Part III: The Navy Strikes Back
At 16:07 the six Spartan TBN-7 (TB-1) torpedo bombers aboard Guardabosques and the Independencia’s four Tucan NB-1 dive bombers spotted the two light cruisers RSAN Santana and RSAN Paraná. Both ships began evasive manoeuvres and began laying smoke. Major de Aero Rival in his TB-1 guessed both ships were part of the aircraft carriers screen and they continued on a south-easterly course and eventually on the horizon spotted two large ships and at least one cruiser. Rival radioed his good news only to find as he reduced height to close in that enemy fighters were above them. The Vulture II fighters dived out of the sun and Rival ordered his pilots to attack the two cruisers. The TB-1 could give a Vulture a good run for its money but with horror he discovered the fighters were the new DeBroek FC-5A Mercury armed with two heavy and four light machine guns and with a top speed of 570 km/h. Even the A5M4 had met its match although the Mercury was not as agile and in a dogfight the Mitsubishi had the edge. Its only shortcoming was the weak armament of two 7.7mm machine guns which failed to harm the sturdy Mercury fighters. The four Tucan NB-1 dive bombers lacked the speed to escape and two quickly went down. One of the FC-5As went down to several well aimed bursts from a TB-1’s dorsal 13mm machine gun but another TB-1 met a watery grave.
The two remaining NB-1 dive bombers attacked the RSAN Santana; one was shot down during his dive but dropped its bomb before exploding from an 88mm AA hit. The bomb was a near-miss which ruptured the hull forward of the main belt causing minor flooding which was controlled by the pumps. The other NB-1 scored a direct hit with a 500lb SAP bomb which hit just to the right of the forward funnel blasting a twin 88mm mount overboard and sending splinters through the armoured deck into the boiler room below. There was no serious fire but some ready-use ammunition did explode. Only Rival’s TB-1 got into a firing position and he let his “fish” loose at RSAN Paraná. It missed. By 16:34 the battle was over and three TB-1s, one NB-1 and four A5M4 fighters made their way back at wave-top height avoiding the few remaining African fighters.
Unknown to the Argentine pilots Admiral von Grunveldt had quickly launched a group of six DeBroek TB-9A "Petrel" torpedo bombers from RSAN Forge. This new modern monoplane torpedo bomber had a top speed of 427 km/h and a range of 1720km carrying a full torpedo load. These six bombers followed the Argentine aircraft hoping they would lead them to the carriers. One of the "Petrels" carried radio direction finding equipment and was monitoring the Argentine pilots radio traffic.
At 18:48 the aircraft began circling for the landing routine as the carriers moved into the wind. At 18:56 as the first TB-1 caught the arrestor wire aboard the Guardabosques the six DeBroek TB-9A "Petrel" torpedo bombers roared into the attack a wave-top height. There was no Argentine fighter cover as the planes roared in. The powerful AA batteries aboard Independencia and Guardabosques backed up by modern fire-control and the AA guns aboard the cruiser La Argentina opened up. The few fighters on patrol above kept away from the furious fire from the ships hoping to pick off any stragglers on the way home. Each carrier had 22 115mm DP guns and soon the water around the ships was whipped into spray by the lines of 37mm shells and the 115mm shells. The air filled with black puffs of smoke and one by one the "Petrels" either fell into the sea or ditched their torpedoes to pull away to safety. Only three torpedoes were dropped and all missed (Independencia swerved to avoid one on her starboard quarter). Four of the Petrel’s made it back, one of which crashed on landing. Another TB-1 was lost as it ran out of fuel while circling to land. As night fell both sides once again took stock of the day’s events.
To be continued... the next day's action
[OOC: On the name, I'm useless at naming battles, we could call it Battle of the Malvinas Islands but if the Argies win it could be Battle of the Argentine Sea!
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[Edit: torpedo error fixed! Proof you can never proof read enough!]