Eagle, I don't want to form an alliance anymore.

"Ah, yes, not everything we've accumulated has been in vain. And from now on, as long as we keep moving forward, the road will continue to extend—"

"Whoosh—!!! Enemy attack—!!"

Suddenly, several Argentine planes appeared in the distance, flying at a height of less than fifty meters, skimming the sea surface, their engine exhaust almost licking the spray from the waves! At this altitude, it would be almost impossible for the British fleet's air search radar to detect them—the sea clutter would completely drown out the aircraft's echoes.

A few minutes earlier, the Argentine plane pulled up its nose at a position of about fifty nautical miles and climbed to an altitude of about 150 meters, turning on its onboard radar for a quick search in less than fifteen seconds.

This leap was detected by the HMS Glasgow destroyer in the British task force 300 kilometers away. The Glasgow's air search radar picked up two signals that appeared to be aerial targets in the window of those ten-odd seconds, and the duty officer immediately reported to the fleet air defense command on the HMS Invincible.

The air defense coordinator on the Invincible glanced at the report and then set it aside. There had already been a false alarm that morning—a flock of albatrosses flying low over the sea had triggered a destroyer's radar warning—and after all that trouble, nothing had come of it. He didn't want to repeat that embarrassing experience.

The radar crew of HMS Glasgow continued to monitor that area and detected the signal again when the Argentine aircraft made its second climb to lock onto the final target. This time, the British ship's electronic warfare equipment also received the characteristic signal of the Exocet missile's onboard radar entering search mode.

However, the air defense coordinator on the Invincible still classified the warning as a false alarm.

As the missiles launched by the Argentine aircraft flew toward HMS Sheffield, HMS Glasgow, which was nearby, attempted to intercept the incoming Exocet missiles with its Beacon anti-aircraft missiles, but the launch system malfunctioned at the most critical moment—the missiles remained motionless on the launch pad.

HMS Yarmous, located on the flank of HMS Glasgow, launched a cloud of chaff. The first Exocet missile was lured off course by the chaff and plunged into the sea.

But the second one didn't fool them.

Throughout the entire incident, the electronic warfare system of HMS Sheffield was malfunctioning. The subsequent investigation report attributed the cause to electromagnetic interference between the ship's satellite communication terminals and electronic warfare equipment, which significantly reduced the electronic warfare system's reception capability when satellite phones were in use.

That afternoon, HMS Sheffield was sending a routine report to London via satellite phone. In other words, for the few minutes that the Exocet missile was hurtling towards it, this multi-million pound modern destroyer was essentially blind!

Then, about four seconds before the Exocet missile hit, the captain and bosun of HMS Sheffield saw a white contrail shooting straight down from the horizon.

"OMG—"

The explosion engulfed everything.

The Exocet missile struck the HMS Sheffield amidships at Mach 0.9. Although the warhead's fuse failed to ignite, the remaining rocket fuel ignited other materials upon impact, triggering an uncontrollable fire. Flames spread from the point of impact to both sides, and the aluminum superstructure amidships began to soften and deform under the intense heat. Thick black smoke billowed into the sky, visible from tens of kilometers away.

Twenty sailors died in the explosion and fire, and another twenty-four were seriously injured. After several hours of damage control efforts, the acting captain was forced to order the ship abandoned. HMS Sheffield drifted and burned at sea for six days before finally sinking.

Two other missiles from the Argentine Air Force were fired at two other targets in the same wave of attacks—one was deflected by chaff, and the other struck the deck of the Type 21 corvette Azur, which sank into the South Atlantic in less than half an hour.

The attack formation had exhausted all its missiles, and the attack aircraft immediately returned to base under the cover of Mirage fighters, leaving the Royal Navy to clean up the mess.

On this day, the Argentinians inflicted the Royal Navy's worst single-day losses since World War II.

"The British entered this war with a naive illusion that the Royal Navy of the British Empire was still the unchallenged world hegemon of the Victorian era," Slava commented after learning of the battle report.

When the news reached Britain through the BBC, the entire nation was shocked—Thatcher reportedly remained silent for a full two minutes at the emergency wartime cabinet meeting at 10 Downing Street, which is almost unimaginable for a politician known for her eloquence.

The British have finally realized that this Falklands crisis is not just a diplomatic spat, but a real war in which people will die.

Sigrún has taught at the Iceland University of the Arts as a part-time lecturer since and was Dean of the Department of Fine Art from -. In – she held a research position at Reykjavík Art Museum focusing on the role of women in Icelandic art. She studied fine art at the Icelandic College of Arts and Crafts and at Pratt Institute, New York, and holds BA and MA degrees in art history and philosophy from the University of Iceland. Sigrún lives and works in Iceland.

Over the next two weeks, bad news kept pouring in.

In mid-May, the Argentine Air Force launched a massive air strike against the British task force, including Super Étendard attack aircraft carrying Exocet missiles, as well as a large number of Skyhawk and Kinzhal fighter-bombers that used conventional bombs for ultra-low-altitude attacks.

Argentine pilots learned a key tactic from the painful lessons of the first week of the war: using extremely low-altitude flight to hide in the radar clutter on the sea surface, and only climbing into the attack route at the last moment, thus reducing the radar warning time of British warships to tens of seconds or even less.

The cost of this near-suicidal attack tactic was enormous—Argentine Air Force fighters and attack aircraft suffered heavy losses under the combined attack of British Harrier fighters and shipborne air defense missiles. More than a dozen Skyhawk attack aircraft were shot down, and several Kinzhals failed to return. The pilot casualty rate was so high that the generals in Buenos Aires had to take several deep breaths before opening their folders in front of the battle reports every morning.

But they also caused the British a lot of trouble.

On May 21, the day the British launched their amphibious landing at San Carlos Harbour on East Falkland Island, the Argentine Air Force launched an air raid on the landing area. The Type 21 frigate HMS Daring was hit by two bombs and sank. Another frigate, HMS Antelope, was hit by a delayed-fuze bomb and exploded at night, breaking in two.

On May 25 – Argentina’s National Day – the Type 25 destroyer Coventry capsized and sank after being hit by three bombs. On the same day, the merchant ship Atlantic Transporter was hit by an Exocet missile and caught fire, with its helicopter and a large amount of supplies reduced to ashes.

The British lost several warships in three weeks, with several others severely damaged – a task force 8,000 miles from home and without any shore-based air support was nearing its breaking point!

Every sunken warship means one less node in the air defense network, one weaker protection of the landing zone, and one whose odds for Thatcher's political gamble are gradually worsening.

But the blow that truly changed the course of the war occurred on May 28.

------

The weather was terrible that day. A winter storm was approaching in the South Atlantic, with waves reaching four or five meters high. The gray clouds were very low, and visibility was less than ten kilometers.

This kind of weather is both an obstacle and an opportunity for Argentine pilots.

Poor visibility means that the visual warning range of British warships is significantly reduced, while clouds can provide additional cover.

The Argentine naval air force had used up most of its Exocet missile reserves over the past three weeks, leaving only four AM39 missiles in its depot. After consulting with the air force commander all night, Admiral Anaya made a desperate decision—to use all four remaining Exocet missiles in a single attack, targeting the core of the British task force.

The God of Sports.

HMS Hermes was the true flagship and core of the task force – it carried most of the aircraft of the entire Harrier squadron and a group of anti-submarine helicopters. If it were sunk or severely damaged to the point of being unable to continue fighting, the entire British military operation in the South Atlantic would immediately collapse, because the remaining HMS Invincible could not possibly undertake all the air combat missions on its own!

The Royal Navy was well aware of this, which is why HMS Hermes was always deployed at a distance from the Falklands, surrounded by an air defense barrier composed of multiple destroyers and frigates—making it virtually impossible to penetrate this barrier and hit the carrier itself.

But that's only almost.

On the morning of May 28, the last few Super Étendard attack aircraft took off from Rio Grande Air Base, with Argentina's last four Exocet missiles hanging under their wings.

With aerial refueling support from Argentine Air Force transport planes, they flew southeast, accompanied by four Skyhawk attack aircraft as escorts and auxiliary attack forces, and two Mirage fighters performing high-altitude decoy missions—their job was to deliberately expose themselves at high altitudes to lure British Sea Harrier fighters and create a valuable attack window for the Super Étendard formation.

The latest satellite reconnaissance data provided by the Soviet Union showed that the HMS Hermes carrier strike group was currently located about 150 nautical miles east of the Falklands, heading northwest at a speed of 12 knots. This position was farther than any previous attack mission carried out by the Argentine pilots. The Super Étendard's range had been pushed to its limit, and there was almost no fuel left for the return flight—meaning that if the pilots encountered any unforeseen circumstances during the attack that caused delays, they might not be able to return home.

But no one raised any objections.

The first air strike group entered preparation phase at a distance of approximately sixty nautical miles from the British fleet. Two Mirage fighters, as planned, activated their radar and transponders at high altitude, deliberately allowing their signals to be detected by the British fleet. As expected, the British air defense command reacted immediately, with two Sea Harriers scrambling from the deck of HMS Hermes to attack the two high-altitude targets—while the Super Étendard formation seized the opportunity to strike from another direction at sea level.

At a distance of approximately thirty nautical miles from the target, the three Super Étendards simultaneously pulled up their noses for a final search. Immediately, a dense cluster of echoes appeared on the onboard radar screens—the air defense shield of the British carrier strike group, with at least five or six large targets closely packed together. One of them had a significantly larger radar cross-section than the others—that was HMS Hermes!

"boom--!"

Four white contrails shot out almost simultaneously from near the sea surface, heading towards the British fleet. After launching, the attack aircraft immediately dove back to sea level, turned around, and returned to base. Their mission was over; everything else was left to the missiles.

This time, Britain's air defense system reacted much faster than it did that day with HMS Sheffield.

The outer escort ships detected the incoming missile signals immediately, and Sea Beacon and Sea Wolf surface-to-air missiles were launched simultaneously from multiple warships, with chaff clouds spreading like a metallic blizzard over the fleet. However, the saturation attack of four missiles coming from different angles simultaneously pushed the air defense system to its limit.

The first Exocet missile was intercepted and destroyed by a Seawolf missile launched from a Type 22 frigate at a distance of about five kilometers from the fleet.

The second chaff was lured off course, passing about 200 meters from the stern of a destroyer before plunging into the sea.

The third missile flew over a frigate at a height of less than three meters above the sea surface. The frigate's close-in weapon system was unable to turn in time and watched helplessly as the missile flew over its head—then it hit the Hermes' port side amidships, penetrating the hull about four meters above the waterline.

"boom!"

One hundred and sixty-five kilograms of high explosives detonated inside the ship. The shockwave penetrated two layers of bulkheads, creating a hole about three meters in diameter in the middle of the port side. Seawater immediately began to rush in through the breach.

The fourth Exocet missile was deflected by the steel blast deflector at the end of the flight deck at the stern of the HMS Hermes, changing its angle. Instead of penetrating the hangar directly, it struck the superstructure on the starboard side of the stern at an angle. The warhead detonated upon impact, and the explosion destroyed part of the flight deck at the stern and the aviation fuel lines below, causing a violent fire.

Aviation fuel gushed from the severed pipelines, creating a sea of ​​orange-red flames at the stern, while a thick column of black smoke rose like a giant tombstone against the gray sky.

But the Hermes was not sunk.

This 30-year-old aircraft carrier demonstrated the robustness of the British shipbuilding industry of her time—her subsea armor and compartmentalized structure withstood the first missile strike, and the damage control team in the bilge successfully sealed watertight compartments in waist-deep water to prevent further flooding.

To maintain balance, HMS Hermes had to flood its starboard side, and its speed quickly dropped to 10 knots. Moreover, the fire at the stern burned for nearly four hours before being completely extinguished, a large section of the flight deck was destroyed, severely limiting the ship's aircraft take-off and landing capabilities, and a considerable portion of the ship's aviation fuel reserves were also lost.

The Hermes is now unable to maneuver at high speeds to evade further attacks, and if the Argentine Air Force launches another attack, the Hermes could very well be sunk.

After assessing the damage, Captain Middleton requested permission from Fleet Commander Rear Admiral Woodward to withdraw from the battle. Rear Admiral Woodward ordered HMS Hermes to retreat, postponed the landing operation, and immediately sent a battle report to the homeland.

...

That afternoon at the Ministry of Defense in Moscow, satellite images of the heavily damaged Hermes were quickly presented to everyone.

"Great! Hermes hasn't sunk, but he's basically useless now." Slava happily opened a bottle of soda to celebrate.

"What about Argentina?" Director Nian asked.

"That's about right. Only one Super Étendard is still operational, all the Exocet missiles have been used up, and about a third of the Skyhawk and Kinzhal have been lost. We are no longer capable of launching anti-ship attacks against the British fleet in the short term—but we should still be able to provide ground support."

"So both sides have reached their limits."

“Yes,” Slava put the soda bottle in the trash can, “now it’s up to Thatcher to choose.”

...

10 Downing Street.

The emergency meeting of the wartime cabinet lasted from 5 p.m. until 11 p.m., with only a 20-minute break for sandwiches and coffee. The meeting room was filled with smoke—Thatcher herself did not smoke, but Defense Secretary Nott and several military generals were smoking heavily, and no one was in the mood to care.

On the table lay a nautical chart of the South Atlantic and the latest damage assessment report of the task force.

First Sea Lord Admiral Leach spoke first:

"Prime Minister, I believe that continuing with the original operational plan under the current circumstances carries an extremely high risk. The Hermes cannot maintain full air combat capability in the theater, and if the Invincible is left to handle air defense and ground support alone, our Harrier sorties will be reduced by more than forty percent. If Argentina receives new missile supplies and launches a second saturation attack—"

“No, they won’t have any new missiles,” Thatcher interrupted him. “Intelligence assessments indicate that Argentina’s Exocet missiles are almost exhausted, and the French have confirmed that they have cut off all possible supply lines. They only have one Super Étendard left, and they’ve lost a third of their air force’s attack aircraft. The Argentinians are closer to their limits than we are!”

"But Prime Minister, the problem is not whether Argentina has missiles left, the problem is whether we can afford to suffer any more losses."

"Between the loss we can bear and the humiliation we cannot bear, I choose the former," Thatcher said resolutely.

The meeting room was quiet for a few seconds, with only the occasional sound of cars passing by on the streets of London outside the window.

Thatcher stood up and walked to the nautical chart. The blue pins marking the positions of British warships and the red pins marking the Argentine positions cast tiny shadows in the lamplight. Her finger landed on a bay called San Carlos on East Falkland Island—the amphibious landing site planned for the task force.

“I order you to continue the landing operation,” she said. “Hermes will withdraw to a safe distance for emergency repairs, and HMS Invincible will move forward to take over the air cover mission. General Leach, I need you to tell me—can the Royal Navy do this?”

Leach looked at her.

“The Royal Navy can do it, Prime Minister. But it must be done quickly, before the winter storms in the Southern Hemisphere fully arrive. If we delay for another two weeks, the weather will make any amphibious operation impossible.”

“Then let’s not delay any longer.” Thatcher stared intently at Leach.

This woman risked her political life a year ago to push through her economic reforms that left three million people unemployed, and now she is risking the lives of thousands of British soldiers to reclaim an archipelago that most Britons can't even find on a map.

Some say she's crazy, some say she's an iron lady, but whatever the reason, she's definitely someone who won't back down from the edge of a cliff.

Perhaps it was because she knew there was no way forward.

Chapter 21 The Fifth Middle East War

"Down with the evil and dictatorial Argentine military government! The flag of the British Empire will forever fly over the South Atlantic!"

With the official media's extensive pronouncements, Thatcher's gamble began, but she only won half the bet.

Argentina has indeed exhausted its Exocet missiles, and only one Super Étendard remains, sitting in a hangar in Rio Grande awaiting spare parts. In the short term, its ability to launch large-scale anti-ship strikes against the British fleet is reduced to zero.

However, the Argentine Air Force was far from running out of ammunition and supplies. It still had dozens of Skyhawk attack aircraft and Kinzhal fighter-bombers that were still operational. While these aircraft, armed with iron bombs and rockets, could not attack aircraft carriers, they were more than capable of striking landing zones and ground troops.

More importantly, the severe damage to HMS Hermes reduced the air power of the British task force by nearly half. HMS Invincible had to shoulder all air defense and ground support missions alone, which meant that the number of Harrier sorties per day plummeted from more than forty to just over twenty. Moreover, the loiter time of each Harrier was shortened because it had to travel a greater distance to and from the Falklands. For its own safety, HMS Invincible had to retreat to a position further away from the Falklands for patrol, which directly increased the time it took for carrier-based aircraft to reach the combat zone.

Despite having their air superiority weakened to this extent, the British still decided to land.

On the night of May 21, off the north coast of East Falkland Island, in the waters off San Carlos.

More than 4,000 British soldiers from the 3rd Royal Marines Commando Brigade, the 2nd and 3rd Parachute Battalions climbed down rope nets from landing ships and requisitioned civilian ferries in the darkness, stepped into the cold landing craft, and headed toward the dark coastline.

In May, it was already late autumn in the Southern Hemisphere. The nighttime temperature hovered around zero degrees Celsius. The wind from the sea, carrying salt and water vapor, lashed against the soldiers' faces. Everyone's fingers were frozen stiff, and everyone was pessimistic about the future of the war.

However, good fortune seemed to favor the British first. The landing went surprisingly smoothly. The Argentine defenders had only deployed a small number of outposts around San Carlos, and the British had taken control of the beach and begun to establish beachhead positions before dawn.

Brigadier General Thomson inspected the landing zone at dawn and formulated the next operational plan:

"First, advance south to capture the settlements of Darwin and Gusgren to eliminate the threat to the flank, then concentrate forces to advance eastward and take Stanley Port directly."

But as the sun rose, the Argentine Air Force arrived.

The aerial battle that broke out over the waters of San Carlos after daybreak was later known by the participants as the "Bomb Alley."

From May 21 to 25, the Argentine Air Force launched more than 200 air raids on the San Carlos landing site and surrounding waters. Pilots took off from air bases on the mainland, crossed more than 600 kilometers of sea to reach the Falklands theater, and dropped bombs at extremely low altitudes, almost touching the masts, amidst a hail of British anti-aircraft fire before turning back. During the entire attack, their aircraft were exposed to British fire for only a few dozen seconds, but those few dozen seconds determined who lived and who died.

The courage of the Argentine pilots is beyond question.

Piloting Skyhawk and Dagger aircraft without modern electronic countermeasures, they flew at extremely low altitudes over the sea to evade British radar and anti-aircraft missiles. At the last moment, they would suddenly pull up over the mast of the warship, drop bombs, and then dive away. The margin for error in the entire maneuver was almost zero; the slightest mistake would result in the destruction of the aircraft and the loss of life.

During the five days on the Bomb Trail, the Argentine Air Force lost nearly thirty aircraft! The high pilot casualty rate meant that every morning when the military leadership in Buenos Aires opened the battle reports, it was like reading an ever-growing list of obituaries.

但他们也给英国人造成了真实的伤害。21型护卫舰布莱德利号在5月21日被两枚炸弹击中后沉没，同级舰羚羊号在次日被一枚延时引信炸弹炸成两截断沉，42型驱逐舰考文垂号在5月25日被三枚炸弹命中后倾覆沉没。

However, the most ironic of these losses were those bombs that failed to explode.

Argentine pilots were forced to drop bombs at extremely low altitudes to avoid anti-aircraft fire. Free-fall bombs require a certain descent distance to unlock the fuse. If the bombing altitude was too low, the fuse would not unlock in time, and the bomb would become an expensive lump of iron.

During Operation Bomb Trail, many British warships were hit by bombs but the bombs failed to detonate. These duds were embedded in the hulls and no one dared to touch them. It took bomb disposal experts a long time to remove them.

This fatal fuse problem could have plagued the Argentine Air Force until the end of the war—if it weren't for the BBC doing them a huge favor.

After receiving an official briefing from the Ministry of Defence, a BBC war correspondent mentioned in his news report that a British warship had been attacked by Argentine bombs, but "many bombs failed to detonate."

This news was broadcast around the world via shortwave radio—yes, including Argentina.

When the Buenos Aires Air Force staff heard the news, they were first incredulous, then overjoyed: