In 1975, following the good results the Argentine Air Force was getting from its A4-Bs (P for USA), it was decided to purchase 25 A-4Cs. These were stored in a base in the USA and were bought “as is”, that is to say, without any improvement and check of the systems. As a consequence, the radar APG-53 in only 6 of the planes could be used, as the others were unserviceable.

In 1982, during the Malvinas/Falklands war in the South Atlantic, only 14 planes were available.

By the end May it was decided that a strike against any of the British aircraft carriers was urgently needed, as the pressure introduced by the Harriers was being felt by the Argentine garrison on the islands. HMS Invincible had been detected by the point of departure and return of her planes by the radar at Puerto Argentino (Port Stanley), among other electronic devices and intelligence. It was circling 180 kilometers to the east of islands, well away from the theorical reach of the land based planes. Therefore, the Argentine Navy requested the service of the KC-130s to refuel their Super Etendards on their way in. The Air Force accepted, but with the condition that 4 bombed laden Skyhawks (the Cs were chosen because of the capability of refuelling and the higher oxigen capacity) were to go with the Navy attack planes. After some discussions, the plan was ready. The idea was to confirm the hit and maximise the damage done by the missile. No one thought that it was possible to sink the 19,000 ton ship. The idea was to put it out of action for some days.

The original planned date of the strike was May 29th, but some technical problems with the tankers and the Charlies made it necessary to postpone it one day.

On May 30th, the most important mission in the history of the Argentine Air Force took place. By midday (12:43 pm), the 4 Charlies and 2 SUE with the last Exocet in stock in the country took off from Río Grande, in Tierra del Fuego island. Some time before, the two tankers had taken off in different directions to conceal their real mission (11.25 am).

After flying a couple of hours over the sea in a east bound direction, the tankers met the 6 attack planes 200 miles to the south of the islands at the right time and place. From then on, and during 200 kilometers, the planes proceeded to reload their tanks several times in strict radio silence, in order to have the fuel tanks loaded to the top at the moment of leaving the Hercules.

Once this was accomplished and flying on a point south east of the islands, the attack planes turned into the attack formation: two SUEs in the middle (the Exocet carrier slightly ahead) and two Charlies at each side. After refuelling, the leader of the Skyhawks and his wingman were on the opposite sides of the formation and with signs, he ordered this to be corrected - an adherance to the plan that proved to be fatal for both of them.

After the separation from the tankers, the planes started their descent on north westerly direction to only some meters above the surface of the sea, flying through showers and over high waves. Their windshields were marked with salt from the sea. From this point onwards, the SUEs ascended 3 times to iluminate the target with their radars. Some beeps were found at the place where they were told they would be, and finally they launched the last Exocet at 14:24 pm at the biggest target. Radio silence was broken by the SUE leader: “Twenty miles! Right ahead!” and then they returned to their base, leaving the four Air Force planes, now sure to be detected, to carry out the last part of the plan. This last leg of the inbound trip was to take 153 seconds: accelerting to their maximum speed, the Charlies followed the smoke trail left by the missile. As this was faster than them, they started losing it.

According to the testimony of the surviving pilots, they saw the carrier on the horizon, just in time to see the flash of the impact of the missile. Now the planes were converging on the target. Aproximately 10 kilometers away from Invencible, a missile that no one saw coming hit the leader’s left wing (1st Lt. Vázquez). The wing broke off and at the same time, the engine exploded. The forward fuselage and the right wing fell to the left, giving the pilot no chance to eject.

Now the leader was Lt. Ureta (#3), with each wing man to his side and behind. Smoke was pouring from the side of the carrier, and anti aircarft guns of the ship were firing at the attackers. The pilots were focused on their last details before dropping the bombs. Only 2 kilometers away from the ship, Alferez Isaac (#4, Ureta’s wing man) felt an explosion to his left. He looked in that direction and saw Castillo’s (#2) plane expanding, the panels separating from each other with an orange fire below. No chance to eject here either. (The two planes on the left side of the formation had been brought down. Had Vázquez not given the order to take the proper positions in the formation, he and his wingmen would have survived and Ureta and Isaacs would be dead now).

Looking ahead, it was time for Isaacs to fire the guns and drop his 3 x 250 kilos bombs. The explosion had moved his plane out of position and aiming was difficult. Ureta, leading the attack, heared or felt nothing. His guns jammed after two shots, he aimed at the island of the ship, dropped his 3 bombs, jumped over the carrier and took evasive maneouvers to avoid being shot down. Isaacs followed suit. When both of them looked back, they only saw a huge mass of smoke where Invincible was.

Due to their crazy aerobatics, they lost each other from sight, and each of them thought that he was coming back alone. Ureta´s radio had broken down and was unable to communicate with Isaac.

At 14:30 pm, the radar at Puerto Argentino/Port Stanley detected all the Harrier PACs climbing to 12.000 meters and a major movement of British helicopters from all over the islands heading east, where the fleet was.

Finally, Isaacs saw a spec in the sky and believing it was a Harrier he thought: “I’m dead now, I’ve fired all my bullets, I’m alone and now the Harriers are after me”. But as he got closer he found it was Ureta. Relieved, they found the KC-130s that were circling alone in the sky waiting for them. They passed their preliminary report (“two planes shot down on final leg of attack to the carrier”), refuelled and returned to their base where they were immediately separated and interrogated individually by Naval and Air Force intelligence officers.

Great Britain denied that HMS Invencible was hit. The first version of the attack issued by the British goverment was that the Argentine planes had hit the burnt out hull of the Atlantic Conveyor, previously struck by Excocets on May 25th and that one plane had been shot down. But when it was found that this ship had been at the North East of the islands, and that had already sunk two days earlier (on the 28th), the version of events was changed to the official following one.

The incoming raid had been detected by the radar of HMS Avenger and Exeter. The carrier was in fact, 45 NM away from Avenger, the target that the Navy pilots had mistaken for Invincible. A Sea Dart of Exeter shot down the first Skyhawk, the second one being shot down by the guns of Avenger. The missile was either confused by chaff or destroyed by the guns of Avenger. HMS Invincible continued operating unmolested (and in fact, one of it’s Harriers shot down an AAF Hercules on June 1st). The Air Force pilots had lied and mistook Avenger for the carrier, due to their poor training in ship recognition.

The 4 AAF pilots were given the highest decoration of the Argentine Congress: la Cruz al Heróico Valor en Combate (2 of them postumous). Only one more of this was given to an Air Force officer: PMR Carballo and two to two non-commissioned officers (sergeants).

Returning to the history of C-318, the plane flown by Isaacs on May 30th, survived the war and kept giving service in the AAF until 1988 when it was destroyed in an accident after a mechanical failure forced the pilot to eject from the plane.


 

The instructions on the kit are correct for the upper surface colors, but completerly wrong for the lower colors. The bottom of fuselage was given a coat of light gray, which was also sprayed around the suspicious joints. Some more putty and sanding was required to get a better nose/fuselage joint. Then, all the undersurfaces were masked except for the wheel wells and the AXP-6 radome. White paint was used for these places, the wheel hubs and arms, the arresting hook and for the interior of the air intakes. Black was brushed where the engine should be, at the end of the intakes.

To mask the arresting hook and get the white/black lines, I measured the width of the lines with a ruler, marked them on masking tape, cut them with a scisor (but not completely) and then presented to the hook. Once in place, the tape was stuck to the hook except for the part that had to be exposed to be painted in black. These parts of the tape were left out (like fingers) and now completely cut out.

Once dry, the interior part of the intakes was masked and a little line was left ready for the red paint that would come later. With the masking tape in place, the intakes where glued in place, taking care for the glue not to touch the tape. The bulk of the intakes was filled with tissue paper.

Now came the controversial top colors of the plane: after some discussion, exchange of photographs and debate with some friends who didn’t trust HC scheme, it was agreed that light sand (Humbrol 121) and brown (Humbrol 110 + 113) were the right ones. (Light grey and green were applied AFTER the war).

Then, the plane was masked to paint with:

Black: the nose and anti-reflectant panel, the wheels, the rectangular zone around the 20 mm guns (I consider that the rectangular panel straight ahead of the cannons below of the cockpit is too short in height) and the dorsal radome. Also in black I painted the interior frames of the canopy and windshield. A spray with sand finished the frames.

Turquoise (Humbrol 48): the identification bands carried by the Charlies during the second part of the war, lower part of the external fuel tanks and stations 2 and 4.

Red: inner surfaces for the slats and flaps, air intake lips (with the fuselage masked, leaving only a little line to be painted) and borders of the landing gear doors.

Colors were applied in the following order: turquoise, black, red.

Green was used for the bombs, that were then masked and given yellow noses.

With a very sharpened pencil, I highlighted all the moveable surfaces (ailerons, moveable base of the horizontal tail surfaces, rudder, air brakes). When everything was ready, I sprayed clear varnish to put the decals later.

From Hobbycraft:

• 18 of the tail

• escarapelas (roundels)

• flag

• Malvinas (though too light in color, they have the right shape and better definition)

• Yellow arrow “Rescate” below the cockpit

• White rectangules of the canopy

• Words in white “Fuerza Aerea Argentina – IV Brigada Aerea”

• Stencils “No Pisar” of the fuel tanks

• Grupo 4 badge

• HMS Invincible silhoute

• Red triangle with “Peligro” for the ejection seat

• White arrow of the air intakes

With everything in place, the plane was sprayed with matt varnish.

The little antena in the nose door was made using one of the unused ones of the HC sprues, and painted black.

Stations # 2 and 4 were glued in place, as were the Omega antenas, the horizontal surfaces of the tail, both 20 mm cannons, the flaps, the arresting hook, the too thick exhaust tube and the landing gear.

And whoops, surprise!! I got a tail sitter. First I thought of placing the arresting hook in a down position to keep the tail up, but I believe it’s too fragile to stand the weight. Therefore, I asked a friend of mine (who also took the pictures) to lend me the smallest buckshot (he is a hunter) he had in stock. Using a dentist 45 degree plier and holding the nose down, they were given a drop of superglue and, one by one, dropped inside the nose through the space between the instrument panel and the cockpit floor. After this operation was repeated around 15 times, the Charlie was no longer a tail sitter!

The nose landing gear door on the back is 1 mm too long, so I had to trim it to make it fit.

All the doors were put in their places. The landing light of the right hand side landing door was painted silver first, and then given a hand of light grey.

The slats were put in a deployed position using the silver painted arms.

The lights on the wings were painted in silver. The formation light behind the dorsal dome was painted only on it’s base, leaving the pin without paint. By doing this, you achieve a transluscent red piece, with a clear part in the middle which represent the light itself.

Position lights on the bottom of the wings were also painted red (the clear using using the technique mentioned above) and the ones on the wing tips were painted red and green.
The bombs and external fuel tanks were glued to the stations.

The windshield was put in its place, after a sight was scratchbuilt. The pitot tube was stucked on the nose, as the windshield wiper (made of stretched sprue from a price tag).
A couple of mirrors (painted black on the back and silver on the front) and the compass were scratch builted as well and glued to the canopy.

VHF antenna and the two tabs on the tail were the last to be put in place.
Now the pictures of the cockpit were taken and finally the canopy was glued in the open position in order to try to “hide” the problems with the general shape of this part in the HC kit.

I believe that with a lot of extra work the Hobbycraft kit can be converted into an acceptable representation of the A-4C.

I am very pleased with the final result. I feel it is my tribute to these men who flew over the cold sea in single engined planes without a chance of being rescued if they had to bale out, to the chore of the enemy fleet, in a mission that took them to a distance that was twice the range of their planes, and ultimately gave their lives.

Juan Carlos Ostolaza, Fabian Nevarez and Steve Mazzarelli.

• Historia Oficial de la Fuerza Aérea Argentina, Volumen 6, Tomos 1 y 2 (this is the ultimate and official version of the argentine view of the war, issued by the AAF).

• La guerra Inaudita – Rubén Moro

• La batalla Aérea de Nuestras Islas Malvinas – Pío Matassi

• Dios y los Halcones – Capt. Pablo Marcos Rafael Carballo

• Halcones sobre Malvinas – Capt. Pablo Marcos Rafael Carballo

• Especial Alas Skyhawk – several authors

• A4-P/C – Núñez Padín and others

• No vencidos – Horacio A. Mayorga (Argentine Navy)

• Aeroespacio – Interview to 1st Leutenant Ureta

• Lecture given by 3 AAF veterans that I assisted to in 1997 (Isaac gave a speech there and told his story)

• Air War South Atlantic – J. Ethel & A. Price

• Sea Harrier over the Falklands – Commander S. Ward