I should point out the SHAR was difficult to lock up with an IR missile head on as the engine wasn't very hot in forward flight and especially from above (Ardiles would have been looking down) as the wing tended to blank the hot (rear) nozzles. I seriously doubt we would have had the forward speed at that height to generate any significant skin friction on the leading edges!
My thoughts exactly! Otherwise Shafrir marketeers would have had a field day (the Israelis actually fielded the more advanced Python 3 by that time any way): " The much publicised AIM-9L fails to lock up an afterburner-equipped Mirage doing 500-550KIAS whereas our older product the Shafrir 2 locks on head on looking down onto a SHAR doing 350KIAS and with the two hot nozzles completely masked away under the wing (especially from such a geometry: 30-35kft looking down at 10miles away at someone at 20kft)!
Wrt the Ward-Thomas splashes on 21 May I recall from memory (!! I don't have Sharkey's book with me) the figure drawn up in Sharkey's book and it was a down the throat merge from Sharkey through two Daggers flying welded wing echelon type of formation (Senn-Donadille?). Steve Thomas was offset well to the right in battle formation. The pair then swing right onto an escape heading. Sharkey pulls right and towards his wingman's side into a 360 to get onto their tails. The right break of the argentinian formation put the left turning Thomas into their 6 o'clock and the rest is history. A perfect setup. Meanwhile Dagger n.3 pops out out of nowhere (out from the north as Sharkey has turned through about 180-270deg of his 360 takes a shot at him then passes obliquely down to his left side having had a snapshot from Sharkey's 4-5o'clock position. He apparently thought that his high speed would carry him through to safety by the time Sharkey had turned around.
Now on Steve's account things are a bit confused. As you say Steve was off north of Sharkey (ie, to the right of Sharkey). When they inititiatd a right turn I assume they'd crossed paths putting Thomas to Sharkey's left? This would contrary to Sharkey's diagram in the book. If indeed Thomas entered the fight to the left of Sharkey he would have broken right towards the Daggers. The diagram in the books shows the exact opposite happening.
By the way the 1 May Thomas-Barton engagement with Mirages is also wrong in Sharkey's book (if the 21 May diagram is in the first place). Both Barton and Thomas versions that I have read agree that Thomas broke right after the merge with the Mirages and into Barton. Sharkey's diagram depicts Thomas going left. I assume that would have been a more correct thing to do wouldn't it? I am waiting to stand corrected but if you got an enemy formation bracketed with your wingman well offset you wouldn't actually want to break into your wingman after the merge would you? I assume that if the leader merges with the enemy formation then he would like to force the enemy into a turn away from his wingman so as to set him up for a shot straight away? In the event of 21 May the Daggers did not turn into Thomas so they presented themselves nicely as targets by turning the other way to escape.