MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Falklands veterans retrace 1982 battles

British, Argentine and islander veterans of the 1982 South Atlantic conflict will be reuniting in Stanley next week as part of a TV documentary being made to mark the 20th anniversary of the 1982 conflict.

The Roger Bolton Productions documentary directed by Ed Braman for Channel 4 is based on the experiences of British journalist Max Hastings - now editor of the London Evening Standard newspaper - who accompanied the Task Force in 1982 and became the first British journalist to reach Stanley shortly after the cease-fire was agreed.

Traveling with Hastings from the UK are several British military officers with whom he was in contact at the time headed by Royal Marines Major General Julian Thompson, whose leadership of 3 Commando Brigade was acknowledged as a major factor in winning the land war in the 1982 conflict.

Thompson will be re-visiting some of the famous battle sites this month where he will be joining Hastings and others in recounting his experiences for a two hour television documentary to mark the 20th anniversary next year.

Like Hastings Thompson is himself a military historian and is returning to the Falkland Islands to recount history he himself helped to make. His book, published in 1985, entitled "No Picnic", gives a fascinating account of the formidable challenges and vital decisions facing the British forces as he controlled the troops and tactics throughout the most critical fighting of the campaign to recapture the Islands.

War correspondent and military author, Max Hastings, who accompanied the Task Force in 1982 sending back memorable dispatches, is the author of two books on the events of 1982, the now classic The Battle for the Falkland Islands written with Simon Jenkins and Going to the War in which he looks back at a lifetime as a journalist covering international conflicts. Two Argentines who met Hastings during the war will also be joining the group next week. They will be travelling to the islands via Chile with production assistant Nicholas Tozer, former editor of the Buenos Aires Herald, who has written extensively about the Islands previously as well as making numerous television programmes on the islands.

Cameraman Eduardo Rotondo who was on the islands in 1982 working for ABC Television met Hastings shortly after the surrender and is the owner of several hours of hitherto unpublished film on the confl