quote:

Originally posted by Mark:
I'm surprised no one has mentioned the Exocet incidents yet, IIRC there was at least one if not more RN ships that got hit by them, then the Exocets failed to explode, then the engines of the missiles caught fire and the ship burned and sank anyway? Anyone remember the fine details?

One of the British ships had an aluminum superstructure. Aluminum melts at 1100 F°.
one the fire got hot the ship had no chance.

In one of the attacks an Exocet was fired at a British warship which fired chaff like the RBOC or super RBOC. The ship turned into the chaff cloud and basically disappeared radar wise.
In the mean time a ship behind the Brit frigate picked up the threat aircraft. An antiaircraft missile went whizzing over the frigate right after the Exocet missed and hit one of the Argentinean planes.

Deerdogs, the delayed response I was referring to was the time it took the invasion fleet to arrive in the Falklands. Certainly the Vulcan attacks took place earlier, but I interpreted them as a "political" act designed to let the Argies know that we were serious about defending the Falklands. The fleet seemed in no hurry to arrive. Not faulting that as I suspect that the Brits were desperately trying to avoid a fight.
I remember reading reports that some were criticizing the reaction you refer to as somewhat "jingoistic".
Peter.