Agreed.
HMS Invincible, was crucial in providing air defence and the means of attacking enemy ships and ground positions, while Invincible's helicopters provided constant anti-submarine protection.
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Hermes did most of the attacking enemy ships and ground positions (firstly with Sea Harriers and then the 1 Sqn boys). Invincible was suppose to have been the group's Anti Air Warfare Control Ship, however Hermes staff had a habit of butting into the role and causing fcuk-ups like the an incident that led to Sheffield being sunk.
There is a conspiracy theory about Invincible, propagated by the Argentineans that two A-4 Skyhawks attacked the ship on the 30 May 1982. Two Argentinean navy Super Étendard, one carrying the last air launched Exocet in the Argentinean locker (the other to provide radar targeting information if the radar on the missile carrier went U/S), attacked a radar contact that was in a position that ground based radar on the Falklands had been picking up Harriers climbing from to high level for there transit to CAP stations around San Carlos. Following the Super Étendards were four Argentinean air force A-4 Skyhawks, which were to follow the missile’s smoke trail, and finish off what ever they found with free fall bombs. The two Argentinean Skyhawk pilots that got back to base, claimed to successfully bombed Invincible, after it had been hit by the Exocet.
What actually happened was this.
What the Étendard fired at was in fact a Type 21 Frigate HMS Avenger, which just happened to be transiting the area at which the Harriers had been climbing up from after doing a low level transit from the carriers to avoid giving their ship’s position away. Avenger picked up the transmissions of both the Étendard’s radar and the Exocet’s tracking radar, fired off a chaff cloud and hid in it. Behind Avenger about 10 miles away was one of the carrier group’s radar picket, the Type 42 Destroyer HMS Exeter. Exeter picked up the Exocet and the Skyhawks and engaged both with Sea Dart SAM’s. Avenger meanwhile tried to engage the Exocet with its 4.5 inch main gun. What is known is the Exocet didn’t hit anything (Avenger claimed to have hit the missile with its gun, Exeter may have got it with Sea Dart or it may have just flown though the chaff cloud and flew into the sea when it ran out of fuel, nobody is sure). Exeter killed one of the Skyhawks with Sea Dart for sure and may have got the second (though Avenger also claimed to have shot down the second Skyhawk with its gun). The two remaining Skyhawks tried to bomb Avenger (which was make smoke like nobody’s business) and missed.
Because Invincible stayed down south to provide air cover until replaced by HMS Illustrious (which was still being built during the war). The Argentineans still believe that the Invincible hid somewhere to repair the damage done by an Exocet strike and bomb damage done by the attack on the 30 May (which nobody of the 1000+ crew on Invincible at the time saw with their own eyes, though the crew on Avenger did note the two Skyhawks trying to bomb them).
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