Battle of Mount Harriet - Aftermath

Aftermath

The battle was a textbook example of good planning and use of deception and surprise, and a further step towards their main objective of Stanley. Two British soldiers: Corporal Laurence G Watts and Acting Corporal Jeremy Smith were killed, and twenty-six were wounded. Eighteen Argentine dead were found around the defences. Lance Corporal Koleszar had the surprising experience of finding that two 'dead' Argentine soldiers, whose boots he was trying to remove, were very much alive and jumped up to surrender. Some British reporters were thus misled into depicting the Argentineans as hapless teenage conscripts who caved in after the first shots were fired, but Royal Marine Warrant Officer 2 John Cartledge, who served with L Company during the battle, corrected them, saying the Argentines were good soldiers who had fought properly:

"They used the tactics which they had been taught along the way very well, they were quite prepared for an attack. They put up a strong fight from start to finish. They were also better equipped than we were. We had first generation night sights, which were large cumbersome pieces of equipment, while the Argentines had second-generation American night sights that were compact and so much better than what we had. The one deficiency which we exposed was that they had planned for a western end of the mountain attack and therefore had not bothered to extend their defensive positions to the eastern end, where we ultimately attacked."

One British general put their success down to his Marines' skill and professionalism:

"What was needed was speed but not being bloody stupid. The Israelis would have done it much faster, but with many more casualties."

42 Commando captured 300 prisoners on Mount Harriet, and for the bravery shown in the attack, the unit was awarded one DSO, one Military Cross, four Military Medals, and eight men were mentioned in dispatches.