I have for some time harboured an interest to start a project around the Falklands War (
Guerra de las Malvinas). As a 19 year old I followed the coverage of this conflict on these windswept, bare sub antarctic islands with great interest.
The images of the sinking of the General Belgrano and the Exocet missile strikes on HMS Sheffield and MV Atlantic Conveyor left a deep impression - as have names like Mt Longdon, Two Sisters and Mount Tumbledown. Of course we can name many more moments when the world watched on in awe of the horror of modern warfare.
Anyway, I've had this project percolating away in the background until I recently happened across the inspirational work of Dougie with his first rate painting and basing of 10mm Pendraken miniatures - not to mention his great work on terrain. See:
http://dougieswargamingblog.blogspot.com.au/2015/07/fivecore-company-command-falklands-10mm.html
Dougie's basing is something special too:
http://dougieswargamingblog.blogspot.com.au/2013/11/b-company-2para-falklands-1982-in-10mm.html
So, I've got myself a copy of
Fivecore Company Command and a bag of
Pendraken minis arrived today. Here begins my first 10mm project. There are many challenges ahead not least painting the camouflage uniforms of the British. Stay tuned for more updates.
... and just to follow up on Col's comments below about the Seacat missile systems used during the Falklands, here's a bit of promotional material I tracked down and an interesting link regarding Seacat missile aiming.
http://www.wikiwand.com/en/Talk:Sea_Cat
I was a Seacat Aimer employed at the Seacat Training Dome at HMAS Cerberus when the Falklands were on. We used to get a lot of signal traffic regarding Seacat and other missiles, AARs, Damage Reports etc whilst it was happening. Fascinating but at the same time very sobering.
ReplyDeleteCheers
Col
Facinating role, Col. I can imagine those reports were chilling, indeed! So, the Seacat had to be guided manually to the target? That must have been a tricky job.
ReplyDeleteI'm very new to modern weapon systems but the initial reading I've done around the Falklands air and naval war is very sobering indeed. I remember how unsettling (even for for a civvie safe in front of the TV!) the news coverage about the Exocet missile attacks were. I think the thing I'm getting from reading about the Falklands is how important the actual operational experience of these weapons systems were. It was interesting to hear how they wanted to recover some of the damaged vessels to study missile and bomb damage.
Cheers
Alan
No need to publish this Alan but just a few asides regarding Seacat. That was a great article by the way,I had 8 birds as an Aimer and achieved 4 confirmed hits. Target acquisition was a big problem as were weather conditions. I remember reading one report about a RN aimer (Falklands) picking up an incoming Exocet visually (no radar warning) and initiating a firing by himself. It did not destroy the Exocet but made it hit the ship sideways thus doing a lot less damage than normally would occur. Shorts also marketed a land based triple launcher, TigerCat and a Helicopter mounted version, HeliCat. Not sure who actually used them. The Shorts Rep cam out to the Dome one time and gave us all marketing gear, adverts, stationery etc. I still have my blue silk Seacat tie!
ReplyDelete