Brazilian Navy - "GREENHALGH has fulfilled its mission"

As the lead ship of the British South Atlantic Task Force during the Falklands War in 1982, HMS BROADSWORD (Type 22) made headlines. On 25 May, she was unable to prevent Argentine Skyhawks from hitting the frigate COVENTRY (Type 42) with unguided bombs during the landing operation in San Carlos Bay on Pebble Island with her Sea Wolf low-flying defence system, causing her to capsize. The first group of Skyhawks flew so close that the BROADSWORD's fire control system crashed when both aircraft split, and when the second group approached, the COVENTRY had manoeuvred itself into the direct line of fire of the Sea Wolfs! The BROADSWORD was able to rescue 261 crew members from the COVENTRY and help the landing operation to succeed. In 1995, the four frigates of the first batch of Type 22s were sold from London to Brazil. BROADSWORD was renamed GREENHALGH in honour of a promising twenty-year-old naval cadet who heroically defended the Brazilian flag on his gunboat in 1865 in the "naval battle" of Riachuelo, 500 kilometres inland on the Rio Parana, near Corrientes, in the war against Paraguay. After 26 years in the service of Brazil, the green and yellow flag was lowered for the last time on the battle-hardened GREENHALGH in Rio de Janeiro at the beginning of August in the presence of many admirals. As Carlos Augusto de Sousa, retired minister and previously fleet commander, said to the crew: "The naval command has decided that the ship has fulfilled its task, although it is visibly in the best condition. We all reach our time to go into reserve - it's no different with the ships."

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