by Rubén Durán
The May 3 marks the 30th anniversary of the attack by Royal Navy ships against a small Argentine ship, which despite having been hit by devastating missiles and having lost its commander, was able to stay afloat and sail back to the continent, in against all odds.
In that area he was surprised by the start of hostilities on May 1, 1982, when British aviation and navy attacked the Argentine troops stationed in Puerto Argentino and provoked the reaction of the Argentine Air Force (FAA), which launched several raids. against the enemy, some of them successful, but at the cost of several losses.
One such casualty was a Canberra MK 62 bomber which was shot down by the Royal Navy's Se Harriers and whose crew were seen ejecting from their burning aircraft over the British Exclusion Zone.
Assuming that these aviators were alive in the middle of the icy waters of the Atlantic, the alert “Alférez Sobral” received the order to go to the area of the fall to attempt a rescue.
In command of that unit was Lieutenant Commander Daniel Gómez Roca, a 39-year-old man from Salta who immediately headed towards the indicated sector, despite knowing that part or the bulk of the Task Force dispatched by London to invade the Malvinas again.
The chances of survival of the ship were not the best, since it was a ship built in 1944, armed with a 40 mm cannon and two 20 mm cannons and without the necessary electronics to face a combat with any naval or air unit. modern.
The ARA Alférez Sobral arrived in the assigned area only on the night of May 2, when it was already known what happened to the ARA cruiser General Belgrano, another venerable memory of World War II that served under the Argentine flag.
Although they sensed that they could be close to the British fleet, Gómez Roca and his crew were unaware that the radar of the destroyer HMS Coventry had already detected them and had given the alert to the aircraft carrier HMS Hermes, flagship of the Task Force, which dispatched a helicopter. Sea King transport to verify the presence of the intruder.
In the middle of the southern darkness, the Sobral crew heard the approach of the aircraft and Gómez Roca immediately ordered everyone to take their combat positions, while he arranged the change of course to leave the danger zone.
The Sea King did not represent a serious threat to the Argentine ship, but its reconnaissance flyover anticipated an armed reaction from the English.
Indeed, a pair of Sea Linx attack helicopters, armed with the still experimental Sea Skua missiles, left the destroyers HMS Coventry and Glasgow to hunt down the Sobral.
Sea Linx HAS.2 helicopter with Sea Skua missile. Malvinas 1982 (Imperial War Museum)
On board the Argentine warning, each and every one of its crew members were at their posts, waiting for the enemy's next step. Unfortunately, the absence of a modern detection system forced them to take on combat almost blindly.
The first blow came around 2 in the morning, when lights similar to flares were seen on the starboard side: they were the first Sea Skua that the Royal Navy had fired in combat.
One of the projectiles hit one of the rescue boats, destroying it and projecting a shower of shrapnel that injured part of the crew and damaged the ship's communications system. Another missile passed a few meters from the bridge, causing the person in charge of one of the 20 mm cannons to fire at it, believing that it was an airplane.
In the brief moment of calm that ensued, Gómez Roca ordered his second, Lieutenant Sergio Bazán, to go down to the radio station to report on the attack, while he arranged the reversal of course to stabilize the ship and offer a better firing range for your few weapons.
The Sea Linx sensors detected the Sobral again a few minutes later and opened fire again.
It is not known if Commander Gómez Roca or any of those who were on the bridge could see the approach of the missile, that is information that they took with them to eternity.
A violent explosion shook the warning and destroyed the entire bridge, causing the instant death of the captain and seven other crew members. Bazán was saved because the doctor had stopped him on the way to check the wound suffered during the first attack.
In this way, Lieutenant Commander Sergio Gómez Roca became the first Argentine commander of the Navy to die in combat.
The radio room had also been affected by the impact of the Sea Skua, and only one survivor, Corporal Enríquez, who was seriously injured, could be rescued.
"There was no one. Everything was destroyed. In one sector I saw fire, only fire. Then I realized that everyone in that place was dead.”
The deaths were not the ship's only problem, since it had been left without steering and the fire generated by the fire threatened to spread throughout the superstructure.
There was no time to cry for the fallen, Bazán assumed command of that floating wreckage and the damage control teams engaged in a tough fight against the flames, while the engineering staff managed to precariously reestablish a system of government.
Once the fire seemed to be controlled, a new problem arose: The explosion had destroyed all the navigation instruments, so vital for orienting oneself on the high seas and so necessary to return to the continent.
The survivors had to manage to solve this problem by resorting to basic seamanship knowledge, taking into account the direction of the waves, which before the second attack came from the north. To calculate the speed, the machinists relied on the turns made by the propeller shaft.
Precisely towards the north the Sobral headed with its 52 living crew members, who awaited the arrival of the final blow of the British that never came. After sailing for a day on that course, Bazán ordered a detour to the west, towards the continent.
From among the remains of the bridge, the magnetic compass rose could be rescued, inexplicably intact, which was placed on the bow between the two anchor chains and which, together with two marine infantry compasses, became the improvised instrument that would guide them. to his destiny.
At that difficult time and in the midst of constant outbreaks of fires on board, Lieutenant Juan Carlos Casal and three crew members requested permission to raise the war flag. As the mainmast had been knocked down by the attack, the sailors hoisted it on the boom and formed in front of it, paying honor to the fallen and the national insignia, in a gesture that many assumed was an act of farewell.
In this way, the ship began to approach continental Argentina, without knowing that a search and rescue operation had been organized from there that involved Navy and Air Force aircraft, as well as civilian vessels.
On May 4, Air Force First Lieutenant Miguel Lucero, at the controls of a Bell 212 helicopter, left a base in Comodoro Rivadavia to participate in the search for the ARA Alférez Sobral notice, who had been declared missing. by the Navy, believing that it only had flaws in its communication system.
Fixed-wing planes, with greater autonomy than helicopters, extended their exploration area in search of Sobral, but with negative results, due to adverse weather conditions. For this reason they were ordered to return to base.
Meanwhile, on board the wounded notice things did not seem to be going better, as doubts began to arise about the accuracy of the navigation, fearing that the ship was in a position very different from the calculated one. To make matters worse, new fires broke out among the ruins of the bridge, forcing the exhausted crew to continue fighting so that the flames do not end up devastating the fragile vessel.
On May 5, Lucero and his team took off from Puerto Deseado at 08:30 in the morning and headed south. After an hour they crossed paths with the Argentine Navy ship Cabo San Antonio and some fishing boats.
Another Air Force aircraft, a Fokker F-27, had detected a vessel that was not responding to radio messages, so it communicated the news to the continent.
Lucero's helicopter headed towards the place indicated by the F-27, which was about an hour and a half away. After that time, the aviator was able to see through the haze a small point lost in the sea that was drifting.
It was around noon when the tired eyes of the Sobral survivors saw a helicopter appear in the distance approaching them.
Two flares were immediately sent out and were spotted by Lucero, who accelerated in the direction of the ship.
The first blow came around 2 in the morning, when lights similar to flares were seen on the starboard side: they were the first Sea Skua that the Royal Navy had fired in combat.
One of the projectiles hit one of the rescue boats, destroying it and projecting a shower of shrapnel that injured part of the crew and damaged the ship's communications system. Another missile passed a few meters from the bridge, causing the person in charge of one of the 20 mm cannons to fire at it, believing that it was an airplane.
In the brief moment of calm that ensued, Gómez Roca ordered his second, Lieutenant Sergio Bazán, to go down to the radio station to report on the attack, while he arranged the reversal of course to stabilize the ship and offer a better firing range for your few weapons.
Lieutenant Commander Sergio Gómez Roca and Navy Captain Sergio Bazán, commander and second officer, respectively, of the ARA Sobral.
The maneuver and the prevailing waves in the area confused the English radars, which saw the ship disappear from their screens, so they assumed that it had been sunk. However, the helicopters remained in the area, due to the possible presence of another ship.The Sea Linx sensors detected the Sobral again a few minutes later and opened fire again.
It is not known if Commander Gómez Roca or any of those who were on the bridge could see the approach of the missile, that is information that they took with them to eternity.
A violent explosion shook the warning and destroyed the entire bridge, causing the instant death of the captain and seven other crew members. Bazán was saved because the doctor had stopped him on the way to check the wound suffered during the first attack.
In this way, Lieutenant Commander Sergio Gómez Roca became the first Argentine commander of the Navy to die in combat.
The radio room had also been affected by the impact of the Sea Skua, and only one survivor, Corporal Enríquez, who was seriously injured, could be rescued.
Objective: Save the ship and return home
Bazán managed to climb to the bridge and discovered a devastating image:
The deaths were not the ship's only problem, since it had been left without steering and the fire generated by the fire threatened to spread throughout the superstructure.
There was no time to cry for the fallen, Bazán assumed command of that floating wreckage and the damage control teams engaged in a tough fight against the flames, while the engineering staff managed to precariously reestablish a system of government.
Once the fire seemed to be controlled, a new problem arose: The explosion had destroyed all the navigation instruments, so vital for orienting oneself on the high seas and so necessary to return to the continent.
The survivors had to manage to solve this problem by resorting to basic seamanship knowledge, taking into account the direction of the waves, which before the second attack came from the north. To calculate the speed, the machinists relied on the turns made by the propeller shaft.
Precisely towards the north the Sobral headed with its 52 living crew members, who awaited the arrival of the final blow of the British that never came. After sailing for a day on that course, Bazán ordered a detour to the west, towards the continent.
From among the remains of the bridge, the magnetic compass rose could be rescued, inexplicably intact, which was placed on the bow between the two anchor chains and which, together with two marine infantry compasses, became the improvised instrument that would guide them. to his destiny.
At that difficult time and in the midst of constant outbreaks of fires on board, Lieutenant Juan Carlos Casal and three crew members requested permission to raise the war flag. As the mainmast had been knocked down by the attack, the sailors hoisted it on the boom and formed in front of it, paying honor to the fallen and the national insignia, in a gesture that many assumed was an act of farewell.
The Air Force to the rescue
On May 4, Air Force First Lieutenant Miguel Lucero, at the controls of a Bell 212 helicopter, left a base in Comodoro Rivadavia to participate in the search for the ARA Alférez Sobral notice, who had been declared missing. by the Navy, believing that it only had flaws in its communication system.
Fixed-wing planes, with greater autonomy than helicopters, extended their exploration area in search of Sobral, but with negative results, due to adverse weather conditions. For this reason they were ordered to return to base.
Meanwhile, on board the wounded notice things did not seem to be going better, as doubts began to arise about the accuracy of the navigation, fearing that the ship was in a position very different from the calculated one. To make matters worse, new fires broke out among the ruins of the bridge, forcing the exhausted crew to continue fighting so that the flames do not end up devastating the fragile vessel.
On May 5, Lucero and his team took off from Puerto Deseado at 08:30 in the morning and headed south. After an hour they crossed paths with the Argentine Navy ship Cabo San Antonio and some fishing boats.
Another Air Force aircraft, a Fokker F-27, had detected a vessel that was not responding to radio messages, so it communicated the news to the continent.
Lucero's helicopter headed towards the place indicated by the F-27, which was about an hour and a half away. After that time, the aviator was able to see through the haze a small point lost in the sea that was drifting.
It was around noon when the tired eyes of the Sobral survivors saw a helicopter appear in the distance approaching them.
Two flares were immediately sent out and were spotted by Lucero, who accelerated in the direction of the ship.
The ARA Alférez Sobral seen from the air (Revista Gente Nº 878)
As the helicopter approached, its crew members could see the destroyed upper deck of the warning, and they only became aware of what had happened.
“From above I could see the joy of the crew. They began to flutter the blankets, greet us and hug each other,” recalled auxiliary non-commissioned officer Horacio Raúl Deseta, an FAA pararescue jumper who participated in that encounter.
Deseta was precisely the first to descend on the Sobral, suspended from the crane cable of the helicopter that remained in hover at twelve or fifteen meters high.
The operation was not easy at all, since there were many cables and antennas scattered around the deck of the ship. Deseta motioned to his companions to deposit him in a small area above the stern.
When the rescuer was deposited in that place, the sailors approached to help him take off his harness and hug him with tears in their eyes. But there was no time to waste, Deseta asked Bazán about the wounded, and he pointed out that the most serious was First Corporal Enríquez, so he should be rescued first.
The aeronautical non-commissioned officer asked the helicopter to send him a stretcher for evacuation, but another problem arose: strong gusts of wind hit the deck and made it impossible for the injured man to ascend. Using some ropes, Deseta improvised a lifting harness for the stretcher, where Enríquez had already been placed.
In this way he was able to be put on the helicopter, and then the same was done with two other injured people, all of whom were transferred to the Puerto Deseado hospital. Deseta would stay with the less seriously injured, the dead, and the rest of the Sobral's crew.
Later, the transfer of the injured and the bodies would be completed to the ARA Cabo San Antonio, a Navy tank landing ship that was in the area and that would also tow the Sobral to Puerto Deseado, where it would arrive during the afternoon of that day, with its entire crew formed on the deck and with the flag waving defiantly on its improvised mast.
The Malvinas War would not mean the end of the ARA Alférez Sobral's career, since it would be rebuilt at the Navy facilities in Puerto Belgrano and would return to serve in the South Atlantic. Later, in 2010, she would receive the Mar del Plata Naval Base station as her new destination.
. Historia de la Fuerza Aérea Argentina- Tomo VI- Vol. 1- Dirección de Estudios Históricos- 1998.-
“From above I could see the joy of the crew. They began to flutter the blankets, greet us and hug each other,” recalled auxiliary non-commissioned officer Horacio Raúl Deseta, an FAA pararescue jumper who participated in that encounter.
Deseta was precisely the first to descend on the Sobral, suspended from the crane cable of the helicopter that remained in hover at twelve or fifteen meters high.
The operation was not easy at all, since there were many cables and antennas scattered around the deck of the ship. Deseta motioned to his companions to deposit him in a small area above the stern.
When the rescuer was deposited in that place, the sailors approached to help him take off his harness and hug him with tears in their eyes. But there was no time to waste, Deseta asked Bazán about the wounded, and he pointed out that the most serious was First Corporal Enríquez, so he should be rescued first.
Air Force Assistant Warrant Officer Horacio Deseta (Revista Gente Nº 878)
In this way he was able to be put on the helicopter, and then the same was done with two other injured people, all of whom were transferred to the Puerto Deseado hospital. Deseta would stay with the less seriously injured, the dead, and the rest of the Sobral's crew.
Later, the transfer of the injured and the bodies would be completed to the ARA Cabo San Antonio, a Navy tank landing ship that was in the area and that would also tow the Sobral to Puerto Deseado, where it would arrive during the afternoon of that day, with its entire crew formed on the deck and with the flag waving defiantly on its improvised mast.
The Malvinas War would not mean the end of the ARA Alférez Sobral's career, since it would be rebuilt at the Navy facilities in Puerto Belgrano and would return to serve in the South Atlantic. Later, in 2010, she would receive the Mar del Plata Naval Base station as her new destination.
El ARA Alférez Sobral se despide de Ushuaia para
dirigirse a Mar del Plata, en febrero de 2010 (Gaceta Marinera Digital)
Sources:
. Historia de la Fuerza Aérea Argentina- Tomo VI- Vol. 1- Dirección de Estudios Históricos- 1998.-
. La Guerra de las Malvinas- Versión Argentina- Ed.
Fernández Reguera- 1987.
. La Batalla por las Malvinas- M. Hastings y S. Jenkins-
Ed. Emecé Editores- 1984.
. Revista Gente Nº 878- 1982- Ed. Atlántida.
. Biografía del Capitán de Fragata Sergio Gómez Roca-
Lic. Benicio Oscar Ahumada-
Departamento de Estudios Históricos Navales de la Armada Argentina.