Dixie
Posts: 10303
Joined: 3/10/2006 From: UK Status: offline
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quote:
ORIGINAL: mikemike You remember correctly. 25 de Mayo was in TF 79.1, appoachimg the Falklands from the north, while Belgrano, escorted by ex-Sumners Bouchard and Piedrabuena (TF79.4) were east of Staten Island. These ships all carried EXOCET ASMs. The fear was that the Belgrano group might have changed course and run in towards the RN task force, across the shallow waters of the Burdwood Bank, where HMS Conqueror would have found it hard to follow (the Argentine ships could have outrun her in any case), and could have reached the Task Force at about dawn, ready to fire their missiles. If you remember what has been said in this forum about the gun fire of the Brooklyns, and considering that by WWII standards, the RN Task Force consisted essentially of two large CVEs, escorted by some DEs, an ably led and properly operated Belgrano might have shredded the Task Force with her guns alone. Fortunately for the RN, the Argentine Navy seems to have had inept officers throughout. Fortune favours the brave I guess. Nuclear powered hunter-killer subs were a major fear of the Argentiina Navy. The original plans called for civilian transports to unload the invasion forces to lessen the image of a forecful takeover. When South Georgia was seized the Argentinians felt that they had to complete the main Falkland invasion before the RN could deploy any subs to the South Atlantic. Once they believed that the RN were there then they had to fly reinforcements in. (The first sub they detected was actually a Soviet one ) Sort of back on topic... It's sort of interesting that much of the Argentine navy was made up of WW2 era vessels. It could be argued that their longevity made them a successful design... 1 British CVL ARA 25 de Mayo (HMS Venerable) 1 US CL ARA General Belgrano (USS Pheonix) 7(?) US DD ARA Seguì, Allen M. Sumner Class (USS Hank, DD-702) ARA Comodoro Py, Gearing Class (USS PErkins, DD-877) ARA Piedra Buena, Allen M. Sumner Class (USS Collett, DD-730) ARA Hipolito Bouchard, Allen M. Sumner Class (USS Borie, DD-704) ARA Rosales, Fletcher Class (USS Stembel, DD-644) ARA Almirante Storni, Fletcher Class (USS Cowell DD-547) ARA Almirante Domecq Garcia, Fletcher Class (USS Braine, DD-360) 2 US SS ARA Santiago del Estero, Balao Class (USS Chivo, SS-341) ARA Santa Fe, Balao Class (USS Catfish, SS-339) HMS Hermes was also a WW2 era design, laid down in 1944 construction was halted until 1952
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