Our Boys by Helen Parr

Author:Helen Parr
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780141984681
Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd
Published: 2018-08-15T16:00:00+00:00

Some men present also reported evidence of war crimes. One soldier from 2 Para was found to have ears, cut from Argentine corpses, in his kit bag. Another was ‘less than fair to one of the wounded Argentines – in effect torturing him’.54 Another cut the fingers from an Argentine soldier’s body, in order to steal his rings.55 And another was found with dental pliers, planning to extract gold or silver tooth fillings.56

There has been more controversy about two events alleged to have taken place on Mount Longdon. In 1991, Vincent Bramley’s memoir, Excursion to Hell, mentioned these occurrences. Journalists began publicizing the stories, and the Metropolitan Police conducted an inquiry which had widespread media coverage, but did not find enough evidence to mount a prosecution.57 Afterwards, the freelance journalists Christian Jennings, a foreign correspondent, and Adrian Weale, also a former British Army officer, interviewed many veterans of 3 Para and wrote Green-Eyed Boys, published in 1996. Their book details the allegations.

The main claims made are first, that one soldier, Corporal Stewart McLaughlin, cut ears from Argentine corpses, and perhaps even from a live Argentine prisoner; and secondly, that another corporal, Corporal X, killed a prisoner.58 The first allegation has recently been strongly denied. McLaughlin was killed on Longdon, and it was said that Lieutenant Cox and Company Sergeant Major Weeks had found ears in his webbing when they searched his body after his death and passed this information on to the padre. Many veterans say there is no evidence ears were ever found, and in fact officers, soldiers and members of McLaughlin’s family are campaigning for him to receive a posthumous award for his leadership on Longdon that night. They say that Lieutenant Colonel Pike wrote a citation for him, which was subsequently lost, and that Major Mike Argue, the officer commanding B Company, told McLaughlin’s father that the citation was for the ‘highest award for gallantry’.59

The second incident recorded by Jennings and Weale had at least one eyewitness, who said that Corporal X shot a prisoner, not in a split-second judgement – him or me – but after the battle, as he was gathering the wounded. ‘X dragged the Argentine to a rocky outcrop and produced the … pistol … The terrified prisoner realized what was about to happen. Shouting with fright, he produced a crucifix that he was wearing on a chain round his neck and held it out as if to show X that he too was Christian.’ The shouting brought Captain Mason, Major Dennison and Company Sergeant Major Caithness running. Mason said: ‘I heard some shouting, then I heard a shot … and I saw a guy get shot in the head, obviously, over an open grave … I ran down there and … X was shaking visibly … right on the edge … and I thought he was going to shoot me.’60 X said ‘he [the Argentine] was a sniper’ – X may have been taking what he saw as a just revenge – and Mason thought he had ‘flipped’.

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