by Gabriel Garrido with Ed Kettler
Editor’s Note: Ed Kettler and I received several emails from Mr. Gabriel Garrido in Spain shortly after SAW II was released. He has access to Spanish language sources that provide differing views and information from that available to us Anglophones. Ed has edited Gabriel’s emails into this article, which discusses the scenarios. I have extracted corrections Gabriel mentioned and combined them with other contributors into an errata that follows this article. The opinions expressed are Gabriel’s. Scenarios In the first scenario you don’t mention Santa Fe. I suppose that you have forgotten it because you wrote about this submarine in the page 14. Well the truth is that this submarine carried some tactical divers that left the submarine aboard three Zodiacs and headed to a beach just east of Yorke Point, code named “Red Beach” where they placed navigation beacons. During the Operacion Rosario Santa Fe carried 13 Buzos Tacticos, not 10 or 15 as listed in British sources. This unit was named Unidad de Tareas 40.1.4. This is from an Argentine magazine published by noncommissioned officers of the Argentine submarines. These thirteen men were led by the Capitan de Corbeta Alfredo Cufré and the submarine carried also just three torpedoes! This information about the number of torpedoes was given by Santa Fe’s commander, Capitan de Corbeta Horacio Bicain, in an interview published in an Argentine magazine (20 July 2002). Also, in the same interview, he tells that for this mission, which ended with rhe sub being scuttled by her crew in Grytviken (fourth scenario), she carried 20 Mk14 and 3 Mk37. In my opinion these 3 Mk37 were the torpedoes carried for the Operacion Rosario. It’s a lot of coincidence to read that for Operacion Rosario this submarine carried just three torpedoes and after this find again three Mk37 and twenty other torpedoes. When this submarine fought against the British helicopters that damaged it, the submarine crew fired back at them with Garand semiautomatic rifles and FAL assault rifles (they were several sailors firing from the submarine sail at the same time against the British). I have found this information in one article written by one of the sailors that fired against the British helicopters. Vienticinco de Mayo carried 3 A-4, 3 Trackers, 3 Alouette III, and probably 1 Sea King (I’m now looking for info about the Sea King) during the Operacion Rosario. I recommend: http://www.britains-smallwars.com/Falklands/index.html mainly the section about Naval Party 8901. Also all four of my sources tell that one LVTP-7 was definitely hit by a Carl Gustav. In the fourth scenario (Radar Contact!) you forgot some, in my opinion, interesting comments. During the fight Santa Fe fired against the British helicopters with Garand semiautomatic rifles and FAL assault rifles. The Santa Fe crew had nearly exhausted their batteries because they were very old, and this is the reason for the travel between Mar de la Plata (Argentina) and South Georgia being done sailing on surface most of the time. Planes Canberra B.62: The following information comes from Wings of Fame Volume 17. “On the launch date for Operacion Azul the Grupo 2 de Bombardeo had 10 Canberras on strength of which 7 were serviceable. By the latter part April the Canberra unit had deployed its seven available aircraft to the naval air station of Trelew (also known as Almirante Zar), becoming known provisionally as Escuadron de Bombardeo (two other Canberras followed shortly afterwards, bringing the total complement to nine. Canberra B-107 took no part in the conflict). Also two of these nine planes were T. Mk64 Canberra trainers, both of them flew bombing missions during the war.” North American F-86F: What about the Argentine North American F-86F? During the war nine of them came back to the active service. Ed Kettler’s Note: I did not include them because they did not see combat, and were used for base defense. One of these planes is now at the USAF Academy. My brother-in-law MSGT Ben Pandes was the loadmaster on the C-141 that brought it to Colorado. Finally, the Mirage III never carried AAM Shafrir. Perhaps you wrote it because in the FAA webpage you can read that on 1 May two Mirage III flew a patrol and carried Shafrir “Dos Mirage III, indicativo ‘Tablon,’ armamento: misiles Shaffrir, mision: cobertura area en Malvinas Tripulacion: Cap Gustavo GarcÌa Cuerva y 1erTen Carlos Perona. Despegaron a las 08:59 de RÌo Gallegos; aterrizaron a las 10:58 hs. Resultado de la misiõn: con su oportuna intervenciõn se interponen, entre una PAC de aviones Harrier y la escuadrilla “Topo”, e hicieron regresar a los primeros, salvando la vida de los pilotos de A-4B.” This is wrong. In an interview that I read after the war, the pilot of one of these Mirages, Primer Teniente Carlos Perona, said that for this mission their planes carried one R.530 AAM and two R.550 Magic AAM. Very interesting in my opinion is that the Argentine Mirage III pilots received the R.550 Magic AAM for the first time on 15 April 1982, and they never had used this AAM before! It appears that they were trained just with the R.530 before the war and they had to learn how to use the R.550 Magic in just fifteen days (this is the time prior their first combat), and this is the reason for which I believe that the ATA for this AAM should be reduced; also the Argentine Mirage III pilots weren’t trained in low/medium level dogfight, for which the pilot experience modifier table for gaining a position in a dogfight must be Recruit or Novice at best. Ships General Belgrano: I believe that the light and medium AA weapons are wrong. One Spanish source speaks about (2)2 40 mm guns and (1)4 47 mm guns, one Argentine source agrees with this information, and other speaks about just the (2)2 40 mm guns. When this ship was sunk, she carried only one Alouette III. And about speed, you list in the bibliography a web site with Captain Hector Bonzo’s account of the sinking of Belgrano, and my Argentine sources have spoken about that book too. He states on p. 35: “There were equipment or systems that could not anymore work at full capacity. Among the most important were the saturated steam boilers, that had been limited to 70% of their maximum combustion rate, even though that value could be exceeded in case of emergency. A problem in the pinion gear of the speed reduction box No. 4 limited the revolutions of the corresponding shaft. In concrete, the proud design speed of 32 knots was reduced to an acceptable maximum of 18.5 knots.” Editor’s Note: Jane’s Fighting Ships 1974-75 lists the 47mm as saluting cannons. The AA armament listed on the Form 10 came from both Combat Fleets and Jane’s Fighting ships. It is possible that the number of operational guns was reduced from the listed suite to only two twin 40mm. South Atlantic War II ErrataArgentina Form 10s Vienticinco de Mayo: In one Spanish source I have read that this ship carried old electronic countermeasures during the war and on the internet that it carried one Plessey Shield chaff launcher (but I don’t know if 25 de Mayo carried it during the war). Also one Argentine source told me that it speed was +/-20 knots, not 18.5 knots. General Belgrano: Reduce Belgrano’s 40mm armament to P/S(2)2 40mm, and remove all of her 20mm. Change Belgrano’s maximum speed from 25 to 18.5 knots. Cabo San Antonio: This ship wasn’t an Ex-US De Soto County Class. It was locally built, in Argentina, based on the De Soto County design. UK Form 10s Hermes CVH: Her military lift is 4 Light Infantry companies. Type 42 DDG ( Cardiff): The Type 42s’ ECM was upgraded to second Gen in 1980. Bristol: She has (2)1 Sea Dart and (1)1 Ikara launchers. County DDGs ( Glamorgan): The County DDGs all had their ECM upgraded to 2nd Gen in 1974. EW fits to UK frigates:
Rothesay ( Plymouth): By 1982 she was fitted with 2nd Gen Decoys. I don’t have any information on exactly when this happened. Argentina Form 20s A-109 Hirundo: Delete the Gun ATA rating. It has no internal cannon. A-4 Skyhawk: The ATA rating is 3.0/ 1.5, and the Cannon rating is 1.0 Argentine A-4AR in 1999 The A-4C had 5 hardpoints, not 3. Also they could be fitted with AAM. During this war they flew at least one mission over the Falklands with two Shafrir AAM each plane. The A-4B couldn’t carry AAM. The A-4Q had three hardpoints but the underwing hardpoints could carry AAM, in this case the AIM-9B (May 5, 1982: Before entering port, the Third Escuadrilla flew nine air defense missions armed with AIM-9B air-to-air missiles. British bogies had been detected by Argentine Navy Destroyer radar but no contact took place with the Sea Harriers). They were fitted for these missions with two AIM-9B and one drop tank on the centerline, This is the most possible and logical configuration, and also one Argentine source wrote me about this configuration as well, but it’s not 100% confirmed. Also the number of A-4Q ready during the Operacion Rosario were just three, and after hard work they had eight in flyable condition when the British came back. The other two were used for spare parts. A-4AR: This is an A-4M with up-to-date electronics similar to the F-16: APG-66, allowing use of smart weapons, advanced cockpit avionics, and ARL-93(V)1 RWR, GPS, IFF, ECM J&D. It is armed with AIM-9M and unguided bombs for the time being. It has a Computing bombsight, and 3rd Gen J&D. Canberra B.62: During the war they were fitted with a flare/chaff dispensing system of Israeli origin. The Argentine Canberras never carried drop tanks on the UW hardpoints. They used them for bombs (obviously not on all the missions). The tip tanks were 1100 litre tanks. Also these planes could carry in the bomb bay a tank of 3300 liters (726 lmp gal), which was carried on at least one mission. Also the Argentine Canberras could carry four Matra rocket pods, two on each UW hardpoint, but this was not a commonly-used weapon and was not used during the Falklands war. Finger (Dagger upgraded): It has a ELTA EL/M 2001B ranging radar, navigation and attack system ELBIT/ IAI WDNS-41, HUD, navigation system ELBIT S-8600, ILS and ECM decoys and is armed with Magic 2 and unguided bombs. Looks a bit like a Kfir C-7. The Bombsight should be changed from Ballistic to Computing, and upgrade the countermeasures from None to 2nd Gen Decoys. IA.58A Pucara: This plane could carry one 1000 kg bomb on the centerline for short range antiship missions (these bombs were deployed in the Falklands). Also, they were fitted with an A-4 B/C 300 USG drop tank on the centerline hardpoint to fly from continental Argentine to the Falklands. Pucara Mk13 torpedo hit chances: If you have CaS, use the torpedo attack rules there. Otherwise, give each weapon a 5% chance of a hit, with a +10% modifier if the target’s speed is less than 16 knots. Mirage III: The Maneuver ATA of the Dagger is 3.0/1.5. The Mirages did not carry Shafrir AAMs, only R.530s and R.550s. If the players wish to use the pilot experience rules, make the Argentine Mirage pilots Inexperienced with the R.550 Magic, and Inexperienced in all dogfights at Medium or lower altitudes. Mirage 5F upgraded: Inertial navigation system, GPS, HUD, RWR, ECM J& D and is armed with 2 Python 4 and unguided bombs. The Bombsight should be changed from Ballistic to Computing, and upgrade the countermeasures from None to 2nd Gen J&D. S-2E Tracker: These planes never carried Mk46 torp. They could carry Whitehead A.244s or Mk44, Depth charge BASA of 200 kg (I don’t know if they were used during the war), also LAU-68A, LAU-69A, LAU-32, LAU-10 and army bombs. They can carry SSQ-41, SSQ-47B, SSQ-937, SSQ-57A or SSQ-62B sonobuoys. SH-3D Sea King: They were actually Sikorsky AS.61-D4 Sea Kings. They had one Bendix AQS-13 sonar, not an AQS-10 and their loads were 2 A.244s torpedoes and Mk54 or Mk76 DC (they could carry 4 of these). I have one photograph of an Argentine Sea King with two torpedoes and 2 DC. T-34C-1 Turbo Mentor: Delete the countermeasures. Change the ATA rating to 2.0/1.5. During the war they were fitted with 2 seven-shot 2.75 in rocket pods (LAU-68 pod) and two 7.62 mm gun pods, but the mg pods weren’t SUU-11B/A pods. They each carried one Browning M1919 /.30 Cal. calibrated to 7.62 mm. UK Form 20s Gazelle AH.1: During the war they were fitted with one L7 7.62mm mg that could be fired from the rear part of the left door. When these helicopters arrived at Ascension Island they were fitted with two 6*68 mm Matra rocket pods. The British used them on trials at Ascension and the results were poor. The British pilots thought that these weapons had a really low accuracy. These weapons arrived at the Falklands when the fight was ending (10 June) and the british used them in just in one fire trial that day. None of the Gazelles were fitted with AS.11. Scout AH.1: These helicopters never carried AS.12. But some of them were fitted to carry 4 AS.11 (during the war the British fired 10 AS.11; all of them fired from Scouts). Nimrod MR.2: They could also carry Mk44, Mk46 or Stingray torpedoes, 454 kg bombs, and BL755. Victor: Apart their refuel missions, they were also used in maritime reconnaissance missions. For these missions their H2S radars were slightly improved and they were fitted with one camera (the metallic panels that covered the old bomber position of these planes in the nose were removed and one camera was installed in this place). Annex G (Unguided Ordnance on the Form 20s) The unguided munitions (bombs, rockets) statistics are usually preceded by a “(15%)” or sometimes a “(30%)”. These are Harpoon 3 rd edition to hit values. We forgot to sweep up the old data annex from SAW 1 st ed. Annex M2: The comment for the * reads “AQA-4 can process...” It should read “AQA-3.” Annex N: Sonar conditions. The formula should be 7 + D6 * 10% and not D10. Thanks to Vicente Berasategui, Tim Drost, Gabriel Garrido, Francis Marliere, Joaquin Meija, and Tim Mason. BT Back to The Naval Sitrep # 25 Table of Contents Back to Naval Sitrep List of Issues Back to MagWeb Master Magazine List © Copyright 2003 by Larry Bond and Clash of Arms. This article appears in MagWeb.com (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other military history and related articles are available at http://www.magweb.com |