Two Sides of Hell

Two Sides of Hell
The bloodiest battle of the Falklands from both sides

Authors	Vincent Bramley
Publisher	22
ISBN #	1-898125-75-9
On-line Merchant	Amazon

Cover Notes

The book that tells the truth about the way we treat our heroes.

The unique and harrowing account of the bloodiest battle of the falklands War, as seen through the eyes of eight ordinary Argentinean soldiers from the Seventh Infantry Regiment and five British Paratroopers interviewed by the best-selling author of Excursion to Hell.

The book tell for the first time the true legacy of the Falklands, from both the British and Argentinean side. it is a soldiers tale, told on behalf of soldiers.

Reviews

joe crow rated this book as Excellent

i havent read the book yet, im just finishing mr bramleys first book. however after reading some of the above reviews i can say i agree with dave's oppinion the most as he mentions the fact the the author can only go on what he's been told, and i don't understand why peole are giving him such a hard time about it.

Gabriela Fernandez rated this book as Excellent

Tengo 16 años y soy argentina.Este libro me parecio rtealmente bueno, y aunque en muchas de sus paginas llore, estoy feliz por haberlo leido para informarme mejor y terminar de comprender que en la guerra no hay enenmigos sino que la guerra destruye a todos sin importar los bandos.
I am 16 years old and i am argentinian.I think this book was reallly goog ,and thoug i cried while i was reading it, i am glad of have read it because now i can understand what really happened in Malvinas.This book showed me that war is very unfear and it does not respet nothing, war destroys everything.
Please excuse me because of my poor English

Keith Hendry rated this book as Average

Mr Bramley,
Here is my email address to give you the right to my reply to my posted email on Two sides of hell, spelling mistake's and all. By the way I have been working along side an former 3 Para mate of yours who fought on Mount Longdon, Wayne Holland, a smashing big guy he is at that. Oh and he spoke very highly of Ian MacKay' say's he was a lovely man. It made me proud to be a Scot-cause I know we can fight!

Keith Hendry rated this book as Average

If Mr Bramley can"t bring himself to correct Argentinians from refering to the British as English then he's at it! Also the only time he mentioned Scots was in a derogatory comment about some balloons on a supply or hospital ship, Well sir I have to say you are a trumpet! What about Seargent Ian MacKay then Mr Bramley among many brave Scots I ask you!
Nothing changes with the times when it comes to dicounting the efforts of other nationalities by Englishmen, why do people bother fighting along with the likes of you big man-crap hats and all blah, blah, blah!
Have not set up an email account as yet but will inform you when I do so if you choose you can reply.
Keith Hendry

John Smith rated this book as It's already in the bin

This bloke must have been very busy as it seems that he was here there and everywhere and fought in every contact that happened, whether with 4 - 5 - or 6 platoon.
Not bad going for someone in the "Drums" platoon.

Martin rated this book as Excellent

An outstanding book, excellent reading. It give a very interesting in sight to the life, and death of Argentinean soldiers up in the hills waiting for the british to come. They really had a bad time. The book also give a very good detailed account of many individual experiences of the battle. Vincent's first book was good but this is excellent. He has matured well as a writer.

Juan Pozzi rated this book as Good

Vincent Bramley arrived in Bs As in June 1993, a 3 Para veteran in his early 30s. Many Argentine veterans give Bramley their views on the campaign. To be frank Alberto Carbone, Luis Leccese, Felix Barreto and Antonio Belmonte are cry-babies. Although conscript Jorge Perez-Grandi complained of the bullying NCOs and stultifying discipline in the elite Cordoba-based 4th Airborne Infantry Brigade, he thrived on Army life and went on to enter the Buenos Aires officer training school after his discharge. And for his actions on Two Sisters Hill on 11-12 June 1982 he (2nd Lieutenant Perez-Grandi) was decorated for his gallantry!

I feel Two Sides of Hell has presented an inaccurate account of the Argentine campaign. How come he didn't put in anything about the 7th Regiment counterattack on the northern slopes from Wireless Ridge right through Numbers 4 and 5 Platoons? It turned out that this counterattack, one of the most
successful Argentine night actions in the ground war, was launched by First Lieutenant Raul Fernando Castaneda's 1st Platoon, 'C' Company. In actuality the Argentine conscripts on Mount Longdon were far from being the helpless, inept and totally deplorable soldiers that British war annals have posterity believe. Lieutenant-General Hew Pike (then Commanding Officer, 3rd Parachute Battalion) takes a contrary view in The Other Side Of The Hill (Pegasus: The Journal of the Parachute Regiment, April 1988). To read more about Mount Longdon, try Nine Battles to Stanley (Leo Cooper, 1999). Though maligned or dismissed in British war annals Major Carlos Carrizo-Salvadores, second in command, 7th Regiment, did his best to stem the British onslaught.

Nicolas Levalle rated this book as Good

The story of the 11-12 June battle for Mount Longdon has been told many times, but never with the honest brutality shown here. For students of the battle Vincent Bramley's Two Sides of Hell is one not to be missed. Two Sides of Hell is the story of the men of the British 3rd Parachute Battalion sent to capture Mount Longdon, guarded by heavily fortified machinegun posts, and paying an awful price for their eventual success. Juan Baldini is the typical Argentinian platoon commander, whose job is to run 1st Platoon, 'B' Company 7th Regiment - but whose aim is clearly survival. His commander (Major Carlos Carrizo-Salvadores) at the closing stages of the battle battles with his conscience in sending his men to certain death and so begins considering a truce to help the wounded. By now it's about 0530 local time and there was a hint of dawn in the offing.

The battle started when a Para stepped on a mine. Almost at once a shout in Spanish, then a curtain of fire came at 'B' Company, 3rd Parachute Battalion from the rocks ahead. The Argentinian soldiers in the rocks above and ahead where men of 1st Platoon under Second Lieutenant Juan Baldini. Before long Baldini and his platoon sergeant were surrounded by more than 100 British soldiers and Baldini asked the reserve platoon for assistance and Carrizo-Salvadores despatched the engineer platoon. Carrizo-Salvadores could hear shots where 1st Platoon was fighting but around his command bunker it was quiet. But as dawn arrived his command platoon was firing like mad. Heavily outgunned and under fire from every side Major Carrizo-Salvadores was in a critical condition, but the men fought on and Second Lieutenant Mark Cox and Privates Kevin Connery and Dominic Gray were met by a hail of fire. Corporal Lennie Carver and Private Frank Reagan were seriously wounded and Private John Crow killed. The fighting was close-quarters at times, as the Argentinians tied to maintain Mount Longdon and Private Dante Pereira who had been a drummer in the 7th Regiment band and Private Omar Brito fell mortally wounded thirty-five metres in front of Major Carrizo-Salvadores and his command platoon.

Every Argentinian conscript unit sent to the Malvinas has its own heroes thanks to individual acts of bravery and Second Lieutenant Juan Domingo Baldini filled the 7th Regiment's role for the Longdon fight. In 1994, Vincent Bramley's book Two Sides of Hell broke a twelve-year tradition, by arguing that his posthumous medal was a sham and that his reputation had been preserved by a coterie of admirers. To judge by the roars of rage in the Argentinian Army provoked by Two Sides of Hell, Bramley had damaged his target. How Baldini died and how underrated the part played by the 7th Regiment's 'C' Company (under First Lieutenant Hugo Garcia) and its own foray were revealed by Nicholas van der Bijl whose book (Nine Battles to Stanley, Leo Cooper) appeared in 1999. In
his book Bijl tried to unravel the British cover-ups in no-man's-land and separated the authentic from the fanciful. It seems Nicholas van der Bijl has been deliberately cautious about accepting without question!
s the Argentinian interviewee accounts and has turned to other sources, some hitherto unknown (Hew Pike then commanding officer, 3rd Parachute Battalion, The Other Side of the Hill, Pegasus: Journal of the Parachute Regiment, April 1988) or little used (Peter Harclerode, Para!: Fifty Years of the Parachute Regiment, Arms & Armour Press, 1990)

Dave rated this book as Good
This is the first book in which I've read extensive accounts from 'the other side of the hill' in the Falklands. Usually, only a few short quotes from the Argentinian point of view are included and Bramley deserves credit for persuading veterans to be interviewed. Historians, like Middlebrook, complain that the Argentinians are still difficult to approach over the Falklands issue, which is understandable considering the timespan. I think Bramley's claim that he must be one of the first soldiers to personally interview men that were relatively recently trying to kill him is undoubtedly true. I understand the criticisms of the other reviewers as to content but feel obliged to point out that Bramley is ethically obliged to only cover what his interviewees have told him. If they failed to mention certain events, or had no knowledge of them, he cannot be held accountable for this. It could well be true that many Argentinian veterans had vastly differing experiences but Bramley can really only comment on what people were prepared to tell him. I hope that this book encourages other Argentinian veterans to share their experiences as the Falklands War can only be understood if we have an insight into the views of
both sides. This book was readable and approached with a very interesting new perspective. Each account came with a description of the interviewees experiences before and after the war which lent them greater credibility. The inclusion of Argentinian accounts makes this book a worthy addition to the literature available for this conflict

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