'Falklands' Most Daring Raid'

[reydelcastillo]

The Gada 601 with Comanding Officer later to be General Hector Lubin Arias was the only complete Triple AAA Unit to be deployed , because of that all the rest of Triple AAA Material was put under his Command , and the Air Post Command from this Unit was increased when it received elements from the Air Force and the Navy .-

[reydelcastillo]

The basics for operations was simple , both Radars ( One from Air Force and the other from the Army would report to this centralized Air Defense Post Command , the Post command would assigne targets , order the open fire etc.- As time went by other missions were directed from the Air Post Command .- It certainly was a palce that gather information , that not only came from both Radars but also from the Observation posts .-

[reydelcastillo]

What we knew about who was going to be our Air Enemy :

Well not too much , while getting everything ready to cross to the islands ( about 1st week of April ) information was given to us that we should expect to encounter one Carrier with it's escort and it's flight group .- Doing the Math we had about 12 Sea Harriers to deal with .- In theory it could work out , later and already on the islands information was added and we found out that we were to encounter a much larger force than originaly expected .- The Triple AAA Bateries did the research on the Sea Harriers , study its capacities and limitations .-

Units that belong to Triple AAA in particular the Gada 601 had a Commanding Officer with experience and always foccus on training , I will say they were Very well trained in the Systems , had been practicing a lot , but I also have to say that we did not have "war experience " and that means a lot .-

[reydelcastillo]

At the moment of deployment the Commanding Officer of the GADA 601 with the Commanding Officers of each Battery cross to the islands and recognized on the ground the positions to be ocupied by each one of the Skyguards , as other elemnts of Triple AAA were being added they were also assigned a location .- The Radar ( Cardion ) was one of the last to cross and the initial position selected was Sapper Hill which was occupied on the last week of April .-
By april 30 all the Air Defense was in place , the Air Post Command under the Orders of who latter would be General Arias had already received the addition of memebers from Air Force and Navy who would be operating under his Command .-

I don't know if this is to booring , if someone thinks so please let me know and we change subject .=

[Roadster280]

while getting everything ready to cross to the islands ( about 1st week of April ) information was given to us that we should expect to encounter one Carrier with it's escort and it's flight group

This implies that you KNEW there was going to be an operation to reclaim the islands. I was under the impression that Galtieri had thought Britain would just fold and accept loss of the islands? Perhaps the leadership were saying one thing while the military were planning for another thing.

Thank you for posting here. It can't be easy coming into the lion's den.

[reydelcastillo]

Roadster : No we did not have a clue , we found out through the radio while drinking a coffe early that morning .- In fact we had send back home troops the previous week .- and we had just began the basic training with the new soldiers that had arrived .-

[reydelcastillo]

This put everyone in a rush , trying to gather everything and yet not knowing which units were going to be deployed .- We assumed that GADA 601 wich had the best Material would be deployed , but there was a lot of back and forth with this in particular because the Unit needed a ship to load all it's stuff and no ship was available .-

[reydelcastillo]

The basics for Air Defense are very simple in the theory : Try to see your enemy as far away as posible which will give you time to alert everyone and gives you time to assigne targets and give the proper orders to open fire .- The farther away you see him the more time you have to get ready .- And here is were a long range radar comes into play .- If you are able to select a position , high above ground with the less obstacles arround you , nobody would be able to approach without you seeing them .- Of Course it has it's risk .-

[reydelcastillo]

British Airplanes approaching from the North Esat , From the East and from the south were seeing at big distance , none of them cought us by surprise , the British planes approaching from the North and the West came low hidding behind the hills and we saw them when they were almost on top of us .-

[reydelcastillo]

I would like to ask to British Pilots from the Royal Navy and from the Air Force or theire Crews what is it that they knew about the Air Defense on the islands when the Conflict started .-

I did recieved Jamimg several Times , one came from a Vulvan the others I don't know and would like to konw , I even suspected that it could have come from a ship .- Does anyone know ?

Is it correct that the first BB Mission was plen and executed assuming the Roland was not in the Islands ?

Thank You

[VP-F__]

I remember an early morning Harrier raid (one of the few real memories I have) on Stanley airport and it was certainly low approaching the airfield from the west. The argentines were obviously very jumpy given that they shot down one of their own (a mirage?) right over Stanley. My Dad was in a group of folk who watched it come in low from the north. I believe it may have been damaged already by a Sea Harrrier but the job was finished off by the Argentines. This was initially a low moment as those watching assumed it was a harrier until someone realised otherwise.

As for the Vulcan's bombs, I believe there is still one unaccounted for, maybe more. About 6 or 7 years ago there was a degree of excitement at Stanley airport when a digger unearthed one next to one of the hangers. Looking at the recon photo it was probably bomb 8 from the first run. It had gone into the peat and finished up pointing up which made it a bit awkward for the bomb disposal guys.

[reydelcastillo]

Hi VP-H

That was Captain Garcia Cuerva , low on Fuel talking to the Air Force radar , he did not have enough fuel to return to continent and wanted to make it to the airport and save the airplane ( some people from the Air Force had doubts that it would be able to stop in time in such a short runway ) - The thing is that he ask permision to come in , the Air Force Radar told him not to because we were dealing with British Airplanes at that time , but he insisted .- The advise to troops in the ground that one of our Airplanes was coming in did not make it in time .- Shoot down by Skyguard 35 mm , HMS Glanmorgan south of town was also shooting at it , hits from Skyguard brought it down .-

Regards

I think Garcia Cuerva was in a PAC with Perona who was shoot down by a British Plane a few minutes early .-

On this matter I will need a help from others that have more details about the Air to Air encounters such as Cosmicomet / Jualbo/ Cris BV / Pantanglen - Thank You

[Pontius Navigator]

Roadster, flash to bang was 3 days. The invasion was the 2nd the task force sailed on the 5th. They sailed with the full benefit of media coverage. Two SSNs sailed 4 days before with no publicity whatever. A third was assumed by the press to have sailed south after it departed Gibraltar.

[Tourist]

Jindabyne

No, I believe I am correct in thinking that no aircraft or infrastructure were damaged by the raid aside from the one crater.

Edited to say that I may indeed be wrong about this. Investigating.

[cosmiccomet]

My (PM) Garcia Cuerva was commanding a flight of two Mirage IIIEA, called sign DARDO.
His wingman was the First Lieutenant Carlos Perona.

They flew two PAC missions departing from Rio Gallegos AFB (GAL/SAWG).

The first one was escorting an MD A-4B Skyhawk attack flight departing also from GAL.

For that first mission both MIIIEA were loaded with two Matra 550 Magic I, one Matra 530 R and two 30 mm DEFA cannons. They were also loading two 1,700 lts drop tanks.
Using that configuration the MIIIEA were capable of staying at PAC station around 10 minutes flying above FL260.

The two MIIIEA stayed at station and after burning their on station fuel they returned to the Continent.

But Garcia Cuerva realized that the CIC controller at Puerto Argentino did a mistake vectoring the A-4B flight to a pair of Sea Harrier.
The CIC controller took the A4B flight as a PAC flight...but the A-4Bs were loaded with bombs and their useless Colt 20 mm cannons.

Garcia Cuerva took the decision to return to the islands to fly in between of the SHR PAC and the A-4B flight.

According to the First Lieutenant Carlos Perona, they tried to lock the SHR using their Cyrano II radar but it was impossible to get the target.

At the end is seems that the British didn't want to enter in combat against 6 enemy airplanes and they didn't engage.

All the Argentine airplanes returned to Rio Gallegos with very low fuel...specially the two MIIIEA.

That was their first mission...

[orca]

Reydel,

Whilst not excluding the chances of jamming from a surface ship - I have witnessed Mutual Interference from shore installations whilst embarked. This was greated with wails of 'They're jamming us they know we're coming!' but was in all probability simply two systems competing for the same bit of the EM spectrum.

This happened all the time with airborne radars - in the Sea Harrier the other pair on CAP, or a Sea Harrier in the Red Air role almost always led to significant MI.

[reydelcastillo]

Tourist : Yes Damage inflicted - Look at the trace of the bombing raid , Air Tower Damage , Fuel Deposits destroyed , Airplanes Damage .-

http://www.rna-10-area.net/images/bb1bombdamage.jpg

I see Orca , thank you very much , I had a Skyguard always close to me and the Roland several times also close .-

[TEEEJ]

See comments and further debate on following.

Falklands' Most Daring Raid - Falklands' Most Daring Raid - Channel 4

Sharkey's World: Black Buck - The Truth of the Matter

Where is Sharkey getting the information that Black Buck 2 bombs were unarmed? Is he mixing up Black Buck 7 mission?

Sharkey wrote

The raid on 3rd May was a failure, due to the fact that not only did the bombs miss the runway, but also because the Vulcan aircrew forgot to arm the bombs before releasing them

It is interesting that this especially significant fact has been omitted from several accounts of the ‘Black Buck’ raids.

[orca]

Reydel,

I was thinking of air search radars on the British warships - unless anyone knows that the EMCON policy they were using rules this out. I wouldn't have thought they'd be able to have the system down given the threat. I'm guessing they would be very close to your own air search system.

[Pontius Navigator]

TEEEJ, indeed he is. Captain of BB2 is a friend of mine and he knows his bombs went bang. The holes in the ground at the end of the runway are a clear indication of a stick that went bang when compared with Wither's attack on BB7 when they were supposed to be airburst. Cratering on BB7 was intended to be minimal.

For BB1 and BB2 the fusing required was for TAIL (Down) and VT (Up). This would ensure a ground burst. From the TV programme it was clear that those bombs did not have either fuses or pistols in the nose. That would suggest they were for BB1/2.

For BB7 there would have been 900 series nose fuses, possibly 952s or later. For these to fuse the selection would be NOSE/TAIL (Up) and VT (Up). If the original selection was repeated then the fuses would not have been armed.