Sea Of Fire, The Sinking of HMS Coventry (D118) The two ships then came under attack by two waves of two Argentine A-4 Skyhawks. The first wave carried one 1,000 lb free fall dumb bombs while the second one carried 3 x 250 kg bombs. The four Skyhawks flew so low that Coventrys targeting radar could not distinguish between them and the land and failed to lock on. Broadsword attempted to target the first pair of attackers (Capitán Pablo Carballo and Teniente Carlos Rinke) 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 bombs released, one bounced off the sea and struck Broadswords flight deck and, though it failed to explode, wrecked the ships Lynx helicopter. Coventry claimed to have hit the second Skyhawk (Capitán P. Marcos Carballo) in the tail with small arms fire, although the aircraft returned safely to Argentina. In fact, Carballos plane was hit under the right wing by a piece of shrapnel on his way in, that pierced his aircrafts right fuel tank. The second pair of Skyhawks (Primer Teniente Mariano A. Velasco and Ensign Alférez Leonardo Barrionuevo), headed for Coventry 90 seconds later at a 20-degree angle to her port bow. Still unable to gain a missile lock, Coventry launched a Sea Dart in an attempt to distract them and turned hard to starboard to reduce her profile. On Broadsword the Sea Wolf system had been reset and successfully acquired the attacking aircraft, but was unable to fire as Coventrys turn took her directly into the line of fire. Coventry used her 4.5-inch gun and small arms against the attacking aircraft. The port Oerlikon 20 mm cannon jammed, leaving the ship with only rifles and machine guns to defend herself. Coventry was struck by three bombs just above the water line on the port side. One of the bombs exploded beneath the computer room, destroying it and the nearby operations room, incapacitating almost all senior officers. The other entered the Forward Engine Room, exploding beneath the Junior Ratings Dining Room where the First Aid Party was stationed and the ship immediately began listing to port. The latter hit caused critical damage as it breached the bulkhead between the forward and aft engine rooms, exposing the largest open space in the ship to uncontrollable flooding. Given the design of the ship, with multiple watertight compartments, two hits virtually anywhere else may have been just survivable. The third bomb did not explode. Within 20 minutes Coventry had been abandoned and had completely capsized. Coventry sank shortly after. Nineteen of her crew were lost and a further thirty injured. One of the wounded, Paul Mills, suffered from complications from a skull fracture sustained in the sinking of the ship and died on 29 March 1983; he is buried in his home town of Swavesey. After the ship was struck, her crew, waiting to be rescued, sang Always Look on the Bright Side of Life from Monty Pythons Life of Brian. Broadsword subsequently rescued 170 of Coventrys crew.
Posted on: Mon, 02 Jun 2014 23:09:35 +0000
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