A FALKLANDS veteran from York whose ship was sunk by an Exocet has been emotionally reunited with a fellow survivor, 20 years after the disaster.

Close friends John Miller, of Acomb, and Derek Moon, of Sunderland, were on board HMS Sheffield when it was sunk, killing 20 of the crew.

The two had not seen each other since Derek was John's best man at his wedding to wife Adele in 1985.

As the pair swapped stories, Derek, now 39, said: "He hasn't changed a bit, not a wrinkle."

The pair originally met when they were weapons engineers on board Sheffield, which had been away on a six-month patrol when the call came to sail to the war zone.

John said: "The captain said we were going to take back the Falklands. We got the Tannoy at 11.55pm on April 1 and everybody thought it was a big wind-up, a joke. Nobody had any idea. We were the last to find out, yet the first to go in."

Derek said: "I never saw so many grown men cry when we were told. We were only four days away from going home and then you are told you are going to war."

He added: "I was young, gung-ho and didn't give a damn. I thought 'it is

going to be an experience whatever happens'. It took me about a week before

I sat down and thought 'this could be the end of my life.'"

John, a keen rugby player, said: "I thought 'I am not going to die - I am going to live until I am 130.'"

HMS Sheffield, on half-alert, got only a minute's warning before the Exocet hit, on May 4. It was the first British ship lost to enemy action since the Second World War. Derek said: "The radar I was on slew around and I locked on to something at about eight miles. I said, 'Chief, it can only be a helicopter, but it couldn't have got that close', then it just went blip and I said, 'There's definitely something there'. The next thing there was a dull thud and a

whoosh. The warhead didn't explode, that's why we didn't disintegrate."

He managed to crawl out through an escape hatch as the radar room was

engulfed in smoke.

"There was nothing more that could have been done. We did track round, we

did see it come, but once that missile hit, it was end of story. I got down on to the deck and started to help. I just felt pathetic and helpless."

John, 39, said the day had started as his 20th birthday. "I went and had some dinner and a couple of cans and

tried to get my head down. I was just climbing into my bunk and there was a

thud and no explosion.

"I thought we had been hit by a torpedo, so I got up

and started running to my action station, expecting the ship to start listing. Nothing happened, it just started filling up with smoke. I remember one of the lads waiting with a Bren gun for the next attack."

The pair ended up on deck together, throwing ammunition into the sea, as the fireball took hold. They were evacuated on to HMS Arrow and eventually sent home to Britain.

John, who has three children - Jade, 13, Jessica, 12 and Joshua, five - works as a station fire officer with the Ministry of Defence.

The pair plan to attend a 20th anniversary reunion in London next month.

"We will go down to this thing together and we will get to know each other again there," said John.

Updated: 10:42 Saturday, April 20, 2002