The anti-aircraft action was one of the few cases of joint activity that was implemented in the Malvinas at a tactical level, and I appreciate that the professionalism and efficiency shown prevented the war from ending on May 1st.
The American Thomas Milton affirmed: "The Argentine anti-aircraft gunners, with inferior means in number and quality, demonstrated such a dangerousness that they forced their enemies to fly at a high altitude, out of the range of their missiles and cannons."
The specialized magazine Armada International, in 1983, stated: “It was always assumed that, for Third World forces, with modest resources in competent troops, training would pose serious drawbacks. However, it seems that, with regard to the missile system and anti-aircraft guns, the Argentine troops were perfectly trained and used their resources efficiently.
Throughout the war, enemy planes required permanent readiness, which demanded a large consumption of fuel for the operation of radars, missiles and anti-aircraft guns, which worked with groups of generators. The approach and detection of any aircraft by surveillance radars (200 mile range) meant a red alert, since it was impossible to determine if the enemy's mission was an attack, a reconnaissance, or a routine patrol.
Another of the drawbacks originated in the ability to respond to electronic warfare that disturbed radars. Against this interference and deception, the most effective defense was the well-known "agility" (changes) of frequency that modern equipment possessed.
Another serious threat were the Shrike anti-radiation missiles (destined to destroy radars attracted by the magnetic emission emitted by the radar itself). The enemy launched five or six of them, but only one, on June 3, in the early hours of the morning, hit a radar belonging to the 601st Antiaircraft Artillery Group, killing Lieutenant Alejandro Dachary, Sergeant Pascual Blanco and soldiers Oscar Diarte and Jorge Llamas.
The Joint Air Defense System, in Puerto Argentino, provided effective protection to the most profitable targets sought by the enemy: the airport (which remained operational throughout the conflict), field artillery, logistics facilities, and command posts. and communications. It also controlled and directed incursions by the Air Force and Naval Aviation, provided navigation aids, and enabled search and rescue operations. It operated from April 2 to June 14, led by Lieutenant Colonel Héctor L. Arias, Lieutenant Commander Héctor Silva and Major Hugo Mayorano.
In the early afternoon of May 1, the British, for the first and only time, brought some frigates close; the silhouettes of three of them were clearly visible over the sea south of Puerto Argentino. The actions of the South Air Force prevented them from doing it again during daylight hours, but at night they got closer and the naval cannonade became an annoying scourge.
At approximately 4:00 p.m., surprisingly, a Mirage, our own interceptor plane that had just completed a mission to attack other ships, flew over our position (Artillery Group 3) at an altitude of 200 meters. It appeared damaged and attempted a frustrated and impossible landing at the local airport. It fell into the sea and its pilot could not be rescued, it was Captain Gustavo García Cuerva.
In the early hours of the night, we were surprised by a naval bombardment, characterized by its high rate of fire –two or three shots per second–, on the position of the 5th Infantry Battalion, under the command of Commander Hugo Robacio, in the mountains Tumbledown and Sapper Hill, where my unit had Advanced Observation Group. The fire lasted between 15 and 20 minutes. The battalion suffered some casualties, among the wounded, Second Lieutenant Juan J. Gutiérrez, from GA 3.
The first day of combat was over. For us it was one of the two longest days of a war that would last another 44 days.
It is curious that, for the Military Committee, according to Mario Benjamín Menéndez, "the hostilities would stop and the negotiations would be reconsidered, with real possibilities for a solution" (book Así lucharon, by Carlos Túrolo). On May 2, the Conqueror submarine sank the cruiser General Belgrano, which caused half of the Argentine deaths in the conflict.
Waiting for landing. The sinking of the cruise ship ARA General Belgrano on May 2, which caused 323 deaths, by the nuclear submarine Conqueror, was a heavy blow and materialized British naval and air dominance. The old cruise ship lies with a large part of its crew at the bottom of the sea, and its location has been, justly, declared a "national historic site and war grave" (National Law 25,554 / 2001).
The cruise had been launched in the United States in 1938 under the name of USS Phoenix, she participated in actions of World War II and in 1941 she was saved from the Japanese attack on the Pearl Harbor naval air base, in the Pacific. Upon being incorporated into the Navy, she was baptized with the name of October 17. In September 1955 she was named Belgrano.
On May 4, an AM39-Exocet air-sea missile, launched by a Naval Aviation plane, sank the destroyer Sheffield. On the 6th, Leslie Gelb, a journalist for The New York Times, summed up Washington's uneasiness, telling that Alexander Haig, US Secretary of State, “had met in Buenos Aires with a gang of thugs (a band of scoundrels) without clear ideas about anything, willing to make war among themselves in any moment. They have no one to negotiate with, due to the tremendous division of the military leadership”, according to what was published in the magazine Actualidad Española on May 6, 1982.
The following days our intermittent attacks on the enemy fleet continued, which, despite various successes, frigates sunk, damaged and combat casualties, did not modify the siege on the islands. The British continued with their air attacks and naval bombardments on our positions, with the aim of harassing and wearing down, affecting our troops more mentally than physically, disrupting rest, logistical activities and movements.
The air patrols made up of two Harrier planes operated during the daylight hours and, during the dark hours, the enemy resorted to harassing naval fire, with its 4.5-inch (115 mm) guns and 17 km range.
Fortunately, the latter were not as effective as it would seem, as a result of their light caliber, their "laying" trajectory, the characteristics of the Malvinera mob and, in many cases, because of the "shelters" we had built: howitzers and buried cannons. , simulated artillery positions, dispersion, foxholes, trenches and command posts covered with drums filled with earth and peat, which protected us significantly.
To mitigate what was said, three times I asked General Oscar Jofre for the possibility of having heavy artillery, which remained in Patagonia. At the first opportunity, he answered me: "Why do you want them, there will be no confrontation." In the second: "What you propose to me is science fiction." In the third he was more laconic: "Let's talk seriously."
My arguments were very simple: “I am convinced that the British will land, that there will be a confrontation and that I am serious. They have 105mm light field artillery with a 17km range. Their naval guns are 115 mm and also 17 km. We, I remind you, have only 105 mm howitzers with a range of 10.2 km. I am requesting something very possible: to have 155 mm Sofma guns with a 20 km range. There will be no confrontation on the continent. If they counted on them, the impunity of the nocturnal naval bombardments would end. We have surveillance radars and acquisition of the necessary targets”. I did not get any response.
Bypassing the chain of command, and without the knowledge and authorization of General Jofre, I spoke with Brigadier Luis Castellanos, head of the air component in Puerto Argentino, who understood my arguments. Thus, on May 14 and 15, two Sofma cannons arrived in Hercules C-130 planes. How I wish I had a dozen of them!
They belonged to the 101st Artillery Group of Junín, and became the fourth battery of the 3rd Artillery Group under the command of First Lieutenant Luis Daffunchio; among its members I remember first sergeant Omar Liborio and soldiers Héctor López and Raúl Wuldrich.
The behavior and professionalism of your men were recognized and praised by our Navy and Air Force, and by the enemy himself. The impunity of the naval bombardments decreased significantly and contributed positively with the psychological action measures throughout the conflict and in the battle of Puerto Argentino (June 8-14).
On the night of May 15-16, the enemy carried out two surprising and successful operations. One of them in the San Carlos Strait, where a frigate attacked and sank the Argentine merchant ship Isla de los Estados, which was carrying important supplies. The other, with commando troops, on the island of Borbón, where a small base with a dirt strip had been installed where they could operate light aircraft, including the Pucará and the old Mentor T-34. All were destroyed with hand grenades. It was in charge of members of the Navy.
On May 19, the Secretary General of the United Nations, Javier Pérez de Cuéllar, informed our country that the negotiations had come to an end, "that the British had said they had a deadline, which was the day today, and that the Argentine proposals were not only not acceptable, but also not amendable.” They had that attitude from the beginning.
While the Argentine government believed that it was talking, negotiating and analyzing, the British attitude was clear: impose its proposal and go to war. From the beginning it was the goal of the Prime Minister, Mrs. Margaret Thatcher.
Until that moment, the Military Committee, Menéndez and Jofre on the islands, continued to be convinced that the landing would take place south of Puerto Argentino, where we were stronger. Despite the fact that an islander had alerted it as the most probable place for a landing, the Bay of San Carlos was not given the slightest attention. They forgot that British General Basil H. Liddell Hart said: "The indirectness of the approach is as significant as the decisiveness of the results."
Jofre justified himself by saying that "the naval advice in relation to the San Carlos Bay was that it did not offer favorable characteristics for the operation of the ships." On May 21, the British landed at San Carlos.
"THE MALVINAS ISLANDS WERE, ARE AND WILL BE FOREVER ARGENTINE"
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