{"id":61418,"date":"2025-10-23T22:06:17","date_gmt":"2025-10-23T20:06:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/?p=61418"},"modified":"2026-07-24T20:06:50","modified_gmt":"2026-07-24T18:06:50","slug":"the-daring-attack-by-argentine-a-4-skyhawk-aircraft-that-sank-a-british-destroyer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/2025\/10\/23\/the-daring-attack-by-argentine-a-4-skyhawk-aircraft-that-sank-a-british-destroyer\/","title":{"rendered":"The daring attack by Argentine A-4 Skyhawk aircraft that sank a British destroyer"},"content":{"rendered":"

One of the most daring and successful air operations after World War II took place in the South Atlantic in 1982.<\/p>\n

The Argentine uniform of the Falklands War and a curiosity about its rifles<\/a><\/rel>
\nAn interesting report on the Falklands War between Argentina and the United Kingdom<\/a><\/rel><\/p>\n

On April 2, Argentina launched Operation Rosario, capturing the Falkland Islands<\/strong>, a British colony 475 km east of Argentina's coast, that same day, and South Georgia (more than 2,000 km from Argentina) the following day. Ten days later, the United Kingdom established a 200-mile exclusion zone around the islands. The British government sent the Royal Navy and Royal Air Force to recapture the islands.<\/strong> On April 25, British forces recaptured South Georgia, and fighting for control of the Falkland Islands began on May 1.<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n
A row of Argentine Air Force A-4B Skyhawks. First, we see Lieutenant Carlos Rinke's aircraft (C-214), one of those that participated in this attack (Photo: 3040100.com.ar<\/a>).<\/div>\n

On May 25, the day Argentina celebrates the anniversary of the 1810 revolution that led to its independence, four Douglas A-4B Skyhawk attack aircraft of the Argentine Air Force's Fighter Group 5<\/strong>, under the command of Captain Pablo Carballo and flying from the R\u00edo Gallegos Military Air Base, carried out a daring attack operation against two British ships<\/strong>, the Type 42 destroyer HMS Coventry (D118) and the Type 22 frigate HMS Broadsword (F88).<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n
Lieutenant Rilke's A-4B Skyhawk C-214 in the final days of the Falklands War (Photo: Santiago Rivas \/ Key.aero<\/a>).<\/div>\n

The British ships were sailing near Borb\u00f3n Island<\/strong>, in the northwest of the archipelago. The Argentine planes flew very low, first taking advantage of the island's topography and then flying at sea level, so that the British ships' anti-aircraft defenses could not clearly detect the targets to lock on<\/strong> and launch their missiles until it was too late.<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n
The A-4B C-207, aircraft piloted by Ensign Jorge Barrionuevo, preserved in the National Aeronautics Museum of Argentina (Photo: Jos\u00e9 Pedro Escapa \/ Key.aero<\/a>).<\/div>\n

The A-4 Skyhawks attacked in two groups. The first, the Vulcano Section<\/strong>, was made up of the aircraft of Captain Carballo (the C-225) and Lieutenant Carlos Rinke (C-214) and were equipped (ironically) with a 454 kg British Mk-17 bomb each<\/strong>. This group attacked the frigate HMS Broadsword, piercing its hull, flight deck and Lynx helicopter with one of the bombs, which failed to explode.<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n
The moment of the explosion of the three Argentine bombs that hit HMS Coventry, in a photo taken from the bridge of the frigate HMS Broadsword (Photo: hmscoventry.co.uk<\/a>).<\/div>\n

The second group was the Zeus Section<\/strong>, formed by the planes of First Lieutenant Mariano Velasco (C-212) and Ensign Jorge Barrionuevo (C-207). These two A-4s carried three BR-250 bombs of 250 kg each (according to the book \"La Fuerza A\u00e9rea en Malvinas. Volumen II\"<\/a>, published in 2022 by the Comisi\u00f3n Batalla A\u00e9rea por Nuestras Islas Malvinas (BANIM). The BR-250s used by Argentina were low-drag (BR) bombs manufactured in Spain by Expal<\/a>. They had been developed for the Spanish Air Force based on the American Mk.80 bombs and carried a 112 kg TNT or Tritonal warhead.<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n
HMS Coventry listing to port, before sinking (Photo: hmscoventry.co.uk<\/a>).<\/div>\n

The three bombs from Lieutenant Velasco's plane hit HMS Coventry<\/strong>, lodging in the ship's hull due to their light weight compared to the Mk-17s. A British source describes what happened next as follows:<\/a><\/p>\n

\"The first bomb hit the port side of the hull, about 3 feet above the waterline, below the bridge<\/strong> (just under where the painted-out D118 pennant number was beginning to show through once more), passing through the computer room and lodging in the conversion machinery room below. The second bomb entered through the side of the superstructure just forward of the life raft stowage<\/strong> and tore through the main fore\/aft passageway, breaking a hydraulic ring main and starting an immediate fire and passing through the naval store room below before probably lodging in the provision store below that. The third bomb hit the outer deck edge<\/strong> in the area of the Olympus engine intake grilles \u2013 outboard of the foremast \u2013 and lodged in the aft part of the forward (Olympus) engine room.<\/p>\n

Seconds later, Barrionuevo\u2019s Skyhawk flashed across the top of the ship \u2013 but despite pressing his bomb release, none of his bombs left his aircraft.<\/strong> Two witnesses onboard Coventry reported a single \u2018bomb\u2019 tumbling overhead at this stage, however \u2013 it may have been that this second Skyhawk released a drop tank in error.\"<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Several seconds passed without anything happening, as the BR-250 bombs had time-delay fuses. Then, HMS Coventry was rocked by a series of loud explosions and began to list to port.<\/strong> Although the order to evacuate the ship could not be given, as it was so damaged that internal communications failed, the crew's professionalism in evacuating it meant that of the 287 crew members only 19 died<\/strong> (another crew member died a few months later as a result of his injuries). The ship's commander, Captain David Hart-Dyke, was the last to abandon the ship<\/strong> after ensuring that his men were safe.<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n
A British Sea King helicopter flying very close to HMS Coventry at the time of its sinking (Photo: hmscoventry.co.uk<\/a>).<\/div>\n

Although Argentina lost that war, the attack of May 25, 1982, was a milestone for the Argentine Air Force<\/strong>. Using obsolete aircraft and armed with conventional bombs instead of anti-ship missiles, they managed to sink a destroyer, an operation that shattered many war manuals of the time<\/strong>. It was a success due both to the audacity of the Argentine pilots and the British's fatal underestimation of their rivals. Yesterday, the Yarnhub<\/a> channel published an excellent video recreating this historic attack on computer<\/strong> (the video is in English but has an audio track and subtitles in English; you can activate them in the bottom bar of the player):<\/p>\n