Battle of Goose Green

The Battle of Goose Green was a military engagement of the Falklands War. It was the first land battle after the landing at San Carlos, on the East Falkland, at the beginning of the military march eastward to retake Port Stanley on the other side of the island. It was fought between 2nd Battalion, Parachute Regiment (2 Para), led by Colonel Herbert Jones, and the Argentine Army´s 12th Infantry Regiment, under Lt. Colonel Italo Piaggi, on May 28, 1982.

The 600 men of 2 Para had landed on the shore of San Carlos Water (bay), on the Falkland Sound, on May 21 from the ferry Norland, along with 3 Para, and 40, 42 and 45 Commando Royal Marines, who disembarked from other British vessels. Assigned with the task of securing the airfield between Darwin and Goose Green, 2 Para first headed south, on foot. To take Goose Green, the British paratroopers were backed up by naval gunfire from HMS Arrow and artillery fire from 8 Commando Battery.

The Battle of Goose Green began with a British attack on the enemy positions at 02:30 hours on May 28. As the men of 2 Para ran up the slope, the Argentinians opened up on the advancing British with everything they had. The withering gunfire forced the British to throw themselves down on the ground in a nearby gully behind gorse (thorny shrubs), with the men in the point being killed and wounded. Facing stiff opposition, Colonel Jones realized he would have to get around the Argentinean positions.

The British commander led his men around to the side of the hill and charged up on the right slope. As he stormed an Argentinean trench, Jones was mowed down by a burst of machine gun fire. With Colonel Jones lying dead on the cold ground, the situation became critical and desperate. However, the second in command, Major Chris Keeble pulled himself together and focused on the situation, deciding to concentrate of the right flank as it had originally been planned.

The men of A, B, and D Company charged up the slope in zig-zag, throwing themselves on the ground as they went. The Argentinean troops raked the hill sides with rifle and machine gun fire, using tracer ammunition. Despite the stiff resistance, the British were able to take one by one the mortar and machine gun nests, which had been set up among rocks and boulders on top. At the end it was a vicious hand-to-hand fighting, with bayonets. On the morning of May 29, the Argentinean commander, Italo Piaggi surrendered to the British. Darwin had also fallen.

The British had suffered 18 dead and 34 wounded, while the Argentinians had lost 52 killed in action and 83 wounded. Artillery support was essential for 2 Para to be able to take both Goose Green and Darwin.

Below, men of 2 Para inspecting the Argentinean weapons after the surrender.

Map of East Falkland showing the location of San Carlos Bay, Goose Green and Darwin as well as the direction of the march after landing.