Sink the Belgrano

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The sinking of the General Belgrano remains controversial, mostly in Argentina and on the British left. The Argentine Navy and the captain of the Belgrano, however, have maintained that the sinking was legal. Focus on the Belgrano’s end, however, has obscured the service that USS Phoenix performed in the Pacific during World War II. She was the last of the survivors of Pearl Harbor to be lost to enemy action, even if the “enemy” turned out to be the Royal Navy. His historical works have attracted attention from other academics, with scholar Paul Addison writing that "Ponting writes well and the clarity with which he summarises the issues calls to mind a model civil servant briefing his minister. He swoops like a hawk on the damning quotation or the telling statistic." [16] [17] [18] C. J. Coventry reviewed Ponting's biography of Churchill, writing that "Ponting shattered the Churchill illusion for his readers leaving them little to piece together, just marble shards on the floor of his looted temple". [19] Personal life [ edit ] Mr Nott said the past week had been a successful one for British armed forces, but that the overriding aim was a peaceful and lasting settlement. He later wrote a number of books on British and world history. These included a Green History of the World (1991), which was revised as A New Green History of the World in 2007, and a biography of Winston Churchill (1994) and 1940: Myth and Reality (1990).

In 1985 Ponting came across the one file about Operation Cauldron—1952 secret biological warfare trials that had led to a trawler being accidentally doused with plague bacteria off the Hebrides—that had not been destroyed, and confidentially told The Observer newspaper about it, [4] leading to a story that July headlined "British germ bomb sprayed trawler". [13] Sink the Belgrano! is a 1986 satirical play in verse written by English playwright Steven Berkoff. It premiered at the Half Moon Theatre on 2 September 1986. [1]The Belgrano had been sunk outside the 200-mile maritime exclusion zone that Britain had imposed around the Falklands and, according to reports, had actually been heading for port. Berkoff, Steven (2000). Steven Berkoff: Plays One (Reviseded.). Faber and Faber. p.145. ISBN 0-571-20721-9. The events of Ponting's charge and trial were dramatized by Richard Monks on BBC Radio Four in May 2022. [14] Academic career [ edit ] This single submarine action by HMS Conqueror, the first and only torpedo sinking of an enemy combat ship by a nuclear submarine, managed to deter and deny the Argentine Navy from threatening the British naval task force. HMS Conqueror’s performance demonstrated the value of nuclear-powered hunter-killer submarines. With the capability to travel at high underwater speeds with a long underwater endurance and large operational radius, nuclear hunter-killer submarines continue to be a prized strategic asset today.

Apart from conducting the initial landings, the Argentine Navy was largely quiet at the beginning of the Falklands War. On April 26, however, it was decided to dispatch the General Belgrano and two escort destroyers on patrol south of the islands. Although the political purpose of this patrol was understandable, its military logic is unclear. General Belgrano did have certain advantages against modern naval vessels. Her 6″ guns would have made very short work of any British ships unfortunate enough to wander within twelve or so miles. General Belgrano’s armor, while considerably lighter than a battleship, might still have been sufficient to provide considerable protection from the surface-to-surface missiles of the day. However, while General Belgrano’s initial probe was in the direction of the British task force, it is extremely unlikely that any British surface ship would have wandered into her patrol area. Having virtually no anti-air or anti-submarine capability, her ability to decisively affect the battle was extremely low. On May 2, General Belgrano and her group began repositioning toward the Argentine mainland, perhaps in preparation for another sortie to be coordinated with the Argentine Air Force. The Argentines were forced to use their airpower to oppose the British fleet, but the more than 400 nautical miles from their air bases on the Argentine mainland to the Falkland Islands limited their aircraft’s operational endurance. The extreme range constrained the aircrafts’ loitering time to a few minutes to locate and conduct air strikes against the British naval task force. The retreat of Argentina’s naval forces also inevitably resulted in terminating the resupplying of its forces on the Falkland Islands by sea, contributing to severe logistics support problems. Addison, Paul (28 June 1990). "Paul Addison · Garbo & Co · LRB 28 June 1990". London Review of Books. 12 (12). Dalyell, Tam (13 June 1985). "Defence Estimates 1985". Parliamentary Debates (Hansard). HC Deb vol 80 c1057 . Retrieved 1 December 2017. Ponting... compiled the 'crown jewels'Thatcher had told the House of Commons the Belgrano was steaming towards the 200-mile exclusion zone imposed by Britain around the Falklands when she was torpedoed, with the loss of 323 of the ship’s company. When later asked about the sinking of Belgrano, Wre ford-Brown responded with typical British understate ment: “The Royal Navy spent 13 years preparing me for such an occasion. It would have been regarded as extremely dreary if I had fouled it up.” While other warships circled each other off the Falkland Islands, a British submarine stalked the Argentine light cruiser Ponting was married four times. In 1969 he married Katherine Hannan. After their divorce in 1973 he married Sally Fletcher, who also worked in the Ministry of Defence. Laura, a teacher, was his third wife. His fourth wife, Diane Johnson, died before him in 2020. [4] Retirement [ edit ]

The USS Phoenix was the fifth of the Brooklyn class—a group of light cruisers designed to comply with the restrictions imposed by the London Naval Treaty of 1930. The major navies of the world, prohibited from competing in battleships, had turned their attention to cruisers, which turned out to be both expensive and destabilizing. In an effort to limit competition in heavy cruisers, the new treaty established limits on the number of 8″ gunned cruisers allowed each of the signatories. Britain, which needed light cruisers to patrol the empire, hoped that naval architects would design new cruisers around the 6″ gun, and scale down the size of the ships appropriately.In November 2018 he gave a speech in which he warned fellow Scottish National Party members that a No-deal Brexit would be used as context in which to disband or constrain the Scottish Parliament. [20] Thirteen Days - Diplomacy and Disaster, the Countdown to the Great War (2003), Pimlico, ISBN 0-7126-6826-8