HMS Glasgow was a Type 42 destroyer

Type 42 destroyer

The Type 42 or Sheffield class, are guided missile destroyers used by the British Royal Navy and the Argentine Navy. The first ship of the class was ordered in 1968 and launched in 1971, and today three ships remain active in the Royal Navy and one in the Argentinian Navy...

 of the Royal Navy

Royal Navy

The Royal Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Founded in the 16th century, it is the oldest service branch and is known as the Senior Service...

. The last of the Batch 1 Type 42 destoyers, Glasgow was commissioned in 1977. The destroyer fought during the Falklands War

Falklands War

The Falklands War , also called the Falklands Conflict or Falklands Crisis, was fought in 1982 between Argentina and the United Kingdom over the disputed Falkland Islands and South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands...

, and on 12 May 1982 was damaged by bombs from Argentine A-4 Skyhawk

A-4 Skyhawk

The Douglas A-4 Skyhawk is a carrier-capable ground-attack aircraft designed for the United States Navy and United States Marine Corps. The delta winged, single-engined Skyhawk was designed and produced by Douglas Aircraft Company, and later McDonnell Douglas. It was originally designated the A4D...

s. Glasgow operated with the INTERFET

INTERFET

The International Force for East Timor was a multinational peacekeeping taskforce, mandated by the United Nations to address the humanitarian and security crisis which took place in East Timor from 1999–2000 until the arrival of United Nations peacekeepers...

 peacekeeping taskforce in 1999, and was deployed on the Atlantic Patrol South tasking in 2004. The destroyer was decommissioned in 2005, and was broken up for scrap in 2009

Design and construction

She was built at Swan Hunter Shipyard in Wallsend

Wallsend

Wallsend is an area in North Tyneside, Tyne and Wear, England. Wallsend derives its name as the location of the end of Hadrian's Wall. It has a population of 42,842.-Romans:...

, Tyneside

Tyneside

Tyneside is a conurbation in North East England, defined by the Office of National Statistics, which is home to over 80% of the population of Tyne and Wear. It includes the city of Newcastle upon Tyne and the Metropolitan Boroughs of Gateshead, North Tyneside and South Tyneside — all settlements on...

 and launched on 14 April 1976 by Lady Kirstie Treacher, wife of Admiral Sir John Treacher. With a displacement of 4,820 tonnes, Glasgow is the sixth and last Batch 1 Type 42 Destroyer in the Fleet. Named after the Scottish city of Glasgow

Glasgow

Glasgow is the largest city in Scotland and third most populous in the United Kingdom. The city is situated on the River Clyde in the country's west central lowlands...

, she is the eighth ship to bear the name. On 23 September 1976, while being fitted out, a fire on board killed eight men and injured a further six.

The ship was commissioned into the Royal Navy on 25 May 1977.

There is a HMS Glasgow Association where further details of her Falklands exploits can be found.

Falklands War

Glasgow was among five Type 42 destroyers sent as part of the Task Force sent to retake the Falkland Islands

Falkland Islands

The Falkland Islands are an archipelago in the South Atlantic Ocean, located about from the coast of mainland South America. The archipelago consists of East Falkland, West Falkland and 776 lesser islands. The capital, Stanley, is on East Falkland...

 after invasion by Argentina

Argentina

Argentina , officially the Argentine Republic , is the second largest country in South America by land area, after Brazil. It is constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city, Buenos Aires...

 in 1982. Armed with Sea Dart

Sea Dart missile

Sea Dart or Guided Weapon System 30 is a British surface-to-air missile system designed by Hawker Siddeley Dynamics and built by British Aerospace from 1977...

 anti-aircraft missile system, Glasgow along with her sister ships, and were among the first ships to arrive in a 200 nautical miles (370.4 km) exclusion zone imposed by the British around the islands.

Glasgow saw early action in the war when, on 2 May, her Lynx

Westland Lynx

The Westland Lynx is a British multi-purpose military helicopter designed and built by Westland Helicopters at its factory in Yeovil. Originally intended as a utility craft for both civil and naval usage, military interest led to the development of both battlefield and naval variants...

 helicopter badly damaged the Argentine naval vessel Alferez Sobral. On 3 May, Glasgow detected an Exocet

Exocet

The Exocet is a French-built anti-ship missile whose various versions can be launched from surface vessels, submarines, helicopters and fixed wing aircraft. Hundreds were fired in combat during the 1980s.-Etymology:...

 missile fired at the Task Force and warned the fleet. However Sheffield failed to receive the warning and was hit, later sinking. Down to two Type 42s ( and would not arrive until the end of May), Glasgow and Coventry were left to long range defence of the fleet.

On 12 May, Glasgow and the Type 22 frigate

Type 22 frigate

The Type 22 Broadsword class is a class of frigate built for the British Royal Navy. Fourteen of the class were built in total, with production divided into three batches. With the decommissioning of HMS Cornwall on 30 June 2011, the final Type 22 of the Royal Navy was retired from service...

  were on a "42-22" combo; Glasgows Sea Dart long range missiles would complement Brilliants short range Sea Wolf

Sea Wolf missile

Sea Wolf is a naval guided missile system designed and built by BAC, later to become British Aerospace Dynamics . It is an automated point-defence weapon system designed as a final line of defence against both sea-skimming and high angle anti-ship missiles and aircraft...

 missiles on anti-aircraft attacks. The ships attracted the attention of the Argentine Air Force, and a wave of four A-4B Skyhawk

A-4 Skyhawk

The Douglas A-4 Skyhawk is a carrier-capable ground-attack aircraft designed for the United States Navy and United States Marine Corps. The delta winged, single-engined Skyhawk was designed and produced by Douglas Aircraft Company, and later McDonnell Douglas. It was originally designated the A4D...

 jets of Grupo 5 attacked. Although Glasgows Sea Dart system failed, Brilliants Sea Wolf shot down 1st Lt Oscar Bustos (C-246) and Lt Jorge Ibarlucea (C-208), whilst Lt Mario Nivoli (C-206) crashed into the sea evading a missile. All three pilots died in the action. When a second wave of Grupo 5 Skyhawks attacked, Sea Wolf also failed and the jets released three bombs, one of which damaged Glasgow, although it did not explode. On their returning flight, Lt Gavazzi's Skyhawk (C-248) was shot down by friendly fire

Friendly fire

Friendly fire is inadvertent firing towards one's own or otherwise friendly forces while attempting to engage enemy forces, particularly where this results in injury or death. A death resulting from a negligent discharge is not considered friendly fire...

 over Goose Green. His bomb had passed clean through the aft end of Glasgows after engine room, damaging fuel systems and disabling the two Tyne cruise engines. The exit hole was just above the waterline on the port side; the ship manoeuvered in a tight circle to keep the area exposed while damage control teams plugged the hole. The ship returned home in a reversionary propulsion mode and was repaired in Portsmouth dockyard, returning to the South Atlantic in August 1982 when the conflict was already over.

Post-war

In later years, Glasgow served on a variety of missions.

Glasgow was deployed to East Timor

East Timor

The Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste, commonly known as East Timor , is a state in Southeast Asia. It comprises the eastern half of the island of Timor, the nearby islands of Atauro and Jaco, and Oecusse, an exclave on the northwestern side of the island, within Indonesian West Timor...

 as part of the Australian-led INTERFET

INTERFET

The International Force for East Timor was a multinational peacekeeping taskforce, mandated by the United Nations to address the humanitarian and security crisis which took place in East Timor from 1999–2000 until the arrival of United Nations peacekeepers...

 peacekeeping taskforce from 19 to 29 September 1999.

In early 2004, the ship was deployed on the Atlantic Patrol South tasking.

Decommissioning and fate

It was announced in July 2004, as part of the Delivering Security in a Changing World

Delivering Security in a Changing World

The 2003 Defence White Paper, titled Delivering Security in a Changing World, set out the future structure of the British military, and was preceded by the 1998 Strategic Defence Review and the 2002 SDR New Chapter, which responded to the immediate challenges to security in the aftermath of the...

 review, that Glasgow would be decommissioned in January 2005. Glasgow was finally decommissioned on 1 February 2005. On 7 January 2009, the ship was towed to Turkey for breaking up

Ship breaking

Ship breaking or ship demolition is a type of ship disposal involving the breaking up of ships for scrap recycling. Most ships have a lifespan of a few decades before there is so much wear that refitting and repair becomes uneconomical. Ship breaking allows materials from the ship, especially...

.