HMS Antrim was a County-classdestroyer of the British Royal Navy launched on 19 October 1967. In the Falklands War, she was the flagship for the recovery of South Georgia, participating in the first ever anti-submarine operation successfully conducted exclusively by helicopters. In 1984, she was commissioned into the Chilean Navy, and renamed Almirante Cochrane.
Antrim first commissioned in 1970 and served her first commission in home and Mediterranean waters.[1] In the mid-1970s, the Royal Navy removed 'B' turret and replaced it with four Exocet missile launchers to give her a greater anti-ship capability. After installation of the Exocet missiles it was found that the missile could be activated by small arms fire, so armoured plates were fitted to the outer sides of the missiles containers.
Operational history
Following trials, she initially operated in British home waters and the Mediterranean, fulfilling standard peacetime duties, including NATO exercises and fleet deployments. In 1976 her commission included a visit to Stockholm, where she represented the Royal Navy at the wedding of the King of Sweden.[2] By the end of the 1970s, Antrim had settled into a dependable, peacetime role, carrying out patrols, NATO drills and presence missions in Northern and home waters.[3]
Antrim was the flagship of Operation Paraquet, the operation to recover South Georgia and the first step in the eventual recovery of the Islands.[5]
On 25 April 1982, her Westland Wessex HAS.3 helicopter was responsible for rescuing 17 SAS personnel and the crew of two earlier rescue helicopters that had crashed on the Fortuna Glacier. The aircraft also played a key role in locating and disabling the Argentine submarine Santa Fe.[5] The Wessex, callsign Humphrey, detected Santa Fe on the surface and engaged using depth charges, which damaged the submarine's hull. This attack was followed by strikes from HMSBrilliant(F90)’s Lynx, using a torpedo, and from two AS.12 missile attacks by HMSPlymouthWestland Wasp helicopter, which flew two missions. The damage forced the crew to abandon the submarine at King Edward Point, leaving her partially submerged alongside the jetty. She was not repaired and, in 1985, was scuttled in deep water. This was the first anti-submarine operation successfully conducted solely by helicopters.[6]
After the disablement of Santa Fe, a scratch force of Royal Marines, SAS and SBS troops was landed to capture the settlement. Antrim and Plymouth took station off Grytviken and opened fire with their 4.5-inch guns. The shelling was a demonstration of firepower rather than an attack on specific positions and over the course of 15 minutes the two ships fired ~235 rounds towards Grytviken. The Argentine troops raised the white flag and surrended to the scratch force.
Captain Lagos, commander of the Argentine forces on South Georgia, signed the surrender document for the garrison in Antrim’s wardroom. Lieutenant-Commander Alfredo Astiz signed a separate document shortly afterwards aboard Plymouth.[7]
Wessex XP142 Humphrey at the Fleet Air Arm Museum
On 21 May 1982, in Falkland Sound, while supporting the main landings at San Carlos Water, several bombs narrowly missed Antrim, and a 1,000 lb bomb passed through the Seaslug magazine without detonating. Antrim launched a Seaslug missile (some sources state two)[8] at a wave of IAI Dagger aircraft but the aircraft were flying too low to be acquired by the missile's radar, making the launch unguided, intended to deter the pilots and to remove an exposed missile from the launcher as a fire and explosive risk. The Daggers strafed the ship with 30mm cannon.[9][10]
Antrim’s 4.5-inch Mk V guns fired ~400 main gun rounds during the campaign, in support of ground troops around San Carlos and other bombardments of Argentine positions.[11]
Her Wessex helicopter (XP142) is preserved at the Fleet Air Arm Museum, RNAS Yeovilton in Somerset, with mission tallies marking its operational achievements: one submarine sunk (ARA Santa Fe), two CASEVACs, two Special Forces insertions, three rescues, and the number of personnel saved. The helicopter’s outer skin shows shrapnel damage sustained when Argentine Air Force Dagger jets carried out a strafing attack.[12]
Antrim was decommissioned in 1984 and sold to Chile on 22 June 1984. The ship was renamed Almirante Cochrane after Thomas Cochrane, who commanded the Chilean Navy from 1817 to 1822. In 1994, Almirante Cochrane underwent the same refit as her sister ship Blanco Encalada (HMS Fife), which involved the removal of the Sea Slug launcher and the extension of the deck aft to accommodate a larger hangar. In 1996, she was fitted with the Barak 1 surface-to-air missile system in place of her Seacat launchers.
The Chilean Navy decommissioned Almirante Cochrane on 7 December 2006. On 11 December 2010, she was towed to China for scrapping.
As part of her relationship with County Antrim, she carried a piece of the Giant's Causeway mounted in the ship's main passageway, appropriately also named the Giant's Causeway.[15]
Commanding officers
Notable commanding officers include D A Loram 1971-1973 and B G Young 1981-1983.
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