The British Task Force off the Falklands suffered some of its worst losses due to Argentine Air raids on May 25, 1982
The British Task force off the Falkland Islands suffered some of its worst losses to Argentinean air strikes on May 25, 1982, which is ironic given that Argentina named its aircraft carrier after their Day of Independence. On this date, the ships HMS Coventry and MS Atlantic Conveyor were both sunk, Coventry by a stick of three dumb bombs dropped by V Brigada Aerea A-4C Skyhawks, and Atlantic Conveyor by Exocet Missiles fired by Super Étendards from the 2nd Escuadrilla de Ataque Squadron, Armada de Argentina.
Given that the ship carried a sizable fraction of the Task Force’s utility helicopter capability, her loss had a considerable effect on the logistics of Britain’s ground campaign. Bravo November, the only surviving Chinook from the ship, would go on to accomplish a number of logistical feats, including the transport of 81 soldiers in a single emergency. Unfortunately, one of the nine men who perished with the ship was her captain, 57-year-old World War II veteran and merchant mariner Ian North.
Here is a story from UPI on the fatalities aboard the Atlantic Conveyor. Coventry was lost while working alongside HMS Broadsword as a radar picket and missile defense ship. The website hmscoventry.co.uk claims:
‘On 25th May 1982 – Argentina’s National Day – Fuerza Area Argentina (Argentine Air Force) A-4B Skyhawks from Grupo 5 had been given a mission specifically targeted at Coventry and Broadsword. The two ships had been on picket duty, North-West of the Falkland Islands, acting as both early warning and the first layer of defenses. They had become quite a thorn in the side for the Argentine forces as a result. Two raids were scheduled against the ships. The first raid descended into chaos and was abandoned when Coventry shot down one of the aircraft with a Sea Dart. The second raid, unfortunately, had more luck.
‘Flying extremely low and initially hiding behind West Falkland and Pebble Island to the South, Coventry’s radar was unable to pick up any of the incoming aircraft. Broadsword, however, could see two targets and called off a Sea Harrier CAP, confident that they could deal with the raid. Coventry’s radar was still unable to break out the contacts from the ground return of Pebble Island, and her lookouts spotted the aircraft first. Small arms and Oerlikon fire opened up, and the two A-4s altered course away from Coventry and towards Broadsword, which had a firm Sea Wolf lock on a single contact.
‘Just before the Sea Wolf was ready to fire, however, the single target it had locked became two, confusing the system. The launcher slewed to its stowed fore/aft position, and was unable to be reset in time before these first two A-4s attacked the Broadsword.’
On this mission, the Argentinian Air Force attempted to maximize damage while eliminating a number of dud bombs that were caused by their aircraft having to fly extremely quickly and low due to the Task Force’s defenses. The Coventry would be lost to retarded dumb bombs dropped from the ultra-low flying A-4C Skyhawks of V Brigada Aerea. This frequently led to bomb fuses not having enough time to arm, which in turn led to many hits that did not sink the targeted ships.
The bombs that hit Coventry were time-delayed, and according to various reports, 2-3 500–1000 lb bombs were used. This would lead to the loss of another British-guided missile destroyer. The crew of HMS Broadsword once again chose Monty Python’s “Always Look on the Bright Side of Life” as their abandon ship anthem after one of her Lynx aircraft was destroyed by a dud bomb and she personally saved Coventry survivors.
On www.hmscoventry.co.uk, you can read what the Coventry Crew members themselves believe caused their ship to sink once more:
‘Velasco fired his cannons, hitting the hangar area, and then pressed his bomb release. Coventry’s luck had run out and all three of his bombs, released at just the right moment, hit the ship, carving a path of destruction deep into the interior. Barrionuevo witnessed the bombs striking Coventry’s hull and seconds later his Skyhawk flashed across the top of the ship – but despite pressing his bomb release, none of his bombs left his aircraft. Velasco’s bombs, fitted with delay fuses, had all come to rest within the ship instead of tearing straight through, due to their lighter mass compared to the Mk.17 bombs. One bomb failed to go off, but the other two exploded several seconds later, tearing out a large amount of the port side and killing several of the crew, mostly in the auxiliary machine space, computer room, and dining room where the first aid party was stationed. The explosion just forward of the computer room boiled up through the open computer room hatch and wrecked the operations room. A large fire immediately took hold and water began pouring into the ship through the holes ripped in her side.
‘The third bomb had not gone off, but the hole it ripped through the decks allowed smoke and fire to spread beyond the abilities of damage control to combat it, and as ever more water poured into the ship she began rapidly listing to port. The large number of holes torn by the bombs, explosions, and cannon fire became submerged and added to the weight of water pouring into the ship.
‘No ship-wide order to abandon ship was given – the confusion and chaos and total failure of ship-wide communications saw to that, but it was clear to everybody that Coventry was in a bad way and had to be abandoned. Quietly, efficiently, the crew nearest the upper decks had released the starboard side life rafts – those on the port side were at too sharp an angle to be of any use now. Evacuation took place in an orderly fashion, while several members of the crew were performing heroics rescuing fellow survivors from shattered and burning compartments throughout the ship.
‘Broadsword had immediately begun rescue operations using her ship’s boats and helicopters also arrived from the ships in San Carlos Water. A particularly brave bit of flying from CPO Aircrewman M J Tupper of 846 NAS – hovering very near to the Coventry’s magazine (which could have blown up at any moment) – resulted in 17 survivors in life rafts trapped alongside the ship being lifted onto the Broadsword. Tupper later received the Distinguished Service Medal for his bravery. Broadsword’s crew performed just as magnificently, with her ship’s boat and Gemini towing life rafts away from the Coventry as she rolled over despite the ever-present danger of a major explosion.’
The following video is an interview with Commander Nigel “Sharkey” Ward from the Imperial War Museum on the events of May 21–25, 1982, and how Flag mistakes increased the Task Force off San Carlos Water’s losses. Ward is still a controversial figure, however, he was a former Sea Harrier Project Officer and RN Phantom Air Warfare Instructor (the RN’s equivalent of a TOPGUN graduate). He was unfortunate enough to be a subject area specialist whose knowledge was disregarded from above.
Overall, Argentina was able to deal the Task Force a number of blows, but they were unable to stop the landings or the further advance of British Land forces, who started their extended “yomp” across the Falklands.
Check out the Pensacola Aerospace Museum’s Facebook page for further aviation photos and stories
Photo by: U.S. Navy, DM Gerard – Private collection, Martín Otero via Wikimedia Commons
