Rugby Radio Station

There is a very good website about Rugby Radio Station including details of the demolition of some of the 820 foot high masts here:

http://www.subbrit.org.uk/sb-sites/sites/r/rugby_radio/index.shtml

Don’t forget the helicopters!

Perhaps one RAF aircraft that should have ‘pride of place’ in any flypast is Chinook HC1 ZA718 ‘Bravo November’.

This was the only Chinook to survive the destruction of Atlantic Conveyor by Exocet and was the only Chinook available to the British forces until after the end of the war.

Last sighting I had ZA718 was still earning her keep (23 years later) out in Iraq!

“Flying [a Shackleton] from Ascension to the exclusion zone, how long could you remain on task before you would have to ditch?”

Answer 30 minutes and we could do it 5 times.

I know the Task Force were desperate for AEW cover but that simply beggars belief…and some people thought the Vulcan raids were scraping the barrel!

Now, Glasgow is a different matter. What range from Sheffield was she at the time of the attack? I would suggest she would have been spaced at least 60nm away on the ‘outer-screen’ and down threat (SW & NW of the Main Body) with Sheffield…………she may have spotted the SuEs on 965?.

The information I have is that Sheffield and Glasgow were ‘twenty miles’ apart at the time of the attack (from One Hundred Days – ‘Sandy’ Woodward).

Hmmm…… Single engined aircraft (Harriers) overflying a high population area. Hmmm we’ll see.

The ‘single-engined aircraft’ card has been played before to stop the Sea Harrier / Harrier flying over London…

…never seems to stop the Red Arrows though in their single-engined Hawks.

Hindsight and HMS Sheffield

HMS Sheffield is transmitting on SCOT satellite-communication terminal which effectively ‘deafens’ the UAA1 ESM system.

The Type 965 air-surveillance radar in HMS Sheffield didn’t detect either the two Super Etendard or the Exocet missiles or if either were detected the detection wasn’t convincing enough for chaff to be fired.

HMS Glasgow detects the radar transmission from the two Super Etendard with UAA1 ESM and then detects them with an identical Type 965 air-surveillance radar at forty-five miles (Glasgow and Sheffield are about 20 miles apart).

A warning is broadcast to HMS Invincible (and the rest of the Battle Group) and Chaff fired with the Super Etendard contacts at thirty-eight miles out.

HMS Glasgow transmits radar images on Link 10 to the Battle Group.

The Force Anti-Air Warfare Commander (FAAWC) in HMS Invincible is not convinced (there have been several ‘false-alarms’ that morning and Chaff supplies are limited – each warship carrying enough for only seven complete ‘salvos’).

HMS Glasgow detects the two Exocet missiles with Type 965 air-surveillance radar at twelve miles. A warning is again broadcast to HMS Invincible (and the rest of the Battle Group) but the FAAWC remains unconvinced.

HMS Glasgow attempts to destroy the Exocet missiles with Sea Dart but the targets are too low and fast and radar contact is too fleeting to lock-on.

One of the Exocet missiles hits HMS Sheffield approximately 120 seconds after it was fired.

Goodness, I turn my back for a few days and find people hijacking this interesting thread…

Are you claiming ‘sovereignty’ of this thread? 😀

…reading Sandy Woodwards book, our Gov didnt seem to keen on going via the UN either, he gives the impression that Mrs T & the gang were going flat out for a fight.

Argentina had already started a war.

By the time Argentina was in possession of the Falklands what good would talking in the UN have done?

I’m sure Argentina would not have abandoned the Falklands unless force was used.

Britain had a UN resolution that approved military force to liberate the Falklands…and Thatcher chose to use that option.

What would you have done at that point?