In late May 1982, British troops slogged across the broken, hilly muck of East Falkand with the objective of pinning in place and defeating the Argentine Army — which the British would do two weeks later.
But the campaign leading up to the Argentine defeat was not short on pitched clashes and lengthy, hilltop firefights. What’s also striking about the final weeks of the Falklands War is that the era pit two technologically matched adversaries — in most respects — against each other in an infantry battle.
One brief and obscure firefight occurred at the Top Malo House, an abandoned shepherd’s house occupied by 16 Argentine soldiers of the 1st Assault Section, 602 Commando Company. From the position, the commandos could observe British maneuvers and threaten aircraft with shoulder-fired Blowpipe anti-aircraft missiles.
The task of knocking out the position fell to a group of Royal Marines with the Mountain and Arctic Warfare Cadre — a “less celebrated” but no-less-tough elite unit compared to the SAS and SBS, according to historians Max Hastings and Simon Jenkins.
The 19 Marines were just about evenly matched with the Argentine commandos, but these were actually uneven odds according to the general military rule that an attacker should outnumber a defender by at least three times the defender’s strength, given the inherent advantages of the defense.
The Marines made up the difference with firepower ...
