MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Sinking of Argentine Navy cruiser ARA General Belgrano recalled

2 May 1982. Ceremonies were held in Argentina today to mark the twentieth anniversary of the sinking of the Argentine Navy's cruiser ARA General Belgrano during the South Atlantic War. The 43-year-old Belgrano was sunk in the South Atlantic at mid afternoon on 2 May 1982 by two torpedoes fired from the Royal Navy nuclear submarine HMS Conqueror, with the loss of 323 lives.

The main ceremonies ware held before the monument to the Malvinas War dead in the gardens of the Navy HQ buildings in downtown Buenos Aires and at the Puerto Belgrano Naval Base 500 miles south of this city, home port of the Navy sea fleet and of the Belgrano.

Defence Minister Horacio Jaunarena and Navy Chief of Staff, Admiral Joaquin Stella headed the ceremonies at which medals were presented to families of servicemen lost with the sinking of the cruiser.

In a newspaper article published today the then Captain of the Belgrano, Hector Bonzo, now retired from the Navy, who heads the Friends of the General Belgrano Cruiser Association, argues that the lessons of 2 May 1982 are a legacy which lives on to this day. "If those men could overcome that trial with solidarity, mutual respect, honesty and ethics. We can surely achieve these same things today."

Bonzo is internationally recognised for his endeavours at saving the surviving crewmembers abandoning the stricken cruiser. Of a crew of 1.093 men, 323 were killed and 770 survived not only the explosions but up 48 hours adrift in life rafts in freezing South Atlantic waters. Bonzo and his crew are credited with having handled the aftermath of the sinking with great skill, which is probably why 2/3rds of the crew survived in such appalling conditions.

Nevertheless the death toll for the sinking of the Belgrano was 323 which accounts for almost half the 649 Argentine South Atlantic War dead.

The Friends of the Belgrano Association in turn held separate ceremonies at the Cenotaph to the Malvinas War dead at the Naval Hospital and a Mass at the Armed Forces Stella Maris chapel in memory of those who served on and died on the Belgrano.

The Argentine Navy's ARA General Belgrano was a US built Brooklyn class cruiser originally commissioned in 1939 as the USS Phoenix. During the second World War it saw action in the South Pacific surviving the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbour on 7 December 1941 engaging in combat in Guadacanal, Leyte and Corregidor.

After the war she was mothballed for several years and sold to Argentina in 1951 as ARA 17 de Octubre and later renamed ARA General Belgrano in 1956. Equipped by the Argentine Navy to carry one Alouette III helicopter and armed with Seacat SAM missiles she also carried 5 x 3 x 152mm (6 in) gun turrets, 8 x 125 mm (5 inch) guns, 20 x 40mm anti aircraft guns and 20 x 20mm machine guns. Although the Belgrano was not deployed during the Operation Rosario on 2 April, she put to sea from Ushuaia on April 26 as part of Task Force 79 patrolling the area between Islas de los Estados and Burwood Bank.

On 30 April 1982 Britain announced the setting up of a Total Exclusion Zone (TEZ) excluding all Argentine vessels and aircraft in a radius of 200 nautical miles around the Falkland Islands.

On Friday 30 April the cruiser was detected by nuclear powered fleet submarine HMS Conqueror at long range. The following day, Admiral Woodward's carriers entered the TEZ and the air war begun with air attacks on Stanley and Goose Green and air battles between the British Naval Air Squadron and Argentine Air Force aircraft over and around the Falkland Islands.

HMS Conqueror closed in to shadow Belgrano ? which at this stage was outside the 200 nm TEZ ? but was nonetheless the southern arm of Task Force 79 and rated in London as "a potential threat to the British carriers."

The nuclear submarine was instructed to sink the cruiser.
Shortly after 4pm on Sunday 2 May when at 55º 30'S 61º 40' W the Belgrano was struck by two 21 in conventional Mk8 torpedoes fired from Conqueror and sunk 15 minutes later.

According to the Admiral of the Fleet at the time, Sir Terence Lewin, the decision to launch torpedoes at Belgrano was taken in London and not by the commander on the spot under the existing "rules of engagement."

At the time critics argued that the Belgrano had been sunk "just when it looked as if the United Nations General Secretary was about to reach a mutually honourable compromise" in the words of Labour MP Tam Dalyell.

Of all the events which took place in the South Atlantic War, the sinking of the ARA General Belgrano remains the most controversial. Although the Argentine Navy has always insisted that it was an - albeit regrettable - act of war, critics around the world argued that it was decided by the government of Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher to scupper any possibility of a negotiated peace settlement over the islands.

Critics argued that the fact that the vessel was outside the TEZ and was sailing away from the area were clear indications that it presented no immediate threat to the British Task Force.

"Britannia waives the rules" screamed the headline of one morning paper at the time playing on the words of patriotic song "Rule Britannia." Labour MP Tam Dalyell made the sinking of the Belgrano his cause célèbre and fought a long lasting battle against Mrs Thatcher trying to prove foul play.

Ultimately, as one leading analyst of the Falklands War summed it up, the sinking of the Belgrano may of been an act of war or not, but it will probably remain a sore point in Argentine-British relations for many years to come.

At the time of the sinking of the Belgrano the then British Defence Minister John Nott had dismissed any criticism over the decision to sink the vessel forecasting that, "In twenty years time they will say: The British stopped aggression." Today, neither his name nor his words were remembered.