Falklands War -WI the Cable were not swapped

the Argentina Submarine "San Luis" fired several torpedos on
Aircraftcarrier "HMS Invincible"
but a Mechanic swapped by mistake the steering cable
of Torpedo Fire control system
so the fired Torpedo drive uncontrollably further and miss there targets

but WI the Mechanic din't swapped the cabels
and "San Luis" sank the "HMS Invincible" ?



Note on "San Luis"
A German Submarine Type 209 (extremely quiet submarines)
with 4 Torpedos Type SST-4 (wire guide)
source (in german )
http://www.abendblatt.de/daten/2007/08/08/779801.html?s=1

Hm, interesting, something I've not heard of before (unlike the suggestions that the Argentine Air Force hit Invincible with an Exocet - something still claimed by some quarters). But I can't find anything to corroborate that story, except perhaps this other interesting article, including a small interview with the Argentine Captain involved;

http://www.newstatesman.com/200204010023

As for the outcome, I'm afraid I have little to add, except the war will be longer and harder, but still most likely a British victory. I recommend a search for the other similar threads here.

With reference to enquiries about a dock to take Invincible, IIRC, Invincible did have machinery problems on the way down - her engine room staff heard 'something they didn't like' and parts of the machinery had to be changed at sea.

From David Wragg's Carrier Combat'....On the way to the Falklands, technical problems resulted in press reports that Invincible was unable to move astern, to which one naval officer retorted that: 'the Royal navy is not going anywhere backwards'.

I've never heard a reliable report that an Arg sub fired at a Brit carrier well out in the Atlantic ocean. Only that a single torpedo was fired at another ship closer inshore, without the captain using his periscope and not getting any result.

The fact that the Arg Air force couldn't find the carriers strikes me as odd if a diesel sub lumbering along at 5 knots had one in it's sights.

The Royal Navy was at this time ASW-orientated, and reckoned one of, if not the best Navy for this sort of job. The sub threat was known about (British sailors spent most of their time in the South Atlantic sleeping above the waterline) and ASW missions were being run concurrently. So little chance of catching a carrier unawares...

the Argentina Submarine "San Luis" is real

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ARA_San_Luis
the Wiki text don't tell about a Attack on HMS Invincible
This Argentine Text tells
http://www.lanacion.com.ar/nota.asp?nota_id=202442
the San Luis attackt the HMS Alacrity but miss because of swapped wire

it seems that the German autor made mistake and swapped
the HMS Alacrity with HMS Invincible

but still it is a intresting WI, were San Luis sank HMS Invincible
this had be major shock for England moral
the present english airforce cut down to half size
and how would England react to sinking of HMS Invincible ?
had Argentina a chance to fight under even this condition ...

What was damage control like on Invincible? How many torpedoes of that type would be needed to sink the carrier?

The New Statesman article is strange.

We now know that the Belgrano and the Argentine Carrier were intending an attack on the British task force. (see for example, the book "Sink the Belgrano"). We also now know that the British knew it, but couldn't reveal it, because they didn't want to reveal that they had the Argentine's codes broken and being read by sigint. There is no question that Thatcher was "right" in the sense that New Statesman reveals as being some kind of revelation.

As for the scenario:

An Argentine diesel sub sinking an RN frigate is possible I think, if it got lucky, it could maybe catch it by surprise.

An Argentine diesel sub sinking Invincible is incredibly unlikely. How could it penetrate the screen of RN ASW vessels around Invincible? Remember the RN was the first team at ASW during the Cold War.

A diesel sub, is slow, so could only penetrate the task group head-on more or less (unlike a nuclear sub, say HMS Conqueror which could outrun Argentine surface vessels and attack from any angle), so any attack would be predictable.