Skirmish at Top Malo House

The Skirmish at Top Malo House took place on 31 May 1982 during the Falklands War between Argentine special forces from 602 Commando Company and the British Royal Marines of the Mountain and Arctic Warfare Cadre. Top Malo House was the only planned daylight action of the war, although it was intended to take place in darkness. The Argentine commandos were part of an attempt to establish a screen of observation posts. A section that occupied Top Malo House was sighted by a British observation post of the Mountain and Arctic Warfare Cadre that was screening the British breakout from the lodgement around San Carlos. The action at Top Malo House was one of a series of mishaps and misfortunes that afflicted the Argentine effort.

Background

Tensions between Britain and Argentina over a disputed territory the British called Falkland Islands and the Argentinians called ''Islas Malvinas'' escalated after Argentinian scrap metal merchants and Argentina Marines raised the Argentine flag over South Georgia Island on 19 March 1982. On 2 April, Argentine forces occupied the Falkland Islands. The British government sent a task force to recapture the islands, and British forces landed in the Falklands in the vicinity of Port San Carlos on 21 May.

Geography

The geography of the Falkland Islands is characterised by open grasslands and heather. There are no native trees. The wind blows constantly, and the weather can change suddenly. A feature of the landscape is stone runs, fields of broken boulders. Outside the town of Stanley, the islands were dotted with small settlements, where farmers raised sheep. Fences were common. There were vehicle tracks around the settlements, but no roads between them. Cross-country movement by vehicle involved avoiding stone runs and peat bogs. The settlements were connected by light aircraft, and each had a landing strip. Items too heavy to move by air were shipped by water, using coastal shipping.

Prelude

Argentine

The Argentinian Army did not maintain standing special forces units, but formed them from individuals with commando training when the need arose. The Argentine 602 Commando Company was formed from fifty-four commando-trained soldiers on 21 May 1982 and flew to the Falklands in a Lockheed C-130 Hercules on 27 May. Two days later, a thirteen-man patrol from 602 Commando Company set out from Stanley with orders to establish an observation post on Bluff Cove Peak. This was part of a larger operation planned by the Argentine commander in the Falklands, Brigade General Mario Benjamín Menéndez, to establish a screen of observation posts in front of his defensive positions in the Stanley area manned by special forces. This screen would strike at the British line of communications and capture British soldiers. An observation post would be established on Mount Estancia by 601 Commando Company, on Mount Kent by twelve men of 602 Commando Company and sixty-five from 601 National Gendarmerie Company, and on Mount Simon and Bluff Cove Peak by two sections of 602 Commando Company.

The 602 Commando Company section of thirteen soldiers earmarked for Mount Simon was led by Captain José Vercesi, and included Lieutenants and Daniel Martínez; First Lieutenants Juan José Gatti, Luis Alberto Brun and ; First Sergeants Mateo Sbert, Humberto Omar Medina, Miguel Angel Castillo, Faustino Pedrozo (medic, not member of 602 commando) and Juan Carlos Helguero (scout, member of 601 commando); Sergeant Carlos Bruno Delgadillo and Corporal Raúl Valdivieso. The section took off from the Stanley racecourse in a Bell 212 helicopter and an Agusta 109 at 17:15 on 29 May. Soon after they departed, the weather closed in and a helicopter carrying a patrol from 601 National Gendarmerie Company crashed, killing many of those on board. The fly-out of the rest of the special forces was postponed until the following day.

Vercesi and four of his men disembarked from the Agusta 109 in the vicinity of Mount Simon. The eight men from the Bell 212 failed to make the rendezvous, but Vercesi pressed on with the mission without them. His group established an observation post near the summit of Mount Simon, where they observed British air activity, and were joined by the missing eight men. They remained on Mount Simon through the night, during which it snowed heavily. In the morning Sbert, the patrol radio operator, tried to get a message through that there was a British air corridor from San Carlos to Mount Kent but although his radio could receive it could not transmit. He managed to get one brief message through before radio contact was lost and never re-established.

There was no point in manning an observation post without the means to report back, so Vercesi decided to make for Fitzroy, where an engineer detachment working on a bridge had a working radio set. Peat and stone runs slowed their movement. There was drizzling rain and intermittent snow, and they had to cross the Malo River

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