1982

ARA General Belgrano

 

ARA General Belgrano (C-4) was an Argentine Navy light cruiser in service from 1951 until 1982. Originally commissioned by the U.S. as USS Phoenix, she saw action in the Pacific theatre of World War II before being sold by the United States to Argentina. The vessel was the second to have been named after the Argentine founding father Manuel Belgrano (1770–1820).

 

Sinking

2 April, following the 1982 invasion of the Falkland Islands, Britain declared a Maritime Exclusion Zone (MEZ) of 200 nautical miles around the Falkland Islands within which any Argentine warship or naval auxiliary entering the MEZ might be attacked by British nuclear-powered submarines (SSN).

 

23 April, the British Government clarified in a message that
was passed via the Swiss Embassy in Buenos Aires to the Argentine government that any Argentine ship or aircraft that
was considered to pose a threat to British forces would
be attacked.

 

30 April, this was controversially upgraded to the total exclusion zone, within which any sea vessel or aircraft from any country entering the zone might be fired upon without further warning. That same day General Belgrano was detected by the British nuclear-powered hunter-killer submarine Conqueror. The submarine approached over the following day.

 

1 May, Admiral Juan Lombardo ordered all Argentine naval units to seek out the British task force around the Falklands and launch a “massive attack” the following day. General Belgrano, which was outside and to the south-west of the exclusion zone, was ordered south-east.

 

Lombardo’s signal was intercepted by British Intelligence. As a result, Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and her War Cabinet, meeting at Chequers the following day, agreed to a request from Admiral Terence Lewin, the Chief of the Defence Staff, to alter the rules of engagement and allow an attack on General Belgrano outside the exclusion zone.

 

2 May, Conqueror fired three 21-inch Mk 8 mod 4 torpedoes, two of the three torpedoes hit General Belgrano. The ship began to list to port and to sink towards the bow. Twenty minutes after the attack, at 16:24, Captain Bonzo ordered the crew to abandon ship. Inflatable life rafts were deployed, and the evacuation began without panic.

 

323 lives lost from General Belgrano totalled just over half of  Argentine military deaths in the war.