The final hours of Private Jason Burt’s life were the toughest. Just a teenager, he travelled to a warzone to fight as a man, far away from his home in Walthamstow. Now, the full story of the death of the second youngest victim of the Falklands war is being told in a book which took a decade of research.

Paratrooper Private Burt was a handsome, young man with a passion for Chelsea FC.

He was in many respects an ordinary teenager.

But, on April 8, 1982 Jason set off on the cruise liner SS Canberra with experienced Para comrades to the Falklands.

Despite being the second youngest, Jason showed extraordinary bravery, just weeks after he won his legendary wings and joined the elite unit in 1982.

On the night of June 11 to 12, the men of 3 Para were given the task of taking the heavily defended, castellated summit of Mount Longdon, which barred the way for the final push to relieve the capital.

They were assured there were no mines and ordered to attack on foot.

Under cover of darkness, the platoon, 4 Platoon B Company, advanced through the clear ground along the northern edge of the mountain before moving south to a halfway point known as Fly Half.

Sadly, the intelligence was wrong, one man stepped on an anti-personnel mine and their position was given away.

It was then, Private Burt, began to shine.

He ran to the man who had stepped on the mine and injected him with the morphine which he wore around his neck, but, when that didn’t ease his pain, Private Burt gave up his own.

Later, his comrades described it as a brave action, that early into the battle.

The platoon made it to the foot of the mountain where the battle became fierce, and chaotic.

Gathered together by a rocky ridge, the men were given an order to charge, to take the enemy’s .50-cal position, a bunker in the rocks just 30 yards away.

It was during this charge that Jason fell, according to one soldier's memory.

Three of the 17-year-olds died on Longdon, less than 48 hours before white flags marked the Argentinian surrender in Stanley.

Days later his mum Terry and dad Syd were visited on their market stall in Pettitcoat Lane.

“Jason shouldn’t have died,” his mum Terry said.

“The two Army officials finally came to see us again on the Wednesday after Jason had been killed, and I told them Jason should come back. But they said he’d been buried in the Falklands on the Sunday.

“When I started to get myself together, I used to remember what he said to me: ‘Mum, if Mrs Thatcher doesn’t do it (sent the Task Force south to retake the Falklands), we’ll be a laughing stock.’ It was something he wanted to do.”

Jason’s body was eventually repatriated to the UK in November, 1982 after his family fought to get him home, and he was buried in a military cemetery in Aldershot.

The family criticised the Army after it took over 30 years for the details of Jason’s death to be revealed in the book 17: The death and life of Private Jason Burt.

At the time, the family claim they were told it was a ‘minor detail’.

Author Mark Higgitt stumbled on Jason’s tragic story while chatting to other Falklands veterans at a memorial service, 10 years ago.

It has taken him hundreds of hours of research and dozens of conversations to find the last pieces of the jigsaw.

“Some personal accounts, Parachute Regiment folklore and official records suggested that he’d been alongside Ian McKay in the action that won his platoon sergeant a Victoria Cross, but one other eye-witness told them that he’d fallen in the follow-up attack,” he said.

“When I tracked down Jason’s parents, Syd and Terry, they described asking the Army how Jason had died and were informed that was a ‘minor detail’. Once I knew that, I knew I couldn’t walk away from his story.”

17: The death and life of Private Jason Burt is published by Many Heroes and is available as an e-book (ISBN 978-0-993003-3-2) and paperback (ISBN 978-0-9933003-2-5) from Amazon.