Miragedriver
Brigadier
The Falkland/Malvinas War, or the War of the South Atlantic, Part 3
Argentine Forces
The Argentine armed forces had not fought a significant external war since 1934. One of the oddities of this war was that much of Argentina’s armed forces were organized along British lines, and much of their equipment was virtually identical to that of Britain.
Argentina was in the midst of a serious border dispute with Chile at the time, known as the Beagle Channel conflict. This meant that a significant faction of the nation’s forces and better trained and equipped troops were committed to defending against a very possible conflict with Chile. Also the two nations came to the brink of war in 1978. The conflict was averted by Papal intervention. However, border tensions where high and skirmished where not uncommon
Naval Forces
The Argentine Navy was mostly a mix of surplus US Navy vessels and ships bought either new or used from Britain.
Surface Forces
1. Carrier forces - The flagship of the Argentine Navy was the ARA (Armada de la República Argentina) 25 de Mayo, a Colossus class carrier formally of the Royal Navy. Unlike the powerful attack carriers in the US Navy, this small carrier had a tiny air group consisting of mostly some 16 A-4Q Skyhawk’s and 6 S-2E Trackers. Further, the ship had older radar and sensors and was nearing the end of her useful life. It would be reasonable to presume that Argentina maintained the carrier more for reasons of national prestige than for any genuine military value it had.
ARA 25 de Mayo
2. Cruiser - The ARA General Belgrano was formerly the (USS Phoenix CL-56 and the only vessel to survive the attack on Pearl Harbor without damage), a Brooklyn class light cruiser armed with five triple turrets of 6” guns. Updated with French MM38 Exocet anti-ship missiles, she had considerable anti-ship capability, and her gun armament could have been devastating to British forces ashore.
ARA General Belgrano
3. Destroyers and Corvettes
1. Type 42 Destroyer - Argentina owned two Type 42 guided missile destroyers virtually identical to the Sheffield class the British deployed to the Falkland/Malvinas. Armed with the Sea Dart missile system, ARA Hercules and Santisima Trinidad were primarily tasked as escorts for the ARA 25 de Mayo forming Task Group 79.1. These were by far the most modern ships in the Argentine fleet.
Type 42 Destroyer
2. Sumner/Gearing Destroyer - The ARA Hipolito Bouchard and Pierdrabuena were former US Sumner class destroyers. They were tasked to serve as escorts for the ARA General Belgrano forming Task Group 79.3.
Gearing Class Destroyer
3. D’Estienne_d’Orves Corvettes - Corvettes are smaller warships, slightly smaller than frigates. ARA Drummond, Guerrico, and Granville formed Task Group 79.4. These small ships were intended for inshore anti-submarine warfare and patrol. They were relatively modern ships, but not intended for long duration offshore operations.
4. Amphibious Forces - The primary amphibious warfare ship was the ARA Cabo San Antonio, a Tank Landing Ship, or LST built in Argentina based on the US Desoto County Class.
5. Miscellaneous craft - Argentina also operated several small patrol craft, many of which were former US Navy auxiliary tugs.
6. Auxiliaries and merchant craft- Much as Britain supplemented its forces with fleet auxiliaries and pressed merchant ships into service, Argentina used its own merchant fleet to support operations, as blockade runners, and some fishing vessels were used as spy trawlers to locate the British task force as it made its way south.
Submarine Force
1. The ARA San Luis was a modern German made Type 209 diesel electric submarine. A second Type 209 submarine, the ARA Salta was not operational at the time of the war, since it was still under construction. The Type 209 is a very quiet and advanced submarine they were one of the best diesel electric submarines at that time.
Type 209
2. The ARA Santa Fe was the former USS Catfish (SS-339), a US WWII fleet boat that had been modernize through the GUPPY program. The GUPPYs were long range boats best suited to blue water operations, but were already badly obsolete by the 1980s. They vessel was used to secretly transport special forces to coastal operations
Guppy Class Submarine
Air Forces
The various air arms of the Argentine military were to play a pivotal role in the Falkland/Malvinas campaign and their order of battle will be the subject of our next instalment of this post.
Ground Forces
The Argentine Army was organized and equipped largely along the same lines as the British Army. Its officers and senior NCOs were long service professionals, but more than half of its enlisted personnel were short service draftees. Annually, year groups of 19 year old men were called up for 24 months of service. The short period of active duty meant that few lower enlisted troops had the experience to be considered properly trained. Basic training in most armies may only take a couple months, but it takes a couple years to make a truly proficient infantryman.
Further, the threat of war with Chile over the Beagle crisis meant that many of Argentina’s best units (volunteer army) were unavailable to serve in the Falkland/Malvinas. So instead of forces trained for cold wet climates in remote areas, units from northern, tropical Argentina were sent to the islands. Further, because of a lack of shipping, virtually all troops were flown into the Falkland/Malvinas. This meant that while large numbers of troop units were on hand, very few of those units had the vehicles, clothing and equipment they needed. In essence, it was an unbalanced force. Large numbers of infantrymen without transport or heavy supporting arms are almost more a liability than an effective combat force. This is because they are not trained as infantry, but as mobile forces. Without the element of mobility these troops are now static and cannot be fully utilized.
The initial seizure of the Falkland/Malvinas was made by a Special Forces units followed by a force of roughly 300 Argentine marines in 20 LVTP-7 amphibious assault vehicles. They quickly overwhelmed the 84 Royal Marines stationed on the islands
Argentine Special Forces guard British prisoners on Stanly Beach[/I]
But as it became clear that Britain intended to regain control of the islands. The junta deployed to the islands roughly a divisional sized force consisting of:
1. The 3rd Mechanized Brigade
2. The 10th Mechanized Brigade
As noted, since these troops had to be flown in, they left their vehicles behind, and in effect were foot mobile only.
Supporting artillery units of the 3rd Artillery group were also deployed, using towed 105mm howitzers, and a handful of 155mm howitzers.
Various support units were also deployed, as well as significant numbers of Argentine Air Force troops to operate aircraft and air defense units at Stanley airport and outlying air fields.
NEXT PART FOUR: ARGENTINE AIR FORCE
Don’t forget to check out the http://www.sinodefenceforum.com/general-pictures/world-picture-day-7025.html
I will now get back to bottling my Malbec
Argentine Forces
The Argentine armed forces had not fought a significant external war since 1934. One of the oddities of this war was that much of Argentina’s armed forces were organized along British lines, and much of their equipment was virtually identical to that of Britain.
Argentina was in the midst of a serious border dispute with Chile at the time, known as the Beagle Channel conflict. This meant that a significant faction of the nation’s forces and better trained and equipped troops were committed to defending against a very possible conflict with Chile. Also the two nations came to the brink of war in 1978. The conflict was averted by Papal intervention. However, border tensions where high and skirmished where not uncommon
Naval Forces
The Argentine Navy was mostly a mix of surplus US Navy vessels and ships bought either new or used from Britain.
Surface Forces
1. Carrier forces - The flagship of the Argentine Navy was the ARA (Armada de la República Argentina) 25 de Mayo, a Colossus class carrier formally of the Royal Navy. Unlike the powerful attack carriers in the US Navy, this small carrier had a tiny air group consisting of mostly some 16 A-4Q Skyhawk’s and 6 S-2E Trackers. Further, the ship had older radar and sensors and was nearing the end of her useful life. It would be reasonable to presume that Argentina maintained the carrier more for reasons of national prestige than for any genuine military value it had.
ARA 25 de Mayo
2. Cruiser - The ARA General Belgrano was formerly the (USS Phoenix CL-56 and the only vessel to survive the attack on Pearl Harbor without damage), a Brooklyn class light cruiser armed with five triple turrets of 6” guns. Updated with French MM38 Exocet anti-ship missiles, she had considerable anti-ship capability, and her gun armament could have been devastating to British forces ashore.
ARA General Belgrano
3. Destroyers and Corvettes
1. Type 42 Destroyer - Argentina owned two Type 42 guided missile destroyers virtually identical to the Sheffield class the British deployed to the Falkland/Malvinas. Armed with the Sea Dart missile system, ARA Hercules and Santisima Trinidad were primarily tasked as escorts for the ARA 25 de Mayo forming Task Group 79.1. These were by far the most modern ships in the Argentine fleet.
Type 42 Destroyer
2. Sumner/Gearing Destroyer - The ARA Hipolito Bouchard and Pierdrabuena were former US Sumner class destroyers. They were tasked to serve as escorts for the ARA General Belgrano forming Task Group 79.3.
Gearing Class Destroyer
3. D’Estienne_d’Orves Corvettes - Corvettes are smaller warships, slightly smaller than frigates. ARA Drummond, Guerrico, and Granville formed Task Group 79.4. These small ships were intended for inshore anti-submarine warfare and patrol. They were relatively modern ships, but not intended for long duration offshore operations.
4. Amphibious Forces - The primary amphibious warfare ship was the ARA Cabo San Antonio, a Tank Landing Ship, or LST built in Argentina based on the US Desoto County Class.
5. Miscellaneous craft - Argentina also operated several small patrol craft, many of which were former US Navy auxiliary tugs.
6. Auxiliaries and merchant craft- Much as Britain supplemented its forces with fleet auxiliaries and pressed merchant ships into service, Argentina used its own merchant fleet to support operations, as blockade runners, and some fishing vessels were used as spy trawlers to locate the British task force as it made its way south.
Submarine Force
1. The ARA San Luis was a modern German made Type 209 diesel electric submarine. A second Type 209 submarine, the ARA Salta was not operational at the time of the war, since it was still under construction. The Type 209 is a very quiet and advanced submarine they were one of the best diesel electric submarines at that time.
Type 209
2. The ARA Santa Fe was the former USS Catfish (SS-339), a US WWII fleet boat that had been modernize through the GUPPY program. The GUPPYs were long range boats best suited to blue water operations, but were already badly obsolete by the 1980s. They vessel was used to secretly transport special forces to coastal operations
Guppy Class Submarine
Air Forces
The various air arms of the Argentine military were to play a pivotal role in the Falkland/Malvinas campaign and their order of battle will be the subject of our next instalment of this post.
Ground Forces
The Argentine Army was organized and equipped largely along the same lines as the British Army. Its officers and senior NCOs were long service professionals, but more than half of its enlisted personnel were short service draftees. Annually, year groups of 19 year old men were called up for 24 months of service. The short period of active duty meant that few lower enlisted troops had the experience to be considered properly trained. Basic training in most armies may only take a couple months, but it takes a couple years to make a truly proficient infantryman.
Further, the threat of war with Chile over the Beagle crisis meant that many of Argentina’s best units (volunteer army) were unavailable to serve in the Falkland/Malvinas. So instead of forces trained for cold wet climates in remote areas, units from northern, tropical Argentina were sent to the islands. Further, because of a lack of shipping, virtually all troops were flown into the Falkland/Malvinas. This meant that while large numbers of troop units were on hand, very few of those units had the vehicles, clothing and equipment they needed. In essence, it was an unbalanced force. Large numbers of infantrymen without transport or heavy supporting arms are almost more a liability than an effective combat force. This is because they are not trained as infantry, but as mobile forces. Without the element of mobility these troops are now static and cannot be fully utilized.
The initial seizure of the Falkland/Malvinas was made by a Special Forces units followed by a force of roughly 300 Argentine marines in 20 LVTP-7 amphibious assault vehicles. They quickly overwhelmed the 84 Royal Marines stationed on the islands
Argentine Special Forces guard British prisoners on Stanly Beach[/I]
But as it became clear that Britain intended to regain control of the islands. The junta deployed to the islands roughly a divisional sized force consisting of:
1. The 3rd Mechanized Brigade
2. The 10th Mechanized Brigade
As noted, since these troops had to be flown in, they left their vehicles behind, and in effect were foot mobile only.
Supporting artillery units of the 3rd Artillery group were also deployed, using towed 105mm howitzers, and a handful of 155mm howitzers.
Various support units were also deployed, as well as significant numbers of Argentine Air Force troops to operate aircraft and air defense units at Stanley airport and outlying air fields.
NEXT PART FOUR: ARGENTINE AIR FORCE
Don’t forget to check out the http://www.sinodefenceforum.com/general-pictures/world-picture-day-7025.html
I will now get back to bottling my Malbec