"What the bloody 'ell?" yelled Flight Lieutenant James Bloggins as the Sidewinder flashed past his canopy. "There aren't supposed to be any Argie fighters in this area" he thought as he threw his GR-3 Harrier into a violent evasive maneuver. Perhaps it was his skillful flying or the older series Sidewinders, but the second one missed him as well. His munitions fell away as he dropped to the deck and headed back to HMS Invincible, dodging and weaving in a hope to avoid the Mirage or Skyhawk that had obviously somehow gotten through the blockade.
What he could not have known was that he'd almost been shot down by a vintage warbird: A Vought F4U5 Corsair! How this came to be is a story of ingenuity, desperation and determination.
Knowing the Britsh Task force was bearing down on the Falkland Islands, the Argentinian Air Force was faced with a difficult problem: How to defend the airbase at Port Stanley without seriously endangering their own planes. The islands were too far to fly effective cover over from the mainland, and basing the Mirages was impossible due to the short runway.
One radical idea did get tried, and it was to wire a Corsair with Sidewinders missiles as an attempt to provide some sort of air cover for Argentinian ground troops. A lack of time and resources led to there being only one plane converted to the role by May 21, 1982.
Flying out of small pastures and fields, the Corsair was thought to be safe from being attacked from the air. After British forces landed on the 21st, Pucaras were used as ground attack aircraft, with the Corsair flying top cover, but lacking any kind of AI Radar it was hard pressed to find any Harriers to attack. It finally did on May 27th, when it came across a sole RAF Harrier about to begin an attack run. Firing off both Sidewinders, the Captain Lombardo was highly annoyed to see them completely miss the Harrier. Cursing his luck, he tried to get withing gun range, but the Harrier was able to slip away. "Maybe tomorrow" he thought.
As dawn rose the next morning, Captain Lombardo sat in the cockpit of the ex-Navy Corsair. He was mildly amused by the problems they'd had getting the plane operational, least not were the vocal complaints from the Argentinian navy at the Air Force using a Navy plane at all. He was concerned the urgency of the modifications had caused there to be some kind of fault with the arming systems for the Sidewinders, but the technicians were adamant they should be working properly that day. Soon, he had started the Corsair and begun to ready an attack on the British aircraft that would surely be arriving soon.
He never got the chance, as nearby, a flock of sheep were happily eating their way across a field. The snort of the big radial engine terrified the simple creatures, and they began running in terror directly across his takeoff path. Due to the long cowling of the Corsair, Captain Lombardo had no idea he was on an intercept course with a flock of sheep, and only realised he had a problem when chunks of sheep began flying over the canopy. With a seriously damaged propellor, he barely made takeoff speed, and quickly the engine began to vibrate itself to destruction. He was able to make a forced landing on a rocky beach, but the Corsair burnt into an unrecognisable lump of metal.
Captain Lombardo survived the war, but to this day refuses to eat mutton. F/L Bloggins runs a Fish and Chips shop in Luton. Several sheep were given posthumous awards by Whitehall for their part in the War.
I *think* the kit I used was the Hasegawa 1/48th one, but I managed to lose the box with the rest of the parts, so i picked up another one, and the canopy sure wasn't right (note the fit still sucks despite some surgery)
I wound up using the Minicraft 1/48 F4U-5 for the gear and doors. The 'Winders came from an Academy/Hobbycraft Sabre, decals from my inkjet printer. (Did I mention I lost the original roundels as well? Argh!)
Inspiration came from somebody on a What If forum telling there were rumours floating about at the time of the war this was a real thing the Argentinians were going to use. It was too good of an idea to let slip past me.
Alvis 3.1
