Saludos a todos desde Argentina....Mis respetos a los soldados Argentinos y Británicos que lucharon en Malvinas....y a los caidos....

Very diplomatic answer on the differences between 800 and 801. Commander Ward was a little less diplomatic in his book!

Listened to this podcast while cooking a meal for my family. I have read the books you mention and after listening to this great interview I have more questions which is a great sign that you are doing such a brilliant job of keeping people interested. Even my wife who has no interest in military aviation was saying that it was fascinating. Thank you so much for what you do.

My god ! It’s 40 years already!

Nicely done Jello. One of your best interviews yet. What a treat to have the former 809 CO, Commander Gedge, who is closely associated with VSTOL aircraft development for the Royal Navy and Air Force. That he agreed to do the interview speaks highly of the FPP team and your skills as an interviewer.

My ex brother in law was part of NAS 809 in the Falklands. He was a harrier pilot trained at Wittering and then went onto Yeovil.

Another great pod thanks Jell-O! When the war kicked off I was 12 years old and I followed the story everyday on the TV, it was fascinating and sometimes tragic stuff. Amazing feat by the UK armed forces. Sandy Woodward was the Naval Commander responsible for the task force and his war diary is essential reading....one point he makes is that you can't keep a naval battle group at see indefinitely, ships need maintenance etc, and had the war gone on much longer it could have got very tricky! It was a close run thing as it was. Numerous RN ships were hit with bombs that didn't detonate. The Argentine pilots flew fearlessly and sometimes so low their weapons didn't have time to fuse! Another great story of the war was the single Chinook which made it, and flew constantly for weeks with no maintenance. The RAF have loved the Chinook every since! That machine just got retired and put in a museum. I'll find a link for you.

Im Argentinian, first time watcher, i think im gonna watch this all the way through to see what's being said.

A privilege to listen to that.

Thank you, I followed the Falklands conflict when it broke out daily until it ended. Very interesting discussion.

What a great episode

Great podcast...as some of the people here have said there was quite a lot of sub surface activity. The most notable of course was the sinking of the Belgrano. An event which changed the whole dynamic of the conflict.

Great work ! Thank you !

just about to listen but i know its gonna be great so much appreciated to you all for such great content.

Great podcast hats off to the podcast and towards to all Military Avation avators hats off to them.100% respect

Thank you.

Great job, people!

My uncle fought in the Falklands war in 2 para regiment. He was only 22 years old, when he killed his first Argentinian soldier, and one was with fixed bayonets. I asked what did you think at the time? He said at the time you didn’t think, just your training kicked in, but over the years he can still see the faces of equally as young Argentinian soldiers who he killed in combat on the battle for Goose Green. He regularly wonders what would those guys be doing today had he not killed them and they survived the war? He has suffered with PTSD which he thinks is connected too historical guilt of taking their lives, but as explained to him, he was at war, and had he not killed those soldiers they would of took his life. As they say “ war is Hell”

Another great pod from Jello, quality every time.

If you read Sandy Woodward's memoire he states it literally was, to qoute Wellington, 'A close run thing...' until the troops landed,... and then just a matter of time ....

The SHR was a far superior weapon system to the Mirage IIIEA/V and A-4B/C/Q Skyhawk. The Argentine Air Force received the MATRA 550 Magic I in March 1982, so the Argentine Aviators had no training with those missiles. The Rafael Shafrir MkIV was far less capable than the AIM9L. The Argentine fighters didn´t have radar warning, chaff, or flares....not to mention, that the MIII and MV didn´t have any navigation system other than the magnetic compass for flying over the Atlantic Ocean. And the Fleet Air Arm Aviators were among the best in the world, their training in the air to air was second to none. I would not blame the French for providing the SUE/EXOCET, the UK provided the Mk17 bombs, Blow Pipe missiles, Canberra bombers, and Type 42 Destroyers...anyway, Jell-O, it would be very nice to have an episode related to the other side of this story.

Lmao. The ship building portion of the book was "riveting". Nice

Hi jello, just a suggestion but having some episodes with the same air frame more then once with a different pilot and their experiences would be nice! Thank you if you see this!

Great stuff. And yes, the Falklands, or South Atlantic Map is coming soon from RAZBAM for DCS World. I've been lucky enough to have a little tinker, and as a kid watching the war unfold on telly, it's surreal seeing it come to life in the digital world.

He mentioned something in passing I wish you had followed up on: Something regarding the Argentinian air forces not operating as he and his peers expected them too. - at 16:48

Respect from Argentina. Thanks for the excellent interview to both Jello and Bobsleigh. Also have the same question as @Cub Cariboo, can't seem to understand what was meant by the remark that Argentina "blew" their chances. I'd really like to expand on his thoughts on that. As always, thanks for the great content.

at 48:47 the question about the two squadrons being different in operation probably (well, almost certainly) comes from the C.O. of 801 squadron's own book, Nigel "Sharkey" Ward's "Sea Harrier over the Falklands". Sharkey freely admits that he doesn't do well when given orders he doesn't agree with, and is a fighter pilot with a chip on BOTH shoulders. Ward is highly critical of the admirals in charge of the fleet and their tactics, and in particular the lack of spine of the C.O. of 800 squadron in Hermes to refuse dumb orders like searching the sea visually with the radar off to look for submarine periscopes (In context the 801 squadron were able to get their Blue Fox radars to work slightly better than specs, while 800 squadron on Hermes couldn't get their radars to work well at all and stopped trying to use them). Sharkey's book is an excellent read, and I highly recommend it, but just remember that Sharkey was never promoted, and left the navy after he was done flying. He was not a yes-man in a service that requires you to toe the line to get promoted. Tim Gedge is being polite when he is saying that both squadrons produced the same results. I think he has his own opinion of Sharkey and its probably not positive.

Brilliant. It was an extraordinary achievement by our armed forces to win an outnumbered expeditionary campaign so far away. Contrast that with Russia today who cannot maintain 100 mile supply lines. Thinking of those who fought for freedom, then and now

Harriers radius of action really hurt the effortto protect the fleet. The ony weapon for modern air to air was the Aim-9L. They didn't have in flight refueling, which would have helped.The radius of action was roughly 125 miles. The Harrier was designed CAS mission from improvised air strips, close to the front. Range was not an issue for the mission they were intended for. Vertical take off is accomplished with reduced fuel and weapons. With a ski jump allows more fuel and weapons. I believe the overlap between Super Entendard aquiring a target and launching an Exocet was about 25 miles or so. If you don't believe me look at the record. No Super Entendard aircraft were intercepted or lost.

This would probably break the bank but I think England should have six carriers. Two could be on deployment, two could be could on workups or in maintenance and the other two could be sitting in reserve.

Were harriers on the Atlantic Conveyor there to replenish anticipated aircraft losses on the 2 carriers?

Great stuff Jello. Did you make your way over to the Midway yesterday for the TG2 premiere? 😎

I can't help but wonder how this would have played out if the Brits had an American Carrier with F14s, A6s, and E2s. Truly amazing the Sea Harrier was able to pull off what it did. I suspect thats more to do with the skill and knowledge of the Royal Navy's pilots than the airframe by itself. Great interview Jello, really enjoyed this one.

Amazing that only the USMC and Spain bought this great little aircraft. Another triumph of British engineering on a shoestring budget. It was the perfect aircraft for this limited war in atrocious weather. The skill of the pilots and the AIM-9 were also crucial to victory.

Subservice yes oh yes

Whats the book

do you think you could do a feature with 'Bobsleigh' on the Sea Vixen. check out this monster Dude! Heavy but Beautiful 😍

NOT SURE IF THERE WERE SUBSURFACE ACTIVITES? REALLY? UNREAL. It was the last time a submarine has sunk a ship in combat, The Cruiser, General Belgrano previously the USS Phoenix ,1938 -Then to Argentina, 1951-1982 RIP To the crew

I think the Argentine aircraft carrier would have been sunk if it wasn't inside Argentine waters.

The Belgrano an Argentine ship was sunk by a British sub.

🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧

Every time someone says sea vixen I can't help but to think about the poor fello who was put in the closet on the side to work the radar... perhaps the second most claustrophobic seat in aviation after ww2 tail gunners...

ooooooh

Interesting podcast however, I think he was a little bit disingenuous to the RAF when it came to how many pilots from the RAF where actually flying sea harriers during the Falklands Campaign. A book not mentioned but writtten by an RAF pilot on loan to the RN flying Sea Harriers at the time and an excellent read (Hostile Skys, David Morgan) mentions that they actually made up 25 percent of the pilot strength and accounted for the same percentage of aircraft kills, with the first two Argentine aircraft shot down attributed to the light blue and the most aircraft shot down being achieved by Morgan himself, an RAF pilot whom after the conflict transferred to the Fleet Air Arm of the RN although originally he had joined the RN passing through Dartmouth college so ended up back in the service he had originally joined, Whilst the submarines positioned between Argentina and the Falklands passed information to the the fleet regarding movements of Argentine aircraft departing Argentine airbases, it is now known that Chile was also monitoring take offs from the various bases and this information was being sent direct by SAS signals personnel stationed in Santiago via satellite phone to Northwood,

NAVY HORRIBLE LIVING CONDITIONS

809 reformed a few weeks ago in Dec 2023.... The Legendary Squadron is back. The ship that bounced the Missile from land was HMS Glamorgan - 14 died. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Glamorgan_(D19)