Corporate Buccaneers

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Fleet Air Arm Blackburn Buccaneers that took part in Operation Corporate, aka the Falklands War, including Londthyrian Confederacy Buccs seconded to the FAA.


Full backstory below

Fixed...because I gave two different ships the name "Furious"

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On the 27th of February 1982, a Londthyrian carrier battlegroup, CVBG 20, dropped anchor at HMNB Portsmouth.  Three full size carriers – the Audacious-class carriers Seiont and Hafren, and the Sequana-class Mosa – and the Saipan-class commando carrier Lethe, along with a small escort force of six destroyers – 2 Adams, Farragut, and a pair of Type 42L• (Variant) destroyers – formed this group and had been invited at the request of the Royal Navy and Royal Air Force to participate in Exercise Cobra Warrior 82.1.  The remainder of the escort group had been detached as the battlegroup passed Gibraltar to form a surface action group centered on the heavy guided missile cruiser Pallas to exercise with US Sixth Fleet and Royal Navy Mediterranean Squadron elements for the duration of Cobra Warrior.

The exercise combined naval, air, and ground forces around the British Isles with the Londthyrian naval assets playing the opposing force, with the exercise culminating in a combined arms assault on Waterloo Lines and live ordinance drops in the impact area from Fleet Air Arm, Royal Air Force, and participating nations. 

Despite Argentine intransigence and saber rattling over the Falkands, exercises both in the British Islands and Mediterranean came to an abrupt halt after the 19th of March, when reports began filtering back to London that Argentine Marines had occupied the South Georgia Islands, after posing as scrap metal workers.  Diplomatic talks between Argentina, the United Kingdom, the UN, and nations representing the future co-belligerents sputtered, stalled, then ultimately failed as Argentine troops landed on the 2nd of April.

As a result of the invasion, cables were sent between the Londthyrian embassy in London to the capital and Londthyrian Ministry of Defence to determine the next stage of the carrier task force currently at anchor in Portsmouth, especially considering the purchase agreements between the Confederacy and British Ministry of Defence for the Audacious-class carriers and their stockpile of spares for the Ark Royal and Eagle.  These cables were then followed by closed door consultations between the Thatcher government and the Confederacy ambassador and defence attaché; the Admiralties, Ministries of Defence, and Foreign Offices of both nations, and, finally, the combatant commanders on station – Admiral Sir John Fieldhouse, CINCFLEET, and Vice Admiral Ariawyn Raycraft, Lady Raycraft, Commander CVBG Twenty.  Surveys of Eagle showed that an explosion and subsequent fire in boiler room 2 that had occurred near the end of her last year in commission were not repairable within a suitable timeframe, even with 24 hour drydock operations, for joining the Task Force 317, even as Hermes, Invincible, and Ark Royal (flag), and their escorts set sail on the 5th of April as Task Group 317.8, following multiple Royal Navy submarines ordered to the Falklands (TG 324.3).

Under the terms of a mutual defence treaty signed after Suez Incident, the Londthyrian Admiralty and Foreign Office offered to the British Admiralty and Thatcher Government the lease of the assets in CVBG Twenty and SAG Pallas – aircraft, vessels, and munitions – for the sum of one guinea (£1.05) per vessel/aircraft squadron per week.  After a mass briefing, held at Center Court, Wimbledon and telecast via satellite to SAG Pallas in the Med, vacancies amongst the ships were backfilled with volunteer personnel from the Royal Navy.

At the request of the Thatcher Government, and with concurrence from the Londthyrian Admiralty, MOD, and Foreign Office, ships and aircraft were hastily repainted, named, and numbered, with the LCNS Mosa, Seiont, Hafren, and Lethe rechristened into the Royal Navy as (respectively) the Furious, Glorious, Audacious, and Albion.  Mosa's F-4J squadron, 151 NAS, was redesignated as Fleet Air Arm 890 Naval Air Squadron; while Seiont and Hafren embarked 899 and 893 Naval Air Squadrons, respectively.  The F-8s of 513 and 514 Naval Air Squadrons were disembarked from Seiont and Hafren and placed in storage at HMS Heron/RNAS Yeovilton.  Lethe embarked 809 Naval Air Squadron's 8 Sea Harrier FRS.1s.  Task Group 317.6 departed Portsmouth in convoy with SS Canberra, MV Queen Elizabeth 2, and SS Uganda on April 7th.  During the cruise, the combatants drilled tirelessly, until their replacement personnel were well integrated; SAG Pallas was integrated into the task group off Gibraltar.

As TG 317.6 neared the total exclusion zone surrounding the Falkland Islands, the formation came under attack by four Tu-16 Badger bombers of the Argentinian Air Force, launching AS-5 Kelt antiship cruise missiles.  RIM-66 and 67Bs from Pallas and two Crinaeae-class light guided missile cruisers Appias and Myrtoessa, while the combat air patrol and alert fighters from Audacious and Furious shot down two Badgers and damaged a third; there were no survivors from either of the downed Badgers.

Buccaneers from the four carriers performed air interdiction missions, flew Operation Black Buck missions 3 and 4, post-strike BDA missions on all seven Black Buck missions, and CAS sorties in conjunction with Harriers and Phantoms once the ground invasion began on 21 May, 1982.

On the 25th of May, the Argentinian Air Force flew a wavetop sortie with A-4s and Super Étendard fighters, while the remaining 3 Argentine Tu-16s flew a diversionary sortie that pulled the Phantoms on CAP from Ark Royal and Furious away from the task force, launching AS-1 Kennels converted to air-to-air drone targets towards TG317.6.  HMS Glorious (LCNS Seiont) was hit by multiple Exocets, with two detonating in the hangar spaces.  Glorious limped out of the engagement area under her own power, and under escort, back to Portsmouth.  The MV Atlantic Conveyor narrowly missed being struck when a decoyed Exocet detonated 20 meters astern of her.
• The Type 42L Sheffield variant class destroyer is a Londthyrian Navy-specific variant of the Type 42 Batch 2 class destroyer, fitted out to the specifications of the US Navy Kidd-class guided missile destroyer apart from only one Mk 45 5" gun mount instead of the Kidd's fore and aft mounting.


Also cross-posted in Elven Blend