DD
Have just got as far as 1982 in Andrew Marr's excellent, though slightly flawed in matters military, "History of Modern Britain." He claims the Yanks provided AWACs cover for the task force.
Does Andrew also explain 'When, with what, where from?'
Not having a pop at yourself here - we're all hostage to what we are told or read after all, but having flown surface surveillance for the TF (put bluntly - fly as far SE as you can, see what's out there') I think I'd have noticed an E3 sitting on the pan alongside as we did the preflights. Where did they fly from? It wasn't Wideawake, so where did the US AWACS operate from, that they could perform these sorties for the TF at any point between Ascension and the Falklands?
Sorry to rant, Nimrods flew sorties in excess of 10 hrs unrefuelled in the early days, prior to AAR, and following the intro of AAR they pottered along the S American coastline playing 'you can't see me, roight? (Think Harry Enfield show...think that was the one <g>)' for a while. Look at Google maps - compare the distance between Florida and Argentina to the distance between Ascension and Argentina. Make life easy for the US - measure from a part of South America that might conceivably allow US sorties in covert support of the Brits to be flown.
Then write and tell Andrew Marr he's got no idea about how far things are apart in the southern hemisphere, and he's full of **** <g>
I am sure Sandy Woodward would have been overjoyed to have AWACS support, I am equally sure he'd have gladly swapped our efforts (Nimrod) for a double pink gin - the US provided intel and satellite info, they did not fly operational sorties in the S Atlantic.
Dave
Dave