Weary but smiling, Andrew Williams looks as if he could be posing alongside his comrades.
In fact, the beaming men with the British paratrooper are surrendering Argentine forces who for 74 days had been the enemy in a conflict that cost over 900 lives.
Taken 40 years ago today, the photo shows the shared relief on the day the Falklands War ended.
Andrew, now 61, said: “They were just as happy as we were that it was over. There’s no animosity, we’re all happy. We were all chatting.
“Their officer said, ‘Can I look at your rifle?’. I told a translator, ‘Your officer wants to shoot me with my own rifle’. They all laughed.
“I said to my mate, ‘If they wanted to they could have done it anyway’.
“I took the magazine out and the round out of the spout in the chamber and I gave him the weapon. He said, ‘It’s very primitive’.
“I took the weapon back, put the round back in the chamber and cocked it. I said, ‘Tell your officer that in the hands of a British paratrooper, it’s lethal’.
“The officer looked at me and I laughed and they started laughing.”
The photo was taken in the Falklands capital Stanley while he was a 21-year-old private in 3 Para.
After the Argentine invasion on April 2, 1982, Andrew travelled on ocean liner SS Canberra, one of the ships carrying a total of 27,000 men and women to war in the South Atlantic.
He said a great moment was when the captain rang a bell one morning and informed them they had just joined the fleet.
Andrew said: “I was so proud to be British. You couldn’t see for vessels. It was awesome.”
As they approached the islands, he was transferred to HMS Intrepid.
He was on the ship when a Sea King helicopter crashed into the sea, killing 20 people. His crewmates winched the wreckage from the water. Andrew said: “It was my first experience of death.
“As they winched it up, the water poured out and you could see the guys still strapped in. It was one of the SAS squadrons. It was harrowing. You thought, ‘Christ, this is real now’.”
He stayed with the Paras for over 20 years after the war. Andrew, of Chiswick, West London, said: “I look back on the Falklands with mixed emotions...
“I was young, can you imagine being a fireman and never putting out a fire? There were good times but sad times too.”
