"The heat of the war led us to accomplish almost impossible missions": the dangerous flights from Hercules to Malvinas told by two of his protagonists

They adapted a Hercules so that he could launch bombs, sailed in solitude to interfere in the supply lines of the English fleet, performed hazardous maneuvers to locate enemy targets. and even planned to bomb the Queen Elizabeth and the damaged aircraft carrier Invincible.

"It was my turn to fly in the night of June 7, when an English landing took place and, unintentionally, we landed in complete disembarkation.When we reached the mainland, we took position and the next day, is one of the biggest disasters that the English fleet had, "recalls the Commodore in retirement Cristóbal Villegas.

The aviator participated as a co-pilot in the missions badigned to the Hercules squadron to the Malvinas: the detection of naval targets.

Villegas reports as a normal fact that "We were flying close to the water and in some places he climbed quickly and when the ship reached its maximum height the radar has been activated to try to locate the fleet or a sporadic target. Done this, the information was transmitted, the radar was turned off and we fell almost in free fall repeat the procedure at another badigned point. Our only defense was to fly at low altitude"he explains.

Thanks to its great flight autonomy, the maneuvering up and down simulating a "w" – the pilots called it "the dog tooth" – repeated it for three or four hours because in each of the climbs and descents they were doing escape maneuvers to avoid detection.

The pilot specifies that "In the slang of airmen, at these missions, we all said 'crazy', which shaped all the other missions that were done because the name had an impact".

They flew with the risk up to the limit. "I remember stealing one day at the mouth of the San Carlos Strait and seeing up to seven enemy fighter planes, but they did not detect us," he said. luck factor also plays in these cases, "explains Villegas.

When the High Command took steps to impede the logistic support of the English fleet, he concluded that the Hercules was the appropriate aircraft for this operation. Y Argentine ingenuity appeared.

The Commodore Roberto Cerruti, browser of these flights, that explains how they modified the Hercules TC 68: "He removed the fuel tanks that he had under the planes, replacing them with two pump holders, each carrying six bombs of 250 kilos. In the same way, these fuel tanks and additional ones were integrated in the hold of the aircraft, which allowed to double its autonomy. And in the badpit, the system was placed and the firing target ".

"Hierarchy, experience and responsibility", lists in Cerruti the attributes of the flight ban crew. In addition, they were all volunteers.

The story of Cerruti is almost a movie. "On the first day, May 28, we detected three freighters." The next day we detected two more and, as we were about to return, in the northern islands of South Georgia, we saw a ship that was remarkably stopped. British Way, one of those who provided the fleet, after a reconnaissance ticket, in a second pbad we throw the bombs. Two of them broke it and we left again. "

At that time, they did not know it, but they did the story: a Hercules had bombed, for the first time, a ship.

A friendship born of an attack

It was from this attack that the British decided to locate their logistic ships further east to leave the scope of the Argentine aircraft.

"On the flight of June 1," continues the story of Cerruti, "we have detected one, we advanced because an intense sea mist prevented us from seeing, to such an extent that when we were one kilometer from we did not see it and turned sharply right to avoid impact against the ship. "

At the time of the turn, the one who did not leave his astonishment was the lieutenant of ship John Osmond, on guard at the stern of the ship, who saw arriving at Hercules barely fifteen or twenty meters soon to get away because of the fog. Osmond he recorded in his memory the plate of the plane.

After 20 years, The Englishman began to ask who was part of the crew and therefore made contact with Cerruti. When he came to Buenos Aires to visit him, the first thing he said is "I did my homework," to which Argentina replied "I'm not sure." I have also fulfilled my duty.

In 1982, there was still time for plan something much more risky. Attempts were made to attack Queen Elizabeth, who had come from Britain with troops and equipment for the islands. And also venture into the harbor of Grytviken Island, where he will repair the Invincible aircraft carrier. But both projects were only on paper.

The only Hercules aircraft shot down during the conflict was TC 63, piloted by the captain. Rubén Martel, in the vicinity of Borbón Island, on 1 June, while participating in one of the naval targets detection missions.

Cerruti says that "Martel was one of my friends, a year older than I. A few days before, he was calling me to ask me if he had introduced me for these missions. "Be careful," I remember that he said to me. His co-pilot was the captain Krause, promotion partner, the navigator was the vicecomodoro Meisnerwho had been my instructor; One of the NCOs was my badistant in my unit and with the other NCOs we had piloted before the war in recent years. If you ask me what I felt, it was a great sadness but at the same time a great determination to continue to operate. "

In the same sense, Villegas expresses: "In case of conflict, lunch or dinner is shared and the next day, at the same table, the one who did not come back lacks. As those of Hercules were crews of the A4C, Mirage, Lear Jet and, as we were sometimes in Rio Grande, Comodoro Rivadavia or Río Gallegos, we learned that he had not become a companion, a friend, an acquaintance. This did not influence – as one might think – so that one could think that he was stealing no more. We knew when we were leaving; We did not know when we were coming back"

In 1983, a group of islanders located on Bourbon Island, remnants of the TC 63 landing gear. Ezequiel, the son of Captain Martel, had the opportunity to visit the place where the remains of the machine remain.

"The warmth of the fight has led us to perform missions that are almost impossible to accomplish, I think that all members of the Hercules troop are complying in the best possible way"said Villegas and Cerruti.