page_title: Battle of Goose Green
section_title: Darwin Parks
hierarchical_section_title: Battle of Goose Green / Battle / Darwin Parks
context_page_description: The Battle of Goose Green was an engagement between British and Argentine forces on 28 and 29 May 1982 during the Falklands War. Located on East Falkland's central isthmus, the settlement of Goose Green was the site of an airfield. Argentine forces were in a well-defended position, within striking distance of San Carlos Water, where the British task force had made its amphibious landing.
  The main body of the British assault force was the 2nd Battalion, Parachute Regiment, commanded by Lieutenant-Colonel Herbert Jones. BBC radio broadcast news of the imminent attack on Goose Green. Knowing that this had likely forewarned the Argentinian defenders, the broadcast provoked immediate criticism from Jones and other British personnel.
  After the attack began in the early hours of 28 May 1982, the 2nd Parachute Battalion advance was stalled by fixed trenches with interlocking fields of fire. Jones was killed during a solo charge on an enemy machine-gun post. The Argentinian garrison agreed to a ceasefire and formally surrendered the following morning.
context_section_description: At 03:35 HMS Arrow opened fire, firing a total of 22 star shells and 135 rounds of 4.5" high-explosive (HE) shells during a 90-minute bombardment, signalling the start of the attack. In the ensuing night battle about twelve Argentines were killed. Under heavy fire, the platoons of Sub-Lieutenants Marcelo Martin Bracco and Alejandro Garra withdrew after the initial clashes, reporting the loss of fifty percent of their men, killed, wounded, captured, or missing. The platoon under Sub-Lieutenant Gustavo Adolfo Malacalza fought a delaying action against the British paratroopers on Burntside Hill before taking up combat positions again on Darwin Ridge.
  The Coronation Ridge position temporarily halted Major Philip Neame's D Company. Two of his men, 24-year-old Lance-Corporal Gary Bingley and 19-year-old Private Barry Grayling, darted out from cover to charge the enemy machine gun nest and to protect advancing riflemen. Both were hit 10 metres (11 yd) from the machine gun, but shot two of the gun's crew before collapsing. Bingley was hit in the head and killed, while Grayling sustained a wound to the hip which he survived. Bingley was posthumously awarded the Military Medal, and Grayling was decorated with the Queen's Gallantry Medal. With the enemy machine gun out of action, the paras were able to clear the Argentine platoon position, which was under Lieutenant Horacio Muñoz Cabrera, but at the cost of three Paras killed.
  2 Para continued its advance south via Darwin Parks. Around 7:30 am local time, the 1st Rifle Platoon from the 25th Regiment's C Company, under the command of 2nd Lieutenant Roberto Estévez, received orders to counterattack against 2 Para's B Company. The Argentine platoon was able to block the British advance by taking up positions on Darwin Hill, from which, although wounded, Lieutenant Estévez started calling down fire support from Argentine 105 mm artillery and 120 mm mortars. He thus succeeded in holding up the advance of 2 Para's A Company, dispersing the attackers, as his men, caught out in the forward slopes as they prepared to renew their progress, sought cover in the nearby trenches. Estévez fell, mortally wounded by sniper fire. His dying order was to his radio operator Private Fabricio Edgar Carrascul, who continued to direct Argentine fire support. Bullets were riddling the Argentine position, and Carrascul was soon killed. Both were posthumously decorated for this action: Estévez with the Argentine Nation to the Heroic Valour in Combat Cross (CHVC) and Private Carrascul with the Medal of Valour in Combat. Private Guillermo Huircapán from Estévez's platoon describes the morning action:
  Lieutenant Estévez went from one side to the other organizing the defense until all at once they got him in the shoulder. But with that and everything, badly wounded, he kept crawling along the trenches, giving orders, encouraging the soldiers, asking for everyone. A little later, they got him in the side, but just the same, from the trench, he continued directing the artillery fire by radio. There was a little pause, and then the English began the attack again, trying to advance, and again we beat them off.
  The first British assault was repulsed by fire from Sub-Lieutenant Ernesto Orlando Peluffo's RI 12 platoon, after the platoon sergeant, Buenaventura Jumilla, warned that the British were approaching. Major Farrar-Hockley spotted Argentine reinforcements on the hills before them. He shouted, "Ambush! Take cover!" just as the machine-guns opened fire. The Royal Engineer officer attached to Farrar-Hockley's company, Lieutenant Clive Livingstone, wrote about the initial fight for Darwin Hill:
  A massive volume of medium machine-gun fire was unleashed on us from a range of about 400 meters. The light now rapidly appearing enabled the enemy to identify targets and bring down very effective fire. Although this too would work for us, the weight of fire we could produce was not in proportion to the massive response it brought. We stopped firing – our main concern was to move away whenever pauses occurred in the attention
caption: Goose Green, 28–29 May 1982
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