Argentine ground forces in the Falklands War


This is a list of the ground forces from Argentina that took part in the Falklands War. For a list of ground forces from the United Kingdom, see British ground forces in the Falklands War.

Operation Rosario (April 2)

Argentina had eight complete infantry brigades: 4th Airborne Infantry Brigade in Córdoba; 5th Mountain Brigade in Tucumán; 9th Brigade in the Santa Cruz Province close to the Falklands; the well-equipped 6th and 8th Mountain Infantry Brigades along the Chilean border; 11th Brigade, in the extreme south; and 3rd and 7th Brigades facing Brazil and Uruguay. The Argentine Army also had the 10th Mechanized Infantry Brigade in the capital guarding against a theoretical seaborne invasion along the Buenos Aires coastline. Two assumptions governed the deployment of the Argentine ground forces on the islands :
In the Argentine Army, the bulk of the national servicemen were demobilized in late December. The Soldados Clase ’63 were conscripts born in 1963. On April 2, 1982 the SC 63 inducted into the army in February had started their 45 days of boot camp training. When the Royal Navy set sail for the South Atlantic, the army tried to replace their SC 63 intake with the recently demobilized SC '62 reservists.
The conscripts inducted in February and March 1982 in Lieutenant-Colonel Mohamed Alí Seineldín's 25th Infantry Regiment from the 9th Infantry Brigade in Santa Cruz Province, received Commando training in a crash 4-week course. British Warrant Officer Nick Van Der Bijl, who interviewed key captured Argentine officers in the fighting has written:
In all, some fifty conscripts in the 12th Regiment from the 3rd Infantry Brigade in Corrientes Province had also been put through a compressed commando course organized by visiting Argentine Army Green Berets in 1981. Private Esteban Roberto Ávalos who fought in the Falklands as a sniper recalls:
During 1981, a Commando course was squeezed in the 10th Mechanised Infantry Brigade in Buenos Aires. The brigade commander, Brigadier Oscar Luis Jofré had decided that an airlanding special operations platoon would be formed for each of his regiments. Major Oscar Ramón Jaimet, the Operations Officer of the 6th Regiment, took over command of the formation of these helicopter-borne platoons of mainly conscripts. Jaimet, a dedicated professional soldier had served behind Marxist separatist guerrilla lines as a Commando in the Tucumán Province in 1975. Private Santiago Fabián Gauto was selected to be part of the Commando platoon for the 7th Regiment:
Major Carlos Carrizo Salvadores, second-in-command of the 7th Regiment confirms that:

Theatre of Operations in the Falkland Islands (April 7 – June 14)

Guarnición Militar Malvinas
It was on 2 April 1982 when Brigadier-General Omar Edgardo Parada learned that the Falklands/Malvinas had been occupied. This brigade commander did not have much time to take part in the official celebrations held in the capital city of Corrientes Province; he soon received orders to prepare his brigade for transfer to southern Argentina, with one of his units, the 3rd Artillery Regiment ordered to Port Stanley. At this juncture most of the 3rd Brigade conscripts had completed their national service and had returned to civilian life, and the new batch of conscripts had just been incorporated. Parada immediately went about the task of rounding up all the reservists, which he was able to achieve in great numbers by sending messengers in vehicles. Thus a substantial part of the trained reservists from the provinces of Corrientes, Chaco, and Misiones, were mobilized, many of the recalled soldiers scrambling aboard the trains laden with the brigade's regulars on their southbound journey. After crossing the Colorado River, Parada received new instructions to reinforce Brigadier-General Américo Daher's 9th Infantry Brigade in Santa Cruz Province that had already sent the 8th and 25th Regiments to the Falklands. Before this request could be met, the 3rd Brigade received orders to board the transport planes heading to Port Stanley.
Private Pablo Vicente Córdoba from the new arrivals in the 4th Infantry Regiment recalls the accelerated boot-camp training he received under Sub-Lieutenant Oscar Augusto Silva :
Commander: Brigade General Omar Parada. Brigade home base: Mesopotamia
Private Dacio Agretti, serving in B Company from the 4th Infantry Regiment, recalls events leading up to the Battle of Two Sisters:
During the Battle of Mount Harriet, 42 Commando Group discovered a path through a frozen minefield, according to the 4th Regiment's Intelligence Officer First Lieutenant Jorge Echeverría, allowing the Royal Marines to attack the two Argentine 4th Regiment companies on Harriet from the rear. The British marines were in among the 120mm heavy mortar platoon and 12th Regiment reserve platoon positions very early in the battle, and they took the position after a 15-minute gun-fight and scattered the defenders. The 12th Regiment company commander present, First Lieutenant Ignacio Gorriti and First Lieutenant Jorge Echeverría tried to pull troops from Mosteirin's reinforced rifle platoon to counterattack the British, but many of the soldiers initially refused to obey any commands to stand and fight. A 4th Regiment B Company platoon commander, Second Lieutenant Eugenio César Bruny, managed to pull together his rifle platoon for a counterattack but it was pinned and dispersed almost immediately by British artillery and mortar fire.

10th Mechanised Infantry Brigade

Agrupación Puerto Argentino
Commander: Brigadier-General Oscar Luis Jofre. Brigade home base: Buenos Aires Province
Brigadier Jofre, aged 53, had converted his 10th Brigade into a well-trained formation. The culmination of the training cycle for the conscripts consisted of a full-scale mechanized infantry assault with supporting aircraft from the Argentine Air Force in the General Acha Desert in La Pampa Province in October 1981. Private Claudio Alberto Carbone from the 7th Mechanized Regiment recalls the major exercise that also involved the 1st Armoured Cavalry Brigade:
In an interview with Private Manuel Valenzuela from the 6th Mechanized Regiment in 2015, the Argentine newspaper Publicable confirmed that the exercises in the General Acha training area were designed to toughen up the conscripts nearing the completion of their national service, with very little food and water provided to the participating units in the first burst of heatwave conditions in the Argentine summer of 1981:
The 10th Brigade mobilized with creditable speed. The Argentine reservists were sustained by patriotism and indignation. Private Patricio Pérez from the 3rd Regiment:
Private Horacio Benítez from the 3rd Regiment:
The 10th Brigade assumed responsibility for the defence of Port Stanley with Moody Brook Barracks initially serving as the 10th Mechanized Infantry Brigade Headquarters.
The first elements of the La Tablada-based 3rd Mechanized Infantry Regiment arrived in Port Stanley on 9 April and from 13-21 would spend their time digging in Sector Cobre covering the southern beaches. The Commanding Officer of the 3rd Regiment, Lieutenant-Colonel David Ubaldo Comini attended his first briefing inside the ex-Royal Marine Barracks on 10 April with Comini that night giving a patriotic speech in the presence of Brigadier-General Mario Benjamin Menéndez that welcomed the new arrivals with a giant chocolate easter egg and bottles of French wine seized from the Royal Marine cellars, a televised event that Argentine war correspondent Eduardo Rotondo claims he captured on film.
The 3rd Infantry Regiment from the La Tablada suburb of Buenos Aires, was allocated two warehouses in Port Stanley for the drying of wet clothes left hanging inside and to get some proper sleep, 200 men per night; this luxury of course ended, with the British San Carlos landings and an increase of British air activity and naval shelling.
On the night of 12–13 June, Captain Rubén Oscar Zunino's A Company from the 3rd Regiment was detached to 'Reserva Z' ready to reinforce Commander Carlos Hugo Robacio's 5th Marine Battalion or Lieutenant-Colonel Omar Giménez's 7th Regiment. Robacio did not use the company but Giménez called for it to regain Wireless Ridge; this attack failed in spite of a determined effort. The platoons involved withdrew under covering fire from the Oto Melara 105mm pack howitzers from the 4th Airborne Artillery Group.
During its defence of Port Stanley, the 10th Brigade had suffered the loss of 66 killed in action or died of wounds and 370 wounded in action.

Artillery

I Corps
Army Chief of Staff Troops
Under the orders of Brigadier-General Menéndez, the Argentine Military Governor at Port Stanley, the army engineers in the Falklands capital built field showers for the 10th Brigade, that allowed the 3rd, 6th, 7th and supporting 4th and 25th Regiments before the British landings, to send companies into town on a rotating basis to get a hot shower.

'Reserva Z'

Reserva Z was established on 7 April 1982. Initially comprising Major Alejandro Carullo's 181st Armoured Cavalry Squadron, it was located on Stanley Racecourse with orders to reinforce Fox Bay or Goose Green if required via helicopters or ships.
With the arrival of the 10th Brigade, 'Reserva Z' was reinforced by Captain Rodrigo Alejandro Soloaga's 10th Armoured Cavalry Squadron and the 3rd Regiment's 'Tacuari' Company and the 6th Infantry Regiment's 'Piribebuy' Company. By the end of April, 'Reserva Z' received clear instructions to defend the Stanley sector. The two armoured car units were ordered to patrol the Stanley-Estancia track. The 6th Regiment's B Company occupied The Saddle in support of the 4th 'Monte Caseros' Regiment digging in on Mount Challenger and Wall Mountain. It was also warned to be ready to reinforce the 3rd and 6th Infantry Regiments in the event of a seaborne landing on the southern beaches. In late April, 'Equipo de Combate Solari' in the form of the 12th Infantry Regiment's B Company joined 'Reserva Z', bringing it to a regimental-size grouping.

Marines

On the night of 13–14 June, the British 5th Infantry Brigade carried out their attacks. The 2nd Scots Guards Battalion attacked Tumbledown Mountain in the centre. The Argentines defending Tumbledown were Marines from N Company from Commander Carlos Hugo Robacio's 5th Marine Battalion. They were supported on the forward slopes of Mount William with O Company of the 5th Marines. Although its men were conscripts too, the marines were well fed and well clothed for the Falklands. The battalion had been based in Tierra del Fuego in the far south of the Patagonia and the soldiers were used to the harsh terrain and cold climate.

Gendarmería (Border Guards)

Escuadrón de Fuerzas Especiales 601 de Gendarmería Nacional
The following Gendarmeria combat patrols in the form of the 601st National Gendarmerie Special Forces Squadron operated in the Falklands:
The 601st National Gendarmerie Special Forces Squadron under Major José Ricardo Spadaro along with the 181st Military Police Company carried out several cordon-and-search operations in Port Stanley, to ensure that British special forces were not hiding among the civilian population in the Falklands capital. Port Stanley resident John Smith recalls the surprise inspection his family received on the night of 9–10 June from the Gendarmerie commando patrol squad under Captain Hugo Díaz:

Air defences

Army