Falkland residents relive invasion terror as Portsmouth marks Liberation Day

Elizabeth Elliot, 58, was part of a handful of Falkland islanders at the Liberation Day ceremony in Portsmouth yesterday.

The 58-year-old was living in Port Stanley with her two young children when the Argentinean military invaded and has relieved the harrowing moments of the conflict.

Speaking to The News, she said: ‘I remember as the invasion started I tried to get out the front door. As soon as I did the first bullets were fired and started ricocheting off outside. I just fell to the floor thinking “now what?”.’

Mr Elliot, then 23, rushed back into the home and used mattresses to shield her children from raging firefight outside her wooden home.

She added: ‘During the invasion our house was searched. We were lined up and the Argentines pointed guns at my children.’

Her mum, anxious Lorena Triggs, 77, was living in the UK at the time and was unable to speak to her daughter for months. ‘It was horrible for me, absolutely horrible,’ she said.

Speaking of the day the island was liberated by the British Mrs Elliot said: ‘It felt like a million Christmases rolled in to one. It meant so much to us.’

Mrs Triggs added: ‘The British troops who freed the island were heroes. They were our angels.’