Mount Harriet

Battle of Mount Harriet
Part of Falklands War
Selected mountains in East Falkland
Date June 11–12, 1982 Location Mount Harriet, Falkland Islands Result British victory
Belligerents
Argentina	United Kingdom
Commanders and leaders
Diego Soria	Nick Vaux
Strength
approximately 400 troops	600 Royal Marines
Casualties and losses
18 killed 50 wounded 300 captured	2 killed 30 wounded
Location within Falkland Islands

The Battle of Mount Harriet was an engagement of the Falklands War, which took place on the night of 11/12 June 1982 between British and Argentine forces. It was one of three battles in a brigade-size operation on the same night.

The British force consisted of 42 Commando (42 CDO), Royal Marines under the command of Lieutenant Colonel Nick Vaux's Royal Marines (he later became a general) with artillery support from a battery of 29 Commando Regiment, Royal Artillery. The 1st Battalion, Welsh Guards (1WG) and two companies from 40 Commando (40 CDO) were in reserve. HMS Yarmouth provided naval-gunfire support for the British forces. The Argentine defenders consisted of ex-Green Beret Captain Carlos Alberto Arroyo's B Company from Lieutenant Colonel Diego Alejandro Soria's 4th Monte Caseros Infantry Regiment (RI 4).

On the night of 30 May, K Company of 42 CDO boarded three Sea King helicopters and moved forward of San Carlos to secure the commanding heights of Mount Kent—at 1,504 feet, the tallest of the peaks surrounding Stanley—where the D Squadron SAS Troops had already established a strong presence. However, when they arrived at their landing zone, some 3 kilometres (2 miles) behind the ridge of the mountain, the Marines were surprised to see the flashes and lines of tracer ammunition lighting up the night.

After a second clash with the 15 SAS men from 17 Boat Troop, the Argentine patrol (under Captain Tomas Fernandez' 2nd Assault Section, 602 Commando Company) abandoned their hideouts among the boulders and caves on Mount Kent. By the end of May, D Squadron under Major Cedric Delves had gained Mount Kent at the cost of two wounded in Air Troop, and Boat Troop with Tactical HQ commenced patrolling Bluff Cove Peak, Mount Challenger and Estancia House, which they took with the loss of another two SAS wounded, including one Spanish-speaking warrant officer attached from 23rd Special Air Service Regiment (Reserve) that had joined Delves to properly interrogate the captured Argentine Army Special Forces. At the same time Captain Matthew Selfridge's D Company scouting ahead of 3 PARA took Teal Inlet Settlement, at the cost of one wounded through an accidental discharge.