Sunday 18 January 2015

A trip to Mt Tumbledown

Welcome to this week’s blog post and this week it is all about a little trip I took to visit Mt Tumbledown on the Falkland Islands.

Tumbledown overlooks Port Stanley and was the focus of fierce fighting between Argentinean troops who were dug in on the mountain and British troops who wanted to shift them from the high ground.

It was winter; there was snow and extremely cold weather. The British had to cross large areas of dead ground to reach the base of the outcrop and then assault upwards, in darkness under a hail of bullets, mortar rounds and artillery shells.

The battle for Tumbledown was fierce and in some cases, hand to hand with bayonets and knives but ultimately the British won the battle.

Today, I followed the route the British soldiers took from the approach to Mt Tumbledown, up the mountain, across the ridge and then on to Mt William. It was tough going in daylight with the rain falling and the wind gusting but it was nothing compared to what the British troops faced in 1982. To face a constant barrage from well dug in troops when you are cold, tired and can’t see very well due to the darkness must have needed superhuman determination and courage.

Here is a poem written by a guardsman who took part. This poem is displayed in the main corridor of the Mount Pleasant complex:


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 And here is the site of the battle:


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 I think I’ll leave things there for now.

See you from a position of reflection!

2 comments:

Lord Siwoc said...

Amazing when thinking about what happened at such a beautifull place, once again the first word that springs to mind after reading your post...Is respect!

Unknown said...

Humbling.