page_title: Battle of Mount Harriet
section_title: Battle
hierarchical_section_title: Battle of Mount Harriet / Battle
caption_attribution_description: Battle map of Battle of Mount Harriet.
context_page_description: 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. One of three battles in a Brigade-size operation all on the same night, the other two being the Battle of Mount Longdon and the Battle of Two Sisters.
  One of a number of night battles that took place during the British advance towards Stanley, the battle led to British troops capturing all the heights above the town, allowing its capture and the surrender of the Argentine forces on the islands.
context_section_description: The battle for Mount Harriet began on the evening of 11 June with a naval bombardment that killed two Argentinians and wounded twenty-five. John Witheroe, one of the British war correspondents, later recalled the bombardment:
  We were involved with one night attack on Mount Harriet when the Welsh Guards were coming up as a back-up. This involved marching for several hours on a very dark night, through a minefield. Sporadic shellfire slowed our progress tremendously. Eventually, we made the base of Mount Harriet, which was coming under incredible fire from a frigate offshore. The whole mountain seemed to erupt in flame. It seemed impossible that anybody could survive an attack like that. This went on for well over an hour, shell after shell whistling over our heads and hitting the mountain. Eventually, this was lifted and the Marines went in. To our amazement, there seemed to be an incredible amount of fighting going on. There was a lot of tracer fire. The whole night was being lit up by flares, which cast a dead, unrealistic, pall over the whole scene.
  The Argentines retaliated and Captain Tomás Fox, the Artillery Observation Officer on Mount Kent, directed 155mm artillery rounds that fell among the men of 'B' Company, 7th Duke of Edinburgh's Own Gurkha Rifles in the area of Bluff Cove, seriously wounding three Gurkhas, including Lance Corporal Gyanendra Rai who nearly bled to death.
  During the patrolling period, the Royal Marines had discovered a path through a minefield that Lieutenant Roberto Francisco Eito's platoon of sappers from the 601st Combat Engineers Company had laid around Mount Harriet, allowing the 42 Commando rifle companies to attack the two Argentine 4th Regiment companies on Harriet from the rear.
  Captain Peter Babbington's K Company crossed their start line first and proceeded up the mountain undetected, knifing two sentries on the way. They remained undetected until they approached Sub-Lieutenant Mario Juarez' 120 mm mortar platoon positions and decided to engage them. They were assisted in the advance by HMS Yarmouth's, artillery, and their own battalions mortars. During the engagement, Second Lieutenant Juarez was badly wounded firing his handgun in the dark and Corporal Laurence G Watts from K Company was killed clearing the occupants of a tent. The supporting British artillery batteries and mortar crews fired over 1,000 rounds to keep the Argentines pinned down, and helped stop the defenders getting a proper aim at the Royal Marines from K and L Companies.
  About 150 metres from Soria's HQ, Corporal Steve Newland circled behind a group of Argentines (under First Lieutenant Jorge Alejandro Echeverria, the 4th Regiment's intelligence officer) who were setting up an ambush. Newland pulled back into cover and warned the lead elements in K Company. Each time a Royal Marine moved, Corporal  Roberto Baruzzo would open fire with the help of his night vision rifle scope, to make it appear there was only one enemy sniper holding up K Company. Lieutenant Echeverria's men were holding their fire in order to encourage the British to break cover and rush their position only to run into the concentrated fire of the machine-gun and protecting riflemen. With half a platoon of disciplined RI4 and RI12 riflemen and a 7.62 mm general-purpose machine gun team threatening the British advance, Newland darted out from cover and charged the enemy. He neutralized the machine gun with grenades but on reaching the rear of the position, Corporal Baruzzo shot Newland in both legs.
  With the enemy machine gun out of action, Corporals Steve Newland, Mick Eccles and Chrystie 'Sharky' Ward were able to clear the remaining Argentine troops and captured 17 Argentines, including Echeverria who was shot five times. The three British corporals were each awarded the Military Medal.
  Increasing numbers of Argentine soldiers, mainly shocked and dazed conscripts from RI 4's Recce Platoon, Reserve Platoon and 120-mm Mortar Platoon began to surrender but several experienced officers (First Lieutenants Francisco Pablo D'Aloia, Esteban Guillermo 
caption: A map of the Battle of Mount Harriet.