Arrived early afternoon and picked up by Kyle from FITB. He had promised us a battlefield visit, so we diverted and picked up a friend of his, Zoran, who is also a member of the FIDF (local reservists). They took us up in 4x4s into the hills overlooking Stanley, where some of the fiercest fighting took place and showed us the direction the marines had come on their famous yomp carrying about 100lbs of equipment each. Still lots of shell holes around and bits of field guns.
Then up to the summit of Mount Longden. This is where the paras attacked at night up the rocky sides of the mountain an in fierce hand to hand fighting took out the enemy positions in a battle which lasted 10 hours. 23 Paras were killed including one VC. There are little memorials up there to the dead and it is very moving. As Zoran was explaining in vivid detail how the battle had progressed, even showing us original pictures of where foxholes were, where specific actions took place, where a sniper had pinned down soldiers for hours, etc, etc, it started to snow, which made the whole thing even more atmospheric. The Falklanders are amazingly patriotic and grateful to Margaret Thatcher and the British forces who liberated them. Very interesting talking to those who were there and their, often harrowing experiences with the Argentinians.
Super dinner at the Waterfront Hotel with out local agent, ITT. Tomorrow is Friday and our last day.
