Indeed a Dagger of Groupo 6 did try to engage the SHAR of Lt Cmd ‘Sharky’ Ward with guns over West Falkland in that engagement and missed. I can’t remember who it was, but it is mentioned in ‘Falklands, The Air War’. Of the three Dagger’s shot down, one of them was C-403, which I have a compressor blade of, sitting in a box in my loft somewhere. Picked it up when down on the Falklands in 1989 when a Helicopter had to drop us off at the wreak, to pick up some army personnel off the top of Mt Caroline in high wind conditions. (lent my copy of ‘Falkland’s the Air War’ to a guy who was down there at the time with the REME, hence cannot check facts) Also got some photos of the wreakage, including a photo of me on the wing.

A Dagger nearly got an air to air kill on a Sea King towards the end of the war, when it put a 30mm cannon round though a rotor blade of the Sea King. Fortunatly, the blade stayed on long enough for the crew to make a rapid emergency landing. Again photos and details are in Falklands the Air War (think the Sea King may have been an HC4).

Photo of me on the wing of C-403 attached

Again, I have a lot learn. Are these Daggers at Port Stanley?

Sea Harrier Serials

For those interested:

Sea Harrier serial numbers

If all the bombs were explode the British goverment would sent more ships to replace the sank ones.:D:D:D

If UK didn’t have enough ships to replace they would ask to USA to loan some ships.:D:D:D

Britain and Argentina should never have been enemies in the first place.

Usually the reverse is the case; missiles are fired by the Royal Navy and claims made in good faith but often no aircraft is actually shot-down. Here the RN aren’t making any claim or even stating that missiles were fired.

Exactly what I wanted to say. The first batch of warships to arrive in the TEZ really did have an action packed first few weeks; they were over confident (that would change with time!) and more than ‘keen’ to claim kills for their weapon expenditure.

It would be great to give our friends from Argentina the name of the ship that puts light on the damaged wing mystery but I still think that the answer is elsewhere.

Fought in that conflict as First Tenenet on the GADA 601 ( TRiple AAA ) –
I was the Commander of the Command Co of that Unit , which had the responsability for :

-Communications of the Unit
Air Post Command
And the Long Range Radar (Cardion ANTPS-44)

Enrique,

Have you seen these before?

Gada 601

Regards.

Ken.

There is an incident that hapenned on 1May that involved HMS Brilliant and HMS Yarmouth and a trio of Canberra bombers from the argentinean air force.
According to David Brown in his book “The Royal Navy and the Falklands war”, the first trio of Canberras (there was a second trio intercepted by Sea Harrier) circled both ships but didn´t attack.

But Brown doesn´t mention any SAM launching at all. The Canberra leader made an emergency landing at Puerto Deseado airport.
Anybody knows about this action?
Were the two air objects Curtiss and Broadwater Sea Harriers?
Were two of the three reported Sea King that were searching, together Yarmouth and Brilliant, the submarine ARA San Luis?

Thanks

Greetings

How very interesting. HMS Yarmouth, HMS Brilliant and three Seaking dippers were indeed searching for ARA San on the 1 May but I have never heard anything mentioned about of one of these frigates firing a SAM at a Canberra.

Here are diary entries from the captain of HMS Yarmouth and a sailor serving in HMS Brilliant. If you take time to read them and in particular the entry made by the HMS Brilliant sailor, you will see mention of a formation of Canberra bombers circling the frigates but there is no mention of one of them firing a missile. The sailor’s entry is full of RN jargon; please ask if there is anything you would like me to translate.

Regards.

Ken.

Captain HMS Yarmouth

Saturday May 1st

Arrived in the TEZ. CTG sent us in close with HMS BRILLIANT to hunt for a submarine. Took 3 big dippers in with us. We spent all of the daylight hours at action stations. Prosecuted many contacts, fired 30 mortar bombs, and the helos dropped several torpedoes and depth charges. At the time we thought we had had no success but were told a few days later that a submarine had been in harbour. HMS ARROW, ALACRITY, and GLAMORGAN had been bounced by Argentinean aircraft and had sustained some minor damage.

Crew member HMS Brilliant

01/05/82 (Bill)

09.22
Around 4 o?clock there time Day 1 so to speak Vulcan flew over at 0830 Out on the Quarterdeck its cold and the seas calm Pitch black only the lights of helicopters A dim light shows position of Invincible At 10.50 9 Harriers supposed to be going to raid the airfield

10.02
Small sonar contact stews fired at 10.03 A few people were on the quarterdeck at the time No1 (Chinese laundry fella) who weighs about 18 Stone ran aft to the quarter deck with his life jacket on ready to jump over the side Sebastian Coe would have been no match the speed he moved.

10.09
Second torpedo fired first detonated soon after entering the water

10.14
Whale Oil sighted by Sea King

10.16
Olys wound up don?t know why, I think Ill join green peace

10.55
Closed up at Action Stations 2 planes coming in

11.15
2 mirages closed in and were chased off by CAP (Carrier Air Patrol) which consisted of 2 harriers

11.28
Yarmouth and us to carry out ASW Looking for San Lois NE of the Falklands Group detached to bombard southern coast, Type 42s are defending carriers 10 minutes time harriers due back from there Air Raid. P 2 Mirages closed to see what our reaction would be As Soon as attacked they revved up and scarpered at supersonic speed Success of harriers not yet known Sea wolf just been put back on line

11.33
Closed up at action stations. Invincible reported large number of aircraft closing from the West also exocet reported fired. Feeling slightly nervous but something happening at last edge relief even P1 exocet launched from very long range no chance of hitting anything. The aircraft are coming from the mainland. Skipper seems to be loving every minute of it just hope he?s not to glory grabbing up to now he?s been asking to get sent to places where there?s some action. Despite the air raid our orders are still to detach and find this sub. Message from flag to Glamorgan planes came to limit of range fired 1 of their ten air launched exocet then went away as they had no in-flight refueling

12.20
Fell out from action stations Both torpedoes that we fired hit whales Score so far Britain 1 corvette 1 sub 150 POWS and 2 Whales

13.02
Action stations aircraft closing

13.04
3? chaff rockets fired Olys straight up to 90 lever The three planes turned back at 120 miles, chased off by CAP

14.10
Action stations 2 super entard with 2 mirages closing 160 miles

14.30
Fell Out

15.05
Action Stations Glamorgan Ardent Alacrity bombarding Packora splashed by harrier

16.30
Fell Out

17.00
Action Stations Air Raid coming in from SW

17.20
Air Raid didn?t materialize fell out Buzz Vulcans bomb left a scar 70m wide by 50m deep 4 Seakings doing this ASW with us refueling and recrewing in flight

19.20
Back to action stations Sea King sonar contact definite riser 6 miles away The Doc doesn?t like pot mess and had 2 slices of bread and butter for supper Sea King depth charged contact

19.25
(2) rockets fired

19.27
(2) rockets fired 2 aircraft closing 5 miles away Aircraft intercepted by CAP patrol 12 Miles Sea King blew another whale up

19.50
2 Mirages shot down

20.10
1 rocket fire

20.11
1 Canberra 400 miles away squawking on iff emergency

20.15
Canberra attack were all lying down it?s a bit difficult to sleep with a BA on

20.16
Canberra 6 miles away

20.17
Turned away P1 Glamorgan Ardent and Alacrity were attacked by several aircraft Mirage Arrow hit 1 casualty Glamorgan thought she was. The Canberras that closed in on us only circled and were seen by the OOW before the RPs, pretty horrifying. The computer didn?t Ti them because they weren?t a threat to us ,so it thought. If they had seen super entards we would have had it. A chopper was refueling above our flight deck with only 10 minutes of juice left and a sub threat 6 miles away Alacrity splashed 1 Mirage Harrier 1 Mirage Arrow has damage to superstructure Sea Cat tracker jammed 18 chaff rockets fired so far, Alacrity’s Lynx shot at sustained major fuel leak but got back on board.

Ref#272

CAN ANYONE HELP REYDELCASTILLO WITH HIS FRIEND’S PROBLEM GETTING AUTHENTICATION TO JOIN THE FORUM?

I haven’t a Scooby Doo!

Regards.

Griffiths911

The RN attacked a few whales in the South Atlantic as well.

How very true and not just the odd whale! On the afternoon of 2 June whilst on picket duty HMS Cardiff’s Sonar Control Room detected a contact on our 182 sonar. With no other ships within 20nm and the sonar crew feeding the command with very convincing reports that indicated a submarine was stalking us the command decided to conduct a deliberate attack using a mk46 torpedo. We increased speed, turned sharply towards and launched the mk46. It took no more than 60 seconds from the time it left the STWS tube till we felt a very impressive underwater explosion. My captain, an ex submariner, was very exited and bolted up the ladder to the bridge to, as he put it, smell for diesel.

There was no sign of debris or oil on the surface of the water like in the war films and after some time, with officers peering at charts and mumbling to each other it was decided that the sonar crews had been tracking a large rock (there is probably a more accurate description) and we had fired a torpedo at it.

It was all very exciting and I got to feel the power of a real torpedo detonating at relatively close quarters. I was also very pleased it was not a poor innocent whale.

Regards.

Ken.