Ben Fogle: Self - Presenter

Quotes 

• [talking about Rex Hunt, the Governor of the Falkland Islands] 

  Major Mike Norman : Rex decided to try and arrange a truce. There was no suggestion of surrendering.

  Ben Fogle - Presenter : During the uneasy cease-fire that followed, Argentine naval commander, Carlos Busser, arrived at Government House.

  Major Mike Norman : Before Busser could say a word, Rex Hunt said "This is British property. You are not welcome, and what I want you to do is to go away now and take all your men with you." Busser smiled and said "I've got 800 men ashore. I have another 2000 waiting to come ashore. But your men, they have fought well and I do not want to kill them." And Rex paused and said "In that case, you give me no option. I will tell my Marines to lay down their arms."

  Graham Evans : We never surrendered. We were told, ordered, to lay our arms down.

  Ray Bloye : That wasn't great. That was probably one of the worst times. We didn't really wanna stop fighting.

  Gary Williams : If the decision would've been made that we would've carried on fighting, it would've been down to the last man.

• [the Marines of 8901 were flown back to Britain after Port Stanley was taken by the Argentinians, but they returned to the Falklands to fight at Goose Green, and were then chosen to raise the Union Jack after the Argentine surrender] 

  Ben Fogle - Presenter : The men from 8901 had fought the entire campaign and were amongst the first back into the capital. In news footage shown around the world, the Argentine flag was replaced with a British one. Remarkably, the Marines who hoisted that flag outside Government House were Naval Party 8901.

  Major Mike Norman : There was a very proud 8901 carrying out that task.

  Gary Williams : It was with great satisfaction that we stuck the flag back up at Government House.

  Ray Bloye : It's given me a lot of pride.

  Paul Rounding : There's not many men who can say they was NP8901

  Graham Evans : We'll always be part of the Falklands, I think.

• [talking about a front-page report in The Sun just after the Argentinians invaded Port Stanley, with the headline "Surrender!" and the description of a "humiliating defeat" and the famous photograph of NP8901 being made to lie face-down] 

  Ben Fogle - Presenter : The man behind The Sun's iconic front page is adamant there was never any deliberate intention to criticise the Marines' behaviour.

  Kelvin MacKenzie : I reject the suggestion that in any way this front page could be considered to be anti-Marine. It is a replication of what is happening. It's not the Marines' defeat, it's humiliating for our nation. I do accept, in some stange way, that if that headline had been written today, it would have been more vile towards Argentina. And I'm not sure I would use the word "humiliating", to be fair. But whichever way you look at it, being forced to lie flat on your face, right, with somebody with a gun in your back, is not a great thing, but it's done in the heat of the moment. Newspapers are the first rough draft of history. I understand it. If you've been involved in a war, and you could've given your life to something, to suddenly... that there is some kind of vague question mark about something, I think *I* might be a little irritated 40 years later.

• [Ben Fogle is talking about a photograph, published in many British newspapers, of British soldiers being made to lie face-down in the road, with Argentinian soldiers standing over them. He is talking to Horacio Nunez, one of the Argentinian soldiers] 

  Ben Fogle - Presenter : Do recall this moment?

  Horacio Nuñez : [speaking Spanish]  I didn't speak English. The only thing I did was to point at them with a rifle and gestured what I wanted them to do. I told them to lie on the ground, because there were about six or seven of them, and I was alone. I acted that way... I thought it was the most cautious way. I don't think there's anything wrong in that respect.

  Ben Fogle - Presenter : What do you remember about the invasion?

  Horacio Nuñez : The resistance that they put up was pretty effective. But given the forces that we had at the time were far, far superior, the surrender would be, one way or the other, inevitable. For sure.