Malvinas/Falklands war - Alleged attack on HMS Invincible

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reydelcastillo
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Re: Malvinas/Falklands war - Alleged attack on HMS Invincible

Post by reydelcastillo »

reydelcastillo wrote:we always saw Airplanes coming up from a general area between 070 and 110 degrees and we pick up theire eco between 70 and 890 miles away -
Wrong numbers , correct numbers are : between 070 degrees and 110 degrees , distance detween 70 and 90 miles ( nautical miles ) sorry about that -
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Re: Malvinas/Falklands war - Alleged attack on HMS Invincible

Post by marcelo_malara »

Enrique, I remeber reading that the Argentine radars were attacked with Shrike ARM (anti-radiation missile). Is this true?

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Re: Malvinas/Falklands war - Alleged attack on HMS Invincible

Post by reydelcastillo »

marcelo_malara wrote:Enrique, I remeber reading that the Argentine radars were attacked with Shrike ARM (anti-radiation missile). Is this true?

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Yes Sir that is correct , one mission hit close to the antena of the Air Force radar , another mission hit a Skyguard Fire Director ( killing 4 ) of my Unit -
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Re: Malvinas/Falklands war - Alleged attack on HMS Invincible

Post by reydelcastillo »

Something intresting is the first mission by Sea Harriers out of the Carriers on may 01 -
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Re: Malvinas/Falklands war - Alleged attack on HMS Invincible

Post by marcelo_malara »

Sorry to hear that....

I read too that just turning off the radar in the presence of the ARM-equipped aircraft disrupted the attack. Is that true?
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Re: Malvinas/Falklands war - Alleged attack on HMS Invincible

Post by reydelcastillo »

That first mission on May 01 at about 0430 am was pickup by the radar , I saw what was a tolal of 5 or 6 ecos on the screen at 090 degrees and about 70 miles away , it was reported to the Air Post Comand , they told us no friendly in the area so we presume hostile , the ecos came closer and the airport came under attack -

Now here are some interesting things about that first British Mission -

- What on the radar screen seem to be those 5 or 6 ecos , was just the Vulcan with Jamming ( we learned that later - I would say a couple of years ago ) , it was acompany by a Sea Harrier -
- The atack was planed without considering the presesnce of the Roland in the Islands , they new about it the next day - The fact was that the Roland was transported by C 130 to the islands , and was set on a position just by Sapper Hill to protect the radar .- If that roland would have been at the Airport on that day , the Vulcan would have come with in range of the misil -
Last edited by reydelcastillo on Tue Mar 30, 2010 3:13 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Malvinas/Falklands war - Alleged attack on HMS Invincible

Post by reydelcastillo »

marcelo_malara wrote:Sorry to hear that....

I read too that just turning off the radar in the presence of the ARM-equipped aircraft disrupted the attack. Is that true?
If you realize that a Vulcan is going by in search of a target well yes you would have a good chance by turning of the radar , but you would be blind , on a long range radar you would not be able to see a shrick misil , on a Fire Director ( 35 mm triple A ) and on the Roland , the theory says that you would see it and that you would have an oprtunity to shoot it down -
It's a theory , it may or may not work , there is a procedure with the 35 mmm triple A with which you have to engage the airplane , and then switch to the misil , start shooting and Pray .-
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Re: Malvinas/Falklands war - Alleged attack on HMS Invincible

Post by RF »

I am not clear why the Soviets would want to jam the Argentine radar. At this time the Cold War was still on, even though the Soviets were forced to negotiate deep cuts in their nuclear arsenals with President Reagan, I would have thought that the Soviet interests would be for Argentina to win that conflict.
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Re: Malvinas/Falklands war - Alleged attack on HMS Invincible

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Another aspect of these radar installations is that as there position was clearly mapped by the British, if the ARM strike failed they would have come under commando attack from the ground. Was that possibility considered by the defenders, what precautions were taken - was there a large troop garrison briefed to deal with stealth ground attack?
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Re: Malvinas/Falklands war - Alleged attack on HMS Invincible

Post by RF »

reydelcastillo, can I ask some personal questions. What happened to you and your men when your C.O. Benjamin Fernandez, finally capitulated his forces at Port Stanley? Were you held as a POW for any great length of time or were you repatriated back to Argentina more or less straight away? I gather that some of the senior officers were taken to Britain for interrogation, did this happen to you? What was the reception given to the officers and men on their return to Argentina, given the fall of the junta and the fact that the army in the Falklands/Malvinas had surrendered rather than fight to the last man?

I see that you are now living in the USA, does that have any connection to or consequence arising from the conflict?
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Re: Malvinas/Falklands war - Alleged attack on HMS Invincible

Post by reydelcastillo »

RF wrote:I am not clear why the Soviets would want to jam the Argentine radar. At this time the Cold War was still on, even though the Soviets were forced to negotiate deep cuts in their nuclear arsenals with President Reagan, I would have thought that the Soviet interests would be for Argentina to win that conflict.
Rusians were Jamming Brirish Comunicactions between Ascension Islands and British Task Force in the South Atlantic , and the question that was asked was if by chance that jamming of Comunications did also afected us - Jamming seem to be directed to the Comunications not to the radars -
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Re: Malvinas/Falklands war - Alleged attack on HMS Invincible

Post by reydelcastillo »

RF wrote:Another aspect of these radar installations is that as there position was clearly mapped by the British, if the ARM strike failed they would have come under commando attack from the ground. Was that possibility considered by the defenders, what precautions were taken - was there a large troop garrison briefed to deal with stealth ground attack?
In the case of the Army Radar , both positions occupied by it were surrounded by Troops , in the First Position when Sapper Hill was chosen , that position had been ocupied by BIM 5 , so when we reach it with the radar we came to be in the middle of theire psoition - Yes we were aware of Commando atacks and the troops surrounding us were " responsible to give close proteccion " , and regarding Air atacks , we were always under the umbrela of the Air Defense .-
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Re: Malvinas/Falklands war - Alleged attack on HMS Invincible

Post by reydelcastillo »

RF wrote:reydelcastillo, can I ask some personal questions. What happened to you and your men when your C.O. Benjamin Fernandez, finally capitulated his forces at Port Stanley? Were you held as a POW for any great length of time or were you repatriated back to Argentina more or less straight away? I gather that some of the senior officers were taken to Britain for interrogation, did this happen to you? What was the reception given to the officers and men on their return to Argentina, given the fall of the junta and the fact that the army in the Falklands/Malvinas had surrendered rather than fight to the last man?

I see that you are now living in the USA, does that have any connection to or consequence arising from the conflict?
When Benjamin Menendez surrenders , most of the Officers from the Army , Navy , Air Force are keept prisioners because it was not clear to British Forces what was going to happen back in main land , since the Capitulation only concern troops in the Islands .- I , with most of the Commanding Officers , Pilots and several Troops were held for 30 more days , I would say as a precausion , we stay first 15 days at San Carlos ( were the plant was ) and the last 15 days on the Norland -
No Senior Officer to my knowledge was taken tp Britain for interrogation , interrogations were conducted by British Personel in the islands according to Ginebra Convention , without any type of incident .-
No the fact that I am living in USA , has nothing to do with the conflict , has to do with family ties , Kids , Grand Kids born here , the kids married here .-
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Re: Malvinas/Falklands war - Alleged attack on HMS Invincible

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What was the reception given to the officers and men on their return to Argentina, given the fall of the junta and the fact that the army in the Falklands/Malvinas had surrendered rather than fight to the last man?
In order to answere this question and to better understand what happen in the Islands lets start at the begining :
There is a Report called " The Ratenbach Report " that makes the analisis of all mistakes made during the Conflic , it's my understanding that it is until now the best report I have read .-

In that report you will find that there were two very important Concepts that were wrong , and if you had this first two concepts wrong , and if everything was planed following this two crusial mistakes , it didn't matter how brave your Man were , how brave your Pilots would be , the odds were against you .-

First Concept : Great Britain would not make that long trip from Home Land down south to recover the Islands - They are too far away .- Wrong that is why in the middle of the conflict and with a naval blockade in place we were trying to bring by air everything that had not been plan in the bigining .-

Second Concept : USA will not help Grat Britain .- Wrong that is why we lost so many Pilots ( Side Winders ), that is why we did not realized that Chile could provide important inteligence information etc etc -

As you see , if the conflict had been plan with this two crusial mistakes since the biginin , no matter how brave your Pilots are , Odds are against you -

The reception back in Main Land was not warm at the best , yes we had lost a Conflict but I will add this , it was lost from the start and in Main Land , and no matter the effort made in the grounds the outcome was doom since the first day -
Other factors contributed to the defeat , training , young soldiers with few month of training , this was our first conflict experience in the last 100 years , so there was a lack of experience in this type of conflict .
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Re: Malvinas/Falklands war - Alleged attack on HMS Invincible

Post by Bgile »

Thank you for your posts here. This conflict was important all over the world because of the technology used on both sides, and you are an important resource to those of us who have an interest.
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