Tony McNally: THE PARACHUTE REGIMENT

Showing posts with label THE PARACHUTE REGIMENT. Show all posts

Wednesday, 6 January 2016

Thursday, 19 March 2015

Medic Bag Falklands War

Museum Object of the Week, Item No 46: This bag was used by Private Mick Bates C COY 2 PARA, to treat the wounded at Goose Green, Falkland Islands, 1982.

It was discarded by him when he ran out of field dressings.

In November 2002 he returned to the Falklands and when retracing his steps found the bag where he had discarded it 20 years before.

It is now held in the collection of Airborne Assault - The Museum of The Parachute Regiment and Airborne Forces.

Friday, 6 February 2015

Friday, 23 January 2015

Monday, 24 November 2014

Medal 'victory' for forgotten Falklands hero

A paratrooper who was killed in the Falklands is in line to receive a top gallantry medal after his case was highlighted by The Mail on Sunday, sparking a remarkable U-turn by the Prime Minister. Corporal Stewart McLaughlin, 27, who was killed leading British soldiers during the Battle of Mount Longdon in June 1982, was denied a bravery award after commanders lost his handwritten citation. The recommendation was written just hours after Cpl McLaughlin’s death on the mountain overlooking the capital Port Stanley where British Paras took key enemy positions. Within two days of the battle, British soldiers were able to force the Argentinians to surrender. Cpl McLaughlin’s citation described how he had ‘fought like a demon’ and inspired young Paras in his section by charging towards enemy machine-gun fire shouting: ‘Come on lads, I’m bulletproof, follow me!’He was killed in the final throes of the battle and hours later his medal citation was misplaced when officers from the 3rd Battalion, The Parachute Regiment, were forced to move to another HQ. Last month we reported how David Cameron had blocked a bid by the soldier’s family for Cpl McLaughlin to receive official recognition, telling them it was ‘simply not possible after this amount of time’ to look again at the case.Read More HERE

Wednesday, 27 August 2014

Falklands War veteran Jimmy looks back at beating death on Mount Longdon

Scouser was shot in head and face, but lived to tell the tale in new book."I was at death’s door. I had dressings covering my face to stop the blood and remember being loaded onto a stretcher. I heard one of the guys carrying me say ‘This one’s alive’ and the other said ‘Is he? Let’s take him back, then’. “There was a makeshift mortuary – and I think I was being taken there to be placed with the dead.” This is the incredible story of Scouser Jimmy O’Connell. The incredible story of a bitter and bloody battle and a brave battalion. And it’s being told by the man, himself. Former Liverpool black cab driver Jimmy, 53, isn’t just a Falklands’ hero and newly- published author – he’s also a master of understatement. Recalling the battle that helped win the Falklands War, almost robbed him of his life – and certainly changed it forever – the former private in the 3rd Battalion, the Parachute Regiment, describes it as “a bit of a dust-up”. Sitting in his home in Orrell Park, the former paratrooper, who has just written Three Days In June, an account of the Battle of Mount Longdon, recalls: “We got caught in artillery and machine gun fire. “I was hit in the head and face – a bullet went through my nose and took out my cheekbone and right eye. “I expected to get hit again because there was that much stuff coming down around me. I thought ‘I can’t see myself getting out of this one’. “They couldn’t get helicopters to the wounded for 12 hours, so it was only then that I was able to be evacuated and properly treated.” Read more HERE