I was stuck out in the middle of nowhere trying to dig shell scrapes while we were lying with our hands trying to just claw the ground because the rounds were only just passing over our heads.  Yes three days in June I think Jimmy to anyone that was on that mountain they know immediately what you're what you're talking about do they not? Yeah it's it's I've read books before where they do all the all the story of when I joined the army the ship the sailing down there and the march across but what most fascinating what I most thought people would want to know is the battle the crux of the matter you know and what and the three days is all I wanted you know because that was what I thought was most vitally important the three days not the march across not the sail down you know the three days in June. Well I tell you what mate I reckon people on our podcast that's exactly what they're going to want to listen to and let's not be too candid about it because yeah war is a freaking horrible messy business and people need to know about it because our youngsters get a very glamourised view of what killing is from all these Xbox games and stuff and um we all need to be aware of what what's on the table don't we really? Yeah yeah okay I'll just lay out my table Jimmy I'm fascinating obviously growing up in that era and then going on to join the Marines I was fascinated with the Falklands era my best mate's dad fought down there uh god I always get emotional and say this but my best mate had to sit in a bath as a what we would have been what 10 years old maybe maybe 12 yeah he's just he used to watch the news to see the names that come up at the end of the news to see if his dad had been killed in battle that day uh and then he used to take himself off to the bath and just have a bath on his and just just so no one would see him crying it's just insane you know I remember when me when my dad was telling me how he got told I'd been injured like you know and my dad was a he's an ex-professional boxer and he's not a softy like you know and he was in the house just sitting there on a Saturday afternoon and my sister was looking out the window and she said there's an army man in the street and you know you just put two and two together you know and then she said he's coming down our path and my dad said I couldn't get out that chair I couldn't move and the fella knocked on the door and he said I just couldn't get out the chair and one of my sister I've got four sisters and they're all screaming everyone's screaming and the officer just came straight in and said he's not dead he's not dead he's eight and he's coming home and that destroyed my dad right you know I can't think of anything anything worse mate I've seen some of the dad crying literally crying in their beer when they're their their kids have been killed in the Middle East in this last 20 years and you're having to live with that when this smug likes a Tony Blair have made made freaking billions for themselves off all those deaths I don't know how they live with themselves well that's a whole nother story again isn't it but let's let's stick with your yeah I'll give you an injustice mate um I fairly recently so in the last year maybe two years I've read uh Vince Bramley's book yeah excursion to hell yeah and again that was a very gritty no-hold yeah but it depends if you know what actually happened see for for the for someone who is just reading it as a book I like Vince Vince is a nice lad I speak to Vince but the book is totally inaccurate okay I'm still I still speak with Vince now yeah I know what is wrong and I know what is right and I I know that never happened that never happened that never happened in that all you know it does so many things so but people are fascinated by the book and they swear by the book but it's only when you actually know you know I know in my heart that someone can read my book and that's right you know everything happened in that order that's what happened and that's where it happened and that's how it happened and I can live with that like you know yes where shall we start Jimmy if your books the three days do you want to what made you join the parrots to be honest when I was a young when my first job leaving school I worked in a margarine factory and as you can imagine they're not the best jobs in the world you know out my job we used to be standing at the end of a conveyor belt the margarine come down the boxes of margarine come down the conveyor belt and I'd stack it on pallets and you're done that day after after day and I had a cousin who was in four para and he loved it and I thought well if he likes it I'll have a go with that and I joined four para which is it's about 500 meters from where I am now and that's how near it was to me you know so I joined that and all the physical I loved it it was like it was just it opened the eyes to it you know and I thought I love this I'm going to go regular and I went regular and I've never never looked back best best thing I've ever done in my life Jim can I just say your screen your screen is vibrating oh yeah I've got my hands on the table I'll take my hands off the table I'll be telling you off for that because it can really ruin what yeah no no sorry about what essentially is going to be a brilliant podcast I know it um and when you say four para is this the the ta the ta para yeah yeah how were they looked at from the regulars are they kind of held in as equally there are crack and bunch of lads and they do the the professional the four para I could not fault them and I'm still friends with them lads today I go the local PR parachute regiment association all them lads are there the lad this he was a sergeant at the time when I joined the ta I'm still great friends with it I honest I've got the highest respect for them yeah it's funny that because when I speak to um rule marine reservists who sit some of them seem way more combat than I ever saw right and they they say Chris I was only in the RMR and I'm like what you're on about if you've got a green lid you've got a green lid yeah yeah and when I served in Belfast I didn't even know the guys until after the tour turned out that the guys I'd been on patrol with every day two of them were would come up through the RMR and it's just you don't there's absolutely no difference in their their soldiering the only thing I got told was when you go in regular going through depot don't mention your ex four para because they'll expect more of you do you know what I mean you know the weapon training weapon handle and all that so just keep your mouth shut and just go along with it like you know and it worked you would have joined up 79 yes 79 that was round about the time the Paris documentary was on the telly wouldn't it no that was just after when I joined um I joined in the June 79 and in August while I was going through depot warren point happens you remember what we remember warren point yeah can you explain that for our listeners uh warren point was um it was a bombing uh a dump it was an ambush in northern Ireland and 18 members of two para were killed in a in a bomb in a place called narrow water and I remember being at depot when all the funerals were going there was lads coming from everywhere to to carry the coffins and what have you and it was it sort of brought your own brought a home to you what you were joining you know watching these coffins with uni and jackson and what have you as you got you know and but saying that it was something I always wanted to do I I've when I was a child I always was fascinated by the army because I was a child of the 60s and it's only 15 years after second well war there was loads of well war two veterans in my life like you know who were young men at that time like you know and like to be honest we had a shop by our house selling all well what you know well all well war two stuff that had just been brought back you know if I had any time machine had to go and back buying all the stuff yes and I was I just wanted on the subject of warren point what that was a secondary devices what there was a second yeah the first one went off one was and the lads took cover behind a wall and then another the the the picked a likely gathering point everyone in behind the wall another one went off like you know yeah for our friends at home this was a a tactic of the IRA is they would set off one device it might not necessarily even be very big but then knowing that the the security force would gather and set up the points yeah set up a command post Jimmy wasn't it and they would predict where the command post would be and put a bigger a bigger bomb or a bigger device under there and this at warren point it was just tragic I met someone I think I met one of the guys in that troop I met him years later and he said Chris I went from a like a four man room to a one man room overnight yeah it was absolutely awful because to be honest the battalion I was in when I left depot when I passed out I was sent to three parter in Germany and the lads in three parter had to reinforce two parter so they sent a load of three parter to you know to fill the spaces like you know did they have um or did you meet bootnecks and girkers on your paracourse on the jumps course no the only ones that joined our prize note in the parachute course was some sas books who were getting the wings that was the only ones on ours but I can imagine they're fairly well mixed like you know because everyone's getting the wings and what have you yeah the mss guys they're good guys I found very very professional and very unassuming you wouldn't really know the things that I I found a bit strange is a lot of the people who I thought would pass easily fail and lads who went and you think there's no way he's getting in he got in and you think how is that like I don't know if you know it but um Corporal McLaughlin put in Stuart McLaughlin um he failed his selection on it on an injury but you'd think if anyone had get through it'd be Stuart McLaughlin like you know he is he is the man like you know but he had an injury and um he kept him on um doing stuff I think he was playing enemy you know just while his his leg healed and what have you but the injury was that great they had to send him back to battalion in the end like and I think he he resented going back but made the best of it like you know yeah we're going to talk more about him later aren't we because I used to travel home at the weekend with him we're just both being from Liverpool we used to share a car a car used to get all the skelters together everyone used to put in like a tenor or something like that and we'd all come home together in a car what was your balloon jump like um it was a bit unnerving because two people in front of me refused um first he called his uh number two come forward and he just said now and he said number three come forward and he said he said now and I thought this isn't good and he said uh to me number four come forward so I went forward out the balloon um and you find that when you go back to camp them lads who've refused they're gone the lockers empty beds stripped you never see them blokes again and uh like to be honest we did have on uh when it was a prize we had two lads very very badly injured and I watched them pile it um they got tangled up dropped like a stone one hit the floor and one landed on top of that the other bloke the feather on the bottom got smashed to pieces and he was he went in hospital never never never to be seen again the other lads he was badly injured never to be seen again but we'd all watched it happen and he said right get back in that plane he took us back to it to bries norton and made us jump again you know to just get the conference back because the long you leave it has to see and something like that you might start thinking about it you know so the plan was get them back in the aircraft and get them all out again like and it works like you know yes it's funny what you do when you're young isn't it young with daft yeah that balloon jump i mean you've got a reserve on but you haven't got time no no no you dropped 200 before they're open before the parachute inflates i think i think i said this on my podcast before i was i was in the cage the balloon cage or the basket there was three three young parrots who would obviously just done their pee company and i was a train rank i've been in for about four years so when they said right number off i'm like one just um and he said okay number one to the door turn around i went i'll see you guys on the ground and when we had the debrief that the jumping instructor went throw where's fucking throw here corporal he said what do you mean fucking's you're on him now but uh they don't like good well they don't do it anymore do they the balloon jumps gone they my last jump before i left the army was a balloon and because to be honest after you've got out of basic training it's a bit of a jolly it's a it's one of them just for a laugh sort of thing and i've been downtown shopping with a couple of lads and we were walking back to camp and we could see on the football field at the back of the depot the balloon was up so we said tell you what shall we see if we can get a jump this morning you know because we're going on the ailes afternoon like you know so we went down we said any chance of a jump uh and pgi just said yeah just pick one up strap up and in you go like you know it's funny it's it's like fun once you're in regular like you know i told this star in a podcast and some pgi i started giving it a big one but they used to take the balloon around a country yeah yeah and they took it up to four five commando up our brove and the train lads were just taking off their woolly pulleys with their wings on and giving them to their mates going go on you aren't going out and and and let people spin dits and they exaggerate that's being in the military right but my mate wouldn't have just lied to me and he said that some of the guys we have thrown themselves out of this basket and the pgi was going are you sure he's he's trained yeah let's say i think them days are gone like now you know with the elton safety and everything like that but as you say the way the way things gone on that that you'd never get away with now like you know no no i did sorry folks at home i i am talking a lot but these are just great conversations to have that there was um jimmy my mate does a podcast and he had a guest on and my mate's doing a podcast and he's not military so he's taking this guy dead serious and the guy's clearly like a let's say let's say he's got a bit of an imposter syndrome and he says to my mate yeah when we're in the uh it's some like uh not navy seals but some rangers or some american thing right he said um we're all in the plane we got our shoots and we all just took our shoots off man and we threw them out the door up and then we jumped after them and put them on in the air the best best one i heard i was on the train coming back to hold the shot or something and this fella said uh parrots and i said yeah mate yeah he said i've met your law i said oh have you he said i went out drinking with them one night and they got me so drunk they took me back to camp took the air to playing up and threw me out the door with a pair of shoes isn't it you know where'd fail like you know they took me back to camp and took the plane up you know as they do like you know there was a funny thing though with the sbs years ago before health and safety if you were a civilian yeah they they would take you up and let you do a water jump without any training not not not now of course because i mean yeah you could quite easily drown well not easily but but the possibility is you could have got covered in your shoot and you couldn't believe you could easily drown but yeah can't remember someone was on the podcast but it's all your drills it's all your your safety drills what you know things actions on sort of thing yeah if you got twists or your a malformed canopy or something or you you know using your reserve you know i think they probably took them over the basics but how things have changed yeah how did you get down south then um on the camber yeah well it wasn't too bad to be honest um we sailed down and what was good um i was in the anti-tank platoon and uh they let us mix with four five commando um their anti-tank platoon and we were like we went as guests to have a good night out with them you know just to get our know our opposite numbers sort of thing like you know and i found the marines all good lads like you know in fact not long after we come back to england we were invited down to um is it south sea down there they had a big dew and the marine yeah down port mid-summer it might have been south sea or something but and we thought we're gonna have made it here you know because all the marines down there and but they were great they were really really made welcome like you know yeah the rural marines museum used to be south sea i think it might be yeah we had the ball down there because you were expecting you just know you just you just expect the worst don't you you know it's there by the grace of god though isn't it because i i come from the south and it's heavily navy down here so naturally you see marines buzzing around and my mate's bad was a marine because that's why he was my neighbour because he's faced at four two and um so i joined marina i actually joined because my mate bet me i couldn't do it and i've won you're so a bloody cairn and and but had i been had i grew up in older shot it or something it i would have joined so and i wouldn't might join the army you know vince bramley grew up in older shot he ended up in the paris pete etiquette who got killed on london grew up in older shot during the paris like you know and um they called it the white whale cambera didn't they yeah the white whale yeah yeah how that thing didn't get hit i know i know um i remember to be honest on the forklings we just the day we landed with our job was to as soon as we get off head to the left there's a place called with the high ground is called windy gap and we were to climb up to the top of windy gap and just dominate the high ground you know a company would sweep through port san carlos clear the settlement i say we'd clear the high secure the high ground and um that's what we don't but as i when we when we secured the top i turned around to look because air tax air tax had begun and the the cambera was there as you say the great white whale and you know you think what is that doing there if if there's a target that is the target you know because it stood out like a sore tongue and go ahead how heavy was your bergen well that must wait what we everyone says the bergen we didn't have bergens four five commando carried bergens um we didn't carry we didn't sounds i don't know we didn't see the pointing in bergens and we loaded up in fight norther which is you know you know what fight norther is it's just your weapon with as much ammo as you can carry we're going for a fight we're not going to sleep overnight we don't you don't want your spare demons your spare boots your spare we're going on like an advanced to contact sort of thing and um but it was heavy because i remember climbing up that hill to to the um to windy gap i had four eight four we like when we landed every man carried four motorbombs two in each hand two in each hand your rifle was on a sling i had four eighty four rounds on my back plus me link everything way honest to god you weighed a ton so getting up to the top of windy windy gap as fast as you can with all that lot is is a bit of doing and i say the air attack they've shot over over windy gap and dropped down into like what they call bomb alley and and i say we made it up to the top and then i turned around and had a proper look and i seen the camera and i thought that's gonna get it and bombs did land around it but never hit it and there's civvies as well i know you know they did have some i believe the marine band was on there and i imagine i'm sure they were they'd be man and gpm g's or something like you know but um it had like a local defence on it but that's not from a you know a one them sky orc's gums dropping buffs around you you know yeah because it didn't it become a bit of a hospital ship yeah it was hospital ship yeah yeah yeah because we had um brian on the podcast brian was one of the bansmen who was on there and he witnessed and i think he witnessed one of his friends got got shot dead in the water by the argentines he was a pilot it was just nasty and how how old were you at this point um i was 22 which is it's like an oldest to be honest when you're dealing with like 18 19 and 17 year olds 22 is a bit older you know so i was like a little bit of an older soldier because you know when you're young age is so much different i remember there was a bloke who was with me and he was 27 and i used to think he's so old you know so old at 27 i used to i used to think you old b you know because i used to think you old c we had steve and i was steve was in my troop he was 28 right and i was 22 i thought never going to be that old well i had a good friend he was wounded on longdon a fella called bill meckoff now he's him he tried to join the british army but he was unfit and he wouldn't let him join and at the time in like the 70s like 1975 there was adverts in the paper to fight in rhodesia so he joined the rhodes because he couldn't get in the british army he joined the rhodesian army and he was in the rhodesian life infantry into the bush wars and all that sort of thing and then after leaving that he come back to england and joined the parachute regiment and by that time he was like 28 and we used to call him grandad you know 28 was old like you know yes sorry jim just making some no no you do your stuff some of the stuff we're talking about will make a good good clips and how were you feeling what was because i think almost everybody i've spoken to who served in the falklands says says that probably a bit cliche but they just didn't think it was going to happen we wanted it to happen but we didn't think it would happen we thought we'd get there the boat would turn around and come back home but we wanted it we it's something you want you know when you're young and daft you're worried and you want to go down it's sort of the the height of your career sort of thing to go and actually do it you know because i remember when i joined three paddock three in germany they just come back from northern ireland and if you hadn't been to northern ireland you hadn't been anywhere like you know you felt you know because they'd all been to where i think they were in the ardoin and if you hadn't been the ardoin you were a crow like you know and you you wanted to go and do something and say before the falklands i did go to northern ireland so it sort of breaks your duck a bit like you know yes i'm thinking of jock jock was on patrol jock was our tail end charlie literally five minutes behind me and he he got shot three times in the ardoin so and he got up to fight another day you know um was it was it a factor was it disappointing at all that you were being inserted by boat as opposed to coming from the sky or um now with the distance you knew it wasn't it wasn't going to happen like you know um but saying that we sailed down on the camera with all our our parachute kit everything was loaded on deep for every event eventuality um so all our we took south all our parachuting kit we were ready to go any any way we could sort of thing but as as it got as we got nearly you knew it wasn't happening like you know it would be good though oh it would have been legendary wouldn't it oh you know riding a valkyrie is going in you know i think they tried to get one set up in in afghanistan and and i think a company did drop pat find a company yeah okay yeah and it parrots don't get scared but was it everyone gets scared mate there we go there we go so how were you feeling at this stage was it was it all very real or were you thinking you know it's still still not going to happen no we we knew we're going to do it's what you're trained for and it's what you're there for and you've got you know your mates are good mates and you know we can do our job and we'll do it like but the only thing was and i know it was an unopposed landing but when you're bouncing about in that landing craft edin for sure it's not and it's satan and as it was where we landed there was an argentine platoon in port port san carlos and that same platoon did shoot down two helicopters and killed three of the the queue the crew so when the three parrots landed on that beach if they would have stayed and set a couple of gympies up can you imagine you open the door of that landing craft and you fire a base to gpmg dany you know that could have happened it's to not know and what's going to happen there was so much of that there by the grace of god wasn't there things that if they'd been slightly different it just could have been a catastrophe well we a company secured the settlement but the argentine platoon had bugged out and a company said the settlement secure which it was but the argentines had fell back away from the settlement and two i think they were both gazelles over flew the settlement and flew straight into them and they just raped the two helicopters the two helicopters that went down and two died in the helicopter in the first helicopter second helicopter got shot down and the surviving i don't know if there is a pilot or a crew member dragged his mate out he fired at them in the water and he managed to get them to the to the side and he they're like died later like you know yes this is what i was chatting to brine about um i think i've even put a clip on my channel about that that was essentially an execution yeah yeah um yes good enough um a company patrol from a company was sent out a couple stage went out to rescue them sort of thing and he put his gpm g's on the on the high ground and said to patrol forward and call some mortars in on the rg's like and he got to them and one fellow was still alive this fellow was still alive and he started treating him and he couldn't understand what he was saying he was he was incoherent he was just saying thank you thank you and but he died he sort of i think he thought he'd been rescued and give up do you know what i mean i'm saved i can stop fighting now but in doing that that was the end of them like you know sad was it what was it like having to tab with all this massive weight um well we you know yourself you're used to tabbing with weight that's what we do it's what yous do um we are we often it's it's a weekly occurrence you know we're used to otterbane sanny bridge all the breccans it's it's our job that's that's what we specialize moving fast with a lot of kit because that's what the airborne soldier does you know you drop out the sky you fend for yourself sort of thing um but i'll say it was a hard tab that was it it was a hard we went from san carlos straight to teal inlet we got in teal inlet about two o'clock in the morning and we left teal inlet about it gets daylight about 10 o'clock in the morning so we left about 11 o'clock four five were just coming in as we were leaving they were they were walking in teal inlet as we were walking out teal inlet we were off then to estancia and that was the hardest tab because as you know not not there's no roads evidence across country stone runs rivers everything and you know you although as the crow flies it's 60 mile to you know to to estancia it's it's more it's well more than 60 mile because you're going you know it's a good old snake all the way there like you know i was when when we reached estancia i was absolutely on me chin strap i was i was exhausted lucky enough me feet weathered or i let me feet were good um because when we got to estancia it was right go up that mountain there go up a mountain venet so we got we're 60 miles to estancia now climb that mountain up there and sit on the top while everyone else catches up like you know so we went up on mount estancia and we stayed there we from the it was a week and a half we stayed on the top of that mountain and it was freezing absolutely bitter because you're just a poncho's right no go to be honest i never got a sleeping bag i always mention there's people like me saying it i had no sleeping bag um when we landed we didn't take a sleeping bag ashore with us it was just ammo and everything and we were told the sleeping bags would follow us up and then a chopper was bringing the sleeping underslung load on a chopper and an air aid happened while he was chopping them in and he ditched them into the sea and took cover in the in the land like you know so our sleeping bags went to the bottom of the ocean and we just used to could look to it me and we make geordie geordie Nicholson and we used to just do snuggle up like you know and then you didn't sleep on them on the march which was good in a way because you were you were hot from marching and what have yet but once we got on the top of mount estancia we still had no sleeping bag and i was up there for about two days and then they must have said get them lads sleeping bags it's freezing up there and a chopper come and he dumped a load of sleeping bags and i must have been the last one to get told that the sleeping bags are derived and when i went over there was this bust one with a baste zip and i had to get a a piece of paracord and like laced me self into this sleeping bag like but you know it done as it was it kept me a little bit warmer not warm just a little bit warmer i just said when you talk about the zip i had a flashback then when we were doing our final exercise in training we were sleeping on top of a tour on dartmore yeah and in our harbour position and whoever our alleged enemy or us play play enemy were they they were they were coming up the hill and everybody stood too and i went to undo my sleeping bag which i'd done up you know to about here and the zippered stuff and i could not for the life of me open this sleeping bag and all i could hear was this uh this troop attack you know coming up coming up the hill all these schmoonies going up in the air blank rounds being fired thunder flashes being thrown and i'm just the the whole of the attack i just i just staying asleep in back it was yes silly silly it's funny how something silly like that could be honest it was that cold you it was just you couldn't sleep it was that cold and you'd get up and in the night and everyone would just be jumping up and down like slapping themselves going it's so cold it's so cold it was i have never had well saying that during the battle it was minus 15 like you know but it was cold down there like you know that's testament now isn't it to British yeah on a start it's it's us it's see four five and everyone's in the state everyone's in the same boat you know we're all in the same we're all just as cold and we've all walked just as far you know so let's talk about this attack then yeah when did your orders come through that you were going to take long done we got ours on the 10th well i say we got ours on the 11th but the patrol commanders and they got theirs on the 10th and they were coming back you know to brief us somewhere um so they got theirs oh it's like that all the officers got their briefing then the platoon sergeant section commanders all got them and then we got ours like you know and then it's in what it's yeah what's gonna happen now who's gonna be here tomorrow like you know because yeah some of your sands yeah it's all just got real cool isn't it yeah and what was what's the sequence of events then is was ammunition being dished out or you had that already yeah the ammunition we carried is the ammunition you were going in with like you know um what we done we uh i was with c company we were on mount vayne and there you've got a company you were there b company we're all in different locations and the plan was we'll all meet up all the companies would rendezvous at a company's location so we're we were like farthest away on the top of this mountain so we got told to move i think it was about 12 o'clock in the afternoon so we've got to come down this mountain make our way up to a company's position i think we got there about seven because it's distance in the forklings it might be far but it takes a really long time to get because the ground is absolutely it's like a wet sponge it's it's just bugs and it's so even though things aren't far away they take a long time getting there so anyway we left about about 12 o'clock went down anyway we converged on a company's location about set seven o'clock and the plan was a company's going to go first they're going to secure the start line followed by b company followed by support company c company will bring up the rear and we will we will move to win forward with a company and b company will move they will head south to the right and they'll go to the western end of mount london and support company will be located just behind them and but like everything once it all starts i mean the move out it all goes to all goes to pot because we had to cross a river in the night on a aluminium ladder that entire battalion with all the ammunition loads the maland teams everyone over one ladder over a stream in the dark now can you imagine your unit in the dark crossing over one ladder if you couldn't make it up but that's what happened so what it was the fellas fell off the ladder fell in the stream had to be rescued from the stream people were going over it gingerly over it some fellas were flying over it but time is of the essence and we were losing time you know it was getting slower and slower so eventually up my my company c company will wait the time element we've lost so a company got over great well they got got over in their time and raced to the start line but b company had all the delays of a company and support company had all the delays of a company and b company and then c company had all the delays from a b and support company so the the timings went all to pot so by the time c company got over my company we were well behind in time so we're moving as fast as but it was a dog leg once we crossed the stream we bared left and bared left and then went right it was like a dog leg to a position and so we made our position everyone had gone because we're running late by the time we hit that position where we should have met everyone b company had arrived late on their position a company were in their position because they went they went first you know so they're in their position b company arrived late and advanced immediately because they were running late they were half an hour late so they began moving they moved across and then corporal brian millen stood on the mine as for platoon were just edging around the northwest corner when he was moving when they were moving around that corner c company were just crossing that that crossing point now that that point had been registered as a an urgent time registered target because patrope a tune had been wrecking the mountain and the initiated fire to be drawn on them and they were registering all the all the registered targets points that would be fired on and where we were crossing was a registered target so when brian stood on the mine fire come from everywhere onto their registered targets and we just emerged and machine gun fire although it wasn't they didn't they weren't firing it they didn't know we were there but it was a registered target so they just laid it on to that and it was just passing over the top was we're all lying down there the entire company and i said the battle just that was the beginning b company is attacking now west to east there at the western end of the mountain and they're going to fact because the argentines were expecting to be attacked from the north where where i was going to the i was going to the north and they were expecting to be attacked so all their gp all their guns heavy machine gun 50 calz were all pointing north that's because that's where they that's where their threat was because they thought there was a there was an inlet further to the north and they thought the british will sail to this inlet and come at us from the north and that was why we come from the west you know because roll them up from the side like you know and so they're firing to the north once b company once couple mills stands on the mine they open up and all their registered targets they're firing on and then they discover b company's battling up this side here sixth platoon were halfway up the western slope when brian stood on the mine and they just rushed in to the argentine one platoon's area and they were in the midst of one argentine one platoon and they were they were open fire on in 360 degree they were in the middle of an enemy position that's why some of the labs were shot from behind and it was just they were in the imagine being in the middle of a platoon position so next thing everyone's firing at them but they went fame and and and attack positions but they went fame on fly off and to be honest them sixth platoon taking the high ground is you know yourself the winner takes the eye ground they dominated that that eye ground and they weren't getting off it so they stayed up there four platoon who were in in the minefield here they made their way back in they were supposed to be pushing directly east but it was impossible because all the weapons were fired and north they would have been wiped out if they would have carried on so they they turned inwards towards the air towards the northwest corner of mount longdon in this time we'd made our way round to a place called wing forward with a company and a company were pinned down we were pinned down and you could you could we could see from our position all the fighting that big company grenades a multitude of explosions every it's like it was like the twelfth of july there was just it was it what amazed me was the color you know when like 84s explode in the night and the greens and the yellows and it was it was amazing and then we were getting loads of machines on fire and what it was the company was like in them can't even think of it now we were like extended line as we approached and we'd all rushed into cover and I had no my platoon had no cover there was like peak banks that that the local people dig for Pete and the majority of C company had got into peak into these peak banks and the anti-tank platoon and support company but we'd been attached to C company the anti-tank platoon there was no peak banks and we were just stuck out in the middle of nowhere trying to dig shell scrapes while we were lying with our hands trying to just claw the ground because the rounds were only just passing over our heads if I would have went like that my hand would have come off that's that's how low it was it's passing just over us and unbeknownst to me I only found out when I was writing the book Sergeant Martin Baird who was to our left he was in cover and he said to the to the co of C company the anti-tanks over there they've got no cover they pinned down them lads we'll have to get them lads out of here and and then the machine gun fire started taking effect you know waiting people and couple hope he was with a company and he took one through the ad and he's still alive but it it was a fatal wound if you know what I mean and couple hope took one then I took one it caught me from the left and it went through my nose hit me cheekbone took my eye out and me cheekbone out and somehow me jaw smashed together and me top teeth out at the same time and threw me backwards me helmet come off and because I never had him after that like you know and me mate shouted over to me I must have I must have made a noise and he shouted alright and I immediately when I got it I put my hand to me face and I thought I've got a big hole in me face and the foot it sounds it's not funny but it was funny when we were going south we used to get drunk at the back of the we used to drink in a bar called the crow's nest and we'd sit on deck chairs at the back of the ship and I remember laughing one night we were saying imagine losing your nose you'd have to get a clown's nose on an elastic you know round your head and I put me hand to me face when I got shot and I couldn't feel my nose because the round had passed through my nose my nose has flattened and I thought fucking hell my nose has come off that's for taking the mic that's payback because I'd laughed about it I've lost my nose and then he me mate Jordy he said you're okay you're okay I said I've been it and he said I'll come out because there were rounds going everywhere and he said I'll come over in a minute and I said all right so I think what Jordy thought he's talking so he must be all right you know what I mean he's talking lucidly so he said I'll come over so he crawls he gets us another right angle torch things that you used to have with the little red lens and he said you're all right scouse and I said yeah I'm all right I said but it's me head I said I've been hitting the head and he gets his little torch like that and he goes fucking hell and I said I've got two shell dressings in me top pocket I said get them on me face now get them on me face so he did he got the shell dressings out and it but it was like chaotic absolute chaos because we were pinned down you couldn't move the fire it it was if the grass was longer it would be taking the grass off you know what I mean you know when you know I'm gonna die in a minute here and then the artillery started the mortar started because they were up that same he couldn't shell the mountain yet because it hadn't been took yet all their all their blokes are still on the mountain so they knew this bloke because what it was legs from a company started firing a company was just in front of us they started firing and in doing so you're giving away your position do you know what I mean they didn't know where you were till you start firing and that's why lads were seeing seeing the nco's and what have you were shouting stop fucking firing you know you're just giving them somewhere to fire so they knew we were out there now so now artillery is coming in evidence coming in but fortunate for us the ground was that sudden you know it's like a sponge the ground artillery rounds were like landing all around us but they were they were just getting they were just being absorbed and driving down into the mud and then striking something and blow exploding but huge plumes of dirty black water you were getting showered with it if if that ground would have been harder we'd have all been dead that that because they shelled us all night all night we're on there and then because I thought eventually they got me into a a shallow on the presumption that you know like an artillery piece is is sort of a scatter gun it never puts rounds in the same hole because that's no good you need to spread it about a bit you know it's no good firing on there you know there's got to be an adjustment to cover the area and they thought if if it's it that old forge it won't hit it again so will and it won't fire five makes a big hole like you know big smoking hole so they put the wounds into this hole I was probably one of the first into the hole so I goes in and then a mate another lad from support company got shot in the face around he was a controller and he had his head set on with his boom mic and the round hit the boom mic and blew the boom mic into his face here hit the roof of his mouth and then went went down his throat here like you know and he was in it you know as you can imagine and so paddy comes in paddy rail paddy comes in and artillery rounds are dropping it it was chaotic and then they managed to get um stevie and stevie oh stevie been shot me head they got stevie across and were being dark and chaotic they rolled him in and he was a big lad he's big heavy lad and he was 27 one of these old blocks one of these old blocks and he rolled right on top of me and in my sort of panic I'm pushing him off and then we're going don't don't I was sort of being a bit rough with him and they were going don't hit him it's stevie out it's stevie out and I said I don't give him give a fuck get the fat bastard off me so he got him off me um and then there was me stevie and then he started more lads started coming in said fuller come in jock brepper it started filling up this hole and um the rounds are still dropping and you just thought this we're gonna die here you know we're not getting out of this one like you know we're dead here um so to be honest that was my part in the battle basically a b company battled through that mountain they did all the fighting part of it our job on wing forward was once b company had secured that mountain a and c company was going to take out another argentine position to further east that we were level with which c company did try to take it in daylight but it was called off because it's like you can't really advance wireless ridges still occupied on that side they're all going to fire that yet the position we're going at has got 50 cows and 105s it's it's it's the brigadier said don't even do it the advance started and had to be called off because the rounds were landing the incoming rounds were landing all round c company so the brigadier got on the blower and said stop that advance because you know you might get there but you just you're gonna lose loads of low plate blokes but from like basically my part there so we're all being stuck in that position and we were in as I say it's minus 15 now it's freezing the helicopters couldn't fly because it was that cold that whatever's makes the engines were frozen we called for helicopters but the helicopters weren't flying they're frozen so and we were supposed to we had four with we've been told we had four with night vision capability and when the helicopters turned up they didn't have night they were they've been the ones with the night vision had been tasked elsewhere we just got four helicopters that couldn't fly at night during the night battle and and say when we needed them they couldn't defrost them so anyway from our location to get any medical assistance he had to go one and a half kilometers to the regiment laid post which was located on the northwest corner of mount london and in between us and the regiment laid post was a minefield and they said right get them into ponchos and carry them through that minefield but don't don't worry the engineers have laid a white mine tape that you can follow but in the dark no one could find this white mine no one found it it was there somewhere but no so they had to go through the minefield carrying us on the stretcher while being shelled by artillery so we're getting sort of near the near the RAP plate we're in the same location where brian lost his leg we were in that sort of location when artillery ran and brian is still out there brian laying that minefield from when he got his leg blew off till like seven o'clock in the morning he was an afterthought someone says anyone's anyone's cheating in here so brian's still out there so we come in start getting shelled all the lads who were carrying the stretches took cover just drop the stretches do it stretches do it ponchos drop the ponchos and i'll i'll always be thankful for this lad um a lad called paul rey and he lay across me you know to shield me from further injury i was on my own on the stretcher everyone took cover and paul lay across me and that's another reason for writing a book none of these lads got an m id or nothing you know and like another lad the lad who led all the stretcher bearers you know they should get they you know they you'd think they they would have got an award but no not anyway got into the to be honest this the plastic stretcher bust it broke it split so they ended up paul rey and steve mcconnell grabbing me by the legs under the arms and they dragged me through the mud he said we dropped you a few a few times he said but we managed to drag you to the rap got me in the rap and by that time i'd have had extensive blood loss and i was frozen to the core and i was stevy was whipped stevy the lad who'd been shot me had he was with me and the doctor treated stevy first and said he's not a priority put him over there he's non-survivable they had a look at me non-survivable put him over there so i got put over there with stevy so we lay there for him i don't know how long because i went on i just i was unconscious so next thing next thing i remember is getting carried on a stretcher and i'm on the stretcher going somewhere at the time i didn't know where but i know now i was going to the mortuary area at the back round the back of the rocks is where they were putting the dead people so i'm getting carried and i'm i must have moved because this fella carrying the stretcher said this one's just moved and the other fella said who is who is it and the other fella said fuck if i know he said let's take him back and he took me back and i was no sooner back than he loaded me into this a bv you know a snow car vehicle and he put me in the back of this vehicle my head was just swayed in bandages and there was like a load of other blokes in there they're all listed in the book um Lieutenant Birkette and Bill Metcalf the granddad he was in there and i got in and my face was all swayed in bandages and some fella because you've got to take names you've got someone has to keep a log of who's in who's out who's missing you know who's dead who's alive and he said who've we got in here and he said he poked me and said who are you and i said oh carl and it turned out me mate was sitting next to me Dominic Gray and he said scalps is that you and i said yeah it's big he said don't worry he said i'll look after you so and he did he looked after me so we got took one half mile to a land site just east of the west of the moral bridge and as soon as we moved out of that RAP in that snowcat they shelled us all the time because we were a legitimate target because the bvs were bringing ammo in and wound it out ammo in wound it out so although they had wounded people in they were legit targets like you know um so they took us to this landing site and laid us out there but because now they're wounded are starting to pile up like you know and i went unconscious again and i'm only going by by Dominic and Moravia he said you were looking awful he said we thought we'd lost you again like you know and he said we've managed to flag a gazelle down and gazelle's flying past and he flagged this gazelle and he loaded me Dominic Dominic had also been shot and a bullet had gone through his helmet cut a crease across the top of his skull and so Dominic made Dominic Paddy rail and the three of us piled into the back of this little gazelle and I say got a tea lintlet which was a medical reception centre medical surgical advanced surgical centre it was and so we got there and put you're on the trolley and start cutting all your clothes off you know the way they run the ciders up and looking for second secondary injuries and I remember looking up at the ceiling and there was a big porno pitch just stuck on the ceiling and it said if you can see this you're still alive you know and I thought you know it's something that you know it sticks with you like you know because another thing I remember when they were cutting me clothes off they were cutting me Norwegian shit and I thought that's me good shit me good shit and I had a pair of I don't know do you remember OG's OG trousers they were like really old issue I think they had them in Malaya or somewhere but they were really they had double pockets on or they were like classed as I don't know if the Marines have a in Parareg we say Ali you know when something looks smart that looks that looks Ali that they were Ali you know they were your eye like boots with them and they they were baggy and they looked the part you know and they cut me old jeez off of me Norwegian shit I thought that's all me good because you know what I done before we went on London I thought because I'd wore a windproof all the way through no them windproofs and to go on London I got me smock out of my bacon because the bagans are derived by then he'd he'd chop all the bagans up to Mount Mount Vane I thought when I get it I didn't I had no intentions of being wounded you know the way you do you think it'll happen to him it won't happen to me I thought when I get into Stanley I want them to know who's in style you know with your DZ flash in your wings that green DZ flash I thought when I walk in Stanley I'm gonna have me an eye boots on and I'm gonna have me old jeez and me part of smock and they all got cut some bits like you know but uh such is life and then I say from there um what they done cut all my clothes off and he said uh there's more ageing people there's more ageing people than me and I thought I'm ageing being shot in the head um so they said there's a blanket sit on that bench over there me Paddy Dominic and we're sitting I've got no clothes on by this blanket and we're sitting there like that and next thing this this Wessex turns up and we all get bundled in the back of this Wessex and I remember seeing me mate uh Lee Fisher and he was on the floor he'd been uh shappable in the back and I just remember seeing Lee and I went because you know the noise and all that with the helicopter you can't hear a thing but I remember you could see his lips and he was going alright scouts and I went alright Lee and uh it took off when we were pulling out and I remember seeing the coast of the of the um you know the Falklands going into the distance thinking that's it I'm out of here I'm out that you know that that's my job I'm I'm done now I'm off to the ship and then got on the ship and on on the Uganda the it had stairs and what have you but everything had been made into a ramp you know for speed so they could run straight down the road that down the ramp with the stretches and get you straight in to an assessment centre and this doctor um I remember this doctor coming up and he said um right what's happened and I told him I told him a mortar I'm not sure why I told him a mortar but I told him a mortar I said shrapnel mortar and um he said right when did you last eat and I said um I said two days ago but it wasn't two days ago it must have been about a day and a half you know something like that I said two days but I don't know why um I said a day and a half and he just said get him in theatre now and off I went to theatre and uh and and when I woke up I was asleep for days and I woke up and there was a nurse who decided me bed and she said hello sleepyhead we've been waiting for you to wake up and you know I cried my eyes out honest to god I think it was you know it's shock and effort isn't it you know and she was just nice you know like and it it was a bit too nice and it just tripped tripped the thing like you know and then I looked around the ward and it seemed like the entire battalion had been wounded everyone seemed to be three parrots in the room that's either side of me Roy Bassie on that side Graham Eaton on that side everyone was I see Bill Bailey, Ned Kelly, Pete Craig, everyone seemed to be three parrots on this ward and I thought everyone's been I thought the old battalion's been shot but um I'd say we had taken a good few wounded like but um just one of them things in it you know are you Jimmy are you kind of desperate at this point to get information about the battle and what's going on there um well no no to be honest I didn't know who was dead I didn't didn't know any I found that out in England and because me mate honest to god me good mate um Stuart Lang uh Stuart had been killed Stuart had been killed and I never seen him killed but he'd been killed and to be honest because I never seen him being killed I find it at the time I found it hard to actually believe although I had fellas who had wrapped his body up and took him away it it's hard to comprehend these things like you know and for years I thought maybe they were wrong maybe it hadn't happened maybe I'll bump into him and say where have you been you know but as we know it was all correct like you know and all all the lads from the platoon who died have died like you know but it it takes a lot um it takes a lot to take in like me mate Denzel is he's lost one leg and basically the other leg is like a lollipop stick the flesh is just being ripped away you know and such outgoing men reduced to you know disabled people like you know it's like Dave Kempster you know one minute he's a great fella having a laugh next thing he's got an arm missing from the shoulder or he's got fellas have got legs missing and like we we made fun of it we made the bet because we were all in sort of hospital together and we'd laugh at each other and and make jokes about it you know but that's like the way of coping isn't it you know you make fun of things like you know we could make fun of them but you change someone else you make made fun of it like you know but um yeah it's a strange thing you know gosh it's um just beyond comprehension isn't it really unless you've actually been through it i i can't even imagine it truthfully i had times when i didn't believe it happens i didn't sometimes i think did i dream did it happen but you look in the mirror and you go well yeah it does yeah yeah you know but i think a lot of us are the same you just sometimes you're not even sure i don't know you like because to be honest it's so far away yeah it's like yesterday do you know what i mean it's 39 years now but i can get tricked like that you know what i mean i i was going to remember in sunday um well must be two years ago now because we had none last year and there's with a fella um john charlton x3 bar and uh we were talking about something and it just come out in floods it just come out you know when you i don't mean i don't mean crying i mean floods it just fell out of me in buckets and it just it only takes a wait or a little something and it can just it just takes your unawares and like john was saying you you know right you're all right i said i'm yeah i'm all right more all right you know once you've got it out but it it it did take me so i was in the pub you know mad before we talk about your i don't know if recovery is the right word jimmy but shall we just mention uh stewart mcgloughlin and yeah stew yeah and it was ian macky or macky ian macky ian macky yeah yeah yeah because they were there's some legendary tales told about these guys yeah yeah what was going on there then well stewart mcgloughlin was stewart mcgloughlin stewart mcgloughlin is a man among men you know if if he walks in the room you know stewart mcgloughlin is in the room he wasn't tall he was a shortest chap not short but he wasn't tall you know you see big he wasn't big but he was an imposing character you know what he said went and if he tells you to do something you do it you don't argue you don't query it you do it and to be honest stewart was made for that night when you need a leader to lead you in battle stewart is the man and if he tells you to go forward you will go forward that he fought on the north side of the mountain and let's say the platoon commander had been wounded the platoon sergeant was dead and the driving force with stewart mcgloughlin stewart mcgloughlin was rallying people telling given the ammo he was the lead on the side of that mountain in fact to be honest after after the push along the northern side when they were told to reorganize themselves and get a brew on because a company's now going to take over from b company he has to go with with a company and and advance with a company and the oca company said now we've got enough blokes you've done your beer just have a rest and the the csm from a company i was talking to him for the book and he said i met up with corporal mcgloughlin and corporal mcgloughlin said if i can help in any way just ask me and uh the company serge major said well what i do need is ammunition so he said corporal mcgloughlin just went round the end anyone getting all the spare link grenades 66ers for a company he was just he was the man he was just a man ask anyone i know what you're driving at um there was accusations is that what you mean i'm gonna be completely honest i wasn't i'm aware of them i wasn't gonna i will i will touch on them there was accurate accusations made about steward mcgloughlin that were totally totally without any foundation whatsoever what it was the people who made or person who made them accusations never met steward mcgloughlin had no contact with steward mcgloughlin and he also mentioned that the padre was part of it i've spoken and interviewed the padre for the book totally untrue absolute what it was there was a list of medals made for the book now the platoon commanders made their list of medals i've got there these are the the lists that were made in port stanley port stanley they made lists i've got a copy of john shore he was the platoon commander of six platoon lieutenant marcox who was the platoon commander of five platoon which is corporal mcgloughlin's platoon platoon and he wrote of of corporal mcgloughlin outstanding with his leadership put him in for a medal and our medals there was a there was something went wrong with our medals and there was like yeah another lad from six platoon harry ganan harry ganan was put in for the queen's gallantry medal you know the queen's gallantry medal so if you don't get the if you don't you get put forward for it you don't get it what would normally happen you get a lesser you get something lesser you'd walk even if you walked away with a mention in dispatchers you got nothing how'd you go by being recognised by your platoon commander for a queen's gallantry medal and you get nothing you must have done something to get put forward for it and the same with corporal mcgloughlin he was put forward for the military medal i've got i i went up to major major major argue is dead i went to his brother's house because all his personal effects are in his brother's house all in boxes i i got in touch with his brother david and i said can i go up and have a look through and got all his notes what have you got his field notebook and it says corporal mcgloughlin military medal so and so military medal all all the medals in his notebook written by his commanding officer so we've got his commanding officer says he's fantastic you've got his platoon commander says he's fantastic is a medal and then i've got a letter of major argue his commanding officer writing to the ceo saying this man on mount longton led his section like a demon round the rocks of mount longton you have read my citation i've put in for an award and the ceo put him in for an award but he never got it and i can only think that it's jealousy that someone has said you know the reason he got that he never got that and so he's completely untrue i have interviewed the people who were there every single member of five platoon he didn't have the time to do anything he was doing enough as it was that was it completely without any base whatsoever you tell me or point me to anyone who actually honest to god the man's a brave man and he deserves the military medal jimmy listen i'll give you my word mate i wasn't going to mention it out of respect and and you know talking about the dead and all that but now that we have mentioned it are we going to say yeah i'm quite happy because i'll tell you what what what it's just very funny that about 20 years ago maybe even longer i remember somebody saying to me while i was in the core about that there was a para in some battle in the falklands i wouldn't wouldn't have been able to remember what and he aided off a fella who aided off a fella who yeah i was oh oh undoubtedly it was the military the old jungle drum for whatever you call it or charney's whispers yeah um but it was just basically did you know there was a para in the falklands who was up for the vc now he wasn't up for the vc i'm just telling you what what i what the what the rumor was jimmy and and and after this this person because remember it like we know why not even be talking about the same person right but but this person where the the padre don't ask me how it was the padre found ears in his ammunition that was supposed to be the padre the padre that i won't say his name but part the i know the padre personally when i was injured he come and prayed at me bed and i went down to his house he made me very welcome we we went through everything he gave me all all the help he could and what a nicer more gentle man you couldn't get because that's what padre's are really lovely men and that was total lies how did it come how did it even come around you'd always get some toad right you know you get one man from three para to stand in front of me or stand in front of anyone and i'll call him a liar to his face yes i'm glad you come glad you covered that to be honest i'm i'm glad it's there because it really annoys me that that man went went without his medal for some and and has cast aspasians on a good man who fought like a he was everywhere he was everywhere everyone knows all those that were there knows he deserves that medal that's why we do the march in london we do an annual march down whitehall we've we've presented petitions to ten down the street the co has offered to rewrite the citation but the awards committee have told us they don't do retrospective awards the americans do the australians do but we don't well those that know know don't they announce the most important thing the presence a i've talked to the presence a past a co of three para and he said corporal mcgloughlin is a legend and even now amongst three para everyone knows corporal mcgloughlin and what corporal mcgloughlin was and can we just explain to our friends at home how how he actually died he was there he finished the a company was now advancing they were advancing to take full back the eastern end of the mountain and it was the reorg phase b company are getting a brew on it's it's over sort of thing for them it's it's over they're having a rest after a long hard night and further west at further east at the western end of wireless ridge there was a 105 and from that 105 to mount longed longedon is i think it's 1500 meters i am i have measured it it is in the book but i used to be in the anti-tank platoon do you know do you know the wombats it's like a recoilless rifle like a it was a name from when i said i can't remember it's an old weapon it's an old weapon but basically it's a tube on wheels and with a venture with a and a big bang comes out the back and you fire a 105 round out of it like you know so and it has a ranging gun at the top it has a 50 caliber ranging gun and you fire it you can fire a trace around and when the trace around it's you know you're on target sort of thing you fire the ranging gun first and once you see the strike your number two will show good strike and you'll fire the main arm arm and that ornament then so what this this 105 was doing at the end of wireless ridge you could see the machine guns they knew that the mountain had fell and our machine guns were fire and i can imagine it doesn't get light in the forklifts till about 10 o'clock in we were working on zulu time we were working on london not local time we were working on london time and we it was called zulu time so defied this 105 in in like an R it defied it high and it was dropping down you know defied the first one it went over fly off and impacted amongst the the melancholy kill three of them defied another round it fell short a bit and landed in the first bowl where corporal McLaughlin was oh no defied defied a second it killed a royal engineer they were nine squadron lad and it killed him and it killed chris love it then defied a third one and it landed in the same place and it a piece of strap it blew um grant grinum's leg off um but it was hanging on but come off um and it caught McLaughlin in the back uh made a big big hole in his shoulder here and the thought at the time was it may have punctured his lung and what have you and Corporal McLaughlin was saying i'm dying i'm dying and he was saying he can't afford to die he's got a christening to go to because he had a young son and he wanted to go home for the christening and um the medic come forward and uh fill probates and said you're not going to die it's bad but you know it's a survivable wound um so he started putting shell dressings on him and what have you and he said right you've got to go down the the regiment late post the RAP he said you've got to go down there and he said i don't want to go i want to stay here you know with the lads and he said no it is bad you need to go down and another medic step step forward a patrol medic from you know like a you know like pat finder's patrol medic we had decopney that was like our patrols and a lad called Pete Higgs said scouts come with me i'll take you down so he's he's walking put put his arm around scouts and he's walking them down and as the they left the first bowl walking down and there's a ravine leading into the RAP and they were just walking to the top of the ravine when a land when a round landed to the rear of them and kill them outright and one of the lads who one of the lads who wanted a kook and a royal engineer who found them said they didn't know what if them they still had their arms around each other they didn't know what they were here one minute and just gone the next like you know it's terrible to be honest sad that you've done so much and you're so near the med centre or the RAP and he got it one of them tragic tis tis and sergeant Ian Mackie what oh mackay yeah mackay very very brave man um to be honest we were very fortunate to get sounds mad to be honest but um we're very fortunate to get one of the men who shot him um gustav gustavo pedimenti um the tenant's picket I had been wounded so he said to sergeant mackay you're in charge now and corporal corporal Bailey had just been favor east and spotted a 50 cal firing and crawled back and said we need we need to take this out so sergeant Mackay says right we'll go forward and have a look at it and see what we're gonna do so they crawl about 150 yards forward along the northern side and there's a there's a rocky feature and they crawl to the end of this rocky feature and the 50 cal is about 30 meters up on the high ground firing out to win forward so they thought right we'll take that out so him and four four men but the fourth man he said it was a radio up and he said you stay here we'll go forward you'll be the real link like you know um so they moved forward and I missed a bit so they get to this rocky rocky part and he sees the the 50 cal firing and he says he gets in touch on the radio and on wing forward where I am there's some Milan and Milan post out there so he said can you fire some Milan at this 50 cal so Captain Mason crawls forward with his with his Milan team the team that would be killed later on crawl forward and fire two Milan rounds the first one impacted pretty close to the there was a platoon position you know the way you're after is the 50 cal you had a platoon underneath as local defect local defense for the 50 cal so it landed amongst them if the rocks behind them exploded the other one the other Milan round went high but the thought was it had killed all them fellas you know who were in their trenches underneath and he called Corporal McLaughlin forward to set a fire base amongst these rocks and said scouts keep watch keep an eye out for us we're gonna I'll let you know when we go forward so he shouted up to scouts we're moving out now so he moved out and as they're moving about out suddenly all the arches come to life again and start firing Corporal Bailey's it goes down and Private McLaughlin he dives into cover Lance Corporal Roger James dives into cover Corporal McGat McGathey Sergeant McGathey goes missing and then this is the Archie telling me he said the fire and stopped and out of nowhere Sergeant McGathey is in front of their position in front of their trench with a grenade but he's a lobber in his trench and he said we just all went and he he said this is what he said he said he he appeared in front of us and almost stopped for a moment as if surprised and then went like that to lob the grenade in the trench and he said we all shot him and he fell in front of us and he said his body was smoking and he said I reached out to take he had a radio on he had a Klansman and he said I reached out and his friend pulled him back and they sat in the trench wondering what's going to happen next like you know and then four patrol they sent another because they had to report back and say platoon commanders down Sunray Minor is missing we don't know where he is could be dead could be anything could have happened what do you want us to do so they sent Sergeant Dez Fuller to come down and take over the platoon so he took over and just said right we're just gonna carry on pushing forward so they they moved well they said right fixed bayonets and they were in the cover of some rocks fixed bayonets we'll move out and we'll just attack the sergeant position and that's what they done and more casualties were taken and what have you and but Gustavo who was still in he was in the position he was shot all the lads are running around doing what they do you know grenades bayonet evidence and and Gustavo said I was lying on the bottom of the trench and he said I was shot while I was lying on the bottom of the trench and he said the gun he said I thought to myself they're gonna kill me they're gonna kill me and he said I was lying being shot once he said and I remember them he was shouting and he wrote it as he could hear it but I think he was shot he was he heard what John Lewis was shouting John Lewis was there and John Lewis was shouting position clear position clear and he said it went quiet for a moment and he said I could smell smoke he must have lit up you know because for the nerves and what have you you know and he said I could smell smoke and I could hear them and he said they lamented that was his word not mine they lamented for their fallen Ian Mackay he said they lamented for their for their commander and he went unconscious and he lay in that trench and eventually um fought between pulled back and called another fire mission down on that position like but that you got to give the arches the dew they held that position they even with all that artillery bombardment they just what it is that mountain is your solid granite and if you get yourself in one of them nukes and crannies nothing's gonna get you out of it because like the walls are three foot thick you know it's gonna take something to get you out of them and that's why to be honest when three parrots took the mountain they just occupied the arches iron positions because they were that good they were brilliant and but anyway Corporal McLaughlin comes forward again he took tried to take that 50 cal out but you just couldn't get near them they had machine they just couldn't get near the fire 66ers added through grenades adding they could have held that position but the CO said pull back we're gonna flatten it again so they flatten that position again Corporal McLaughlin pulls back again I say once again he's evacuating the wounds as he's honest to God the man was a star all night how he walked up but he didn't walk away but how he got nothing I'll never know because every single man they knew Corporal McLaughlin is the man you know Jimmy what was it like for the lads I mean every podcast I've done every story I've ever heard any documentary this thing you know no one actually talks about this is fucking serious what there's there's torn up dead bodies everywhere but I'm guessing they're guts hanging out and the fucking heads missing and you know it it's almost beyond comprehension that that boys who are just some of them teenagers are having to witness this be a part of it and then like go back to normal life so you know let's go down and watch freaking football well that was the thing it was funny wasn't funny but it was strange that you flew back and you went immediately on leave immediately from the steps of the plane on leave and it doesn't I believe I don't know that much now but I believe the modern fellas have sort of a decompression time or something like that where they speak to someone or something like that but it was different days then they just said off you go lads have a nice time we'll see you in six weeks because to be honest with me still being in hospital because I was in hospital till no that five months and I was in hospital for five months but I had surgery for five years when with me being in hospital I went to I was in rotten hospital a Cambridge military hospital and the Woolwich military hospital and when I went to the Woolwich military hospital it was an it hasn't a meant I don't know the with PC I don't know the words these days but it was like a mental ward if you know what I mean it wasn't called them it was called something different then you know the nut house by everyone and it was full a three para two para Scott's guards row Marines no there wasn't not wasn't no Marines I think you've got your own down down south somewhere but that Woolwich was full of two para three para and jock guards and they were all loony I remember I was getting plastic surgery done upstairs and a friend come up to see me and I said all right that's what are you doing here and he said I'm working me ticket and I said what do you mean you're working your ticket he said um he's put the act on but he wasn't you know he was away with the fairies sort of thing but he's all right now you know but um it was sad days and the thing is in them days you talk in 1982 I was 22 we never got a phone in our house till I was 26 so there's no like social media there's no mobile phones there's no one really to say you know to ring your mate up and set because we never had a phone to ring if I have our phone was a public call box at the bottom of the street it was a different world when me ma'am went when I was wounded me ma'am found out very very little she used to go to the phone box at the bottom of the street with a big load of like five shillings and and two pence's for the phone and she'd be phoning the ministry of defence saying what's happened to our jimmy you know but they you know what they say we don't know you know we can't tell you know how did you how did you get home um I it was a funny one um I went from me from the Uganda and we went on when you got better they put you on to the HMS Hydra and from Hydra you got taken to Uruguay Montevideo in Uruguay so we we got there and as soon as you get off the boat the boat sails to pick up more wounded it's doing a constant you know shuttle service like you know and so we got off the boat the boat sails and they loaded us into ambulances coaches because they didn't really want us long in the city they just agreed to get us on the planes and out they didn't want they just didn't like us there but they just but they obliged us and so they took us to Montevideo International Airport so I was thinking of something like Manchester airports or you know like a modern day airport so we go through this airport and it was like a shanty like there was like Mexicans with shotguns surrounding this like DC-10 that had flown in RAF thing that had flown in and um we get on this plane and uh it starts running down the runway and there's a load of us all ill people like you know and it sucked a load of chickens up off the runway and blew the engine up the plane come to us screeching out on the runway they had to get us all back off the plane and they had to put us up in a gymnasium in Montevideo while they flew another VC-10 back from the Ascension Islands to pick us up you couldn't you couldn't imagine all chickens on their own way and it sucked them up because you know that the fellas guarding the plane while like Mexican bandits do you know what I mean yeah I've traveled a lot in that area Uruguay was where the rugby team came from that crashed in the Andes and they ended up having to eat the dead bodies well when we were in the gymnasium we're all like all eight and I tell you who's on the same flight as me Simon Weston so you've got all Banes fellas you've got fellas missing legs and all that and while we were put up overnight there's loads of fellas coming in do you want to buy a leather jacket because Montevideo is famous for leather and none of us have got a penny to our name you know leather jackets who wants to let the jacket just want to go out what was it like to reunite with your family well to be honest we were flying in and it's a long flight as you know you know from Uruguay to Ascension to Brys Norton and there was talk I don't know where the talk come from but someone said family are meeting people at Brys Norton and this lads lads from Tupara sitting next to me he'd been shot up and he said do you think your family are there and I said don't think so I said they live in Liverpool we haven't got a car or anything like that so I can't see my mum and dad coming down here and got off the plane and then we were taken to RAF Rotan in Swindon or outside Swindon and I was up on the ward and say everyone's we're all in the same boat everyone's been hit and next thing out of the blue my dad appeared at the end of the at the end of the world and he come flying up that that and my dad's as hard as nails my dad's killed you with his luck you know and he'd come up that that word and he cried his eyes out he grabbed me and he he sobbed his heart out and you know that's me dad and me dad that's not me dad you know me dad's tough as all boots like you know but it's what I put him through like you know you don't realise what you put your family's through you know so Jimmy in in hindsight and I know this is a bit of an academic argument it's things but should so many young men have been put through what they were put through should there been a different a diplomatic um we tried diplomatic it didn't work once they once they we never started it and in many ways it was the best thing that ever happened to them because they were being ruled by a military junta death squads were going about there was 30 000 people disappeared you've heard it disappeared in Argentina yeah well we've had to think there there was the same thing in Northern Ireland wasn't there they just did it was in Chile and Uruguay and all them places they were run by military dictatorships and since the Falklands war they've lived with freedom you know that argument to be honest I correspond regularly with you know that third bowl that I was just talking about where Sergeant McKay was trying to take that 50 cal out I correspond with the man who was in charge of that 50 cal we correspond on a regular basis because he's a he's a really domingo the mass he's a really nice man when I was ill because I've had cancer I've I've lost a kidney then I lost both kidneys I ended up on dialysis and he would he would send me messages saying my family are saying prayers for you and and evident the man is a lovely Catholic man and they're a very Catholic country to be honest and the domingo was very helpful with writing the book he took part in the in the writing of the book Carlos Coleman he took part in the writing of the book his platoon commander Sergio Dachari he took part in the writing of the book now Sergio he lost his brother on the Falkland Islands and you think he would have been a bit reluctant to take part but that man was very helpful you know with maps of his machine gun positions and you know just showing us where was where you know because it just helps with the accuracy if you're getting it from their side they were on there for a month so they know where their positions were you know we were on there for a matter of three days so you know it's hard to remember you you come on there in the dark and then you're hidden a shallow well you were getting shelled so you didn't really get a proper look at the place like you know Jimmy what date what date did the battle end the battle we left it we advanced towards Mount London on the 11th of June we the the actual start of the battle was on the 12th of June when Brian initiated well he didn't initiate he stood on a mine but that initiated the battle he stood on the mine just gone one o'clock in the morning which was the 12th so it all kicked off from the 12th and it finished at half 10 on the Saturday morning it we walked up to it on the Friday night past got across midnight and then one o'clock in the morning it kicked off and by half 10 in the morning it had finished and then we just held on to London while it was shelled to pieces that been the 15th for ended ended on the 14th 14th we advanced on the Saturday we fought it on the Saturday at the Friday night Saturday morning and then we occupied it Saturday and Sunday Sunday was the 13th and then on the 14th it was the Monday and it folded on the Monday so yesterday it would have been the anniversary is what i'm getting at and the anniversary of my kidney my kidney was the fourth i got my kidney on the 14th of June how how come you lost your kidneys was was this a drink related thing or no it was cancer i got cancer in me kidney in me left kidney so they removed me left kidney and once you removed it the right kidney went what have you done and that died so left me with no kidneys so i was put on dialysis for four and a half years which is i don't know the you know every other day you get your blood washed out you're going for eight hours a day getting your blood washed out for four and a half years and while you're on it people are just dying around you you know people die regularly on dialysis you come in and you say where's Ted where's Barbara oh he died at the weekend oh where's Julie oh Julie's dead it's you're just waiting to die yourself but i was very fortunate and a kidney became available it became available would you believe it on the 12th of June the anniversary of the battle on the 12th of June i got to the hospital and he said it sounds awful he's not dead yet we're just waiting for him to die so he said sit on that ward so i sat on the ward nil by mouth for two days i could just have water and tiny little bits of of like custard you know soft stuff that you can just get rid of and i sat there and he died on the 14th at three o'clock in the morning and he just whizzed me straight in and took his kidney sort of thing terrible he's young lad dying there motorcycle accidents gosh and how about how about your mental health then jimmy how did did you suffer i think everyone suffers there's not a person who goes through conflict that doesn't suffer you know where to agree it's just the extent um but i don't believe anyone who's been it's whether any traumatic situation it lives with you it'll be there it depends on your soul you know like to be honest when i first come back i said and with a lot of lads it was drink that was your medication everyone drank and i don't mean socially drink you drank to get drunk in fact beyond drunk and everyone done it it was it was the done thing because it was a way of coping because who'd you talk to you like i had no phone i had no mobile phone um there's no computer there was no none of these what is it um it's good to talk there's no in 1982 there was none of there was nothing do what there was nothing the only ones you could talk to and with with our regiment being one of them regiments that are made up with people from scotland england island wales i lived in liverpool do you know who do i talk to do you know the only one i told you you were a great help to me me mum and dad when i'd come in drunk over night i could babble to me mum and me dad and they'd let me talk through the night and they did it all before but they still listened and listened again because i was their son and they and they done everything they could for me as they say it's good to talk it is definitely good to talk and never bottle it up even if it's your mum and dad tell your mum and dad you know if you can't find a mate like me stuck in liverpool talk to your mum talk to your dad talk to anyone it's because it'll baste if it doesn't come out it'll baste yes we need to protect our mental health in it's honest to god i'm glad that today there is so many messages out there and so many pointers to places where you can go and speak to someone tell them how you feel you know if you want to scream and shout go and go and scream even if it's your mate or anyone go to there is places out there there wasn't for me and my mates and i'll tell you this and i won't name names there were people who went off the rails there were people who took their own lives there's there's lots of lads killed themselves in the most extreme ways ways that if they had a if they hadn't lost their mind they would never have done that like you know fellas who've done things that they would never have done had they if they're balancer the mind hadn't been turned you honest to god anyone i'd advise to talk talk to anyone reach out folks reach out jimmy i'm i'm just i wish you so much luck with your book three days in june it's already been released hasn't it it's got yeah it's been released and to be honest air chris it's done me good talking to you to be honest honest to god i've really appreciated it to be honest i've never talked that length to anyone you've had me on these little little little interviews and it's been 10 minutes and you can't do nothing in 10 you can't say nothing in 10 minutes it's nice to talk to a fellow veteran and that's it you know you know it's good it's good to talk yeah we've been lucky on this podcast mate to host some incredible people and and their stories and and their stories that would get lost lost to time if we didn't record them and truthfully that was the same thing with my my book i was sitting on a taxi a taxi tank because i'll tell you a stupid little story when i left the army i found it really Liverpool was going through a terrible time about unemployment somewhere have you and i thought mistakenly that i might be a bit of a hero you know i've lost me eye in the four ones i might get a job easy like you know and i couldn't get a job anywhere you know because they didn't have the disability discrimination act didn't exist then so i applied for that many jobs and got knocked back because you've only got one i made you know if anything happens to the other one you know we don't want to employ you like you know and the only job i'm glad i never got there was a job in the paper for a traffic warden and i applied to be a traffic warden and they said oh no you've you've got to have two eyes to be a traffic warden and i said you're putting tickets on parked cars mate you know i'm not gonna miss them and i applied to be a post because my uncle was a postman he said try the post office he said you're getting there and it's a job for life and i said all right and he said you've got to have two eyes to be a postman i said you're putting letters through letterbox mate and then a mate said what about the taxis if you tried the taxis i said i've only got one i i'm gonna get a job on the taxis he said my mate's got a job on the taxis and he's only got one eye and i got a job on the taxis for 23 years driving a black cab in Liverpool with one eye and you think even i used to think because i used to employ fellas in the end and i thought i wouldn't employ a fellow with one eye driving a cab you know because you think because one of the drivers used to say god it's hard driving a cab with one eye that's not you know he said i tried it the other night closed one eye i said don't be doing it in my cab you know you can have a buddy buddy system you're both if both of you got one eye you can join in a partnership and become a cab driver but i kept the roof over my head you know and that's what it was i was sitting on the rank at lord nelson street and i thought all these memories are going to be lost if someone doesn't do something and i thought i'm going to do that and i'm going to write a book i've never wrote a book in my life left school with not and i went to w h smith and i bought a book titled how to write a book and that book got got me through writing a book things you do when you're deaf mate if you'd have told me back in the mob that i would have written six books now or is it seven i'm not sure and i've also written a book how to write a book or how to write a memoir did you did you leave did you leave school no mate i was i was yeah i had two o levels but i took i think nine yeah one in control technology because i like playing with stuff yeah you know playing with gadgets and the other was in design tech i had a csc in woodwork woodwork and an art and that was me total qualifications i did three o levels i think there were gcsc's by then in in the marines itself yeah my mate just went oi they do then for free get yourself so i apply for free and i passed him i mean it's a lot of things i found things a lot easier when i was an adult but the best advice i was ever given with respect to writing and this is what changed my life even though i didn't know at the time was is that my mate said get yourself on a gcsc english language course so i applied for it as one of those ones you sent you send off correspondence and my mate said right what you do when they ask you to write about something you don't just put you know a bloke sat in prison he said you instead you write the bars of light yeah elaborate on it yeah beamed through the the the bars of the cell bounding around the room filling the cell with light filling the the prisoner's heart with freedom right i'm like i've got it it's just bullshit he went yes exactly i did my first correspondence course sent it off got a letter back with it with the result you know with the mark again and the the marker said chris your english is excellent don't wait a year to take the gcsc take the one next month and that was it and i um you were allowed a dictionary to take in with you so i took the cover off the dictionary and i wrapped it around a thesaurus and i took that into the exam instead don't i hope yeah i'm not going to get arrested now am i yeah and um i use that same technique bullshit baffles brains and and then i realized that i actually know that that is what writing is isn't it it's put putting people in a picture and but i always i i'd always advise anyone to have a go at it you know just to put something down you know because either that or it's lost yes uh exactly and if you don't you know what you know what these things you're doing is is the same thing it's lost you know if it's not if you don't do these like my books my book but this is me do you know what i mean and like other fellows you've done with a nice um spud spud yeah um now you've got it now that's the actual man right you know they are good yeah very lucky i like i like to kind of there's a we're not a military podcast we're just a podcast because our military yeah it's easier to get military guests because i just asked them and they go yet all right chris but but when you look at the other military type youtube channels out there they're they're just glorify war that's all they do well that you i tell you what you want to be a good one if you can get hold of them and mike bombatelli he's on him he's on twitter you know he's he's at him he was the he was the doctor on mount london wow can we between us two authors are we able to spell his surname yeah it's uh mike von and betel he it's b e r t e l e betel he i did that and i'm not even writing crayons like but nobody's he's a really he's retired now he was the head man in the british army he's done all the the medics in afghanistan he rose to major general or something like you know he was a captain when he was on london um but he's a he's the top bloke i interviewed him i went down to sanders he was teaching at sanders and i said can i interview him and he was no problem yeah if you ask him just say he's just done jimmy o'connell the father who wrote three days in june and he knows who i well he knows who i am like you know thank you jimmy i'll i'll i'll send you this twitter name or whatever you call it username um so you can just get on to him like you know brilliant right jimmy i'm going to bring this to a close because i don't want to go on too long because people won't watch it they won't have time yeah no no no problem i want everybody to watch watch this podcast mate i'm i'm really honored that you've told us to be honest i made up you give me the opportunity yeah it's both ways mate i never thought when i was back at 12 years old watching the ships come into south anton and um that i'd have the honor of talking to you guys all these years later it's just incredible um but bomba telly bomba telly would be a good one for you yeah well because he's he's done the forklans so he's seen the advancing medicine through to afghanistan he's done iraq afghanistan the forklans his career encompasses all that let's get let's let's send him a message jimmy why don't you come back and we'll do a live youtube show together and then our subscribers can ask you you know i'm sure they'll have loads of questions for you see how this one goes first yeah yeah yeah this is this this will go well mate you but uh but i will think about it i'll definitely because to be honest it's been good you're alright so that's after battle i'll do my best so jimmy just get a brew on yeah just stay on the line mate so i can thank you after i hit the record button off but legend mate thank you ever so much all right um to all our friends at home massive love to you all please look out to yourselves if you can like and subscribe that really just helps to tell these stories that otherwise would be lost to history and and you know we're talking some brave men gave their lives for for us certainly for the people in the forklans and um let's keep these stories recorded that's it see you next time