Murrel Bridge battlefield

As the British pushed forward from their bridgehead at San Carlos they started to encounter the outer Argentine defences in the hills around Port Stanley. 3 Para took a northern rout and by the end of May had advanced to Estancia house. From there they sent out there specialist patrols from D company to scout out the enemies positions on Mount Longdon, their expected objective in the comming battles. There was a problem however that the journey from Estancia took several hours at each night and so a patrols base was set up at Murrel Bridge at about the halfway point.

On the Argentinian side it was soon realised that the units in the positions on the surrounding hills were illequiped in both training & moral to carry out their own patroling. Thus, the army commando units, normally used for deep-recce had to take on this roll. They were able to do so with some effect and in the early hours of the 7th June one such patrol was approaching Murrel Bridge.

After several successful nights in the area Sgt Addle's patrol had just arrived back at the bluff on the western bank of the river which they had been using as a base. Here they met up with a few others of the Patrols company & settled down for the night. Within a short space of time a sentry reported moving figures down near the bridge. The Paras opened up and a confused firefight developed in the darkness with smallarms, machinegun and LAW fire being exchanged. The Commando patrol was very aggreeive and before dawn broke had forced the Paras to withdraw, having to leave behind much of their equipment. The next night the paras returned in greater force but their equipment had gone. Patrols from then on had to be mounted from closer to their own lines.

The British claimed 5 Argentine casualties (none confermed) they suffered none themselves.