THE FALKLANDS WAR REMEMBERED

The Sinking of the Shiny Sheff

On the twentieth anniversary of the Falklands War, David Gross looks back at the fate of HMS Sheffield, the first naval ship lost by the Royal Navy since World War Two.
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Just before Christmas 1981 an Argentine businessman by the name of Constantino Sergio Davidoff visited an abandoned whaling station on the remote island of South Georgia, under contract to remove any scrap metal he could find. He landed without the proper permits from the British government, who (like the Falkland Islands, another British colony in the region) administered the place. The British authorities cried foul.

Davidoff sent a crew of workmen to the island anyway, and within weeks the incident had escalated into an international incident. The British government dispatched a warship, HMS Endurance, and the Argentineans, determined to press their claim for The Malvinas (Their name for the Falklands), ordered their own warship, the Bahia Buen Succeso to the area.

2nd April 1982 at 6am in the Falkland Islands. Sleepy Port Stanley awoke to find a couple of thousand Argentinean troops on the doorstep. In spite of intense diplomacy led by Ronald Reagan's Secretary of State Alexander Haig, Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher declared war, and the Argentinean dictator, General Galtieri followed suit. Three days later a massive armada of navy ships left Southampton and things got serious.

It was a scary time, unseen since the Korean War in the 1950s. Two nations, with well-equipped modern fighting forces, were sabre rattling towards the other. This was especially true of the navy and airforce divisions. It was also the first naval encounter of the guided missile era: for the first time the captain of a warship or the pilot of a plane could knock out a target that he could not even see.

Five Type-42 Destroyers were part of the fleet heading south with the fleet. The Sheffield, Coventry, Cardiff, Glasgow and Exeter. Ships whose prime purpose was to provide air defence for a task force, and to stick pretty close to Hermes and Invincible, the two aircraft carriers. Also in the South Atlantic were two identical British-built Type-42s, which were sold to Argentina; the Hercules and the Santisima Trinidad. So similar were the ships that the Royal Navy had to paint a large black stripe down the side for easy identification before embarking.

Things began to heat up considerably after the Argentinian cruiser General Belgrano, with over a thousand men on board, was torpedoed and sunk on the direct order of The Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher. It had strayed into a 200 mile "exclusion zone". Over 200 Argentinean sailors perished.

The 13,645 ton Belgrano was a well armed cruiser with more firepower than any of the British ships, and the Argentinean Navy's second largest ship after its aircraft carrier Veinticinco de Mayo. Yet it was taken out by a nuclear attack sub, HMS Conqueror, that it had no idea was there. This was the largest warship sunk since 1945. After that, the Argentinian Navy refused to leave port to support their Army in The Falklands. Surely Britannia really did rule the waves.

But two days later this confidence evaporated

The Sheffield

One month earlier HMS Sheffield, a modern computerised Type-42 destroyer, had been returning to Portsmouth from a patrol in the Arabian Gulf, her crew looking forward to some well earned R & R.

She was the second ship to bear the name. The first was a 591ft Southampton Class cruiser that had helped sink the Bismark in WW2, and had a proud battle history. When decommissioned in '67, many of the stainless steel fittings (presented by Sheffield companies, distinct from normal brass fittings) that had given the ship the nickname "Shiny Sheff" were added to the new Sheffield, enduring the name and keeping the distinction.

The call to join the Task Force came within hours of the Argentinean invasion of the islands, and when the crew were just four days from Portsmouth. Some of the crew would never see home again.

On Tuesday May 4th the ship was on forward radar scouting patrol, around 70 miles south and east of Port Stanley. Meanwhile a pair of French made Super-Etenard fighter-bombers from the mainland Argentinean base of Rio Gallegos spotted the HMS Sheffield on radar about 50 km away. The planes headed closer, at 20km fired off a pair of AM 39 Exocet missiles, then peeled off toward home. One of these Exocets locked onto the Sheffield.

These missiles quickly dropped to between six and eight feet from the sea and travelled at close to the speed of sound through rough waves, following a course programmed in by the pilots. 10km from the target the missile's own radar system picked out the target and homed in.

One history of the Falklands war says that as there were no "bogeys" on any radar screens at the time, the officers were making a satellite phone call back to Fleet HQ in England, an action that would jam the use of the ship radar. However, with other ships close by, notably the Carrier Invincible, this was not seen to be a risk. At the end of the call, reported the Guardian newspaper, the radar came back on and the two Etenards were spotted just 33km away. It was the Navy's first encounter with low-flying Exocet-carrying attack planes.

Another history says that the Sheffield's crew were "only in second-degree readiness rather than at full action-stations". The first the crew heard was a loudspeaker warning "Missile Attack - hit the deck". It reportedly took four minutes to close a ship down into battle stations and to be ready to take evasive action. The Sheffield had little more than a minute to react.

One of the missiles missed the target, but the other hit the Sheffield square amidships, penetrating deep into the the electronic fire control room. It apparently failed to explode but ignited everything around it - flames fuelled by the missiles own propellant. It came in low, about six feet above water level, and exploded outward and upward. The whole working area of the ship was in flame and poisonous smoke quickly engulfed the ship. 21 men lost their lives and a further 24 wounded.

One of the men who died was Senior Computer Chief Mike Till, from Houghton-le-Spring , Co Durham. When the missile hit his team stayed at their posts. They were working to get the ships computers back on line so that she might be able to defend herself, unaware that the planes responsible for the attack were long gone. Sadly it was too late for these men to escape the fire, smoke and fumes. Mike and his men all failed to survive.

The ship had to be abandoned eight hours after the flames had raged out of control. The ship's burnt out hulk sank a few days later on May 10th, whilst under the tow of frigate HMS Yarmouth. Position 53°04'S, 56°56' W. The first Royal Navy ship to be sunk in action for nearly forty years, the wreck is a designated war grave. (The photograph is of the HMS Sheffield memorial in the Falklands)

This was the moment when everyone realised that there was more to 'signing-up' than learning a profession and seeing the world. From here on the gloves were off and guns did all the talking. The Newspapers rallied to the call, and loudly declared that Our Boys were out for vengeance.

The Aftermath

Today controversy still rages, as veterans continue to fight for an inquiry. How could one of the Navy's newest ships, specifically built to defend against missile attacks, be almost literally be caught napping. Key documents appear to be "lost" , and several men from HMS Invincible allege that officers knew of the presence of hostile aircraft a full 19 minutes before Sheffield was hit and failed to notify other ships.

Sightings were apparently dismissed by a senior officer as "spurious". One operator reported that he and others were accused of "chasing rabbits", and that he is haunted by the memory of his commanders' inaction that day. One fact though was inescapable: HMS Invincible was positioned in direct line with the incoming. Had the Sheffield not been there, then it could have been a totally different story. The MOD have consistently ruled out an inquiry and key documents are not to be released. Meanwhile Portsmouth MP Mike Hancock continues to lead accusations of a cover up.

But the Sheffield name lives on.

A third HMS Sheffield, built on Tyneside and commissioned at Hull, was launched on March 20th 1986 at a cost of £180 million, sister of another ship named after another lost in the South Atlantic, HMS Coventry. A 458ft submarine hunter with two Lynx helicopters on board, it toocontains fittings from the original HMS Sheffield and has inherited the nickname "Shiny Sheff".

The city of Sheffield has always been proud of its associations with the Armed Forces, and a few years ago, gave the crew of the latest "Shiny Sheff" the Freedom of the City.

As the world becomes ever smaller and technology is pushed on to the front line, the need for major fleets other than for policing begins to dwindle. Let's hope that the latest HMS Sheffield gets to live out a long, useful and peaceful existence.