My old
school is situated right at the harbor mouth in
Portsmouth
: as a boy I remember our class being allowed out of school to stand on the
ramparts overlooking the
Solent
and seeing the British Task force sail to liberate our islanders.
I was very proud of the fleet with the marine brass bands, white ensigns
and Harriers lining the decks on Hermes and all, but still relatively naďve
about the human cost of war. I was lucky that none of our friends or family were
killed, although a school girlfriend had a scary few days after finding that her
fathers ship (HMS Sheffield) was hit by an Exocet. Her father survived.
Since
then I have read a number of history books on the conflicts – many of them
very well written that offer a balanced perspective between the British and
Argentine positions. Here are a few opinions and facts that readers might find
interesting:
1.
We should never have gone to war with each other:
Argentina
was already negotiating with the
UK
government about resuming sovereignty of the
Falklands
. The Thatcher government actually wanted to
be rid of responsibility of the
Island
and only been stopped from starting to devolve and share powers with
Argentina
by a strong Islander lobby group. However, if Argentina had been patient and
continued to lobby the UN, US and UK it is likely that the Islands would be much
more multicultural now and on the way to becoming part of Argentina. Certainly
within my lifetime. What the government could not accept was the
Islands
being taken from them, and British subjects subjugated by force. Don’t
believe me? Look what is happening – albeit very slowly to
Gibraltar
and
Spain
(which before the war, was much higher in British consciousness).
2.
Argentina
considers that it inherited rights to the Malvinas when it declared
independence from
Spain
in 1820. However, before this date, settlement was in dispute between
Spain
and the
UK
. In 1831 the USS Lemington removed the small number of Argentine settlers who
had been in dispute with American settlers. Two years later
Britain
moved back in and re-colonized the islands for herself. Until the war the tea
drinking, cricket loving population grew to between 2,000 and 2,400 native
islanders mostly engaged in sheep farming and related industries.
3.
One of our mini-carriers (HMS Invincible I think)
conked out with a gear box problem just out from the
Bay of Biscay
. Clearly this was not good!!! While most positive and negative developments
were publicized by the British media during the conflict everyone kept very
hush, hush about this. Emergency repairs were carried out at sea with Chinooks
used to ferry replacement parts to the crippled carrier. We needed that carrier
badly and repairs completed, it made it to theater.
4.
The Black Buck Victor/Vulcan raids were carried
out at a distance of 14,000 km!!! Although sources vary, on the exact number –
my source (who is enjoying a third career now as my postman and who was one of
the RAF planners for the mission) says that 15 Victors were assigned to the
mission. The single bomb hit on
Port Stanley
was deliberate: it was decided to fly a near perpendicular bombing pattern over
the airfield to guarantee one hit, rather than try to get more than one bomb on
target at the risk of missing completely.
5.
One Vulcan was forced to divert to
Brazil
after running out of fuel. The British flight crew were met by a Brazilian air
force officer, who clutching a copy of Jane’s ‘Missiles and Rockets’,
pointed to a HARM slung under the Vulcan, saying “Sidewinder, sim?” (sim=yes
in Portugese) Considered an offensive weapons, the HARM would have caused the
British aircraft to be impounded, but a Sidewinder was considered to be for self
defence. The Vulcan was refueled and returned to the
UK
.
6.
The SAS are likely to have landed two teams on the
Rio Grande
peninsula of mainland
Argentina
: their mission was to observe and report on aircraft movements – particularly
the A-4 and Dagger’s based there. A full scale attack and destroy mission was
considered on the airfields/aircraft but called off after the element of
surprise was considered lost when a Sea King crash landed in
Chile
. Heavy casualties would be been expected for the mission, with
Chile
considered the exit route.
7.
Tango dancing (just kidding) Al Haig was a real
pain in the ass to the Brits, trying to push the ‘negotiate and compromise’
BS to the Brits. The British government would have none of it and our Foreign
Office diplomats tied their Argentinean counterparts up in knots at the UN.
Meanwhile Caspar Weinberger and President Ron Regan – god bless him – were
more constructive. They authorized the immediate release of the brand new
Sidewinder AIM-9L’s that proved decisive in combat. Rumor has it that the
Gipper also offered Maggie Thatcher the ‘loan’ of a
US
marine helicopter carrier capable of operating Harriers. Now that
would have been nice!
8.
While our ‘old pals’ in France froze exports
of Exocets to Argentina – well they kinda had to, seeing as there was a UN
arms embargo – that did not stop them continuing to support the Exocets they
had already exported with French Aerospatiale ground crews. Without this help
the Argentine navy would have had massive troubles fitting the missile to their
Super Etenards: the weapon system was temperamental and difficult to fit.
Turnaround times would have been much longer and readiness much lower. Meanwhile
MI6 was racing around the world with an American Express Centurion card and
cheque book buying up all the black market Exocets!
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I decided to build
most of the aircraft involved in the conflict. As I was waiting – and still am
– for Hasegawa to come out with a decent 1/48 FRS.1 Sea Harrier (we live in
hope), I decided to start with the Skyhawk. At the time they had not announced
their A-4B/C
Falklands
Skyhawk, so I went the aftermarket route. I started with Hasegawa’s excellent
A-4C and bought a resin conversion from Aztec and one of their decals sheets.
The mail from
Mexico
took ages – but was way cheaper than buying from Hannants! But the resin
parts turned up broken. A quick email to Aztec and with no quibbles they sent me
a replacement: well done chaps. The resin parts – oval shaped antenna just
ahead of the fin, turbine air intakes and new nose cone did not fit very well
and required a lot of sanding and test fitting. To be honest I am not very
impressed. However, the decals were excellent: really good register, loads of
detail and marking options and they conformed very well with Microset and sol.
Their range of Latin American decals on other subjects is really interesting and
makes an interesting difference to the usual: check out their Dominican and
Salvadorian P-51s, Brazilian Mirages and the nose art of their new Pin-up
P-47’s!
Aztec Decals
Apart
from that, I encountered no problems building the Scooter. I used Xtracolour
paints for the 25 May’s Skyhawk and weathered using oil and chalk pastels. I
intended this model to be a testament to the undoubtedly brave pilots in the
Argentine navy and air force. I hope that we never have to fight each other
again. Oh – that picture on the lower right hand side in my dog Henry who is
giving me that look that says: “When is this guy going to stop goofing around
and take me for a walk”! Okay buddy, lets go…
>I hope
you guys found this ramble interesting! OUT -
Simon
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