Battle of Mount Tumbledown

Battle of Mount Tumbledown
Part of the Falklands War
Mount Tumbledown, Two Sisters, and Wireless Ridge from Stanley Harbour
Date 13 June – 14 June 1982 Location Mount Tumbledown, Falkland Islands Result British victory
Belligerents
Argentina	United Kingdom
Commanders and leaders
Commander Carlos Robacio	Lt. Col. Michael Scott
Strength
700 Argentine Marines + 200 infantrymen from Argentine Army	641 Troops
Casualties and losses
30 killed 100 wounded 30 captured	10 killed 53 wounded
The British capture of heights above Stanley leads to the surrender of the town shortly afterwards.
Location within Falkland Islands

The Battle of Mount Tumbledown was an engagement in the Falklands War, one of a series of battles that took place during the British advance towards Stanley.

On the night of 13–14 June 1982 the British launched an assault on Mount Tumbledown, one of the highest points near the town of Port Stanley, the capital, and succeeded in driving Argentinian forces from the mountain. This close-quarters night battle was later dramatized in the BBC film Tumbledown.

The attacking British forces consisted of the 2nd Battalion, Scots Guards (2SG), mortar detachments from 42 Commando, Royal Marines and the 1st Battalion, 7th Duke of Edinburgh's Own Gurkha Rifles (1/7 GR), as well as support from a troop of the Blues and Royals equipped with two Scorpion and two Scimitar armoured vehicles. The Argentinian forces defending the mountains were Commander Carlos Robacio's 5th Marine Infantry Battalion (BIM 5). The defending Argentines were already proving costly in lives. In the shelling that was directed by Sub-Lieutenant Marcelo de Marco of the 5th Marines from his observation post on Tumbledown Mountain, four Paras and one REME craftsman were killed on Mount Longdon and another seven Paratroopers were wounded and a Welsh Guardsman was killed while riding a motorbike in the Fitzroy-Stanley track.

Prior to the British landings, the Argentinian marine battalion had been brought up to brigade strength by a company of the Amphibious Engineers Company (CKIA), a heavy machine-gun company of the Headquarters Battalion (BICO), a battery of the 1st Marine Field Artillery Battalion (BIAC), and three Tigercat SAM batteries of the 1st Marine Anti-Aircraft Regiment, as well as a 2nd Marine Infantry Battalion platoon and a 3rd Marine Infantry Battalion platoon.