Should HMS Cornwall have been allowed by London to protect their sailors ?

Answer 1

HMS Cornwall could well have defended those hapless sailors, its not known whether Cornwall had any idea what was going on since it was quite a way from the boarding party and its lynx helicopter had returned to refuel. Its likely that the Iranians where waiting for such an event and chose their time to act. If Cornwall had known and had sent other forces to the aid of those taken prisoner its not beyond belief that waiting at a ready place would have been some Iranian air force jets loaded to teeth with Exocet type missiles which could have made the whole situation much worse. in fact we could very well have ended up being at war with Iran right now!.

Sometimes its better to see the bigger picture and not react to what was a minor act, in fact the resultant farce of those sailors selling their stories and bringing the British armed forces into disrepute was far more damaging.

Answer 2

If you mean should Cornwall have used force to stop the sailors being taken, then the short answer is they couldnt, because she was 15 miles away, and couldnt have got within range before the Iranians definately got into their terrritory.

Had Cornwall have gone into Iranian waters she would probably have been sunk by Iranian missiles.

In reality the Crew were never likely to be in any real danger, as Iran are not that stupid, they were just trying to make a point

Answer 3

The start of the error was the distances between the boats and HMS Cromwell. The boats in my opinion should never of been out of visual range of the mother ship.

If it been the case I am sure the Iranian would not engaged the crafts with such a formidable deterrent looking on.

There are many open question to be answered ones that stands out are, the separation distance?, and the radar?, why weren't the Iranian boats seen well before interception?

Answer 4

How exactly do you protect a small boat with a warship?

Only a Yank would open fire with their own crew members in target area. That's not to mention that we're not actually at war with Iran.

The Royal Navy boards vessels every day of the week in patrolling the fishing areas around our coast, and they extend beyond our territorial waters. So by your reckoning the Spanish or whoever should be opening fire on those Royal Navy vessels.

Do you get all your information out of a cornflake packet or just your command of military matters?

Answer 5

They should have been protected by the Cornwalls helicopter.

Answer 6

nope, they were goofing off as usual