7th Infantry Regiment (Argentina)

The 7th Regiment traces its origins back to November 1810. At that time, it was known as the Cochabamba Infantry Regiment in Bolivia, and comprised locals. The Mayor of Chuquisaca, Francisco Rivero, was designated its commanding officer, with the rank of colonel. In June 1811, the unit was renamed No. 7 Infantry Regiment, and had its baptism of fire on 20 June 1811 at Huaqui, under the command of Lieutenant-Colonel Bolaños. Given the scarcity of experienced officers and the lack of training among the infantry fighting the well-armed and disciplined Spanish-backed enemy, the 7th Regiment soldiers could not maintain their assigned positions and soon joined in the retreat of the Patriot forces with the unit being disbanded in the aftermath of defeat. However, in 1812, it was officially announced that plans were in progress for the reformation the regiment with horseback grenadiers and supporting infantry recruited from the patriots residing in the Banda Oriental Province.

On 31 May 1813 the 7th Regiment was officially formed in Buenos Aires, under the command of Lieutenant-Colonel Toribio de Luzuriaga. Sent to Upper Peru in late 1814, it suffered heavy losses in the Second Battle of the Sipe Sipe fighting Spanish Royalist forces.

The combat unit was soon reformed and placed under the command of Lieutenant-Colonel Pedro Conde. On 19 January 1817, the companies of the regiment formed the vanguard of the patriot forces of General Soler. They crossed the Andes through the Paso de Los Patos, taking part in the Battles of Achupayas, Putaendo, Las Coimas and Guardia Vieja. El 12 February 1817, the formation played an important role in the victory obtained during the Battle of Chacabuco against Spanish backed forces. The combat companies were then placed under the command of General Bernardo O' Higgins, taking part in the liberation of southern Chile, fighting at the Battles of Gavilán, Carampague and Talcahuano. Durante the Second Battle of Cancha Rayada, the regiment held firm despite a surprise enemy counterattack.

The regiment later took part in the Liberation of Peru as part of the 1st Division under General Las Heras and later General Arenales.

On 17 April 1917, the 7th Regiment boarded trains at Estación Muñiz taking them to their new home base of La Plata.

Throughout 1981, the 7th Mechanized Infantry Regiment as part of the 10th Mechanized Infantry Brigade (under Brigadier-General Oscar Luis Jofre) found itself building up and training for war with Chile. There were trips to the field-firing area at San Miguel del Monte, and the senior soldiers were given specialist weapons courses, MAG machine-guns, FAP light-machine-guns, 120-mm and 81-mm mortars, radios and RASIT ground-surveillance radar.

At the end of their forty-five days of basic training, Private Vicente José Bruno was one of the 1981 intake regarded as the best soldiers. Forty-five of the conscripts and half-a-dozen NCOs in the 7th Regiment were selected to form a Commando platoon within the 7th Regiment.[1] During 1981, a Commando course had been introduced in the 10th Brigade. Brigadier Oscar Jofre had decided that an airlanding special operations platoon would be formed for each of his regiments. Major Oscar Ramón Jaimet, the Operations Officer of the 6th Mechanized Infantry Regiment, took over the formation of these helicopter-borne platoons of hand-picked conscripts and NCOs. Jaimet, a dedicated professional soldier had served behind People's Revolutionary Army guerrilla lines as a Green Beret in the Tucumán Province in 1975.

Private Santiago Fabian Gauto, a soldier of Guarani Indian heritage, was selected to be part of the Commando platoon (under First Lieutenant Mario Gabriel Dotto) for the 7th Regiment that included learning how to stop enemy reinforcements arriving by train:

We had instructions at night in all weathers. It was freezing in winter. We were taught how to make and plant booby-traps, we did lots of extra shooting and had to strip and assemble weapons while blindfolded. They even taught us how to stop an electric train, which was really weird to us. Maybe one day I'll go to the station and stop one![2]

Many regulars and conscripts in the 10th Brigade were sons of Italian migrants, patriotic and adventurous young men fired up by patriotism and stories of the Second World War. In an interview with Fernando Calles from Radio Las Fores (AM 1210), Private Vicente Bruno in 2022 talked proudly about his uncle that had fought as part of the Italian Army in the North African Campaign during the Second World War.[3]

During this time the 7th Mechanized Infantry Regiment was selected to take part in a helicopter-borne exercise with 601 Combat Aviation Battalion. This was a great opportunity to work with the helicopter pilots and it was of excellent value. Private Jorge Alberto Altieri:

I was issued with a FAL 7.62 millimetre rifle. Other guys were given FAP light machineguns and others got PAMs [submachine guns]. The main emphasis in shooting was making every bullet count. I was also shown how to use a bazooka, how to make and lay booby-traps, and how to navigate at night, and we went on helicopter drills, night and day attacks and ambushes.[4]

Service was not always harsh though, with the local soldiers of the 10th Brigade permitted to return to their homes for dinner and weekends during quiet periods. Private Omar Anibal Brito (KIA, killed in action) from the 7th Regiment's B Company would not be so lucky, having several run-ins with his superiors and even going ausente sin licencia (absent without leave or AWOL), he would miss out on the rewards for good behaviour and even spend time in the lock-up cell.[5]

There was a nearby school and to this the 7th Regiment provided skilled labour in the form of Private Antonio Francisco Belmonte and others as part of a Hearts and Minds campaign with Belmonte recalling, "They also had a system where conscripts with certain trades - painters, electricians, builders and the like - were sent outside to help on civilian projects such as repairing and decorating schools. For some reason they sent me to work on a school and I missed a lot of training, particularly the big manoeuvres, because of it. One one occasion a big exercise was coming up which I very much wanted to attend, but the headmistress of the school told our authorities she wanted her work finished and we were ordered to stay and do it and miss the exercise."

The culmination of the training cycle for the conscripts consisted of a brigade-sized mechanized infantry assault with supporting IAI Dagger fighter-bombers from the Argentine Air Force in the General Acha Desert in La Pampa Province in October 1981. Private Claudio Alberto Carbone from the 7th Mechanized Regiment recalls the major exercise that also involved the 1st Armoured Cavalry Brigade:

Although the brigade had carried out extensive exercises, there were also many ceremonial activities including Argentinian Independence Day, cordon-and-search operations and general activities such as sporting tournaments with the 7th Regiment Commando Platoon taking part in the 10th Brigade marathon competition and coming second.[7]

As the year neared to the end, the 7th Regiment had produced extremely capable, competent and professional Soldados Dragoneantes (Private First Class or Temporary Corporals in other armies), who could look after their sections in isolation and who became the machine-gunners, bazookamen, radio operators, ground-surveillance-radar operators, pathfinders and combat medics. Private Tomás Szumilo of the 7th Regiment says, "The preparation we got before we arrived (in the islands) was good and had lasted about a month and a half, it was quite rigorous because the Regiment was very demanding of us. We were able to operate weapons and handle soldiering. In my case, due to my experience in the health industry, I became a combat medic."[8]

Prior to their discharge, the Commando-trained soldiers in the 7th Regiment were required to do a guard duty for Brigadier-General Jofre because of the terrorist threat from Montoneros guerrillas still operating in Buenos Aires, "One time Brigadier-General Jofre, who commanded 10th Brigade and was also Land Forces Commander in the Malvinas, came to visit us and see something at the nearby theatre. All thirty of us were ordered to escort him and guard him. We lost our leave to look after him."[9]

Lieutenant-Colonel Omar Giménez's 7th Mechanized Infantry Regiment (Regimiento de Infantería Mecanizado 7 'Coronel Conde' or RI Mec 7) was deployed to the Falkland Islands, where it fought in the battles for Mount Longdon and Wireless Ridge, sustaining 36 killed and 152 wounded[10] and around 100 taken prisoner of war.[11]

Between 13–14 April, RI Mec 7 was flown to Stanley Airbase to relieve the 3rd Rifle Platoon (Lieutenant Héctor Edgardo Gazzolo) from Delta Company 2nd Marine Infantry Battalion (D/BIM 2) and 3rd Rifle Platoon (Lieutenant Alfredo José Imboden) from Hotel Company 3rd Marine Infantry Battalion (H/BIM 3) holding Mount Longdon and Wireless Ridge in Sector Plata (Silver). The next day, they moved to Sector Silver overlooking Murrell River and Moody Brook Barracks and the bulk of the regiment were to spend the next 62 days of the war in this sector of the Stanley front. Private Vicente Bruno recalls Second Lieutenant Juan Domingo Baldini commandeering a truck in order to help get his 1st Rifle Platoon from B Company 7th Regiment (B/RI Mec 7) to Mount Longdon.[12] 1st Platoon (Lieutenant Hugo Aníbal Quiroga) and 2nd Platoon (Second Lieutenant Diego Carlos Arreseigor) from the 10th Mechanized Engineer Company were assigned for sapper support. Dismounted cavalry troops and Panhards were in support from Reserva Z. GA 3 was on call via 10th Mechanized Infantry Brigade Headquarters (Brigada de Infantería Mecanizada X or Cdo/Br I Mec X).

The recalled reservists had a year of training, comprising a solid 200 days in which the conscripts in the rifle companies received relevant mentoring from their superiors while out in exercises[13]

At Port Stanley in April and May before the British landings, the 7th Regiment companies were fortunate in they had access to hot showers which were available to them every fortnight before the British landings on 21 May. At first, the 7th Regiment on Wireless Ridge was relatively comfortable, shooting sheep and roasting them on old bed frames the soldiers had found nearby, according to Anglo-Argentinian Private Miguel Savage of the Mortar Platoon (under First Sergeant Mario Ricardo Alcaide) from C Company who was interviewed by the Scotsman in 2002.[14]

Private Savage says he received minimal training for as he explains in his book 'Malvinas, Viaje al Pasado' his father had arranged with the Regimental Commander for his son to largely sit out, along with five other conscripts, their military service as handymen at a shooting range in Buenos Aires, but that it all backfired when Savage found himself incorporated into C/RI Mec 7 and sent to defend Wireless Ridge.

Lieutenant-Colonel Giménez had selected a quiet and secluded part of Stanley Hospital for his companies to rest, but the weary soldiers found it difficult to unwind. The nervous tension of being subjected to constant bombardment and possible air attack for a long period was taking its toll. Private Jorge Alberto Andreeta from B/RI Mec 7, in an interview with the Argentinian 'Clarín' newspaper in April 2012, reported that rough punishment was indeed meted out in his unit to those caught stealing provisions or hunting sheep, but admitted that his platoon got a chance to visit this sanctuary fitted with colour tv and video cassette player, "One day they took us to the hospital, we showered and they got us to watch a film, it turned out to be a horror movie."[15] There was a strict ration of one ration pack per soldier per week and stealing and going absent without leave (AWOL) attracted fairly harsh physical retribution.

Vicente Bruno from the 1st Rifle Platoon, in an interview in 2022 with former Argentinian war correspondent Nicolas Kasanzew, says that Second Lieutenant Juan Baldini was a good officer that allowed him and others to shoot and butcher sheep and that Baldini would eat the same food and share his cigarettes despite claims to the contrary.[16] Private Guillermo Alberto Vélez from the 7th Regiment's Headquarters & Support Company maintains that he personally shot and killed 50 sheep to feed a substantial part of the Wireless Ridge defenders.[17]

On 8 June, a mortar post under Private Felix Guillermo Álvarez from the 1st Rifle Platoon B Company spotted a Close-Target-Reconnaissance Patrol from D Company 3 PARA and opened fire forcing the four British Paratroopers involved to go to ground.[18]

Corporal Jorge Daniel Arribas from the 1st Rifle Platoon C Company on Wireless Ridge, would explain that when the moment came to execute a nocturnal counterattack in support of the Mount Longdon defenders, the men in his rifle platoon would certainly be up to the task, "When the time came to fight, despite the loss of weight, despite having not had any real sleep we fought so hard like as if we were these really tough Commandos, Elite Soldiers but we did it all for love of the Fatherland, for each other and for our families."[19]

On the night of 13/14 June, The British SAS reportedly tried to infiltrate the regiment by mingling with the fleeing RI Mec 7 soldiers from Wireless Ridge, making it very difficult for the 181st Military Police Company and supporting 1st Amphibious Engineer Company to differentiate between the two in the dark.[20] After the Argentinian surrender, after a bitter street brawl with the British soldiers from 3 PARA, the 7th Regiment soldiers were taken back to Argentina on board the British cruise liner 'Canberra'.[21]

A British report in 1986 on the action on the western end of Longdon noted that "Some of them were very disciplined firing moving back into cover then coming out again and firing again or throwing grenades."[22] Private Carlos Alberto Chiarlini would confirm this as part of his training in an Argentine documentary (Malvinas: La Guerra Que No Vimos, 1984): I was sleeping and then I started hearing shots. I got out of my position, there were tracers everywhere and shot after shot after shot. I looked ahead where the enemy was supposed to be coming from and everything that moved I shot at... I had to keep changing position because they saw me. I would shoot and they would see the flash of my rifle. I couldn't stay there long because they would pinpoint me and I would be in great danger. So I kept changing positions. [23]

During the close-quarter fighting, some British paratroopers reported hearing the Argentine defenders on Wireless Ridge use the 'wise-guy' talk adopted from 1930s Hollywood gangster movies.[24]

On the night of 16 June, a fight broke out involving the 7th Regiment and 3 PARA, which turned into a riot with the Argentinians setting fire to the Globe Store. However a company from 2 PARA soon rushed to the area and order was restored.[25]

• (in Spanish) El 7 de Infantería, un pedazo importante de la historia militar del país Archived 2017-10-27 at the Wayback Machine (Accessed 2018-03-23)