Narberth and District Probus appreciated a talk about the fierce response to an attempt in 1982 by Argentinian forces to wrest the Falkland Islands from British sovereignty, from the personal experience of Manny, a former soldier in the Parachute Regiment.

The talk was illustrated with an excellent slide show.

The Falkland Islands are British overseas territories in the South Atlantic, 8,000 miles from Britain, but Argentina has contested this since 1833, and in 1982 President Galtieri decided to take the Islands by force.

The British response was immediate and fierce and a task force was immediately formed and sent on the long journey to engage the enemy and free the islanders, most of whom were of British descent and opposed the Argentinian claim. The dispute led to an undeclared war and the loss of over 900 lives over a period of 74 days.

At the time Marvin ‘Manny’ Manfred was living in Warminster with his wife and son. Manny had joined the Parachute Regiment as a soldier in May 1971 and after several tours of Ireland and elsewhere, he gained rapid promotion through the ranks. He has been deployed to most areas of the world including North and Central America, South East Asia and most European Countries.

After 40 years in the Parachute Regiment, Manny finally retired in 2017 to live in Newcastle Emlyn. He was warmly welcomed to give a personal account of his involvement in one of the bloodiest battles of the war – the Battle of Mt Longdon.

Following the Argentinian invasion, Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher authorised a military operation (code named ‘Corporate’) and within days a task force was assembled made up of 127 craft including warships, submarines and requisitioned merchant ships carrying troops, aircraft and equipment.

One of the ships commandeered was the cruise liner HMS Canberra and on board, heading for the Falklands, was 30 year old Platoon Sergeant A Company 3 Para Manny, answering a call to service for his country.

It was intended that the Canberra would land at San Carlos Water in the Falkland sound which separated the two islands of West Falkland and East Falkland. Victory in war often depends on the capture of the country’s capital. However, Port Stanley lay on the east coast of The East Falkland Island and was protected to its west by many miles of difficult marshland and three mountains guarded by Argentinian troops. Undaunted, the British troops were divided into three parties and a target allocated to each group.

Manny was in the group heading for the central hill of Mt Longdon but first they had to cross the many miles of marsh with howling, freezing gales, torrential rain and boggy terrain, in full army gear and carrying a rucksack of essential goods weighing 65Kilos. An incredibly difficult task. There was no shelter in the marshes and enemy bullets were showering down on them from the hill. The Battle for Mt Longdon was the toughest of the three and the amazing British victory was achieved with the loss of 23 British lives and 43 wounded. The Argentinians lost 32 men.

There were successes for the British troops elsewhere and with the recapture of Stanley the Argentinians surrendered and a ceasefire was declared on July 14. Britain lost 255 lives in the Falklands conflict and Argentina 645.

The ‘war’ had different outcomes for the two leaders. Galtieri was an army officer before he became President. He was blamed for the Falklands defeat and was immediately removed from office and imprisoned. For Margaret Thatcher, the result quickly boosted her previously sagging support and she consequently won the next election in 1983.

Manny is a member Reserve Forces and Cadets Association for Wales and is also Chair of Trustees for young people’s charity The Motivation and Learning Trust. He has traveled the country and abroad, having recently returned from Cyprus, to give his talk to various organisations. Since 1988 he has spoken to over 20,000 people.

A vote of thanks to Manny was given by David Thomas. Members look forward to next month’s meeting at the Plas Hyfryd Hotel on Thursday, October 31, 12.30pm when the speaker will be James Fleming. To join, contact Patrick Jones on [email protected] or 07846 660904.