Argentina captures Prince Andrew while he is fighting in the Falklands.
- Thread starter Solarius
- Start date
The Prince was flying an ASW helicopter from Invincible, which per standard doctrine never went near any enemy combatants itself. So for him to be captured he would have to have been shot down, presumably not by a submarine, survived and been rescued. It is vaguely possible I suppose but a stretch, it's not like we were using Sea Kings to bomb Stanley. For him to have been killed, most likely by mechanical malfunction rather than enemy action, is far more plausible, but apart from family grief and national shock the implications would have been small, maybe greater and longer-lasting resentment against Argentine aggression which led to this and so many more tragedies.
Had he somehow been captured the consequences would have been less I would say. The Argentines would have been expected to treat him honourably, and I imagine would, and hand him back promptly on conclusion of hostilities, if not before that on parole. If they did try to bargain using him they wouldn't have had much of a hand, we after all had thousands of prisoners, not one however important, and international reaction would have been very negative I would think.
PS isn't this on the wrong board? I have the impression that 1982 was definitely after 1900.
Had he somehow been captured the consequences would have been less I would say. The Argentines would have been expected to treat him honourably, and I imagine would, and hand him back promptly on conclusion of hostilities, if not before that on parole. If they did try to bargain using him they wouldn't have had much of a hand, we after all had thousands of prisoners, not one however important, and international reaction would have been very negative I would think.
PS isn't this on the wrong board? I have the impression that 1982 was definitely after 1900.
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Quite correct, Domenic...
...I imagine that the Argentinos would have treated him politely to avoid negative consequences. Maybe some of our South Cone colleagues can comment?
...I imagine that the Argentinos would have treated him politely to avoid negative consequences. Maybe some of our South Cone colleagues can comment?
Given what types of combat missions he was allowed to fly, having Andrew shot down at sea and then rescued at sea by Argentine forces is extremely unlikely. At the very least you'd need his helo operating near ARA naval assets which could perform the rescue which in turn would require ARA naval assets operating near the RN taks force.
Let's just say that the RN SSNs mean ARA naval assets aren't going to be anywhere near the task force.
Having him fly over land where he has a better chance of being captured after a shoot down is also extremely unlikely because of the type of helo he flew. His RN chopper has little utility for either transport or ground support. He could be flying another type of helo, but that would require a POD much earlier than the war as he isn't going to be stuffed into a new whirlybird without training, certification, etc.
During the war he flew ASW patrols and missile decoy sorties. The latter had the chance of being extremely dangerous. The concept behind the missile decoy sortie, which was proved successful, had a ship and helo working together to make it seem to the missile's guidance system that the ship was longer/larger than it actually was. The guidance system would mistakenly identify the ship and helo as opposite ends of a much larger target and aim itself for the presumed center of that target. Of course, the "center" the missile aimed at would, hopefully, be nothing but open water and the ship/helo combination would, hopefully, not be damaged by the missiles striking that point.
All in all and while both were extremely unlikely, I think there was a better chance of Andrew dying than being captured.
Captured or killed, Argentina will find itself on the wrong end of a PR nightmare and that's why a captured Andrew would be treated with kid gloves.
Let's just say that the RN SSNs mean ARA naval assets aren't going to be anywhere near the task force.
Having him fly over land where he has a better chance of being captured after a shoot down is also extremely unlikely because of the type of helo he flew. His RN chopper has little utility for either transport or ground support. He could be flying another type of helo, but that would require a POD much earlier than the war as he isn't going to be stuffed into a new whirlybird without training, certification, etc.
During the war he flew ASW patrols and missile decoy sorties. The latter had the chance of being extremely dangerous. The concept behind the missile decoy sortie, which was proved successful, had a ship and helo working together to make it seem to the missile's guidance system that the ship was longer/larger than it actually was. The guidance system would mistakenly identify the ship and helo as opposite ends of a much larger target and aim itself for the presumed center of that target. Of course, the "center" the missile aimed at would, hopefully, be nothing but open water and the ship/helo combination would, hopefully, not be damaged by the missiles striking that point.
All in all and while both were extremely unlikely, I think there was a better chance of Andrew dying than being captured.
Captured or killed, Argentina will find itself on the wrong end of a PR nightmare and that's why a captured Andrew would be treated with kid gloves.
True, and Her Majesty is very unlikely to lean on Mrs Thatcher to do anything her government wasn't already doing with POWs. Andrew would prove fairly useless as a bargaining chip.
