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Summary
of Main Events
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Arriving
Carrier Squadrons
HMS HERMES
No.800 - 12 Sea Harriers [Lt Cmdr A D Auld (awarded
DSC) RN]
No.826 - 9 Sea King HAS.5's [Lt Cmdr D J S Squier
(AFC) RN]
HMS INVINCIBLE
No.801 - 8 Sea Harriers [Cmdr N D Ward (DSC) AFC RN]
No.820 - 11 Sea King HAS.5's [Lt Cmdr R J S
Wykes-Sneyd (AFC) RN
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RN
Warships on Station
SSN Spartan,
Splendid in Falkland's area/off Argentine coast
CVBG - CV Hermes, Invincible, DD
Coventry, Glasgow, Sheffield, FR Broadsword,
Plymouth, RFA Olmeda, Resource, with SBS and SAS
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1. 'Black
Buck 1' - Vulcan raid on Stanley (1st)
2. Argentine aircraft losses at Goose
Green - [a2,a3,a4] Pucara (1st)
3. FR Brilliant, Yarmouth with ASW
Sea Kings hunt for San Luis (1st)
4. DD Glamorgan, FR Alacrity, Arrow
carry out shore bombardment. All slightly damaged by
air attack (1st)
5. Argentine aircraft losses off
North Falklands (1st) - [a5,a6]
Mirage, [a7] Dagger,
[a8] Canberra
6. Super Etendards abort Exocet
mission (2nd)
7. Argentine Task Group 79 to North
of Falklands: TG's 79.1 & 2 - CV
25 de Mayo and escorts. Prepared to launch Skyhawk
attack Sunday morning. Aircraft loss - [a9] Lynx
(2nd); TG 79.4 - 3 frigates
8. Argentine Task Group 79 South of
Falklands: TG 79.3 - Cruiser
Belgrano, DD Hipolito Bouchard, Piedra Bueno
9. SSN Conqueror from South Georgia
10. Sinking of GENERAL BELGRANO
(2nd), aircraft loss - [a10] Alouette
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As Admiral Woodward's
Carrier Battle Group entered the
TEZ on Saturday 1st May,
a lone Vulcan bomber piloted by Flt Lt Withers (below)
approached the
Falklands for "Black Buck
1". Leaving
Ascension late on Friday
with a second Vulcan and eleven Victor tankers, some of
which refuelled each other, the first air-raid on
Stanley was about to
be made. Intended to deny the airfield to fast jets,
21x1,000lb bombs were dropped from 10,000 feet early that
morning. Only one hit the runway, but the attack signalled
the RAF's ability to strike in the South Atlantic and
against mainland targets. The Vulcan returned safely from
its nearly 16 hour, 8,000 mile round trip, and one of the
Victor captains - Sqdn Ldr Tuxford, was decorated for his
part in the operation. ("Black Buck 2" on Tuesday morning
was made from 16,000 feet but failed to hit the runway).
As the first "Black Buck"
raid took place on the 1st, the carriers with just twenty
Sea Harriers between them prepared to go into action.
Keeping to
the east of the Falklands to reduce
the chance of air attack and screened by their
anti-submarine Sea King's (picture below),
"Invincible" flew off Sea Harriers for combat air patrols
as "Hermes" aircraft followed up the Vulcan raid with
ground strikes. Soon after 8.00 am, nine of them hit
Stanley airfield,
destroying installations and stores and damaging a
civilian Islander aircraft with CBU's. The other three
went in at
Goose Green, wrecking
one Pucara [a2] and badly damaging two more [a3,a4].
All this time, type 22
"Brilliant" and Rothesay class "Yarmouth" with three ASW
Sea Kings from "Hermes" searched all day for the suspected
Argentine submarine "San Luis", but failed to find her.
Also detached were "Glamorgan", and type 21's
"Alacrity" and "Arrow" for the first of many bombardments
of the Stanley
area. "Alacrity's" Lynx took off that afternoon to provide
naval gunfire spotting, but stumbled on Argentine patrol
craft "Islas Malvinas" sheltering near
Kidney Island just to
the north of Stanley. Going into attack with GPMG, she
damaged the vessel, but was hit by the return fire, and
"Arrow's" Lynx later took over the spotting duties. Just
before 5.00 pm, as the warships continued their
bombardment, they were attacked without warning by three
Grupo 6 Daggers, and all received minor damage from cannon
fire or near misses.
The Grupo 6 attack
was part of Argentina's response that Saturday the 1st to
what was believed to be a full scale landing. Sorties were
launched from the mainland by Skyhawks, Canberras and
Daggers, and with some Mirage flying cover, and also by
Falklands-based aircraft. Around the time
of this strike, four Argentine FAA aircraft were lost
towards the
north of the Falklands to Sea Harriers and their
Sidewinders. "Glamorgan" vectored two No.801 aircraft to two
Grupo 8 Mirage, one of which exploded over Pebble Island in
the first air-to-air kill of the war, and the other, damaged
by a missile and approaching Stanley was shot
down by Argentine AA [a5,a6]. Next, two Sea Harriers of
No.800 NAS claimed the Squadron's first victim in combat by
downing one of two Grupo 6 Daggers flying escort [a7]. Then
further to the north, two more No.801 Harriers accounted for
one of three Grupo 2 Canberras looking for British ships
[a8]. Next day, two CANA Super Etendards flew from the
mainland for an Exocet attack on the Task Force, but turned
back with refuelling problems.
Earlier in the week before
the British arrival, ships of the Argentine Navy sailed
from the north and south of the Falklands as Task Force
79. By early Sunday morning (the 2nd), carrier "25 de
Mayo" to
the north was preparing
to launch a Skyhawk attack which was aborted because of
light winds, and that same day both escorting type 42's
were involved in separate incidents. "Hercules" readied
but fails to fire a Sea Dart against an approaching No.801
Sea Harrier, and "Santisima Trinidad" lost her Lynx in a
flying accident [a9]. By then, submarine "San Luis" may
have carried out the first of a number of unsuccessful
attacks before she returned to port around the end of the
month. To
the south, Sunday
also saw one of the most controversial incidents of the
war - the loss of cruiser "General Belgrano" and over 300
men.
Not used during "Operation
Rosario", the "General Belgrano" put to
sea from
Ushuaia on Monday
26th April escorted by two Exocet-armed destroyers, and
three days later was ordered to patrol south of the
shallow Burdwood
Bank. On
Friday, nuclear submarine "Conqueror" made first contact
at long range, and on Saturday closed in to shadow.
Although just outside the
TEZ, "GENERAL
BELGRANO", as the southern arm of TF.79
was a potential threat to the carriers and her destruction
was ordered. Attacked and hit at 4.00 pm on Sunday 2nd May
by two conventional Mark 8 torpedoes she was soon
abandoned, and went down with heavy
casualties and her
helicopter [a10]. A third torpedo hit "Hipolito Bouchard"
without exploding but possibly caused some damage, and
"Conqueror" was therefore presumably counter-attacked by
"Piedra Bueno", which later returned with other Argentine
ships to search for the cruiser's survivors. Shortly after
the sinking, the main units of the Argentine Navy returned
to port or stayed in coastal waters for the rest of the
war.
Although British special forces
may already have landed from the nuclear subs, the SBS and
G Sqdn SAS now went ashore on
the Falklands to check out landing sites and to target
aircraft, troops and stores for naval bombardment and
Harrier strikes. Some of the teams stayed in position,
close to the Argentines and in bad weather for many days
at a time. Areas of operation on East Falkland were
believed to include Bluff Cove, Stanley, Berkeley Sound,
Cow Bay, Port Salvador, San Carlos Water, Goose Green and
Lafonia, and over on West Falkland, Pebble Island, Port
Howard and Fox Bay. The first patrols
started flying in Saturday night in "Hermes'" four
remaining No.846 Sea King HC.4's, which equipped with PNG
for night flying, played such an important role over the
next six weeks.
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