D I A R Y  O F  E V E N T S 
(Unofficial) By Wem(R) (Spider) D Webster
[ Diary Of Events ] [Flight Diary] [ Spider's Diary Of Events ] [ April 82 plot ] [ April 82 Log ] [ May 82 Plot ] [ May 82 Log ]

1 MAY Early hours of morning Vulcan Bomber bombed Stanley airfield. Later Argentineans reported being bombed by a Harrier.
10:00 action stations, air attack building up from the west. 18 Mirages heading for us. Intercepted with Harriers and 3 of them shot down. One of them a Super Etendard ditched its Exocet in the sea and turned round and went back. HMS Alacrity suffered minor damage with an 18" hole in the funnel from 30mm cannon fire from Mirage. One man hit in the stomach.
2 Cobras shot down by Harriers. 3 of their Mirages ran out of fuel trying to get back and ditched in sea. 1 Mirage shot down by their own men trying to return home. All our Harriers returned home 1 with minor damage.
2 MAY 10:30 Action stations. Air warning yellow, sub surface warning yellow, surface warning white. SAS landed. One of their aircraft carriers within range but no action taken.
19:00 HMS Conqueror put 2 torpedo's in one of their cruisers. 
3 MAY A Lynx went to investigate 2 radar contacts which were fast patrol boats. Previously a sea king had come under their fire, so Lynx sunk one and badly damaged the another. The cruiser which was hit now has sunk. The two fast patrol boats have now turned out to be frigates. 2 life rafts spotted near by but nobody in them.
4 MAY Heading for south of Falklands where more Marines will be landed. Vulcan makes another successful bombing run. Argentine carrier moves closer to Argentina after cruiser has been hit. Sheffield gets hit by an Exocet and ship has to be abandoned. Estimated 50 lives lost. Survivors picked up and will be spread out amongst other ships. 
5 MAY Mail arrives during morning with Sunday Mirrors. Harrier lost on Port Stanley raid. Sheffield still burning gets towed away.
6 MAY 2 Harriers go to investigate radar contact and don't return. Sheffield stops burning. 
7 MAY Air raid builds up to the west but turns away from our cap.
8 MAY Hercules flies into Falklands protected by 2 Mirages and a tracker. Harriers cannot do anything and Hercules gets in. More Harriers land at Ascension. HMS Brilliant ordered to sink a merchantman going into Falklands. Emergency break on RAS.
9 MAY Ship detaches with Coventry to go to Port Stanley to knock out planes which keep landing supplies.
08:30 Action stations, jets don't come within range of Coventry's sea dart. 1 helo does and gets shot down.
20:30 leave Port Stanley to look for a sub in area.
10 MAY Sheffield sinks in early hours of the morning in rough weather. Glasgow shoots 2 Mirages down and Argentineans shoot 1 of their own down
11 MAY Brilliant takes 2 Mirages down and 1 escapes. Glasgow gets hit by bomb which doesn't explode. Fwd system off line working long hours to get it back online.
12 MAY Fwd system back on line in single shot mode with aft system.
13 MAY Both systems online 100%. Detach with Hermes and Glamorgan for mission. Mission now cancelled.
14 MAY Detach with Hermes and Glamorgan to land SBS SAS. 11 planes knocked out without any losses.
15 MAY Brilliant goes to sink 2 merchant ships but cannot identify them.
16 MAY Seawolf test shoot today on both systems. harriers attack 2 merchant ships 1 on fire and 1 sunk. Alacrity goes to finish them off.
17 MAY Air raid builds up but gets scared off by CAP. detach with Invincible and circle the Falklands.
18 MAY Still with Invincible for most of the day circling the Falklands then join rest of the fleet.
19 MAY Atlantic conveyor joins us with 20 harriers onboard.
20 MAY Canberra joins us and some other civilian ships not sure what they are. Head for Falkland sound.
21 MAY Land troops between east and west Falklands 17 planes shot down Broadsword accounts for 4. Ardent gets bombed and sets on fire and later blows up. Broadsword gets hit by 30mm cannon fire and we have 10 people injured. Other ships also getting hit. Fighting carries on throughout daylight. 60 airwave attacks in total today. Numerous places were hit throughout the ship. Tiller flat, our mess and its flooding, laundry was hit and the Hanger. Bunged holes up in our mess when we got time. As soon as 30mm hits it penetrates through the ships side and splits up into tiny pieces which bounce around compartment and embed themselves into things. I laid flat on the deck when the jets hit us but some of us couldn't as was in too much pain from getting hit earlier. Three bombes were dropped on us 2 missed and one bounced off the side of the Hanger. These are the same bombs which destroyed Ardent. Throughout the day continuous attack by planes as we get troops ashore. 5,000 troops landed, 1 helo hit and 21 troops lost. Brilliant looses its fwd system and suffers 30mm through the Op's room. She has also received more damage which is not known to us. Our Seawolf launcher was hit and we was lucky it didn't hit any of the missiles. Avcat helo pump was hit with a hole through it.
Ardent brightens up the night with explosions, all survivors are off. Number of dead not known. Simon Lawson was on her and I don't know if he was a survivor. A big explosion sends fragments of the ship into the air. It looked like a Sea cat missile set off and at first I couldn't tell if it was going away or coming towards us, it was going away. She wont last till the morning.
22 MAY broadsword and Coventry go off on a mission but see no action. Argentine fighters don't come within range. Spend most of the day bailing water out from our mess and trying to make the holes water tight.
23 MAY Went into Falkland sound with Plymouth, Yarmouth, Fearless and Antelope. 5 planes shot down 2 by Broadsword. 1 plane hit Antelopes mast and crashed on the beach. Antelope suffered 2 bombs both unexploded. Its a good job the pilots are scared of Seawolf, they are flying very low and they know that Seawolf can't get them, the bombs are not arming at this height and most don't go off. Numerous bombs missed us 1 by 5ft above the bridge, this exploded 50yds away and it felt like the ship had been hit. We manage to receive mail today in the middle of all the air raids. Hills all around are making it difficult to track jets. When Antelope was hit our helicopter was on the their flight deck but came back when it was found out about the unexploded bombs. She abandoned ship and pulled away on her own steam away from the rest of us. Brilliant has to go home after both Seawolf and other equipment out of action. We're now the only Seawolf ship. 1 man is died on Antelope after taking a direct hit by one of the bombs. two men later try to defuse the bomb, it explodes and kills them. Antelope sinks fairly quickly. 9 jets splashed that day.
24 may Spent day with Coventry 15 miles from sound using our radar together with Coventry's to direct harriers. 17 planes shot down.
25 may Did the same thing as yesterday. Coventry hits 3 jets. They have found out where we are and an air raid of 4 jets come in. Coventry for some reason didn't fire her Sea dart, she started firing her gun. The 4 split and come in 2 directions. A bomb comes through and takes about a second to scrape the corner of our mess, go through the aft cleansing station, through the fire main and loads of other pipes in 2R, through the Chinese shack and surface on the flight deck chopping a torpedo in 2 and wiping out the front of the helicopter. My gas mask was left hung up in 2R and it missed it by a couple of feet. Lucky no one was in that area. The chemical alarm went off and I immediately held my breath and went for my gas mask. Opening the door I was to my knees in water, found my mask and put it on. I saw part of the bomb and decided to get the hell out of there. Everyone was coming aft as I tried to shout and go forward. I then found out the bomb wasn't onboard and it was just a piece of it. All four pumps were going on the fire main and the nearest valve had to be closed before we flooded. Our mess yet again took some water. I helped patch the hole up temporary in the outer side of the ship. During this the second wave comes in and Coventry got hit and and quickly gave the order to abandon ship. 20 minutes later she was gone. 170 survivors were brought on Broadsword and the critical taken to Uganda. She stayed upright for a few minutes and there were large explosions and turned over. People were still trapped inside when she went over. I was in 1M flat meeting survivors and taking allocated ones down to the after showers with burns. I saw France who I joined up with and was glad he survived but I didn't even know he was on Coventry. I said I didn't know you were on Coventry he smiled and said " I'm not" The wounded were seen to and then had a meal. I took the patch off that I had helped put on the bomb hole and went up the flight deck to get a picture of the sea looking down through the flight deck and then put the patch back on. the Coventry survivors later left the ship to go onto Fort Austin. 2 of our flight crew went off and the Chinese laundry men. As the boat left in pitch black with Coventry survivors they cheered for Broadsword. Broadsword had all system going except 3 out of action helicopters. We steamed off for the rest of the task force and to get the damage patched up better.
26 MAY Last of Coventry survivors taken off and proceed to main task force.
27 MAY Reach the main task force.
28 MAY With main task force making repairs on holes. Stena Seaspread fixes our damage with some plates that Hermes gave us.
29 MAY More ships arrive down here including Andromeda (Seawolf leander) and Bristol. Welding on holes finish and flight deck plate shored underneath for strength. troops take 900 prisoners of war.
30 MAY We can now land a helo on the flight deck and have one which is operational. Prisoners now 1,400
31 MAY Marconi, Farannti and Plessey people come onboard. They do some alterations to the after Seawolf tracker and also fwd. Seawolf now has 90% chance of taking Exocet out.