The 30th saw the loss of another GR3 to ground fire. The pilot was hit by small arms fire during an attack and developed a large fuel leak resulting in an ejection into the cold South Atlantic some 40 miles short of the ship. Luckily, he was spotted by a Lynx which vectored a Sea King onto him very quickly and he was picked up and returned to Hermes a bit battered and bloody but otherwise OK. The pilot who had been shot down at Goose Green was also returned to us; cue several beers!
The day also saw the final Exocet attack - although we didn’t know this at the time. Two Super Es and four Skyhawks attacked from the south aiming to take out one of the carriers. In fact no ships were hit and two Skyhawks and the missile were shot down.
That evening I received news that cheered me up no end; the GR3 pilot that I thought might have been on one of the helicopters that I destroyed a week earlier was seen boarding a Herc in Stanley. Massive relief!
Ashore that night, BN, the Chinook that had survived Atlantic Conveyor, bounced off the water in a snow storm. Amazingly, the only damage was the loss of the Co-pilot’s door!
Mog