Three Days in June: The Incredible Minute-By-Minute Oral History of 3 Para's Deadly Falklands Battle by James O'Connell

Author:James O'Connell [O'Connell, James]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: 20th Century, Argentina, Great Britain, History, Military, South America, Wars & Conflicts
ISBN: 9781913183820
Google: otTyDwAAQBAJ
Amazon: B08GKCDZJW
Publisher: Octopus Publishing
Published: 2021-06-03T03:00:00+00:00

Cfn Michael Hall, 20 yrs – REME

On Friday 11 June, Cfn Alex Shaw and I had been flown by helicopter from Teal Inlet to Estancia House. As we arrived there the main body of 3 PARA had just left, to attack Mount Longdon. Later on we watched as the sky lit up, as the battle raged. The following day, Saturday 12 June, a continuous stream of helicopters arrived, and we loaded them up with ammunition and primed grenades which they ferried back to Longdon. In the 3 PARA HQ, which was a large wriggly tin shed, you could hear the battalion clerk, who was in radio contact with the troops on Longdon. We could hear him repeating the names of soldiers who had been killed or wounded. I thought I had missed my chance of fulfilling my desire to be in a battle, and perhaps be a hero.

But on the following day, Sunday 13 June, a request was sent from 3 PARA Mortars to 3 PARA HQ requesting a Bluebell [REME] to be brought forward to Longdon. Later on Captain Brown, the QM Tech, asked me, as the REME armourer, if I had any mortar spares. I told him that I did, and he said, ‘A mortar bipod has broken on Mount Longdon; a helicopter will be picking you up in 30 minutes to take you there to fix it.’ I asked Alex Shaw if he wanted to come with me, and Alex agreed.

Our flight to Mount Longdon was fast and low. We stopped about a mile short at 3 PARA’s Echelon area, which was in a small rocky outcrop. No sooner had we landed when a couple of spotting rounds landed close to the helicopter, and the Loadmaster was extremely nervous and wanted to get us off as quickly as possible. We took cover in the rocks as a couple of rounds came in. Alex seemed apprehensive – I put it down to him being older than me. However, in hindsight he may have had a clearer understanding of the danger that we were in.

A BV picked us up and took us to the resupply area at the base of Mount Longdon. One of the first people we saw was Cpl Ross Noble [REME] who we had gotten to know on the journey south. Ross had been very gung ho and had been really looking forward to seeing some action, but now he looked totally different, he looked as if he’d aged. Ross began reeling off the names of blokes from the MT platoon who had been killed or wounded during the battle, Tony [Fester] Greenwood and David [Scotty] Scott had both been killed and Roy [Shirley] Bassey wounded. I was shocked: these were people I knew.

Suddenly there was a commotion; apparently several Argentine Chinooks had been seen taking off from Stanley and a counter-attack on Longdon was expected. We were hurriedly given 66mm anti-tank weapons and lined up facing the flat ground to the north. We were then briefed to wait until the Chinooks were about 50 feet off the ground and then let rip.

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