CLIVE DYTOR - now head teacher, The Oratory School, Woodcote On 11 June 1982, three days before the eventual surrender, British Commandos began their attacks on the strategically important hills around Port Stanley. Young officer Clive Dytor was awarded the Military Cross for his heroism that night. "When you're in a war, you're more alive than at any other time. You think more deeply, you sense things more keenly.
We went into San Carlos Water and dug in what was known as 'Bomb Alley'. All the ships in front of us were being attacked mercilessly by Argentine aircraft. We had the most amazing amphitheatre view of these aircraft being shot out of the sky. After a week we got the order to move and started yomping across the top of the island in bad conditions. We must have carried 90 pounds with all our kit, getting wetter and wetter all the time. We had to dig trenches in peat which filled up with water, and that went on for weeks. They put sand in on the hills around Port Stanley and dug in there to fight. Just as we were about to cross the start line to our own objective, the artillery opened up on the ground in front of us. The Argentines were mortaring us and we were taking casualties. I could tell they had a heavy machine gun and I knew sooner or later we'd run out of ammunition. They were going to kill the lot of us. I was on my feet, running forward, running uphill, firing my single shot rifle from my hip and shouting the company battle cry. That got the whole thing going. My two front sections picked it up and came on through with me, and we swept up. We took the position. We should have been cut to pieces - we were full frontal, straight on to heavy machine gun. But we just kept on pushing through. I felt very sorry for the Argentinians afterwards. Once they were broken they just wanted to go home, they had no stomach to carry on and they clearly didn't believe in what they were doing." PAUL SINCLAIR, former serviceman from Bracknell Paul was on board the landing ship Sir Galahad when it was attacked by Argentine aircraft in Bluff Cove. "We sailed down on the QE2 - you've got to go in style and the food was absolutely out of this world. Everybody on the way south was thinking that the Argentinians would give up once they knew we were coming. The war was happening somewhere else, it wasn't happening to us. We transferred onto the Sir Galahad at sea, which was a rough and scary experience. When we got hit everything went black immediately. There was a huge noise, huge explosions.
 | | A British frigate explodes off the Falklands coast |
It seemed like an age of silence, then the screams started. The rockets came in at the side of the galley - there was a huge hole - and it was pitch black, it was like walking through a blanket. The deck was jumping up and down with all the explosions going on downstairs as the ammunition exploded. We were quite late off the boat, my small group, and were being pushed away by helicopters as the tide kept pushing our raft back against the side. It was quite emotional trying to see who'd got off, then realising people hadn't. Two or three days after we had the confirmation that two of ours had died, with twelve badly injured. When I thought I was going to die I was really upset, because I didn't think I'd see my children or my wife again. I made a silent prayer that if I got off here, I'd do the best I can for my family. We have a comradeship that people will never understand. Some of the Falkland veterans are still suffering, but none of us have any doubt that we did the right thing. No regrets, none at all. | 
