1 June, British forces on the Falkland Islands were bolstered by the arrival of 5,000 new troops of the 5th Infantry Brigade. Major General Jeremy Moore now had sufficient force to start planning a full scale assault on Port Stanley.
Advance parties of the 2nd Battalion, Parachute Regiment moved forward and occupied Fitzroy and Bluff Cove, when it was discovered to be clear of Argentine forces. Units of the Welsh Guards and Scots Guards were sent in to support them. After the sinking of the transport Atlantic Conveyor there was only one British troop carrying helicopter available, an RAF CH-47 Chinook.Therefore, supplies and reinforcements would have to be transported by sea.
While unloading on 8 June, the British ships were attacked by two waves of A-4 Skyhawks from the Argentine Air Force’s 5th Air Brigade, each of them loaded with three 500 lb retarding tail bombs of Spanish design. The fighters departed from Rio Gallegos airbase, which at the time was monitored by the nuclear submarine HMS Splendid. The first package, originally made of eight aircraft, was reduced to five when three Skyhawks returned to base due to refuelling problems.
At 16:50 a second wave, composed by four A-4Bs of Grupo 5 hit and sank an LCU from HMS Fearless, ferrying the vehicles of the 5th Brigade’s headquarters from Darwin to Bluff Cove in Choiseul Sound with the loss of six Royal Marines. However, the Sea Harrier combat air patrol was already on scene and responded; three Skyhawks were shot down and their pilots, First Lieutenant Danilo Bolzan, Lieutenant Juan Arrarás, and Ensign Alfredo Vazquez, were killed.
Bolzan’s aircraft was shot down by Lieutenant David Smith, while the remaining Skyhawks fell victims of Flight Lieutenant David Morgan. The fourth aircraft suffered combat damage and lost a large amount of fuel, but returned to the mainland, assisted by a KC-130 tanker. A third wave, by A-4Cs of Grupo 4, arrived minutes later and struck ground targets without visible success.
In a separate incident, the frigate HMS Plymouth endured the sudden attack of the six Daggers from Rio Grande, which struck her with four 1,000-pound bombs. The warship sustained severe damage, and five crewmen were injured. Although all the bombs were duds, the attack caused the explosion of at least one depth charge on her flight deck.
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