I have always been interested in the Falklands conflict and the potential for naval actions around the islands. Historically no large naval engagements occurred during the war, but it does provide some very interesting 'what if' situations with relatively small forces on each side. But I never took the time to sit down and come up with my own naval scenario for this war.

Several years ago a Falklands supplement, called South Atlantic War, was published for the Harpoon modern naval rules (this supplement has recently been updated and republished by Clash of Arms games). In the supplement I found the scenario I was looking for ("Lombardo's Trident") and with the relatively recent release of Hallmark miniatures 1/6000 scale modern naval ships I could finally buy all the ships needed to play it out. So over the Christmas holiday I organized a game. Since most of the players were not familiar with modern naval combat, I decided to use the Shipwreck fast-play modern naval rules instead of Harpoon.

The Shipwreck rules do play very quickly and are a little more complex than the General Quarters naval rules. Shipwreck does not include ship data (only weapon data), so you have to do some research on your own. I would recommend them to anyone who is interested in modern naval warfare, but not enough to buy Harpoon.

Historical Background

On April 27, 1982, as the major elements of the Royal Navy task force approached the Falkland Islands, the Argentinean fleet deployed to counter a suspected British landing. This was the first time the entire Argentinean fleet had been at sea together since 1978. The Argentineans had split their fleet into 4 task groups; three operating northwest of the Falklands and the fourth southwest of the islands.

The northern groups consisted of the aircraft carrier 25 de Mayo, two British built Type 42 destroyers, two refitted U.S. WW II destroyers, and three French-built Exocet missile armed corvettes. The southern group was made up of the cruiser General Belgrano (ex-USS Phoenix), and two refitted U.S. WWII destroyers. Additionally, the Argentineans deployed their only operational diesel submarine to the 200-mile Total Exclusion Zone (TEZ) around the islands.

The basic Argentinean plan called for the northern groups to locate the Royal Navy task force and attack it with planes from the carrier and Exocet missiles from the destroyers and corvettes. The southern group was to catch the British if they tried to move south. The Argentinean Navy had no plans to involve the Air Force in the battle.

Facing the Argentineans were two British aircraft carriers (Hermes and Invincible), five destroyers, six frigates, and three submarines. The Royal Navy's job was to enforce the TEZ and establish air superiority over the islands by taking out Argentinean aircraft based in the islands. Historically the weather did not cooperate with the Argentinean plan, making it impossible for the carrier to launch its strike planes. This forced the Argentineans to turn back to port without engaging the Royal Navy, but before the withdrawal could be completed the British submarine HMS Conqueror sank the Argentinean cruiser General Belgrano. After the loss of the cruiser the Argentinean fleet stayed in port for the remainder of the conflict.

The Game

When setting up the scenario, I decided to change the weather slightly, giving the Argentinean carrier the opportunity to launch its attack planes, but I also decided to limit the favorable weather to three days, which would prompt the Argentinean players to get into action and give us a good end point for the scenario.

I also gave each side a list of options from which to select that would help out their forces (including one that allowed the Argentinean Air Force to be involved in the operation). The Argentineans used a historical set up, while the British set up northeast of the islands in two task groups, each with a carrier. The game began with the British 'Black Buck One' Vulcan bomber attack on the Port Stanley airfield.

The Argentineans began the game by launching search planes to find the British, sending their northern task groups toward the TEZ, and moving the southern group east along the TEZ border. Meanwhile, the Royal Navy task groups moved south and launched bomb-armed Sea Harriers to attack the airfields at Port Stanley and Goose Green. Late in the day the

Argentinean recon planes finally located one of the British groups and air strikes were launched from land bases and the 25 de Mayo. Fortunately for the Royal Navy, the Argentinean air strikes were uncoordinated (entering in several separate waves) and they found the Hermes task group, which had the best long-range air defense ships. The long range Surface to Air Missiles (SAMs) and Sea Harriers took a heavy toll on the incoming bombers, but a group of five A-4 Skyhawks managed to get through the defenses and attack the frigate HMS Broadsword.

The Skyhawks achieved five bomb hits on the frigate, easily sinking it. Just after Broadsword sunk, Exocet missiles launched by Super Entendard jets attacked the task group. One missile hit the British carrier Hermes, doing light damage to it. As night fell neither side had gained the upper hand. The Royal Navy had damaged the airfields at Stanley and Goose Green, but both airfields were still operational. The Argentineans had sunk a frigate and lightly damaged a carrier, but had lost about a third of their available aircraft.

During the night, the Royal Navy dispatched several ships to conduct a shore bombardment of the Port Stanley and Goose Green airfields. After the bombardments, the ships returned to their task groups. Meanwhile, the northern Argentinean task groups crossed into the TEZ, bringing the British submarines into play. One of the subs tracked an Argentinean task group and just after midnight launched an attack, sinking a refitted U.S. destroyer (Comodoro Py), before heading southeast to take a new position. The attack only slightly deterred the Argentineans, but it did make them a more wary of the sub threat.

At this point each side had lost a ship and some aircraft, but so far no surface ships had even come close to each other; that was about to change. Southeast of the islands, the Belgrano group finally turned north and picked up a British task group on its radar; the Belgrano group was counterdetected by the British. Each side was unsure of what types of ships it was facing and tried to figure out the best way to take advantage of the radar detection.

The British decided to move their task groups toward each other to form one large task group and then draw the Argentineans into an attack. The Argentineans initially wanted to shadow the British task group, but finally decided to press home an attack. The Belgrano, group moved into contact the British Invincible task group before it could combine with the Hennes task group, but the Hennes group was nearby and rushing to get into the action.

The Invincible group had twice as many ships as the Belgrano group (six to three) and an advantage in the number of Exocet missiles (twelve to eight), but no one was sure how the battle would turn out. The destroyers in the Belgrano group fired their eight Exocet missiles at HMS Invincible and the cruiser tried to move into 6-inch gun range, while the Royal Navy returned fire with six Exocets (four aimed at Belgrano and two at one destroyer). The British were only able to shoot down one of the incoming missiles and decoy two others away from the carrier, but the five remaining missiles should have been more than enough to cause massive damage to the carrier.

However, Invincible lived up to her name only suffering light damage in the missile attack. On the other side, the Argentineans had no luck in shooting down or decoying the missiles and even worse luck as all of the missiles found their targets crippling the destroyer and causing heavy damage to the cruiser. The British followed up the first attack with another wave of missiles, aimed at Belgrano and the undamaged destroyer, which had the same success as the first attack. After the smoke cleared the Royal Navy sailed away with only light damage to Invincible, leaving the General Belgrano, and two destroyers sinking.

The loss of the large number of aircraft and Belgrano group severely dampened Argentinean hopes of winning the game, but they were still determined to make the Royal Navy pay for a victory. The British figured they were in pretty good shape; they were still wary of the remaining Argentinean air power, but felt confident that they were in control of the scenario. As the sun rose on the second day of the game, the Royal Navy tried to put as much distance between themselves and the location of the night's surface action making a high-speed run around the eastside of the islands.

The high-speed run worked, leaving the Argentineans scratching their heads trying to figure out where the British went. Sea Harriers continued to bomb Argentinean airfields in the Falklands, putting both Stanley and Goose Green out of action. In the afternoon the Argentinean search planes finally found the Invincible task group and an air strike was launched. However, the Argentinean air commander, still stinging from the previous day's losses, decided that he needed to conserve his Air Force and only sent a small strike against the Royal Navy contact.

The Mirage fighters sent along as escort flew at high altitude, hoping to draw away any Sea Harriers, as six A- 4 Skyhawks flew at wave top level to avoid British SAMs. This plan seemed to work as the Mirages were shot down by a combination of SAMs and Sea Harriers, but this didn't help the Skyhawks as three flew a little too low and crashed into the ocean and the rest were unable to score any bomb hits on the carrier.

As night fell, both sides formulated their plans for the final day of operations. The Argentineans, guessing that the Royal Navy would return to operating south and east of the islands, sent their remaining task groups south of the Falklands and planned their air searches for the same area. The Royal Navy, using intelligence provided by American satellites that showed the Argentineans heading south, decided to take up station northeast of the islands. This move prevented the Argentineans from finding the British during the third day, but there would still be one more action during the final day.

As all of the Argentinean task groups moved south, the 25 de Mayo group was detected and trailed by a British sub. Just after noon, the sub moved into position to attack the carrier. As the sub fired torpedoes at the carrier, an Argentinean helicopter flying ASW patrol detected it.

The helicopter attacked the sub, dropping two ASW torpedoes, but the sub was able to evade the torpedoes and avoid other helicopters. 25 de Mayo was not so lucky. Three torpedoes slammed into the carrier, stopping her dead in the water and starting several fires. A few hours later she rolled over and sank.

The game ended with a decisive Royal Navy victory. While the Argentineans could claim a morale victory for damaging both British carriers and sinking a frigate, their own losses were devastating. There were no celebrations in Buenos Aires.

The loss of either Belgrano or 25 do Mayo would have made any victory a Pyrrhic one at best, but the loss of both ships doomed any chances the Argentineans had to win.

After the game both sides reviewed the movement tracks for each task group and discussed what they could have done differently. The Royal Navy credited their victory with the intelligence provided by American satellites (an option they selected at the start of the game) and the lucky damage die rolls when the Exocet missiles attacked Invincible.

The Argentineans felt they had played a pretty good game (which they had, with the exception of sending 25 de Mayo into the TEZ) and were just unlucky, but would have tried for better coordination between their surface task groups, if they played again. Overall, everyone had a good time and we were able to play it through in just over 5 hours, making this a great scenario for a long afternoon of play.