'On the beach the Lieutenant asked if he could say a prayer before being shot. "Don't be so bloody silly," I replied, "get into the boat."' My Friends, The Enemy recounts the Falklands War from the viewpoint of the only Intelligence Corps in HQ 3 Commando Brigade and serving with its Intelligence Section of Royal Marines, It is a personal account supported by intelligence assembled since 1982. Nick van der Bijl was a Staff Sergeant and his role meant that he was expected to provide accurate intelligence to Brigade Headquarters and deploy specialist skills. Little was known about the Argentine threat and so the Intelligence Section was very heavily involved in collecting, collating and distributing intelligence from a variety of sources, initially from the UK and after landing at San Carlos Water, also from documents, prisoners of war, and a counter-intelligence operation. While the intelligence proved to be accurate throughout the campaign, some has been controversial, particularly relating to the Battle of Goose Green. Van der Bijl was one of the first into Stanley after the Argentinian surrender and was part of an intelligence operation that searched enemy HQs for documents and selected several hundred officers for further interrogation. My Friends, The Enemy is the first time that the story of intelligence operations has been told by a witness to events in the Falklands from the start of the campaign to the finish.

In early April 1982, the UK despatched a Task Force to the South Atlantic to recover the Falkland Islands and South Georgia from occupation by Argentina. A distance of over 8,000 miles, it was the second longest amphibious operation from home base to objective in modern military history. On 21 May, 3 Commando landed at San Carlos on East Falklands and a week later defeated the Argentinian garrison at Goose Green. Within the week 5 Infantry Brigade landed and by the middle of June, both brigades liberated Port Stanley against a numerically superior force. The images here, almost all of which are previously unpublished, illustrate the Argentinian occupation of the Falklands and give an overview of the conditions in which both sides fought the land war. The Argentines were largely based in Port Stanley and Goose Green on East Falkland and Port Howard and Fox Bay on West Falklands. Van der Bijl also looks at the repatriation of prisoners and, finally, the Islands today. Nick van der Bijl is the author of My Friends, The Enemy: Life in Military Intelligence During the Falkands War, and was part of the British intelligence team during the conflict. In possession of unseen Argentinian photographs, he is in a unique position to offer an important new perspective on the conflict.

'On the beach the Lieutenant asked if he could say a prayer before being shot. "Don't be so bloody silly," I replied, "get into the boat."' My Friends, The Enemy recounts the Falklands War from the viewpoint of the only Intelligence Corps in HQ 3 Commando Brigade and serving with its Intelligence Section of Royal Marines, It is a personal account supported by intelligence assembled since 1982. Nick van der Bijl was a Staff Sergeant and his role meant that he was expected to provide accurate intelligence to Brigade Headquarters and deploy specialist skills. Little was known about the Argentine threat and so the Intelligence Section was very heavily involved in collecting, collating and distributing intelligence from a variety of sources, initially from the UK and after landing at San Carlos Water, also from documents, prisoners of war, and a counter-intelligence operation. While the intelligence proved to be accurate throughout the campaign, some has been controversial, particularly relating to the Battle of Goose Green. Van der Bijl was one of the first into Stanley after the Argentinian surrender and was part of an intelligence operation that searched enemy HQs for documents and selected several hundred officers for further interrogation. My Friends, The Enemy is the first time that the story of intelligence operations has been told by a witness to events in the Falklands from the start of the campaign to the finish.