My first great moment as a Conscript Soldier and Artilleryman came between 12:30 and 1:00 p.m. on that famous day, May 27; when we were alerted about an attack from the area of the Escuela Hogar heading towards the Strait of San Carlos. I watched two harrier aircraft firing their entire arsenal; one crossed the isthmus on the BAM Cóndor carrying out in his escape, a reemployment in the direction of the place where I was shooting at him furiously and without hesitation. I clearly saw how I hit it shooting steadily with my 20 mm RH N°1 (F1) cannon, but the enemy plane fled at full speed unloading their artillery over the area where the F1 and F4 guns were located.
The Harrier GR.3 that I was able to hit started emitting a lot of white smoke as it headed towards the Paragon House Zone. Immediately we heard an explosion, but we did not know if it was the impacted plane or one of the many explosions that were heard that day. Finally, the shooting down of the Harrier GR.3 aircraft of the Royal Air Force (RAF).
Over time, I found out that the plane I had hit and shot down with my 20mm RH No. 1 cannon on May 27 in the Darwin Zone and GooseGreenwas the Harrier GR.3 Registration XZ 988 piloted by Squadron Leader and Commander Sqn Ldr Bob Iveson, who had taken off from the British aircraft carrier HMS Hermes to perform his seventh operation. About an hour after take down “Big Bob” Ivesonaccording to his colleagues, the best driver in the Royal Air Force (RAF), I saw another enemy plane pass overhead, but well out of range of my cannon.
In the early hours of the morning of May 28, after a tense calm, I saw a flash in the West and an explosion (naval gun) was heard. Immediately, I noticed that along the corridor located in the direction of the San Carlos Zone, many people were running disorderly in the direction of the Hogar Escuela. I quickly lit my cannon, and looking through the telescopic sight, I see many Argentine fighters running desperately without helmets and without weapons. Unfortunately, our fighters were mercilessly attacked from behind as they fled from enemy fire; I consider that it must have been the reason why several Argentines, according to what they said in the town, were wounded or died in that retreat towards Goose Green.
The RH 20mm Anti-Aircraft Artillery Battery began ground fire to cover the withdrawal of the EA and FAA fighters who had kept the British forces at a distance for many hours, with their rifles and 105mm guns. I remember that the british infantry came down from a knoll and we gunners fired at them with our cannons rheinmetall 20mm gun right there, and to the body if possible. Still today, 40 years after the Malvinas War, there are several ex-artillerymen who cannot bear to remember that horror.
Likewise, I can point out that the British forces, despite the heroic and energetic resistance that we had achieved by shooting them in the body with the 20 mm anti-aircraft guns, making them fall back towards the Puerto San Carlos area; shortly after, they returned and advanced recovering the positions. In other words, the combatants of the Second Battalion of the Parachute Regiment (2 Para) returned armed with disposable mortars and Milan missiles.
Finally, and in the face of the tremendous onslaught by the British fighters, there were only two conscript soldiers left sitting on our anti-aircraft guns firing ground fire, and with very few chances of life. On the one hand, there was Francisco Luna in cannon No. 3 (F3), who tenaciously fired at the English until he could no longer resist; he put his cannon out of action, took his 9mm Falcon machine gun, and began to fall back towards the town of Goose Green.
On the other hand, I was Ramon Garces, firing almost non-stop with my N°1 RH 20 mm anti-aircraft gun. It was the last ironclad ground obstacle left to the British forces at the end of the Goose Green grass airstrip as they tried to advance their lines faster towards their objective. It was evident that it was not very easy for them to advance while receiving bursts of 20mm caliber bullets (explosive, incendiary and self-destructive).
At that moment, and before the British infantry continued advancing (and adding wounded and casualties), they stopped to locate which was the only cannon that remained in operation and that continued to harass them; It was at that moment that they began to shoot directly at me without stopping. First, started with a hail of bullets ricocheting off steel from the front of my cannon (F1), and then they added the launch of two mortars or missiles that hit very close to my position. The explosions shook the ground so much that I was even hit by pieces of peat flying through the air.
The situation was really tremendous for me; extreme risk Faced with such explosions so few meters from the cannon that it operated, it left me no choice but to try to retreat to save my life and thus be able to continue fighting from another position. To that situation, we had to add the endless bullets that kept ringing when they hit the steel of my cannon rheinmetall 20mm Then, with no bullets left to fire and in an overwhelmed and last action, I left my cannon out of service, I slid to the ground hugging it and dragged myself to a hollow that was a few meters from Fierro No. 1.
we move body to earth more than two endless kilometers on all kinds of human excrement (lentils, chickpeas, etc.), until miraculously reaching the town of Goose Green. It was very difficult to get to that area with few houses because no one recognized us; By this I mean that we were being fired upon by both the British forces and the Argentine forces.
Already in the twilight of another bloody day (May 28), fighting a very hard fight for the Isthmus of Darwin, three Harrier GR.3 attack us with all their fury almost in low flight, strafing uslaunching rockets and BL-755 anti-tank cluster bombs.
Hours passed, it began to get dark and the confrontation between the two military forces also intensified. For my part, I took several abandoned rifles to continue shooting at the enemies. The combat at that time was very unequal, and I was able to confirm it a short time later. The night was very dark and practically nothing could be seen in the distance, only the thousands of tracer bullets of different colors that pierced the darkness in slow motion.
At that moment, I was able to realize abysmal difference there was between the hundreds of tracer bullets we fired at the British, and the thousands that were coming at us. As a visual (artistic) spectacle, I can say that the countless lines of different colors that crossed in the darkness that we British and Argentines shared were incredibly beautiful.
I could even assure you that all those who were in the front line of combat that night like me, and lived to tell about that multicolored and unique experience, must have been amazed at such beauty, despite knowing that each light that passed through it is a vast black theater. she was the bearer of death. I will never be able to erase from my mind the final development of the bloodiest battle of the Falklands Warfought in the Darwin and Goose Green Zone.
We were traveling in the early hours of May 29. It was a frighteningly dark and very cold morning. Dimly I heard around me, as if it were sad background music, many fighters crying and praying. Uncertainty had completely taken over us. It was not for less, our famished bodies were hardly in a position to continue fighting; and much less with the rifles that were scattered in the darkness of the town. There were many of us who still we were out in the open and on the defensive, expecting a coordinated attack by the British military; urinating on ourselves as we had been doing for days before, to warm up at least part of our skeletal bodies.
You may also like
by Ramon Garces
Image gallery
