MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

19th Anniversary of Belgrano sinking: She was not the priority target.

On the eve of the 19th anniversary of the sinking of the Argentine cruiser General Belgrano, the Principal Submarine Warfare Officer with the British task force, Commander Jeff Tall, said that the elderly Argentine cruiser, a survivor of Pearl Harbour, was not the primary target for British nuclear submarines that day.

Speaking to the BBC World Service's Calling the Falklands programme, Commander Tall, who is now the Director of the Royal Navy Submarine Museum in Gosport, said that he and his staff aboard the British flag ship Hermes had identified the aircraft carrier 25 de Mayo as the most important target. Only a brief inability to contact a second nuclear submarine operating in the north of the war zone and order it into action saved the huge Argentine vessel, its crew and aircraft.

Commander Tall said that concerns about "battlespace" also precluded the possibility of sending HMS Conqueror, then patrolling the southern zone, north to take on the 25 de Mayo. With the breakdown in communications, there was a risk that the two British nuclear submarines might mistake each other for enemies. Instead, HMS Conqueror was ordered to sink the Belgrano, a move which the senior officer said was effective in stopping a potential Argentine naval attack in its tracks.

He insisted that despite the controversy surrounding the action, which resulted in some 368 Argentine deaths, the attack was necessary. Another patrolling submarine had provided intelligence suggesting that the Argentine fleet was preparing for an attack. Gradually, he said, it dawned on he and his commander, Admiral Sandy Woodward aboard Hermes that the Argentines were preparing two naval groups to attack the British task force in a pincer movement from the north and south. The Belgrano was a major asset with the southerly force. He said it made little difference what direction the ship was sailing in at the time it was torpedoed, as it could have turned again at any moment.

Commander Tall said that the British submarines had been "fundamental" to the success of the British war effort. "The sinking of a major enemy unit had the strategic effect of putting the Argentine Navy back into harbour. We never saw them again."

The commander remains surprised that the torpedo attack remains so controversial even today. "I think it shows the general lack of acceptance that the group to the south was posing a threat," he said.

The father of four made it clear however that the attack gave him no pleasure. He said he thought of his own children and wept whe