HMS Broadsword (F88)

HMS Broadsword in Portsmouth Harbour, 1982
History
United Kingdom
Name:	HMS Broadsword
Operator:	Royal Navy
Builder:	Yarrow Shipbuilders
Laid down:	7 February 1975
Launched:	12 May 1976
Commissioned:	4 May 1979
Decommissioned:	31 March 1995
Homeport:	HMNB Devonport
Identification:	Pennant number: F88
Fate:	Sold to Brazil 30 June 1995
Brazil
Name:	Greenhalgh
Operator:	Brazilian Navy
Identification:	Pennant number: F-46
General characteristics
Class and type:	Type 22 frigate
Displacement:	4,400 tons
Length:	131.2 m (430 ft)
Beam:	14.8 m (48 ft)
Draught:	6.1 m (20 ft)
Propulsion:	2 shafts, COGOG 2 × Rolls-Royce Olympus TM3B boost gas turbines (54,600 shp) 2 × Rolls-Royce Tyne RM1C cruise gas turbines (9,700 shp)
Speed:	18 knots (33 km/h) cruise 30 knots (56 km/h) top speed
Complement:	222
Armament:	2 × 2x torpedo tubes for Mk-46 torpedoes 2 ×6 GWS25 Seawolf SAM launchers 4 × 1 Exocet SSM launchers 2 × 40 mm Bofors AA guns 2 × Oerlikon 20 mm cannon
Aircraft carried:	2 × Lynx MK 8 helicopters

HMS Broadsword was the lead ship and first Batch 1 unit of the Type 22 frigates of the Royal Navy.

Construction

Broadsword was ordered from Yarrow Shipbuilders on 8 February 1974 and was laid down at Yarrow's Scotstoun shipyard on 7 February 1975. She was launched on 12 May 1976 and commissioned on 3 May 1979.^[1]

Royal Navy service

While on sea trials, Broadsword was called into service as the command ship during the large rescue operation required after storms struck the 1979 Fastnet race.^[2]

HMS Broadsword and Hermes, 1982 (IWM)

Broadsword took part in the 1982 Falklands War where, on 25 May 1982, she was providing air defence support to HMS Coventry. A technical fault in her Sea Wolf missile system allowed two Argentine Skyhawks to sink the Coventry.^[3] Broadsword was hit by one bomb, which bounced up through the helicopter deck and put out of action a Lynx helicopter, before exiting and exploding harmlessly. She subsequently rescued 170 of the sunken Coventry's crew. She shot down one IAI Dagger of FAA Grupo 6 and shared an A-4C Skyhawk kill with HMS Antelope's Sea Cat, land-based Rapiers and Blowpipe SAMs.^[4]

In 1993 Broadsword took part in the naval operation in support of Operation Grapple (Yugoslavia), in the Adriatic Sea. Upon completion on 8 July 1993, a fire broke out in the aft auxiliary machinery room. This resulted in the deaths of two on-watch engineers; LMEM(M) Mark Hunter, age 30, and MEM(M) Roy Ware, age 22.^[5]

She was decommissioned on 31 March 1995 and was sold to the Brazilian Navy on 30 June 1995 and renamed Greenhalgh.

Commanding Officers

From	To	Captain
21/02/1979	02/06/1980	Captain Anthony M Norman RN
02/06/1980	01/10/1981	Captain Anthony M.G. Pearson RN
01/10/1981	01/11/1982	Captain William R Canning RN
01/11/1982	18/10/1983	Captain Robert McQueen RN
18/10/1983	10/04/1985	Captain Anthony M Norman RN
10/04/1985	15/05/1986	Captain G W R Biggs RN
15/05/1986	13/10/1987	Captain Brian W Turner RN
13/10/1987	27/07/1988	Commander A B Gough RN
27/07/1988	18/05/1990	Commander M W G Kerr RN
18/05/1990	18/11/1991	Commander R N Lucy RN
18/11/1992	24/08/1993	Commander Robinson RN

References

1. Prézelin and Baker 1990, p. 711.
2. Rousmaniere, John. "Fastnet, The Deadliest Storm in the History of Modern Sailing". Norton (1993). ISBN 978-0-393-30865-5
3. Hart Dyke, David. Four Weeks in May: The Loss of "HMS Coventry". Atlantic Books (2007). ISBN 978-1-84354-590-3
4. "List of Argentine Aircraft Destroyed". Retrieved 19 December 2009.
5. "Two killed in frigate fire". The Independent. London. 9 July 1993. Retrieved 12 August 2010.

Publications

• Colledge, J. J.; Warlow, Ben (2006) [1969]. Ships of the Royal Navy: The Complete Record of all Fighting Ships of the Royal Navy (Rev. ed.). London: Chatham Publishing. ISBN 978-1-86176-281-8. OCLC 67375475.
• Prézelin, Bernard; Baker III, A.D., eds. (1991). The Naval Institute Guide to Combat Fleets of the World 1990/1991. Annapolis, Maryland, USA: Naval Institute Press. ISBN 0-87021-250-8.

External links

• Broadsword Association
• Broadsword photos