MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

HMS Sheffield Memorial unveiled at National Memorial Arboretum

HMS Sheffield sank six days after the attack, becoming the first Royal Navy ship to be lost in action since the Second World War.

Survivors, the families of those lost and VIPs have gathered 40 years to the day since HMS Sheffield was struck by an Exocet missile during the Falklands War on 4th May 1982. They watched as a new memorial - dedicated to those killed in the attack - was unveiled at the National Memorial Arboretum in Staffordshire.

HMS Sheffield sank six days after the attack, becoming the first Royal Navy ship to be lost in action since the Second World War.

The monument, which also honors two other Royal Navy ships that have carried the name Sheffield, was anointed at Wednesday’s memorial service with water brought specially from the South Atlantic.

Named 'Shiny Sheff', the memorial was made in the Yorkshire city, famous for its steel industry.

Bearing the words 'Fair Winds and Following Seas', it is designed to represent a warship at sea, with its bow cutting through the waves.

John Galway is a survivor of the attack and Chair of the HMS Sheffield Association.

Speaking at the event, John Galway, veteran and Chair of the HMS Sheffield Association, said: “It's always important to remember, and if you don't remember, it's lost in time.

”Forty years ago, now. When we got hit, it was only 37 years after the end of the Second World War. We always remember. We remember every day.”

Among those in attendance at the service was Vice Admiral Sir Timothy Laurence, the husband of the Princess Royal.