Caco:
Very many thanks for the link to Chris Parry's lecture.
On 'The Ever Growing Helo Photo Thread' page 14 there is a better view of the painting he refers to, showing the depth charge attack on the Santa Fe. As he says, it's used some artistic licence as the sub was almost submerged at the time and the vis was about half a mile. He describes the clamour for a piece of the action very well - I suppose that anyone who gets the ears of the Press first (they were onboard HMS Endurance I think) is half way towards getting their participation recognised, rightly or wrongly. In C16's photo of Humphrey you can see a (hopefully inert) Mk 11 depth charge on the starboard carrier. The aircraft we used in Antrim Flight back about 1972 was called Kaboubi after the winged camel in the Arabian Nights.
The standard of Ian Stanley's flying to get the SAS off the glacier after the two Junglie aircraft had crashed was quite outstanding. He had ditched off Portland a few years before and had the RAF exchange officer, Squadron Leader John Findlater, in the back, as well as John's relief (Gerry Gerrard) who was receiving a handover. He would have gained double points for two crabs in one ditching
but luckily all escaped safely. Gerry had a difficult escape though, so in true naval fashion of shutting the stable door etc
he was promptly sent off to the 'Dunker' to learn how to do it properly. The ASW pilots had the advantage over the 'Junglies' of spending a lot of time flying on instruments but I think the Junglies had more fun...
I would strongly recommend Chris Parry's book 'Down South'. He gets the version of the Wessex wrong in his talk as a Mk1 - it was a Mk3 - but the first of the County Class destroyers did carry Mk 1s. There was a story that the naval architects didn't know how big the Wessex would be as Westland hadn't built one at that stage. They therefore designed the hangar to take a Sikorsky S58, which the Wessex would be modelled on. When it came to putting the first Wessex in the first ship's hangar it was found to be too high by a couple of inches, so could only be inserted with the tyres partially deflated - the hangar doors had to be re-designed. Also the awkward positioning of the hangar was due to the need to keep the Sea Slug launcher and its guidance radar transmitter as close together as possible. If the missile passed through the guidance beam too fast it would exit the beam on the other side and be lost.
Here are some photos of Antrim's sister ship Glamorgan and the damage done by the land launched Exocet which hit her. It penetrated the deck just outside the hangar and went into the galley and canteen below. The big radar bin-like aerial in front of the Flight Deck is the Sea Slug guidance radar. The missile launcher itself is aft of the Flight Deck. Glamorgan's part in the war is told in the late Ian Inskip's book 'Ordeal by Exocet'. He was her navigating officer during the conflict and it's another good read.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/obituaries/2 ... he-falkla/
- Glamorgan damage 3.jpg (172.99 KiB) Viewed 1568 times
- Glamorgan damage 1.jpg (276.28 KiB) Viewed 1568 times
- Glamorgan damage 2.jpg (268.55 KiB) Viewed 1568 times