All language subtitles for Combat Ships - S03E05 - Sunk WEBDL-1080p x265 EAC3 5.1 [EN] [EN] MrPanda_track3_[eng]

[narrator]
This time on Combat Ships.

The fight to survive
when your ship goes down.

[Guy] It's always in
the back of your mind,

how are you going to die?

Am I gonna get burned to death?

Or will it just be instant,

or will I sink in
the frozen waters?

[suspenseful music]

[narrator] High-tech missions
to solve mystery sinkings.

[Art] I like to think that
an expedition like this

really is like
assembling the Avengers.

[gunshots]

[narrator] And heroism
in the face of disaster.

[Wisteria] Probably, to him,
it seemed like an eternity.

He at least shot until
he ran out of ammunition.

[suspenseful music]

[theme music]

[narrator] Combat Ships.

Fast.

Effective.

His orders were to find the
British and to pick a fight.

[narrator] Going right to
the heart of the battle.

The Marines have always
thought of themselves

as the spear point of the
United States military power.

Their whole doctrine of combat
was to go fast, hit hard,

get it over with in a hurry.

[gunshots]

[narrator] Combat ships
have changed the world.

She gained her freedom,
now she's going down

a river with an army.

She was like,
"We're about to show you

what we're working with!"

[narrator]
Thanks to clever design,

raw firepower and the
heroism of their crews.

The rule of thumb
on a frigate is

you can lose two
spaces and stay afloat.

But if you lose a third,

you go to Davy Jones'
Locker in a hurry.

[suspenseful music]

[narrator]
Off the coast of Long Island,

a groundbreaking
survey is taking place.

[soft music]

Just 100 feet down
is a combat ship.

The only major American warship
lost in the First World War.

Why is sank is a mystery.

[soft music]

The vessel under this
high-tech scrutiny

is the 15,000 ton cruiser,

USS San Diego.

[rock music]

On July 19th 1918,

the USS San Diego was
approaching New York Harbor,

under the command of
Captain Harley Christy.

Her crew of over 1,000

was preparing
to escort a convoy

across the North Atlantic

through U-Boat infested waters.

[Matthew] They were within
sight of the US coast.

They could see America
as they were sailing,

so they still felt
very much at home.

[narrator] Suddenly there
was a massive explosion.

[Matthew] Captain Christy
believed that

this was a torpedo strike

and so he immediately
orders all guns to open fire

on the surrounding area

to try and prevent
a second torpedo attack

from the submarine
he believed was out there.

[explosion]

[narrator] German
self-propelled torpedoes

were a deadly threat.

They had sunk almost
200 American ships.

The second torpedo never came.

But the damage had been done.

Captain Christy
followed the playbook,

exactly what a ship should
do in this scenario.

He directs the ship
towards Fire Island

and tries to ground
the ship to save his crew.

[narrator] It's too late.

The San Diego is listing badly.

Christy gives the
order to abandon ship.

Within 28 minutes
she was on the bottom.

Six men were lost.

What sank the San Diego
is a puzzle.

Was it a torpedo?
A mine?

Or an accident?

It became one of the American
Navy's biggest mysteries.

Almost 100 years after
the loss of the warship,

a team of archeologists
and engineers

led by a Navy unit from Naval
History and Heritage Command

and the University of Delaware

are attempting to
solve the mystery.

[rock music]

[Art] I like to think that
an expedition like this

really is like
assembling the Avengers.

You're gonna get
superheroes

each from their own
disciplines and backgrounds,

and they have unique skill
sets and perspectives.

[rock music]

[narrator]
First up was a 2D sonar

of the capsized ship.

It revealed the USS San Diego
was fairly well-preserved.

[Art] You see this
really nice outline.

Clearly the outline
of a ship.

There's massive collapse
areas in the center.

And now, here we
can see the difference

that 28 minutes makes.

Up above we see
the ship as it was

cruising across the
surface.

28 minutes later,
she's flipped over

and on the seabed
100 feet below.

[soft music]

[narrator] Next,
the team launched

an autonomous underwater
vehicle or AUV,

for a more detailed scan.

[soft music]

[Art] The AUV comes back
from its mission

and we download the data
and then we start processing

and then suddenly, boom,
emerges on the screen,

this fully realized
image of the wreck.

It's as if going into
the Louvre at night,

and then somebody
flicks on the light

and in front of you
is the Mona Lisa.

We see the lifeboat cranes
over on one side.

That speaks to that rush
to get everybody off the deck.

We see the areas where
divers have reported

seeing munitions being
exposed.

And so it's this
huge tapestry

and gives us a lot
to pour over.

[soft music]

[narrator]
Could the scans help show

what sank the San Diego?

After 100 years on
the bottom, it's tough.

[Ken] We know from the crew that
there was a thudding impact

at the location where
it occurred

by the port engine room

and that water
and coal rushed in

pretty much immediately
into the space,

and really it was agreed upon

that there was an external
underwater explosion.

And everything is
consistent with that.

[tense music]

[narrator] This was no accident.

Shortly after the sinking,
a Navy diver

reported a five-foot
diameter hole in the hull.

Using photos of World War I
torpedo hits as a reference,

engineering analysis by Naval
History and Heritage Command

showed a torpedo would have
made a much larger breach.

A five-foot hole was consistent
with a small German mine.

There's a further puzzle.

The ship should have been able
to stay afloat for longer.

[soft music]

You would not expect
normally a hole of that size

would sink a vessel
of San Diego's size

so rapidly and quickly.

[narrator] Another combat
ship of a similar design

can offer valuable clues.

The USS Olympia,
moored in Philadelphia,

is just a few years
older than the San Diego.

[Ken] You can see here a 3D scan

of the coal bunker
in USS Olympia,

and really in the
equivalent location.

And it gives you a sense of
how things were structured.

So, the attack would have
occurred roughly here,

caused a big hole
in the side shell.

This bulkhead over here
was damaged as well.

And so, the flooding
would have progressed

from this space into this space,
and in the spaces behind.

[soft music]

[narrator] Using research
from the Olympia,

plans of the ship,
and eye-witness accounts,

Ken and his team worked
out what happened

to the San Diego
on July 19th 1918.

[Ken] They tried a few
different recovery actions.

They turned off
one of the boilers.

They started to
button up the ship

everywhere that it wasn't.
They really, in earnest,

tried to contain the
flooding that was occurring.

[narrator] Using details
engineering simulations,

Ken's team were able
to recreate

the last minutes of
the mighty combat ship.

[Ken] Here you can see
USS San Diego in the water.

Initially, there's a list
that's about six degrees.

And then as the water
continues to build up,

eventually the gun deck
gets submerged,

and then the vessel
just quickly flips over.

[narrator] There is one final
piece of the puzzle:

why did the San Diego
tip over so quickly?

They think they know
the answer.

She was at the
start of her voyage.

As was common at the time,

tons of coal for her boilers
was stacked all over the ship.

[Ken] There was coal everywhere
they could put it.

It's roughly 20% of the total
weight of the ship in coal.

[soft music]

[narrator] The San Diego
was dangerously top-heavy.

As the cruiser tipped over,
a design fault came into play.

The ship was riddled
with holes,

coal chutes to feed
the bunkers.

[Ken] All of these circles
over here are all coal chutes

that are present throughout
the entirety of the gun deck.

And so, if water comes
in through the gun ports,

and into the coal chutes,
and continue down

into the rest of the vessel,

which will create a very
fast flooding scenario.

And that explains why the
ship capsized so quickly,

once it got to
a critical angle.

[somber music]

[narrator] Exactly 100 years
after the sinking,

Navy divers placed a wreath
on the bow of the San Diego.

A tribute to the men who died.

[soft music]

Meant a lot to help sort
of honor those sacrifices

and to keep that story alive.

And so that people
can recognize

this for the important
grave site and war memorial

that the San Diego is.

That it's a testament to
the fact that World War I

wasn't just over there, it was
here, it was on our shores,

it was in our waters,
and just off of our beaches.

[narrator] Two decades
after the San Diego,

war returned to US shores.

[suspenseful music]

As his ship sank beneath him,

one man fought back,
and became a legend.

[suspenseful music]

[soft music]

A Sunday morning
in December 1941.

Pearl Harbor.

[suspenseful music]

22-year-old Doris Miller,
known as Dorie,

is folding laundry below decks

on the battleship
USS West Virginia.

[tense music]

Suddenly, there's an explosion.

[explosion]

He drops everything
and runs on deck.

What Dorie Miller does next,
goes down in naval history.

[explosion]

Dorie's journey to fame

began on his father's
farm in Waco, Texas.

[Karl] He came of age during
the Great Depression,

where finding work was
exceptionally difficult,

particularly in rural America.

And so, like a great many
young men of that generation,

he opted to join
the armed services

to be able to not only
have a place to live,

but to learn a trade and
be able to earn some money

and perhaps send some home.

[soft rock music]

[narrator] In September 1939,

just after the outbreak
of the Second World War,

Dorie joined the US Navy
as a mess attendant,

one of the few
ratings open to him.

The US Navy's attitude
to African-American personnel

was to limit them to work
in the stewards departments

either as mess attendants,
as orderlies, as cooks.

[soft rock music]

[narrator] In 1941,
Dorie was assigned

to the dreadnought
battleship USS West Virginia.

Then, because of
tensions with Japan,

the West Virginia and the
rest of the Pacific Fleet

moved from California

to Pearl Harbor
to act as a deterrent.

[suspenseful music]

On Sunday December 7th,

Japanese bombers launched
their surprise attack

on the Pacific Fleet.

[explosions]

[Carl] His battle station
when general quarters

was sounded on
the West Virginia,

was with one of the
shell-handling parties

to get guns up to the
five-inch mounts top side.

[Wisteria] But by the time
he gets there,

he realizes that it's
not much of it left,

so he makes his
way up to the decks

and as he's up on the decks,
he notices that there's a number

of his fellow shipmates
that are injured.

So, because of his stature,
he was 6'3", about 200 pounds,

he was able to help a lot

with those sailors
to get them to safety.

[tense music]

-[airplane engine roars]
-[explosion]

[narrator] The West Virginia
started to sink

to the harbor floor.

[rock music]

Dorie, who moments before
had been folding laundry,

was ordered to man
one of the ship's 11

.50 caliber machine guns.

[rock music]

[Wisteria] Probably, to him,
it seemed like an eternity

but I think it was at
least about 15 minutes.

So he at least shot until
he ran out of ammunition.

And I don't know
if that's something

I would have thought
to immediately done.

I guess with all the
adrenaline that's going on

and you've got all the sounds,
the airplanes above head,

you never know what you're
really gonna do in that moment.

[rock music]

[narrator] After 75 minutes,
the attack was over.

The West Virginia sank, one of
19 Navy ships that were sunk

or seriously damaged.

Over 2,000 Americans died.

[soft music]

Dorie's bravery did
not go unrecognized.

[Carl] May 1942, on the deck of
the carrier, Enterprise,

Admiral Nimitz
presented the Navy Cross

to Dorie Miller at
an award ceremony

with a whole bunch of
other officers there

and so he then becomes
an icon for recruitment.

[soft music]

But he also becomes a way of
inoculating the U.S. Navy

against accusations of racism,

with which of course it is rife.

[narrator] The poster boy
returned to war.

In 1943, Dorie was
assigned to the newly-built

escort carrier USS Liscome Bay

but only as Cook Third Class.

Six months later,
the carrier was attacked

by a Japanese sub
in the Pacific.

Her munitions detonated
and the carrier exploded.

[explosion]

916 men were killed,

including Dorie Miller.

[soft music]

Dorie has not been forgotten.

In June 1973,
his mother Henrietta,

launched the USS Miller,

a Knox class frigate.

And at Newport News,

an even larger vessel
is being built,

the USS Doris Miller.

[Wisteria]
With this aircraft carrier,

not to mention that it's
gonna be nuclear powered,

this makes him the
first African-American

to have a ship of this
type named for him.

And that's very exciting.

[soft music]

[narrator] Pearl Harbor
was just the start

of countless sinkings
in World War II.

Thousands of families
were torn apart.

[soft music]

Three brothers vowed
to find out

what happened to their
father and his lost sub.

[soft music]

On September 30th 1942,

Bruce, Brad and John Abele

were playing in
front of their home

on the outskirts of Boston.

Their father, Mannert,
known as Jim,

a submarine captain,
was away at the war.

A telegram arrived
for their mother, Kay.

Jim was missing.

[soft music]

I remember she showed it
to us in the living room

and there was a bright
light coming in.

"The Navy Department deeply
regrets to inform you

that your husband, Lieutenant
Commander Mannert L. Abele,

United States Navy,
is missing following action

in the performance of his duty

and in the service
of his country."

[soft music]

We sort of believed
that at that point,

that they had been captured

or there was a good chance
that they were captured.

And so, we went back out and
tossed the football around.

[soft music]

[narrator]
Jim Abele was the captain

of one the US Navy's
newest subs, the USS Grunion.

[rock music]

After the Grunion went missing,

the Abeles carried on
life as best they could.

Their father was
rarely discussed.

[soft music]

[John] The story
that I was told

was that mother was waiting
for him to come home.

And she didn't want to
cause problems for us.

So, she focused on being
a parent,

and helping raise us.

[soft music]

[Bruce] We had
a basketball net out back.

And I used to tell myself if
I could do five shots in a row

that Jim would come back,
and it never happened.

[soft music]

[narrator]
At the end of the war,

the Navy searched for
the Grunion

at its last know
position off Alaska.

Nothing was found.

The fate of Jim
Abele and his crew

remained a mystery
for over 50 years.

[soft music]

Then in 1994,
a technical drawing

from a Japanese merchant
ship came to light

bought by a US Air Force
Lieutenant Colonel.

Richard Lane had spent
a dollar

to buy a wiring diagram

that came from a cargo
ship called the Kano Maru.

And he held on to it
for a number of years

and then finally put
it on the internet

to see if anybody
could authenticate it

that it came from the Kano Maru.

[soft music]

[narrator] In 2001,
Richard received an email

from Japanese naval
architect Yutaka Iwasaki

with a description
of a confrontation

that took place
between the Kano Maru

and a submarine off the
island of Kiska, near Alaska.

[soft music]

In 1942, the Japanese Navy
concluded it was the Grunion,

as it was the only US sub lost
in those waters at the time.

[tense music]

Yutaka found an
account of the battle

written by the skipper
of the Japanese vessel.

A navy contact passed it
to the Abele brothers.

[voiceover] "One torpedo
wake passed behind us.

The other one hit the
machinery room starboard side.

There was a large explosion

and a sound occurred like
the rumbling of hell."

[narrator] The Japanese
crew opened fire

at the sub's periscope,
hitting the conning tower.

[voiceover] "We saw the
swell of heavy oil.

All the crew
shouted, 'Banzai!'"

[suspenseful music]

[narrator]
The sub never surfaced.

The crippled Kano Maru
beached on Kiska.

Could the freighter
have sunk the Grunion?

[tense music]

To the Abele brothers,
it didn't make sense.

[John] As we investigated
further and further,

we were suspecting that
the shots themselves

could not have sunk the Grunion.

Something else happened,

and that was one of
the great puzzles.

[soft music]

[narrator] John,
a successful businessman,

told his brothers
he'd finance a search.

In 2006, a vessel equipped
with sonar sailed for Kiska.

This was no stab in the dark,
Yutaka Iwasaki had found a map

showing the precise location

of the fight between the
Grunion and the freighter.

[soft music]

That narrowed the search
from 200 square miles

down to 1/2 a square mile.

[narrator] On August 16th 2006,

the team spotted
something 3,000 feet down.

Could it be the Grunion?

[soft music]

The expedition to find
the lost sub USS Grunion

had struck gold.

[Bruce] Finding that two o'clock
note on the computer

that they'd found the sub
itself was just unbelievable.

[soft music]

[narrator] The following year,
they returned,

this time with
John and an ROV,

a remotely operated
underwater vehicle,

armed with cameras
to explore the seabed.

Just 30 minutes after
the ROV was launched,

the unmistakable shape
of a submarine appeared

together with a deep
trench dug by the sub

as it slid down
the sloping seabed.

[soft music]

They had found the Grunion.

[soft music]

But what had sunk the sub?

They found a vital clue.

The ROV showed damage to a
section of the superstructure

known as the shears.

They support the periscope.

[John] Something pushed
those shears forwards.

And then, when we
looked more closely,

there was a dent in the shears.

[soft music]

[narrator] The dent could
not have been caused

by the freighters'
three-inch shells.

The most likely
culprit was a torpedo.

A torpedo traveling at 53 mph

would have made
a significant impact.

It split open
the conning tower.

Freezing water flooded in.

The crew of the Grunion
didn't stand a chance.

[soft music]

But where did the
torpedo come from?

There were no other
subs in the area.

There is only one
possible explanation.

The Grunion had been hit by
one of its own torpedoes.

A victim of what is
known as a circular run.

This was not uncommon
in US subs

in the early months of the war.

If you're firing a torpedo,
they have a control in it

which allows it to be steered.

One of the failure modes of
that mechanism generally,

is that the rudder gets jammed
in a very single direction.

And if the rudder gets jammed,

the torpedo is gonna do
what it would obviously do,

it's gonna go in a circle.

And guess who was on the
circumference of that circle?

It's the submarine.

[narrator] The Abele brothers
were able to finally

piece together what had
happened to their father.

The Grunion had fired five
torpedoes at the Kano Maru.

With just the periscope
above the water,

Jim Abele ordered
a 6th to be fired.

The torpedo launched
but then began

to turn in a circular run.

The sonar operator alerted Jim,

who gave the order to dive

in a desperate attempt
to avoid the torpedo.

[Bruce] And they
plummeted downwards

but they did not make it.

In other words, the torpedo
actually hit the conning tower.

And what it did is it opened up

a gap between the conning
tower and the control room.

And so, cold water
just poured in there

and it plummeted down,

and nobody could control
the dive planes anymore.

Then at 1,000 feet,
it imploded.

[suspenseful music]

[narrator] The discovery
of the Grunion

was not just important
for the Abele brothers,

but for other families
affected by the tragedy.

In 2008, they all
gathered in Cleveland

by the Second World
War sub USS Cod

to remember the
70 men who died.

[soft music]

Jim Abele had given
his sons the gifts

of resourcefulness
and determination.

Those gifts led to the
discovery of his ship.

[Bruce]
Jim was a teacher, period.

And the important thing to do

was to teach us
how to handle life.

The message was,
"You can fix anything

-but you got to stick to it."
-[soft music]

[narrator] On the other
side of the world,

one combat ship was
attacked by submarine,

by ship, and by bomber.

But the mighty Tirpitz
refused to be sunk.

[tense music]

May 24th 1941.

A clash of titans.

The British battleship HMS Hood

versus the German
battleship Bismarck.

The Hood explodes killing
almost all its crew.

[suspenseful music]

Bismarck is victorious.

But the German celebrations
are literally short-lived.

The British sink the Bismarck
just three days later.

However, the Germans have
a trick up their sleeve.

Seven months later,
on January 14th 1942,

a massive vessel slipped
into the North Sea.

The Bismarck's sister
ship, the Tirpitz.

[upbeat music]

[Eric] Tirpitz was an
extremely powerful

and also good-looking
battleship.

She was very heavily armored.

She was one of the most powerful
battleships in the world.

[narrator] Hitler's plan
for his brand new vessel

was to target Allied convoys

carrying vital supplies
to Stalin's Russia.

[soft music]

That just one ship could pose
such a threat was intolerable.

The Tirpitz must be sunk.

[Craig] I think Churchill
was somewhat obsessed

by the Tirpitz.

He once said that it
would be worth the loss

of 100 airplanes if
we could damage it.

[narrator] In March 1942,
the Tirpitz was spotted

off the coast of Norway,

and was attacked by a squadron
of British torpedo bombers.

[tense music]

But the planes were slow,

and the Tirpitz gunners
fought back hard.

[explosion]

All the torpedoes missed.

An attack from the air failed.

An attack from below
might just succeed.

[suspenseful music]

The Royal Navy believed
they had the perfect vessel:

the X-Craft.

[soft rock music]

Like a James Bond gadget,

the X-Craft mini-sub
was designed

to catch the enemy unawares.

Instead of having torpedoes,
they have side charges

which you drop
underneath your target,

and they're packed full
of an

awful lot of
explosives on a timer.

And when the timer runs
down, the charges blow up,

and hopefully, you break open
the hull of the target.

[narrator] In September 1943,

three mini-subs were towed
by conventional submarines

to the Tirpitz's
lair in North Norway.

In the early hours
of September 22nd,

the crews of X6 and X7
managed to drop their charges

under the Tirpitz.

Fuses were set for two hours.

But then the subs were
spotted, the men captured,

and brought on
board the Tirpitz.

[Craig] They were
treated rather nicely.

They were offered schnapps

because they'd been in
the water, it was cold.

And the Germans
were talking to them

about how brave it was
for them to try this.

And they noticed
that the British

kept looking at their watches,

because they knew what time
the mine was to be detonated.

[suspenseful music]

[narrator] At 8:12 a.m.
the charges exploded.

[Duncan] The bottom of
the ship was buckled,

frames were distorted,
and there was flooding.

About 1,400 tons of water
entered the Tirpitz.

[narrator] The ship didn't sink

but was badly damaged.

The Nazis immediately
began repairs.

So the British sent in
the RAF to finish the job.

Everybody had a go at it
without any luck at all

until somebody said,
"What about 617 Squadron?"

[suspenseful music]

[narrator] In 1944,
Lawrence Goodman

was a 23-year-old Lancaster
bomber pilot with 617 Squadron,

famous for their precision
bombing Dambusters raid.

[Lawrence] We knew little
about the Tirpitz,

except it was a big ship,
very dangerous,

kept the Royal Navy and
the American Navy busy

keeping it in port, as it were.

Well, it took up
much too much time.

And it was important
that, somehow or other,

it was finally put to bed.

[suspenseful music]

[narrator] With the right bomb,
and the right plane,

the RAF believed it could
take out the Tirpitz.

The Lancaster was the
only plane big enough

to carry the massive bomb
needed to sink it,

the Tallboy.

The Tallboy 12,000-pound bomb
was an earthquake bomb

designed by Barnes
Wallis of Dambuster fame.

The idea, originally,
was to cause earthquakes

but it could penetrate inside
a heavily armored ship,

perhaps even more.

[narrator] The Lancasters
were modified

for this long-range mission.

Armor plating reduced.

Fuel tanks enlarged.

[Benny] If you got
into a Lancaster

that had been prepared
for the Tirpitz,

you thought you were
in a petrol station,

the smell in it.

[airplane engine roars]

[narrator]
On September 15th 1944,

Benny and 26 other Lancasters
set off for the Tirpitz.

My role was to
concentrate solely

on keeping that aircraft
at the right height,

at the right speed,
on the right course.

The only person who could
talk was the bomb aimer,

and he gave you
any corrections.

[suspenseful music]

[narrator]
The weather was perfect.

Tirpitz was clearly
visible close to the shore.

[Benny] I knew we were
going to drop the bomb

from the moment we
started the run in.

[soft music]

[narrator] At about 14,000 feet,

Goodman's aimer gave
the order, "Bombs away."

Of 17 Tallboys dropped,
only one hit,

but it caused serious damage.

The Tirpitz
could no longer sail

but it was still
a powerful gun battery.

So the Germans
towed the battleship

to defend the major
port of Tromso.

The Allies still needed
to destroy the Tirpitz.

[suspenseful music]

After another failed
Lancaster mission in October,

on November 12th, the bombers
took off for a third time.

[suspenseful music]

One Tallboy exploded
on the shore.

But the Tirpitz
was hit three times,

then slowly began to capsize,

trapping hundreds
of men below decks.

971 were killed.

Hitler's last
battleship was no more.

[Vince] She was the
target of submarines,

she was the target of
miniature submarines.

She was the target
of torpedo bombers,

of heavy bombers, you name it.
But through all this,

she accomplished
her major mission,

which was to provide a threat

that the British
took very seriously.

[narrator] 40 years later,
Britain was once more at war.

A new enemy
threatened her ships.

Armed with a deadly
high-speed missile.

[tense music]

[rock music]

On April 2nd 1982,
Argentina's military government

successfully invaded
the Falkland Islands,

300 miles off the
South American coast.

The Malvinas, as the
Argentinians call them,

had been under British
control since 1833.

[Eric] The Argentines
did not expect

the British to fight back.

They'd occupy the Falklands

and Britain, the new sort of
reduced post-imperial Britain,

wouldn't have the
guts or the motivation

to try to get the
Falklands back.

In that, they made
a fundamental error.

[narrator]
Margaret Thatcher's government

sent a naval Task Force
of over 100 vessels

to recapture the islands.

[soft music]

[Jonathon] It's not a place you
hang around down there.

Big seas, nasty seas,
no base support.

We had to take all
our support with us.

Not a place you
would choose to go,

but the choice was,
in a way, taken away from us.

[soft music]

[narrator] The military Junta

that controlled
Argentina was defiant.

Even as the British
were on their way,

they refused to back down.

[Fernando] This is our recovery
of the Malvinas.

We know for what
we are fighting.

I believe that the
British don't know

for what are you fighting.

[soft music]

[narrator] One of the ships
that made up the task force

was the Type 42 destroyer,
HMS Sheffield.

[rock music]

As the Sheffield headed
to the South Atlantic,

the reality of war kicked in.

[Guy] Our chief
gunnery instructor,

he briefed us and he
didn't pull any punches.

And he said, "Look, boys."
He said, "We are going to war,

and some of you
are going to die."

That really changed
people's tunes.

Thought they were on some
kind of jolly little cruise.

But it brought the
seriousness of it back to us.

We're going to war.

[soft music]

[narrator] At the end of April,

the Task Force reached
the South Atlantic

and prepared to
invade the Falklands.

A 200-mile exclusion zone was
set up around the islands.

The British declared
any Argentine warship

found within the zone
would be treated as hostile.

On May 2nd, the Argentinian
cruiser the General Belgrano

was sunk by a
British submarine.

Over 300 men died.

At first, there might
have been a cheer,

but then you're thinking,
"Well, they've got families.

"They're just doing the
same job we're doing.

God bless them,
like, you know?"

[tense music]

[narrator] The war was underway.

On May 4th, HMS Sheffield

was 40 miles south
of the Falklands

guarding the southwest
corner of the task force.

A pair of Argentine jets
were looking for targets,

armed with Exocet missiles,

French-built weapons that fly
just feet above the water.

[suspenseful music]

My personal belief is they
were determined to sink us

because of the Belgrano
a couple of days earlier.

So they needed a warship.

[suspenseful music]

[narrator] HMS Sheffield
had a weakness.

Type 42 destroyers were
designed to take on submarines,

so lacked firepower against
high-tech missile attack.

[Ben] A Type 42 Destroyer,
like Sheffield,

was good at defending itself
with its Sea Dart system

against aerial attack from
high or mid-level altitudes.

It was less good
at defending itself

against a sea-skimming
missile like an Exocet.

[tense music]

[narrator] 25 miles
from the Sheffield,

the Argentinian jets
fired their Exocets.

[tense music]

The missiles sped
towards their target

at 700 miles per hour.

[tense music]

HMS Sheffield at this point,
was not at action stations.

It considered the possibility

of an Exocet missile
attack to be low.

[narrator] Chris Purcell
had gone below to a galley

to make tea for his shipmates.

[tense music]

[Chris] I'm on the
starboard bridge wing

and the helicopter
pilot was with me,

and we were chin-wagging
as well as looking out.

We both scanned to our right,

and we see this fireball
coming towards us.

[suspenseful music]

It seemed like every
movement was in slow motion.

And you actually watched
it go into the ship.

[tense music]

[Guy] There was noise.

There was people
starting to panic now.

I do believe there
was blood up the wall.

Somebody put their hands on it,
said, "Oh, my God, what's that?"

[narrator] Fires broke
out across the ship.

[soft music]

The biggest weakness
in Sheffield

was the fact that if
she was hit, she'd burn.

Ships had been
allowed to become,

perhaps to save money,
much too flammable.

[soft music]

[narrator]
To make matters worse,

the missile had
cut the water main.

There was no water to
extinguish the flames.

[Chris] It didn't take long for
the heat to come through decks.

The paint was bubbling.

And you threw a bucket of
water on, totally evaporate.

[Guy] It's always in
the back of your mind,

how are you going to die?

And it sounds a
horrible thought,

but you've got to
think like that.

Am I gonna get blown up?
Am I gonna get burned to death?

Or will it just be instant,

or will I sink in the
frozen waters, you know?

You have to go through
all of those thoughts,

but you've got to dismiss them
and concentrate on your job.

[tense music]

[narrator] Even in the tragedy,
there was humor.

[Guy] Lieutenant Clive
Carrington-Wood,

who was our flight controller,

started singing
our favorite song,

"Always Look on the
Bright Side of Life."

[narrator] It soon became clear

that the fires were
out of control.

Sheffield's captain gave
the order to abandon ship.

[soft music]

Two other warships,
Yarmouth and Arrow,

came alongside to
rescue the crew.

[soft music]

20 men died on the Sheffield.

[soft music]

The ship drifted
for three days.

It was then taken in tow in
an attempt to salvage her.

But rough seas flooded
the hole made by the Exocet

and on May 10th,
HMS Sheffield finally sank.

[tense music]

[Eric] Type 42 destroyers were
not meant to be sunk like that.

and this one had gone
remarkably easily.

Something had to
be done about it,

preferably get the
Falklands back.

[narrator] On June 14th,
the British retook the islands.

Once we got the commandos
and the army ashore,

they were better
soldiers and marines

and better supported even
8,000 miles from home

than the Argentinians
who, as we know,

had some quite
capable military,

but also of course a lot of them
were very young conscripts.

[soft music]

[narrator] The Sheffield
was not the only British ship

lost in the battle
to retake the islands.

Four warships and two
merchant ships were sunk.

[soft music]

The traumatic effect of
the loss of the Sheffield

has stayed with the survivors.

[soft music]

[Chris] I do think
about it every day,

and it's a lot
easier now to cope

with me being able
to talk about it,

rather than bottle it up.

[Guy] Us lads are now
in the position

where your Second World War
lads were after their war.

You're still sad,

but things get better as
regards that, you know.

Every time I go on a parade
with the Sheffield Standard

and I hear The Last Post
being played, I used to cry.

I don't now,

but I will remember
my shipmates

all the time.