Canberra Expertise Required – What Is This?

Out of sheer boredom I decided to magnify the image. I then was able to read ‘Misil Sea Cat Fragata Yarmouth’. Which of course means Missile Sea Cat Frigate Yarmouth. The old missile impact plot opens again…

Yes, I can see all of this now 😮 It’s like the wool has been pulled from eyes! Port it is, and yes, the mangled metal does look bent back by a strong force. Must have been a very glancing blow not to damage further into the tip.

Sorry for dragging this debate out further than it should have been, it’s just from my angle (pun intended) it seemed to make perfect sense (doesn’t it always). I honestly have been trying to second guess myself but I just could only see starboard. I’m quite glad it’s over though, lol. 🙂

Welcome to the Port supporters club Steve!! 😀

Congratulations to all involved in this thread, I think it ranks amongst the longest Canberra threads ever seen on this forum which I for one think is fantastic..here’s to more like this!

Yes, I can see all of this now 😮 It’s like the wool has been pulled from eyes! Port it is, and yes, the mangled metal does look bent back by a strong force. Must have been a very glancing blow not to damage further into the tip.

Sorry for dragging this debate out further than it should have been, it’s just from my angle (pun intended) it seemed to make perfect sense (doesn’t it always). I honestly have been trying to second guess myself but I just could only see starboard. I’m quite glad it’s over though, lol. 🙂

Yes, now you’re seeing what I see! 😀

Notice now the mangled piece of metal at the extreme right of the photo; looks to me as if it has been dragged rearwards by something? Also notice that the perspex of the lights is missing from the extreme right but that slightly further inboard it has survived.

Do you see what I’m getting at? 🙂

OK, I think I finally understand what you’re getting at now. You’re saying rotate the photo 90 degrees right…well if that is it, then I am well and truly wrong and I see the port wingtip. 😀

Honestly the whole time I’ve been losing my mind because of the way the photo was orientated and because of the angle the writing was written. If only I had seen this from early on! You all must have a lot more perceptive eyes than me!

…I’ll leave this small mockup I did for my closing argument!

Yes, but the problem is that you’ve got the wingtip orientated wrong; the arrows that you have drawn are not coincident. The arrow on the wingtip should be drawn along the other edge.

I agree that the damage could have been caused by a missile…..but what missile…..the Royal Navy didn’t fire any that day?

“Unlikely to have damaged the starboard wingtip in a turn to port, you see.”

Not unless the starboard wing was raised during in this port turn (as it surely would be?) and it was indeed damaged by a missile impact.

Whatever the case, I don’t know, I was not there. Take your pick of whether you believe the port or right wing was damaged – I guess the only way you could know for sure was to ask the chaps at Puerto Deseado that repaired it after its emergency landing.

I know the judge and jury have decided on the photo showing port side; fair enough, but I’ll leave this small mockup I did for my closing argument!

Cheers,

Steve

It might help if creaking door could show us mortals the other side (please):)

That piece is from a photo taken from an Argentine museum.

Shouldn’t that have been mentioned at the beginning of the thread!
Would have saved alot of hassle, and does put the provenance in a different light.

Sorry, I wish I had a photo of the other side but this photo was lifted from the Zona Militar forum and is the only one I have seen.

Apologies also for not revealing anything about the origin of the photo or about what aircraft it is supposedly from…

…my reason being that I hoped to definitely identify it as Canberra, and then port / starboard wingtip before the story behind it ‘clouded’ the issue. However it didn’t quite work out as I’d planned as there was still plenty of confusion and somebody spotted the serial / date written on it and put two-and-two together…..and got exactly four!

Clearly port wing. Longer edge of lights goes along wingspan on Canberra – topside camo is dark grey, underside is light aircraft grey, topside wraps round onto underside. How can this be such a long discussion!!

Thank you for the definite ‘port’ identifications (everybody)…..it makes one theory more probable…..but obviously doesn’t prove it!

Testimony from the pilot states that during a turn to port an impact was felt and it was assumed that this was the impact of one of the ‘missiles’ seen being launched a few seconds earlier.

Unlikely to have damaged the starboard wingtip in a turn to port, you see. 🙂

Your saying this may be Dornier ?

😀 😀 😀

Chaps, I think there has been some confusion. B-108 was part of the two flight group that went out on 1st May. It was damaged either by missile impact or clipping the sea on a low level turn. B-110 was shot down that day in the other flight group. B-108 was repaired on return to an emergency airfield, I forget the name, and presumably the torn wingtip ended up in the museum after that.

On the 13th June, B-108 was shot down by the Sea Dart and crashed into the sea. There was some discussion of whether any wreckage was found on land near where she went down, but no evidence has come up so far. There was also discussion regarding if she was severed in two, but accounts from Captain Pastran, the survivor (now decesased) show he was able to throttle back the engines and deploy airbrakes, implying the airframe was all in one piece still.

That piece is from a photo taken from an Argentine museum.

Shouldn’t that have been mentioned at the beginning of the thread!
Would have saved alot of hassle, and does put the provenance in a different light.
Still seems odd to me though that the aircraft went into the sea and the tip light was somehow subsequently found, and in apparently fairly good order, with B-108s serial and with the date of B-110s shoot down written on it.

Chaps, glad to see this is getting some coverage here. B-108 ended up in the sea but all reports do not indicate it severed in mid-air. Only two Canberras were shot down, which you have both mentioned as B-110 and B-108. B-108 was damaged, either by impact on the sea or a possible missile impact on 1st May, but the jury is still somewhat out on that one.

I have covered the loss of B-110 and 108 here:

http://www.nazcastudios.com/grupo2/malvinas-conflict-uk.html

and there was a superb thread on it starting here:

http://forum.keypublishing.co.uk/showthread.php?t=81971&page=15

and also over at Zona Militar, including much discussion on what happened to B-108 on the 1st.

http://zonamilitar.com.ar/foros/showthread.php?t=18569&page=10

Going back briefly to the possibility of a fake, again I doubt it, but who knows. Seems unlikely to me. That piece is from a photo taken from an Argentine museum.

Do you know if there is much left of the crash site?

I believe the nose/cockpit seperated from the fuselage very high up, soon after the missile struck, but I never got to see the impact area so I simply don’t know.

Do you know if there is much left of the crash site?

WH886 was B-108, the one lost to the Sea Dart, it was the last Argentine aircraft lost in the conflict (13 June 82) andthe pilot successfully ejected.
I can’t find out where it actually ended up.
According to Argentine losses website only two Canberras were lost.

Correct with B-108 being WH886, shot down by sea darts from HMS Cardiff and Exeter. Pilot ‘came ashore in his dingy at Fitzroy’ Nav was killed. Maybe Canberra ‘hit land’ and pilot landed in sea.
I flew around this area in a chinook and noticed the odd scar on the western island, but the crew always had other things on their minds and I never managed to investigate them.

Great stuff chaps thankyou for all the information …….. learning all the time;)

WH886 was B-108, the one lost to the Sea Dart, it was the last Argentine aircraft lost in the conflict (13 June 82) andthe pilot successfully ejected.
I can’t find out where it actually ended up.
According to Argentine losses website only two Canberras were lost.

B-110 shot down by Lt. A. Curtis with a sidewinder….into the sea

others not identified

I know one of them lost was WH886 [not sure what its Argentine number was] i would be very interested to now how it met its fate.
All the best Matt

WH886 was B-108

According to Canberra the operational record by Robert Jackson, 2 Canberras were shot down into the sea, the third is not mentioned.

Again, were did B-108 fall ?

I’m a bit behind the curve here, is that where this light came from?

Yes B-108, acording to the inscription on it.
One was indeed lost to a Sea Dart fired from a Type 42, another shot down North of the Falklands.