Battle of Mount Longdon

Battle of Mount Longdon
	Part of Falklands War
	; Mountains around Mount Longdon
Date	11–12 June 1982
Location	Mount Longdon, Falkland Islands
Result	British victory
Belligerents
United Kingdom	Argentina
Commanders and leaders
Lt. Col Hew Pike	Maj. Carlos Carrizo-Salvadores
Units involved
Parachute Regiment 3 PARA; 3 Commando Brigade 29th Commando Regiment Royal Artillery; Royal Navy	10th Mechanized Infantry Brigade 7th Infantry Regiment;
Strength
450; 6 light guns; 1 frigate	278
Casualties and losses
23 killed; 54-60 wounded	31 killed; 120 wounded; 50 captured

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.

^ "Hugh Bicheno's book Razor's Edge, published in 2006, supports Cooksey's views while adding more details. For example, Bicheno gives the ration strength - the number of troops who needed to be fed on a daily basis -of 7 Infantry Regiment's B Company on Mount Longdon, perhaps including the artillerymen, engineers and marines that were attached to the company, as being 216 men, which fits with Pike's estimate on the evening of 12 June and Pearson's assessment on 13 June. The local Argentine commander on Mount Longdon was 7 Infantry Regiment's Second-in-Command, Major Carlos Carrizo-Salvadores. Cooksey's later biography of Sergeant Ian McKay, Falklands Hero, published in 2012, quotes correspondence from Carrizo-Salvadores, which reinforces the claim the Argentine strength on Mount Longdon totalled 278 men."Jigsaw Puzzles: Tactical Intelligence in the Falklands Campaign, Giles Orpen-Smellie, Amberley Publishing Limited, 15 June 2022
^ "BATALLA DE MONTE LONGDON". www.malvinense.com.ar.
^ "Battle casualties for 3 Para were twenty-two killed and fifty-four wounded." The Paras, Frank Hilton, p. 241, "We'd lost something like twenty-two guys up to that point, dead, but three times more than that were wounded." Bloody Hell: The Price Soldiers Pay, Daniel Hallock, pg. 60, Plough Publishing House, 1999
^ "Our battalion had lost twenty-three men there, with more than sixty wounded." Forward into Hell, Vincent Bramley, John Blake Publishing
^ "Not long after, they heard that Lance-Corporal Hare of 2 Troop had been seriously wounded while on patrol with 3 Para." The Paratroopers, Ashley Brown, Jonathan Reed, p. 124, National Historical Society, 1990
^ The other companies had skirted one minefield on their approach and Staff Sergeant Pete Thorpe of Condor Troop Royal Engineers was later to lose his foot on a mine while trying to extract a damaged vehicle with injured gunners, near Murrell Bridge. The Yompers: With 45 Commando in the Falklands War, Ian Gardiner, p. 161, Pen & Sword, 2012
^ "Private Mick Southall estimated that only 30 British Paratroopers in B Company and supporting MILAN and GPMG platoons were left standing after the fierce night action: "The enemy soldiers were resolute to say the least ... That's why my company suffered 60 or 70 percent casualties ... My company was down to 30 blokes ... They were as patriotic and keen on their cause as we were on ours. They firmly believed they were fighting for the right thing and so did we ... They didn't run off, I'm sure that some did but a lot of them didn't." Private Southall, 3 Para - Memories of the Falklands War
^ La Guerra Inaudita: Historia del Conflicto del Atlántico Sur, Rubén Oscar Moro, p. 479-480, Pleamar, 01/01/1985
^ "La historia jamás contada del sanjuanino que participó de la batalla más larga de Malvinas". Diario de Cuyo. 17 June 2020.
^ "Monte Longdon: la batalla en la que los francotiradores argentinos desafiaron el sueño imperialista de la «pérfida» Inglaterra". Diario ABC. 14 June 2017.

[1] "Hugh Bicheno's book Razor's Edge, published in 2006, supports Cooksey's views while adding more details. For example, Bicheno gives the ration strength - the number of troops who needed to be fed on a daily basis -of 7 Infantry Regiment's B Company on Mount Longdon, perhaps including the artillerymen, engineers and marines that were attached to the company, as being 216 men, which fits with Pike's estimate on the evening of 12 June and Pearson's assessment on 13 June. The local Argentine commander on Mount Longdon was 7 Infantry Regiment's Second-in-Command, Major Carlos Carrizo-Salvadores. Cooksey's later biography of Sergeant Ian McKay, Falklands Hero, published in 2012, quotes correspondence from Carrizo-Salvadores, which reinforces the claim the Argentine strength on Mount Longdon totalled 278 men."Jigsaw Puzzles: Tactical Intelligence in the Falklands Campaign, Giles Orpen-Smellie, Amberley Publishing Limited, 15 June 2022

[2] "BATALLA DE MONTE LONGDON". www.malvinense.com.ar.

[3] "Battle casualties for 3 Para were twenty-two killed and fifty-four wounded." The Paras, Frank Hilton, p. 241, "We'd lost something like twenty-two guys up to that point, dead, but three times more than that were wounded." Bloody Hell: The Price Soldiers Pay, Daniel Hallock, pg. 60, Plough Publishing House, 1999

[4] "Our battalion had lost twenty-three men there, with more than sixty wounded." Forward into Hell, Vincent Bramley, John Blake Publishing

[Para_p._124-5] "Not long after, they heard that Lance-Corporal Hare of 2 Troop had been seriously wounded while on patrol with 3 Para." The Paratroopers, Ashley Brown, Jonathan Reed, p. 124, National Historical Society, 1990

[Murrell_Bridge_p._161-6] The other companies had skirted one minefield on their approach and Staff Sergeant Pete Thorpe of Condor Troop Royal Engineers was later to lose his foot on a mine while trying to extract a damaged vehicle with injured gunners, near Murrell Bridge. The Yompers: With 45 Commando in the Falklands War, Ian Gardiner, p. 161, Pen & Sword, 2012

[7] "Private Mick Southall estimated that only 30 British Paratroopers in B Company and supporting MILAN and GPMG platoons were left standing after the fierce night action: "The enemy soldiers were resolute to say the least ... That's why my company suffered 60 or 70 percent casualties ... My company was down to 30 blokes ... They were as patriotic and keen on their cause as we were on ours. They firmly believed they were fighting for the right thing and so did we ... They didn't run off, I'm sure that some did but a lot of them didn't." Private Southall, 3 Para - Memories of the Falklands War

[LaGuerraInaudita-8] La Guerra Inaudita: Historia del Conflicto del Atlántico Sur, Rubén Oscar Moro, p. 479-480, Pleamar, 01/01/1985

[9] "La historia jamás contada del sanjuanino que participó de la batalla más larga de Malvinas". Diario de Cuyo. 17 June 2020.

[10] "Monte Longdon: la batalla en la que los francotiradores argentinos desafiaron el sueño imperialista de la «pérfida» Inglaterra". Diario ABC. 14 June 2017.

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