Falklands War order of battle: Argentine ground forces
This is a list of the ground forces from Argentina that took part in the Falklands War (Spanish: Guerra de las Malvinas).
The Argentine Army also had the 10th Mechanized Infantry Brigade in the capital guarding against a theoretical seaborne invasion along the Buenos Aires coastline.
In all, some fifty conscripts in the 12th Regiment from the 3rd Infantry Brigade in Corrientes Province had also been put through a compressed commando course organized by visiting Argentine Army Green Berets in 1981.
Private Esteban Roberto Ávalos who fought in the Falklands as a sniper recalls: In my particular case, I ended up being a sharpshooter for which I had been preparing since the time we were out in the field, where I had the opportunity to shoot with a FAL.
The dealings with the superiors, in general, were good, although if somebody screwed up we all paid the price The most common punishments were taking us to the showers at night, forcing us to do push-ups or demand from us heaps of frog leaps and crawling.
Now, going back to the subject of instruction, I would say that it was generally satisfactory, at least as far as our group is concerned, since we had basic training in the use of explosives and we were even given some classes of self-defense.
The brigade commander, Brigadier Oscar Luis Jofré had decided that an airlanding special operations platoon would be formed for each of his regiments.
Jaimet, a dedicated professional soldier had served behind Marxist separatist guerrilla lines as a Commando in the Tucumán Province in 1975.
After crossing the Colorado River, Parada received new instructions to reinforce Brigadier-General Américo Daher's 9th Infantry Brigade in Santa Cruz Province that had already sent the 8th and 25th Regiments to the Falklands.
[7] Private Pablo Vicente Córdoba from the new arrivals (Soldados Clase '63) in the 4th Infantry Regiment recalls the accelerated boot-camp training he received under Sub-Lieutenant Oscar Augusto Silva (Killed in action on Mount Tumbledown): In an outing to Camp Ávalos to carry out practice shooting with live ammunition I had to open fire with an Instalaza 88.9mm anti-tank rocket-launcher.
Brigade home base: Mesopotamia Private Dacio Agretti, serving in C Company from the 4th Infantry Regiment, recalls events leading up to the Battle of Two Sisters: There we had hot food, built excellent positions and were quite ready for when the British attacked.
It was a crazy decision because we never really had time to build good positions on Dos Hermanas, also we did not have a Field Kitchen so we never had any hot food anymore.
The culmination of the training cycle for the conscripts consisted of a full-scale mechanized infantry assault with supporting aircraft from the Argentine Air Force in the General Acha Desert in La Pampa Province in October 1981.
[5] In an interview with Private Manuel Valenzuela from the 6th Mechanized Regiment in 2015, the Argentine newspaper Publicable confirmed that the exercises in the General Acha training area (716 kilometres north of Buenos Aires) were designed to toughen up the conscripts nearing the completion of their national service, with very little food and water provided to the participating units in the first burst of heatwave conditions in the Argentine summer of 1981: Towards the end of 1981, B Company, in which Valenzuela was attached, conducted survival training in General Acha, La Pampa.
[17][18] The first elements of the La Tablada-based 3rd Mechanized Infantry Regiment arrived in Port Stanley on 9 April and from 13 to 21 would spend their time digging in Sector Cobre (Copper) covering the southern beaches.
The Commanding Officer of the 3rd Regiment, Lieutenant-Colonel David Ubaldo Comini attended his first briefing inside the ex-Royal Marine Barracks on 10 April[19] with Comini that night giving a patriotic speech in the presence of Brigadier-General Mario Benjamin Menéndez that welcomed the new arrivals with a giant chocolate easter egg and bottles of French wine seized from the Royal Marine cellars, a televised event that Argentine war correspondent Eduardo Rotondo captured on film.
[20] The 3rd Infantry Regiment from the La Tablada suburb of Buenos Aires, was allocated two warehouses in Port Stanley for the drying of wet clothes left hanging inside and to get some proper sleep, 200 men per night; this luxury of course ended, with the British San Carlos landings and an increase of British air activity and naval shelling.
Robacio did not use the company but Giménez called for it to regain Wireless Ridge; this attack failed in spite of a determined effort.
The platoons involved withdrew under covering fire from the Oto Melara 105mm pack howitzers from the 4th Airborne Artillery Group.
[23] I Corps Army Chief of Staff Troops Under the orders of Brigadier-General Menéndez, the Argentine Military Governor at Port Stanley, the army engineers (under Colonel Manuel Dorrego) in the Falklands capital built field showers for the 10th Brigade, that allowed the 3rd, 6th, 7th and supporting 4th and 25th Regiments before the British landings, to send companies into town on a rotating basis to get a hot shower.
Initially comprising Major Alejandro Carullo's 181st Armoured Cavalry Squadron, it was located on Stanley Racecourse with orders to reinforce Fox Bay or Goose Green if required via helicopters or ships.
In late April, 'Equipo de Combate Solari' in the form of the 12th Infantry Regiment's B Company joined 'Reserva Z', bringing it to a regimental-size grouping.
The battalion had been based in Tierra del Fuego in the far south of Patagonia and the soldiers were used to the harsh terrain and cold climate.
Port Stanley resident John Smith recalls the surprise inspection his family received on the night of 9–10 June from the Gendarmerie commando patrol squad under Captain Hugo Díaz: We were just about to set the table for supper when the security police arrived at the back door to check that all of us in the house had documents.
