Evan Brennan wrote:

Guy Alcala wrote in message ...
If Moro is a propagandist -- Sharkey is Dr. Goebbels.


Hardly. At least Sharkey's got success on his side

I'm sure the French Mirage pilots would say just that to Sharkey
regarding their success against his beloved Sea Harrier. ; )

And just what is the exchange ratio in actual combat between the SHAR and
Mirage/Dagger? 11:0.

Troll. 2:0 is closer to the truth.

No, 11:0 is the truth, 3:0 against A/A tasked Mirage/Daggers, with the other 8 being A/G tasked a/c. And one of the latter
was the only Dagger to take a gunshot at a SHAR (if you believe Moro, a SHAR was shot down in this attack, which undoubtedly
comes as a great surprise to Captain Donadille, who took the shots, and Sharkey (or maybe Steve Thomas), who was apparently
the target. Thomas was hit by what is claimed to be 20mm fire from Port Howard shortly afterwards, suffering minor damage,
but you could at least postulate that this was really 30mm fire from Donadille, even if the damage isn't comparable and
Donadille was apparently nowhere near Thomas at any point during the fight. What we do know is that Moro's account on pg.
225 is entirely wrong:

"But, in one of the aerial turns executed by the pilots in the course of their dogfight, a British plane presented its
underbelly to Dagger No. 1 (Captain Donadille), which lost no time in pumping in a heavy stream of cannon fire. Apparently
the British plane, its fuel tanks ruptured, went down in the sea short of its carrier. Nevertheless, the day went to his
mates, for in the course of this action, all three Daggers were knocked out of the skies."

I see I was overstating things -- the above account isn't entirely wrong -- he did get the part about all three Daggers
being shot down correct.


The Sea Harriers shot down ONE Mirage;

Plus one with an assist by the Argentine AAA at Port Stanley. That one was unlikely to be able to land safely, given holed
fuel tanks and damaged controls on a too short runway. After those two plus Ardiles' Dagger, the AAF forfeited the A/A
battle, leaving the SHARs nothing else to do but pick off the A/G-tasked Daggers and A-4s.

and only ONE of the Daggers
they shot down was carrying "actual missiles". ; )

Indeed, quite a change from 1 May, when 11 out of 14 Daggers were so armed. Oh, but that's right, they weren't tasked A/A
after that because they didn't have adequate range at low altitude. Apparently they had adequate range to make it all the
way to Port Stanley (not by the most direct route) from San Julian on 1 May, while carrying a pair of 500 lb. bombs and
flying the last 100nm or so inbound on the deck, plus a bit more during the return. But not sufficient range to carry a
pair of AAMs and the same external fuel load to the San Carlos area on 21 May and subsequent, a 50nm shorter radius, and
without having to make a 100+nm run at SL (after all, they want to attract the attention of the SHARs, so can hold off their
descent until arriving in the area). Yeah, who could possibly question that logic? Now maybe, just maybe, the drag of O/B
mounted missiles is so high compared to bombs mounted on the aft fuselage stations, that they really can't manage it despite
all the above. And pigs might fly, too.

What's the exchange ratio of French Mirage pilots against Sharkey's
squadron?

Maybe you should ask Sharkey.

Maybe you should, since you're the one who claimed that there had been such combats.

Guy