FROM a round the world cruise to the thick of war, Dr Peter Mayner had a strange journey to one of the defining moments of the 1980s.

Dr Mayner was P&O's chief medical officer aboard the passenger liner Canberra. On April 2, 1982, the day that Argentine forces invaded the Falklands, the ship was docked in Naples.

Dr Mayner was expecting to return home after a round-the-world cruise but the Canberra was requisitioned for the Task Force and so he found himself in the thick of the war.

The Canberra was both troop carrier and hospital ship and as the Task Force sailed, Dr Mayner worked alongside military medics, who included Rick Jolly, who wrote The Red And Green Life Machine, to create a system to deal with the expected casualties.

They adapted the ship's theatre to house four operating theatres and created a chute to transfer casualties from the helicopter pad to treatment areas. As the armada steamed southwards, they also stockpiled blood.

"We were the largest blood transfusion unit in the South Atlantic," he recalled.

When the time came for British troops to land at San Carlos Water on East Falkland on May 21, the Canberra was in the thick of it, with bombs dropped by Argentine attack planes falling all around it.

"We were under air attack every half-hour. There would not have been much chance to survive if we had been hit, but we were lucky. We just couldn't believe how lucky we were," he said.

Casualties brought aboard the Canberra over the next few days included Argen-tinian soldiers, some of whom volunteered to give blood.

Twice more, Canberra landed troops at San Carlos then, after the war was over, the ship took on a new role, taking Argentin-ian prisoners of war home.

"They were just glad to get out of the cold. The officers didn't care much about the conscripts," said Dr Mayner.

"In general, the Argentines were very badly officered. The conscripts were badly treated by their own officers to the extent that after the surrender, the officers were allowed to keep their sidearms because of the fear of attack from their own troops."

Dr Mayner did not take part in the 25th anniversary national commemorative events last week, although he had been invited to several. Instead, a family celebration took precedence.

However, he attends the San Carlos dinner at the Commandos' headquarters in Portsmouth every year and several years ago returned to the islands with other veterans.

After 25 years, he still has no doubts where he stands on the question of sovereignty.

"The Falklands never belonged to Argentina. The country didn't even exist when the British laid claim to the islands.

"That's what annoys me when I see someone like John Humphreys, who was on TV the other day saying we should give then back'," he said.

DID you serve in the Falklands War? If you want to share your memories of the war, please call 01684 892200 or e-mail robert.hale@ midlands.newsquest.co.uk.