Report on Joint Argentine-SAE Excercise

Ugly Aircraft, Inc

Saturday, September 23rd 2006, 5:47pm

Report on Joint Naval Exercises May 6-8 1932 Operation Blue Tuna
To: CoS Marina Argentina, Min of Defence, CinC Infantería de Marina, CinC Commando de Aviacion Naval Argentina, Admiral Inspector Training, Admiral Inspector Gunnery, Adm. of Fleet and Commanders of all combat formations
Copy to: SAE Naval Forces Commander South Atlantic
Ref: M146/Re19/32

TOP SECRET

FORCES TAKING PART

Argentina:
Escort Destroyer JORGE (Capitan de Naivo Catamarca), MGB-4 (Capitan de Corbeta Hoho), MTB A1 (Capitan de Corbeta Sarimento) and transport PAMPA. Commander of Group Capitan de Navio Roho.
South Africa:
RSAN LOOK-OUT (Captain M. Breuk), UJ33 (Lieu. J. de Vries) and R-6 (Lieu. P. Glogge)

PHASES
1) Patrol and search. Marina and RSAN forces will patrol a designated area. Pampa will be the target ship. Note no notification of her sailing or taking part in the exercise was given to the force forcing them to check all ships in the area and she flew the merchant ensign and false company titles on her hull.
2) Chase. Formation of group to and interception to make Pampa heave-to.
3) Boarding and inspection. Marines and crew to board and search Pampa for hidden weapons.

REPORT

At 05:10 RSAN forces arrived off Viedma about 200km south of Bahia Blanca. Capitan Roho deployed the force into two groups. MGB-4 and R-6 to searching in the east, UJ33 to the west alone and MTB A-1 inshore within sight of the port. Jorge and Look-Out patrolled the southern sector together. Look-Out deployed her floatplane at 06:28 to aid the search.

At 07:02 floatplane returns with engine trouble, Captain Breuk does not notify Roho until 11:16. Jorge searching a small fishing vessel does not spot the aircraft being recovered and Roho continues to believe the aircraft is still searching.

At 09:30 MTB A-1 stops a tramp steamer and three crewmen search the holds.

At 10:00 Lieu. P. Glogge in UJ33 begins a standard SAE A/S patrol pattern to cover his assigned area.

At 10:16 MGB-4 and R-6 lose contact with each other in rain squall.

At 11:10 UJ33 inspects two small fishing vessels until 11:46. Look-Out inspects a cargo vessel and Jorge goes on alone until they finally rendezvous at 12:39. On Jorge several drills are carried out as are two mock depth-charge attacks.

MTB A-1 at 12:04 returns to Viedma with engine problems. R-6 searches a small tanker.

By 14:06 the eastern sweep is complete and due to worsening weather MGB-4 and R-6 turn west to join main force. MTB A-1 also resumes her station after minor repairs and refuelling.

At 14:55 Pampa spotted by Look-Out, range nine miles. Jorge increases speed to 21kts and goes to make a close inspection. At range of five miles a look-out identifies her as Pamapa despite civil colours.

At 15:24 Jorge turns hard-a-port and comes alongside at 12kts to make a close visual check of Pampa’s decks and hails her to stop. Capitan refuses to heave-to and Look-Out swiftly changes course to starboard to cut across her bows to force Pampa to stop.

The Captain of Pampa realising she has been spotted increases speed to 14kts and makes a hard turn to starboard on full rudder. Meanwhile an Army single 20mm cannon hidden under tarpaulin on the poop deck is uncovered and opens fire on Jorge (with blanks). A 37mm on the bows fires on Look-Out. The accuracy is poor and Look-Out is missed although Cap. Breuk takes evasive action and turns to starboard to come alongside Pampa after a half-circle. Jorge’s bridge was swept by 20mm fire and all are declared dead by RSAN judge on board. Forward gun suffers half of the gun crew killed as well.

On board Look-Out Bruek, who does not know Pampa is armed, is shocked, “Captain Roho has left himself open to attack by getting too close. I’ll stop that floating junk! Bring us on her course number one, stand-by gun number one. No shot across the bows make every shot count. Fire!” Three 5” training rounds were fired at Pampa. Two actually hit the ship causing some damage. At full-speed Look-Out soon overhauled her and opened a broadside that hit Pampa again, one round going through the funnel. At 11:58 Pampa heaved-to and put up a red pennant (exercise marking to determine if ship badly damaged/sunk).

At 16:12 R-6 and MGB-4 arrived on the scene and both began disembarking marines onto Pampa. Look-Out slowly circled the Pampa while Jorge halted on Pampa’s port side. A small boat transferred a party of RSAN Marines.

At 16:30 UJ33 gave up the search and docked in Viedma.

On board the Pampa some thirty Marines and sailors began disarming the crew of Pampa and searching her holds. At 16:38 the false bulkhead was found and some sixty rifles and ten HMGs were recovered and transferred to Jorge.

All ships then set sail for Viedma docking from 17:08.

Officers Staff Meeting Viedma Customs Station 09:00 07/05/1932

Capitan Breuk has come under severe criticism after yesterdays exercise. He failed to report he un-serviceability of the only aircraft assigned to the operation to his commander. The actions taken during the stopping of Pampa were called “outrageous, foolish and bloody mad” by Capitan de Navio Roho. There followed this unpleasant exchange which the board wished to be included in the minutes in full.

(B= Breuk, R Roho, C Catamarca and V de Vries)
B “I believe getting as close to Pampa as you did was foolish. Getting you and your officers killed even more so. You may take chances in your navy but we do not in ours. I’ve never seen such amateurs in action.”
V “I disagree with you Capt. Roho, Capt. Breuk acted with good judgement in the conditions he faced. Had we been warned we would not have thought the vessel was a real pirate ship.”
R “You have damaged one of our ships, not be accident but by forethought. You recklessly endangered the crew of the Pampa. The judge on board clearly felt you acted not in self-defence but recklessly. Officers like you would rot in obscurity in our navy.”
B “An officer like you is a danger not only to his crew but his whole force. Caution is paramount in these waters with pirate ships heavily armed. If Pampa had 150mm guns then Jorge would have been sunk.”
R “Perhaps your kind of caution is what has retarded your career.”
B “NO! My career has nothing to do with my record; it is only officers like you who retard experience and replace it by text-book madness. I have had time at sea learning the practicalities while you have been behind a desk somewhere.”
C “I would like to add something here aside from all the personal sniping. I believe Capt. Breuk is essentially correct, we did engage too closely and either we must adopt distance visual inspection or we must reduce our caution and immediately force ships to halt with force. We are not talking about small time crooks but powerful pirate-run organisations armed to the teeth. This does not, however excuse his behaviour.”
V “From the RSAN point of view we have done nothing wrong, we followed our guidelines to the letter. If your navy has lax procedures then that is a matter for your superiors and we would welcome any chance to help them revise the current plans.”
C “I think such action is needed in view of yesterday’s events”
B “I can only hope you have learned something from us in how to deal with these threats.”

The judges deemed that Capt. Roho had committed an error of judgement in expecting Pampa to be unarmed but also believed Capt. Breuk had acted unprofessionally, although in real combat his quick actions would have been correct. His long-service and varied career hold greater weight in the judges opinion than Capt Roho’s. Capt. Catamarca made it clear that he disagreed with Capt. Roho and wished to remain further away from Pampa but was overruled by Roho as force commander. In view of this Capt. Roho has apologised to Capt Breuk and has offered to resign his post, the C-in-C refused his offer.

LESSONS/ RECOMENDATIONS

1) Search patterns must be improved to maximise sweep area. More ships are needed, light Chaco Class vessels and modified Corrientes Class ships should be built for Customs. The Navy must build more light craft to aid the civil authorities. Sloops could be brought cheaply from abroad.

2) That further joint exercises be carried out to increase co-operation with the RSAN. Relations are still strained amongst officers and crews on both sides. We have much still to learn in this area of operations.

3) That longer-range telescopes and sights be used to make a visual search of any suspicious vessels. No ship should get close to any suspicious vessel under any circumstances. Ship’s crew should be ready at action stations with guns loaded for instant action.

4) More armour needs to be fitted to conning and bridge areas of small vessels.

5) A new training programme for tracking and boarding ships will be developed by Training Command over the next three months.

6) Aircraft are badly needed to keep a constant patrol in our waters. These must be obtained as soon as possible. All aircraft connected with maritime search and attack are to be operated by the Navy. Customs will not have an air arm.

7) The Marines did a very through job of searching all the ships during the day. They are to be congratulated and more specific training will be given. A new unit will be created and permanently attached to Customs.

Development of new close-range weapons to incapacitate the crew but leave the ship floating for inspection.

BIOGRAPHICAL DETAILS OF RSAN OFFICERS INVOLVED

Captain Martin Breuk is an older officer who has fought his way through the ranks from the lowest crew quarters. He knows the waters better than anybody else and there is little he hasn’t seen in his career. However, knowing there is no mentor in the higher ranks for him he has little chance to take another step on the ladder upwards. Hence he became somewhat filled with bitterness. Sometimes one can notice this when he makes comments.

Lieutnant Jan de Vries is a professional sailor and currently commander of the 3rd squadron of the 3rd ASW flotilla. For this exercise he is an observer for RSAN high command.

Lieutnant Piet Glogge left the academy just six months ago. He has served on another motor launch before became captain of R6 quite suddenly when the ships commanding officer died due to flu.