Episode 14 – The Fuerza Aerea sink HMS Ardent and damage 4 other British warships but lose a quarter of their attacking planes

It’s still D-Day – 21st May 1982, and the British have landed over 3000 troops at the Bay of San Carlos Waters,  now they need to shift thousands of tons of material from ship to shore, something that was going to be sorely tested by the Argentinian Air force. 

On the morning of 21st May, and the British had made good use of the early morning mist to land their troops virtually unposed as you heard last episode – the only major hitch for the British so far was the retreating Argentinian platoons based at San Carlos and Fanning Head shooting down two Gazelle gunships killing three of the crew. 

It was a fine day once the mist cleared, perfect weather for the Fuerza Aerea or Argentine Air Force. There was a mistaken arrogance amongst some in the British force that the pilots were second-grade compared to the RAF. Perhaps they should have taken better notice of the Fuerza training – these pilots had been taken under the wing, so to speak, of both the Israeli and French Air forces. At first glance on paper, the Argentinians did have the upper hand, They had a vast superiority in the numbers of aircraft, and bases. But the nearest base – Rio Gallegos was 400 miles away. That was an hour of flight time given the take-offs, landings and low level flying that was conducted in the final phases to avoid missiles. 

The British had developed a dangerous misconception that their opponents were not going to put up too much of a fight. Soon after they landed on San Carlos, these illusions were laid to rest spectacularly. 

Get bonus content on Patreon

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.