Falklands40: The Sinking of the Belgrano

Dan Snow's History Hit

History Hit

History

4.7 • 12.9K Ratings

🗓️ 1 May 2022

⏱️ 47 minutes

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Summary

On this day 40 years ago the HMS Conqueror, a British nuclear submarine, propelled silently through the South Atlantic stalking the Argentinian light cruiser the ARA General Belgrano in the vicinity of the Falkland Islands. At 2.57 pm Conqueror was given the order to torpedo the enemy warship. With two direct hits to the ship, more than 300 Argentine sailors were killed in what remains one of the most controversial actions of the Falklands War.

To mark the 40th anniversary Dan speaks to Vice Admiral Sir Tim McClement who was second in command on the HMS Conquerer about those tense moments as the torpedoes were launched, as well as Will Butler from the National Archives and Naval Historian Iain Ballantyne about the controversy and the information leak that rocked the heart of government.

Iain Ballantyne is Editor of the monthly naval news magazine WARSHIPS International Fleet Review and author of the books 'Hunter Killers' and 'The Deadly Trade' which both feature accounts of how the British submarine HMS Conqueror sank the Argentine cruiser ARA General Belgrano.

Need to catch up on our Falklands War Anniversary coverage? Try Falklands40: What Started the Falklands War?

Produced by Mariana Des Forges

Mixed and Mastered by Dougal Patmore

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Transcript

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1:09.1	Hello everyone, welcome to Dance Know's History. It's another in our series of Falklands War 40th
1:15.1	Anniversary Podcasts today. If you go back a little bit on the feed, you'll find a couple of
1:20.0	episodes talking about the focus of all the Argentinian invasion of those islands.
1:25.0	And today we're going to be talking about really the first significant loss of life, the first
1:30.5	large act of violence of that war, which was the sinking of the Argentinian ship, the general Belgrano.
1:39.0	It's on the 2nd of April 1982 and amphibious assault was made on the forklands at Stanley,
1:45.2	Port Stanley. The Argentinians claimed sovereignty over the islands. This all sounds
1:51.5	weiringly familiar now. And decided to press their claim at the tip of the spear.
1:57.4	The Argentinian military junta believed that it would be a pusher over that Britain would not
2:03.1	seek to contest the conquest of the islands. The military junta was wrong. Britain immediately
	...

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