Battle of Goose Green - Battle

Battle

Just after 2.30 am of May 28, 2nd Para launched its attack on the Argentines to capture Goose Green 'before breakfast'. RI 12's A Company under First Lieutenant Jorge Manresa defended the Darwin Parks sector with two rifle platoons, and a mortar platoon. For 90 minutes the forward Argentine platoons were pounded with naval artillery from HMS Arrow. In the ensuing night battle about twelve Argentines were killed. The platoon under Sub-Lieutenant Malacalza fought a delaying action against the British paratroopers, blooding themselves on Burntside Hill before taking up combat positions again on Darwin Ridge.

Major Philip Neame's D Company was temporarily halted by the Coronation Ridge position. Two of his men, 25-year-old Lance-Corporal Gary Bingley and 19-year-old Private Barry Grayling darted out from under cover to charge the enemy machine gun nest that was holding up the advance. Both were hit 10 metres (11 yd) from the machine gun, but shot two of the crew before collapsing. He got hit in the head and I got hit in the hip, Grayling recalled in an interview published in 2007. Unfortunately, he didn't make it.Bingley was posthumously awarded the Military Medal and Grayling was decorated with the Gallantry Medal. With the enemy machine gun out of action, the Paras were able to clear the Argentine platoon position, but at the cost of three dead.

Then 2nd Para moved on to the south via Darwin Parks. The Argentines made a determined stand along Darwin Ridge. As A and B Companies moved south from Coronation Ridge they were raked by fire from a couple of concealed Argentine FN MAG machine guns. An Argentine senior NCO, Company Sergeant-Major Juan Carlos Cohelo, is credited with rallying the RI 12's A Company remnants falling back from Darwin Parks. He was seriously wounded later in the day and for his bravery was awarded the Argentine Nation to the Valour in Combat Medal.

The first British assault was broken up by fire from Sub-Lieutenant Ernesto Peluffo's RI 12 platoon. Corporal Osvaldo Faustino Olmos, of RI 25 refused to leave his foxhole and continued firing at the British company as it moved forward. The Paras called on the Argentines to surrender. Corporal Olmos was later interviewed by the British newspaper "Daily Express" and credited with the killing of Lieutenant-Colonel Jones.

At this juncture of the battle, 2nd Para's advance had become stuck. A Company was in the gorse line at the bottom of Darwin Hill, and against the entrenched Argentines who were looking down the hill at them. As daylight was now all over the battlefield, Jones led an unsuccessful charge up a small gully resulting in the death of the adjutant, Captain Wood, A company's second-in-command Captain Dent, and Corporal Hardman.

Shortly thereafter Jones was seen to run West along the base of Darwin Ridge to a small re-entrant, followed by his bodyguard. He checked his Sterling SMG then ran up the hill toward an Argentine trench. He was seen to be hit once, then fell, then got up and was hit again from the side. He fell metres short of the trench, had been hit in the back and the groin, and died within minutes.

Jones was later to receive the Victoria Cross for his efforts. As Jones lay dying, his men radioed for urgent casualty evacuation. However, the British Scout Helicopter sent to evacuate Jones was shot down by an Argentine FMA IA 58 Pucara ground attack aircraft. The pilot, Lt. Richard Nunn RM was killed and posthumously received the DFC, and the aircrewman, Sgt. Belcher RM badly wounded in both legs.12th Regiment Corporal José Luis Ríos, who in the opinion of historian Hugh Bicheno killed Lieutenant-Colonel Jones,was later fatally wounded in his trench by Corporal Abols firing a 66 mm rocket.