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Osprey Duel #81
Sea Harrier FRS 1 vs Mirage III/Dagger: South Atlantic 1982
Following Argentina's military operation to take possession of the Falkland Islands/Islas Malvinas, British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher's government launched a major naval operation to return them to British rule. Defending the Royal Navy task force were two small squadrons totalling 20 Sea Harriers (SHARs). Initial clashes between SHARs and Argentine Mirages and Daggers on 1 May 1982 failed to eliminate the Sea Harrier defenders. FAA fighter-bomber pilots relied on daring and courageous ultra-low level attacks, frequently escaping the Sea Harrier's limited capabilities, against Royal Navy warships and auxiliaries, causing considerable damage during Operation Corporate, the large-scale amphibious operation to repossess the islands.
Publishing 35 years after the end of the conflict, this fully illustrated volume offers a balanced and objective examination of the SHAR and the Argentine Mirage and Dagger aircraft, highlighting the attributes of both and the skills and courage of the pilots flying them.
Publishing 35 years after the end of the conflict, this fully illustrated volume offers a balanced and objective examination of the SHAR and the Argentine Mirage and Dagger aircraft, highlighting the attributes of both and the skills and courage of the pilots flying them.
80 pages, Paperback
Published September 19, 2017
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About the author
Douglas C. Dildy
18 books1 followerDouglas C. Dildy is a US Air Force Academy graduate and retired US Air Force colonel with a degree in history. He attended the US Armed Forces Staff College and USAF Air War College and holds a Master's Degree in Political Science.
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
June 17, 2018
I found this book interesting and well-produced making it a worthy addition to the excellent Osprey Duels series not least because it deals with non-US aircraft.
However, I could not help feeling disappointed due in part to the lack of the side-view art other Osprey books are well-known for. The double-page arty depictions of the engagements are all very well but in my mind not a substitute for the latter and do not work as well in the perfect bound book I borrowed from Jim last week. He's got my tank duel book on the Sherman Firefly vs Tiger so we may hear his opinion of that some time.
I would like to see the paint jobs and unit markings of the participants and learn of their fate. Of course, most participants are now in pieces since both sides had chosen to move on their air forces to other aircraft. Many Daggers and other FAA planes ended up in the waters around the islands sadly along with their pilots in this shameful conflict that should never have happened. SHARs and RAF Harriers had other battle honours but none escaped the scrapman or museums. In fact, it is doubtful the JSF is the complete answer to the Navy's loss of these fine machines who proved the salvation of British retaking of the islands. A better demo of short-sightedness would be hard to find outside these pages.
Another point for me was that the "meat of the matter" the respective performances of the protagonists was not really presented in this book. In fact it read to me more of a chronology of attacks and responses rather than how one aircraft fared against its rival. There are quotes aplenty but unlike Sharky Ward's book (a must read IMHO) there is nothing much about tactical failings and wash-up of just how good each was at the tasks required of them. Nor have they chosen to include tables of "kills" or analysis of, for example, guns vs missiles, etc.
This is all important due to the lack of comparable dogfighting examples involving high-performance jets outside of Vietnam and the Middle East (also covered in this series). Ironic and shameful that it should come down to British vs French/Israeli aircraft and weapons. Maybe this is a one-off of course, hopefully never recur but as a demonstration of the efficacy or not of these systems the taxpayer is owed explanation and exposition for things done on our behalf.
There is also the key point that this war had many firsts such as the combat debut of a VSTOL fighter against a second generation supersonic fighter/bomber opponent. It would appear from reports herein in that the vaunted "viffing" had less to do with the success than the Lima version of the ubiquitous Sidewinder AAM (its combat debut).
However, it does lay to rest a couple of greyer areas in the downings of certain aircraft thus completing the clarification of the fate of enemy aircraft but we are likely never to know why the RN lost a pair of patrolling SHARs other than it was not enemy action (quite why an investigation let alone retrieval of bodies and wreckage was not staged I have no idea; two incredibly brave young men surely deserved at least this).
However, I could not help feeling disappointed due in part to the lack of the side-view art other Osprey books are well-known for. The double-page arty depictions of the engagements are all very well but in my mind not a substitute for the latter and do not work as well in the perfect bound book I borrowed from Jim last week. He's got my tank duel book on the Sherman Firefly vs Tiger so we may hear his opinion of that some time.
I would like to see the paint jobs and unit markings of the participants and learn of their fate. Of course, most participants are now in pieces since both sides had chosen to move on their air forces to other aircraft. Many Daggers and other FAA planes ended up in the waters around the islands sadly along with their pilots in this shameful conflict that should never have happened. SHARs and RAF Harriers had other battle honours but none escaped the scrapman or museums. In fact, it is doubtful the JSF is the complete answer to the Navy's loss of these fine machines who proved the salvation of British retaking of the islands. A better demo of short-sightedness would be hard to find outside these pages.
Another point for me was that the "meat of the matter" the respective performances of the protagonists was not really presented in this book. In fact it read to me more of a chronology of attacks and responses rather than how one aircraft fared against its rival. There are quotes aplenty but unlike Sharky Ward's book (a must read IMHO) there is nothing much about tactical failings and wash-up of just how good each was at the tasks required of them. Nor have they chosen to include tables of "kills" or analysis of, for example, guns vs missiles, etc.
This is all important due to the lack of comparable dogfighting examples involving high-performance jets outside of Vietnam and the Middle East (also covered in this series). Ironic and shameful that it should come down to British vs French/Israeli aircraft and weapons. Maybe this is a one-off of course, hopefully never recur but as a demonstration of the efficacy or not of these systems the taxpayer is owed explanation and exposition for things done on our behalf.
There is also the key point that this war had many firsts such as the combat debut of a VSTOL fighter against a second generation supersonic fighter/bomber opponent. It would appear from reports herein in that the vaunted "viffing" had less to do with the success than the Lima version of the ubiquitous Sidewinder AAM (its combat debut).
However, it does lay to rest a couple of greyer areas in the downings of certain aircraft thus completing the clarification of the fate of enemy aircraft but we are likely never to know why the RN lost a pair of patrolling SHARs other than it was not enemy action (quite why an investigation let alone retrieval of bodies and wreckage was not staged I have no idea; two incredibly brave young men surely deserved at least this).
October 13, 2023
This would probably be interesting for a modeling enthusiast or an extremely detail-oriented historian, somewhat interesting for someone with general aviation or military history interest, but they are really just informal reference books for specialists and catalogs of events, with a few interesting episodes.
April 3, 2021
Brief but informative.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews