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The close quarter combat is here described first-hand by Corporal Steven Newland:{{cquote|All the time we were lying there rounds were ricocheting  off the rocks at us and the cold was freezing our bollocks off.  On the radio I heard Sharkie talking to his boss.  He said 'we're pinned down by a sniper and we can't move.'  I thought  'Right, someone's got to go for this bastard.'  So I took off my 66 [millimetre bazooka] shells, got on the radio to our boss and said 'Wait there and I'll see what I can do'. I crawled around this mega-size boulder, climbed up a little steep bit, went over the top on my stomach, rolled into cover, crawled a bit further and looked around the corner of this rock, thinking that the sniper had to be there somewhere.  There was more than a sniper - there was half a platoon!  About ten of them were lying on a nice, flat, table-top rock overlooking our positions.  It was perfect for them.  They had a machinegun on the left and the rest of them were lined out with rifles.  Everytime one of ours tried to move forward, one of them would shoot at him, so to us it looked as if there was only one sniper who was keeping on the move.  They were waiting for us to break cover and try and clear this one sniper - then they would just waste us with their machinegun. I sat back behind this rock and whispered down my throat-microphone to Sharkie about what I'd found.  I told him to keep the lads there and I'd see what we could do. Then having made my mind up I picked up my SLR rifle, changed the magazine and put a fresh one on and slipped the safety catch off. I then looped the pin of one grenade onto one finger of my left hand and did the same with another. I was ready. So I thought 'Well, you've got to do something.'  I pulled one grenade, whack - straight onto the machinegun. Pulled the other, whack - straight at the Spics. I dodged back around the rock and heard the two bangs. As soon as they'd gone off I went in and anything that moved got three rounds. I don't know how many I shot, but they got a whole magazine. I went back round the corner of the rock, changed the magazine and I was about to go back and sort out anyone who was left, when Sharkie called on the net: 'Get out. We're putting two 66s in'  So I ran back down the hill, dived into this little hollow I'd seen on the way up.  Over the net I told him to 'Let it go!'. The 66s exploded and the next thing I heard was Sharkie on the radio again. He said 'It's clear. They've given up.  Go back to where you were and make sure they don't get out the back.' I went up by a different route and as I rounded this rock, I saw one of the guys that I'd hit.  I'd only got him in the shoulder but he'd gone down like the rest of them and in the dark, I'd automatically thought he was dead. But he was far from that, because as I came back round the corner, he just squeezed off a burst from his automatic rifle.  He must've realised he was going to die unless he got me first. I felt the bullets go into both my legs.  I thought 'Shit, the fucker's got me'. I was so angry, I fired 15 rounds into his head. <ref>War in Peace, Volume 10 Issue 112, Orbis Publishing Limited 1985 </ref>}}

The close quarter combat is here described first-hand by Corporal Steven Newland:{{cquote|All the time we were lying there rounds were ricocheting  off the rocks at us and the cold was freezing our bollocks off.  On the radio I heard Sharkie talking to his boss.  He said 'we're pinned down by a sniper and we can't move.'  I thought  'Right, someone's got to go for this bastard.'  So I took off my 66 [millimetre bazooka] shells, got on the radio to our boss and said 'Wait there and I'll see what I can do'. I crawled around this mega-size boulder, climbed up a little steep bit, went over the top on my stomach, rolled into cover, crawled a bit further and looked around the corner of this rock, thinking that the sniper had to be there somewhere.  There was more than a sniper - there was half a platoon!  About ten of them were lying on a nice, flat, table-top rock overlooking our positions.  It was perfect for them.  They had a machinegun on the left and the rest of them were lined out with rifles.  Everytime one of ours tried to move forward, one of them would shoot at him, so to us it looked as if there was only one sniper who was keeping on the move.  They were waiting for us to break cover and try and clear this one sniper - then they would just waste us with their machinegun. I sat back behind this rock and whispered down my throat-microphone to Sharkie about what I'd found.  I told him to keep the lads there and I'd see what we could do. Then having made my mind up I picked up my SLR rifle, changed the magazine and put a fresh one on and slipped the safety catch off. I then looped the pin of one grenade onto one finger of my left hand and did the same with another. I was ready. So I thought 'Well, you've got to do something.'  I pulled one grenade, whack - straight onto the machinegun. Pulled the other, whack - straight at the Spics. I dodged back around the rock and heard the two bangs. As soon as they'd gone off I went in and anything that moved got three rounds. I don't know how many I shot, but they got a whole magazine. I went back round the corner of the rock, changed the magazine and I was about to go back and sort out anyone who was left, when Sharkie called on the net: 'Get out. We're putting two 66s in'  So I ran back down the hill, dived into this little hollow I'd seen on the way up.  Over the net I told him to 'Let it go!'. The 66s exploded and the next thing I heard was Sharkie on the radio again. He said 'It's clear. They've given up.  Go back to where you were and make sure they don't get out the back.' I went up by a different route and as I rounded this rock, I saw one of the guys that I'd hit.  I'd only got him in the shoulder but he'd gone down like the rest of them and in the dark, I'd automatically thought he was dead. But he was far from that, because as I came back round the corner, he just squeezed off a burst from his automatic rifle.  He must've realised he was going to die unless he got me first. I felt the bullets go into both my legs.  I thought 'Shit, the fucker's got me'. I was so angry, I fired 15 rounds into his head. <ref>War in Peace, Volume 10 Issue 112, Orbis Publishing Limited 1985 </ref>}}

Newland shot several, two fatally.

Newland shot several, one fatally.

While 'Kilo' Company was fighting on the eastern end of the summit and coming under artillery fire, 'Lima' Company was making its way up the southern slopes of Mount Harriet under heavy machine gun fire from 2d Lieutenant Pablo Andrés Oliva's platoon of conscripts which opened fire soon after Captain David Wheen's men crossed their start-line, wounding three British marines in the process. British artillery fire and MILAN anti-tank missiles were successful in knocking out these and other troublesome enemy machine-gun sangars further up the slope, but it took 5 hours and 14 wounded from Argentinian artillery and automatic fire, before 'Lima' Company reached the summit, still in the dark.  

The fighting on Mount Harriet was fierce, casualties were heavy and passions ran high. Yet a sense of restraint existed in 42 Royal Marine Commando Battalion.

Lieutenant Jerry Burnell's 5 Troop of 'Lima' Company was then sent forward to the next objective, an  outcrop of rocks just to the south of Goat Ridge, but was initially forced to retreat until the defenders in the form of 2d Lieutenant Lautaro Jiménez-Corbalán 3rd Rifle Platoon crumbled under heavy fire from fifteen GPMG machine-guns, mortar and artillery fire.

Meanwhile, to the southwest of Mount Harriet, the vanguard of 42 Royal Marine Commando Battalion's 'Lima' Company (under Captain David Wheen) had had a nasty moment when it stumbled onto the 3rd Infantry Brigade's Security Platoon, commanded by 2d Lieutenant Pablo Andres Oliva, entrenched on the southern approaches to Mount Harriet. The Argentinians with their MAG 7.62 belt-fed millimetre machineguns and FAL automatic rifles opened up on 'Lima' Company, spitting fire into the ranks. The weight of fire was incredible.  The attack of the Royal Marine Commandos faltered and disaster on a gigantic scale threatened to overwhelm Captain Wheen's company.

With dawn and 'Lima' Company still fighting forward, 'Juliet' Company was ordered on to Goat Ridge, by which time the defending rifle platoon under 2d Lt Oscar Augusto Silva (a paratrooper) had retreated to new positions on Tumbledown Mountain and 'Kilo' Company had cleared the summit of Harriet. In taking its objective, 42 Commando had lost two killed and thirty wounded.<ref>"2 COYS OF 42 CDO HAD TAKEN A REGIMENTAL POSITION FOR 2 KILLED AND 30 WOUNDED ... WE HAD BEEN ORDERED TO BE PREPARED TO PRESS FORWARD THE ATTACK ONTO MOUNT TUMBLEDOWN AND MOUNT WILLIAM IF THE ENEMY FLED OUR INITIAL ATTACK, AND TIME ALLOWED. BY DAWN IT WAS OBVIOUS THAT WE WERE IN NO POSITION TO ATTACK.  WE WERE EXHAUSTED, OUT OF AMMO AND SUFFERING SIGNIFICANT CASUALTIES.  MY 21C, A RADIO OPERATOR, MY TAC HQ MACHINE GUNNER AND ONE OF MY TROOP COMMANDERS HAD ALL BEEN SHOT, AND A FURTHER 10 ALSO WOUNDED.  ANOTHER TROOP COMMANDER I DISCOVERED WAS SUFFERING FROM SHELLSHOCK". [http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/library/report/1986/WDG.htm A  Rifle Company Commander's Perspective, Major David G. Wheen, Royal Marines]</ref>

 

 

 

 

 

With dawn approaching and 'Lima' Company still fighting forward, 'Juliet' Company was ordered on to Goat Ridge, by which time the defending rifle platoon under 2d Lieutenant Oscar Augusto Silva (a paratrooper) had retreated to new positions on Tumbledown Mountain and 'Kilo' Company had cleared the summit of Harriet.  

 

By 09.30 local time the craggy peaks of Mount Harriet and Goat Ridge were secure, at a cost to 42 Commando Battalion of two fatal casualties (Corporals Jeremy Smith and Laurence Watts) and thirty wounded.<ref>"2 COYS OF 42 CDO HAD TAKEN A REGIMENTAL POSITION FOR 2 KILLED AND 30 WOUNDED ... WE HAD BEEN ORDERED TO BE PREPARED TO PRESS FORWARD THE ATTACK ONTO MOUNT TUMBLEDOWN AND MOUNT WILLIAM IF THE ENEMY FLED OUR INITIAL ATTACK, AND TIME ALLOWED. BY DAWN IT WAS OBVIOUS THAT WE WERE IN NO POSITION TO ATTACK.  WE WERE EXHAUSTED, OUT OF AMMO AND SUFFERING SIGNIFICANT CASUALTIES.  MY 21C, A RADIO OPERATOR, MY TAC HQ MACHINE GUNNER AND ONE OF MY TROOP COMMANDERS HAD ALL BEEN SHOT, AND A FURTHER 10 ALSO WOUNDED.  ANOTHER TROOP COMMANDER I DISCOVERED WAS SUFFERING FROM SHELLSHOCK". [http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/library/report/1986/WDG.htm A  Rifle Company Commander's Perspective, Major David G. Wheen, Royal Marines]</ref>

==Aftermath==

==Aftermath==