Ever since this attack was undertaken, the British have been insistent that all the Argentine reports about an attack on HMS Invincible are wrong, and that the ship was neither attacked nor hit.
By 1982, the backbone of the Argentine combat aviation, both in the Air Force and the Navy, was formed by three batches of Douglas A-4 Skyhawks, with the A-4B and C of the Air Force and the A-4Qs of the Navy.
Despite their age, being a model almost 30 years old at the time of the war, and lacking protection, they took on the overwhelming struggle to fight the British Task Force that opposed the Argentine forces on the Malvinas/Falkland Islands. The Skyhawks were responsible for inflicting the greatest damage upon the Royal Navy, sinking HMS Coventry, Ardent, Antelope, RFA Sir Galahad, and LCU F-4 while damaging many other ships and striking ground targets.
According to Santiago Rivas’ book Skyhawks over the South Atlantic, Argentine Skyhawks in the Malvinas/Falklands War, the A-4 Skyhawks from Argentine Air Force’s (Fuerza Aérea Argentina, FAA) Escuadron I Aeromovil even attempted a strike on HMS Invincible aircraft carrier on May 30, 1982.
Coded Mission OF.1268, the Strike on HMS Invincible saw Primer Tenientes José Vazquez (on C-301) and Ernesto Ureta (C-321) volunteering to take part, and they selected PTs Omar Castillo (C-310) and Alférez Gerardo Isaac (C-318) as their wingmen. Teniente Paredi (C-302) was to serve as a reserve. The formation was codenamed Zonda, and each aircraft was armed with three BRP.250 bombs. In front of them was Section Ala, including Super Etendards 3-A-202 piloted by Capitan de Corbeta (CC) Alejandro Francisco, and 3-A-205 with Teniente de Navio Luis Collavino. Because of the long flight and the quantity of aircraft, both FAA KC-130Hs were reserved for this mission, both launching from Rio Gallegos.
Alférez [Zonda 4] recalled:
‘At 40 miles from what would be the target, according to the coordinates given, the Super Etendards lifted for the first time, made a radar sweep, and went down, at 30 miles did the same and at 20 the launch should occur. When they get up I look to the left to see the launch, I thought that the missile was coming out of the pylon but it fell down when I saw that the missile was falling [and] I thought that it had failed, but then its engine started. At this moment their leader said “in front is the aircraft carrier,” turned left, and returned to the Rio Grande. We follow the trail, we start to converge and the missile disappeared in a moment, it got lost in the horizon (the weather was covered with clouds, grey with some showers that we had to avoid) and in the same place where the missile was lost, a few seconds later, the silhouette of a very large ship appeared, unlike all the silhouettes we had studied and the clearest was the asymmetry, the ship was in the same direction we were flying and it was totally asymmetric, the flight deck gave me a disruptive vision, I was clearly looking at an aircraft carrier, I clearly saw the flight deck and the island where all the antennas and the bridge are, as we approached two columns of black smoke began to emerge on both sides as if screwed, came from both sides, more and more smoke began to settle in the area of the aircraft carrier and began to cover the lower part of her. As I got closer I started to see her only from the flight deck upwards, in this moment I started to feel hot air, I started to feel the mask very hot, and I thought I had to put more cold air, but this meant that I had to take the hand from the accelerator and grab the stick with the left and with the right hand move the command of the air. I sent the command to both hands and neither responded, the left stayed on the accelerator and the right on the stick. I stuck close to the water, and since I saw the aircraft carrier I forgot the rest of the world, I had what is called target fascination, I experienced it exactly as the manual says as if two earmuffs began to close and the only thing that existed to me was the ship. Until about 10 kilometers away I felt an explosion that I knew was not from my plane, I looked to the left and saw an A-4 [callsign Zondan1, flown by Vasquez] that was exploding, a wing broke, showed the belly, and crashed on the water. Everyone was to my left, I was on the right. I did not know who it was. I looked forward again, back to the ship and when I was about to start shooting with the guns – I wanted to start shooting the guns from afar, because on May 25 when I entered San Carlos and entered shooting with guns I felt invulnerable, I felt that nothing was going to happen to me – they were firing at us, the explosive ammunition was visible. When I was about to start firing I felt another explosion, much stronger, inside the cabin. I felt it as when you let out the gas for a while and then throw phosphorus, pressure, and depression, it’s the same sensation because it’s not even noise. I looked to my left and saw, at between 5 and 10 meters, another A-4 [callsign Zondan2, flown by Castillo] that exploded, the image I have was an A-4 twice as long and twice as fat, with the same shape as the A-4 but with all the sheets separated and between sheet and sheet all orange. I looked again at the nose and began to shoot with the guns, 200 rounds came out against the stern and over the smoke, because I was flying between the flight deck and the water, and up to the right was the island. I couldn’t climb to pass over the deck, so I turned right and went through the right side of the aircraft carrier. When I passed the bow of the aircraft carrier I started to make turns with high load factor, right and left for a long time, trying to prevent ore from being hit.’
Ureta [Zonda 3] recalled the attempt to hitnHMS Invincible as follows:
‘We approached on heading 340° or 350°,nforming to the Super kendards, at 100 feet altitude and a speed of 420 knots.nBefore launching the Exocet, the Super Etendards made a slight correction tonthe right and the wingman remained slightly ahead of the leader. heard the leader indicating the position of the target, so I asked “how far?” and henreplied “20 miles ahead.”
‘Then I pulled the throttle to full powernand I called Zonda 1, but he didn’t answer, although I had him within sight: he was approaching me while we were converging to the target. Once we were at 30nmeters from each other I saw that a part of his left wing detached from hisnaircraft: seconds later, the engine exploded, leaving the aircraft without the rear part. He began a descent to the left. I had not seen the moment in which it hit the water, nor the pilot ejecting. We were too low and I do not think he could do so.
‘Meanwhile, my target was in view, and [I] continued my approach and when I was in range for my guns, I opened fire. However, my cannons jammed after firing only two rounds. Thus, I continued my approachnkeeping the pipper a the target all the time, then pressed the trigger to dropnthe bombs while attacking from about 30° from the stern, before passing over the rear half of the ship. Once on the other side, I called Numbers 2 and 4, but they did not answer. Thus, I assumed I was returning alone. It was onlynlater that I saw [in] my mirror that another aircraft was to the right and behind me: on changing the frequency of my radio to that for contactingntankers, I realized this was the Number 4.
‘When I recall that mission, I am sure we attacked HMS Invincible: it had a long island atop a long, empty flight deck.nOn the final leg of my attack run, I saw a lot of dense, black smoke risingnfrom the ship. Moreover, when trying to see the ship after the attack all I could see was even more smoke rising from it. I did not see any other ships, atnleast not to my left — because my vision was concentrated to that side – exceptnfor the carrier.’
Ever since this attack was undertaken, the British have been insistent that all the Argentine reports about an attack onnHMS Invincible are wrong, and that the ship was neither attacked nor hit. ThenArgentines remain persistent with their claims until this very day:nunsurprisingly related discussions are often heated.
What is certain is that the six fighter-bombers involved took off at 12:30; the Super Etendards fired their Exocet two hours later, and then returned to land at 15:30. The two survivingnSkyhawks landed back at the base at 16:23. At 15:40, the Base Aérea Militar (BAM, Military Air Base) Malvinas forwarded a message from the FAA’s radar on the Falklands to Comando Fuerza Aérea Sud (CdoFAS, Air Force Command South, FAA):
‘… lots of British helicopters were detected over the fleet, all moving to the east, where the HMS Invincible was supposed to be, and the Sea Harriers – which flew their CAPs at an altitude of 30,000ft -were landing at a different point than the one where they have taken off.’
The rest of the Argentine version of thisnaffair is based on what Ureta and Isaac claim to have seen: both of them agreednthat the ship they bombed was the same that they saw in the pictures beforenmission, that it had a rectangular flight deck, a big long island, and the twonradar masts. They also both stressed that they had left the ship enveloped in a dense cloud of black smoke, rising from about the center of the hull, below the island. Moreover, the two Super Etendard pilots stated that the target thatnthey had tracked with their radars was the size of an aircraft carrier.
Once the corresponding reports were published in Argentina, late on 30 May, the British Defence Minister John Nottnstated that the Argentines had re-attacked the burned-out hulk of SS Atlantic Conveyor, and that one Skyhawk was shot down. Actually, Atlantic Conveyor had sunk alreadyndays earlier, which means that Nott’s statement was false. Three days later, the British stated the Skyhawks actually attacked the Type 21 frigate HMSnAvenger (F185), which – together with the destroyer HMS Exeter (D89) – wasnsouth-east of the Royal Navy’s task force and heading for the islands with the task of providing fire-support following night. The frigate was seven milesnsouth-west of the destroyer, and 24 miles west of HMS Invincible at the time of the attack: about 45 seconds after the incoming airstrike was detected it may havenshot down the approaching Exocet with her 4.5in (115mm) gun. The two Skyhawksnwere then shot down by Sea Dart SAMs fired by HMS Exeter, and the black smoke seennby the Argentine pilots were ‘normal’ for such a ship. With their own navy operating exactly e same guns on its two British-made destroyers, the Argentines concluded this version as ‘very doubtful,’ because they consider such guns as ineffective for use even against aircraft, not to mention sea-skimming missiles.
Whether they actually attacked the Britishnaircraft carrier or a frigate, there is little doubt that the Skyhawks managed to penetrate the defenses of the Royal Navy’s task force, and their pilots demonstratednbravery beyond what could have been expected from them. Unsurprisingly, Isaac andnUreta were both decorated with the Medalla al Heroico Valore n Combat – the highest military award of Argentina.
Skyhawks over the South Atlantic, Argentine Skyhawks in the Malvinas/Falklands War, is published by Helion & Company and is available to order here.
Photo by Argentine Air Force, U.S. Navy and Royal Navy