It was a battle that Britain should have lost. A few hundred paratroopers against 1,500 Argentinian soldiers armed with heavy weapons and antiaircraft guns.

Twenty-five years ago yesterday, the men of the 2nd Battalion The Parachute Regiment, led by Lieutenant-Colonel “H” Jones (who would be shot dead in the battle and was awarded a posthumous Victoria Cross) made their way across open ground towards the settlement of Goose Green.

The battle for Goose Green was the first major confrontation between British and Argentinian ground troops in the Falklands War.

Former Private David Brown, of C Company 2 Para, recalled how the Argentinian troops had attached a rocket to a child’s slide and kept firing it at the approaching paratroopers. “I reckon there were fewer than 400 soldiers from 2 Para actually involved in the fighting, so we were outnumbered four to one,” he said.

The battalion’s Regimental Sergeant Major, Malcolm Simpson, thought the number of “bayonets” (fighting soldiers) was no more than 280.

He said that the plan to attack across open ground was flawed, “but it worked because of the bravery of the young soldiers and NCOs and the high calibre of the company commanders”.

Mr Simpson, 64, who lives near Birkenhead, Merseyside, said that when Colonel Jones was killed while trying to lead his men against a machinegun post, 2 Para’s soldiers kept going. “It was sad, but the soldiers were more concerned about their comrades next to them who had died,” he said.

When they reached Goose Green they found an enemy fully prepared for battle. “All hell broke loose,” said, Mr Brown, 46, who lives in Thornton, West Yorkshire. Both Mr Brown and Mr Simpson praised Major Chris Keeble, who took over from Colonel Jones. After hours of fierce fighting during which 16 soldiers from 2 Para were killed and another 70 wounded, he sent a prisoner to warn the Argentinians that unless they surrendered they would suffer heavy casualties. It worked.

Mr Brown said that the Argentinian soldiers “looked amazed when we came down the hill. They asked us where all the other troops were.”

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