BRITAIN AT WAR
Despite the debate over the sinking which has ensued ever since, the loss of the General Belgrano marked a watershed moment in the Falklands War. It also had a crucial strategic effect.
On the days following the loss of the Belgrano all the Argentine naval vessels, with the exception of the conventionally-powered submarine ARA San Luis, were ordered back to the shallow waters off the Argentine coast where the Royal Navy’s submarines could not operate. Generally speaking, the Argentine Navy did not venture back out to sea again for the remainder of the Falklands conflict.
But this was not the only engagement with an Argentinean surface vessel that night. On the night of 2/3 May, the armed patrol vessel ARA Alfrérez Sobral was searching for the two-man crew of the Argentine air force Canberra B-100 which had been shot down two days earlier off the Falkland Islands. Sea Harrier XZ451, flown by Lieutenant Al Curtis, had brought down the Canberra on 1 May 1982, with an AIM-9 Sidewinder, some seventy to 100 miles north-west of Stanley. The lost aircraft was one of a flight of Canberra bombers which had attempted to attack British ships that had opened a bombardment upon Stanley. However, they had been engaged by Sea Harriers as they neared the ships and had turned and ran, with B-100 being hit. The crew, it was thought, had bailed out and the Alférez Sobral, skippered by Capitan de Fragata Sergio Gómez Roca, had been despatched to find the missing aircrew.4
The 835-ton patrol vessel, which was formerly the armed sea-going tug USS Salish, was built for strength not speed. Chugging along at just thirteen miles per hour in its search for the Canberra crew, at approximately 04.00 hours Zulu time on the morning of 3 May, she was
THE LYNX EFFECT
detected on the radar of Sea King ZA129 of 826 Naval Air Squadron operating from HMS Hermes.5
Lieutenant-Commander J.S.M. Chandler, turned his helicopter towards the vessel to investigate. As he approached in the pre- dawn darkness he saw the Alférez Sobral with all its lights on. Closing upon the vessel, the Sea King was fired upon by the Alférez Sobral, which was armed with one 40mm Bofors gun and two Oerlikon 20mm cannon.
Chandler withdrew out of range of the enemy guns and requested assistance. It was thought at the time that Chandler had found a blockade runner taking supplies to the Argentine garrison and it was believed that the vessel in question was the Alférez Sobral’s sister-ship the ARA Comodoro Somellera. The two vessels together formed what was termed
“Task Force 50” which was primarily tasked with air-sea rescue duties.
Soon two Westland Lynx helicopters, one from HMS Coventry and the other from HMS Glasgow, were scrambled and heading towards the scene. The first to arrive was Coventry’s Lynx, XZ242, as Glasgow’s, XZ247, had been delayed by a radio problem.
Having achieved a “lock-on” to the Argentine patrol boat, XZ242, flown by Lieutenant Hubert Ledingham RN and Lieutenant-Commander Alvin Rich RN, closed to within eight miles and released its two BAe Sea Skua short-range air-to-surface missiles in quick succession. On board the Alférez Sobral, the navigating officer, Teniente De Navio Sergio Bazán, witnessed the unfolding drama:
“The signalman spotted lights in the distance on the starboard side. The Captain went to the side and could see two lights approaching; he realized that they were the exhausts of missile rockets.
“Almost at once, one missile hit us on the ship’s fibreglass motor boat. The other missile passed over the bridge, just above my head, without hitting us. The one that did hit us injured the crew of the 20mm gun, one of them being badly injured in the stomach and also with a piece of metal in his bottom. The gun crew on the other side opened fire on the other missile as it flew off but they did not hit it.
“The Captain then ordered the 40mm gun on the bow to open fire to starboard. After only a few shots, he ordered ‘cease fire’ because there was no target to be seen.”6
The explosion of the first missile as it hit the Alférez Sobral’s motor boat lit up the dark sky
YAL Y AUGUST 2010
TOP: A Westland Lynx helicopter, armed with a Sea Skua air-to-surface missile, pictured in flight during the Falklands War in June 1982. The action against the ARA Alférez Sobral was the first time that the Sea Skua missile had been fired in a combat situation. The final tests on the missiles had been completed just a few months before the invasion of the Falklands and full production of the weapon was not ordered until July 1981. These radar-guided missiles had actually only been released for use after the Task Force had set sail for the South Atlantic. (IWM FKD241)
MIDDLE LEFT:
The damaged section of the bridge from the ARA Alférez Sobral is now on display at the Naval Museum at Tigre near Buenos Aires, Argentina.
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