Falklands War
During the Falklands War he was in command of 2nd Battalion The Parachute Regiment (2 PARA). During an attack against entrenched Argentinian positions, with his unit pinned down by heavy fire, he led a charge against the nearest position. He was killed while doing so but the Argentinian unit surrendered shortly afterwards. For his actions he was posthumously awarded the Victoria Cross. His Victoria Cross is displayed at the National Army Museum in Chelsea, London, England.
Command of 2 PARA passed to Major Chris Keeble, and Jones was buried at Ajax Bay on 30 May near where he died of wounds. After the war his body was exhumed and buried at the Blue Beach War Cemetery in Port San Carlos on 25 October.
Few historians have disputed his valour. However, ex-TA Para officer and military theorist Spencer Fitz-Gibbon wrote in 1995 that despite his undoubted courage H did more to hinder than to help 2 Para, losing sight of the overall battle picture and failing to allow his sub-unit commanders to exercise Mission Command, before his fatal attempt to lead "A" Company forward from the position where they had become bogged down.
Read more about this topic: H. Jones
Famous quotes containing the words falklands and/or war:
“If we were doing this in the Falklands they would love it. It’s part of our heritage. The British have always been fighting wars.”
—British soccer fan. quoted in Independent (London, Dec. 23, 1988)
“A nice war is a war where everybody who is heroic is a hero, and everybody more or less is a hero in a nice war. Now this war is not at all a nice war.”
—Gertrude Stein (1874–1946)