Single Campaign Medals


Catching sight of their faster adversaries they gave chase, Hale recalled ‘we picked them up visually as they were coming down the Lafonia side of the Sound, just over land at low level and running out at high speed. I was the nearer to them. I dropped in behind the left hand man in their formation and got a good missile lock. The range was a bit on the high side but I decided to give it a try and launched a Sidewinder.’ His missile exploded short of its intended victim and the two Sea Harriers, unable to close the range and short of fuel, broke off the chase and returned to the carrier. That afternoon, however, on his second Combat Air Patrol of the day, Frederiksen had more success:


‘Lieutenant Commander ‘Fred’ Frederiksen and Lieutenant Andy George of No. 800 Squadron were on patrol when one of the first of the new raiding forces came in: four Daggers of Gruppo 6 led by Captain Horacio Gonzalez. The raiders had been seen on radar before they descended to low altitude west of the Falklands, however, and directed by Brilliant Frederickson and George headed west to intercept them. Meanwhile the low-flying raiders had headed south-east from Jason Island, and after making a landfall at King George Bay on West Falkland they swung on to a north-easterly heading to take them through a gap in the high ground towards their target. As the Daggers crossed the coast Frederiksen, by then over Chartres Settlement at 2,500 feet, caught sight of them three miles away to the right; at the time he thought the aircraft to be Skyhawks. ‘I put Andy George into one mile trail on me to keep an eye open for any escorts that might be behind them as we accelerated and I went in behind the left-hand element. Having checked there were no escorts, Andy went for the right-hand element. I went for the tail man in the left element; there was no sign that they had seen me...’ The tail man in the left element was Lieutenant Hector Luna, who recalled : ‘We were about four minutes from the target and flying very low; I could see the peaks of the mountains covered by cloud as we flew down the valley between them. And at that moment I saw a Sea Harrier turning above me. I tried to advise my leader but my radio malfunctioned. Then I looked in my mirror and saw a second Harrier behind me fire a missile - I could see the flame clearly.’ The Sidewinder, fired by Frederiksen, struck the Dagger at the rear and Luna started to lose control. Instinctively he pulled on the stick to gain height before ejecting but, probably because the control surfaces on the rear of one of the wings had been damaged by the explosion, the fighter-bomber immediately lurched into a violent roll. Luna had no time to consider the matter further, he pulled the ejection-seat handle. A split second after the pilot emerged from his aircraft the Dagger smashed into the ground, and Luna could feel the blast of the impact. Immediately afterwards he was dumped on the ground hard, pieces of flaming wreckage falling around him. He had a dislocated arm and a sprained knee and so, after releasing his parachute, had to crawl clear of what, not many seconds earlier, had been a fighter-bomber. Frederiksen saw the aircraft smash into the ground in front of him, and as it did so he came within gun range of the element leader and opened fire with his 30mm cannon, though without seeing any hits. Meanwhile the Daggers, hugging the ground as their pilots endeavoured to avoid the cloud-covered mountains, went into a turn to the left. Frederiksen immediately pulled right, away from the fighter-bomber he had been following: if he continued his attack he knew the right-hand element of the enemy force would swing round on to his tail. Once out of the potential trap he pulled left again and loosed off the rest of his cannon shells at the right-hand element. ‘I was in a high G turn at very low altitude and I couldn’t claim any hits. The last I saw of them they were continuing their turn to the left, going into cloud.’ As the rest of the Daggers let down beneath cloud on the other side of the high ground it was clear one of their comrades was missing; at the time they thought Luna had flown into a hillside. Surprisingly, none of their pilots had seen the Sea Harriers. Shaken by the apparent sudden death of one of their number, the remainder pressed on grimly towards the target area.’ (ibid)


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