The 7th Infantry Regiment is a unit of the Argentine Army (Ejército Argentino) based at Arana (La Plata), Buenos Aires Province, Argentina. The unit's full official name is 7th "Coronel Conde" Mechanized Infantry Regiment, and it is part of the 1st Armored Brigade, 3rd Army Division.

The regiment fought in the South American wars of independence and in the Falklands War (), as part of the 10th Brigade, during the battles of Mount Longdon and Wireless Ridge.

Origins

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.

War of Independence

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.

Post-independence

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

On 23 December 1975, several hundred Marxist guerrillas from People's Revolutionary Army (Ejército Revolucionario del Pueblo or ERP) and their underground supporters,Soldiers of Perón: Argentina's Montoneros. Richard Gillespie. Clarendon Press. 1982. p. 211 staged an all-out battle with the Monte Chingolo-based 601st Arsenal Battalion and army and police reinforcements some nine miles (14 km) from Buenos Aires and simultaneously raided four police stations and the La Plata Barracks of the 7th Regiment.Monte Chingolo: La Mayor Batalla De La Guerrilla Argentina. Gustavo Plis-Sterenberg. Planeta. 2003. p. 322La batalla de Monte Chingolo (Final) 63 guerrillas, seven army troops and three policemen were reported killed in the ensuing gun-battles.ARGENTINA: Hanging from the CliffIn addition 20 civilians were killed in the crossfire. Many of the civilian deaths occurred when the guerrillas and supporting left-wing militants burned 15 city busesPolice fight off guerrillas in Argentina; 56 killednear the arsenal to block reinforcements from the Buenos Aires-based Rapid Deployment Force in the form of the then 10th Motorized Infantry Brigade.

Preparations for war

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 Ranger-type platoon within the 7th Regiment.Malvinas | Los valientes de Baldini (available on YouTube) During 1981, a Commando/Ranger 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 the separatist Marxist People's Revolutionary Army guerrilla lines as an Army 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 Ranger-type 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!Two Sides of Hell, Vincent Bramley, p. 9, Bloomsbury Publishing Limited, 1994

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 José Vicente Bruno in 2022 talked proudly about his uncle that had fought as part of the Axis Italian Army in the North African Campaign during the Second World War.Malvinas en Primera Persona - Mis Entrevistas - SC 62 Vicente "Tito" Bruno (Cia "B" RI 7 - Longdon)

The 7th Mechanized Infantry Regiment was selected to take part in a helicopter-borne exercise with 601 Combat Aviation Battalion. 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.Two Sides of Hell, Vincent Bramley, p. 9, Bloomsbury Publishing Limited, 1994

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), from the regiment's B Company, would not be so lucky; having several run-ins with his superiors, and even going AWOL, he would miss out on the rewards for good behaviour, spending much time in the lock-up cell of the Regiment instead.Malvinas | Los valientes de Baldini (available on YouTube)

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. On 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 division-sized mechanized infantry/armoured assault with the accompanying 1st Armoured Cavalry Brigade along 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:

Private Darío Miguel Pedraza says that the Special Operations Platoon in the 7th Regiment took part in a simulated helicopter-borne raid behind the opposing forces at the very start of these desert war-games in which the three opposite regimental commanders involved along with their staff were captured and extracted in this coup de main along with the participating 7th Regiment Rangers with the help of a column of tanks from the 1st Armoured Brigade that had earlier on arrived to set up and protect an extraction perimeter.Voces de Malvinas - Darío Miguel Pedraza (available on YouTube)

Although the brigade conducted field exercises, its duties also included ceremonial events—such as Argentine Independence Day commemorations—and security operations. The regiment also participated in sports competitions, with the 7th Regiment Commando Platoon placing third in the 10th Brigade marathon..Voces de Malvinas - Darío Miguel Pedraza (available on YouTube).By the end of the year, soldiers designated as Soldados Dragoneantes (equivalent to Private First Class or Temporary Corporal) were assigned as section leaders and specialist personnel, serving as machine gunners, anti-tank weapon operators, radio operators, ground-surveillance radar operators, pathfinders, and combat medics.

Private Tomás Szumilo of the 7th Regiment says, "The preparation we got (from boot-camp) 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."Szumilo: "A la guerra la pongo a la par de otros golpes"

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 urban 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."Two Sides of Hell, Vincent Bramley, p. ?, Bloomsbury Publishing, 1995

Falklands War

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 woundedInforme Oficial del Ejército Argentino: Conflicto Malvinas; (Volume II, annex 64); Buenos Aires., 1983. and around 100 taken prisoner of war.La Guerra Inaudita: Historia del Conflicto del Atlántico Sur, Rubén Oscar Moro, p. 479-480, Pleamar, 01/01/1985