Battle of Two Sisters 1982: 45 Commando's Night Assault

The Quiz Question

Which Royal Marines unit fought the Battle of Two Sisters on the night of 11 to 12 June 1982, one of three simultaneous mountain assaults east of Port Stanley?

A. 3 Commando Brigade HQ
B. 42 Commando
C. 40 Commando
D. 45 Commando

The answer is D. 45 Commando. Here is the full story.

On the night of 11–12 June 1982, 600 Royal Marines of 45 Commando fixed bayonets and moved toward a dark mountain ridge rising out of the Falklands cold. They had walked more than 50 miles across one of the most inhospitable landscapes in the Southern Hemisphere to reach this moment. What followed was ten hours of ferocious close-quarters fighting that would break Argentina's outer defensive line and open the road to Port Stanley.

A Cold Mountain, A Dark Night, and 600 Royal Marines

The night of 11–12 June 1982 saw three simultaneous British mountain assaults east of Port Stanley — one of the most audacious co-ordinated operations of the entire Falklands War. While 3 PARA stormed Mount Longdon and 42 Commando struck Mount Harriet, 45 Commando Royal Marines were tasked with seizing Two Sisters: a twin-peaked ridge rising some 300 metres above the bleak moorland east of the capital.

Argentine defenders had spent weeks turning that high ground into a fortress. Natural rock formations — the Falklands' famous quartzite runs — became machine gun nests and mortar positions with commanding fields of fire over every likely approach. Success that night would push British forces to within striking distance of Stanley. Failure could stall the entire land campaign and cost lives across all three battles simultaneously unfolding in the darkness.

The men of 45 Commando had yomped over 50 miles across East Falkland carrying 80-pound combat loads to reach this point. They were exhausted, cold, and wet. They attacked anyway.

Who Were 45 Commando Royal Marines?

45 Commando, based at RM Condor in Arbroath, Scotland, traces its lineage to 1943 and had built a reputation as one of the Royal Marines' most capable fighting units over four decades of Cold War service. By 1982, it was commanded by Lieutenant Colonel Andrew Whitehead — a calm, methodical officer who would prove exactly the right man for the hours ahead.

The unit comprised approximately 600 men organised into three rifle companies — X, Y, and Z — supported by Milan anti-tank missile teams, mortars, and various specialist elements. They had sailed south as part of the main amphibious task force and landed at San Carlos Water on 21 May 1982 alongside the rest of 3 Commando Brigade.

What set 45 Commando apart in the public imagination was the yomp. Rather than waiting for scarce helicopters — many of which had been lost when the container ship Atlantic Conveyor was struck by an Exocet missile on 25 May — the unit marched on foot across East Falkland in some of the worst conditions imaginable, covering roughly 56 miles over boggy, trackless terrain. It was a feat of physical and mental endurance that echoed the great marches of military history.

The Strategic Picture: Why Two Sisters Mattered

Two Sisters sat at the heart of Argentina's outer defensive ring around Stanley. Together with Mount Longdon to the north and Mount Harriet to the south, it formed a chain of high ground that General Mario Menéndez, the Argentine commander, intended to hold as his first serious line of resistance.

To defend Two Sisters, Menéndez had deployed the 1st Marine Infantry Battalion — Batallón de Infantería de Marina 1, or BIM 1. These were among Argentina's most professional soldiers: well-trained marines with experienced non-commissioned officers who had had six weeks to prepare their positions since the initial Argentine landings on 2 April.

Capturing Two Sisters would give 3 Commando Brigade commanding views over Stanley and the approaches to Wireless Ridge and Mount Tumbledown — the objectives of the next phase. Brigadier Julian Thompson, commanding 3 Commando Brigade, deliberately scheduled all three mountain assaults for the same night to deny Argentine forces the ability to shift reserves from one threatened position to another. The timing was not coincidence — it was calculated pressure applied simultaneously across the entire defensive line.

The Plan: Silence, Speed, and Cold Steel

Lieutenant Colonel Whitehead's plan rested on surprise. There would be no preliminary artillery bombardment to announce the attack and allow Argentine crews to man their weapons. Instead, 45 Commando would advance silently, close with the enemy, and fight through the positions before the defenders could fully respond.

X Company was assigned to assault the western peak, known by British troops as 'Long Toenail.' Z Company would strike the eastern peak, called 'Summer Days.' Y Company would follow in reserve, ready to exploit success or reinforce where the fighting was heaviest. The start line was set for approximately 2100 hours on 11 June.

Fire support, when needed, would come from HMS Glamorgan and HMS Yarmouth offshore, along with 79 Battery Royal Artillery equipped with 105mm light guns. Each Marine carried assault kit — ammunition pouches full, grenades primed, bayonets fixed to their SLR rifles. Everyone understood the fight was likely to end at close quarters on narrow, rocky ridgelines in pitch darkness.

The Battle: Hours of Fire in the Dark

The silent approach did not survive contact. Around 2200 hours on 11 June, Argentine sentries opened fire, and the darkness erupted. X Company pushed toward Long Toenail under sustained machine gun and mortar fire, crossing exposed open ground where there was no cover and no option but to keep moving forward.

Section commanders led from the front throughout the night. Corporal Steve Newland of X Company was critically wounded during the advance but continued to direct his section's attack — an act of determination that was repeated in various forms across the battlefield as junior leaders drove the assault forward despite mounting casualties.

Z Company's fight for the eastern peak was a brutal, grinding business among the rock runs in near-total darkness. Grenades clattered between boulders. Rifle fire crackled at point-blank range. In several places the fighting became hand-to-hand as Argentine and British marines grappled for control of individual rock positions. The Argentine defenders of BIM 1 did not break easily — many fought hard before the weight of the British assault finally became overwhelming.

By approximately 0800 hours on 12 June, after roughly ten hours of continuous combat, 45 Commando had secured both peaks of Two Sisters. The cost was four Royal Marines killed and a number wounded. The ridge was theirs.

The Men Who Fought: Faces Behind the Unit

Lieutenant Colonel Andrew Whitehead commanded throughout with the steadiness his men needed. Moving between companies in the darkness, he coordinated naval gunfire support, committed Y Company at critical moments, and kept the battle moving forward when momentum threatened to stall.

Sergeant-Major Colin Price played a vital role in maintaining cohesion during the most intense phases of the fighting, rallying troops and keeping the assault going in the confusion of night combat — the kind of indispensable contribution that rarely makes the history books but wins battles.

The four Royal Marines who died on Two Sisters were Corporal Lawrence Watts, Marine Richard Anslow, Marine Alexander Shaw, and Marine Steven McAndrews. Their names are spoken at every regimental commemoration. For the survivors, those four names carry the full weight of that night on the mountain.

Padre Charles 'Charlie' Winter, 45 Commando's chaplain, was present throughout the battle. He moved among the wounded under fire, providing medical assistance and moral support to men in desperate circumstances — a reminder that the human cost of battle is never purely physical.

The Argentine Defenders: The Other Side of the Ridge

BIM 1 was no paper force. Argentina's marine infantry were professional soldiers, and by the standards of the Argentine military in 1982 they were among the best. Their position on Two Sisters had been carefully prepared: heavy machine guns — MAG 60s — were sited to cover interlocking arcs of fire, 81mm mortars were pre-registered on approach routes, and recoilless rifles gave them punch against any vehicle or fixed position.

Many of the Argentine defenders had been on the mountain since late April, giving them roughly six weeks to dig in, lay minefields, and familiarise themselves with every fold of ground. They knew the terrain; the British attackers were navigating it for the first time in the dark.

As British pressure became overwhelming in the early hours of 12 June, surviving Argentine troops conducted a fighting withdrawal toward Stanley rather than surrender en masse. Argentine casualties on Two Sisters were estimated at approximately 30 killed, with a number taken prisoner as the position finally fell. They had fought with a professionalism that British veterans would later acknowledge with the respect one soldier extends to another.

Aftermath: The Road to Stanley Opens

By the morning of 12 June 1982, Three Sisters, Mount Longdon, and Mount Harriet had all fallen. Argentina's outer defensive ring had been comprehensively broken in a single night of fighting across three separate mountains — exactly the result Brigadier Thompson had planned.

The breaches allowed 5 Infantry Brigade to move up for the next phase. Just three nights later, on 13–14 June, the Scots Guards assaulted Mount Tumbledown in another brutal night battle, while the 1st Battalion 7th Duke of Edinburgh's Own Gurkha Rifles advanced on Mount William. The momentum built on those mountain ridges could not be stopped.

General Menéndez surrendered all Argentine forces in the Falkland Islands to Major General Jeremy Moore on 14 June 1982 — just 48 hours after Two Sisters fell. The speed of the collapse reflected how thoroughly the outer defensive line had been shattered on the night of 11–12 June.

Lieutenant Colonel Andrew Whitehead was awarded the Distinguished Service Order for his leadership during the battle. The four Marines killed on Two Sisters were repatriated and buried with full military honours; a memorial to them stands at RM Condor in Arbroath to this day.

Legacy: What Two Sisters Means Forty Years On

The Battle of Two Sisters is studied at British staff colleges as one of the finest examples of night assault tactics since the Second World War. The co-ordination of three simultaneous brigade-level attacks against prepared mountain positions, executed in darkness with limited communication and in extreme cold, represented an exceptional standard of tactical planning and unit-level execution.

The Falklands War as a whole demonstrated something that planners in comfortable headquarters sometimes forget: that well-trained, highly motivated infantry can overcome prepared defensive positions even at a numerical disadvantage, provided the fundamentals — surprise, fire support, and sheer will — are applied correctly.

45 Commando returned to Arbroath in July 1982 to a hero's welcome. The unit continues to serve as part of 3 Commando Brigade Royal Marines, carrying a battle honour earned on a cold and dark ridge at the bottom of the world. Annual commemorations for the Falklands fallen are held at the Falkland Islands Memorial Chapel at Pangbourne College in Berkshire, where the names of all those lost — including 45 Commando's four — are inscribed in stone.

For the veterans of Two Sisters, now in their 60s and 70s, the mountain is not history — it is memory. Several have made the long journey back to the Falklands to stand again on the ground they fought so hard to take, to remember the men they lost, and to see the ridge in daylight as they never could on the night it mattered most.

If this story moved you, share it with someone who ought to know it — and leave a comment below telling us about a veterans' story that has stayed with you. These battles deserve to be remembered by every generation.