The Battle of Two Sisters was an engagement of the Falklands War during the British advance towards the capital, Port Stanley. It took place from 11 to 12 June 1982 and was one of three battles in a Brigade-size operation all on the same night, the other two being the Battle of Mount Longdon and the Battle of Mount Harriet. Fought mainly between an assaulting British force consisting of Royal Marines of 45 Commando and an Argentine Company drawn from 4th Infantry Regiment (Regimiento de Infantería 4 or RI 4).
One of a number of night battles that took place during the British advance towards Stanley, the battle led to British troops capturing all the heights above the town, allowing its capture and the surrender of the Argentine forces on the islands.
Prelude Composition of forces The British force, commanded by Lieutenant-Colonel Andrew Whitehead, comprised the Royal Marines of 45 Commando, supported by the anti-tank troop from 40 Commando and six 105 mm guns of 29 Commando Regiment. The 2nd Battalion, Parachute Regiment (2 Para) was held in reserve. Naval gunfire support was provided by the twin 4.5-inch (114 mm) guns of HMS Glamorgan.
45 Commando was instructed to seize Two Sisters Mountain under cover of darkness, and to continue onto Mount Tumbledown if time permitted. However, Argentine resistance proved stiffer than anticipated, and the second phase of the attack was cancelled.
The Argentinian force originally occupying Mount Challenger was commanded by Major Ricardo Cordón and consisted of the 4th Infantry Regiment or RI 4. The bulk of the defenders were drawn from C Company, with the 1st Platoon (Sub-Lieutenant Miguel Mosquera-Gutierrez) and 2nd Platoon (Sub-Lieutenant Jorge Pérez-Grandi) positioned on the northern peak of Two Sisters, and the 3rd Platoon (Sub-Lieutenant Marcelo Llambías Pravaz) on the southern peak. The 1st Platoon of A Company (Sub-Lieutenant Juan Nazer) and the Support Platoon (Second Lieutenant Luis Carlos Martella) were located on the saddle between the peaks.
Major Óscar Jaimet’s B Company of the 6th Mechanized Infantry Regiment or RI Mec 6, acted as the local reserve, and occupied the saddle between Two Sisters and Mount Longdon. In early June, Jaimet’s company was reinforced by the Support Platoon under Second Lieutenant Marcelo Dorigón, drawn from B Company of the 12th Regiment (RI 12). This platoon had remained on Mount Kent after the rest of B Company had been helicoptered forward during the Battle of Goose Green.
No-Man's-Land
On 2 June, the 4th Regiment's Operation Officer, Captain Carlos Alfredo López-Patterson, arrived to help in the defence of Two Sisters. He would visit the rifle platoons in order to maintain the defenders informed and raise morale:
On 4 June, the three rifle companies of 45 CDO advanced on Bluff Cove Peak, on the lower slopes of Mount Kent, and were able to occupy the feature without opposition and were met by patrols from the Special Air Service (SAS). On the night of 29 May, a fierce firefight had developed over capturing the two important hills, as they were intended to form part of an Argentine Special Forces line.
Captain Andrés Ferrero's patrol (3rd Assault Section, 602 Commando Company) reached the base of Mount Kent but were then promptly pinned down by machinegun and mortar fire. First-Sergeant Raimundo Máximo Viltes was badly wounded when a bullet shattered his heel. Air Troop had two SAS men wounded by rifle fire. Probing attacks around the D Squadron, SAS positions continued throughout the night and at 11:00 am local time on 30 May, about 12 Argentine Commandos (Captain Tomás Fernández's 2nd Assault Section, 602 Commando Company) tried to get up the summit of Bluff Cove Peak, but were driven off by D Squadron who killed two of the attackers, First Lieutenant Rubén Eduardo Márquez and Sergeant Óscar Humberto Blas.
First Lieutenant Márquez and Sergeant Blas had shown great personal courage and leadership in the contact and were posthumously awarded the Argentine Medal of Valour in Combat. During this contact, the SAS suffered another two casualties from grenades after the Argentine Commandos had stumbled on a camp occupied by 15 SAS troopers.
Throughout 30 May, Royal Air Force Harriers were active over Mount Kent. One of them, responding to a call for help from D Squadron SAS, was badly damaged by small arms fire while attacking Mount Kent's eastern lower slopes. Sub-Lieutenant Llambías-Pravaz's platoon was later credited with the destruction of Harrier XZ963 flown by Squadron Leader Jerry Pook with another claim going to 35 mm Oerlikons of the 601st Anti-Aircraft Artillery Group under the command of 2nd Lieutenant Roberto Enrique Ferre. The Harrier crashed into the South Atlantic 30 miles from the carrier HMS Hermes, Squadron Leader Pook ejected and was rescued.
On 5 June, two Royal Air Force Harriers operating from 'Sids Strip', the San Carlos Forward Operating Base, attacked the Argentine defenders on Two Sisters with rockets around midday.
A heavy mist hung over the Murrell River area, which assisted the 45 Commando Recce Troop to reach and sometimes penetrate the Argentine 3rd Platoon position under Subteniente Marcelo Llambías-Pravaz. Marine Andrew Tubb of Recce Troop later recalled:
(2 Army privates, Jose Romero and Andres Rodriguez and three sappers of a Marine mine-laying party were actually killed.)
For his patrol action, Lieutenant Chris Fox received the Military Cross, while Subteniente Llambías-Pravaz was able to pilfer and sport a Commando Beret that the Royal Marines had left behind during the Argentine counter-ambush. In general terms, the Argentines were thoroughly entrenched, about 6,000 metres or less across no-man's-land. The Argentine positions were mined and heavily patrolled.
The 4th Regiment also carried out patrolling, and on the night of 6–7 June, Corporal Oscar Nicolás Albornoz-Guevara along with eight conscripts (including Private Orlando Héctor Stella, his pathfinder) from Subteniente Miguel Mosquera-Gutierrez's 1st Platoon crossed Murrell River and reached the area of Estancia Mountain where they detected a number of British vehicles, but the patrol soon came under mortar fire from 3 PARA and had to withdraw.
On 8 June, Corporal Hugo Gabino MacDougall of B Company, 6th Regiment, claimed to have shot down a Harrier using a shoulder-launched Blowpipe missile. The British confirm the loss of a GR.3 Harrier (XZ989) on that day, following an emergency landing at San Carlos due to battle damage. The pilot, Wing Commander Peter Squire walked away uninjured and XZ989 was scrapped post-war. In total, we carried out 130 attack sorties and lost three aircraft, all to ground fire. A fourth Harrier crashed during vertical landing at the 850 ft metal runway at San Carlos. This mishap stemmed from damage by small arms fire. Harrier: Ski-Jump to Victory, John Godden, p. 29. Brassey’s, 1983.The final GR.3 to be lost was XZ989, flown by Peter Squire, which suffered a power loss on returning to the matted landing site; his aircraft hit the ground rather hard, irretrievably damaging it. BAE/McDonnell Douglas Harrier, Andy Evans, p. 75. Crowood Press, 1988.
The 12th Regiment Support Platoon under Subteniente Dorigón attached to Major Oscar Jaimet's B Company would reportedly live off the land. Private Ángel Ramírez:
Major Jaimet says he made sure the conscripts in his rifle company got enough meat for he authorized his men to shoot and butcher sheep and fry their edible remains over camp fires among the boulders behind British view.Crónicas de guerra - Parte I: Los bravos de Tubledown y Dos Hermanas
At about 2.10 am local time on 10 June a strong 45 Commando fighting patrol probed the 3rd Platoon position. In the ensuing fight, Special Forces Sergeants Mario Antonio Cisneros and Ramón Gumercindo Acosta were killed; two more Argentine Special Forces lying in ambush for the Royal Marines were wounded. The British military historian Bruce Quarrie later wrote:
Major Aldo Rico, commander of the 602 Commando Company, had a lucky escape in this engagement, when an enemy 66mm projectile exploded uncomfortably close to him and First Lieutenant Horacio Fernando Lauría.Comandos en acción: El Ejército en Malvinas, Isidoro Ruiz Moreno, p. 355, Emecé Editores, 01/01/1986 Captain Hugo Ranieri, who took part in this intense engagement as a specialist sniper, claims that First Lieutenant Jorge Vizoso-Posse, although wounded, shot three of the retreating Royal Marines in the back.Así lucharon, Carlos M. Túrolo, p. 316, Editorial Sudamericana, 1982 First Lieutenant Horacio Fernando Lauría and Sergeant Orlando Aguirre claim to have destroyed a British machine-gun with rifle-grenades in this engagement.La Compañía 602 de Comandos
On that same night (9–10 June), according to the British Ministry of Defence, a friendly fire incident occurred when Royal Marines returning from a reconnaissance patrol were mistaken for Argentines in the dark and a British mortar team opened fire on them. In the confusion, four Royal Marines (Sergeant Robert Leeming, Corporals Andrew Uren, Peter Fitton and Marine Keith Phillips) were killed and three were wounded."It was during the night of 9/10 June that a returning British fighting patrol from 45 Commando Royal Marines was mistaken for the enemy and Sergeant Bob Leeming, Corporal Andy Uren, Corporal Pete Fitton, and Marine Keith Phillips were killed in the subsequent firefight which occurred just before the main assault on Two Sisters" Commando Veterans AssociationMarines shot comrades in Falklands conflict The next day, Sub-Lieutenant Llambías-Pravaz's men recovered the rucksacks and weapons the Royal Marines had left behind,Malvinas: relatos de soldados, Martín Balza, p. 120, Círculo Militar, 1985 and these were presented as war trophies to Argentine war correspondents in Port Stanley who filmed and photographed the British equipment.La Guerra de las Malvinas, p. 420, Editorial Oriente, 1987
The Mountain and Arctic Warfare Cadre also carried out patrolling against Two Sisters; Sergeant Joseph Wassell and Lieutenant Fraser Haddow played an important part in the capture of the mountain when they discovered with their binoculars from their observation post on Goat Ridge, the command-detonated barrels of mines the Argentinian Marine engineers (under the direction of Major Jaimet) had dug in and planned to use on the saddle and eastern half of the mountain.Royal Marine Commando 1950–82: From Korea to the Falklands, William Fowler, p. 57, Osprey Publishing, 21/04/2009
On 11 June, several GR-3 Harriers took off from San Carlos airbase to drop cluster bombs on Mounts Longdon, Harriet and Two Sisters Mountain."The GR3s, on the other hand, had a busy day. Four two-plane missions took from the airstrip, three to drop bombs on the Argentine positions on Two Sisters, Mount Harriet and Mount Longdon - the objective for the land assault due that night - and the other to bomb the Moody Brook barracks and Mount Tumbledown." The Royal Navy and Falklands War, David Brown, p.313, Pen & Sword, 1987
The Argentine Medical Officer with the 6th Regiment's B Company, First Lieutenant Alejandro Steverlynck reports that one Argentine soldier was killed during the final British air attack on Two Sisters and that he had to comfort with the assurance his wounds were minor and that he would now have a warm hospital bed and be able to watch the 1982 FIFA World Cup in Stanley Hospital before the young soldier died in his arms a short time later, but not before obtaining a smile from the dying man before the morphine that was applied took any real effect.Tte médico, Steverlynck Alejandro, Available on YouTube
Night battle