What is this history about a ghost carrier sunk in South Atlantic??
Well, the story goes on more or less like this:
On May 30, 1982, an attack took place by a combined force of Argentine Air Force (four A-4C Skyhawks of the Grupo 4 de Caza) and Navy (2 Super Etendards of the 2ndo Escuadron Aeronaval) warplanes against the British Task Force carrier group lead by HMS
Invincible, some miles east of the Falkland islands.
The attack began about 2:30pm (local time) by a flight of Super Etendards lead by Lieutenant Alejandro Francisco (carrying the last Exocet in Argentine inventory) and his wingman, Luis Collavino. About 125 miles from their target and after having confirmation of a solid lock on HMS
Invincible, Francisco released his missile and both Super Etendards disengaged and broke off back to base while the four Skyhawks carried on with the attack. From this point the story gets confusing because the Argentinians say that the Exocet hit the aircraft carrier, a large column of smoke emerged and that was a visual cue that helped the Skyhawk pilots lock onto their target; the British however say that what the pilots saw were smoke trails from SeaDart SAMs launched from HMS
Exeter at the incoming planes. To support that, there are the accounts of crewmembers both from
Exeter and also from HMS
Cardiff, who inadvertedly fired upon the SeaDarts launched from
Exeter from beyond maximum range thinking that they were enemy missiles. Anyway, the four Skyhawks continued inbound for the carrier group. About 7 miles from target, a SeaDart missile launched from HMS
Exeter hit and destroyed First Lieutenant Jose Vazquez's A-4C (first element wingman). A few seconds later, anti-aircraft rounds downed Omar Castillo's Skyhawk (second element lead). The two remaining A-4C stayed on target evading AAA rounds and missiles while flying extremely low. According to First Lieutenant Ernesto Ureta and Ensign Gerardo Isaac, they released their bombs over the aircraft carrier as they flew over it, then they egressed from the target area at high speed and low altitude.
The first British account of the battle did not confirm any hit on HMS
Invincible; instead, it appeared that the Argentine pilots who were flying extremely low, dodging missiles and close-in artillery rounds with their canopies cluttered by a layer of salt and moisture given their proximity to the surface of the ocean, confused the aircraft carrier with the frigate HMS
Avenger, which was also not hit. What seems more likely is that the missile locked on the partialy submerged hull of the
Atlantic Conveyor; given the high environment of chaff deployed and jamming, it is likely that the missile lost its intended target and locked onto a high RCS object, such as the hull of the
Conveyor that was being towed at that moment by the civilian tugboat
Irishman. The crew of the
Irishman confirmed a large explosion coming from the hull of
Atlantic Conveyor that day, wich is interesting considering that the vessel in question was nothing but a wreckage of twisted, burnt metal as a result of a missile attack days before
What's most revealing is that according to certain conspiracy theorists, the British government somehow covered up the damage, silenced the crew (some even say that HMS
Invincible was sunk and later replaced by a newly built ship of her class) and so on; however, several other ships were hit and lost in the Falklands war and all of them were recognised as losses and even detailed accounts of casualties were given:
- HMS
Sheffield, hit by an AM-39 Exocet missile on May 4, sank 6 days later, 20 or so people died: everybody knew about it.
-
Atlantic Conveyor, hit by an Exocet missile on May 25, partialy sunk, 12 people on board were killed: everybody knew about it.
- HMS
Coventry, hit and sunk on May 25 by low-drag conventional free-fall bombs, 19 crewmen killed: everybody knew about it.
- HMS
Sir Galahad and
Sir Tristram, both bombed on June 9, the single largest loss of British servicemen in the whole conflict: 50 people killed. Everybody knew about it.
What I'm trying to say is that in every case the incidents were properly accounted for and reported; in fact, although the lady of 10th Downing Street and the Ministry of Defence weren't exactly happy about it, reports of the incidents and losses were shown in the evening news despite perhaps a possible negative effect for the British forces in the Falklands theatre of operations. As a matter of fact, the Argentinians learned about the sinking of HMS
Sheffield thanks to the BBC broadcasts; up to that moment, they really never had any means to find out if the missile had struck
Sheffield or not. And because of that, even though the Exocet that hit
Sheffield never detonated on impact and knowing about the poor reliability of the AM-39 missile system, they feel encouraged to continue deploying it and scored a few more British vessels with it.
So don't ask yourselves why the so-called attack on HMS
Invincible was never reported or covered up: ask yourselves why every single loss of a military vessel in the Falklands War by the British was reported and acknowledged in short time notice and you will find out why this Invincible-being-hit-and-then-covered-up theory has no rational basis whatsoever
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