Argentina: British-origin Sailors Death In Argentine Service

British Sailors Death in Argentine Service

Malvinas: Machine Gunner Conscript Oscar Ledesma Remembers H. Jones

Those Things of War...

Lieutenant Colonel Herbert "H" Jones was the highest-ranking British officer killed during the Malvinas War. He commanded the British Parachute Regiment and was a legend among his men. He was killed in action by Argentine conscript Oscar Ledesma, who was 19 years old at the time and in charge of the only functioning MAG machine gun in his group. Years later, the Argentine soldier wrote a heartfelt letter to Jones’s widow, Sara.

Open Letter to Sara (widow of Herbert Jones)

"Time acts in accordance with our deeds, and memory is shaped by our actions."

"At the age of just 19, I found myself facing the British 2nd Parachute Regiment on the morning of 28 May 1982, during the battle of Darwin Hill. Regardless of how the events unfolded, nothing can erase from my heart and mind the memory of that terrible confrontation."

"Eventually, I had to pull the trigger and bring down an adversary. At no moment did I feel hatred in doing so, nor did I ever boast about it or take joy in the act. I had no choice—I had to protect my fellow soldiers, who watched in terror as a Para assaulted their position, unaware that just a few metres away, my machine gun was waiting. Just as I did not know who that daring soldier was—who, in a display of astonishing bravery, charged an Argentine position."

"Once the battle ended, I offered a prayer for all those who had fallen, and I asked God to comfort their families."

"It has always weighed on me that I never had the chance to look you in the eye and tell you that your husband died as a brave soldier, and that his former adversary honours him every day with the utmost respect—just as I honour all the fallen."

"I offer you my deepest respects, and to your children as well—heirs of a valiant warrior."

Oscar Ledesma

Mount Longdon: The Real British Casualties Commented by the Bad Guys

Malvinas: The Real British Casualties and Why the Secret?

The Malvinas/Falklands: Why Will British Casualty Figures Remain Classified Until 14 June 2072?

At the end of the Malvinas/Falklands War, the British government enacted a military secrecy order effective until 14 June 2072—a period of 90 years. Until that date, anyone who discloses or publishes any information contained within that classified material will face appropriate prosecution before a court martial.

This is not merely a preliminary form of censorship but a clear instance of state-imposed secrecy for national security reasons.

So far, no substantial details regarding the contents of the secrecy order have emerged, but it is widely believed that one of its main points concerns the significant loss of life suffered by the United Kingdom during the conflict. There are also suggestions that it includes records of considerable losses of military vehicles—both naval and aerial. A large part of Britain’s logistical apparatus was reportedly destroyed or left at the bottom of the Atlantic.

The official British figures list 255 killed, 777 wounded, and approximately 280 subsequent suicides linked to war-related trauma. However, taking into account that an attacking force typically suffers higher casualties than a defending force—with even the most conservative estimates ranging from 2:1 to 3:1—the official numbers appear questionable, especially considering the harsh terrain, comparable to Greenland or the Scottish Highlands.

Below is a day-by-day account of British losses from their arrival at South Georgia on 23 April until 14 June 1982, when the islands were retaken. (In red are the daily combat casualties; in brackets, in some cases, are estimated figures reflecting the likely proportion of troops lost in each engagement):

Summary:

23/04: 1 – A Sea King helicopter crashes at South Georgia.
01/05: 10 (2) – Two Harriers destroyed near Port Stanley. Eight sailors killed in attacks on: HMS Arrow, HMS Exeter, HMS Glamorgan, HMS Hermes, HMS Alacrity.
02/05: 1 – A Sea Harrier shot down over Port Stanley by 20 mm artillery.
04/05: 43 (3) – Harriers downed at Condor Air Base. HMS Sheffield sinks (40 dead). HMS Hermes possibly hit by an Exocet missile, forcing a change of course and reducing air coverage. Some reports suggest severe damage or partial sinking.
05/05: 1 (1) – Royal Marine killed at Elephant Bay.
06/05: 2 (2) – Two Harriers shot down north of East Falkland.
12/05: 4 – HMS Glasgow disabled; attack on HMS Brilliant.
17/05: 1 (1) – Sea King helicopter downed near the Argentine coast.
18/05: 22 – Sea King crashes into Albatross (Argentine sources claim it was shot down).
19/05: 1 (1) – Sea King helicopter crash; SAS specialist killed.
21/05: 32 – Two Gazelles downed at San Carlos (3 dead). HMS Ardent sunk (22 dead). HMS Argonaut, HMS Antrim, HMS Brilliant disabled; HMS Broadsword damaged. Three Sea Harriers (1) and one Sea King (1) shot down.
22/05: 1 – Harrier shot down.
23/05: 8 – Harrier crashes during a night sortie from HMS Hermes (1 dead). HMS Antelope sunk (7 dead).
24/05: 10 – Damage to: HMS Sir Lancelot, HMS Sir Galahad, HMS Sir Bedivere, HMS Fearless (6+ casualties; actual figures may be higher, given the number of troops on board and the circumstances of the attack).
25/05: 135 – Three Harriers downed (3 dead). HMS Coventry sunk (90+ dead), HMS Atlantic Conveyor sunk (20 dead). HMS Broadsword, HMS Sir Lancelot disabled; HMS Alacrity, HMS Yarmouth damaged. Two Sea Kings shot down; two others damaged.
27/05: 11 – Seven Royal Marines killed at San Carlos (7 dead). Three Gazelle helicopters and one Sea King downed (4 dead).
28/05: 136 – Two Sea Kings and a Scout helicopter downed (3 dead). One soldier killed on West Falkland (1 dead). 130 troops from 2 Para and the Royal Auxiliary killed during the Battle of Darwin (27–29 May)—the equivalent of an entire infantry company.
30/05: 44 – 38 killed during the Battle of Goose Green (23–30 May). A Sea Harrier crashes (1 dead). HMS Invincible reportedly attacked (5+ casualties) by an Exocet and two 250 kg bombs. Unconfirmed reports suggest the ship sank, which would imply higher casualties.
08/06: 162 – Fitzroy attack: HMS Sir Galahad (89 dead), HMS Sir Tristam (40 dead), Foxtrot 4 landing craft (6+ dead). Several Chinese dockworkers killed on the beach during heavy bombardments. HMS Avenger disabled. HMS Plymouth attacked by five Argentine missiles at Pleasant Bay.
09/06: 18 – Two Sisters Mountain, SAS commandos.
10/06: 4 – Four Royal Marines killed in an accident.
11/06: 44 – Deaths between 11 and 12 June: (3) at Mount Harriet, (23) from 3 Para at Mount Longdon, (4) from 45 Commando, (1) from 42 Commando, (13) from B Company.
12/06: 29 – (4) at Two Sisters Mountain. HMS Glamorgan (25 dead) disabled by an Exocet missile fired from Port Stanley.
13/06: 360 – Deaths between 13 and 14 June in the battles of Mount Longdon, Mount Williams, and Wireless Ridge.
14/06: 10 (5) at Tumbledown; two Sea Kings shot down. Five killed at Top Malo House.

Total: 1,090 killed, not including potential additional unrecorded losses.

Damaged and Lost Vessels:

• Sunk/Destroyed: 8 ships (including HMS Sheffield, HMS Coventry, HMS Ardent, HMS Antelope, HMS Sir Galahad, HMS Sir Tristam, Atlantic Conveyor, Foxtrot 4 landing craft).

• Disabled: 9 ships (e.g., HMS Invincible (possibly sunk), HMS Alacrity, HMS Avenger, HMS Glamorgan, HMS Glasgow).

• Heavily Damaged: 5 ships (e.g., HMS Brilliant, HMS Broadsword, HMS Plymouth, HMS Ambuscade, HMS Sir Lancelot).

• Moderately Damaged: 9 ships (e.g., HMS Hermes, HMS Exeter, HMS Fearless, plus others).

Total Affected Ships: 31.

Aircraft Losses:

• Fleet Air Arm: 19 Sea Harriers shot down, 10 grounded due to mechanical failure; 13 helicopters downed, 32 others disabled.

• RAF: 12 Harriers downed, 5 grounded; 12 helicopters downed, 26 grounded.

• Royal Marines and Army: Multiple helicopters lost (46 downed overall; 62 disabled).

Total Aircraft Lost: 154.

Of 77 fixed-wing aircraft deployed (Harriers and Sea Harriers), 46 were rendered inoperable. Out of 171 helicopters deployed, 108 became unusable.

Conclusion:

• Total Dead: 1,090.

• Total Ships Affected: 31.

• Total Aircraft Lost: 154.

The UK has never disclosed the full extent of its personnel and equipment losses, which, by all accounts, exceeded those of Argentina and are reflected in the scale of damage sustained.

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Blues and Reds Rebellion: The Attack on Magdalena's Tanks and the Destruction of Punta Indio Airbase

Destroyed F-9 Panther next to a damaged example

The Time when the Punta Indio Base was razed

Punta Indio Web



Magdalena to the North and BAPI to the Southeast.

 

In the troubled 60s, the Punta Indio Base was the protagonist of some unfortunate events

The tumultuous and chaotic 1960s gave rise to two rival factions within the Argentine Armed Forces: the Blues and the Reds. These factions engaged in violent clashes, most notably in 1962 and 1963, leading to significant bloodshed. The final confrontation, which left 24 dead and 87 wounded, erupted when the Colorado faction attempted to overthrow President José María Guido. In just three days, the Blues emerged victorious, resulting in widespread purges within both the Army and Navy.

It was April 2, 1963. The day dawned clear and seemingly perfect for the conspirators' plans. Their goal was to install retired General Benjamín Menéndez, a seasoned plotter, as president. Menéndez had been designated as the "commander in chief of the revolutionary forces of Air, Sea, and Land." Among the conspirators was Admiral Rojas, a key figure.

The Navy, for the most part, supported the uprising. In the Army, those opposing the blue leadership, led by retired General Federico Toranzo Montero, managed to seize control of a few units in the interior. However, in the Air Force, the rebellion was stifled, as Commodore Lentino's minority faction failed to gain the upper hand.

To understand this conflict, we must go back to 1955 and the so-called Liberating Revolution or 1955 Revolution, which had ousted Perón and banned his movement. In 1958, Arturo Frondizi secured the presidency through a pact, winning the election with votes from Perón’s exiled supporters. This betrayal was unforgivable to the military, especially after Frondizi’s secret meeting with Che Guevara in August 1961. Eight months later, Frondizi was overthrown, and Senator Guido assumed the presidency, though under the heavy influence of the "Military Party."

Anti-Peronist, anti-communist, and driven by a handful of ambitious conspirators, the "Military Party" quickly fractured upon exposure to political power. In true Argentine fashion, it split into two factions: the Blues and the Reds. Rogelio García Lupo, a journalist of the time, described the division as inevitable.

Though both factions were anti-Peronist, they differed in their reasons. The Reds saw Peronism as a violent and sectarian movement that paved the way for communism. The Blues, on the other hand, believed that despite its excesses, Peronism had saved the working class from communism and subversion, presenting itself as a Christian and national force.

The Blues, referring to themselves as "own forces" in military parlance, first emerged in September 1962, branding their adversaries as "Reds" (or "enemies"). Through psychological operations and Communiqué 150, drafted by Mariano Grondona, the Blues presented themselves as "legalists." After four days of skirmishes, they elevated Juan Carlos Onganía to the head of the Army.

Supported by the Blue faction, Guido’s government began to explore ways of reintegrating Peronism into the political sphere—albeit without Perón himself. Meanwhile, the Colorados awaited their moment to seize power.

That moment came on April 2. The most intense battle of the uprising occurred between the 8th Tank Regiment in Magdalena and the nearby Naval Aviation Base at Punta Indio. The commander of Punta Indio, Captain Santiago Sabarots, urged Colonel Alcides López Aufranc, leader of the tank regiment, to join the revolt, but to no avail. Leaflets dropped from a small plane gave a 20-minute warning before the attack commenced. "The barracks were a hive of activity, and the order was given to evacuate," recalls conscript Hermindo Belastegui, from class 42. At 12:30, the barracks were hit by Panther and Corsair planes firing shrapnel, incendiary bombs, and destructive explosives. Belastegui, deeply marked by the experience, later captured these memories in El C-8 no se rinde, a book published only two months ago. In it, he recounts how the regiment endured a relentless assault that lasted all day, with over 100 bombs dropped, including napalm. The attack left 9 soldiers dead and 22 wounded.

 

"At 12:30, Panther and Corsair planes began the attack with shrapnel fire, incendiary bombs, and destructive explosives," recalls Hermindo Belastegui, a conscript from the class of '42. Deeply impacted by that experience for years, this former metalworker captured his memories in *El C-8 no se rinde*, a book he managed to publish just two months ago. The book recounts how they were relentlessly attacked throughout the day, with more than a hundred bombs, including napalm. The assault left 9 soldiers dead and 22 wounded.

The next day, the "loyal" Air Force launched a counterattack on Punta Indio. By the time the 8th Tank Regiment's armored vehicles entered the base, the damage was done: 24 naval aircraft had been destroyed, 5 marines were dead, and Captain Santiago Sabarots had fled to Uruguay. Alcides López Aufranc, nicknamed "the fox of Magdalena" in a local version of Erwin Rommel, "the desert fox," sought revenge and wanted to level Punta Indio. However, he was dissuaded by Juan Carlos Onganía and the rising Colonel Alejandro Agustín Lanusse, preventing an even bloodier outcome.



After the events of April 2-3, 1963, the Punta Indio base was occupied and once again ransacked by troops from the 8th and 10th Motorized Cavalry Regiments. The destruction of aircraft on the ground, along with the damage to maintenance workshops, was significant. The cause of this devastation was, yet again, the senseless political conflicts that led to Argentinians fighting and killing each other. In this particular case, aircraft from Punta Indio launched an attack on the 8th Regiment in Magdalena, as shown in the photos below, with a T-6 Texan firing rockets at the regiment, leaving its facilities in ruins and causing casualties. In response, the 8th and 10th Regiments launched a counterattack, seizing the Punta Indio base and destroying its aircraft and infrastructure.



A North American T-6 firing rockets over Magdalena.

 

The 8th Regiment of Magdalena shows the aftermath of the attack.

Location of the 8th Armored Cavalry Regiment of Magdalena.

 
Army forces prepare to attack Punta Indio.

 
Part of the runway with damaged aircraft.

 
The tank regiment poses on the tarmac at Punta Indio.

Location of the Punta Indio Naval Air Base (BAPI).

More photos of the damage caused. Whether in Punta Indio or Magdalena, it is difficult to comprehend today, in the 21st century, that this was not an external attack but a fratricidal war. How many poor conscripts, non-commissioned officers, and officers must have died in these senseless wars?

 

 

 


Damaged Corsair aircraft.


 


 


A destroyed DC-3


 

 

 


A damaged DC-3 and the remains of another burned aircraft.


 



 
Daños en tres Trackers

 

 

 
Damaged or destroyed Panthers.
 
Only the turbine of this Panther remained.

The Artillery Group on the runway at BAPI.

Malvinas: The Commando That Was "Dead" and Killed His Enemies

A bullet, a rosary and a miracle: the story of a man from Tucuman in the Malvinas War

Historias de la guerra

Lieutenant Jorge Vizoso Posse was the victim of an British ambush along with his partner, Sergeant Mario Antonio Cisnero, who ended up dead after a rocket hit his chest. “I did not surrender to the English,” says the major who was awarded the Cross for Heroic Valor in Combat.

Vizoso Posse (above left) and his CC601 comrades. Photo Infobae.-

Not everyone knows the war stories that Argentine soldiers went through between April 2 and June 14, 1982, the time that the Malvinas conflict between Argentina and England lasted.

One of the great protagonists of these stories was the lieutenant of the Argentine Army, Jorge Vizoso Posse - an elite soldier, parachutist, mountaineer and diver - a man from Tucumán who on May 24, in the middle of the war, set foot on the islands to join the 602 Commando Company (CC602), led by Major Aldo Rico and created especially to repel, through carefully planned special operations, different nuclei in the British outpost.

Argentine Army Lieutenant Jorge Vizoso Posse.-

According to journalist Loreley Gaffoglio for Infobae, the company, hit by numerous casualties, was planning to set up an ambush near the Murrell River, between the Kent and Dos Hermanas mountains.

During this time, Vizoso Posse established a friendship with Catamarca sergeant Mario Antonio Cisnero. Nicknamed El Perro, for his loyalty to his principles and his comrades, he was loved and respected as one of the most outstanding cadres within the force. But he was also praised for his moral and supportive conduct.

On June 10, under the command of Rico, the patrol of 18 commandos was divided into four strategic groups: support, assault, security and reception.

In the first of them were Vizoso Posse and Cisnero. Around 1 in the morning, the sergeant saw that a patrol of about 8 English marines had managed to penetrate the area guarded by the support group, so they opened fire without hesitation. The response was a 66mm Law rocket that hit Cisnero squarely in the chest. The shock wave flung Vizoso Posse through the air and he fell on the rocks meters away from him.

Wounded and stunned, the man from Tucumán managed to make sure that his companion had died. Without thinking he settled next to the corpse, pretending to be dead before the imminent arrival of his foreign aggressors.

Upon arriving at the site of the explosion, the men who served the Queen decided to verify that their enemies had died by finishing off the bodies. The automatic shots from the English weapons riddled the lieutenant.

Contrary to military strategy, instead of continuing at the vanguard, the enemies descended through the same place where they had come, something that was taken advantage of by the Tucumán soldier who miraculously was still breathing. Dazed, with some difficulty breathing and in disbelief that he was alive, Vizoso Posse looked for his rifle and fired a first magazine at his retreating executioners. He pulled another one out of his fallen companion's vest and emptied it furiously as well. Only at that moment did a trickle of blood warn him that he was injured.

The counteroffensive remained silent from that sector. Although he could not corroborate with his eyes the effectiveness of their shots, due to the absence of fire he thought that he had finished off, or at least bruised, some of them.

Without cover, clinging to his Fal, El Yanqui, as his companions called him, trotted to where his boss was. He told him that his favorite sergeant was dead, that he was wounded and that he had to change position.

After verifying that his wounds were large but not lethal, Vizoso Posee returned to combat, which lasted about 30 minutes until enemy resistance ceased. From the Argentine platoon, in addition to El Perro, Sergeant Ramón Gumersindo Acosta succumbed and a splinter injured gendarme Pablo Daniel Parada, from the Alacrán group.

The wound and the miracle

After walking for six hours, already in the field hospital in Puerto Argentino, the doctor, upon undressing him, found, tangled in his clothes, the rosary he was carrying, detached from his neck. No one noticed at that moment that an account was missing.

When examining him, the doctor, with no other instruments than his hand, removed a 2cm long projectile near his collarbone. As the ammunition was tracer when entering through the right shoulder blade, it cauterized the flesh in an ascending and oblique path until it was lodged at the height of the neck, on the left side. It was there, when upon observing the projectile, the doctor literally spoke of a miracle.

The ammunition had first hit one of the plastic rosary beads and was still molten and attached to the steel. That obstacle, at close range, not only cushioned the impact; It also slowed down and diverted the route. The rosary—the doctors assured—saved his life or, at least, from becoming a quadriplegic.

Vizoso Posse was evacuated from Malvinas to the mainland on the last Hercules on June 13, one day before the fall of Puerto Argentino. That is why he assures that he never surrendered to the English.

Argentine Antarctica: The 1972 Tragedy

Tragedy in Antarctica: fall into a crevasse, a man waiting to be rescued and a missing body

In February 1972, a somber incident unfolded on the Antarctic continent as a Snocat transporting a patrol to the Sobral Base plunged into a deep crevice. The unfortunate event resulted in the loss of one occupant's life, while the other, teetering on the brink of freezing, placed their trust in Providence but was ultimately rescued. This narrative encapsulates the valor and commitment exhibited by those who dared to endure a year in the challenging conditions of the white continent.

By Adrián Pignatelli || Infobae

 

The patrol of ten men that left the Belgrano Base for Sobral, by then already deactivated (Photograph courtesy of Carlos Fontana)

Inside the crevice, about sixty meters of icy depth, assistant mechanic sergeant Bladimiro Lezchik was conscious. He had an open fracture in his left shoulder and was bleeding from a deep wound in his scalp.

The vehicle he was driving, a Snocat, had fallen into a treacherous opening of ice that was hidden by the snow. His partner, Assistant Sergeant Oscar Kurzmann, 35, lay outside the destroyed vehicle. He was dead.

He remained for several hours in total darkness. While he asked for help, he thought about his family, his children. In a moment he resigned himself and entrusted himself to God.

When one of his companions came down with ropes to rescue him, he was freezing, he was at the limit of his strength and he was dominated by that dream from which it is impossible to wake up.

Bladimiro Lezchik was of Ukrainian descent. He was born in Formosa and his dream was to visit Antarctica (Photograph courtesy of the Lezchik family)

It was his first mission in Antarctica, where he had always dreamed of going, where he learned to know it through the stories of General Jorge Leal and when he set foot there he would be hooked forever. He said that it was like a magnet, a love, to which you always want to return.

Bladimiro (yes, with a long b, that's how they wrote it down) was a man from Formosa born in Colonia El Zapallito and he lived his childhood in El Colorado, a city in the southeast of the province, on the banks of the Bermejo River. His father had settled there, a Ukrainian who made his living as a tailor in his country, who traveled in carts making clothes and who in the harsh winter months when he couldn't go out, did theater.

Assistant Sergeant Oscar Kurzmann. He had Antarctic experience. Photograph published in the Non-Commissioned Officer Magazine No. 588, year 1984.

With a group of friends he came to Argentina and when he wanted to return, a civil war had broken out between Russia and Poland. He knew that if he returned he would be drafted and he stayed. The original family surname is an endless string of consonants, and the civil registry employee wrote it the way he heard it and that's how it stayed.

In Formosa there is an important colony of Ukrainians. The Lezchiks dedicated themselves to the countryside and Bladimiro, until he entered primary school, only spoke his native language. Upon completion, since there was no secondary school in the area, they sent him to train at the Sergeant Cabral Non-Commissioned Officers School.

The first one on the left. Lezchik with two companions, with a Snocat in the background (Photograph courtesy of the Lezchik family)

In 1961 he married Lidia Martyniuk, also of Ukrainian parents. He introduced them to a cousin at the end of 1957 when they returned to El Colorado on those endless train trips to Chaco and then by bus to the town of those who studied in Buenos Aires during the year.

When in 1970 they bought land and built a house in Rosario, they did so with a loan. Paying the fees was increasingly difficult, and the solution that Bladimiro saw was to offer to participate in a mission in Antarctica, for the significant extra that was charged.

Lezchik's dream was to go to the white continent, but he had not been lucky enough to be called up, despite the number of times he had signed up. Until he was selected.

On the way to Sobral, at kilometer 60, carrying fuel on the sleds (Photograph courtesy of Carlos Fontana)

They were first sent south to acclimatize to the cold and snow. His wife Lidia, who had worked until she got married, was left alone with two children, Elbio, 9, and Noemí, 5, in a neighborhood where there was only one house on her block and the rest were vacant. Before Lezchik left, who had a knack for fixing anything, he added extra latches to the doors and windows.

On January 18, 1972, the 34 men, including military and civilians, arrived in Antarctica. For some it was their first trip and others already had experience.

The first task was titanic. Transfer the cargo brought by the San Martín Icebreaker about five kilometers uphill to the Belgrano Base.

Mortal trap. The crack where the Snocat "Chaco" fell, with the two men (Photograph courtesy of Carlos Fontana)

On February 8, after lunch, he left on his first mission. He was part of a patrol of ten men, commanded by Carlos Fontana, a first lieutenant who had fallen in love with Antarctica after reading Cuatro Años en las Orcas del Sur, by José Manuel Moneta. He turned 30 years old on the white continent.

The patrol left the General Belgrano Base towards Alférez Sobral, an inactive scientific base, located 410 kilometers to the south. They had to update the route and supply it with food and fuel, because the future plan was to reactivate it. Deactivated in October 1968, the Sobral is currently buried in ice.

The trip had to be made as soon as possible, because the polar night was approaching. Fontana considered the order meaningless, because the snow and ice were soft and the dangers increased.

They were in four Snocats, the “Córdoba”, “Chaco”, “Venado Tuerto” and “Santiago del Estero”. Each of them dragged three sleds. Lezchik drove the “Chaco” and was accompanied by Assistant Sergeant Oscar Kurzmann, who had already joined the Esperanza Base crew in 1964.

The operation to rescue Lezchik and recover Kurzmann's body was put into practice immediately (Photograph courtesy of Carlos Fontana).

On the maps that the group carried, the areas of cracks were marked, gathered in a stretch of about 60 kilometers. They were driving in second gear and probing the terrain to locate possible openings.

At 11:40 p.m., at kilometer 72, the “Santiago del Estero” sounded the alarm: the “Chaco” had disappeared into a crevasse.

Only a dark hole was visible, from which what Fontana describes as “sea smoke” emanated, with a strong acrid smell. When faced with shouting calls, only Lezchik responded. He asked to be taken out. Immediately, the rescue operation was prepared.

Lezchik, who had managed to get out of the Snocat, saw that his companion was on a balcony in the crevice, dead. He felt the blood running down his face and how his body grew cold. As time passed, he knew the inexorable fate.

On the surface, his companions had organized themselves against the clock. Sergeant Domínguez offered to go down, because he was the one who weighed the least. They crossed boards over the immense gap, tied him to several nylon ropes and lowered him, but when the rope reached its limit, they heard his screams that he could not reach the place. They had to add two more sections.

The Snocat was destroyed, about sixty meters deep. Domínguez confirmed that Kurzmann had died. Then he took care of Lezchik.

Kilometer 72. Before returning to the Belgrano Base, they left a cross in the place where Kurzmann's body was left. (Photograph courtesy of Carlos Fontana)

He tied up this burly man of 1.92, who put his good arm around his neck. Laboriously, they climbed them.

Once on the surface, morphine was applied, his shoulder was immobilized and he received thirty stitches, without anesthesia, on his scalp. He was hypothermic and maneuvers were performed to stabilize him. They had to take him to the base because his life was in danger and they were running out of morphine.

While he was being assisted, Lieutenant Juan Carlos Videla and Leonardo Guzmán (with 14 winters in Antarctica under their belt) went down to rescue the body of their dead companion. They saw that his head was crushed. They covered her with the hood of their jacket.

When they were hoisting the body, the rope was cut and the body fell into the void. With a temperature of 20 degrees below zero, the men exhausted and one seriously injured, the chief, although at one point he thought about dividing the patrol, ordered to return to the base.

A wooden cross was improvised, milestones were placed to mark the place, and nine grieving men set out. They returned to the site on February 25, when weather permitted. They went in three Snocats and in one they carried a wooden coffin built by Assistant Sergeant Aragón and Sergeant Domínguez. To do so, they took the height of the head of the base as a measurement.

When they arrived at the place, they saw that the wooden cross was standing but that the crack had closed. They opened other holes and lowered a lantern that, due to the difference in temperature, exploded. They knew there was nothing they could do and they returned.

In November 1972, a fuel drum filled with ice with a metal cross, secured with steel cables, served as a monolith in tribute to the dead comrade.

For the patrol, it was a premonitory event. Days ago Kurzmann had confessed to Fontana that the day he died, he wanted to rest in Antarctica. He had already been at the Esperanza and Matienzo bases in other seasons and his vocation for being there was evident.

Lidia Lezchik found out about the accident because the police came to her house with a message from the Antarctic Directorate. Her challenge was then to talk to her husband on the phone.

Before leaving, Lezchik had asked, unsuccessfully, for a telephone line in a neighborhood that was conspicuous by its absence.

Communications between the continent and Antarctica were complicated to establish (Photograph courtesy of the Lezchik family)

His son Elbio remembers that there were two ways to talk to his father. One was to go to the command in Rosario, where a link was made with the Belgrano Base and the other was a phone call. Since the family did not have a telephone, they went to a neighbor's house, a few blocks away, or used the phone booth at the bus terminal. The procedure was always the same: there were pre-established days and times to do it, the call was requested and you had to wait. Sometimes an eternity.

As a result of solidarity, the members of the base had the services of the LU2AO radio amateur, who gave up an hour every Sunday so they could communicate with their families.

Only a week after the accident was the woman able to speak with her husband. They were not clean transmissions, there was a lot of noise that caused the voices to be distorted. “It's like when you try to talk underwater,” she explained. Additionally, they had to close a question or phrase with a “change.”

Doubts immediately arose in the woman. What if it wasn't her husband who was talking to her? If it was a colleague who pretended to be him because she was more serious than what they had told him? I always asked these questions on the way back home after each communication. It was winter and the wife and her two children slept together in the double bed to feel less alone.

In those talks, the same thing always happened: as soon as Elbio heard his father's voice, the emotion overcame him, he couldn't speak and he crossed to the opposite square to calm down.

Lezchik had to remain in Antarctica because the ice closed and the sea route was cut off. Operated by Dr. Bianco, he cured his shoulder there after four months of convalescence. His colleagues said that he was a strong and tough “Pole”. They also nicknamed him “Russian” and “German.”

The return was a rough sailing on the icebreaker to Ushuaia, where they boarded a Hercules. The whole family went to wait for him at El Palomar. His wife's mystery was which person he would meet. That night the expectation was eternal because he was the last to get off the machine. “Didn't you see Lezchik?” he asked each of those who got off. “Yes, yes…” was the answer. But nothing else.

It broke Lidia's heart to see María Teresa, Oscar Kurzmann's wife, alone, waiting for the bag with her unfortunate husband's belongings, including books by Arthur Schopenhauer written in German.

He was the last to appear. The family, relieved to see that she could move on her own, ran down the track to the foot of the stairs towards this big man who was unrecognizable because he had grown a beard. There were no words, but kisses and hugs. She was surprised to see her children taller than her.

Lezchik next to a Snocat, the vehicle used to travel in Antarctica (Photograph courtesy of the Lezchik family)

Endless hours of talks followed, where he recounted his experiences. They took a month's vacation and when they returned it was their turn to do their studies. He had a small bone in his shoulder raised a little higher.

He suffered from intense headaches and had to undergo psychological treatment for his recurring nightmares in which he dreamed that he fell into the crack.

He began to perform passive tasks in the Rosario military factory and in 1974 he was retired due to disability. They recommended that he dedicate himself to something that had nothing to do with his profession. That's how he became a taxi driver in Rosario. Vanesa's arrival had made him a father for the third time.

As his son remembers him, he was a silent, somewhat withdrawn person, with a very strong inner life.

He was also an evangelical pastor and with his wife they became the leaders of the “Sanctuary of Faith” temple, in Provincias Unidas in 2000, near the Rosario exit towards Funes, where nearly five thousand faithful attend. They had both been raised in that religion.

He was very detailed in everything he undertook and he himself fixed the car when it broke down. He liked to cook and had inherited organizational skills from the army. That habit made him a reference in the great campaigns of evangelism.

On Saturday, April 30, 2005, he was heading in his Peugeot 405 with other pastors to a meeting in the city of Buenos Aires. At kilometer 268 of the Rosario-Buenos Aires highway, near Arroyo Seco, there was a lot of fog and smoke, and they had to stop at the end of a long line led by a car that braked because it did not want to continue in those conditions. They were left behind a truck and another, loaded with soybeans, did not stop in time. Lezchik, at the wheel, died instantly along with another. A third, Norberto Carlini, saved his life.

He was 58 years old.

Carlos Fontana remained silent and after fifty years decided to tell what had happened that February 1972. On September 21 of last year, an event was organized, in which Kurzmann's nephews were given his file.

Monolith that marks the site of the tragic accident in which Oscar Kurzmann lost his life. (Photograph courtesy of Carlos Fontana)

Noemí Lezchik told Infobae that her father's eyes clouded with grief when he remembered his dead colleague, and it was a memory that accompanied him throughout his life. She says that he had two deaths, one when he had the accident, in which he was reborn when he was rescued and then on the highway where, far from the Antarctic ice that he was so passionate about, that son of Ukrainians who had learned Spanish at school and that everything he undertook in life he did with the same passion with which he lived.

Sources: Interviews with Lidia Martyniuk, Elbio Lezchik, Noemí Lezchik and Carlos Fontana.

Malvinas: Sea Skua hit but not sunk the ARA Sobral

… And they couldn't sink it

by Rubén Durán

The May 3 marks the 30th anniversary of the attack by Royal Navy ships against a small Argentine ship, which despite having been hit by devastating missiles and having lost its commander, was able to stay afloat and sail back to the continent, in against all odds.

The ARA Aviso “Alférez Sobral” is a small ship destined for support missions for the fleet of the Argentine Navy that during the beginning of the Malvinas War was in the area of operations carrying out patrol, rescue and salvage missions in the northwest of the archipelago.

In that area he was surprised by the start of hostilities on May 1, 1982, when British aviation and navy attacked the Argentine troops stationed in Puerto Argentino and provoked the reaction of the Argentine Air Force (FAA), which launched several raids. against the enemy, some of them successful, but at the cost of several losses.

One such casualty was a Canberra MK 62 bomber which was shot down by the Royal Navy's Se Harriers and whose crew were seen ejecting from their burning aircraft over the British Exclusion Zone.

Assuming that these aviators were alive in the middle of the icy waters of the Atlantic, the alert “Alférez Sobral” received the order to go to the area of the fall to attempt a rescue.

In command of that unit was Lieutenant Commander Daniel Gómez Roca, a 39-year-old man from Salta who immediately headed towards the indicated sector, despite knowing that part or the bulk of the Task Force dispatched by London to invade the Malvinas again.

The chances of survival of the ship were not the best, since it was a ship built in 1944, armed with a 40 mm cannon and two 20 mm cannons and without the necessary electronics to face a combat with any naval or air unit. modern.

The ARA Alférez Sobral arrived in the assigned area only on the night of May 2, when it was already known what happened to the ARA cruiser General Belgrano, another venerable memory of World War II that served under the Argentine flag.

Although they sensed that they could be close to the British fleet, Gómez Roca and his crew were unaware that the radar of the destroyer HMS Coventry had already detected them and had given the alert to the aircraft carrier HMS Hermes, flagship of the Task Force, which dispatched a helicopter. Sea King transport to verify the presence of the intruder.

In the middle of the southern darkness, the Sobral crew heard the approach of the aircraft and Gómez Roca immediately ordered everyone to take their combat positions, while he arranged the change of course to leave the danger zone.

The Sea King did not represent a serious threat to the Argentine ship, but its reconnaissance flyover anticipated an armed reaction from the English.

Indeed, a pair of Sea Linx attack helicopters, armed with the still experimental Sea Skua missiles, left the destroyers HMS Coventry and Glasgow to hunt down the Sobral.

Sea Linx HAS.2 helicopter with Sea Skua missile. Malvinas 1982 (Imperial War Museum)

On board the Argentine warning, each and every one of its crew members were at their posts, waiting for the enemy's next step. Unfortunately, the absence of a modern detection system forced them to take on combat almost blindly.

The first blow came around 2 in the morning, when lights similar to flares were seen on the starboard side: they were the first Sea Skua that the Royal Navy had fired in combat.

One of the projectiles hit one of the rescue boats, destroying it and projecting a shower of shrapnel that injured part of the crew and damaged the ship's communications system. Another missile passed a few meters from the bridge, causing the person in charge of one of the 20 mm cannons to fire at it, believing that it was an airplane.

In the brief moment of calm that ensued, Gómez Roca ordered his second, Lieutenant Sergio Bazán, to go down to the radio station to report on the attack, while he arranged the reversal of course to stabilize the ship and offer a better firing range for your few weapons.

Lieutenant Commander Sergio Gómez Roca and Navy Captain Sergio Bazán, commander and second officer, respectively, of the ARA Sobral.

The maneuver and the prevailing waves in the area confused the English radars, which saw the ship disappear from their screens, so they assumed that it had been sunk. However, the helicopters remained in the area, due to the possible presence of another ship.
The Sea Linx sensors detected the Sobral again a few minutes later and opened fire again.

It is not known if Commander Gómez Roca or any of those who were on the bridge could see the approach of the missile, that is information that they took with them to eternity.

A violent explosion shook the warning and destroyed the entire bridge, causing the instant death of the captain and seven other crew members. Bazán was saved because the doctor had stopped him on the way to check the wound suffered during the first attack.

In this way, Lieutenant Commander Sergio Gómez Roca became the first Argentine commander of the Navy to die in combat.

The radio room had also been affected by the impact of the Sea Skua, and only one survivor, Corporal Enríquez, who was seriously injured, could be rescued.

Objective: Save the ship and return home

Bazán managed to climb to the bridge and discovered a devastating image:

"There was no one. Everything was destroyed. In one sector I saw fire, only fire. Then I realized that everyone in that place was dead.”

  The deaths were not the ship's only problem, since it had been left without steering and the fire generated by the fire threatened to spread throughout the superstructure.

There was no time to cry for the fallen, Bazán assumed command of that floating wreckage and the damage control teams engaged in a tough fight against the flames, while the engineering staff managed to precariously reestablish a system of government.

Once the fire seemed to be controlled, a new problem arose: The explosion had destroyed all the navigation instruments, so vital for orienting oneself on the high seas and so necessary to return to the continent.

The survivors had to manage to solve this problem by resorting to basic seamanship knowledge, taking into account the direction of the waves, which before the second attack came from the north. To calculate the speed, the machinists relied on the turns made by the propeller shaft.

Precisely towards the north the Sobral headed with its 52 living crew members, who awaited the arrival of the final blow of the British that never came. After sailing for a day on that course, Bazán ordered a detour to the west, towards the continent.

From among the remains of the bridge, the magnetic compass rose could be rescued, inexplicably intact, which was placed on the bow between the two anchor chains and which, together with two marine infantry compasses, became the improvised instrument that would guide them. to his destiny.

At that difficult time and in the midst of constant outbreaks of fires on board, Lieutenant Juan Carlos Casal and three crew members requested permission to raise the war flag. As the mainmast had been knocked down by the attack, the sailors hoisted it on the boom and formed in front of it, paying honor to the fallen and the national insignia, in a gesture that many assumed was an act of farewell.

The Air Force to the rescue

In this way, the ship began to approach continental Argentina, without knowing that a search and rescue operation had been organized from there that involved Navy and Air Force aircraft, as well as civilian vessels.

On May 4, Air Force First Lieutenant Miguel Lucero, at the controls of a Bell 212 helicopter, left a base in Comodoro Rivadavia to participate in the search for the ARA Alférez Sobral notice, who had been declared missing. by the Navy, believing that it only had flaws in its communication system.

Fixed-wing planes, with greater autonomy than helicopters, extended their exploration area in search of Sobral, but with negative results, due to adverse weather conditions. For this reason they were ordered to return to base.

Meanwhile, on board the wounded notice things did not seem to be going better, as doubts began to arise about the accuracy of the navigation, fearing that the ship was in a position very different from the calculated one. To make matters worse, new fires broke out among the ruins of the bridge, forcing the exhausted crew to continue fighting so that the flames do not end up devastating the fragile vessel.

On May 5, Lucero and his team took off from Puerto Deseado at 08:30 in the morning and headed south. After an hour they crossed paths with the Argentine Navy ship Cabo San Antonio and some fishing boats.

Another Air Force aircraft, a Fokker F-27, had detected a vessel that was not responding to radio messages, so it communicated the news to the continent.

Lucero's helicopter headed towards the place indicated by the F-27, which was about an hour and a half away. After that time, the aviator was able to see through the haze a small point lost in the sea that was drifting.

It was around noon when the tired eyes of the Sobral survivors saw a helicopter appear in the distance approaching them.

Two flares were immediately sent out and were spotted by Lucero, who accelerated in the direction of the ship.

The ARA Alférez Sobral seen from the air (Revista Gente Nº 878)

As the helicopter approached, its crew members could see the destroyed upper deck of the warning, and they only became aware of what had happened.

“From above I could see the joy of the crew. They began to flutter the blankets, greet us and hug each other,” recalled auxiliary non-commissioned officer Horacio Raúl Deseta, an FAA pararescue jumper who participated in that encounter.

Deseta was precisely the first to descend on the Sobral, suspended from the crane cable of the helicopter that remained in hover at twelve or fifteen meters high.
The operation was not easy at all, since there were many cables and antennas scattered around the deck of the ship. Deseta motioned to his companions to deposit him in a small area above the stern.

When the rescuer was deposited in that place, the sailors approached to help him take off his harness and hug him with tears in their eyes. But there was no time to waste, Deseta asked Bazán about the wounded, and he pointed out that the most serious was First Corporal Enríquez, so he should be rescued first.

Air Force Assistant Warrant Officer Horacio Deseta (Revista Gente Nº 878)

The aeronautical non-commissioned officer asked the helicopter to send him a stretcher for evacuation, but another problem arose: strong gusts of wind hit the deck and made it impossible for the injured man to ascend. Using some ropes, Deseta improvised a lifting harness for the stretcher, where Enríquez had already been placed.

In this way he was able to be put on the helicopter, and then the same was done with two other injured people, all of whom were transferred to the Puerto Deseado hospital. Deseta would stay with the less seriously injured, the dead, and the rest of the Sobral's crew.

Later, the transfer of the injured and the bodies would be completed to the ARA Cabo San Antonio, a Navy tank landing ship that was in the area and that would also tow the Sobral to Puerto Deseado, where it would arrive during the afternoon of that day, with its entire crew formed on the deck and with the flag waving defiantly on its improvised mast.

The Malvinas War would not mean the end of the ARA Alférez Sobral's career, since it would be rebuilt at the Navy facilities in Puerto Belgrano and would return to serve in the South Atlantic. Later, in 2010, she would receive the Mar del Plata Naval Base station as her new destination.

El  ARA Alférez Sobral se despide de Ushuaia para dirigirse a Mar del Plata, en febrero de 2010 (Gaceta Marinera Digital)

Sources:

. Historia de la Fuerza Aérea Argentina- Tomo VI- Vol. 1- Dirección de Estudios Históricos- 1998.-

. La Guerra de las Malvinas- Versión Argentina- Ed. Fernández Reguera- 1987.

. La Batalla por las Malvinas- M. Hastings y S. Jenkins- Ed. Emecé Editores- 1984.

. Revista Gente Nº 878- 1982- Ed. Atlántida.

. Biografía del Capitán de Fragata Sergio Gómez Roca- Lic. Benicio Oscar Ahumada- Departamento de Estudios Históricos Navales de la Armada Argentina.

. Gaceta Marinera Digital