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HMS Coventry (D118)
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HMS Coventry (D118) was a Type 42 (Sheffield Class) destroyer of the Royal Navy laid down by Cammell Laird and Company, Limited, at Birkenhead on 29 January 1973, launched on 21 June 1974 and commissioned on 20 October 1978.
oventry participated in the Falklands War in 1982 where she became the first Royal Navy warship to fire the Sea Dart SAM (Surface-to-Air Missiles) in anger when the ship fired three on 9 May destroying Two A-4C Skyhawks of FAA Grupo 4.
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HMS Coventry (D118) was a Type 42 (Sheffield Class) destroyer of the Royal Navy laid down by Cammell Laird and Company, Limited, at Birkenhead on 29 January 1973, launched on 21 June 1974 and commissioned on 20 October 1978.
Service history
Coventry participated in the Falklands War in 1982 where she became the first Royal Navy warship to fire the Sea Dart SAM (Surface-to-Air Missiles) in anger when the ship fired three on 9 May destroying Two A-4C Skyhawks of FAA Grupo 4. The third was fired at a Hercules on a supply run but it escaped unharmed as the Sea Dart was fired at maximum range.
Some reports suggest that these two Skyhawks were lost in bad weather, however Coventry did fire her missiles at distant contacts at the same time Lt Casco and Lt Farias were lost & the targets disappeared from radar, but hits could not be confirmed. HMS Broadsword reported that their radar had tracked the missile merging with the pair of Skyhawks. They may well have both been downed by Coventry's missiles, or collided while attempting to evade it.
Later a Aérospatiale Puma SA330L helicopter with its three man crew was shot down by another Sea Dart missile.
She was also the first to use the Sea Skua (Air-to-Surface) anti-ship missiles in action; when her onboard Westland Lynx HAS.Mk.2 fired a Sea Skua missile on 3 May. At the time it was thought that this missile had sunk the Argentine patrol boat Comodoro Somellera but this ship has been seen post war. Coventry's Lynx actually fired at ARA Alferez Sobral, the former USS Salish. One missile missed & the other hit a small boat slightly injuring a crewman manning a 20mm gun & knocking out the radio aerials.
HMS Glasgow's Lynx fires two more Sea Skua, & the vessel retreats with 8 crew killed, 8 wounded and heavy damage, her damaged bridge is now on display at the Naval Museum in Tigre Partido, Argentina.
Coventry was one of three Type 42 destroyers providing anti aircraft cover for the fleet. The loss of the Sheffield and damage to Glasgow (on the 12 May forcing her to return to the UK) left Coventry to carry the role alone until other ships could arrive from the UK.
On 25 May (one of Argentina's national days, el Día de la Revolución de Mayo esp; "May Revolution Day"), 1982 Coventry, accompanied by HMS Broadsword was ordered to take up position in Falkland Sound. There she would act as a decoy to draw away Argentinian aircraft from other ships at San Carlos Bay in the Falkland Islands. In this position close to land with not enough open sea between her and the land her Sea Dart missiles would be less effective. Broadsword was armed with the Sea Wolf missile which is for short range anti-aircraft and anti-missile use.
The trap at first worked when a FAA A-4C Skyhawk coded C-304 of Grupo 4 de Caza deployed to San Julian was shot down north east of Pebble Island by a Sea Dart missile while returning from a mission to San Carlos Water. Capitán Jorge Osvaldo García successfully ejected but was not recovered from the water, (his body was washed ashore in a dinghy at Golding Island in 1983). Garcia's wingman was also shot down during the raid on San Carlos, by a Sea Cat from HMS Yarmouth (also claimed by various others in the area including a Rapier battery), but he was luckier, and ejected into captivity, in front of waiting News Crews.
They then came under attack by several waves of Argentine A-4 Skyhawks specifically sent to sink them. Despite managing to shoot down two attackers earlier in the day, on the final occasion a wave of four enemy aircraft flew so low that Coventry's targeting radar could not distinguish between them and the land and failed to lock on. Broadsword attempted to target the first pair of attackers with her Sea Wolf missile system, but her own tracking system locked down during the attack and could not be reset before the aircraft released their bombs. Of the four bombs released, one struck Broadswords flight deck and – though it failed to explode – damaged the ship's Lynx helicopter. Though she was still unable to gain a lock on the second pair of Skyhawks, Coventry launched a Sea Dart in an attempt to distract them and turned to starboard in order to reduce her profile. On Broadsword the Sea Wolf system had been reset and had successfully acquired the attacking aircraft, but was again unable to deploy when Coventry's turn took her directly into the line of fire.
Coventry used her 4.5 inch gun and small arms against the attacking aircraft. Coventry was struck by three of the four bombs released, two exploded and she immediately began listing to port. One of the bombs had struck the computer room and the blast destroyed it and the operations room nearby, incapacitating almost all senior officers.
Within 20 minutes she had been abandoned and had completely capsized, with the loss of 19 of her crew. After the ship was struck, her crew, waiting to be rescued, sang "Always Look on the Bright Side of Life" from Monty Python's Life of Brian. She sank the next day. A memorial cross was erected on Pebble Island after the war.
The wreck site is a controlled site under the Protection of Military Remains Act.
David Hart Dyke, Coventry's commanding officer during the Falklands War, wrote about the ship's tale in his book "Four Weeks in May: The Loss of HMS Coventry". This was later adapted by the BBC into a documentary (with dramatised sequences) and shown in June 2007.
External links
- Coventry attack Pictorial
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