Engines
My comments were about the overall anti runway effort from 1st May - 13 Jun. On the 1st May SHAR attack on Stanley, only one SHAR of the nine was tasked to attack the runway with 1000lbs retarded bombs (flown by Flt Lt Penfold), of the other 8, three lofted VT 1000lbs bombs to airburst over the airfield defences while the rest dropped CBU's to take out soft skinned targets. Only one aircraft was confirmed destroyed, and that was an Islander whose tail was chopped off by a CBU (some other aircraft were damaged but none of them were Military). The Goose Green attack on the other hand did destroy one Pucara and damage a couple of others. The first GR3 low level attack was on the 24 May when 4 aircraft managed to get 9 retarded 1000lbs bombs on to the runway, However the 1 Sqn CO at the time and Sqn Ldr Pook both state that the 40ms delay that was set on the bomb fuzes without their advice minimised the effect of the attack on the runway surface. All other attacks on Stanley Airfield by Harriers (bar one rushed low level 2in rocket attack by 2 GR3's on 30 May to attack suspected swept wing aircraft spotted by a SHAR) were either loft attacks, random 1000lbs dropped by SHAR on their way to CAP stations or the failed attempts to guide LGB's using the GR3 LRMTS as the illuminator (they thought it would work thanks to some duff gen). In all of those cases none of the bombs came as close as those from Black Buck one and two. To be Honest, I agree with a hell of a lot of what Sharkey wrote in 'Sea Harrier in the Falklands', because its not just him that has a go at how the air war was fought, Jerry Pook has equally bad things to say (though not about the FAA) and both are backed up in more diplomatic speak by two other Harrier pilots who have published works (one is on-line only). There is a published bomb plot of what weapons landed where on the airfield in the Book 'Falklands - The Air War' which shows the impact points of 1000lbs bombs and CBU's...plus the Sea Slugs that Glamorgan lobbed at the place.
Last edited by MAINJAFAD; 8th Jan 2013 at 03:10.