[4] A few days later, in the morning of 21 May 1982, with the British landing at San Carlos bay on East Falkland underway, 601 Commando Company shot the wing off of a GR3 Harrier from No.1 Squadron, R.A.F.

On 5 June 1982, a four-man patrol led by Captain Hamilton moved into an observation position on a ridge overlooking Port Howard from the North upon a piece of ground known as Many Branch Point, with the aim of gathering intelligence on the Argentine forces located there.

Previously, an Argentine observation post had been sited upon Mount Rosalie, but it had been compromised due to a British presence and the Commandos had withdrawn from it without detection, and they now sought an alternative position.

Late in the morning of 10 June 1982, whilst still in position observing across the Falkland Sound, Duarte thought that he could hear distant voices being carried upon the wind, emanating from some way further along the ridge.

Summoning his patrol together he moved along the ridge-line, continuing to hear snatches of voices apparently in conversation with one another, until he came to a cluster of cave-shaped rocks, wherein he suspected that either a British military presence was hidden in situ, or possibly that it might be a weather-shelter for some Falklander shepherds.

Roy Fonseka, Royal Signals attached to the Special Air Service, who was of Seychellois origin),[12] wearing a camouflage uniform and a green balaclava suddenly walked out from amidst it into the open ground, unaware of the commandos' presence and looking away in another direction.

As the commandos scrambled to get into covered firing positions Fonseka leapt up and ran back into the rocks from where he had emerged, and a general small-arms fire-fight commenced between the 4 Argentinians and the 2-man British Army forward observation post that they had discovered.

Under the weight of fire from Duarte's patrol, the British two-man team attempted to abandon the position and retire up the short stretch of ridgeline to their rear in order to gain the high ground and access to the ridge's reverse slope beyond the summit, with Capt.

[16] The night after the engagement saw inaccurate shelling by Royal Navy frigates of Port Howard,[17] leading to speculation amongst Argentinians that the purpose of Hamilton's post had been to act as a Naval Gunfire Support Forward Observer (NGSFO).