I could have predicted that as an ex matelot, you would take very opportunity to take a swipe at the RAF. You have a track record of doing so.
Haha, I saw this and realised that I'd have been accused of the same thing if I hadn't only just read this thread
I really don't know what the Crabs were trying to prove by undertaking such a mission. It can only have been to demonstrate the vulnerability of Argentina because it did nothing for the Falkland Islands. As Allout said, the diagonal bombing strategy is straight out of the manual for the Weapons Employment Course (how many reference books
) but the effect on the operation of the airfield was negligible and the means never justified the end.....for the islands at least. The Argentinian Air Force/Navy aircraft were never going to be able to reach the Falkland Islands with enough fuel to hang around and employ their weapons properly (ignoring, for the time being the threat from the Mighty SHAR
) without putting their carrier to sea. With the likes of Bill around (sneaky buggers, all of them
) they sensibly decided to keep it safe at home, instead of joining its Belgrano counterpart.
Still, a reasonable stab at mission planning ( I say that because it was not sustainable and didn't actually work out too well), some outstanding efforts by the Junior Service (especially Martin, who ended up having me as one of his Jet Provost students) but, in the end, a rather desperate attempt by the RAF to prove they had something to add to a battle that was too far away for them to reach (stand fast their Harrier people who were worth their weight in gold) and added little to the result apart from giving the Senior Service a HUGE amount of mick-taking ammunition AND getting its own bar song