La Infanteria de Marina era en mi opinion la unica fuerza Terrestre profesional presente en malvinas, por eso la elegi para este topico. :rolleyes:
Looks like a very adaptable and practical vehicle.
Does it have any armament?
No fixed armament as far as I now.
Hey, great pic, thanx.
25 years ago, two tactical divers in the first hours after the landing, scan from “GENTE” magazine.
Is that a Bedford 4 Tonner in the background?
Looks like one, British cam and Brit number plate.
*7 RN **. At the time British Mil number plates were 12 AB 34, now they have reveresed AB 12 CD.
Some Marines being blessed by the Navy catholic chaplain before the landing inside the ship ARA Cabo San Antonio.
2 image of the tank landing ship ARA Cabo San Antonio.
Amtrack in his way:
Does anyone know whether over claiming of enemy casualties was common to both sides in the war (assuming that one battalion claiming fully one fifth of the TOTAL British casualties for the entire war is over claiming)?
I think to be honest, it is pretty common for all of the Argentine figures to be slightly exagerated… bordering on full blown lies!!!
Whether this was just because of the situation in Argentina at the time wrt a military dictatership or just propaganda for the masses that has some how passed in to fact I don’t know.
Facts and figures.
28,000 British airmen, sailors and soldiers sailed south in 1982.
256 were killed and 3 civilians.
123 British Army personnel, 88 Royal Navy, 10 Royal Fleet Auxiliary, 9 Merchant Navy, 25 Royal Marines, 1 RAF, and 3 women civilian casualties.
A total of 777 personnel were wounded during the war of which 581 were evacuated to the hospital ship Uganda, the remainder were evacuated to the United Kingdom through Montevideo.
In total 1,036 killed or wounded.
We can take out the three civialians wounded, as we know that they were killed by Argentine artillery.
256 killed, 777 wounded total 1,033.
We could further go down the various battles and actions ie Goose Green, Coventry, Antelope etc until we have a grey area of those killed and wounded. ie the 56 killed at Bluff cove and the many wounded by burns at Bluff Cove.
But I will surmise that this particular Marine Battalions claims are, to put it bluntly, rubbish. They probably have more to do with keeping their tally up with the British.
Points to note…
this marines batallion lost 30 men killed and 170 wounded
My bold. 30 + 170 = (strangely enough) 200 killed and wounded.
also claimed had killed or wounded more than 200 british in combat
If all the Argetnine units did as well as they claimed the British casualty figures would be much higher, and the important question would still remain unanswered… how did they lose?
Sorry to be pedantic but the three civilians killed were killed in a friendly fire incident when a 4.5" shell from HMS Avenger hit a house. The ship was attempting to hit Falkland Government houses nearby occupied by Argentine officers.
Sue Whitley and Doreen Bonner were killed instantly when the shell struck. Sue was a teacher in the Falkland Islands and there is now a school art prize dedicated to her memory. Doreen had devoted most of her adult life to the care of her disabled daughter Cheryl. Mary Goodwin succumbed to shrapnel injuries later in hospital. Mary was the elderly mother of Laurie Goodwin who was also wounded in the same attack.
Oh yeah, so they were.
My mistake. I was thinking of another arty barrage affecting Civies.
Either way we can leave them out as they weren’t killed by Argentine Marines.
Indeed true, the Argentine claims are often ridiculous. I’ve seen one where they claimed 154 aircraft shot down from a total deployed of around 20. A joke in the Falklands at the time was when a Harrier flew over Stanley they shot down both of them.
The only casualty of the Port Stanley air defence was one of their own Mirage jets.
The only casualty of the Port Stanley air defence was one of their own Mirage jets
Lone, check a little bit before posting, that statement of your is completely wrong.
Points to note…
Quote:
this marines batallion lost 30 men killed and 170 wounded
My bold. 30 + 170 = (strangely enough) 200 killed and wounded.Quote:
also claimed had killed or wounded more than 200 british in combat
If all the Argetnine units did as well as they claimed the British casualty figures would be much higher, and the important question would still remain unanswered… how did they lose?
I gave the exact figure of killed and wounded in the BIM 5 because I know that…I dont know the casualties inflicted by the fifth Battalion in the British side.
And by the way: Can we let this thread only for to the Argentine marines ?
There is already an Air War topic.
Easy enough to divi up though.
Who did the BIM 5 fight on the islands?
Just having a quick look now.
According to one google hit.
I am assuming here they are not including any British units… including the Army Catering Corps 
An eyewitness account from BIM 5
[quote=“http://www.army.mod.uk/scotsguards/history/falklands_war_1982.htm
Batallón de Infantería de Marina 5”]
The Argentinian 5th Marine Battalion are reputed to have been the best troops on the Falkland Islands. Prior to invading the Falklands the Regiment was reinforced to a Light Brigade. The Officers and NCO’s were all regular experinced soldiers and the rank and file was made up of conscripts. The following excerpt was extracted from the book 5th Infantry Brigade in the Falklands (Leo Cooper 2003) it tells the story of Marine Private Jorge Sanchez’s experince during the fight for Mount Tumbledown:
“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]. I hadn’t fired directly at a British soldier, as they had been too hard to get a clear shot at. I can remember lying there with all this firing going over my head. They were everywhere. The platoon commander [First Lieutenant Carlos Vazquez] then called Private Ramon Rotela manning the 60 millimetre mortar and Rotela fired it straight up into the air so that the bombs landed on ourselves. At this point I had been up and in actual combat for over six hours. It was snowing and we were tired. Some of the guys had surrendered, but I didn’t want to do this. I had only twenty rounds left and I decided to continue the fight from Mount William. I popped up, fired a rifle grenade in the direction of 8 to 10 British soldiers to keep their heads down, and then ran for the 2nd Platoon. I can remember saying some type of prayer hoping the British wouldn’t shoot me in the back”.
[/quote]
BIM 5 seems to have only taken part in Tumbledown and then the defence of Stanley, which didn’t really involve much fighting.
Oddly enough there is a claim of killing and wounding up to 50 Gurkhas in one clash on tumbledown as the 1/7GURKHA moved up to Mount William.
The 2SG lost 9 dead and 51 wounded on Tumbledown.
No Gurkhas died in the war, and only about 10 were wounded.
Most claims about BIM 5 seem to indicate 34 were killed and 105 wounded in the entire Falklands War.
Good to see the Argentines still have a healthy fear and distaste for cold steal… with claims of a Scots Guardsman bayonetting an Argentine soldier helping a wounded comrade. And a few other moments in which the conscript nature of the bayonetted is brought to play.
But then there is also a case where a sniper from the BIM 5, covering their retreat, deliberatly fired on a Scout picking up casualties.
It might be better to leave the tucker* fuckers out of this.
They might have caused more British casualties than the Argies,
*Tucker = food in Australian usage.
Thus, ‘tucker fucker’ = cook, usually military or other large scale cook who can be relied upon to make all meals look and taste equally bad regardless of the range and quality of ingredients.
Corvette leutenant Pedro Edgardo Giachino from Tactical divers group, the first argentine casualty of the war, was killed in action the 2 april.
