Article Reproduced from Navy News - June 2002
Final Blow Fell on Glamorgan
The battle to recapture the Falklands was all but over when an Exocet smashed into the guided missile destroyer HMS Glamorgan, killing 13 of her crew.

British offensives in early June 1982 had gone much as planned, and by June 12 Port Stanley was well within reach by 3 Commando Brigade, who were ranged in the high ground little more than five miles from the capital.

Glamorgan had been bombarding Argentine positions in support of the British attacks, and as dawn approached the County-class warship began to head out to the relative safety of the Task Force.

Unknown to those on the ship, a small group of Argentinians had dismantled the Exocet launcher from a frigate and rebuilt it in the back of a lorry - and had been waiting on shore for days, watching for such a target.

The missile - the last of the war to hit a British ship - struck Glamorgan in the vicinity of the hangar.

The hangar, ship's helicopter and the Seacat system were damaged by the explosion, which blew a hole in the flight deck and caused considerable damage to a galley below.

But the ship itself was not disabled, and steamed on to rejoin the Task Force offshore.

The missile strike proved to be virtually the last offensive Argentinian action of the conflict; two days later the occupiers surrendered to Maj Gen Jeremy Moore.

Article Reproduced from Navy News August 1982
Glamorgan Mourns Her Dead
Men who died when the destroyer HMS Glamorgan was hit by a shore-based Exocet missile were buried at sea off the Falklands Islands. Ten are known to have died, and three are missing presumed dead.

However, the damage - sustained days before the Argentine surrender - was contained and the 6,200-ton vessel remained operational.

All the lightly injured recovered sufficiently to return to the ship and only one man remained seriously ill.

The ship has sent the following message to Navy News and to the families:
"We have lost 13 friends; to you at home they were husbands, sons or brothers. We paid our final respects to them all when we buried them at sea in a moving service which, in the evening light, was so peaceful and calm that it belonged to a different world to the strife that had gone before.

"We are thankful for our survival and our thoughts are with the bereaved for whom we hope that everything possible is being done … We are the lucky ones who can send our love to you and we are thinking of those who have lost so much."

With the help of a "magnificent" repair team and a few calm days, the Glamorgan restored her capabilities as far as conditions permitted. However, the weather soon turned round with a vengeance and the ship experienced the roughest seas since she re-commissioned more than a year ago.

After the Argentine surrender, the Glamorgan was able to complete repairs in the shelter of one of the natural harbours in the islands. While there they did what they could to make life a little more pleasant for men of the Welsh Guards, with whom the ship's links had been strengthened by shared sorrow.

The Roll of Honour in the Glamorgan:
Michael Adcock (34), POAEM(E), Fortuneswell, Dorset.
Brian Easton (24), CK, Portsmouth.
David Lee (35), ACAEM, Leeds.
Kelvin McCullum (25), AEA(M)2, Portland.
Brian Malcolm (22), CK, Gosport.
Mark Sambles (29), LCK, Portsmouth.
Anthony Sillence (26), LCK, Doncaster.
John Stroud (20), STD, Gosport.
David Tinker (25), Lieut., Rochester.
Colin Vickers (33), POACMN, Wyke Regis, Dorset.

Missing, presumed dead are:
Mark Henderson (20), AEM(M)1, Glasgow.
Brian Hinge (24), AEM(R)1, Bristol.
Terence Perkins (19), MEM(M)2, Cardiff.