Touching tributes paid to the dead of HMS Sheffield

Read It Here RIP. I will never forget the day HMS Sheffield was sunk, I was at sea myself with the task force. This was how I remembered that fateful day ,an extract from my book `Watching Men Burn` below.


On the evening of 4th May, we were all trying to relax, write a letter, read a book, appearing calm and happy with our lot, when our Troop Commander came down the stairs into our mess deck and shouted for attention. We could tell by his expression that he didn’t have good news. I can’t remember his exact words, but he told us that HMS Sheffield had been hit by an exocet missile and had been destroyed. There were a few moments of stony silence, just the humming of the ships engines as the full impact of what we had just heard sank in. Here we were on a flat-bottomed troop ship defended by obsolete bofors anti-aircraft guns. What chance would we have of defending ourselves when a multi million pound destroyer had been taken out? The silence turned to anger. The perfect antidote to fear, the macho bravado shown by groups of young men when they’re about to be involved in a scrap.

The Sheffield had added impact for me as she was built in my hometown.I vowed then and there to take revenge for her. Whilst she was under construction a welder was killed in a gas explosion. Folk said, after this, that the ship would have no luck.

From this point on, I think everybody did every task with an added purpose. We were now at war.I wanted to fight, I wanted to kill the enemy. I hated all Argentineans.I’d teach the Argie b******* to sink the shiny Sheff’.

From a purely military point of view, the loss of a ship was guaranteed to get red, white and blue blood pulsing through our veins. As Maggie had said, ‘defeat, the possibility does not exist.’ I, like the rest of the lads, were willing to defend our honour to the death. Obviously, the sinking of the Belgrano had the same effect on some of the Argentine forces, noticeably, their Air Force.