5th Marine Battalion (Argentina)
They started the "Black Beret" tradition from a design made by Marine Sub-Lieutenant (naval rank equivalent to army Sub-Lieutenant) Abelardo "Tigre" (Tiger) Terré at the beginning of 1977, with the Marine Commander Manuel Tomé as its CO.[1] After a Mountain and Cold Weather commando fighting course, they were dubbed the Aguilas Australes (Southern Eagles) and wore a black beret with a silver flash.
On 1 May, Private Daniel Cabiglioli from M Company was killed during the Royal Navy bombardment of Sapper Hill.
According to Private José Luis Fazio:My companions from M Company opened fire on a Sea Harrier, with rifles.
From the moment the 2nd Battalion Scots Guards had finally been moved to Goat Ridge by helicopter, 1,500 rounds of artillery, descended upon the Marines, in preparation for the coming infantry assault.
The 101st Anti-Aircraft Artillery Group's B Battery (B/GADA101) was assigned to defend the Fresinet Peninsula, a long, narrow piece of land running from Moody Brook to form the northern arm of Stanley, when their troops came under attack at 11 p.m.
They were engaged by Lieutenant Héctor Gazzolo's platoon of Marines[4] with automatic weapons, resulting in three British wounded and the loss of all the landing crafts involved as John Parker reveals in SBS: The Inside Story of The Special Boat Service (Hachette, 2013): A six-man team from 3 SBS ... with D and G Squadrons, SAS, with the object of creating a diversionary assault from the sea ... were to move across the Murrell River by four fast power-boats ...
Another sank just offshore, but close enough for the team to swim to safety ... An SBS corporal and two SAS troopers were wounded ...
The RRCs were riddled with holes and had to be destroyed.Further south, the action was initiated shortly after 8 p.m., as the 2nd Scots Guards' Reconnaissance Platoon carried out a diversionary attack, advancing with four Blues and Royals Scorpion light tanks.
(Nick van der Bijl, Victory in the Falklands, p.199, Pen and Sword, 2007)The Guards decided to fall back towards the south but entered a minefield and were caught in a crossfire from the Mortar Platoon under Sergeant Elbio Cuñe on Mount William and the Marines' artillery.
About 300 metres from the first Argentine position, the Marines opened fire with MAG machine-guns and FAL rifles.
Both British forward platoons started to take casualties and the Scots Guards retreated to the western rocks and reorganized themselves.
In the centre of the mountain, one Scots Guards platoon managed to secure a small piece of high ground, where they were able to set up a fire base that pinned down several Marine positions for the remaining five hours of the battle.
Commander Robacio ordered Marine Sub-Lieutenant Eduardo Villarraza to send a fighting patrol to deal with the fire base.
Marine Private Jorge Sanchez, in the book 5th Infantry Brigade in the Falklands (Leo Cooper, 2003), recalled: The fighting was sporadic, but at times fierce, as we tried to maintain our position.
By this time we had ten or twelve dead including one officer [Second Lieutenant Oscar Silva, Argentine Army].
The fall of Wireless Ridge and the heavy expenditure of artillery, mortar and machine-gun ammunition in support of the 7th Infantry Regiment (RI7) on the ridgeline overlooking Moody Brook rendered the situation of the Marines tenuous.
In due course firing broke out in the direction of Battalion HQ at Moody Brook, indicating that the British had outflanked their position.
As the Marine commanders on Tumbledown and Mount William awaited reinforcements, they received orders to withdraw.
Around eight RI 6 personnel were killed and eighteen captured, many of them wounded but the 5th Marine Battalion's N Coy (N/BIM5) on Tumbledown and William carried out an orderly withdrawal to Sapper Hill.
The 6th Regiment's B Coy (B/RI6) also successfully withdrew with its portable weapons to set up new defensive positions around Sapper Hill.
(Marine Rear Admiral Carlos Büsser, El BIM 5 en las Malvinas, Boletin del Centro Naval, pp.
