On May 4, 1982, in the South Atlantic, 100 nautical miles north of the Malvinas (Falkland) Islands, a sizable fleet cruised.

British Empire Task Force.

On April 7, the British issued a proclamation to the world: "From 4 o'clock GMT on April 12, the waters around the Falkland Islands (Malvinas) shall be no-sail for 200 nautical miles, and no foreign ships will be allowed to enter." ”

On 28 April, the British went further: "From 11 a.m. GMT on 30 April, the Falkland No Sailing Zone was upgraded to a no-sail zone in the air and sea, and all ships and aircraft entering the area will be attacked by British troops." ”

Two days earlier, at 3 p.m. and almost 4 p.m. on May 2, the British nuclear submarine INS Conqueror had sunk the Argentine cruiser General Belgrano with an old MK14 torpedo outside the no-sail zone in the Falklands. The bloody facts prove that the British are not telling Downing Street political jokes.

The arc of the task force looked like a large onion, well, a large onion that had been cut in half to be exact.

A large onion over 40 nautical miles in size that has been cut in half.

Adopting this "spicy-eyed" defensive formation, Rear Admiral Woodward, the commander of the fleet, can be said to have racked his brains - after all, the British Imperial Navy lacked a long-range air warning capability at all times and all times.

The three Type 42 Sheffield-class destroyers are the outer layer of the onion, the inner layer is a mixture of older destroyers and frigates, the number is four, and the inner point is the two Type 22 Broadsword-class frigates, all of which are designed to protect the innermost "onion core" - the only two aircraft carriers of the British, HMS Hermes and HMS Invincible.

If you look at the entire task force with the concept of modern football created by the British. Then, the task force came up with a 3-4-2 formation with three Type 42 destroyers as the vanguard, four mixed old ships as the midfield, and two Type 22 frigates as the rear guard and goalkeeper. One might ask, "Where's the goal?" ", the goal - of course, "Hermes" and "Invincible".

Yes, that's right! It's a football game where you have to shoot the post to score.

However, this 3-4-2 formation of "one player sent off at the beginning", no matter how you look at it, does not match the "solid defense......

What the? Some people say that the outermost part of the onion should be the Sea Harrier fighter?

Youngster! You're very thoughtful!

Come here!

Three words for you!

Meow meow?

To get back to the point, even if Vice Admiral Nelson is alive, there is nothing he can do, after all, this is what the Royal Navy in the 1980s could only get his hands on with milk.

With the three Type 42 destroyers "Sheffield" on the left, the Coventry on the right, and the "Glasgow" on the right, together serving as the vanguard of the task force, the three good brothers are cleaving the waves in rather difficult sea conditions, and they are about 10 nautical miles away from each other. The "Three Musketeers" were about 17 nautical miles from the second layer of defense behind them.

"Suspicious signals intercepted! The bearing is 010,10! ”

The electronic warfare operator of the CIC combat intelligence center "USS Glasgow" suddenly reported.

"The radome is accurate!" The head of electronic warfare quickly gave instructions.

The signal did not reappear, the air defense radar did not find anything, everything was as if nothing had happened.

"Glasgow" quickly reported this information to the commander of the air defense of the task force on the flagship "Invincible".

Perhaps it was due to the fact that the nervous Royal Navy boys had been making too many fancy false positives and false reports for some time, and the air defense commander on duty made a judgment that was proved absolutely wrong by later history.

Because he said: "This is a deceptive false signal. ”

In fact, this is one of three radar detection signals issued by the "Revenge Bird", a Super Flag attack aircraft to launch Exocet missiles.

A Neptune propeller electronic warfare reconnaissance aircraft that provides early intelligence support for the Super Flag and indirectly guides the attack. It is "walking a tightrope" outside the maximum range of the anti-aircraft missiles of the British task force.

After taking off from the base in Argentina at 9:45 a.m., the "Revenge Bird" super military flag attack plane flew to the target area in accordance with the information transmitted by the Neptune electronic warfare reconnaissance plane. The pilot turned on the automatic guided flight mode of the target on board. Neptune sent the exact location of the target to the base for the last time at 10:35: "52 degrees 33 minutes 55 seconds south latitude, 50 degrees 40 minutes 55 seconds west longitude." ”

The Super Flag two-plane formation began to reduce its altitude 160 nautical miles from the target area, and the Argentine pilots were only 80 meters when they were trained in France. This time in actual combat, the pilot boldly lowered the altitude to 30 meters, and the real sea-skimming flight.

At 10:50 a.m., the "Revenge Bird" Super Flag attack plane, which heard the wind and pounced on the task force, climbed to altitude for the first time from the state of ultra-low-altitude penetration, the radar was turned on, and the target was not found in the established area for the first time. At this time, the Neptune reconnaissance plane had already returned, and the revenge birds could only grope their way towards the target on their own......

The pilot lowered the altitude to about 30 meters, and the pilot's manipulation made the super military flag continue to stick to the sea for about 40 kilometers. And then. The attack aircraft jumped to an altitude of 750 meters, and the radar was turned on for the second time to send out a detection signal; This time, the radar scan, which lasted for several seconds, finally found 4 targets, one large and three small. The pilot lowered the altitude again and turned into a beautiful man who listened quietly - while the pilots were busy feeding valuable target data into the fire control system.

The two revenge birds were now within 40 nautical miles of the Task Force Forward Three Musketeers.

The two brave revenge birds continued their terminal penetration, further narrowing the attack (about 30 nautical miles), then climbed to a height of 160 meters, the last radar was turned on, and finally the target was locked, and the pilot pressed the button to launch the Exocet missile. In the end, the two Super Flags climbed altitude, turned and detached, and began to return home.

At this time, Colonel Salter, the captain of the "Sheffield", the left winger of the task force, happened to be using a satellite phone to talk to London, because of electromagnetic compatibility problems, the ship's Type 966 long-range air warning radar had to be on standby at this time. Even so, the star officer, Lieutenant Colonel Nick Baso, received a report from the CIC Combat Intelligence Center.

"Unidentified aircraft spotted!"

This information comes from the Type 909 radar, which is still working on the machine, and its detection range is relatively close.

"What's the situation?" Lieutenant Colonel Basso had doubts in his mind, because there was a report to follow.

"The target is gone!"

"The target is gone!" A short message, but there can be many interpretations. The first is that the target really disappeared, and secondly, it can also be interpreted as the target is far away, and of course it can also be said to be a false alarm - just like what the air defense commander just said to the "Glasgow".

"There may be anomalies, pay attention to observation." Lieutenant Colonel Basso informed Lieutenant Walpole, who had been designated as a temporary observation post because of the standby of the long-range radar.

Lieutenant Colonel Basso turned around and continued to analyze the situation: is it an enemy plane or a our plane? Or...... Nothing? Another false alarm......

After a while, Captain Walpole, who was looking out on the bridge, really noticed an "anomaly".

Two clouds of flying smoke, accompanied by flashes......

A little earlier than Captain Walpole, it was the electronic reconnaissance equipment on the warship that discovered the anomaly - a directional radar signal from an unknown source locked onto the ship!

The duty officer immediately switched the ship's air defense system to working condition, but it will definitely take time for a whole set of reaction procedures to be carried out. As a result, there is not much real time left for the air defense weapon system to finally solve the problem......

"My God! It's a missile! Captain Walpole exclaimed, as if thunder had risen on the ground.