Cuts, I am sorry but I have to say you are wrong…
Although the Argentine naval forces didn’t have the intense job that had their colleagues of the Royal Navy, there were a lot of missions realized by the Argentine Navy. I’ll put you some images that corroborate their missions at the South Atlantic War.
AIRCRAFT CARRIER “25 DE MAYO”
*April 1st: Part of the Task Force in charge of recover the Malvinas islands, launch several missions of support with the A-4 Skyhawks. Aircrafts S-2T Turbo Trackers did missions of recognition. Helicopters SH-3 Sea King take off from the aircraft carrier and land on the Soledad island.
*May 1st: Two S-2T Turbo Trackers tracked the pair of british Aircraft Carriers. The british didn’t tracked to the 25 de Mayo then.
*May 2nd: A huge raid of 2 SH-3 Sea Kings, 2 S-2T Turbo Trackers and 8 A-4 Skyhawks was prepared to start the first battle between Aircraft Carriers since the WW2. The attack was aborted in the afternoon, when the wind wasn’t enough to launch the Skyhawks.
*May 3rd: The 25 de Mayo escaped, with audacious maneuvers, from at least two submarines that were chasing the ship.
*May 5th: A joint force of S-2T Turbo Trackers and SH-3 Sea Kings realized a “POSSUB” (POSible SUBmarine) mission agaisnt a unknown sonar signal in the South Atlantic.
An A-4 landing after a recognition mission on April 1982
An aircraft A-4 Skyhawk in the preparation of the raid to attack the british carriers. As is usual at wars, the Snakeye Bomb shows an ironic dedicatory.
Illustration of the attack to the POSSUB, in the Argentine coasts
CRUISER ARA “GENERAL BELGRANO”
*May 2nd: Sunk in combat out of the exclution zone by the nuclear submarine HMS “Conqueror”. Without proper ASW systems, the cruiser couldn’t notice that the nuclear submarine was attacking.
The sinking of the cruiser, where 323 argentine sailors died
DESTROYER ARA “HIPOLITO BOUCHARD”
*May 2nd: Escort of the “General Belgrano”, was reached by the third torpedo launched by the submarine “Conqueror”, but it wasn’t exploded. The destroyer was repaired and continued in the war.
*May 16th: Defending the coast of the Argentine sea, received the order of attack to a “POSSUB” during the night. The trackers in the coast detected movement, and the destroyer confirmed with its own radar an sonar that something was in the argentine coast. That uknown ship didn’t answered to the warnings and the “Hipolito Bouchard” attacked with all its cannons several times, until the signal on the sonar and the radar dissapeared. It’s possible that a SBS group was trying to land and make recognitions or missions in the continent.
The destroyer sailing throw the Argentine coasts, in 1982.
CORVETTE ARA “GUERRICO”
*April 3rd: The corvette was in charge of get the Georgias Islands and remove the small group of Royal Marines who were defending Gritviken Port, the biggest village from the islands.
The corvette supported the Argentine Marines with her attack helicopter (Alouette III) and firing with machine guns and the three main cannons.
The corvette in the South Atlantic waters. The picture was realized on April the 2nd, going to the Georgias islands.
ASSAULT/LANDING SHIP ARA “CABO SAN ANTONIO”
*April 1st: From this ship the amphibious armoured forces of the Argentine Marines started the recovering of the Malvinas islands.
A landing unit goes on from the “Cabo San Antonio”
Armoured vehicles landing; those troops were moved to the islands with the “Cabo San Antonio”
SUBMARINE ARA “SAN LUIS”
*April 20th/May 30th: The submarine sailed under the heart of the Task Force attacking it at least 4 times. Unfortunately for us, fortunately for you, the Shooting directions systems was corrupted in the middle of the trip. The captain decided to go on, because the time wasted if he would come back to repair the system would was determinating. That’s why no one of the 8 torpedos that the crew launched reached to their objectives. The objectives were “a combat ship, possibly a frigate; a great-carriage ship, possibly an aircraft carrier; a civil ship; and a submarine”.
The crew of the submarine preparing to start the campaign, in April 1982
The crew during the war, sailing under the water. The sailors show chins… Although that’s not allowed to the Argentine Navy, the provisions of waters were so little that they didn’t shaved themselves, as they didn’t had showers into the submarine during all the campaign.
(the most of the photos copyright from redargentina.com.ar/malvinas-argentinas)
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