'82 Veteran: "Battlefield Tours Are Invaluable For Today's Soldiers"

Penguin News, February 2005

An officer from the Scots Guards has returned to the Islands for the first time since the Falklands War and used his own search for "closure" to teach today's soldiers some of the lessons of warfare learned in 1982.

Major Simon Price led the Right Flank assault in the battle for Tumbledown Mountain on the night of 13 June 1982.  Now working as an infantry advisor at the Royal School of Artillery in Larkhill, Major Price returned to the Islands last month for the first time since the war, to participate in an artillery exercise.  While here he retraced his steps on Tumbledown Mountain three times during his visit; the first two visits he says provided "closure" while the third was to teach other servicemen about the battle.  In essence he offered his services, "... to take them over the mountain to get first hand experience".

Speaking to Penguin News a few days before returning to the United Kingdom, Major Price said the importance of these battlefield tours for today's soldiers cannot be underestimated.  "There is the inspirational side for the young soldier when he sees what our soldiers achieved and the conditions we did it.  The battles down here were the last traditional infantry-based battles.  I suppose we're beginning to see them in some of the elements of Iraq today, but those are urban battles.  These were straight rural infantry conflicts."

He continued, "If money wasn't so tight in the world today I think our army would put much more emphasis on battlefield tours, because there is tremendous training value - such as into leadership styles, and the value of planning - looking at these old conflicts.  It's a result of the Falkland Islands that the British Army has the good equipment clothing-wise that we have today, it's as a result of the Falklands campaign that we now routinely fight at night.  This conflict was an absolute catalyst for the modernisation of the British Army."

Major Price was tasked with taking out a final Argentine position on Tumbledown Mountain, with only one and a half hours of darkness left.  He was informed by his forward observation officer that, due to a problem with fire support, he had to decide whether to delay the attack or go in without artillery.  He decided upon the latter option.

He described the events: "I decided that we would attack as quickly as possible - normally it takes about thirty or forty minutes to set up a dismounted company assault - I gave myself ten minutes.  So my orders lasted two minutes, the platoon commanders were given two minutes, section commanders were given three minutes (because it is more important at the bottom end) and any remaining minutes were given to final administration.  Because everything was so rushed I decided I would lead the company round to where I thought we were going to attack from."

Major Price's company was the only company in the final battles of the war that attacked without artillery as a precursor.  "We gained surprise because of that.  Also, I had a sniper out who kept Argentinian heads down, a young Guardsman three weeks out of the depot who just happened to be a particularly good shot with our nightsight.  This enabled us to get about twenty metres from the objective without them knowing we were there."

The fight lasted about an hour and twenty minutes as opposed to the eight hour battle Left Flank had had (they had to close a two hundred metre gap) - "We were able to have the big advantage of surprise."  Major Price then organised his men so they could repel "a fairly half-hearted attack with machine guns".

He sent his observation officer forward to the end of Tumbledown, "... and he was able to overlook the whole plain; he engaged one group of marching Argentinians and, in effect, destroyed them.  He did the same with a second group and was about to fire his third fire mission when the whole plain, in his words, became alive with fleeing Argentinian soldiers.  They all ran towards Stanley.  We reported this up the chain and we were told to cease firing."  

Major Price is proud the attack on Tumbledown "shortened the war".  "The Gurkhas didn't have to attack Mount William, the Welsh Guards didn't have to attack Sapper Hill and we didn't have to fight to come into Stanley.  All that was saved because we got the power of artillery onto vital ground.  That was a very rewarding end to our little battle."

At the end of the war, Major Price and his men remained in the Falklands for a further two months.  This extended tour, he said, helped his men to deal with their war experiences.  They were sent to the old canning plant at Ajax Bay to run a prisoner of war camp housing 525 special category prisoners.  Also under their care was the initial cemetery, "... where all our men had been buried and also where the Argentinians who had come through the hospital at Ajax Bay were buried."  Major Price and his men used their time at Ajax Bay as therapeutic work, "... to enhance the cemetery and to make it as smart as we possible could".

Not only was this an important job because it was looking after those men that had died, but it also served as "great rehabilitation".  As a result he said, "no one in my company that I am aware of has suffered from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.  We had this very slow, gentle wind down.  It also played an important part in re-orientating us back into peace time mode; we didn't like it at the time - conditions were very basic - but in retrospect it was absolutely the right thing to have done and we were far, far more balanced as a result."

Major Price said his one regret from 1982 was that his contact with the local population was minimal - "I always regretted that, coming 8,000 miles, then not really meeting the people that one has fought for."  His return to the Islands last month allowed him to rectify that.  However he said that, while he was pleased to have come back, now he has achieved "closure" he does not feel "any driving force" to come back.  Major Price retires from the British Forces in January 2006.

This article first appeared in the Penguin News on 14 January 2005, and is reproduced with the kind permission of the Editor.

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