Tuesday, May 29, 2012


"In seven weeks a task force of 28,000 men and over 100 ships was assembled and sailed 8000 miles. It fought off combat aircraft that outnumbered its own by six to one. It put 8500 men ashore on a hostile coast and fought several pitched battles against the enemy. And brought them to surrender within three and a half weeks." (South Atlantic Medal Association)

Most people wrongly assume that The Welsh Guards never saw any action in the Falklands conflict and instead see them as victims of an horrific attack at Bluff Cove on The Sir Galahad.  Few are aware that two companies of Welsh Guards made it to shore to advance on Port Stanley as part of 3 Commando Brigade.  This is their untold story written and drawn in a cartoon format by ex-Guardsman and cartoonist, Will Kevans. Told from an eighteen-year-old's perspective, it describes the fear and enduring humour of the average soldier. 

The story covers the longest ever sea journey undertaken in a naval landing craft, the shooting down of an Argentine Sky hawk, the tragic events at Bluff Cove on board The Sir Galahad, the companies getting stuck in a minefield whilst pinned down by enemy artillery and machine gun fire, the taking of Mount Harriet, the final assault on Sapper Hill, the Argentine surrender, the last 500 Argentine prisoners' return to Puerto Madryn in Patagonia and the long sea journey back to Ascension Islands across the Roaring Forties in a flat-bottomed cross-channel ferry.  

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