Hercs used for anti-ship bombing by Argentina

On Jan 16, 7:44 pm, "Keith W" wrote:
Ray O'Hara wrote:
"Frogwatch" wrote in message

the Argies re-fused bombs from ground use to anti-shipping use and
their attempt failed. many of the re-fused bombs
that did hit failed to explode.
the Antelope was one such bomb that initially failed to explode, it
was later accidently set of by the Bomb defuser.
most others were successfully rendered safe.

The problem with the Hercules bomber was rather more fundmental.

One of the two ships they managed to hit was a US flagged tanker
which did nothing to endear them to the US government.

Keith

The first tanker hit was the "British Wye" - no damage. The US Tanker
was a 220,000 ton VLCC coincidentally named "Hercules"...
The latter was scuttled as it was said it was impossible to remove the
bomb safely (although there have been mutterings along the lines of
"insurance scam" as there was over-capacity at the time). However,
some sources credit the "Hercules" to Canberras: but if it was a
C-130, that single kill would catapult it into the ranks of all-time
most sucessfull ship-killers, based on tonnage. Before the Iran-Iraq
Tanker War, the Buccaneer was one of the leading scorers on that
basis, despite never having been in a shooting was at that stage;
they'd racked up 3 VLCCs (Torrey Canyon by the RAF, and 2 others by
the SAAF).

Cheers,

Moramarth