Page 59 - Demo

59In seaborne operations, V/STOL aircraft may be more tolerant ofadverse weather conditions than conventional types. These Harriers ofNo 1 Sqn are preparing to launch from HMS Hermes.regrets within the MOD over the earlier decision to dispense with theBelfast?Air Chf Mshl Sir %u2018Jock%u2019 Kennedy. I was Director of Ops (Air Support)in the MOD when those aircraft were withdrawn. There was ahairbrained scheme which involved our getting rid of three or fourBelfasts, half-a-dozen Britannias and two or three VC10s. It made nosense whatsoever; the whole thing was driven by finance, of course. Iremember submitting a vigorous appeal, on the grounds that we needed aheavy-lifter and one that could take outsize loads and that, while theBelfast%u2019s performance might be somewhat lacking, it could certainly dothe job. I%u2019m afraid that it got no further than about the 2-star level and thecase was turned down flat.But, perhaps I could ask a question. John Fieldhouse was a very goodfriend of mine, and he was convinced that the bomb that was placed onthe runway at Stanley didn%u2019t really achieve very much at all. Did it? Wasthere, as has been suggested elsewhere, an artificial bomb crater that wascreated overnight as a decoy? I have been told that the Argentineans