Falklands 11 - Independence day 25/5/82

[fitzpatv]

This one is, in many ways, a re-run of Scenario 10 (Death Valley), just on a smaller scale. May 25th, as well as being my birthday, is Argentina’s National Day and their pilots were told in no uncertain terms that some kind of victory was imperative following two earlier days of strikes with but modest returns. Historically, they managed to sink the destroyer Coventry and the container ship Atlantic Conveyor (which carried spare fighters, choppers and stores) in perhaps their most successful day of the conflict. You task is to emulate this (you can only play the Argentine side).

Due to previous losses, the Argentines have just two Super Etendards with an Exocet each, plus 14 bomb-armed Skyhawks, available for the day’s strikes. There are no fighter escorts, but two Hercules tankers, two Neptune MPAs and a couple of near-useless Learjets can provide support.

The British task force is not represented in its entirety, featuring a main body to the E of the islands and the Coventry, accompanied by the frigate Broadsword, off Pebble Island and supposedly acting as a radar picket.

25/5/82 08:00L: As before, the initial task was to locate the British ships, so I sent one Neptune to observe from the NW of the islands at a safe distance, while turning-on the radar on East Falkland to monitor Harrier CAP activity. The latter picked-out two of the British carrier fighters, rather inconveniently patrolling over West Falkland, where I’d hoped to use the hilly terrain to mask my Skyhawks’ approach.

09:00L: The second Neptune was sent Eastward, well to the S of the islands, to look for the carriers. The first MPA then located Coventry and Broadsword in their expected station.

10:00L: The endurance of a Harrier patrol is about two hours and this afforded a possible chance to insert the A-4 strike while they were changing the guard, roughly at 10:30. The usual issues applied with all 14 Skyhawks going Bingo as they began their attack runs. Nothing for it but to Unassign them, tell them to get in there and trust that they would recover endurance by releasing ordnance and regaining altitude. If all else failed, I had the two tankers in position to refuel them as needed.

Attacking at 1,000’ and popping-up to that altitude from a minimum 300’ at the last moment, the Skyhawks sank Coventry outright for 100VP, left Broadsword heavily damaged and down to 1 knot and also wrecked two onboard choppers for another 20VP each. It was all much easier than it should have been, as the British ships had their radars off!. A couple of relief Harriers arrived too late to intervene – and also had their radars off, which was good news for one trailing attack plane.

11:00L: With all Skyhawks back at base (they don’t need the tankers and have plenty of endurance, in fact) and too lengthy a turnround time for them to sortie again, I was left with the two Etendards. The question was whether to settle for finishing-off Broadsword, which might sink anyway, or go after bigger prey. In the end, I decided to mount two individual sorties, deal with the crippled frigate first and then see what I could do with the second plane. The fact was that two Exocets, rated for 165DP each, weren’t guaranteed to sink anything, even if they didn’t malfunction, as happens so often.

12:00L: The first Etendard flew around the duty Harriers and duly sank Broadsword for another 40VP, taking the score from +115 (Minor Victory) to +155 (Major).

13:00L: The second strike plane approached the task force (located by the second Neptune) from the SE after a circuitous flight and, coming-in low, had difficulty identifying targets, mainly because the British STILL had their radars off. Selecting a victim at random, it hit the oiler Tidespring without apparently doing any vital damage. The plane then refuelled from the tanker to the SW.

16:00L: With all planes safely back at base, it ended at +175 and a Major Victory.

The scenario would have been rather more challenging if the British had been more realistically prepared. As it was, it was a little too easy.