HMS Coventry

1982

Pebble Island, the Skyhawks, capsized in twenty Location: South Atlantic, north of Pebble Island · Coordinates: 51.30°S 59.50°W · Casualties: 19 · Survivors: 262 · Depth: 100 m · Cause: aerial attack — Bombed by two Argentine A-4 Skyhawks on the afternoon of 25 May 1982 north of Pebble Island, West Falkland. Three 1,000-pound bombs struck home. She capsized in under twenty minutes. · Fate: war grave · upside down · Type: destroyer · Type 42 · Tonnage: 4,100 tons · Crew: 281 · Flag: United Kingdom · Launched: 1974 Royal Navy Type 42 destroyer, on radar picket duty north of Pebble Island. Bombed by two Argentine A-4 Skyhawks on the afternoon of 25 May 1982; three 1,000-pound bombs hit home in under a minute. She capsized in under twenty minutes. 19 dead, the same day as the Atlantic Conveyor. The Argentinians called 25 May 'the day of the two ships'; the Royal Navy later commissioned a new Coventry six years later. The Vessel HMS Coventry (D118) was a Type 42 guided-missile destroyer of the Royal Navy, commissioned at Cammell Laird at Birkenhead on 20 October 1978. She was a sister ship of HMS Sheffield, Birmingham, Cardiff, Glasgow, Newcastle, and other Type 42 destroyers. Her configuration, armament, and capabilities were essentially identical to Sheffield's: 125 metres, 4,100 tons full load, Sea Dart SAM system, single 4.5-inch gun, twin Rolls-Royce Olympus gas turbines, 30-knot design speed. Her commanding officer in 1982 was Captain David Hart-Dyke, 44 years old, a career Royal Navy officer. Her crew was 281 officers and ratings. By the outbreak of the Falklands campaign in April 1982 she had been in Royal Navy service for three and a half years and had participated in multiple NATO Atlantic exercises and Persian Gulf deployments. The Disaster At 14:20 on 25 May 1982 Argentine A-4 Skyhawk attack aircraft launched from the Argentine airfield at Río Gallegos were detected on HMS Coventry's radar at a range of 130 kilometres. Captain Hart-Dyke engaged with his Sea Dart missiles at 14:35; one Sea Dart shot down an Argentine Skyhawk at a range of approximately 40 kilometres. A second Argentine strike of four Skyhawks reached the Coventry-Broadsword position at 14:50. The second strike was the critical one. The four Argentine Skyhawks, carrying four 500-kilogram bombs between them, approached the British ships at very low altitude to avoid the Sea Dart radar. The low-altitude approach placed the aircraft below the minimum engagement altitude for the Sea Dart system. Coventry's close-in defences (her 4.5-inch gun and her 20mm Oerlikon guns) and Broadsword's Sea Wolf point-defence system were engaged to intercept the low-altitude strike. At 14:52 on 25 May 1982, the Argentine Skyhawks released their four bombs on the British ships. Three bombs struck HMS Coventry. The first entered her forward superstructure and detonated in the computer room, killing most of the officers and ratings in the combat information centre. The second entered her engineering spaces and detonated, flooding her forward engine room. The third entered amidships and detonated, breaking her fore-and-aft structural connection. HMS Coventry capsized to port within 20 minutes of the bomb hits. Her speed of capsize reflected the three simultaneous bomb hit