HMS Sheffield (D80)
.jpg) HMS Sheffield in Diego Garcia in February 1982
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The HMS Sheffield (D80) was a destroyer for the British Royal Navy . Commissioned in 1975, the ship was badly damaged during the Falklands War and sank on May 10, 1982.
The ship
The destroyer was named after the city of Sheffield ( Yorkshire ) and was the lead ship of the Sheffield class (Type 42). These were designed as anti-aircraft ships in the 1960s . The Sheffield participated in various NATO exercises in the 1970s .
The Falklands War and the Downfall
The Sheffield was part of the British fleet that was used to retake the Falkland Islands in April 1982.
On May 4, 1982, the aircraft carrier association to which it belonged was attacked by two Dassault Super Étendard fighter-bombers of the Argentine Air Force ( Fuerza Aérea Argentina ). These fired two Exocet anti -ship missiles from a distance of around 25 nautical miles (46 kilometers) .
The approaching guided missiles were discovered by one of the other destroyers, HMS Glasgow , but the warning no longer reached Sheffield .
While one of the two guided missiles narrowly missed the frigate HMS Yarmouth (it may have fallen into the sea due to lack of fuel), the other hit the Sheffield starboard amidships .
Although the warhead did not explode on impact, the explosion of the unused rocket fuel was enough to set the ship on fire. The fire extinguishing system was put out of operation by the impact. In addition, as a result of the hit and the resulting fire, the entire electrical power supply failed.
20 seamen died and 24 were wounded in this attack.
The ship had to be evacuated because the fire could not be extinguished. It burned out completely but remained buoyant and floated for four days. Then the Sheffield was towed by the Yarmouth , but sank only a day later, whether by scuttling or by heavy weather is unclear.
The loss of the Sheffield clearly showed the weakness of the British Navy in the area of air defense, which should actually have been remedied by the commissioning of the Sheffield class.
The ship was the Royal Navy's first major loss since World War II .
Web links
- HMS Sheffield Association website. Accessed May 2, 2017 .
- How the pride of the British fleet was sunk by a deep fryer , article on stern.de