Today, the 21st of May marks the 30th Anniversary of Operation Sutton, the amphibious landing on beaches around San Carlos Water, on the northwestern coast of East Falkland facing onto Falkland Sound. The bay, known as Bomb Alley by British forces and Death Valley (valle de la Muerte) by the Argentine forces (due to the very heavy anti-aircraft), was the scene of repeated air attacks by low-flying Argentine jets.
To avoid the highest concentration of British air defences, Argentine pilots released ordnance from very low altitude, and hence their bomb fuzes did not have sufficient time to arm before impact. The low release of the dumb bombs (some of which had been sold to the Argentines by the British years earlier) meant that many never exploded, as there was insufficient time in the air for them to arm themselves. A simple free-fall bomb will, during a low altitude release, impact almost directly below the aircraft which is then within the lethal fragmentation zone of the resulting explosion. The pilots where aware of this, but due to the high concentration levels required to avoid SAMs and Anti-Aircraft Artillery (AAA), as well as any British Sea Harriers, many failed to climb to the necessary release point. The problem was solved by the improvised fitting of retarding devices, allowing low-level bombing attacks as employed on 8 June.
To mark this anniversary we've shot this small teaser for the Falklands Mini-Mod with three Mirage IIIEA aircraft attacking the bay at low level while trying to avoid the AA defenses
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Laggy alternative link if YouTube isn't allowed in your country: http://beta.xfire.com/videos/574a5bFinally we would like to show our respect for all thous killed and wounded on both sides of the conflict during this operation 30 years ago and how bravely they fought.
Thanks for reading and don't forget to keep an eye out for more info on this mini-mod
