HMS Cardiff (D108)

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Grey warship with black towers and red missiles on its bow, city buildings are in the background.
HMS Cardiff in Portsmouth, c. 2005
History
United Kingdom
NameHMS Cardiff
NamesakeWelsh capital city of Cardiff[5]
BuilderVickers Shipbuilding and Engineering
Laid down6 November 1972
Launched22 February 1974
Commissioned24 September 1979
Decommissioned14 July 2005
HomeportHMNB Portsmouth
Identification
Motto
  • Acris in cardine rerum
  • (Latin: "Keen in emergency")
Nickname(s)"The Welsh Warship"[4]
Honours and
awards
FateScrapped
BadgeCrest rimmed with golden rope bearing the word Cardiff at the top. On top of the crest is a crown decorated with jewels and golden sails. In the crest is a castle tower on ocean waves, the tower has a golden portcullis.
General characteristics
Class and typeType 42 destroyer
Displacement4,000 t (3,900 long tons; 4,400 short tons)
Length125 m (410 ft)
Beam14.3 m (47 ft)
Draught5.8 m (19 ft)
Propulsion2 ×
COGOG
turbines producing 36 MW (48,000 shp), driving 2 shafts
Speed56 km/h (30 kn)
Range7,400 km (4,000 nmi) at 33 km/h (18 kn)
Complement287–301
Electronic warfare
& decoys
UAA1
Armament
Aircraft carriedLynx HAS.3

HMS Cardiff was a British Type 42 destroyer and the third ship of the Royal Navy to be named in honour of the Welsh capital city of Cardiff.

Cardiff served in the Falklands War, where she was involved in the 1982 British Army Gazelle friendly fire incident. She also shot down the last Argentine aircraft of the conflict and accepted the surrender of a 700-strong garrison in the settlement of Port Howard.

During the 1991 Gulf War, her Lynx helicopter sank two Iraqi minesweepers. She later participated in the build-up to the 2003 invasion of Iraq as part of the Royal Navy's constant Armilla patrol, but was not involved in the actual invasion.

Cardiff was

decommissioned in July 2005, and sent for scrapping despite calls by former servicemen for her to be preserved as a museum ship
and local tourist attraction in Cardiff.

Construction

The

Hawthorn Leslie yard in Hebburn, Tyne and Wear and completed there.[8]

Type 42s were designed as

4.5 inch Mark 8 naval gun, capable of firing 21-kilogram (46 lb) shells to a range of 22 kilometres (12 nmi).[10] After the Falklands War, in which two Type 42s were sunk by enemy aircraft, the entire class was equipped with the Phalanx close-in weapon system,[11] a Gatling cannon that could fire 3,000 rounds per minute and was designed to shoot down anti-ship missiles.[12]

Operational history

Early career

Cardiff was

fitting-out and sea trials, Cardiff commissioned on 24 September 1979 under command of Captain Barry Wilson.[14] During the next 12 months of active service she steamed over 21,000 kilometres (13,000 mi) and undertook various duties. She returned to her place of construction, Tyne and Wear, so that the Swan Hunter crew who fitted her out could exhibit the warship to their families. In the spirit of establishing a firm association, Cardiff visited her namesake city and welcomed more than 7,000 people on board. Her crew raised over £1,000 for local charities by participating in sponsored bicycle rides and dinghy rows from Portsmouth and Newcastle upon Tyne. BBC Radio Wales based an entire programme on her and she appeared on the BBC and ITV national television channels. In November 1979, Cardiff coordinated the search for survivors of the MV Pool Fisher, which sank off the Isle of Wight with the loss of most of her crew.[14]

In 1980, she attended the annual

Navy Days event at Portsmouth and Portland Harbour, receiving a total of 17,300 visitors. In October of the same year, she ventured abroad for the first time on a visit to Ghent, Belgium. She followed this with a fortnight of Sea Dart exercises on a range off Aberporth, in South Wales. Whilst in the region, the destroyer attended celebrations marking the 75th anniversary of Cardiff's city status.[14]

Falklands War (1982)

On 2 April 1982, the disputed

surrender of the Argentine forces; the battles fought on land, at sea, and in the air had cost the lives of some 900 British and Argentine servicemen.[15]

Just over a month before the start of the war, Cardiff, under the command of Captain

Armilla Patrol. Cardiff had relieved her sister ship and class lead Sheffield from this operational tasking,[18] but was herself redeployed to the Falklands effort on 23 April. She sailed alone to Gibraltar[18] and rendezvoused on 14 May with the Bristol group of British warships already heading south to the islands.[19]

During the journey, Cardiff's crew performed various training exercises, including defence against air attack (involving simulation runs by friendly

C-130 Hercules passing over the destroyer.[20]

Four small parachutes can be seen coming out the back of a distant, silhouetted plane in flight. It is daytime, however the sky is dark and cloudy.
Four SAS troopers rendezvous with Cardiff via airdrop, en route to the islands

The Bristol group met up with the main task force on 26 May.

4.5-inch gun. In one engagement she fired 277 high-explosive rounds.[20]

Shortly after arrival, she was involved in the final Exocet raid against the aircraft carrier

Aldis lamp, Southby-Tailyour responded with "to which side".[34] At this point Cardiff "left them alone",[34] neither attacking or assisting them, nevertheless another "blue on blue" incident was avoided.[35]

Two men in flight suits grapple on the side of a dark blue helicopter hovering over water.
Cardiff's helicopter, piloted by Lieutenant Christopher Clayton, practising search and rescue prior to the war

On the morning of 13 June, two Argentine

mentioned in despatches for his efforts.[37]

A close-up of a jet in flight, the pilot is wearing a white helmet. On the nose of the plane are the Spanish words "Fuerza Aerea Argentina" and the designation code "B-108".
Canberra bomber B-108 of Grupo de Bombardeo 2. This Argentine aircraft, the last to be lost during the Falklands War, was shot down by Cardiff.

Later that day, Cardiff shot down what would prove to be the last Argentine aircraft lost during the war, with a Sea Dart missile[18][38] Canberra bomber B-108 of Grupo de Bombardeo 2 ("Bombing Group 2") en route to bomb Port Harriet House.[36] The pilot, Captain Pastrán, managed to eject but the navigator,[28] Captain Casado, (whose ejection seat may have been damaged by the missile) was killed.[36][39] The remains of Captain Casado were discovered in 1986, and identified by DNA testing in September 2008.[40]

Argentina surrendered on 14 June, and Cardiff was required to accept the surrender of a 700-strong Argentine garrison in the settlement of Port Howard on West Falkland a day later.[20] Five members of Cardiff's crew were used to man a captured Argentine patrol boat, renamed HMS Tiger Bay, in Stanley.[41] Cardiff spent the rest of June acting as the Landing Area Air Warfare Controller (LAAWC) around San Carlos.[20]

Over the course of the war, Cardiff fired nine Sea Dart missiles and one Mk 46 torpedo.[20] She returned to the United Kingdom on 28 July 1982, having left the Falklands three weeks earlier along with Exeter and Yarmouth.[18] Captain Michael Harris handed over command on 24 August 1982, after the annual maintenance period.[20] Following the war, all Type 42 destroyers were fitted with Oerlikon 30 mm twin cannons port and starboard, for protection against airborne threats.[42] These were later replaced by the Phalanx close-in weapon system.[11]

Gulf War (1990–91)

When

mine counter-measure missions in preparation for the main amphibious landing force.[43]

Having returned from the Persian Gulf in May 1990, after only a few months in UK Cardiff sailed again, as a reinforcement to Group X-Ray,

London and Gloucester who had sailed to relieve Armilla Group Whiskey, which consisted of Battleaxe, Jupiter and York.[43] Cardiff and Gloucester were to form part of the air defence barrier along with Bunker Hill, Princeton and Worden protecting three United States aircraft carriers: Midway, Ranger and Theodore Roosevelt.[43] Cardiff had other responsibilities, including surface surveillance[43] and boarding operations, to maintain the security around the task force.[44]

A light blue helicopter on a ship's flight deck with its rotor blades folded away. A large dark blue missile is attached to its right side and the number 335 is written in white on its door.
Cardiff's Lynx helicopter, no. 335, with a Sea Skua missile

Royal Navy

Seahawks during the Gulf War. The American helicopters lacked an effective anti-ship missile, but had superior surveillance capability compared to the British Lynx. They would locate hostile boats for the British helicopters, which would then attack the target with its Sea Skua missiles.[45] In total, Lynx helicopters flew nearly 600 sorties during the Gulf War,[43] while their crews and engineers maintained flying rates three times their norm.[46]

Despite her parent ship dodging mines and maintaining the air defence line as the closest non-US to Kuwait for the first 4 weeks of the 1991 War, Cardiff's Lynx helicopter, no. 

minesweepers and landing craft going to support the Iraqi land operations of the Battle of Khafji. 335 attacked and sank one - the first successful British naval engagement of the war.[48] Later that day, Qaruh Island was captured by coalition forces, becoming the first Kuwaiti territory to be liberated. Overnight five days later (30–31 January 1991) with Lynxes from Gloucester and Brazen, no. 335 attacked at least two Iraqi missile firing fast patrol boats vessels exiting the Shatt Al Arab .[43] Cardiff and 335 sank two more Iraqi ships in February. Cardiff and Brazen were relieved in mid February by Group Yankee, comprising Brave, Brilliant, Exeter and Manchester.[43]

Post Gulf War

After the Gulf War, Cardiff's assignments included a deployment with the

Mediterranean, and counter-narcotics patrols in the West Indies, during which she also assisted with relief tasks on the island of Eleuthera in the wake of Hurricane Andrew.[49][50] From 1993 to 1994, she was commanded by Richard Leaman.[51]

Cardiff later returned to the Persian Gulf for seven months.[52]

On 14 October 1994, in response to renewed Iraqi deployment of troops near the Kuwaiti border, the US-led Operation Vigilant Warrior began.[53] The operation was designed to deter Saddam Hussein's "sabre-rattling"[53] by sending large amounts of allied military forces to Kuwait; Cornwall and Cardiff were the UK contribution.[54] The operation ended on 21 December 1994, when Hussein pulled back his forces.[53]

Armilla Patrol
, in late 2002.

Upon her return to the UK from Operation Vigilant Warrior, Cardiff participated in the 1995 NATO exercise "

Beirut Phoenicians Rugby Club,[55] followed by visits to Tunisia and Gibraltar.[52]

In 2000, as part of the Royal Navy's

RFA Black Rover.[56] They provided relief aid to the island of Caye Caulker, near Belize, in the wake of Hurricane Keith. In addition to clearing routes, distributing supplies, and making buildings and electrical cables safe, Cardiff's surgeon and medical team monitored sanitation.[57] In October, they also took part in the NATO exercise "Unified Spirit", held off the east coast of the United States. "Unified Spirit" is a training exercise conducted every four years in NATO-led "out-of-area" UN peace support operations.[58] In the same year she participated in the US Navy Fleet Battle Exercise after her combat system was integrated into the Digital Fires Network.[59]

Cardiff conducted her last

QinetiQ's Maritime Tactical Network.[63]

In 2005, she participated in the

Trafalgar 200 International Fleet Review, just two weeks before she was decommissioned.[64] In this post Gulf War period, the Royal Navy's first female chaplain also served on board.[65]

Decommissioning and fate

starboard
quarter (stern) in 2007, her name rusted

Cardiff was originally to be replaced in 2009 by Daring, the first of the Royal Navy's next generation Type 45 destroyers.[66] However, it was announced in July 2004 that she would be one of a number of ships withdrawn from service early, in accordance with the "Delivering Security in a Changing World" white paper on the British military.[67]

Cardiff was

decommissioned on 14 July 2005, after making a final visit to her namesake city, where members of the public were allowed on board.[3] She then stayed in Portsmouth Harbour at Fareham Creek (50°49′07″N 1°07′50″W / 50.818486°N 1.130644°W / 50.818486; -1.130644) alongside sister ship Newcastle
, where both were heavily cannibalised to keep the remaining Type 42 Destroyers running.

On 21 November 2008, the two ships left Portsmouth for the last time for

Dragon, a Type 45 destroyer, has been assigned as the current Royal Navy ship to be affiliated with the city of Cardiff.[74]

On 1 March 2018, Defence Secretary Gavin Williamson announced that the third Type 26 frigate would be named Cardiff. This will be the fourth Royal Navy vessel of its name.[75][76]

See also

References

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  2. ^ Viscount Cranborne, Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Defence (24 February 1993). "The Gulf Campaign: Battle Honours". Parliamentary Debates (Hansard). House of Lords. col. 8WA–15WA. Retrieved 5 September 2008.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
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  61. ^ "HMS Cardiff returns from Gulf patrols". Royal Navy. Retrieved 4 March 2008. Portsmouth warship HMS Cardiff returns home on Friday 4th April from successful anti-smuggling missions in the Persian Gulf. During six months away the Type 42 destroyer prevented more than £2m of illegal cargo being smuggled out of Iraq before the war started. Captain Tim Fraser, Cardiff's Commanding Officer, said his crew were glad to be back after a busy and demanding operation during which they boarded 178 vessels and seized more than 25,000 tonnes of oil. Cardiff handed over her Armilla duties last month to Portsmouth frigate HMS Richmond.[dead link]
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  75. ^ Allison, George (1 March 2018). "New Type 26 Frigate named HMS Cardiff". UK Defence Journal. Retrieved 27 March 2018.
  76. ^ "UK Names Next Type 26 Warship HMS Cardiff". MarineLink. 1 March 2018. Retrieved 27 March 2018.

Sources

External links

External image
image icon Artist's depiction of the encounter with the Argentine Boeing 707