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Auction: 26003 - Orders, Decorations and Medals
Lot: 201

Sold by Order of the Recipient's Widow

'With that, the General [Carlos Büsser] went along the line and saluted each of my men, shook their hands and said, 'If Argentine marines were the same as British marines, we would conquer the world. If there is anything you want, let me know and you will have it.' We made a short list that ended 'Twenty-two one-way tickets to London and twenty-two women.' Büsser said: 'You can have everything on the list except the women and the one-way tickets home you will have to wait for.' Yet the next day we flew out of Argentina.'

Lieutenant Keith Mills, D.S.C., who commanded Naval Party 8901 at the defence of South Georgia on 3 April 1982; Heroes of the Falklands War, by Michael Ashcroft, refers.

The outstanding Falklands War group of three awarded to Colour-Sergeant 'Les' Daniels, Royal Marines and Naval Party 8901, who was mentioned in despatches for his gallant part in the defence of South Georgia in April 1982 and who later qualified as an S.B.S. Close Quarter Battle Instructor

Described by one comrade as a 'legend' and 'top bloke', he quickly took the initiative on being landed at South Georgia from H.M.S. Endurance and set to work booby-trapping the harbour jetty with a box containing '200 lbs. of plastic explosives, harpoon heads, nuts and screws', in addition to further devices set at 6-feet intervals on the stone strewn beach, the whole well capable of 'blowing the shit' out of any careless Argentine commandos

What followed, of course, became one of the most famous episodes of the conflict, his party of just 22 Royal Marines - under the redoubtable leadership of Lieutenant Keith Mills - facing off a far superior enemy force for over two hours, much damage being inflicted on a pair of enemy helicopters and the corvette Guerrico

General Service 1962-2007, 1 clasp, Northern Ireland (Mne L Daniels PO38702U RM); South Atlantic 1982, with rosette and M.I.D. oak leaf (Mne L Daniels PO38702U RM); Royal Navy L.S. and G.C., E.II.R. (Sgt L Daniels PO38702U L Daniels RM), together with his identity discs (3), the first two with officially corrected service numbers, good very fine (6)

Leslie Daniels was born in Watford, Hertfordshire on 29 January 1956 and joined the Royal Marines in February 1979.

Having then trained as an assault engineer, and 'developed a high degree of expertise with explosives, in particular Improvised Explosive Devices', he joined No. 41 Commando, R.M. for a tour of duty in Northern Ireland, where 'his steadfastness under pressure was particularly praised'; his retirement testimonial, refers.

Defence of South Georgia

Then in March 1981, he was posted to Naval Party 8901 in the South Atlantic, in which he was destined to complete a one-year tour of the Falklands.

Towards the end of that tour, he (and 8 other marines from NP8901) were seconded to the R.M Detachment on H.M.S. Endurance and was subsequently deployed to was deployed to South Georgia from H.M.S. Endurance, his 22-strong party, under the command of Lieutenant Keith Mills, bringing ashore some 20,000 rounds of ammunition. With them also came quantities of Plastic Explosives (P.E.), and Daniels - using his earlier acquired skills - booby-trapped the main jetty at King Edward Point, in addition to laying further devices along the beach. As recalled by Mills:

' I asked him if he thought he had used enough explosive to destroy the jetty and damage any ship that came alongside. Les’s response was, “We will not need to wait for the ship to come alongside the jetty, Sir. If necessary, we can send the jetty out to meet them!”

Another interesting point is that despite having a significant amount of P.E. and detonators, for some reason we had no military means of initiating the explosive charges. To get around this, Les ran the wires back to the nearest British Antarctic Services (BAS) building and connected it to a 3 pin plug. All that was required to initiate the charges was to plug in and flip the switch!'

As it transpired, his initiative was timely, for on the morning of 3 April 1982 the Argentine corvette Guerrico and an Alouette helicopter hove into view. Mills recalls:

'As the Geurrico was making her first approach to King Edward Point, I instructed Les to accompany me to go down to the jetty to meet the ship. My intention was to meet the ship and attempt to delay anyone from disembarking until I had received some clearer orders from higher command. Les took up a position in the BAS building, 3 pin plug in hand. In the event of the Argentines coming alongside and failing to comply with my request, the plan was for me to beat a hasty withdrawal and Les was to initiate the device, hopefully sinking the ship. As it turned out, the Geurrico had no intention of coming alongside and once she had checked the bay and seen no sign of Endurance, she turned about and slowly set about returning to the open sea.

It was at this point that the first Alouette helicopter landed at the end of King Edward Point and began disembarking Argentine marines. Having realised that further negotiation would not be possible, Les and I then hard targeted through the myriad of BAS buildings back to our defensive position to join the rest of the detachment. No sooner had we taken up our positions, the Puma helicopter, loaded with Argentine marines, was attempting to land 100m in front of our position. I gave the order to fire and the rest is history.'

A little earlier, Mills - frustrated by last minute conflicting orders from his seniors - is said to have made a forthright response to the suggestion he should surrender without a proper fight: "F--k that. I'll make their eyes water." More certain is the fact he had indeed decided to give the invading Argentinian forces a bloody nose and then, if possible, beat a retreat into the mountains. Thus, a last-minute order requesting he stand down without a fight fell on deaf ears. Besides, Daniels and his like were well-up for the coming firefight. And by way of evidence, they downed a Puma helicopter and damaged an Alouette helicopter before the action had hardly got underway.

And when the corvette Guerrico carelessly closed the range to 500 metres - with her 40mm. guns and a 100mm. gun on her bow - Daniels and his comrades responded in kind, albeit under heavy fire. Mills takes up the story:

'The ship then moved right out into the bay, about turned, and headed out to sea again at full speed. We engaged the corvette for a second time scoring anti-tank rocket hits on the Exocet and to the main upper deck superstructure. Again, she was engaged by heavy machine-gun and rifle fire. I was later informed by an Argentine marine officer that we had scored a total of 1,275 hits on the corvette and had we hit her again below the water line she surely would have sunk.'

At length, in what seemed to be a natural lull in the contest - and confident that he and his men had done all within their power - Keith Mills gallantly stuck his head over the parapet and waved a white-lined jacket as a signal to commence negotiations for a ceasefire. He then informed the Argentines that their position remained perilous and that if they did not offer his men safe passage, they would return to the fray and cause extensive loss of life. As it stood, the Argentines are believed to have suffered around 20 casualties in killed or wounded, whilst just one Royal Marine was wounded. Mercifully, for all concerned, a peaceful conclusion to the action was reached, although the Argentines, convinced that they had engaged a force far greater than just 22 men, remained jittery. It was a worrying moment, as related in a newspaper report:

'As they were lined up in three ranks … [the Royal Marines] … thought they were going to be executed. The Argentine troops had three machine-guns trained on the marines and the Britons could hear the guns being cocked by their jittery operators … before being shipped out of the island the marines were stripped of everything except their battledress.'

With them came 13 scientists of the British Antarctica Survey, who had been stationed at Grytviken.

After several days at sea, and a short stay ashore - where they were congratulated by the Argentine General Carlos Büsser - Daniels and his comrades were flown out of Montevideo to a hero's welcome at R.A.F. Brize Norton on 14 April 1982. He was mentioned in despatches (London Gazette 11 October 1982, refers).

Subsequent career - S.B.S. Instructor

He was next employed in Commachio Company, R.M., a specialist unit charged with protecting the U.K.'s nuclear weapon installations, and later expanded into Commachio Group, in which he remained employed until transferring to R.M. Poole in July 1987. And he remained employed at Poole until January 1989, in which period he was advanced to Corporal and passed the 'superior course' as an S.B.S. Close Quarter Battle Instructor. As verified by his retirement testimonial, he had earlier qualified as a sniper, weapons expert and played a leading role in Maritime Counter Terrorism.

In the period January 1989 to January 1992, Daniels served as an instructor at the R.M., Commando Training School, followed by a tour of duty as a Sergeant in 45 Commando Group, R.M. from January 1992 until April 1894, in which period he was awarded his L.S. and G.C. Medal, together with his trusty Jack Russell 'Woody', who was a favourite of all ranks.

His final appointments comprised a stint with the Brunei Training Team from March 1996 until October 1998, and an end of career tour back at the Commando Training School as a Colour-Sergeant. On taking his discharge in February 2001, his C.O. stated, 'were it possible to have extended his contract in the Royal Marines, I would gladly - and unhesitatingly - have done so.'

Sold with a quantity of original documentation, comprising:

i)
His R.M. Certificate of Service and his R.M. Company Record Books (Form R. 141) (3), the whole providing a comprehensive record of his distinguished career, with employment histories, courses attended and character assessments.

ii)
A fine array of further career certificates, including those for British Army Parachute Wings, dated 4 April 1986; S.B.S. Close Quarter Battle Instructor 'superior course', January-February 1988; Non-Commissioned Officers' Training Course, dated 22 March 1991; NBC Knockout Winner's Certificate, dated 11 September 1992, and related group photograph; Helicopter Abseil Instructors' Course, dated 23 November 1995; Training Team Brunei, dated 16 March 1993 and Jungle Warfare School (Training Team Brunei) for the period March 1996 to October 1998.

iii)
A quantity of confidential appraisal forms and his closing Testimonial, the latter dated 30 April 2002; two newspaper cuttings and his father's 'late claim' 1939-45 Star and War Medal 1939-45, with related M.o.D. letter.

With thanks to Captain Keith Mills, D.S.C., for his own unpublished recollections of the events (his Medals sold in these Rooms in April 2014).


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Estimate
£6,000 to £8,000

Starting price
£4800