5th Marine Infantry Battalion, The Elite Unit that Emerged from the Trenches

The 5th Marine Infantry Battalion (BIM 5), reinforced with 200 Army personnel, became a heroic legend due to its extraordinary performance in the 1982 war. This unit was trained, organised, and prepared for combat by its commanding officer, then Frigate Captain Carlos H. Robacio.

Once in the Malvinas, Robacio led his men in combat with such determination that he astonished the enemy. As M. Hastings notes in The Battle for the Falklands:

"The Scots Guards (an elite unit) could hear the Argentinians shouting and even singing as they fought. They were the best troops... the 5th Argentine Marine Infantry Battalion."

The Sunday Times reported:

"The Argentinians did not surrender or retreat on Mount Tumbledown, where the Scots Guards had to face the fiercest action of all. There, they encountered highly skilled and well-entrenched Argentine Marine Infantry who kept firing relentlessly and with remarkable intensity."

Robacio and his BIM 5 refused to obey the order to surrender on 14 June 1982. They continued to fight fiercely until they ran out of ammunition, and then engaged in hand-to-hand combat using cold steel. They marched into Puerto Argentino in perfect formation, weapons shouldered and in ceremonial step. The British, astonished by such an extraordinary display of courage, lined up to salute them and received them with military honours...



Carlos Hugo Robacio

• Medal for Valour in Combat

• Honoured by the National Congress of Argentina

• Argentine Army: Order of Distinguished Service and Military Merit in the rank of Commander

• Republic of Peru: Peruvian Cross for Naval Merit and Legion of Merit in the rank of Commander
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Malvinas: Superb Deception

Malvinas – The Grand Narrative

Sources and Rumours in War Reporting

(An intriguing analysis of how British communication was managed in support of military operations)

"On 31 March, two days before Argentine forces landed in Malvinas, the Argentine newspaper Clarín published a report, which appeared to originate from London, claiming that the British had deployed the nuclear submarine Superb to Argentine waters. The Foreign Office had no comment to offer on that 'version', and the Argentine press concluded that this was a leak of highly classified military information.

On 1 April, as Argentine troops were preparing for the landing in Malvinas, Clarín reported that the Superb displaced 45,000 tonnes and had a crew of 97 men trained in anti-submarine warfare.

By 4 April, the submarine had allegedly been sighted off the Argentine coast. British military sources responded that they had no intention of disclosing the location of their submarines.

On 18 April, a Brazilian pilot reported having seen the Superb near Santa Catarina and even claimed to have photographed it; unfortunately, the image was nearly unreadable due to fog.

Then, when the British expeditionary force was genuinely just eighty kilometres from the war zone, with real warships and actual submarines, the Superb vanished. On 22 April, Clarín reported that the submarine had supposedly returned to Scotland. The next day, 23 April, the Scottish newspaper Daily Record revealed that, in fact, the Superb had remained anchored at its Scottish base the entire time.

What interests me most is how the story grew—from a vague rumour—into a full-fledged submarine narrative, thanks to the collective efforts of many. It became a 'character' in its own right."