Battle of Mount Tumbledown

Encyclopedia : B : BA : BAT : Battle of 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 June 13–June 14 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 Actives 4.5-in gun. The Argentines defending the mountain were Commander Carlos Robacio's 5th Marine Infantry Battalion (BIM 5). Prior to the assault, the marine battalion had been augmented by a company of the amphibious engineer company and a battery of the 1st Marine Artillery Regiment, and was close to the size of a small brigade. The 5th Marines were further strengthened by three Tigercat SAM batteries of the 1st Marine Anti-Aircraft Regiment, and a heavy machine-gun company of Headquarters Battalion.

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, while 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 center 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 commander's request.

Diversion

At 8:30pm on 13 June, the diversionary attack began. The 2nd Scots Guards Battalion's Reconnaissance Platoon, commanded by Major Richard Bethell, a former SAS officer and supported by the four light tanks of the Blues and Royals, attacked the Argentinian 'O' Marine Company position on the lower slopes of Mount William. The initial advance was unopposed, but a heavy fire-fight broke out when the two forces made contact, and continued for two hours. Two Scots Guardsmen were dead and four wounded before the forward Marine platoon positions fell silent.

Realizing that they could be counter-attacked at any time, the British platoon withdrew from the 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 Marines to order the 81 mm mortar Platoon on Mount William to open fire on the minefield and the likely withdrawal route of anyone attacking the O Company position. The barrage lasted 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 blasts.

Night attack

At 9:00 pm, half an hour after the start of the diversionary attack, Major Ian Dalzell-Jobs' 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. although they later came under heavy mortar fire. 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. Accurate rifle fire picked off Scots Guardsmen, and the attack bogged down in front of the Argentine Marines. For four or five hours three platoons of Argentine riflemen, machinegunners and mortarmen pinned the British down. First Lieutenant Hector Mino's 5th Platoon, Amphibious Engineers, held the rocks to the right of First Lieutenant Carlos Vazquez's 4th Platoon, 5th Marines and to the left of them were Second Lieutenant Oscar Silva's R I 4 platoon, who had recently fought well on Goat Ridge. 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.'Patrick Bishop and John Witherow, The Winter War: Falklands Conflict, p. 133 At 2:30 am, however, a second British assault overwhelmed the Argentine defenses, as British troops swarmed the defenses at the mountaintop and drove the Argentines out, at times fighting with fixed bayonets at close quarters. This time they were all over the trenches. Bayonets, grenades, rifle and machinegun fire were all traded in the massive melee. An Argentine counterattack failed to retake the mountaintop.

Morning

By 6.00 am, the British were in possession of the mountain's summit, but the Argentines were still dug in on the eastern slope. Colonel Scott ordered Right Flank Company to push on to clear the final positions. Major Simon Price sent two platoons forward, preceded by a barrage of 66mm rockets to clear the forward RI 6 machinegun post. No. 1 Platoon held its position was placed high up in the rocks to provide fire support for the assault troops. Lieutenant Robert Lawrence led No. 3 Platoon round to the right of the Argentine position, 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. Advancing out of that position, the British again came under heavy fire from a second Argentine position, but, advancing in pairs under covering fire, the British succeeded in clearing that position as well, gaining firm control of the mountain's eastern side.

Aftermath

By 9.00 am the Scots Guards were in control of Tumbledown. The battalion lost nine dead and forty-three wounded. The Guards took thirty prisoners, several of them RI 6 soldiers.

The bodies of 28 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 Felix 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.

Reference

See also

• British Military History

From Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Original article here. Support Wikipedia by contributing or donating.
All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License See Wikipedia Copyrights for details.