Was Tumbledown One of the Last Bayonet Charges?
The Times today has a detailed account of the Battle of Mount Tumbledown in the Falklands War. It is told by four soldiers from the Scots Guards, who took part in the battle. This paragraph tells how they went in.
The Battalion went in wearing berets, because their helmets were too clumsy; rucksacks were left behind; they had no body armour. They carried SLR rifles, with bayonets fixed, 80 rounds of ammunition, a sleeping bag, grenades and first-aid kit. Communication was through “open” radio. “I talked to my company commanders as easily as I’m talking to you,” Scott says. Their only password in the dark was “Jimmy,” the idea being that, since the Argentinians could not pronounce their Js, they would be easily identified.
Would soldiers do that today? Certainly, a lot of armies wouldn’t!
I once used to live next to a Colonel in the British Army. He would have loved the bit about the passwords. As he once said to me. “In case of war, burn all the rulebooks!” The more I read about the Falklands War, the more it was a war where convention went out the window.
I think even the Americans thought we would be unable to regain the islands. I’ve always felt that it put the wind up the Russians and they then realised that they would never be able to walk their way across Europe, when they would be fighting the strong and well-trained volunteer armies of Western Europe. I think even in 1980, a lot of experienced high-ranking officers in the Red Army had seen the horrors of the Second World War and felt they wouldn’t ask their soldiers to go through that again.
I hope we never have to fight another war like the Falklands.
The Anonymous Widower 
Aussie Soldiers are Cold Steel {Bayonets} exponents . . . and are still keen on Cold Steel today.
My youngest son & his mate, were Hunting Large Razorback Feral Pigs, recently. These pigs are bad news for the environment . . . I asked him how his hew 30 / 30 {American 303} Hunting Rifle went . . . “Oh Great . . . we did a lot of target shooting” . . . “How did you Kill,the Big Boar ? . . . “Oh, we hunt pigs, with dogs, and Kill them on foot in close combat with our Hunting Knives”
They,only kill ferals . . . The two them had a barehanded fight with a 3 meter Taipan Snake . . . they thought is was a Python, and Dad would like a wild Python . . . when I explained that the small head & white on the face is the world’s worst Killer Snake . . . “Oh, well we will not go back & get it then . . .”
Aussies either bring back alive, or Cold Steel . . . read about Trobruk or Kokoda or 9th at El Alamain & Monthy’s comments.
Comment by Steam Lover | June 14, 2012 |