managed to get down to Stanley for the day yesterday, Tues. Had a good wonder around the town, out to Gipsy cove near the airport, and up to Mount Longdon. Thought i would share a few of the photos that i took, hopefully some may be of interest to you guys.
Along the shore line is this WW1 memorial.
And on one side of it is this plaque. Bondoman, is this the battle that the ship you are building was sunk.
But also came across this in the catherdral. Theres a number of plaques in there relating to various wars and other who have died. But this is from a different naval action to the one above, just over a month earlier
Moving onto WW2, also in the catherdral is this Ensign carried by HMS Achilles during the battle of the River Plate.
Up by Gipsy cove we found a WW2 gun covering the entrance to Stanley harbour, apparetnly one of 14 guns around the islands. The information plate said there was also a searchlight base, that we could not find, a generator hut, some path remains. We also found what looks like a small accomadation building foundations about 50m back from the gun.
My knowledge of WW2 British Artillery is not very good, i am guessing that this is a 4.5icnh gun. It didn't say up on the site, so any info would be welcome.
Moving onto 82, there is of couse the war memorial in Stanley
hen we traveled up the road you can see in the pic above and out of Stanley heading west. We crossed the back of Mount Longdon and came across some Argentinian positions.
This doesn't have any obvious appatures for firing or observing out of. There was an old cable real in front of it, and further out is what looks like Mortar pits. I am guessing this position was used to cover Longdon.
One of those peaks out to the front is Mount Kent. If you look at the high ground on the left, the Two Sisters, there is another ridge line just below it, hard to make out on these pics. That ridge line is Mount Longdon. Not a very high feature, but it does cover the main valley into Stanley.
A close up of the plaque on the photo above.
On Longdon itself, there is alot of debris. Ammo tins, wooden boxes, pickets, and gun mounts, some that look like they are for .50cal. There are also alot of small pits, but this are common all over the Islands. Some of those on Longdon could have been shell scrapes or fire positions, its alos possable they were dug for the peat, its really hard to tell. And most are now full of water. Towards the forward edge of longdon we found what i think is a 105mm recoiless rifle. Unfortunatly we were running out of time. One of the civvies helicopter guys down here was in 3 para back in 82 and assaulted Longdon. He said that about 50m infront of this 105 are some more trench positions. We are planning another trip some time soon.
And finally, the view from the back of Longdon towards Stanley. This was alot smaller back in 82, but hopefully you can see how important Longdon is to defend the main route to Stanley.
Hope you guys enjoy those and find them useful, or at least informative.