Argentina mounted an invasion of the Falkland Islands on April 2 1982 after the civilian occupation of South Georgia on March 19, before the Falklands War proper started. This article describes the initial defence organised by the Falkland Islands Governor Rex Hunt giving command to Major Mike Norman RM, the landing of Lieutenant-Commander Guillermo Sanchez-Sabarots' Special Forces, the attack on Moody Brook Barracks, the battle between the troops of Hugo Santillan and Bill Trollope at Port Stanley, and the attacks and final surrender of Government House.
Defence
Falkland Islands Governor Rex Hunt was informed by the British Government of a possible Argentine invasion on Wednesday 31 March. The Governor summoned the two senior Royal Marines officers of Naval Party 8901 to Government House in Stanley to discuss the options for defending the Falklands.
He said during the meeting, "Sounds like the buggers mean it", still remaining composed despite the seriousness of the situation that the islands faced.
Major Mike Norman RM was given overall command of the Marines due to his seniority, while Major Gary Noott RM became the military advisor to Governor Hunt. The total strength was 68 Marines and 11 sailors, which was higher than would have been because the garrison was in the process of changing over. Both the replacement and the troop preparing to leave were in the Falklands at the time of the invasion. This was decreased to 57 when twenty-two Royal Marines embarked aboard the Antarctic patrol ship Endurance to observe Argentine soldiers based at South Georgia. Graham Bound states in his book Falkland Islanders At War that approximately forty (both serving and past) members of the Falkland Islands Defence Force (FIDF) reported for duty at their Drill Hall. Their commanding officer, Major Phil Sommers, tasked the militiamen with guarding such key points as the telephone exchange, the radio station and the power station.
Operation Rosario
The Argentine operation codenamed Rosario began in the late evening of Thursday April 1 when the Argentine destroyer Santisima Trinidad halted 500 metres off Mullet Creek and lowered 21 Gemini assault craft into the water. They contained 92 Special Forces of Lieutenant-Commander Guillermo Sanchez-Sabarots' 1st Amphibious Commando Group and the small party under Lieutenant-Commander Pedro Giachino that was to capture Government House.3 The Argentine Rear Admiral Jorge Allara had requested that Rex Hunt surrender peacefully, but the proposal was rejected.
Sanchez-Sabarots
Pedro's party had the shortest distance to go - two and a half miles due north. Moody Brook Barracks, the destination of the main party was six miles away over rough Falklands terrain. Lieutenant-Commander Sanchez-Sabarots in the book The Argentine Fight for The Falklands (Pen and Sword Military Classics) describes the main party's progress in the dark:
"It was a nice night, with a moon, but the cloud covered the moon for most of the time. ... It was very hard going with our heavy loads; it was hot work. We eventually became split up into three groups. We only had one night sight; the lead man, Lieutenant Arias had it. One of the groups became separated when a vehicle came along the track we had to cross. We thought it was a military patrol. Another group lost contact, and the third separation was caused by someone going too fast. This caused my second in command, Lieutenant Bardi, to fall. He suffered a hairline fracture of the ankle and had to be left behind with a man to help him. ... We were at Moody Brook by 5.30 a.m., just on the limits of the time planned, but with no time for the one hour's reconnaissance for which we had hoped."
The main party of Argentine Marines still assumed that the Moody Brook Barracks might contain sleeping Royal Marines. The barracks were quiet, although a light was on in the office of the Royal Marine commander. No sentries were observed and it was a quiet night apart from the occasional animal call. Lieutenant-Commander Sanchez-Sabarots could hear nothing of any action at Government House nor from the distant landing beaches; nevertheless he ordered the assault to begin. Lieutenant-Commander Sanchez-Sabarots continues his account:
"It was still completely dark. We were going to use tear-gas, to force the British out of the buildings and capture them. Our orders were not to cause casualties if possible. That was the most difficult mission of my career. All our training as commandos was to fight aggressively and inflict maximum casualties on the enemy. We surrounded the barracks with machine-gun teams, leaving only one escape route along the peninsula north of Stanley Harbour. Anyone who did get away would not able to reach the town and reinforce the British there. Then we threw the tear-gas grenades into each building. There was no reaction; the barracks were empty."
The noise of the grenades alerted Major Norman to the presence of Argentines on the island, and he thus drove back to Government House. Realizing that the attack was coming from Moody Brook, he ordered all troop sections to converge on the house to enable the defence to be centralized.
Pedro Giachino
Lying on a small hillock south of Government House, Lieutenant-Commander Giachino faced the difficulty of capturing this important objective with no radio and with a force of only sixteen men. He split his force into small groups, placing one on either side of the house and one at the rear. Unknown to them, the Governors' residence was the main concentration point of the Royal Marines. The first attack against came at 6.15 a.m. when Lieutenant-Commander Giachino, with four of his men, entered the servants' annexe, believing it to be the rear entrance to the residence. Three Royal Marines - Corporals Sellen and Fleet and Marine Dorey - who were placed to cover the annexe, beat off the first attack. Giachino was hit instantly as he burst through the door, while Lieutenant Diego Quiroga was hit in the arm. The remaining three retreated to the maid's quarters. Giachino was not dead, but very badly wounded. An Argentine medic, Corporal Ernesto Urbina, attempted to get to Giachino but was wounded by a grenade. Giachino had been shot whilst carrying a live hand grenade. The Royal Marines had attempted to persuade the officer to get rid of the grenade so that they could give him medical treatment, but he refused. After the surrender of the British forces at Government House, Giachino was taken to Stanley Hospital but died from heavy loss of blood.
Hugo Santillan and Bill Trollope
There was a more pressing action on the eastern edge of Port Stanley. Twenty US-built LVTP-7A1 tracked amphibious armoured personnel carriers from the 1st Amphibious Vehicles Battalion, carrying D and E Companies of the 2nd Marine Infantry Battalion, had been landed from the ex-US tank landing ship Cabo San Antonio, and were being watched by a section of Royal Marines under the command of Lieutenant Bill Trollope . The armoured column trundled along the Airport Road into Stanley with three Amtracs (05, 07 and 19) in the vanguard and near the Ionospheric Research Station at exactly 7:15 am were engaged by a section of Royal Marines with anti-tank rockets and machine-guns. This from Lieutenant-Commander Hugo Santillan's official post-battle report:
"We were on the last stretch of the road into Stanley. ... A machine-gun fired from one of the three white houses about 500 metres away and hit the right-hand Amtrac. The fire was very accurate. Then there were some explosions from a rocket launcher, but they were inaccurate, falling a long way from us. We followed our standard operating procedure and took evasive action. The Amtrac on the right returned fire and took cover in a little depression. Once he was out of danger, I told all three vehicles to disembark their men. ... I ordered the crew with the recoilless rifle to fire one round of hollow charge at the ridge of the roof of the house where the machine-gun was, to cause a bang but not an explosion. We were still following our orders not to inflict casualties. The first round was about a hundred metres short, but the second hit the roof. The British troops then threw a purple smoke grenade; I thought it was their signal to withdraw. They had stopped firing, so Commander Weinstabl started the movement of the two companies around the position. Some riflemen in one of the houses started firing then; that was quite uncomfortable. I couldn't pinpoint their location, but one of my other Amtracs could and asked permission to open up with a mortar which he had. I authorized this, but only with three rounds and only at the roofs of the houses. Two rounds fell short, but the third hit right in the centre of the roof; that was incredible. The British ceased firing then."2
The Amtrac on the right manoeuvred itself off the road into a little depression and as it did so, disembarked the Marines inside out of view, this encouraged the Royal Marines to think that Marine Mark Gibbs had scored a direct hit on the passenger compartment of the APC.
Lieutenant Bill Trollope, with No. 2 Section, describes the action:
"Six Armoured Personnel Carriers began advancing at speed down the Airport Road. The first APC was engaged at a range of about 200 to 250 metres. The first three [missiles], two 84mm and one 66mm, missed. Subsequently one 66mm fired by Marine Gibbs, hit the passenger compartment and one 84mm [Marines Brown and Betts] hit the front. Both rounds exploded and no fire was received from that vehicle. The remaining five APCs which were about 600 to 700 metres away deployed their troops and opened fire. We engaged them with GPMG, SLR and sniper rifle [Sergeant Shepherd] for about a minute before we threw white phosphorus [a smoke grenade] and leap-frogged back to the cover of gardens. Incoming fire at that stage was fairly heavy, but mostly inaccurate." (Graham Bound, Falklands Islanders At War, Pen & Sword Books, 2002, pp. 52-53)
Lieutenant Trollope and his men withdrew along Davis Street running behind the houses with Argentinian Marines in hot pursuit, and went to ground firing up the road when it became obvious they could not reach Government House.
Government House and surrender
At Government House, Major Norman received a radio report from Corporal York's section, which was positioned at Stanley Harbour , observing any possible Argentinian ship movement. The Corporal proceeded to report on three potential targets in sight and which should he engage first. "What are the targets?" the Major enquired. "Target number one is an aircraft carrier, target number two is a cruiser...", at which point the line went dead.
Corporal York decided to withdraw his section and proceeded to booby trap their Carl Gustav launcher, before paddling their Gemini assault boat north across Port William. As he did so, York claimed an Argentine destroyer began pursuing them. His initiative led to the Gemini reaching an anchored Polish fishing vessel, hiding the small assault boat in its shadow. They patiently waited for a chance, before moving to the shore and landing on a small beach.
Back at Government House, another incident occurred, when the three Argentine survivors of the skirmish at the House inadvertently alerted Major Noot to their presence, while they had been preparing to leave their hiding place. The Major fired shots into the maid's room ceiling. The startled Argentines tumbled down the stairs and surrendered to the Major, becoming the first POWs of the Falklands War, albeit briefly. Lieutenant Commander Giachino's 'snatch party' was thus completely neutralized and it would be at least two hours before the bulk of the 1st Amphibious Commando Group could reach Government House.
There is some evidence that the use of stun grenades during the battle for Government House led the Royal Marines inside to believe they were facing a company of Marines and were hopelessly outnumbered. Certainly Governor Hunt called Patrick Watts (at the radio station), by telephone and said he believed the attacking force to be about 200. "They must have 200 around us now. They've been throwing grenades at us. They came along very quickly and very close, and then they retreated. Maybe they are waiting until the APCs come along and they think they'll lose less casualties that way." (Graham Bound, Falkland Islanders At War, 2002)
Alerted by the sound of the approaching Amtracs, the Royal Marines in Government House saw the vehicles that had earlier on been engaged by Lieutenant Trollope and his section, pushing on toward Moody Brook and link up with Sanchez-Sabarots, with his Commandos plodding along the road to reinforce his colleagues at Government House. Major Norman had earlier advised Rex Hunt that the Royal Marines and the Governor could break out and set up a 'seat of government' elsewhere, but he decided to surrender to the now overwhelming Argentine forces. Corporal York's section remained un-captured. On the 4th of April, his section reached a secluded shepherd's hut owned by a Mrs Watson. He had no radio, and due to worries about possible civilian deaths chose to surrender to Argentine forces. They gave their position to the Argentines using a local islander's radio, and York subsequently ordered his men to destroy and then bury their weapons.
After the surrender, the Royal Marines and the members of the FIDF were then herded onto the playing fields. Pictures and film were taken of the British prisoners arranged face-down on the ground, which galvanised the British public when they were broadcast on television. The Argentine intention appeared to have been to show the lack of British casualties, but the images became a painful reminder of a national humiliation. Soon afterwards, the Royal Marines were moved to a C-130 transport aircraft, which would take them to Uruguay and on to Britain.
Rex Hunt was allowed to make a farewell address on local radio, and even wore his Governor's ceremonial uniform, attracting ridicule from the Argentines, before changing back into civilian clothes. One Marine as he headed up the ramp, gave an Argentine guard a parting shot that would come true in 72 days time. "Don't make yourself too comfy mate, we'll be back."
In Buenos Aires huge flag-waving crowds flooded the Plaza de Mayo on hearing the news. Argentina's losses in the operation were one dead and three wounded. In London the government was in a state of shock on what became known as "Black Friday". The next day Argentine forces seized the island chain of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands, 1500 km to the east of the Falklands.
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