How the Falkland Islands became one of the world’s most affluent places

It's difficult to imagine a less hospitable place to spend five days and nights than dug into the side of Sussex Mountain on the Falkland Islands. Bleak doesn't do it justice. The hillside is treeless and bald, ravaged by anabatic winds that feel as though they are whipping in straight off the Antarctic ice sheet, which indeed they may well be.

This is where the crack 2 Para — the 2nd Battalion, The Parachute Regiment — spent the first five days of the Falklands War, 40 years ago last month. These tough infantrymen cuddled together in the wind, lodged their frozen feet in each other's armpits and wore ladies’ tights for warmth. "The longest five days of my life," was how the paratrooper Tony Banks