Slartibartfast 153 Posted June 6, 2013 (edited) Okay with regards Invincible... she was undamaged as has been stated, I know a few guys who were on board her during the Falklands war and they find that this sort of thing stupid yes Atlantic Conveyor was hit and sunk by the exocet and possible both exocets that were launched at Invincible and the task group. As has been quoted she stayed in the Falklands for the extra time period as the runway at Stanley was unable to operate the F-4 Phantoms (which is why they built MPA to provide a decent set of runways for military aircraft) and the GR-3 Harriers were not best suited to Air interception as well as the fact that they did not have any way to support them apart from guess what using an Aircraft carrier which carried all the parts. As Hermes was the command ship for the Task Force she was sent home first also she was an older ship and not so efficent as the Invincible class carriers and had numerous defects that needed a full sized dockyard. Illustrious was then rushed through builders trials etc to get her into the war if it was required but she wasn't they then sent her to the Falklands to relieve Invincible so she could return home. With regards the reason for the slowdown in Harrier sorties after the attack is simple she had the biggest deck and the best equipped medical bays in the area to treat the injured and that they were cycling Seaking Helicopters from her to rescue the injured and those who had abandoned the Atlantic Conveyor and as anyone knows Helicopter and Fast jet sorties interfere even for the US Navy on their Super Carriers. The reason it is that there is such a conspiracy is that the Junta needed a Victory to claim that they hit one of the carriers as they knew that the war was practically over and that they needed to give the troops on the ground something to cheer about and more importantly something to throw at the people back home to stop them coming over and lynching the lot of them. Edited June 6, 2013 by Slartibartfast Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
shotdown 8 Posted June 6, 2013 (edited) I don´t think the Argentine pilots are lying, but there must be another explanation other than the british hiding a fact like that when they have no practical reason for it, as far as i understand. Perhaps there is really some kind of conspiracy, but I think a case of missidentification is the most likely explanation. It happened many times in WWII, so imagine what could happen with planes twice as fast and a much shorter time to see the target. Edited June 6, 2013 by shotdown Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
+CrazyhorseB34 937 Posted June 6, 2013 This is getting ridiculous. Research topic? WTF? Invincible not sunk. Atlantic Conveyor sunk. How hard is that to comprehend? To believe thirty year old Argentinian "war stories," is stupid. How about the conspiracy about the General Belgrano being sunk by WW2 torpedoes? The real conspiracy is that the Falklands War was started by some rather incompetent people and won by arrogant and unprepared people. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
JediMaster 451 Posted June 7, 2013 The real conspiracy is that the *insert name of war here* was started by some rather incompetent people and won by arrogant and unprepared people. I think that applies to a large majority of wars. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
macelena 1,070 Posted June 8, 2013 It doesn´t take a conspiracy. Just OPSEC or things like that. The British don´t need to report in real time where are their ships and what they are doing with Exocets flying by. If there is no further info, it may be more related to how they don´t need to let anybody know about how do you keep such OPSEC. The pilots kept claiming they hit the carrier for many years, so my guess is they somehow mistook a big squared ship engulfed in flames for another while flying at around 50 ft and 500 kts taking fire, on bad weather after hours of flight Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
+Gepard 11,314 Posted June 14, 2013 (edited) Yesterday i saw on german TV a reportage about the Belgrano story. Argentinian and british veterans were interviewed. The most astonishing part was, that one british high ranking officer finally said, that the british expeditionary force was very close to run out of supply. 10 days more and the british would have had to retreat. http://www.zdf.de/ZDFmediathek/kanaluebersicht/aktuellste/398#/beitrag/video/1878082/Kampf-um-Falkland-%281%29 sorry, only in german language Edited June 14, 2013 by Gepard 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
fireengineer 1 Posted July 14, 2013 HMS Invincible lost one of her turbines shortly after leaving England. She was at a reduced speed for the whole war after that. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites