AN Alcester author has lifted the lid on the death of a teenage soldier killed in action fighting the Argentinians two days before the Falklands War ended.
Seventeen-year-old paratrooper Jason Burt died in the assault on Mount Longdon in a brutal attack which saw his platoon Sargeant Ian McKay awarded a posthumous Victoria Cross.
Now former Redditch Indicator reporter Mark Higgitt has uncovered the truth of Private Burt’s last hours in his book ‘17 The Death and Life of Private Jason Burt’.
Mark had previously written a book on HMS Ardent, called ‘Through Fire and Water’ the frigate sunk by Argentinian aircraft in Falkland Sound on May 22, 1982.
While attending a memorial service ten years ago he got chatting to other Falklands veterans and first heard of the fate of Pte Burt.
“One of them said he had met someone else who had known Jason and I started following the story but there were so many different accounts I was finding it hard to pin down what had happened,” said Mark.
“Then I met his parents, Syd and Terry, and they said they didn’t know how he’d died and when they’d asked the Army they were told it was ‘a minor detail’.
“This is the reason this book has taken so long to write, I had to make sure I was satisfied that the information I was getting was right,” said the 57-year-old father of two.
It means that more than three decades after he’d died the truth can finally be told about Pte Burt’s heroic final few minutes on Mount Longdon.
17 The Death and Life of Private Jason Burt’ is published by Many Heroes Publishing and costs £3.99 as an ebook (ISBN 978-0-993003-3-2) and £10.99 for the paperback (ISBN 978-0-9933003-2-5) on Amazon.
Through Fire and Water is also available via Amazon.
