Exocet Attack on HMS Sheffield - Falklands War Documentary 

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I can't even begin to imagine the frustration and dread at HMS Glasgow when their sister ship isn't doing anything to prevent iminent danger.

10:11 The way you present complex information in the form of infographics is second to none

As Sheffield burned, the men in the lifeboats began to band together. While British ships were close by, many of the young sailors were starting to panic. Reportedly, one of the officers started singing "Look on the Bright Side of Life" from the movie "Life of Brian", and before long had the entire surviving crew singing along. This helped raise morale and spirits of the survivors, and is regarded as one of the smartest decisions made that day.

Damn, those pilots had balls. They rushed headlong into what could have been almost certain death with no support or escort and waited till the last possible moment to maximize effectiveness of their weapons. It may be textbook in a way to get as close as possible but its easier said than done. And thats why you never underestimate your enemy because they are very capable of putting a hole in you if you font respect their ability to and willingness to be bold.

Props to the Argentine pilots, this was pretty much a perfect textbook attack.

Regardless of what happened to the Sheffield and why. The 2 Argentina pilots are to be credited with the daring boldness of their attack. They used their equipment to its full capability, maximized their skill set and attacked. They truly lived the credo "fortune favors the brave."

You have to give the argentines credit for how well this operation was carried out

Excellent video, very well done and entertaining. With just 5 exocets, the argentinian naval air force proved the enormous skills and bravery of their pilots. Sinking two majors british ships (HMS Sheffield and Atlantic Conveyor), if argentinian forces would have more exocets the outcome of the war could have changed. Another thing to note is that France not only refused to give Argentina the other 9 they should have give them, the french also refused to teach the argentinians how to operate them, so argentinians had to figure out how to do it in very short time. That was also very remarkable. I'm argentinian and I have to say that war sucks. But both sides fought bravely. RIP all the heroes that fought on both sides.

Brilliant. The Super Etendard-Exocet combo is deadly for navies.

Amazinly upon returning to Argentina, Argentine soldiers and pilots felt more respected by the Brits than by teir own people. For people it was the same reaction of losing a soccer game. But only veterans know the deep sadness that rests in a battlefield. This is why all veterans from any country, have my respect, especially if they are conscripts.

No doubt the Argentinian Air Force was something to contend with, not only because of its size but mostly because of its daring and highly skilled pilots. I've always had the impression that the Brit Fleet somehow underestimated the danger the Argies' planes posed and later paid a high price for it. A lesson for future engagements.

The fact the Argentinians went below to about 50 feet above sea just to use the earth’s curvature fascinates me. I never knew the earth’s curvature could be use in such a manner. I wonder if other aerial operations of other wars used this tactic too. I find it interesting and amazing that the earth’s curvature could be use to hide oneself from the enemy. Very fascinating. Overall very well made video. Godspeed to those who perished during the Falkland War. 🇫🇰 🇬🇧 🇦🇷

As a former destroyer sailor, this is an absolute nightmare. Great job as always on this video.

4:13 Flat earthers will naturally make terrible pilots and navigators.

The UK military learnt a lot from this conflict. Having being largely army focused due to the NI troubles no one thought that aluminium on warships or nylon uniforms for the ship's company would be a problem. Also putting the right personnel in the right positions. The captain of Sheffield, as I understand it, was a former submarine commander. This wasn't the only incident that lessons were learned from, there were others. In any conflict lessons are learnt quickly, early on. I don't think that it was just the fault of officers in command but also the designers and beaurocrats back in the UK ministry of defence. The bravery shown by both UK and Argentine military is without question.

Balls of steel from the pilots and sailors and the mercy of command failures. The task force failed at basic defense and the pilots took full advantage of the command failures. This is from someone living in the UK. The enemy pilots (from my point of view) were very brave as everything should have been against them.

"I suspect someone's been bloody careless" - from your account, that was a very prescient and perceptive comment given how little he knew of the details of the situation at the time.

Of course, most people in the UK (that are old enough) remember the Falklands War. However the detail you provide is fantastic. Learned things I didn't know. Currently the IWM channel (Imperial War Museum) are running a video series about the Falklands war. Worth checking out for anyone interested in learning about it.

I remember reading one book a while ago that talked about one issue the Royal Navy had during the war was its anti-air capability. From what I remember, the author said it was due to what the RN was expected to do in the event of the Cold War going hot. The RN had been given a particular task (anti-submarine if I remember correctly) as part of a larger NATO mission, with the expectation that other NATO Navies would be there performing other tasks like dedicated air defence and so on. So the RN had spent decades planning to fight as part of big multinational force and then came the Falkland War... Suddenly the RN was fighting a war it had never expected and they found they had some serious capability issues, with air defence being a big one. As what they had avaliable was good if there is someone else nearby with better kit and you expected to be part of a wider network. Not so good if it is the only thing avaliable. And of course, the Argentine pilots had the skills to find and exploit those short comings.

You can’t build a “cheap ship” If you reduce the monetary cost you’ll pay in sailor’s blood

It just hit me- that was forty freaking years ago! That’s about halfway as far back in time from now as WW2! Good God time flies!

How could the Sheffield's crew not imagine that the planes' position in relation to their ship was slightly different than that from their sister ship?

Accurate description, well done . Greetings from Buenos Aires.

Was a midshipman in the West German navy at the time, and of course we were following closely what was going on down south in 1982. I dare say that this film is the most clear and instructive on the chain of events that has lead to the loss of HMS Sheffield that I have seen so far. BZ!

The argentinians were hasty in the invasion. They needed the ethendards and the exocets. Having them would have caused the lost of more ships.

"No hay quien pueda con los pilotos Argentinos" Sandy Woodward

Just comes to show how important a good captain is. The other destroyer was on the ball, and would have survived that had it been targeted. The ship's crew did everything it could to save its sister. Meanwhile, the Sheffield's crew were unprepared, lax, and doing things they shouldn't have been doing during wartime. That is something the captain could have resolved, but didn't.

Ernesto Proni Leston and Sergio Sepetić were pilots of Neptune “2-P-112” that found HMS Sheffield.

Thanks for another great video! You shine a light on the complexity of naval operations that I feel are usually very much oversimplified. It also brings to life the gruelling reality of fighting aboard tin cans floating on 100's of metres of water in the face of missiles and torpedo's that require only a single hit.

I remember this well as I was a bit of a news junkie at the time. It even had made it into one of my science magazines. One thing to remember is that this was so deadly because of mistakes ON BOTH SIDES. The Exocet missile had a much longer range than had been used. Had the missiles been fired from a safer distance, there would have been less fuel to feed the fire, which was far deadlier than the warhead alone.

One of my leading seamen came from the Sheffield. He confirmed that the ship was slack, in many ways. The captain was a nice guy, not a ship driver or warrior. But otherwise, the problems of Sheffield were common to my ship as well, and to most of the Royal Navy. We had nylon clothing, nylon bedding, thin anti-flash gear, all designed to cut costs (and weight, perhaps). A week after Sheffield's sinking, we all received horse-hair mattresses, thick cotton N° 8s, proper anti-flash gloves and balaclava. These had all been in store (in Gib, in my case) for years - 1974, my mattress was built. On my ship, I had been complaining for months that the Rover gas turbine - used for auxiliary fire fighting in case the main drain failed, but also for pumping water out of the ship when firefighting or when flooded - did not work. We got a new one after the Sheffield sinking. One of the reasons the Sheffield crew had so many problems was that the exocet split the main drain and firefighters could not get any water pressure, so could not control the smoke, provide boundary cooling, or attack the fire. Their Rover didn't work, either. Exocet only carried a small warhead, plus any remaining fuel. The short range at which they were launched meant that there was still plenty of fuel, adding to the fire, but the warhead was only sufficient to punch a hole in the side. A similar missile hit the a**e end of the Glamorgan at the end of the war and good damage control prevented any more serious loss. It took 2 exocets to wreck the Atlantic Conveyor, but two were not enough to sink the USS Stark. A 500kg bomb would cause much more damage than an exocet, but Argentine bombs rarely exploded due to the low height from which they were dropped. I've just been reading about the Japanese naval air experience - and what is most impressive is the huge number of weapons that are needed to sink a warship - armoured during WWII. One or two hits shouldn't affect a big ship like a carrier with good damage control. But British ships of Falklands vintage were designed to stand up to 1 500kg bomb, but not 2. So, Coventry, capsized after two bombs, but Ardent survived for a day after 3 bombs (with many more unexploded), Antelope was hit by 2 bombs, but only one exploded near the magazines which also detonated, sinking the ship. In conclusion, considering the Argies had only 5 missiles, they squandered them on unimportant targets, a rookie error, and failed to follow up their hit with anything else. Poor strategy, poor planning, poor tactics, generally poor business, and hitting the Sheffield, a ship that wasn't going to make any major contribution to the war, was poetic justice.

The type 42 performed very poorly in the war. Their sea dart missiles were not effective at low level and were slow to reload. They had no CIWS. Of the three ships in the video, Glasgow was hit on the 12 May by a 1000lb bomb that miraculously passed right through the engine room without exploding. However, damage was done to the fuel lines and hull and the ship was crippled, only able to manage 10 knots. It was forced home and took no further part in the conflict. Coventry was lost on the 25th May when three 1000lb bombs hit the ship and at least two detonated. It capsized and sank in less than 20 minutes.

I'm still amazed at the quality and detail in your videos. This is great work. Thank you

...and flew him directly to the admirals ship...ouch. that's is when you know you've messed up bad.

Well done! I have read and seen many recountings, yours is the clearest.

I remember this clearly. The ‘wake up’ value of it was quite astounding. What happened to the second of the Exocets?

R.I.P to those 20 sailors that died on board HMAS Sheffield🙌

What a preventable attack. They had ample warning and they managed to screw it up. There are times, I think, some commanders don't deserve their post.

Don't suppose you'll be covering the sinking of the Alantic Conveyer in this series?

Great video. Well done. I remember this well being in the Royal Canadian Navy at the time as an Ops Room rating so everything that happened was important to me, especially mistakes when fighting the ship.

The animation of the fire spreading on the ship reminded me of FTL. Excellent video, you're amazing at what you do.

Had no idea so many mistakes were made by Sheffield. Senior officers still with peacetime thinking. Best graphics I have seen that clearly shows the sequence of events.

I'm new to Historigraph but glad to have discovered the channel. I've just watched a series these vids on the Falklands War and believe they are very well researched, written and animated. Solid story telling with an efficient style.

This is a really interesting and well compiled series on Falklands war. Well done

Argentina cambio la estrategia de la guerra aeronaval en 1982. Sorprendió una y otra vez a la flota británica.

Awesome as always!

I agree you have a gift for presenting complex information in a concise and clear way - first class

This is excellent quality documentary. Well done.

While still tragic this sinking really puts in my mind how small this conflict was in comparison to other naval conflicts like WWI and WWII where sometimes thousands die on a single afternoon. If this was a destroyer in Jutland or in Midway it wouldn't even have been mentioned.

The pilots had an extra problem when flying so close to the sea and it was the salt that stuck to the windshield and made it difficult to see, so they used to have to support the helmet against the side glass which caused a huge vibration inside the helmet.

Very good presentation - full of detail and presented factually.

Amazing series. love every episode so far as i get through this playlist. please more videos

Despite all these, bravery to the pilot that did the operation.

I like this channel's emphasis on naval history

Thanks for another great episode.

Thank you 🙏 again for your EXCELLENT work

Los pilotos navales, Armando Mayora - Augusto Bedacartatz.🇦🇷 4-5-1982 El Sheffield se convirtió en el primer buque de guerra británico 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿hundido desde Segunda Guerra Mundial y el primero de la OTAN. 20 Muertos y 63 heridos condolencias a familiares del HMS Sheffield - Su capitán Sam Salt. Despues del fin de la Segunda Guerra Mundial , Argentina🇦🇷 , Excelentes pilotos Alemane🇩🇪 en nuestro pais capacitaron a los pilotos arg. Adof Galland - Hans Ulrich Rudel- Behrens Otto - kurt Waldemar Tank- Werner Baumbach- Heinz Scheidhauer.

My two cents: (i) you forgot to say that the fleet was tracked by a Argentine Navy's Neptune, and the attack was properly prepared (ii) the way of attacking was studied by engineers and one university in Argentina, on how to fly without "touchjing" the lobe of the type 42's radar (a maneuver called "peeking the lobe")

New Falklands documentary, yay! Thanks!

Loved the video @Historigraph! Can't wait for the next video man! Sheffield wasn't the Only Ship lost on the British side of the Falklands War, her Sister Coventry and hours later the Container Ship Atlantic Conveyor were lost to AM 39 Exocet Missiles a few days later.

I remember cheering in French pubs when it was shown on TV - our fellow Europeans at the time!!!!

Woodward was right. Someone had been bloody careless.

Woo! Favorite channel post right before bed!

Great video ! Secrecy, surprise and bravery was the determinant attack

One of my Friends was onboard HMS Sheffield when it was struck and survived to tell the tale. It was a terrifying experience for him. He still suffers this day with the experience (mentally).

Aluminum isn't a good thing to build ships out of first of all. Second Kevlar burns quite nicely and puts out tons of toxic smoke,three: electronics burn nicely too and puts out tons of toxic smoke also wasn't the water mains hit too? Also the ship had a pathetic air defenses. 2 20mm cannons,sea dart Sam's that suck at any range,4 30 cal machine guns and a 4.5in cannon. Like wtf royal navy.

Fascinating! Thank you!

Love your videos! Can you make one on the battle of Midway?

4:10 Yes you can have Harriers and they are killers. But Harriers could not fill the role of AWACS or E2s. Argentina's pilots exploited this blind spot. History was made, lessons were learned.

Admirable las proezas de los pilotos argentinos!

Very good historical info. Thanks.

Great work Sir thank you

En Malvinas , Argentina combatió con la mayoría de aviones antiguos y armamentos viejos , se hizo bastante a pesar del bloqueo de la OTAN

Gloria eterna a los valientes pilotos Argentinos !!!!!

Thanks, I was an 18 y o greenie on Hermes down south, in the video you see burn victims landing in helos., our job was to fill the helos with firefighting gear, you could smell the burnt flesh inside. Apparently the Exocet never exploded its warhead, the rocket fuel did the damage. Who gets promoted, sure enough Sam Salt for running a sloppy ship, can so eone say coverup RN style.

Excellent video! High quality. One thing I noticed was that the video captions are an older version of the script and don't match the narration.

Ejército Argentino desde 1806 enfrentando al Enemigo. Honor y Gloria ! Viva la Patria Carajo 🗡💀🇦🇷

Atlantic Conveyor was more critical loss due to the material carried. Exocet wasn't the only threat because 14 ships were hit by conventional bombs through air raids but didn't explode. If those 14 hits were exploited or if Argentina had more Exocet missiles UK would have lost the war. I've seen a documentary where the Argentinian pilot said was launched the Exocet from longer distance and it didn't exploited but caused the fire due to its fuel.

I've been waiting for this.

Your content is 10/10 like late 90s early 2000s history Channel. thank you.

Nice!

11:20 Any follow-up action on that?!

The range and punch of that little jet was astounding

Nice narration of events. Thanks for being respectful with both bands. Malvinas/Falklands is still today a very sensitive topic for us Argebtinians and for UK of course. Both bands had sustained lots of casualties thanks to bad politicians...

The senior crew of Sheffield certainly played their part in this unnecessary sinking is the only conclusion I can draw.

15 feet at 500 knots that's less than 5 meters at 926km/h the cold guts to do that are astounding.

This was a great video

Great video and you tell the story in a imparcial mode, happy day for the veterans argentines fall in the islands!

Viva la Patria carajo!! 🇦🇷🇦🇷🇦🇷

Silver lining: As bad as it was for her, Sheffield actually accomplished her primary mission. Neither carrier was struck by enemy fire. In extremis, the duty of the escorts is to take the hit to save the carrier. Thus, despite all the mistakes, and almost certainly inadvertently, Sheffield did succeed in her primary mission of keeping the carriers from being hit by the enemy missiles.

Excellent video 📹 Excellent graphics. Yikes, a damming video

This channel is awesome 😎👍

the exocets certainly played a large role in the war

el peor pecado de la guerra "exceso de confianza" Inglaterra se había creído su propio discurso sobre su absoluta superioridad militar.

Excelente video

Thank you, this video is promoting my Falklands videos.

LETS GOOO 1 SECOND AGO UPLOAD

Historical evidence from the Royal Navy says that if a fire onboard a ship is not brought under control within ten minutes, then the chance of regaining control diminishes. A valiant effort must be applauded by all on board. A combination of circumstances converged at a crucial moment in time, as is present in many disasters. Lessoned learned, has enabled a range of changes in various actions, procedures and ship design. Most importantly, the realisation of the condition of PTSD, by those whose war never ended, would eventually result in the recognition and treatment for this nightmare.

I love the understantement of "someone's been bloody careless". It translates from British Naval Officer approximately as "You, Captain, yes you personally, along with a whole bunch of people you are responsible for, are shockingly incompetent, and it's going to be court martials all round."