Three Royal Navy warships have been named HMS Sheffield after the city and county borough of Sheffield, South Yorkshire.
HMS Sheffield (C24)
Built by Vickers Armstrong, Tyne. Laid Down 31st January 1935.
Launched 23rd July 1936. Completed 25th August 1937. Paid off 1959.
Reserve 1960-1966. Broken up by Shipbreaking Industries, Faslane, 1967.
War service
At the outbreak of war, Sheffield served with the 18th Cruiser Squadron, patrolling the Denmark Straits and then, in April 1940, she was engaged in the Norway campaign. After a short spell carrying out anti-invasion duties in the English Channel, she joined Force H, based in Gibraltar. During that time, she operated in the Mediterranean and the Atlantic until the year's end.
In 1941, she participated in the shelling of Genoa (9 February), operations against Vichy convoys and supporting air reinforcements to Malta. In May, Sheffield took part in the sinking of the German battleship Bismarck, narrowly escaping a friendly fire torpedo attack by HMS Ark Royal's Fairey Swordfish aircraft. On 12 June, she located and sunk one of Bismarck's tankers, the Friedrich Breme. After the destruction of another German supply ship, the Kota Penang in early October (with HMS Kenya), Sheffield returned to Britain.
Post-war
The refit was completed in May 1946 and Sheffield alternated between duties in the West Indies (where in 1954 she served as flagship of the 8th Cruiser Squadron) and in home waters and the Mediterranean. There were further refits in 1949/50 and 1954. She went into reserve in January 1959 and became flagship of the Home Fleet until September 1964, when she was placed on the disposal list.
Her equipment was removed at Rosyth in 1967 and the was then broken up at Faslane in the same year. The stainless steel ship's bell, which was made by Hadfield's of Sheffield, was preserved and today hangs in Sheffield Cathedral along with her battle ensign.
She was occupied on Arctic convoys until hitting a mine off Iceland on 3 March 1942 and was under repair until July. After more Arctic convoys, Sheffield joined the forces supporting the Allied landings in North Africa (Operation Torch) in November. In December, Sheffield and Jamaica formed "Force R", under the command of Rear-Admiral Robert L. Burnett (in Sheffield), which provided cover for convoy JW51B. The convoy was attacked by a strong German surface force, but, in the ensuing action (Battle of the Barents Sea), the Germans withdrew and Sheffield sank the German destroyer Friedrich Ekholdt.
In February 1943, Sheffield moved to operate in the Bay of Biscay and, in July and August, she supported the landings at Salerno (Operation Avalanche). Returning yet again to the Arctic, she took part in the sinking of the battleship Scharnhorst off the north coast of Norway, in late December.
In 1944, Sheffield was an escort for the Royal Navy carrier force that executed a series of air attacks on the German battleship Tirpitz, between April and August. These had limited success and reponsibility was passed to the Royal Air Force.
A lengthy refit in Boston and in Britain kept Sheffield out of action until after the end of the war.
HMS Sheffield (D80)
Laid down: 15 January 1970
Launched: 10 June 1971
Commissioned: 16 February 1975
Fate: Sunk on 10 May 1982 after Argentine air attack on 4 May 1982 during Falklands War
HMS Sheffield (D80) was the second Royal Navy ship to bear the name Sheffield, after the city of Sheffield in Yorkshire. She was a Type 42 Guided Missile Destroyer laid down by Vickers Shipbuilding and Engineering at Barrow-in-Furness on 15 January 1970, launched on 10 June 1971 and commissioned on 16 February 1975.
The ship was part of the Task Force sent to the Falkland Islands during the Falklands War. She was struck by an Exocet cruise missile fired by a French-made Dassault Super Étendard belonging to the Argentine Navy on 4 May 1982 and finally scuttled on the 10 May 1982.
The sinking of HMS Sheffield
At approximately 10 A.M. on the 4 May, HMS Sheffield was at defence watches, second degree readiness, as part of the British Task Force dispatched to the Falkland Islands during the Falklands War. Sheffield had relieved her sister Coventry as the latter was having technical trouble with her Type 965 radar. Sheffield and Coventry were chatting over UHF. Communications ceased until an unidentified message was received stating simply "Sheffield is hit!". The flagship, Hermes dispatched the escorts Arrow and Yarmouth to investigate, and a helicopter was launched. Confusion reigned until Sheffield's Lynx helicopter unexpectedly landed aboard Hermes carrying the Air Operations Officer and Operations Officer, confirming the disaster.
Sheffield picked up the incoming missile on her ancient Type 965 radar (an interim fitting until the Type 1022 set was available), and the Operations Officer informed the Missile Director, who queried the contact in the ADAWS 4 fire control system[1]. The launch aircraft had not been detected as the British had expected, and it was not until smoke was sighted that the target was confirmed as a sea skimming missile. Five seconds later, the Exocet impacted Sheffield amidships. Such was the lack of warning, there was no time to engage in defensive manoeuvres, leading to a change in policy that all ships believing to be even possibly under missile attack would turn toward the threat, accelerate to maximum speed and fire chaff to prevent a ship being caught defenceless again.
The Exocet was fired from one of two Super Étendards launched from Río Grande, Tierra del Fuego, and was piloted by Captain Augusto Bedacarratz, who commanded the mission. It was launched at the point-blank range of six miles; the British had expected it to be launched from long range (45 miles) at medium altitude, hence the difficulty in classifying it and taking effective countermeasures. It struck amidships, approximately 8 feet above the waterline on Deck 2, tearing a gash 4 feet by 10 feet in size in the vicinity of the galley[1], which occupied the full width of the hull.
The MOD report into the sinking of the Sheffield concluded that; "Evidence indicates that the Warhead did not detonate" [2]. Some of the crew and members of the Task Force believe however that the missile's 363-pound warhead did in fact detonate upon impact[1]. Regardless, the impact of the missile and the burning rocket motor set Sheffield ablaze. Accounts suggest that the initial impact of the missile immediately crippled the ship's onboard electricity generating systems and fractured the water main, preventing the anti-fire mechanisms from operating effectively, and thereby dooming the ship to be consumed by the raging fire. It is also suggested that the ship's anti-missile radar was incompatible with the satellite communications link which reduced the chance of the Exocet being intercepted, although neither the Type 965 radar nor the Sea Dart missiles carried by Type 42s are particularly well suited to intercepts of low-flying missiles.
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.
The burnt-out hulk was taken in tow by the Rothesay class frigate Yarmouth but was scuttled at 53°04'S, 56°56' W on 10 May 1982 because of bad weather turning the ship into a waterlogged hulk, making it the first Royal Navy vessel sunk in action in almost forty years. Twenty of her crew (mainly on duty in the Galley-area) died during the attack. The wreck is a war grave and designated as a controlled site under the Protection of Military Remains Act 1986.
The sinking of the Sheffield is sometimes blamed on a superstructure made wholly or partially from aluminium, the melting point and ignition temperature of which are significantly lower than those of steel. However, this is incorrect as the Sheffield's superstructure was made entirely of steel. The confusion is related to the US and British Navies abandoning aluminium after several fires in the 1970s involving ships that had aluminium superstructures. The sinking of the Type 21 frigates HMS Antelope and Ardent, both of which had aluminium superstructures, probably also had an effect on this belief though these cases are disputed. In both cases, it is likely the ships would have been lost in any event, due to amount of explosives involved in such small ships, though aluminium fires did break out. Ardent in particular took a severe pounding, suffering eleven bomb hits, five of which exploded; no ship of her type of any era would have been able to survive such an attack. The fires on these ships did result in one clear change, which was the shift away from the nylon and synthetic fabrics then worn by British sailors. The synthetics had a tendency to melt on to the skin causing more severe burns than if the crew had been wearing non-synthetic clothing. The official report into the sinking of Sheffield, recently disclosed under UK Freedom of Information laws after an extensive campaign by ex-RN personnel , severely criticised the ship's fire-fighting equipment, training and procedures and certain members of the crew
Roll of Honour
The 20 sailors killed when the HMS Sheffield was hit by the Exocet missile.
Petty Officer David R. Briggs, D.S.M.
Catering Assistant Darryl M. Cope
Lieutenant Commander David I. Balfour
Weapons Engineering Artificer Andrew C. Eggington
Sub-Lieutenant Richard C. Emly
Petty Officer Cook Robert Fagan
Cook Neil A. Goodall
Leading Marine Engineering Mechanic Allan J. Knowles
Laundryman Lai Chi Keung
Leading Cook Tony Marshall
Petty Officer Anthony R. Norman
Cook David E. Osborne
Weapons Engineering Artificer Kevin R. F. Sullivan
Cook Andrew C. Swallow
Acting Chief Weapons Mechanic Michael E. G. Till
Weapons Engineering Mechanic Barry J. Wallis
Leading Cook Adrian K. Wellstead
Master-at-Arms Brian Welsh
WEO Lieutenant Commander John S. Woodhead, D.S.C.
Cook Kevin J. Williams
HMS Sheffield (F96)
Laid down: 29 March 1984
Launched: 26 March 1986
Commissioned: 26 July 1988
Decommissioned: 5 November 2002
Fate: Sold to Chile on 4 September 2003
HMS Sheffield (F96) was a Type 22 frigate of the Royal Navy. She was originally intended to be named Bruiser but was named Sheffield in honour of the previous Sheffield (D80), a Type 42 destroyer sunk in the Falklands War. She was sold to Chile on 4 September 2003 and renamed Almirante Williams.
