On May 21st 1982 , the United Kingdom landed thousands of troops at San Carlos Water in
the Falkland Islands, to begin their recapture from Argentina.
But only hours after arriving, British forces were under intense attack, as the Argentine
air force attempted to push the troops clambering ashore back into the sea.
This was the Battle of San Carlos.
- By mid-May 1982, Britain’s proposed amphibious
landing on the Falklands had been planned extensively, but like all amphibious landings
it was a fundamentally risky proposition . Under the leadership of Commodore Mike Clapp a large
number of warships, dedicated landing ships and requisitioned merchant ships would have
to sail right up to the shoreline and remain there, exposed to whatever Argentina could
throw at them, for days on end, until the five royal marine and parachute battalions
had been unloaded and a secure beachhead established .
Facing the British was an Argentine army under the military governor of the Falklands, Brigadier
General Mario Menendez.
Knowing that any British reconquest of the islands could only be successful if they captured
the town of Stanley, Menendez was content to concentrate the bulk of his forces around
the capital.
Smaller garrisons were maintained in outlying areas, including at Goose Green and at San
Carlos settlement itself.
At sea, the amphibious group of ships carrying the troops joined up with Rear Admiral Woodward’s
carrier task force on May 18th , and managed to achieve an undetected approach to San Carlos
two days later thanks to a helpful blanket of fog.
Commodore Clapp’s ships made their final approach after dark, with special forces operations
beginning to take out an Argentine observation post on Fanning head and suppress the garrison
at Goose Green . With operations to secure their flanks underway,
the British troops began to come ashore from landing craft at 4am, beginning with 2 Para
at the southern end of San Carlos Water.
The landings were largely uncontested, with the only Argentine unit in the area being
a detachment under 1st Lieutenant Carlos Esteban at Port San Carlos, which pulled back out
of the settlement once the scale of the British landing became clear after dawn.
From a position to the east Esteban’s unit fought a fierce rearguard action, downing
two Gazelle scout helicopters that strayed too close to their position before being compelled
to withdraw by the leading elements of 3 Para , which liberated Port San Carlos and raised
a British flag.
The reconquest of the Falklands was underway- but the battle for San Carlos was far from
over.
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Almost as soon as British troops had stepped foot on land on the morning of May 21st, Argentina’s
fast jets launched a determined attack on the beach head.
After initia l sorties by locally based Pucaras and Aermacchi aircraft which yielded little
more than decent reconnaissance , Argentine jets streaked into san carlos just hours after
the landings.
They were operating at maximum range from their base, with no fighter escort.
Over the next few days, they would press home attacks on British ships to point blank range,
with only seconds to pick a target once it was in view and in the face of a maelstrom
of fire from British ship based missile systems, 4.5 inch naval guns, sea harriers and land
based rapier anti air missiles.
The Argentine attacks on May 21st f ocused on British warships outside the main san carlos
anchorag e, where they acted as picket ships to draw attacks away from the ships unloading
troops.
This stretch of water in Falkland sound would go on become known as ‘bomb alley’ . The
frigate Argonau t was the first to be hit, by two bombs from Skyhawks , while HMS Antrim
was struck by a bomb from a Dagger . In the start of a trend that was to continue throughout
the battle for san carlos, none of the bombs exploded, having been fused incorrectly for
the altitude they were dropped from.
It was lucky escape for the British.
They were not to get so lucky in the afternoon, when two pairs of skyhawks thundered their
way towards HMS Ardent.
One aircraft was downed by a Sea Harrier, but the others got through . Two 500lb bombs
struck the frigate, with one exploding and wrecking the hangar area and the ships seacat
missile launcher , which had failed to engage the low flying attackers.
Ardent lost power to her gun so was virtually defenceless when at 2pm five more Skyhawks
appeare d and made straight for the stricken frigate.
The ship’s crew had little to defend themselves with, and could not stop at least two more
bombs exploding onboard , cracking the hull and starting huge fires that soon threatened
the torpedo and missile magazines.
Commander Alan West, the ships captain, was left with little alternative but to abandon
ship.
With the surviving crew taken o ff, Ardent sank overnight, the first major surface casualty
of the battle of san carlos.
It was the end of a bruising day for both sides - Britain had lost Ardent, while both
Argonaut and Antrim were out of action until unexploded ordnance they were carrying could
be defused. 33 sailors had been killed, mostly onboard Ardent, and 20 injured.
On the Argentine side, ten fast jets had been shot down, fully a quarter of all launched
on that day.
By the end of May 21st , most British troops were now ashore, but large amounts of their
supplies and heavy equipment was still onboard ships, and so after a break for bad weather
on May 22nd, the attacks resumed the following day.
At 1240, four skyhawks led by Captain Pablo Carballo approached HMS Broadsword, Yarmouth
and Antelope south of Fanning island.
One aircraft was driven off by a seacat missile and another was shot down by 20mm cannon fire,
but the remaining two got through and British made 1000 pound bombs struck the newly arrived
frigate Antelope.
Once again they failed to explode, but while attempts to defuse the ordnance were ongoing
that evening one of the bombs detonated.
The explosion claimed the life of Staff Sergeant James Prescott and started a huge fire, which
caused the ship to be abandoned and eventually reached the sea cat magazine.
[explosion] The dawn light of May 24th revealed an utterly
broken ship, which soon sank.
Hours later the Argentine Air Force came in again, this time with more focus on attacking
British transports.
The landing ships Sir Lancelot and Sir Galahad were hit, but with bombs that - predictably
by this stage – did not explode.
May 25th was Argentina’s national day, which meant that despite heavy losses of aircraft
the Argentine air force would summon all of its remaining strength for an all out attack
on the British ships at San Carlos.
It would turn out to be probably their best day of the entire air war.
The British, knowing the importance of the date to their opponents, were expecting a
big assault.
To counteract this, Rear Admiral Woodward moved his carrier group closer to San Carlos
, to reduce the flight time for Sea Harrier patrols to and from the combat area . He also
maintained a pair of air defence ships north west of Falkland Sound , where a better radar
picture could be produced away from the coast and incoming aircraft could be intercepted.
This tactic started effectively- through the morning HMS Coventry shot down two skyhawks
with its sea dart missiles.
But that afternoon, two pairs approached from different directions simultaneously , and
it all went wrong.
First Coventry’s Sea Dart failed to fire, and then Broadsword’s Sea Wolf did likewise.
Nearby Sea Harriers, who had been told to keep their distance to allow the ships missiles
to work as they had done that morning, could not intervene.
The British ships were virtually helpless as 1st Lieutenant Mariano Velasco dropped
three bombs into Coventry which all exploded, causing the type 42 destroyer to sink rapidly.
The bad news for the British did not stop there . Also that afternoon, two Exocet-armed
Super Etendards attacked the British carrier group , hitting the SS Atlantic Conveyor and
starting a huge fire , which quickly destroyed the ship and all but one of its eleven vital
chinook and Wessex helicopters.
The attack on Conveyor was the last major action of the Battle for San Carlos- only
small scale raids around the bay took place after this point, as the exhausted Argentine
air force needed time to regroup.
Of 62 aircraft available for combat over San Carlos on May 21st, 21 had been lost in the
battle.
For this they had sunk three British warships and Atlantic conveyor, as well as hitting
six other ships with bombs that did not explode- had these detonated correctly, the damage
to the landings could have been much more severe.