The British military did a outstanding job as expected . They always do .
The Soldiers and Royal Marines esp.
I remember watching the story unfold and thought at the time they would suffer greater loss ---thankfully not.
I do think a painful lesson was , or should have been learned by the British navy however .
The lesson is this - a fleet under air attack is extremely vunerable , even by old aircraft {A-4's } and simple cannon and bomb. High tech anti -shipping missiles like the Exocet are great , but not needed to sink a ship. The Argentine pilots did their job a lot better than expected by some .
I think the lesson would be you can not have too many AA cannon on the deck of a ship !.
When a pilot attacks a ship directly { no stand -off weapon-missile } , is tasked with flying directly over a warship and dropping a bomb or strafing ---there is nothing that causes more fear than a sky full of 20MM rounds .
I believe the ships were under - armed in this respect .
High tech missiles should not replace AA cannon defense , but rather augment it.
The British navy also enjoyed a good deal of luck.
A couple of factors that played to the advantage . One , is the lack of "buddy packs' in Argentine inventory preventing air-refueling and limiting range of their aircraft . Because of lack of fuel /range , the attacking aircraft had to fly a predicable course { point A to point B} to engage shipping . This allowed Harriers to lie in wait with assurance of an intercept . If the Argies would have had those simple pieces of equipment , it would have changed tactic to a reasonable one , reduced losses , and the ships would have suffered even more as result .
Another bit of luck --- a big one . Most of 500 lb bombs that hit shipping , failed to explode . This saved many ships and many lives . This adventure could have turned into a naval disaster with just a few minor changes .
My point is not to be critical of the British effort , just to point out that this success may not be repeated in future - if conducted in the same way. >f
Ships Sunk
HMS Sheffield
HMS Coventry
HMS Ardent
HMS Antelope
RFA Sir Galahad
Atlantic Conveyor
Landing Craft Utility Foxtrot Four
Ships Damaged
HMS Glasgow
HMS Antrim
HMS Brilliant
HMS Broadsword
HMS Alacrity
HMS Arrow
HMS Argonaut
HMS Plymouth
RFA Sir Bedivere
RFA Sir Lancelot
RFA Sir Tristram
RFA Stromness
