Sink Argentina's Carrier 1982 - The Secret British Falklands War Mission

INTRO Argentina invaded the British possessions of the Falkland Islands and South Georgia, which lie in the South Atlantic Ocean north of Antarctica on 2nd April 1982. A task force would quickly be dispatched to get them back. But Argentina's navy posed a problem, particularly her one aircraft carrier. This is the almost forgotten story of the British mission to find and sink that aircraft carrier. The British would actually be hunting one of their own old ships. The Vienticinco de Mayo or 25th of May in English was named for Argentina's May Revolution in 1810. Originally constructed for the Royal Navy in 1942-43, she had served in 1944-47 as HMS Venerable, including service in the Pacific in 1945 with the British Pacific Fleet. Sold to the Netherlands in 1948, where she served as the Carol Doorman, she had been refitted and updated, joining the Argentine Navy in 1968. By 1970, she was the only aircraft carrier in the Argentine fleet. By 1982, the 25th of May was equipped with A4Q Skyhawk carrier attack aircraft, S2 tracker, anti-submarine warfare aircraft and Sea King helicopters. She took part in the initial Argentine landings on the Falklands in early April 1982. The Argentine Navy deployed two task forces around the islands. The carrier with her three escorts, two British-built Type 42 destroyers and a WWII-era ex-US Navy destroyer was stationed north of the Falklands, while the second task force, the ex-US Navy light cruiser General Belgrano, which as the USS Phoenix, had actually been present in Pearl Harbour during the December 1941 Japanese attack, and two ex-US destroyers, they lurked to the south. Both Argentine task forces posed significant threats to the fast-approaching British task force coming to recapture the islands, built around the carriers, HMS Hermes and Invincible. The British initially only had 22 Sea Harriers with which to defend the task force and establish air superiority over the Falklands to pave the way for an amphibious assault. Between them, the Argentine Air Force and Navy had ten times the number of aircraft as the British and were operating close to home, whereas the British were operating 8,000 miles from the UK at the end of a very long logistics train. The British could not afford to lose either of their carriers otherwise the entire operation would have to be called off. The British government and military had also identified the two Argentine naval task forces as very serious threats, but Prime Minister Thatcher determined to remove the Argentine Navy from the equation to prevent it from interfering with the forthcoming operations. To this end, three British submarines had arrived in the South Atlantic in advance of the task force to deal with the twin threats. Task Force 324 consisted of the Churchill-class Hunter-killer submarine HMS Conqueror and two Swifter-class submarines HMS Splendid and Spartan, all three were nuclear-powered. Conqueror had entered service in 1971. Under the command of Commander Chris Rifford-Brown, the vessel displaced 4,900 tons submerged and had a crew of 103. She had six torpedo tubes and was armed with the new Mark 24 acoustic homing torpedoes and World War II vintage Mark VIII torpedoes. Splendid and Spartan had the same displacement as the Conqueror but a different shaped hull. Each vessel had five torpedo tubes. All three British submarines were fast, capable of over 28 knots or 52 kilometers an hour when submerged. The commander of the British task force, Rear Admiral Sandy Woodward, was very concerned that the two Argentine task forces formed the jaws of a pincer around the Falklands and threatened to engage the British as they steamed into the region. It made sense to direct the submarines to find and sink the Argentine carrier, which due to her embarked air group of Skyhawks was deemed the bigger threat and sinker. Due to British penetration of Argentine naval codes, the Royal Navy knew roughly where the 25th May was. HMS Conqueror hunted south of the Falklands, while Splendid patrolled the North-West Quadrant and Spartan the North-East Quadrant. But it was the Argentinians who found the British task force first. On the 1st May 1982, a Grumman S2E tracker flying off the 25th May located the British carriers and the rest of the task force. Moving swiftly into action, the 25th May prepared to launch her Skyhawks to bomb the British carriers. But luckily for the British, the 25th May was unable to launch her air group due to unusually long-lasting dead wind. The fighters, launched by steam catapult, nonetheless needed to launch into a headwind to get airborne when fully bombed up and fuelled, and unusually for the South Atlantic there was insufficient wind. However, at midnight, a patrolling Royal Navy Sea Harrier found the 25th May. In the meantime, HMS Conqueror operating south of the Falklands had found the other Argentine task force led by the cruiser General Belgrano. Permission was given by Thatcher to attack, and on the 2nd May, the Conqueror fired three Mark VIII torpedoes, two hitting the Belgrano and exploding. The old ship went down in twenty minutes, unable to send a distress signal due to faulty wiring, taking 323 crew with her. The survivors were picked up later by the two destroyers. Conqueror departed the scene and was depth-charged and hunted by Argentine aircraft for some time, but one arm of the Argentine trap had been removed, and the commander of the 25th May realised that the same thing could very well happen to his carrier, with more Royal Navy submarines in the area. As for Argentine submarines interfering the task force, one of their diesel-electric submarines, the Santa Fe, had already been eliminated by helicopters from the British task force, sent to recapture the island of South Georgia on the 25th April 1982, in advance of the main task force approaching the Falklands. The Santa Fe had been hit by depth-chargers and AS-12 anti-ship missiles, limping into Gritviken harbour and sinking at her moorings. The other Argentine submarine, the German-built San Luis, remained lurking around the Falklands, and was a serious threat. Her orders were to sink the British carriers, and indeed she was to launch several unsuccessful torpedo attacks on British warships over the coming days and weeks. The loss of the General Belgrano caused the Argentine Navy to order the carrier, 25th May, and her destroyers to make for Argentina. She turned west, but boiler problems reduced her speed to only 18 to 20 knots. HMS Splendid and Spartan rushed to try and catch her. The closest submarine was Splendid, under commander Roger Lane Knott. Spartan was told to remain on station for the time being. The Argentine carrier entered shallow waters, zigzagging all the while. This forced the Splendid to slow down to avoid underwater obstacles. The 25th May's three escorts took position five miles off the carrier's bow and port and starboard quarters, respectively, to guard against submarines or air attack. The carrier was well equipped to defend herself from a British submarine. The four trackers aboard were each capable of six-hour missions, conducting anti-submarine warfare patrols, using parachute-dropped Jezebel sonobuoys, and also had submarine-hunting surface search radar and special detectors to pick up radio and radar emissions. The British submarines, though able to remain submerged for weeks, did come to periscope depth regularly for visual searches, and to communicate by radio with London. If any of the trackers found a possible submarine, it would make a visual inspection and use its short-range magnetic anomaly detector to pinpoint the target before attacking with parachute-retarded Mark 44 lightweight homing torpedoes, or Mark 54 depth charges. Backing up the trackers were the carrier's two S61D4 Sea King helicopters, with dipping sonar with a three-mile range, depth charges and acoustic homing torpedoes. The trackers ran patrols a hundred miles out from the carrier, while the Sea Kings provided close-in protection. But on the 3rd of May, HMS Splendid had closed the gap enough for Commander Lane Knott to get a visual on the carrier's escorts, but not the carrier herself. The next morning, at 0530 hours, Splendid was detected by one of the Argentine trackers. She went deep, and the plane lost contact. But the Argentines were very worried. A British submarine was very close, and was definitely hunting the carrier. At 0630, Splendid popped up again, this time acquiring the carrier's escorts and the actual carrier herself. Splendid closed the distance, and began to manoeuvre for a shot. But by the time she was in range, the 25th of May and her three escorts had crossed into Argentine territorial waters. Splendid was forbidden, under the rules of war, to attack this close to the mainland. The carrier headed north, dipping into and out of Argentine territorial waters, covered by her trackers. She had a scare at 0743 hours on the 5th of May, when a tracker acquired the visual on a possible submarine. One acoustic torpedo was dropped, but disappeared. The carrier's two sea kings were scrambled to give chase. Dipping sonar picked up mechanical signals. The second tracker dropped three sonobuoys. An hour later, the second acoustic torpedo was dropped, but vanished. Splendid was now 130 miles south of the carrier. The contact was probably the Soviet, Chilean or American submarine. On the 7th of May, Splendid gave up the hunt, after suffering damage to one of her turbochargers. But HMS Spartan now moved to try and find the 25th of May along the Argentine coast. But the carrier's use of shallow water slowed Spartan down too much. The Argentine carrier made it safely to the port at Vidmar on the 9th of May. She did not sortie again during the Falklands War. It had, to borrow the words of the Duke of Wellington, been a close-run thing. HMS Splendid almost caught up with the 25th of May, and had she done so, she would have sunk her. But we can also ponder what might have happened if the 25th of May had managed to launch her Skyhawks on the 1st of May, 1982, when she first sighted the British task force. Even one bomb hit on either of the British carriers could have altered the entire outcome of the Falklands War. And two of the Argentine aircraft carrier's escorts were armed with the dreaded MM38 Exocet anti-ship missile. Judging by the almost suicidal bravery of Argentine pilots in attacking British ships covering the landings later in May 1982, probably some of the 10 Skyhawks would have penetrated the British defensive screen, and contacted Hermes and or Invincible. It certainly makes you think. Ultimately Argentina surrendered after 10 weeks of action on the 14th of June 1982. Her aircraft managed to sink two Royal Navy destroyers and two frigates, plus three other major vessels, and damage many more. But the toll would undoubtedly have been worse if the 25th of May had also played a part in the conflict. The old carrier was eventually stripped for spares to supply another WW2 British Colossus class aircraft carrier in South American service, the Minas Gerais of the Brazilian Navy, and then scrapped in 2000. As for the British submarines involved in trying to sink the 25th of May, HMS Splendid was decommissioned in 2004, and Spartan went in 2006. They are among 20 ex-nuclear-powered Royal Navy submarines currently in long-term storage. Thanks for watching, please subscribe and share. Also visit my new audiobook channel, War Stories with Mark Felton, details below. You can also help support both of my channels at PayPal and Patreon, details also in the description box below.