Patrick Robinson - Ghost Force by Ghost Force (v1.0)

Author:Ghost Force (v1.0) [html] [Force, Ghost]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2011-04-23T19:51:58+00:00

Meanwhile, the two flights of Skyhawks were clear of the Falkland Islands and headed at wave-top height toward the Battle Group, making in excess of six hundred knots. The frigates Kent and Grafton were still about two miles short of the disaster area, with the St. Albans and Iron Duke farther to the left, and about three miles astern of the other two.

The four lead Skyhawks cleared the horizon and could now see the blazing destroyers, but their targets were two miles back, and all four of the Argentinian fighters unleashed their thousand-pound bombs straight at the Kent and Grafton.

Both frigates acquired and opened fire with their Seawolf missile systems. They hit the first two Skyhawks, missed the others, and attempted to swing around to the right.

The Grafton was not in time and took two bombs hard on her port beam, both of which smashed into the interior of the ship, detonated, and blew apart the ops room, the comms room, and the engine room, killing thirty-two men and wounding forty. The ship was crippled. In fact she would never sail again. Like the Daring, like the Dauntless, she was on her way to the bottom.

Much luckier was Captain Mike Fawkes's Kent. She swung around fractionally faster, and while two of the bombs sailed right past, two of them came screaming over the top, fifty feet above the upperworks.

The second four Skyhawks now cleared the horizon, and the first ships they saw were the two frigates in the rear, Captain Colin Ashby's St. Albans and Commander Keith Kemsley's Iron Duke.

The very sharp, short-range Seawolf systems in both frigates locked on immediately, and both ops rooms had the missiles away in a matter of seconds. But again not before the iron bombs were released. And there was absolutely nothing the Royal Navy Commanders could do. The first two smashed into the St. Albans, one through the port-side bow, one amidships. The second two, on the rise, slammed down the communications tower and blasted the radar away from the Iron Duke.

The carnage in the St. Albans was truly shocking. Forty-seven men were killed instantly. Somehow the Captain survived, perhaps protected from the blast by his own high, television-style screen. But the ops room was on fire and three other survivors helped Captain Ashby to get out, leaving behind them a scene from hell as the bodies of the computer and missile operators burned.

The missiles from the two ships knocked down two more Skyhawks. The trouble was, without a squadron of Harriers, there was no early air defense from a high CAP, and no early warnings from the Harrier pilots. As General Sir Robin Brenchley had warned the Prime Minister not so very long ago in the small hours of a February morning in Downing Street, the loss of the Harrier FA2s represented the loss of the Royal Navy Fleet's ability to defend itself.

And with a total of six warships ablaze in the south Atlantic—four of them sinking—and at least 250 men killed

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