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Author prehistoric old hen, no authorization forbidden
On April 2, 1982, the Falklands War broke out, and the British Naval Task Force used nuclear submarines to sink the Argentine Navy's capital ship, the cruiser "General Belgrano", setting a precedent for nuclear submarines to sink surface warships. That battle has also become a classic example of war known to the world.
background
Three days after the outbreak of the Falklands War, with the authorization of the Iron Lady Margaret Thatcher, the British quickly dispatched a naval task force with the aircraft carriers Invincible and Athletic God as the core, and sailed to the Falklands. By 30 April, the task force had completed the blockade of the Falklands and established a 200-kilometre no-navigation zone around the Falklands. The commander of the task force, Rear Admiral Woodward, had already planned a battle plan for the capture of the Falklands, and his only concern at the moment was that the Argentine Navy's carrier battle group and cruiser battle group were moving closer to the task force and preparing for a pincer offensive.
Schematic of the confrontation between the British and Afghan armies
At that time, the Argentine Navy was definitely a regional naval power in terms of scale. The Argentine army was not only equipped with the aircraft carrier "May 25" (May 25 is the national holiday of Argentina), but also the retired cruiser "General Belgrano" purchased from the United States, and even the Type 42 destroyer purchased from Britain, which was arguably world-class at the time, and the British task force was also equipped with Type 42 destroyers as the capital ships of the escort aircraft carrier. The British were well aware of Argentina's military prowess, so Major General Woodward's concerns were not unreasonable.
Cruiser General Belgrano
meet
At this time, however, an airwave from the depths of the Atlantic Ocean brought good news to the major general. On the evening of 30 April, the British nuclear submarine Conquistador, cruising off the Falklands, discovered the cruiser General Belgrano and two escort destroyers through the advanced sonar system it carried. At this time the cruiser was sailing on the edge of the no-go zone, and the fleet knew nothing about the British ghosts lurking underwater.
The British high-level wartime cabinet soon received information from the front, but because the cruiser General Belgrano did not enter the no-navigation zone delimited by the British army, and the tonnage of this ship was very symbolic for the Argentine Navy, the political consequences of sinking him did not dare to jump to conclusions for a while. Finally, after weighing the pros and cons, Margaret Thatcher made the decision to allow the sinking of the General Belgrano. At this time, more than a day had passed since the Conquistador discovered General Belgrano. In the early hours of 2 May, the conqueror received an attack order and accelerated towards General Belgrano.
Using the Conqueror nuclear submarine
War
The protagonist of the battle, the Conqueror, is the first of Britain's second-generation Determination-class nuclear submarines, with an underwater displacement of 4,400 tons and a speed of 28 knots, equipped with nearly wirelessly powered nuclear fuel and advanced sonar, as well as advanced tiger fish wire-guided torpedoes and old-fashioned MK-8 direct torpedoes. The captain at the time was Lieutenant Colonel River Brown.
His rival, the USS Belgrano, was originally a U.S. Navy Brooklyn-class light cruiser with a full load displacement of 12,000 tons, entered service in 1938 and survived the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, and was decommissioned in 1950 and sold to the Argentine Navy. In Argentina, the Ocean veteran underwent two modernizations, equipped with British Seacat anti-aircraft missiles, and thus had a certain point of defensive air defense capability. At the outbreak of the Falklands War, the ship was 43 years old, and its captain was Colonel Elias-Poncau.
British Seacat anti-aircraft missile
On 2 May, the weather in the South Atlantic was very bad, and the cruiser General Belgrano struggled to make a difficult and hidden appearance amid the fierce waves. However, this did not affect the underwater Conquistador's tracking of it. The British submarines had already kept their prey on like cheetahs, waiting for the time to strike a fatal blow to the other side.
Finally, at 3 p.m., the Argentine cruiser entered the torpedo range of the British submarine. In the choice of torpedo weapons, Captain Brown selected the MK-8 direct-flight torpedo, although old-fashioned but more stable. Subsequently, the Conqueror completed all the preparations before the battle in a tense atmosphere, only to wait for the captain to give the order to attack.
At about 4 o'clock, Captain Brown gave the order to attack. Three MK-8 torpedoes sheathed like swords and slammed into the unsuspecting General Belgrano. A few seconds later, 2 torpedoes hit the target, and Captain Brown observed through the periscope a huge red flame rising from the sea. The sailors rejoiced.
The attack was successful.
struggle
But all this seemed to the sailors of the General Belgrano as if a nightmare had broken into reality. One torpedo hit the bow of the ship, and the other hit the main engine compartment at the bottom of the warship, causing the warship to lose power in an instant, which brought great obstacles to the control of damage to the warship. More importantly, General Belgrano was unable to send a distress signal to the outside world in time, causing the escort destroyer to realize that something was wrong after a long time.
After being attacked, the warship was thrown into chaos. Captain Ponceau has been faithfully performing his duties as captain, firing flashlights and steaming smoke and poison gas to direct personnel to carry out repairs and rescue sailors. After about 40 minutes, the warship was irretrievable, and the captain and sailors decided to abandon the ship and escape, and the sailors sang the Argentine national anthem tragically and bid farewell to General Belgrano with tears in their eyes.
The General Belgrano sank instantly
finale
The battle was destined to be a one-sided ending from the start. Using advanced sonar, strong power and underwater stealth capabilities, the British nuclear submarine Conquistador easily sank the cruiser General Belgrano, killing more than three hundred people and calmly withdrawing from the theater of operations unscathed. On the Argentine side, not only did it lose the lives of a capital ship and more than three hundred sailors, but more fatally, this defeat led to the implementation of a comprehensive contraction strategy at the decision-making level of the navy, and all the naval ships returned to port to avoid engagement with the British navy, making this military operation one of the most decisive military operations in the entire Falklands War.
The sinking of the cruiser General Belgrano stung the Argentines deeply. Although the Navy subsequently became a spectator of the Falklands War, the Argentine Air Force and Naval Aviation continued to battery the British task force with astonishing perseverance and tenacious fighting spirit. Argentine military historians believe that if the navy had actively cooperated with the air force at that time, the outcome of the war could have been rewritten. But history cannot assume that since the Argentine Navy chose to save its life, Argentina could only swallow the bitter fruit of defeat and land.
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