Dassault Mirage IIIEA of Gruppo 8 de Caza Fuerz Aerea Argentina (FAA) /by A.F. Ignatiy/

On May 21, when British started their landing at San Carlos and the weather improved, the Argentine Air Force became more active. At 9:44 three Daggers led by Captain Rode took off Rio-Grande. Another three led by Captain Moreno followed. Each fighter carried a 454-kg Mk17 bomb. San Julian started to dispatch planes at 9:53. Three fighters led by Captain Dias and a pair of Captain Dimallo were assigned a combat mission. The first Daggers appeared over San Carlos at 10:45. Rode attacked HMS Argonaut but failed. His partners Bin and Janet bombed HMS Broadsword, also missed but managed to engage her with gunfire, scoring about 40 hits. They didn't cause any serious damage and there were no casualties on board. In her turn HMS Broadsword fired back. Sailors fired 40-mm AD guns, and the Royal Marines used their rifles and machine guns. This shooting did not troubled the pilots too much, but then SAM Sea Wolf joined in. As a result Teniente Bin's Dagger got hit by a missile, and the pilot was killed.

Three fighters led by Moreno came in time and attacked HMS Antrim. The ship was hit by a number of gun shells and a Mk17 bomb which penetrated through several compartments and finally got stuck in Sea Slug SAM missile room, but failed to explode. Nevertheless, HMS Antrim had to leave the landing area to defuse the bomb and to do some emergency repair. The Argentine flight escaped

IAI Dagger /by S.L.Poletaev/

both ADA shells and SAMs. The pilots managed to run away from a pair of Sea Harriers led by Lt. Hail of 800 Sqn. Daggers jettisoned their fuel tanks and accelerated, so Sidewinders didn't have enough time to lock on targets, and the British couldn't conduct pursuit because of lack of fuel.

At 10:51 fighters from San Julian arrived to the bay. Capt. Dias flight attacked HMS Brilliant, but something unbelievable happened: all the planes suffered electric bomb release system malfunction. Thus their actions were restricted to delivering some gunfire. The ship received about 20 starboard hits. One of the shells hit the conn and injured three men with the fragments. Another destroyed the liquor supplies in the storage. Some electric and other systems of HMS Broadsword got damaged. Dimallio's pair attacked two ships, but missed. All five planes safely returned to the base