MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency
Argentina honors Malvinas war pilots and the Air Force “baptism of fire”
Argentina's Defense minister Julio Martínez headed the Air Force's 34th “baptism of fire” anniversary which took place on May first 1982 during the South Atlantic conflict. The Sunday event at the V Air Brigade in Villa Reynolds, province of San Luis, was also attended by government and military officials, Malvinas veterans and Air Force Chief of Staff Brigadier Major Enrique Victor Amrein. Read full article
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Disclaimer & comment rulesWhy do they persist in celebrating a failure?
May 04th, 2016 - 08:26 am - Link - Report abuse 0None of this would have been necessary if they'd told the truth about the mythical Malvinas claim: https://www.academia.edu/17799157/Falklands_-_Some_Relevant_International_Law
May 04th, 2016 - 09:10 am - Link - Report abuse 0To the motherland! lol
May 04th, 2016 - 09:44 am - Link - Report abuse 0What - pray tell - did they use for the flyover? An airliner?
And what are you going to use for the money required to restore the glory of your illustrious armed forces?
Where are the Chinese fighters? The Israel fighters?
In all fairness their Airforce was the only section of Arg forces that did indeed fight hard and earn the respect of the British Forces.
May 04th, 2016 - 09:47 am - Link - Report abuse 0But where did the myth of 2 airfields come from?Stanley airport only- apart from a number of grass airstrips allover the islands. And the fantasy idea that the British Forces were going to attempt a landing on May 1st?!
I wonder if macaroni has recalibrated his strategic cooperation plans for the possibility of a Trump presidency?
May 04th, 2016 - 09:56 am - Link - Report abuse 0Where are these “malvinas” that they talk about?
May 04th, 2016 - 10:44 am - Link - Report abuse 0So is one of them a “malvina” & how many are there?
Maybe its a strain of turnip that Squatter Think grows on his stolen turnip farm?
No savvy
Fast forward to today: if the 'few' pilots they have fly the planes they have now, complete with machine guns, they will be dead without ever seeing the Typhoon (single plane) that kills them.
May 04th, 2016 - 01:22 pm - Link - Report abuse 0Yes, I agree that the 1982 pilots were courageous men. The present lot may be equally courageous but they have NO planes to fly.
Oh dear, never mind eh!
Stop with the crap, it's making you look bigger cunts than ever.
“Since it was the first air battle in its history for the Argentine Air Force, May first became “baptism of fire” Day”.
May 04th, 2016 - 01:27 pm - Link - Report abuse 0Oh dear that's not strictly true is it ?
In June 1955 elements of the Navy and Air Force rebelled and planes dropped bombs on Buenos Aires, killing some 350 people.
And then there's
16 June 1955 when naval aircraft, painted with catholic crosses and blessed by priests, participated on the Bombing of Plaza de Mayo. One of the navy aircraft was shot down by an air force Gloster Meteor.
And of course
Navy pilots saw combat again during 1962 internal military fighting between factions known as Azules y colorados ( Blue and reds ), culminating in the 1963 Argentine Navy Revolt in which Navy F9F Panthers and F4U Corsairs bombed Argentine Army tanks in defence of the Navy base of Punta Indio.
“....Argentine Air Force responded with 57 air sorties ...”
May 04th, 2016 - 03:15 pm - Link - Report abuse 0- Actually only 56 sorties that day [May 1] . And only 35 actually found targets, the rest wandering aimlessly about the sky. On that day none of the Skyhawks and only 3 of the Daggers actually found and attacked or attempted to attack ship targets. Argentina lost 2 Mirages, 1 Dagger, and 1 Canberra on that day, with no British losses. These losses caused the Argentine commanders to reconsider and then reduce their sortie rate. Their assumption that British forces had landed was of course incorrect, and the Argentine May 1 display was a bit of grandstanding that brought it considerable losses. Coupled with the demoralising Black Buck bombing of the Argentine positions at the Stanley airport, this was a bad day for Argentina and its war effort. So celebrating their May 1 attempts is actually a recognition of folly, losses, and failure.
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“.... followed by a minute silence and an air pass....”
That was just a bit of flatulence.
Their history is very selective
May 04th, 2016 - 03:37 pm - Link - Report abuse 0We have the Battle of Britain. They have ????
May 04th, 2016 - 05:13 pm - Link - Report abuse 0“Since it was the first air battle in its history for the Argentine Air Force, May first became “baptism of fire” Day.”
May 04th, 2016 - 05:53 pm - Link - Report abuse 0Not quite. On 16 June 1955 aircraft of the Argentine Air Force and Navy bombed and machine-gunned Peronist civilians in the Plaza de Mayo. Not very dignified, perhaps, but a definite “baptism of fire”.
We can't call what units of the Air Force - along with the Navy and the Army - got up to in the period between the military coup in 1976 and their attempt to regain honour by invading the Falklands a battle of any kind, let alone a “baptism of fire”, but it was certainly a baptism of some kind- a baptism of blood, perhaps?
Perhaps they should celebrate by having a flypast of what's left of their air force to the Falkland's and back,
May 04th, 2016 - 07:26 pm - Link - Report abuse 0and the RAF could re-celebrate shooting them down again.
just a flying thought.
“”In all fairness their Airforce was the only section of Arg forces that did indeed fight hard and earn the respect of the British Forces.“”
May 04th, 2016 - 07:53 pm - Link - Report abuse 0Not true, plenty of Argentine ground units fought very bravely and, indeed, very well, and this has been recognised by British soldiers and historians over and over and over again.
It is a public myth that the Argentine land forces were all conscripted, teenage cowards.
@14 “ It is a public myth that the Argentine land forces were.....”
May 04th, 2016 - 08:22 pm - Link - Report abuse 0Argentistan had a 3 to 1 defender's advantage, hopelessly outnumbered the British forces, and in spite of everything in their favour they still lost the whole place in just 3 weeks after the British landings.
Maybe Chile should have invaded Argentistan at that point after all. In less than a fortnight Pinochet would have been enjoying an asado al palo at the Pink House.
14 Anbar - Then how come in all the land battles - agree some were hard fought at times -despite the universal accepted military norm - the attacker is unlikely to succeed unless he has a 2 or 3-1 forces superiority - the British won every single land battle with either less attacking troops than defenders or at best about the same number in some cases.
May 04th, 2016 - 08:37 pm - Link - Report abuse 0Plus add in the Arg Defenders had several weeks to prepare defences and had the massive advantage of dominating height in all areas except GooseGreen - but some height advantage there all the same.
@16 lslander1,
May 04th, 2016 - 09:03 pm - Link - Report abuse 0Because the RGs heart wasn't in it.
Deep down, they knew that the Falklands didn't belong to them & that they were invaders & thieves.
Or it could have been the the Argie commanders kept the bulk of their food stocks for their comfort around Stanley whilst the kids in the outposts starved. The same kids who were staked to the ground by their Argie officers when they were caught going out to scrounge for some food. We know a thing or two about the milicos argentinos.
May 04th, 2016 - 10:03 pm - Link - Report abuse 0#13
May 04th, 2016 - 10:21 pm - Link - Report abuse 0Actually it was the Harriers of the Fleet Air Arm who did most of the business in air-to-air combat. The RAF flew the ground attack Harriers.
#14
In that case more credit should be given to the UK defeating a well trained professional force. Your professionally trained forces STILL lost against a more determined foe.
7 ChrisR “they will be dead without ever seeing the Typhoon”
May 05th, 2016 - 03:38 am - Link - Report abuse 0They will be dead without ever seeing a runway..
“We are very grateful to both the Argentine Authorities and the Chilean Authorities for their cooperation and rapid response which ensured that this emergency was resolved swiftly and with no loss of life.”
http://en.mercopress.com/2010/06/04/falklands-thick-fog-forces-two-raf-typhoons-and-tanker-to-land-in-punta-arenas
#20
May 05th, 2016 - 09:13 am - Link - Report abuse 0Once in 6 years ? They landed in Chile-a friendly country. What has it to do with Argentina apart from the fact we could overfly your country and there is nothing you could do about it....although we would not.
@ 20 Marcos Alejandro
May 05th, 2016 - 10:54 am - Link - Report abuse 0Apart from the fact that Argentina agreed to the overfly of its' airspace WTF did it have to do with two Typhoons and the accompanying tanker landing in Chile?
Looks like a flydown from the UK (or the US) to me, not an attack on the Dark Country.
Im surprised they aint playing chicken like the Spanish,
May 05th, 2016 - 06:42 pm - Link - Report abuse 0again more intrusions into Gibraltar, and more feeble complaints from our feeble ministers.
The UK will return the Malvinas within 25 years.
May 06th, 2016 - 12:43 am - Link - Report abuse 0@24 : You could return this weekend , if you felt like it , or will it take you 25 years to save the air fare ?
May 06th, 2016 - 09:51 am - Link - Report abuse 0Hepatia
May 06th, 2016 - 11:49 am - Link - Report abuse 0do you even know where these islands are,
they don't exist.
@24 Hepatia,
May 06th, 2016 - 12:14 pm - Link - Report abuse 0Argentina will return Paraguay's stolen land within 25 years.
Studied up on the War of 1812-1814 yet?
You know, proper research, not Hollywood.
Glad to assist in pointing out your misconceptions.
The UK will return the Malvinas within 25 years to it's rightful name of the Falklands on all world maps, documents and commentaries..
May 06th, 2016 - 01:05 pm - Link - Report abuse 0Hepathetic will be returned to the asylum.
May 06th, 2016 - 01:46 pm - Link - Report abuse 0And locked up for the next 25 years.
May 06th, 2016 - 07:29 pm - Link - Report abuse 0“Since it was the first air battle in its history for the Argentine Air Force,!
May 07th, 2016 - 10:29 pm - Link - Report abuse 0The first battle against any opposition perhaps.
It won't go so well for them the next time and had Shackleton's recommendations for Stanley's runway to be longer been acted on, then they would have had to deal with Phantoms and Lightnings plus Harriers.
No wonder they celebrate, it's the best they will ever do.
@11” We have the Battle of Britain. They have ????”
The wish to buy the Battle of Britain memorial flight to upgrade their air force?
How did the Motherland honour their brave pilots at the time ?
May 08th, 2016 - 06:40 pm - Link - Report abuse 0By deceiving them that their “fallen” had been “transfered to other wings.” The only necessity for this deceit is that the motherland doubted the bravery of their pilots to make a second attack if they knew the true scale of their losses.
Similarly the SOP for the Argie pilots on being detected by SHAR CAP was to immediately ditch their extra fuel tanks, ordinance & head for home. Probably just as well otherwise their losses would have been even higher !
Ignoring the jingoism from both sides..yes the Argentinian's had brave and skillful
May 08th, 2016 - 10:01 pm - Link - Report abuse 0fliers, however in air-to-air combat they were woefully inadequate. They were up against-if you pardon the expression-highly trained killers. It was a no contest.
As I have related before, an American USAF General said , that for the British Sea Harriers, it would be hawks among chickens. It proved to be so.
@33 “ It was a no contest.”
May 09th, 2016 - 12:44 am - Link - Report abuse 0That is correct. Not a single UK aircraft was downed by Argento “fighters.” And they rarely even challenged the little Harriers, preferring to run away from them instead.
On the other hand, that made sense. There was nothing and nobody in the Argie aviation that could match the British fliers and their tiny carrier planes. The Argie fliers' only hope was in breaking enough British ships, and even in that, they usually wasted their precious ordnance on destroyers when they could have attacked the pivotal carriers. Skillful? Sort of. Brave? Sometimes. Smart? A little lacking there.
Military smarts was also lacking in the Argie land warfare department. They had several cold-trained units that they kept on their mainland. Why? Because they imagined that the chilenos would attack them-- probably one of the silliest assumptions ever made by the Argie military. The chilenos and the British conspired on this one: to move chileno forces near the Argie frontiers in a classic deception.
And the Argie troops on the islands that outnumbered the UK landing forces? Argentina never lifted a finger to counterattack when they could have pushed the UK forces right back into San Carlos Bay. And then there was the Goose Green battle in which the Argies theoretically had a five-to-one advantage over the attacking UK troops, but ended up surrendering to a less-equipped and much smaller force of British professionals.
Sometimes “sort-of brave” doesn't make up for the other side being “immensely better.”
Or, indeed, “immensely braver”!
May 09th, 2016 - 03:13 pm - Link - Report abuse 0Commenting for this story is now closed.
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