Guards' Reconnaissance Platoon, commanded by Major Richard Bethell (a former SAS officer) and supported by four light tanks of the Blues & Royals, attacked the Argentinian Marine company entrenched on the lower slopes of Mount William. On reaching Mount William's southern slopes one of the tanks was blasted out of action by a booby-trap. The initial advance was unopposed, but a heavy fire-fight broke out when the two forces made contact and continued for two hours. Two Guardsmen were killed and four wounded before the forward Argentine platoon position fell silent.

Realizing that they could be counter-attacked at any time, the British platoon withdrew from the Marine position and inadvertently entered a minefield. Two men were wounded covering the withdrawal and a further four were wounded by mines. The explosions prompted the Marine commanders to order the 81mm Mortar Platoon on Mount William and Argentine artillery to open fire on the minefield and the likely withdrawal route of anyone attacking Mount William. The barrage lasted for about forty minutes and more British casualties would have been suffered if the ground the mortar bombs landed on had not been soft peat, which absorbed most of the blast.

[edit] Night attack

At 9 p.m., half an hour after the start of the diversionary attack, Major Ian Dalzell-Job's G Company started its advance of nearly two miles. Reaching its objective undetected, the company found the western end of the mountain undefended and occupied it easily. Major John Kiszley's Left Flank Company passed through them and reached the central region of the peak unopposed, but then came under heavy fire. Major Kiszley, the company commander and his men threw themeselves to the ground to try to get under cover from the storm of FAL rounds that had erupted around them. The Argentines, later learned to be of company strength, directed mortar, grenade, machine-gun and small arms fire from very close range at the British company, which suffered two dead, Guardsman Ronald Tanbini and Sergeant John Simeon. First Lieutenant Héctor Mino's 5th Platoon, Amphibious Engineer Company, held the rocks to the right of First Lieutenant Carlos Vázquez's 4th Platoon, 5th Marines in the centre and to the left of the 4th Platoon were Second Lieutenant Óscar Silva's RI 4 platoon, who had recently fought well on Goat Ridge. For four or five hours three platoons of Argentine riflemen, machine-gunners and mortarmen pinned the British down. To help identify the bunkers, the Guardsmen fired flares into the summit. The Guardsmen traded 66mm and 84 rockets with the Argentines protected in their rock bunkers. The enemy refused to budge and the Scots Guards could hear some of the Argentines shouting obscene phrases in English and even singing as they fought. Meanwhile, two Royal Navy frigates, HMS Yarmouth and HMS Active, were pounding Tumbledown with 4.5 inch guns. At one stage Colonel Scott thought the 2nd Scots Guards Battalion might have to withdraw and attack again the next night. 'The old nails were being bitten a bit,' he said. 'If we had been held on Tumbledown it might have encouraged them to keep on fighting.'^[1] At 2.30 a.m., however, a second British assault overwhelmed the Argentine defences, as British troops swarmed the defences at the mountaintop and drove the Argentines out, at times fighting with fixed bayonets at close quarters. Major Kiszley, who was to become a senior general after the war, was the first man into the enemy position, personally shooting two enemy conscripts and bayoneting a third, his bayonet breaking in two while the hapless Argentine expired. Seeing their company commander among the Argentines inspired 14 and 15 Platoons to make the final dash across open ground to get within bayoneting distance of the Marines. Kiszley and six other Guardsmen suddenly found themeselves standing on top of the mountain, looking down on Port Stanley under street lighting and with vehicles moving along the roads. The Argentines now counter-attacked and a burst of machine-gun fire from 1 Platoon of Second Lieutenant Augusto La Madrid immediately injured three of these men, including the company commander and Lieutenant Alastair Mitchell, commander of 15 Platoon. For his bayonet charge Major Kiszley was awarded the Military Cross.

[edit] Morning

By 6 a.m. Left Flank Company's attack had clearly stalled and had cost the company seven men killed and 18 wounded. On the eastern half of the mountain the 6th Regiment's B Company (under command of Major Oscar Jaimet) were still holding out, so Colonel Scott ordered Right Flank Company to push on to clear the final positions. Major Simon Price sent 2 and 3 Platoons forward, preceded by a barrage of 66mm rockets to clear the forward RI 6 platoon. Major Price placed 1 Platoon high up in the rocks to provide fire support for the assault troops. Lieutenant Robert Lawrence led 3 Platoon round to the right of the Argentine platoon, hoping to take the Argentines by surprise. The advance was noticed, however, and the British were briefly pinned down by gunfire before a bayonet charge overwhelmed the Argentine defenders. Lance-Corporal Graham Rennie of 3 Platoon in the book 5th Infantry Brigade in the Falklands (Pen & Sword Books, 2003) later described the attack:

Our assault was initiated by a Guardsman killing a sniper, which was followed by a volley of 66mm anti-tanks rounds. We ran forward in extended line, machine-gunnners and riflemen firing from the hip to keep the enemy heads down, enabling us to cover the open ground in the shortest possible time. Halfway across the open ground 2 Platoon went to ground to give covering fire support, enabling us to gain a foothold on the enemy position. From then on we fought from crag to crag, rock to rock, taking out pockets of enemy and lone riflemen, all of who resisted fiercely.

As La Madrid had to withdraw in the face of a superior assaulting force, Second Lieutenant Aldo Franco platoon moved in from the eastern edge of the mountain to try to extricate La Madrid. Advancing out of the saddle of the mountain, the British again came under heavy fire from the Argentines, but advancing in pairs under covering fire, the British succeeded in clearing that RI 6 platoon as well, gaining firm control of the mountain's eastern side. Right Flank Company had achieved this at the cost of five wounded, including Lieutenant Robert Lawrence who was left permanently disabled but who was later awarded the Military Cross.

[edit] Aftermath

By 9 a.m. the Scots Guards were in control of Tumbledown. The battalion had lost nine dead and forty-three wounded, and one of the Guardsmen was to lose his way in the dark, to hide for more than a month, not realising that the fighting was over. The Guards took thirty prisoners, several of them RI 6 soldiers. To many of the Guardsmen the Sapper Hill positions looked impregnable.

The bodies of 30 Argentine Army and Marine soldiers were strewn over the 5th Marine Battalion perimeter, one of the dead being an RI 6 soldier who had been bayoneted to death by a Guardsman while he attended to a wounded comrade. Unwilling to abandon the hill, Commander Carlos Robacio on Sapper Hill decided the time was ripe to counterattack and drive back the Guardsmen. Only the personal intervention of Colonel Félix Aguiar, the 10th Brigade Chief of Staff, brought the fighting to an end. The 5th Marines worked their way back into Port Stanley, where within a few hours the Argentine garrison would surrender. The bayonet charges of the Scots Guards had broken the back of the 5th Marines defence line.

[edit] Reference

[edit] See also

• British Military History

Falklands War
Military forces | Argentine ground forces | British ground forces | Argentine air forces | British air forces | Argentine naval forces | British naval forces
Timeline | Background | Invasion | Falklands War
Battles | Goose Green | Mount Harriet | Two Sisters | Mount Longdon | Mount Tumbledown | Wireless Ridge
Operations | Algeciras | Canbelow | Corporate | Black Buck | Keyhole | Paraquat | Purple Warrior | Rosario | Sutton