Writing about being shot at by the Argentinians while piloting his helicopter, he states: “My lasting memory is of 99% boredom, training and routine and that horrendous 1% of sheer terror as missiles and bombs and shells were thrown around.

“I provide you with just one lasting memory that is seared into my mind and still to this day I can see the event in my mind as clearly as if it happened yesterday.

“I did get shot at, but it was not intended for me, at the time Atlantic Conveyor was hit, I was airborne in the anti-submarine screen and told to climb to height and drop chaff (to confuse the enemy radar into believing there were many more targets than they thought and make their targeting solution more difficult and then to confuse the missiles into choosing the wrong target). 

“I was flying and saw a chaff shell fired from one of our ships that passed not that far in front of us. The terror that that was going to be that, just for a moment, has had a lasting and permanent effect on me. We then had to put that to one side and get on with the search and rescue mission to recover and find men in the water after Conveyor was hit and burning.”

Returning to the invasion of Ukraine he adds: “I can sympathise with those fighting today in the knowledge that we thought we were going to do do the right thing in 1982 – eject an invader – but only those who experience war can tell you, whatever those sitting in warm cosy television studios tell you, war is a dreadful thing and EVERY effort should be made to avoid it, however ‘just’ someone on either side thinks it is.”

The effects of being shot at 

The Duke has spoken about being shot at before, in his infamous Newsnight interview, given to defend himself against Ms Giuffre’s accusations and to explain his friendship with the late Jeffrey Epstein.

Addressing a claim he was sweating heavily during an alleged night out with Ms Giuffre, he told Emily Maitlis in 2019: “I didn’t sweat at the time because I had suffered what I would describe as an overdose of adrenaline in the Falklands War when I was shot at and I simply…it was almost impossible for me to sweat.”

Prince Andrew was the first member of the royal family to have an official Twitter account under his own name, though that account was deleted in January.

A source close to the Duke said the Duchess’s Instagram posts may have been taken down over fears they would not be well received.