Our Yarmouth underwent repairs at Chatham, where she was fitted with a new bow section. repair and logistics area). Luckily the space craft came down amongst a US Navy task force with two aircraft carriers and television cameras in the Pacific Ocean. We then steamed back to the main group at 27 knots. Moved in to TRALA this morning and RV'd with Stena Seaspread, the repair ship. You've read 1 out of 5 free articles of Naval History this month. However, some accounts state the torpedo actually struck a decoy being towed by HMS Arrow, but failed to detonate. Went to action stations at 0001 and within 30 minutes we were in position on the gun line [11][15][16] In May 1966 she began a long refit and modernisation at Portsmouth Dockyard. attack. ARDENT then veered towards us but again we opened up with everything we had, including 4 We detached at 1500 with Olmeda and proceeded to South Georgia. A Royal Navy task force managed to beat off heavy air attacks to take back the South Atlantic archipelago from Argentine troops. Topped up with 4.5 ammunition and at 1600 we detached air. Yet, benefiting from a competent commander using ordinary tactics, it still managed to run circles around a dozen antisubmarine frigates from one of the most capable navies in the world, and might easily have sunk several warships had its torpedoes functioned as intended. We fired 124 rounds as refuel just outside the sound. Still better safe than sorry. News from the main body is that they Whenever there is Argentina surrendered the following day. HMS Ardent was engaged in shelling an Argentine-held runway from Falkland Sound on May 21, 1982. night. [26] Lucero ejected and was recovered by Fearless.[27]. armed merchantman to the south-east of the Falklands. Sunday May 16th body and stayed on the Eastern edge of the TEZ. The Argentine garrison surrendered on June 14 before the San Luis could be put back to sea. Topped up with mortar bombs from reserve. We took out various targets such as machine gun posts, troop concentrations, small What went wrong with the San Luiss torpedoes? Thursday May 13th Friday May7th There are a half-dozen explanations, variously holding crew error and technical flaws culpable. The barrels The Argentines, after securing the islands with little resistance from a light unit of 69 Royal Marines, had to prepare their defense against a possible attempt by Great Britain to take the islands back. Monday May 17th He is president of Poppyscotland and Legion Scotland. THE FALKLANDS CONFLICT, APRIL - JUNE 1982 | Imperial War Museums fiercely around her stern. BLUE ROVER, BALTIC FERRY, ATLANTIC CAUSEWAY, and NORLAND. unidentified contacts on Radar. SBS boat has gone weapons firing, this included SLR's that people had up on the flight deck. The torpedo was heard to explode and the contact was lost. Yarmouth's helicopter flew a doctor over to Esso Chile and ferried the wounded to shore for further medical treatment. Landed the NGLO and a marine on Cook Island. [21][22] The heavy damage and pressure on the defense budget saw HMS Yarmouth offered to the RNZN later in 1976, but the offer was rejected on account of the frigate's age.[23]. There was only one casualty on our side and that Mr McLeod struggled with post-traumatic stress disorder after leaving the Army several years later, but managed to turn his life around with help from Poppyscotland and other charities. Harper, Submarine Operations during the Falklands War.. sent to render assistance. more supportive work. To maintain political power on the mainland and within the junta, Admiral Anaya returned his battle fleet to its home port at Puerto Belgrano Naval Base.3 After the sinking of the General Belgrano, he felt that retaining his remaining warships would maintain his political position to exercise leverage, rather than charge into the most significant situation the Argentine Navy has encountered in its history. torpedoes and depth charges. pick up some Paras from Great Island tonight. The missile had apparently struck the port waist and who lost an arm. We took on two sections of SBS and NGS spotters tonight. We put a couple of HE 4.5s through Monsunens hull below the water-line LSL - Landing Ship Logistics, comprising Sir Bedivere, Sir Galahad, Sir Geraint . Everyone onboard wants to get down there and give them a little air support. with her 4.5 inch gun. The 2 LCL's that were hit yesterday are still OK Patrolled the TEZ. explosion had blown a hole in the side 15 X 4 feet. On completion we returned to San Carlos Water All quiet due to foggy weather. Ardent was lost in action on the 21 May 1982 during the Falklands War. near Fitzroy and opened fire even though we were being illuminated by a fire-control radar. splashed with another 2 possibles. Not expecting a real war, the junta miscalculated how quickly British prime minister Margaret Thatcher would escalate against their use of force with her own. On the way out again we had to go and investigate a contact that was in the Exocet However, after 29 hours the winds rose to gale force and . In the early hours of the morning we were detached with BROADSWORD to intercept an All these factors coincided with the fact that the British had little to no early-warning aircraft and had to rely on special forces, submarines, and ships onboard radar to pick up low-flying incoming aircraft. During the forenoon our Dcc went across to assist. quite an unusual ship to look at. At We went to action stations at 2355 ready force as Anti-Submarine Warfare (ASW) picket. 2 of the LCL's were hit GLAMORGAN had been bounced by Argentinean aircraft and had sustained some minor She claimed to have fired two German-manufactured SST-4 antisurface ship torpedoes and one American Mark 37 antisubmarine torpedo. On May 1, the San Luiss passive sonar detected the HMS Brilliant and Yarmouth, both specialized antisubmarine frigates. bombed and sunk with the loss of six of the crew : Groups of Ships. As part of the 2nd Battalion, he was sent to the Falklands, in the south-west Atlantic Ocean aboard the QE2 in May 1982. This set off some of the ammunition and set fire to one of the Thursday May 27th INVASION DAY + 6 Yarmouth went to her aid and took off the ship's company as the fire spread towards the magazines. Again we are the only ship on the gun-line on time. All in all we fired 264 rounds As a young boy, Graham Daniels was fascinated by his uncle's stories . Patrolled the TEZ. had a small fire as a result of welding but it wasn't too serious. After completion of Hms-YarMouth We chased it round to the south of east island where we Perhaps this means the long awaited push on Stanley is in the away from ARDENT our port rudder became trapped around her anchor cable. It was April 1982, and the crew of Royal Navy destroyer HMS Sheffield . and then did a 28 knots passage back to San Carlos Water and only just made it as the dawn The Ship HMS Ardent Association The three British nuclear-powered submarines stationed in the area raised alarms for Admiral Jorge Isaac Anayas Argentine fleet. Steven R. Harper, Submarine Operations during the Falklands War, Department of Operations Paper, Naval War College, 1994. Many ships present at that time suffered damage from air attacks and only the concentrated fire of Yarmouth's 4.5, inch and 20mm guns, Seacat missile and small arms kept the enemy air craft at bay. her starboard side about 5 feet above the water line and the resulting In 1971 she was present at Portsmouth Navy Days.[17]. For most of the war, a lone Argentine diesel submarine, the San Luis, opposed the Royal Navy at sea. The Royal Navy, for its part, expended hundreds of expensive antisubmarine munitions and dispatched 2,253 helicopter sorties chasing false contactswithout detecting the San Luis on either occasion it closed within firing range. Again quiet. The San Luis broke contact and began her second run on 8 May against a British submarine. no warning. Board of Inquiry - Report into the Loss of HMS ARDENT. the rapiers. GLAMORGAN had now got the fire under some semblance of control ships left to guard now. As before we were illuminated by the fire control radar but this time we came However, after 29 hours the winds rose to gale force and Sheffield finally sank on 10 May at 7 am. attack. Brian Hanrahan who is in one of the RFA's here was describing We fired 181 We did the trip at 28 knots all the way so as to get there as soon as We can reunite you with your friends who served at HMS Yarmouth and we have a wealth of information on different units, bases and ships in the site. all the survivors. detached and went into the Bluff Cove area again. For Mark Beverstock, the Royal Navy gave him a way to study engineering at university while getting paid. Again it was left to us to prove the ON TRANSIT - HOME TO ROSYTH, Do not sell or share my personal information. succeeded in deterring them from attacking us unfortunately ARDENT was not so lucky and We are the largest and fastest growing community of UK forces veterans on the web with over 500,000 members! We heard this morning that there were only 3 casualties onboard ANTELOPE, It is significant, however, that these attacks and ASW battles took place. (This first appeared in 2016. A cracking shot. store but SIR GALAHAD had not been so lucky. ARROW and GLAMORGAN were in company, ARROW was going to the Northern gun line [28], She was decommissioned on 30 April 1986, and in 1987 towed out to the North Atlantic and sunk by weapons from Manchester in that year's SinkEx on 16 June 1987. us being badly hit. gear up to Port San Carlos. Lots of activity ashore at the moment. learned that the Argentinean Cruiser, the General Belgrano was sunk by one of our We were given the Northern part of the water to protect again along with [10], From 1966 to 1968 Yarmouth underwent a major modernisation, which brought the ship close in capacity to the Leander-class. Have heard that AVENGER "The Falklands is always there," he said. ARDENT managed to get the fire in her hanger under control when another wave of The attacks were poor, but the fact that the San Luis could make these approaches against the best of the Royal Navy shows how different the outcome could have been if the San Luis had been fully provisioned and prepared for combat operations. She was rammed in the Third Cod War by the Icelandic gunboat Baldur and had to limp away from the patrol area for repairs. Some air raids today but were seen off by the cap stations. These hits and sinkings are nonetheless remarkable considering the lack of training or knowledge of antishipping tactics for the Argentine pilots who flew against these heavily defended vessels. Their engines on JOB DONE! she had no power to her weapon systems. Wednesday May 19th, The main amphibious group joined us today. A cracking shot. Falklands War: HMS Sheffield - a survivor's story - BBC News 1930 air raid. After dark we were ordered to close SHEFFIELD and to take her in tow. Tonight we will sit in Berkely sound and give Tiptoe survived, and was able to make Gosport under her own power, and was repaired at the yards of Cammell Laird. We succeeded in getting lines across and are a lot of helicopters of various shapes and sizes flying constantly overhead. to open fire when called upon. We now have been at sea for 9 weeks with no end to it in prospect. She came to public notice when she was involved in the Falklands War of 1982. The commander of the Argentinean forces had avoiding action. A total of 255 British servicemen, 649 Argentine military personnel and three civilians were killed after Argentina invaded the British overseas territory in 1982. Friday June 25th INVASION DAY + 35 was attacked by Exocet and Skyhawks. bow by 100 yards. sure our turn will come. It could swim at forty-two kilometers an hour underwater or twenty-one on the surface, and had a maximum diving depth of five hundred meters. ARDENT in her rush to clear her 4.5 gun of High Explosive (HE) shells just fired them Falklands War: Scottish veterans pictured on 40th anniversary Pictured: The watery graves of 42 British servicemen Rear Admiral Mark Beverstock is now president of Poppyscotland and Legion Scotland. Also ARGONAUT took on two unexploded HMS Yarmouth was the first modified Type 12 frigate of the Rothesay class to enter service with the Royal Navy . The San Luis was no super-submarine, nor did it have a super-crew. closed ARDENT to offer assistance. The San Luiss crew, for its part, thought they had been fired upon by a British submarine on May 8, and after taking evasive maneuvers, launched a Mark 37 torpedo against an undersea contact. Many of the best submarine commanders in the Argentine fleet at the time were being trained in West Germany, which forced lower-ranking and less experienced officers to skipper their boats in the most important conflict the Argentines would fight in their history since its declaration of War on Nazi Germany in 1945.2 Although the military history of the Argentine armed forces has been light, the assets Buenos Aires could apply to a south Atlantic war gave a slight advantage to an Argentine military that could, if accomplished properly, apply its forces with maximum effect on the incoming task Force. proceeded to take up our normal place at the Northern end of the Water, but PLYMOUTH the other side without exploding. Went to air raid warning red a few Spent the day patrolling the Eastern part of the TEZ. There were 3 air Here we will have a few days rest and carry out important repairs We were told by our spotter that our fire was very accurate Had the light carrier ARA Veinticinco de Mayo been able to launch a strike against the British carriers with her ten A-4Q Skyhawks instead of aborting because of bad weather and had the San Luis torpedoes performed as they were intended, the Royal Navy could have suffered a humiliating defeat at the hands of the Argentines. Recommended: What Will the Sixth-Generation Jet Fighter Look Like? HMS Ardent - Our Falklands War HMS Ardent Association He now lives in Edinburgh and works at Lady Haig's Poppy Factory. There were many problems with the performance of the SST-4 torpedoes the San Luis crew had fired. RT @RDPHistory: April 26th 1982: As South Georgia is fully taken, the task force sails on for the #Falklands. SBS were landed near Port Howard late last night and took up their spotting positions. The rest of the crew were evacuated successfully. The Lord Mayor of Sheffield, councillor Gail Smith, said the the loss of HMS Sheffield was a "significant event in . During the conflict, Great Britain lost six ships from bombs and missiles launched or dropped by Argentine land-based strike aircraft. Went to action stations during the dogs, Stanley now and it is only a matter of time before we take it. We opened up with the machine guns and hit both of them. Tuesday May 4th We were to tow her out of the TEZ and then rendezvous with the tug Salvageman to transfer Following a demonstration of the Yarmouth's guns, the ten Argentine military personnel surrendered. have had to sink the ATLANTIC CONVEYOR after taking as much undamaged stores as have now taken Teal Inlet and Douglas as well now. Fortunately we but no details as to the extent of her damage as of yet. Its commander, Frigate Captain Fernando Azcueta, was a submarine veteranbut did not have much experience with the Type 209 model. [3][4] Crew was about 212 officers and men. HMS Sheffield (D80) - militaryfactory.com Air On rejoining the main group we carried out a RAS(L) we should have followed that with a Patrolling We both opened up but after a short while CARDIFF's gun decided that The Type. Monday May 10th CAP shot down a C130 that had been Islands splashed another with her Sea Dart. st Saturday May 29th INVASION DAY + 8 Storm still blowing but beginning to slacken off now. other was finished off by the Rapier sites. twisted metal. Suggestively, AEG implemented numerous upgrades to the torpedo after the Falklands conflict. She arrived off the Falklands in late April 1982 and began protective escort for the Task Force. Captain F6 and staff paid us a visit today. We later heard that they were very successful and destroyed 11 planes, an The ships to form a screen around them were Plymouth, ANTRIM, ARROW, and The ship had been struck by two 1,000lb bombs and 22 lives lost. GLAMORGAN did not seem to fire many rounds as usual. contribution in fending off attackers and providing spotters with a spectacle to remember for escort. were so impressed Crazy Ys performance they went about shaking everyone by the hand. However, the British ships cruised on, unaware of the attack. Went to under shore fire. Told that the Pucaras are now attacking the troops at supposedly temporary cease fire ashore. A MRS3 fire control system replaced the Mark 6M, and its integral Type 903 radar allowed the Type 277 height finder radar to be removed. The brief but bloody naval war that occurred in 1982 over the Falkland Islands, known as the Malvinas in Argentina, is typically viewed as a triumph of British naval power. RT @RDPHistory: April 26th 1982: As South Georgia is fully taken, the task force sails on for the #Falklands. across her bows. bombs. We were providing air cover for all the On another occasion she gave firefighting and medical assistance to Glamorgan when the destroyer was hit by a land-based Exocet. The next ten days saw Yarmouth in San Carlos Water by day and leaving at dusk each night to carry out a variety of tasks including shore bombardment, anti-submarine patrols, covert operations and escorting merchant ships to and from the landing area. A Mark 6M fire control system (including a Type 275 radar) for the 4.5 inch guns was mounted above the ship's bridge, while a Type 974 navigation radar was also fitted. Guess who it was - yes our old friend the MV Monsunen. for a submarine. She arrived off the Falklands in late April 1982 and began protective escort for the Task Force. the main group. ammunition and fuel ready for the new nightly dash into the Islands for NGS. Another covert operation tonight. Ascension base, Falklands War - Naval History.Net There were no Several of Bravyy's crew were washed overboard in the incident with Yarmouth rescuing two of them, although two of the seven Soviet sailors were lost in the accident. We then did a RAS with Olmeda. they were busy consolidating their positions. During the Falklands War, Yarmouth took part in the only ship to ship engagement of the war, when she and HMS Brilliant shelled the Argentine coaster ARA Monsunen. speed dashes. was only a flesh wound. Incredibly we saw two men climb out of the hole at her stern, from out of the exploded. The Falklands War of 1982 HMS Sheffield was critical in trialing the Sea Dart at-sea missile weapon and was used in this fashion until about 1980. . lucky. by 1000lb bombs that failed to explode. The Falklands War, 1982 . Gresham College, 6 April 2016. Saturday May 22nd INVASION DAY + 1 with AVENGER to go to the Northern gun-line. Monday June 14th INVASION DAY + 24. very well this morning. At 0800 we heard the plans for us The San Luiss fire control system allowed it to automatically guide three torpedoes simultaneously after launch. HMS ARROW, ALACRITY, and Out of total of 12 aircraft over San Carlos throughout the day, 7 were We are becoming the local experts at these high Patrolled the TEZ. For more information, please see our Privacy Policy, Please enter a password with 6 characters or more. On 9 November 1970 the aircraft carrier Ark Royal collided with the Soviet Kotlin-class destroyer, Bravyy, which had been shadowing the carrier during exercises in the Mediterranean and cut across the bows of Ark Royal while the carrier was launching aircraft. During the conflict she fired well over a thousand rounds, some thirty-two tons of shells. again and said that the troops would be very glad to have us back tomorrow night for some By Second Lieutenant Grant T. Willis, USAF, By Lieutenant Commander Jeff Vandenengel, U.S. Navy.