OPS Center Episode 7: Naval War Falklands

Thanks very much @grimwolfuk . 😀

18801xp

a great episode the problem with the British ships was the aluminium saves weight for speed but if a fires starts the aluminium cam burn and is difficult to put out. James

60771xp

Yes, @zorg – this was an unfortunate side effect of naval / maritime engineering in the 1970s. Cruise missiles were a big thing, and very very powerful – to the point where people largely stopped putting guns on warships. Electronics became your new armor against guided weapons, and of course point-defense guns and interception SAMs. So no armor on the hulls … which actually made a kind of sense (no armor could really save you from Harpoons, Exocets, Tomahawks, or the Soviet Kingfishers, etc.). The bad side effect was that no armor on the hulls made steel superstructures top-heavy, especially… Read more »

18801xp

and Falkland’s was why the Iona class was dusted off to get back into action was mentioned.

60771xp

Absolutely, @zorg – to be honest they were talking about bringing those four ladies out of retirement for a fourth tour or duty (WW2, Korea, Vietnam previously, although not all four had been brought out for all those conflicts), but the experiences of the Falklands War really provided the impetus to re-commission those ships.

BB61 USS Iowa
BB62 USS New Jersey
BB63 USS Missouri (where the Japanese surrender took place in World War II)
BB64 USS Wisconsin

18801xp

The Wisconsin I don’t remember many stores adout her from the war either was she mostly carrier escort during the war?

60771xp

USS Wisconsin might have been the last one to fire in action, she was certainly bombarding Iraqi positions during Gulf One. I actually knew a guy on one of the Marine teams calling in the fire missions.

18801xp

Ooh I do remember the carrier force she was with got rattled by a large cyclone killing quite a lot of people as well as sinking an crippling a few ships.
She’s a museum ship now.

60771xp

That’s the “Cobra” Typhoon, December 1944.

Three destroyers lost:
USS Hull – 202 dead, 62 survivors
USS Monaghan – 256 dead, 6 survivors
USS Spence – 317 dead, 23 survivors

Damage to dozens of other ship to varying degrees.

In more cheerful news: the four Iowa battleships:

USS Iowa: Museum ship in Los Angeles, California
USS New Jersey: Museum ship in Camden, New Jersey
USS Missouri: Museum ship in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, across the channel from USS Arizona.
USS Wisconsin: Museum ship in Norfolk, Virginia

18801xp

well they’re on standby for the next alien attack?

60771xp

I don’t think so. 😀 Opening the ships as museums is a pretty irrevocable step.
Maybe turn them into space battleships so they can join the Yamato?

18801xp

Lol.

2351xp

ironshield

Another cracker Jim really enjoying these, thanks mate.

60771xp

Thanks very much, @ironshield ! Community feedback is key to keeping a series like this going.

Member

8957xp

Wow! Well done Jim. This is the first time I’ve had 25 minutes to string together, and it was so worth it!

As a teen ‘sitting on my rucksack’ during this conflict, I had a limited view of the conflict, but was ready to go, as Canada was prepared to support this.

Fascinating how all the naval elements mesh. I was cross-trained in air/naval stuff at the time, but never even considered half the factors you mentioned.

60771xp

Thanks very much, @cpauls1 ! We’re three episodes down, one to go (land ops) – I actually just finished my Royal Marine Commando force in Valor & Victory, I hope to test it out in a live stream later today. I’ve run across reports that although the US had to publicly sit this one out because of touchy, tender relationships and tricky geopolitical issues elsewhere in Latin and South America at the time, the Marine Corps amphibious warfare ship USS Iwo Jima was ready to deploy / be loaned to the British if either Hermes or Invincible took serious damage.… Read more »

Member

8957xp

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weapons_of_the_Falklands_War#Infantry_weapons

Amazing job on the graphics @oriskany , as always. I’m curious about the Bren gun counter. Was it really still in service then? We had moved on to the FNC2 at that point, and I assumed the British had gone down that same FAL path.

All the other kit is nostalgically familiar.

10506xp

grimwolfuk

Yep, the Bren was still in use.

60771xp

Thanks, @grimwolfuk . I think I might have the British grenades wrong, but eh … the game values / rules are the same.

Member

8957xp

They look like the M67 frags, which were common enough in NATO at the time, perhaps even universal, like 5.56 and 7.62 ammo.

60771xp

Yep, @cpauls1 – You are correct, those are totally M67s, which may be the problem. Pretty sure the British were using L2A2s at the time (their version of our M36 frag grenade). They jumped from this to the L109 later, so I don’t know if they ever officially used the M67 (or whatever their name for it would have been).

No worries. Nothing that can’t be fixed with ten minutes in Photoshop! 😀 😀 😀

60771xp

Indeed, @cpauls1 – I was a little surprised to see that myself in artwork (Bren gun, slightly tweaked and modernized, from credible historical artists, still in use in 1982 Falklands) and photos. I don’t know how often I’ll be using them in the games, but since I already had the template from WW2 V&V graphics I’d done, it was easy to include. The worst one from graphics perspective was the L9A1 51mm mortar, I had a HELL of a time finding any kind of image on that and even now I’m not 100% sure the one I have is accurate.… Read more »

Member

8957xp

Yup, C6. A lot of painful memories carrying all that stuff: Karl G, M72’s, belts of ammo for the GPMG, and a few rounds for the mortar, not to mention your own load out. I found the term ‘light infantry’ quite ironic. Did the Bren still use .303 ammo, or was it rebored to 7.62?. Seems a pain, logistically speaking, to schlepp an extra calibre of ammo along. I could be wrong but I thought the Sterling was only issued to crews. That was its function in our army, and it seems an odd weapon to hand out to infantry… Read more »

60771xp

Not sure about the modernized Brens, @cpauls1 . I agree it would have made more sense to keep everything at one ammo type (7.62mm NATO standard). I never got to fire an M240 (our name for the C6 / FN MAG). I had my own “come to Jesus moment” with an M60E3 once, though. 🙁 Pro tip, when changing out the barrel, MAKE SURE that locking lug is shoved forward hard and tight again before firing off that first burst afterwards … Stirlings in the Falklands were with a lot of the SAS / SBS and even some of the… Read more »

Member

8957xp

I’m certainly not complaining! Those images are great, and I’m no rivet counter.

Odd that some regiments were using Sterlings as their primary weapon!

60771xp

Certainly no one is complaining, @cpauls1 . 😀 I just get curious, is all. Also, getting ready to start writing the script for Episode 08, when I really should know this material in detail. So I’ve confirmed L2A3 Sterling SMGs in 2nd and 3rd Bn Paras, in addition to the vehicle crewmen,artillery, and engineers you mention. When it comes to Marines, I do see some photos of officers carrying Stirlings – specifically 45 Royal Marine Commando HQ with Bn Co Lt. Col. Andrew Whitehead at Two Sisters, along with officers and his staff and Company COs. Definitely the exception rather… Read more »

Member

700xp

pslemon

I remember when this was happening in the news. Not many people were taking it that seriously until the British ships started to suffer those hits. It seemed surprising at the time.

60771xp

Thanks, @pslemon – indeed, the sinking of the Sheffield and Atlantic Conveyor (and other Exocet hits on other ships that did not sink) caused a pretty major shakeup in the world’s navies. Like I was saying last episode, the Exocet was something of the 1980s “navy boogieman” – with hits on USS Stark, everything that happened in the Falklands, etc. It was a good missile and sold widely, and could be a big “equalizer” to smaller nations who didn’t have large surface or conventional navies. And hey, if they mention it as a major threat in the TOP GUN movie… Read more »

23816xp

torros

From memory the Exocet on HMS Sheffield didn’t even explode. It was the heat of the missile hitting the ship that set the aluminium on fire

60771xp

That is correct, @torros – as mentioned in the episode at 15:25. 😀 😀 😀

Member

2608xp

gladesrunner

I love this whole series. I, like most non-military American young peopled, thought of the Falklands as something on the news that looked like those cool 80’s action movies. The some of the adults were very serious about it, but most were just meh. This series is filling in the shameful gaps in my knowledge.

Though the fun part is the chance it is giving me to play “battleship” and be a Harrier pilot (not a very good one unfortunately.)

60771xp