The 27th Was Hell
“On 2 April, I learnt that the islands had been recovered. At the time, I was serving as duty officer at the Military College, where I was an instructor to fourth-year cadets. That was where I found out that we had recovered them... It was a moment of tremendous joy,” Manresa says as he begins to tell his story.
A week later, I was appointed Officer Commanding A Company of the 12th Infantry Regiment “General Arenales”, based in Mercedes, Corrientes. When I arrived in Mercedes, I was ordered to move with the Regiment to cover a section of the border in Santa Cruz, an area between Río Turbio and Río Gallegos, as a precautionary measure. “There were indications that the Chileans might attack.”
Manresa recalls that A Company was made up of newly enlisted soldiers who had received virtually no training. He thought that, given a month in Santa Cruz, he could turn those recruits into lions. Some of the soldiers had completed primary school; others were illiterate, and for all of them the experience was something entirely new.
At Caleta Olivia, before reaching their destination, the Regiment’s commanding officer, Lieutenant Colonel Ítalo Piaggi, gave them news they could never have imagined.
“We were going across to the Malvinas.”
We were all stunned, yet overcome by an indescribable sense of euphoria.
At around 20 April, they began crossing over to Puerto Argentino. Because of poor planning — something that would become all too common at various stages of the war — essential Regimental equipment was left behind on the mainland: the heavy weapons, the batteries for the communications equipment and a large proportion of the spades needed for digging trenches.
“Every section crossing to the Islands should have arrived fully equipped and ready to go straight into combat, rather than arriving merely as riflemen. Tactically, it was a mistake; strategically, it was another misguided decision born of improvisation.”
A month later, they would end up digging their positions with the bayonets from their rifles and the mugs issued to them for drinking.
The positions they initially occupied were near the airstrip at Darwin. On 1 May, the defence of the area around the airstrip began. They remained in that position until 22 May.
Those were anything but quiet days. The British made their presence felt in one way or another, making it impossible to train the soldiers under his command.
“To conduct training, you have to gather a group of soldiers together, and doing that was practically a death sentence if an air attack happened at that moment.”
By 22 May, a day had already passed since the British had landed at San Carlos Strait. Acting on my own initiative, without anyone ordering me to do so, I altered the defensive layout and moved my company.
“When I had placed them in the new defensive sector, I went to see the Regimental Commander to report what I had done... I went there thinking they were going to beat the living daylights out of me, and instead I was praised.”
That reaction worried me. None of my superiors seemed to have realised that we were no longer a reserve force — we were now on the front line. I returned to my position more disappointed than pleased.
For four days, they dug trenches and strengthened their defensive positions.
“We could say that the position was reasonably well organised. The trenches were the proper depth, the field of fire had been properly cleared, and we had managed to obtain twenty anti-personnel mines from the Air Force.”
Even so, the condition of the troops was far from what was required to face the battle that was approaching.
“The truth is that we weren’t sleeping because we knew the British were coming. The soldiers were extremely weak.”
At midday on the 25th, the situation took another turn.
“I was called to the command post and ordered to move four kilometres forwards. While they were giving me the order, I looked at the only topographical map we had and realised they were sending me into a hollow, into low ground surrounded by higher terrain...
“I went mad. I started shouting. I told them I had no problem carrying out any order, but the orders had to make sense. They were sending me into a bowl. It wouldn’t even be target practice — it would be idiot practice — and to make matters worse, we would be surrounded by high ground.”
On the morning of the 26th, they moved their positions forwards, and the British were now even closer.
At midday, he was summoned once again to the command post and ordered to carry out a spoiling attack towards Cerro Alberdi, a height of 750 metres.
“I had another fit of rage and disbelief...
‘Do you know the condition my troops are in? They’re exhausted soldiers with almost no training. We only arrived at this position this morning, we haven’t even prepared our defensive positions... and now you’re ordering me to abandon them and move farther forwards.’”
“I remember thinking, ‘This is it. You’ve reached the end of the road...’ It was an attack that had to be carried out at night, without any support whatsoever.”
“Night fell, and I set off with two sections. I left Lieutenant Garra behind and moved out with the 2nd and 3rd Sections, commanded by Malacalza and Bracco respectively, to carry out the spoiling attack.”
A spoiling attack is intended to disrupt and destroy as much of the enemy force as possible before withdrawing rapidly. Logic dictates that if an operation — in this case, the spoiling attack — puts the main operation, which was the defence, at risk, then that attack should not be carried out.
And we had not even finished digging our defensive positions.
But those were the orders, and I had to obey them.
I set off towards the objective. It was night. We advanced in column before deploying into an extended line, carrying our rifles loaded, with a round in the chamber, safety off and ready to fire.
Halfway up the slope, in unfamiliar terrain as we climbed the hill, one soldier fell and accidentally discharged his weapon.
The operation had now been compromised, so from that point onwards the entire section began firing towards the high ground where we believed the enemy to be.
I ordered a ceasefire, and we waited.
When there was no reaction, I sent an observation party forwards. They confirmed that there was no enemy presence, and so we returned.
We reached our positions as dawn was breaking, at around nine in the morning.
By the 27th, we had already gone through two long days without sleep and with practically nothing to eat.
HMS Arrow, which was providing direct support to the British forces, had been shelling us. Our sector covered about 1,200 metres, so the rounds were landing a little to one side or the other...
British aircraft came over at least three or four times, dropping bombs and then returning to strafe us with machine-gun fire.
They flew so low that we could see the pilots’ helmets.
They did it because they knew we had no anti-aircraft weapons in that sector.
In the early hours of the 28th, they attacked us.
When the British assault began, the sky suddenly lit up with the tracer rounds they were firing at us.
Exactly what I had predicted happened.
They had night-vision equipment. All we could do was see where their fire was coming from and shoot back in that direction.
The only thing I could do was issue clear, simple orders that could actually be carried out.
We had three sections — roughly 140 men — with no fire support, very few night-vision devices, and we were exhausted.
They had an entire regiment: four infantry companies, around 600 men, twice as many machine guns, direct fire support from a field artillery battery, HMS Arrow, night-vision equipment, well-rested and well-fed troops, Milan anti-tank missiles...
The combat-power ratio was approximately eighteen or twenty to one.
We were facing the third most powerful member of NATO...
I began the withdrawal towards the positions at Darwin, the same positions we had occupied on 22 May.
The 3rd Section arrived with fourteen men. The 1st Section arrived with thirteen, and half an hour later Malacalza arrived with fifteen men from the 2nd Section.
My soldiers did more than was
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