Patagonia. December 20th 1978.

On the outskirts of the province of Rio Negro, the Argentine Army are preparing for a Christmas offensive along the border with Patagonia after the total collapse of the Avant-Gardist state. Before that, the Argentines under King Juan Peron's command had seized north of Patagonia or rather south of Argentina during the so-called Shattered Mirrors turmoil that saw the disintegration of the entire country. Including its defenses along what was the 87th HMZ border. Their offensives was quick and they made rapid gains into the country with both MSF and Blackshirt forces pulling back until they were stopped dead on their tracks. The Argentines are furious that their offensive was halted and the war reverted back to a stalemate once again as it was in the Border War.

Their enemy had been Futurists as it was before in the Border Wars with the Futurist Right winning the power struggle in this self-proclaimed successor state to the Avant-Gardist State called the Regency of Patagonai led by a troika of eccentric men; Salvador Dali, Jean Damozay, and finally Karl Radek. The Argentines whose claims over the country now have the full support of the west; are feeling bold for an offensive against the Futurists in Patagonia. First to take Bariloche, then Puerto Soleil, and finally the rest of Patagonia which was part of the Galtieri Plan devised by the military governor which included Great War-like infantry tactics. They're not here in peace or carrying doves, no, they are out for blood in Patagonia. Reclaiming what they view as their rightful territory unjustly separated from the fatherland after a disastrous defeat in WWII.

Right now in Rio Negro, the Argentine Army were ordered to stay put in their positions as "Guardians of the Rio Negro". They enact their iron-fisted rule unmolested in their new territories for the ordinary conservative Patagonians would rather take military order rather than total anarchy and chaos which is something that the Argentines have been repeating to the UN over and over again in order to justify their military reconquest. But with their overbearing military rule in the country, there's a rise in resistance against the Argentine forces coming from the Gauchos which once roamed these lands and shunned the government in Buenos Aires. Gauchos who are free-spirited horseback riders and were formerly aligned with the Patron who gave them guns and mechanical horses.

More often than not, the Argentines who are supposed to be the liberators of Patagonia found themselves fighting against Gauchos and hopeless romanticists who dreamed of an independent Patagonia once again. Over-taxation, seizure of property, curfews, and curtailing of press rights have become the Patagonian's main grievances who thought the Argentines they once heralded as heroes - now colonialists and the natives in these lands as serfs or obstacles to them in their quest to retake Patagonia. The government in Bueno Aires view the natives as Argentine citizens yet the natives are waiting patiently for their rights and citizenship to arrive. The civil servants that came from the mainland aren't any better than the military. They are viewed as corrupt by the locals and like the military, it is imperative to bribe them to acquire basic supplies and services. There's a saying in Patagonia which goes "there's no sane futurist in Soleil like there's no honest Argentine official". We asked a civil servant in the Argentine Food Depot to give the locals in a settlement food in which they noticeably seemed skinny and depraved of nutrients. The civil servant simply said "500 pesos to give all of them food" which is twice the prize to pay.

In where we are standing right now, we are approached by soldiers after we reached a military checkpoint. The gentleman in ragged fatigues and armed with a FAL said that it's too dangerous for us to cross the border as military tensions remain high and the Royal Army are now pointing their artillery guns at Blackshirt positions. As we were talking, we were ambushed by a squad of Escadron militiamen who fired at us and grazed the soldier's elbow. I and the camera crew managed to run away at the nick of time and inform the nearest Argentine company that one of their comrades had been jumped on by an Escadron stay-behind unit. It's unknown what happened to the soldier who dutifully warned us the dangers of the Patagonians but us back in the film studio; we would like to express our gratitude.

Later on we meet an Argentine colonel by the name of Ricco who briefed us about their situation in the frontlines. "We've been doing a lot of recon" he said with a stern gaze with the portrait of King Juan Peron overlooking him. "Based on our findings, we see that there's a moderately-sized force deployed along the border. They are Blackshirts and few Escadrons with around 500 to 800 men guarding the border. The Escadrons are our primary concern because they are masters in sabotage and have been such a nuisance to our supply lines but I am confident that we can handle them" the colonel uttered as he straightened his hair. He said in earnest "we are currently undermanned and under-supplied so we've requested further supplies and men from a set of chain of command so I think General Galtieri then the higher-ups in Bueno Aires got the memo. Even air support will do."

The Colonel, surrounded by a few armed soldiers, was oddly open about their method of operation and they disclosed a military operation that they're planning on executing on 26th December. It was to be called the "Christmas Offensive" or Operation Jesuit - a military plan to rush Argentine forces to the border in a combination of shock and awe as well as mass infantry charges. The Colonel seems to be confident in the success of this operation and he needs further reinforcements as his ace in the hole. Just outside the military barracks, the colonel assembled soldiers outside for a routine inspection. The soldiers are a rag-tag group. An admixture of professionally-trained soldiers from the Border War and then green conscripts from Patagonia who only enlisted to protect their families then acquire food supplies from the army for their families. The Argentine anthem played and the flag was raised as the soldiers saluted on. This is the day for the Argentine troopers in the barracks. The day - the oncoming battle that would separate the man from the boys. It's a time to prove these largely conscripted unit their loyalty and allegiance to Argentina and Peron. A king from a faraway land.

Near the border lies the town of Negrin of around 30,000 people living today. Before the Revolution, Negrin was a model town in the Patagonian Republic. It was clean, had a good governor, large adequate housing, prosperous markets, and decently-maintained facilities and infrastructure. It was a town which standards are often compared to other Patagonian cities which had the misfortune of being run under corrupt mayors. But after the Surrealist Revolution then the Shattered Mirrors, the town is a shell of its former self. Years of mismanagement and chaos under the ravages of the Reign of Terror put the town back to the stone age and with it wiped off the map. Futurist folks move in to squat in unclaimed houses that the citizens had left long ago. Now its former citizens live in a settlement not too far from the town. Setting up camps and languishing over the loss of their town to what they call "Degenerates" with great bitterness. Bitterness translated through sudden emotional outbursts like the Futurists they despise. It's no secret that the Argentines had been using their suffering in their favor and put out propaganda claiming that the Royal Army has their best interest in heart to great success.

On the night of 30 December as the Christmas Offensive had just launched, the Argentines rushed through the border in the Regency of Patagonia with a combined force of 1,000 men from a hodgepodge of different units. All under Colonel Ricco's command. We've hid behind a deserted post which had its walls and roofs shattered by artillery shells before together with a company of Argentine soldiers. The company encountered what seemed like a BTR-3 painted in black acting like a spearhead and a group of Blackshirt militias behind it. One of the Argentine soldiers hid and launched an M72 missile to disable the APC which it resulted in the BTR disabled and caught in flames. The Argentine company scurried and spread out in order to confuse the Blackshirts. As the Blackshirts attempted to mount a defense then perform a suicidal charge with their daggers on their mouth - they became easy picking for Argentine snipers to snipe from their sniper nests between the bushes. Then the Argentine conscripts went outside and began salvaging equipment from the dead bodies of Blackshirt militiamen as replacements for their jammed FALs.

An Argentine M60 tank had just rolled in not too far from where our crew are standing. The M60 tanks had set their sights on a Patagonian T-34 tank operated by the Escadron which used to belong to the Patagonian Red Army which had since moved south. Afterwards, a tank fight broke out with M60s taking cover in abandoned houses and attempting to take the flanks of the Escadron armored forces. The battle was fierce and about 3 Argentine tanks were lost to 8 T-34 Escadron tanks. With the T-34 tanks lit up in flames and the smoke covering the blue sky. The rest of the Escadron pulled back and the Argentine armored corps advanced with little to no disturbance towards the ruins of the town of Negrin and the Argentine tankists felt like they were invincible.

Directly in the town of Negrin, fighting broke out between both the Escadron/Blackshirts and the Argentine Army all engaged in tight-space urban warfare from morning until dawn. With the Blackshirt laying defense in the town as their last stand in the region. Miles from an Argentine military base and missile silo, air-to-land missiles were launched against Patagonian positions. Resulting in a hundred dead. Both soldiers and civilians with little care to differentiate between both. From where we're standing on top of a roof in an apartment, the situation in the town remains silent as there's few people to roam about in Negrin. Most who squatted either ran away or stayed to see the fight reach to its conclusion out of sheer boredom or curiosity which we could see how casual these squatters are from the balcony of their apartments as even fights broke out with rockets involved.

During a gun fight for the bank; an Argentine soldier was killed live on camera from a clean head shot of a Blackshirt sniper who could be anywhere in those upscale apartments. Argentine M72-wielding infantrymen were dispatched to clear out any buildings that could be a sniper nest. It accidentally struck an occupied civilian apartment with little tears shed as they're in the middle of a war until the correct sniper nest could be located and taken care of with little to no fanfare. At night, both sides took a break and Argentine NCOs coordinated attacks from the safety of a market now turned into a military base in Negrin. The squatters were evacuated late at night by Argentine forces and were encouraged to flee but those who were unluckily captured by Blackshirt sentries were either executed or captured for defecting.

The streets are adorned with the Patron's face in posters as the town used to have such a lively artistic scene where squatters and outcasts fear no moral boundaries nor laws. Yet the Patron's face became a painful reminder of what was in Patagonia after the whole country found itself collapsing under its own weight after the death of their spiritual leader. The walls are riddled with bullets and blood as the Patron's seemingly deadpan stare viewed the whole bloodshed and battle caused by his own followers with great antipathy. Topless and muddied Argentine soldiers took their time to listen to classical rock music on their radios which came to define this decade filled with great bloodshed and pessimism for Argentinians in particular. These are conscripts who were initially in support of the Argentinian intervention until they found themselves conscripted and dying for a corrupt regime in such a hectic place as Patagonia.

We asked an Argentine conscript of what he thought of the war and he simply had this to say: "war is hell, man". Similarly an Argentine soldier stated "War is chaotic you know. I could not differentiate who is a fighter and who is a civilian. If I'm too slow, I would get myself killed but if I pulled the trigger to quick at a target then I would feel relieved until I found out that the target is a civvie. I found out the hard way before this battle." an Argentine soldier once told us. Living under an authoritarian regime that restricts freedom of expression; the Argentine soldiers often decorated their helmets and uniforms with peace sign buttons and smiley faces as a subtle form of expression and rebellion under a strict military tradition. An NCO once pulled an Argentine soldier and demanded to know why he was wearing a peace button and a helmet with the words "Born to Kill" inscribed on it. The private simply responds with a snarky tone "To describe the duality of man, sir".

Fighting continued and blood was spilled on both sides. The bank had been won over by Argentine forces and they plundered the building into nothing as soldiers looted large stacks of gold and Argentine pesos from the Republican era of Patagonia. As if the Argentinians had found their war loot. A radio news broadcast station had been hijacked by the Argentines who radioed in for air support. A siege was layout in the radio station with large amounts of Blackshirts and Escadron soldiers rushing to overwhelm a few Argentinians defending it.

By dawn, the cavalry had just arrived from the 24th Argentine Division who had arrived in M113s and M60 tanks. This professionally trained division supported by Mirage V bombardments had overwhelmed a largely isolated and unsupported Blackshirts/Escadron militia unit defending the ruins of the town. Afterwards, the division stayed in flushing out remaining Blackshirt resistance and cells in counter-insurgency ops after the Blackshirts had been defeated and retreated. It was said that the commander in charge of this unit was executed and a quarter of his forces murdered by a higher-up as a part of the decimatio Roman punishment for failing in carrying out their objectives. The Argentinians roamed through the ruins of a town that is beyond repair and is of little salvage for the Argentines. It was a fierce battle yet an unimportant one in the grand scheme of the Argentine invasion but it helped the Argentines in establishing a bridgehead for incursions to the south.

Old citizens and refugees from Negrin returned to the town to find their town that they once loved have been incinerated to ashes and stand as ruins. The squatters that remained were either lynched by an angry mob of returnees in which the Argentinians did not interfere in or were chased away. In the returnee's eyes, the Futurist squatters are the cause of the downfall of Negrin and for plunging the town into its miserable state. Royal Army units who made Negrin's liberation possible conducted a military parade through the ruins of the town as they carried the portrait of King Juan Peron in which they were greeted warmly by the returnees of Negrin. Argentine soldiers were kissed by both young and old women while NCOs could be seen chatting with old timers with a drink and cigarettes. The perfect opportunity for a propaganda op by the Argentina media to prove that they are liberators in these lands and those who deny it are Futurist sympathizers - fifth columnists.

We interviewed the locals and they seemed optimistic about their prospects living under Argentina. One young returnee said "I am very happy that the Argentinians had liberated us from those Futurist degenerates. I lost everything to those debauchees and maybe I can start life anew here" with optimism in his voice. An old main added "You know the separation from Argentina was a mistake. Bad things have happened since we gained independence. Us locals were Argentinians until the Allies told us "No! You're Patagonian" then they expect us to live under the leadership of foreign emigres". An old woman chimed exclaiming "Viva Argentina! Viva Juan Peron! Viva Peronismo!". Like most tales of Argentine liberations, they are met with fanfare that would go on for few days until the citizens realize the harsh realities of living under Argentine occupation. Yes there is order and "security" but yet at the cost of freedom, being overtaxed, property unfairly seized to support the war effort, and having to pay large sums of bribes to acquire the most basic of necessities from Buenos Aires.

"At the moment, the war is going well for us" said Colonel Ricco from the military base in Rio Negro. "But I fear that with every easy victories handed to us by the Blackshirts, we are going to grow complacent and expecting that every battle would be like the last victories we've won. I want command to be vigilant and recognize that the Patagonians are just playing. Their greatest psychological tactic is to hand us out victories with minimal resistance expecting us to grow lazy and complacent then strike at the opportune time to pull our pants down" the colonel advised and warned his superior officers. It's true what he said, the Patagonians are oddly playing it safe for now and knowing General Galtieri's bull-headed nature; the inability to notice this opponent's character might prove to be a disastrous flaw for the Royal Argentine Army in the future as their Christmas Offensive continues to make gains to the delight of the government in Buenos Aires.

This is TV Eye from the frontlines in Patagonia, signing out.