Early morning of a bad day, Her Majesty's ship Conqueror is moving in the cold waters of the South Atlantic. For 30 hours, the British submarine has been continuously monitoring the Argentine formation led by the cruiser General Belgrano. Here he is, 7 miles straight ahead, swaying in the foam on the ocean wave, confident in his invulnerability. The cruiser is covered by two destroyers - the Argentine squadron is a mortal danger to the British surface ships. The 15 six-inch cannons of the old Belgrano can rip apart the fragile frigates and landing ships of Her Majesty's fleet. Argentine destroyers armed with Exocet missiles also pose a significant threat.
In the semi-darkness of the central post of the submarine "Conqueror" tense silence reigns, officers await orders from the headquarters of the squadron …
At the same time, in the London mansion at 10 Downing Street, a conversation takes place approximately as follows:
“Admiral Woodward is crazy. He wants to sink an Argentine cruiser.
- That's the right decision.
- We have no right to attack. Argentine ships are still outside the declared 200-mile war zone.
- Sir, the "200-mile war zone" itself, which we declared unilaterally, is a violation of all international rules. Sink the General Belgrano if necessary.
- Miss Thatcher, are you sure?
- Destroy the cruiser and no longer ask stupid questions.
A month ago, no Royal Navy admiral had dared to lead a perilous expedition to the Falklands. Margaret Thatcher had to personally appoint Rear Admiral Woodward, not the most experienced, but extremely "reckless" naval officer, in command. To successfully complete the task, he without the slightest hesitation demanded that the underwater strategic missile carrier "Resolution" be included in the squadron - in the event of the destruction of all British ships, nuclear fire would descend from heaven on the Argentine military bases. Whether this was a cruel joke or a real threat is difficult to say, but Woodward's determination was well known in admiral circles. "Iron Lady" Margaret knew who should be entrusted with the "hopeless" expedition.
And now, while on the Hermes aircraft carrier, Admiral Woodward wondered why the submariners had not received his order to destroy the Argentine cruiser. For some unknown reason, the Satellite Communications Center in Cheltem is blocking the transmission. However, the reason is obvious - cowards from the naval headquarters are afraid to make a responsible decision. Damn them! The Argentine navy takes the British squadron in pincers - it is necessary, before it is too late, to break at least one of the enemy's "pincers". Staff rats! Anchor down your throat! Octopus without fuel oil in a cleaned hawse!
Only at noon, many hours late, a radiogram from London arrived at the Conqueror nuclear submarine: “Urgent. Attack the Belgrano group
The cruiser was sailing 36 miles from the border of the declared "war zone" and, obviously, felt completely safe. The brave Muchachos did not try to hide in shallow water, the Argentine destroyers stupidly prowled on the right traverse of the General Belgrano, covering the cruiser from the side of the Bradwood Bank, where, of course, there could be no submarines. They didn't even bother to turn on their sonars!
Looking through the periscope at all this strange company, Commander Reford-Brown shrugged his shoulders in surprise and ordered full speed. A huge steel "pike" rushed through the water to its target. After completing the circulation to the right, the boat freely reached the point of attack 1000 meters on the left side of the Belgrano. The victory was already in the hands of the British sailors, all that remained was to choose the appropriate weapon. Actually, the dilemma was in two types of torpedoes: the newest self-guided Mk.24 "Tigerfish" or the good old Mk VIII from the Second World War. All things considered, and rightly believing that the Tigerfish was not yet reliable enough, Commander Reford-Brown preferred the old-style straight-forward torpedo. At this time, "General Belgrano" serenely swayed on the waves, moving in a 13-knot course towards its death. The commander of the Argentine cruiser Caperang Hector Bonzo did his best to destroy his ship.
At 15:57 the nuclear submarine "Conqueror", being practically in range conditions, fired a three-torpedo salvo at the "Belgrano" compound. After 55 seconds, two Mk VIII torpedoes pierced the left side of the Argentine cruiser. Explosions of 363-kilogram warheads echoed in the sub's compartments, combat posts resounded with joyful shouts.
Commander Redford-Brown enthusiastically watched the attack through the periscope: he saw how the first explosion tore off the entire bow of the cruiser. A few seconds later, a new flash flashed and a huge column of water shot up in the area of the stern superstructure of the General Belgrano. Everything that happened at that moment on the surface was like a dream. Radford-Brown closed his eyes and glanced once more through the eyepiece of the periscope to make sure he had just sunk a large enemy warship. For the first time in the history of the nuclear submarine fleet!
Subsequently, Redford-Brown recalled: “To be honest, the Faslane shooting practice was more difficult than this attack. It took the Royal Navy 13 years to prepare me for just such a situation. It would be sad if I didn’t cope with it.”
Destruction of the two remaining destroyers the submariners considered it unnecessary and unreasonably risky - after all, the British sailors were being prepared for war with a strong and skillful enemy, who, in this situation, had to take active measures to detect and destroy a submarine located somewhere nearby. "Conqueror" sank into the depths, cautiously crawling towards the open ocean, acoustics at any second expected to hear the sonars of the Argentine ships and a series of explosions of depth charges. Much to their surprise, nothing like this happened. The Argentine muchachos turned out to be complete cowards and idlers: the destroyers, abandoning their sinking ship to the mercy of fate, rushed at full speed in different directions.
By the way, on board one of the destroyers, Ippolito Bouchard, upon returning to the base, a decent dent was found, presumably from the third unexploded torpedo fired by the Conqueror. Who knows, maybe the Argentines are really lucky. Although can this be called luck?
Eyewitnesses to the death of General Belgrano recalled that a real "fiery hurricane" swept through the premises of the ship, turning all life on its way into a torn apart barbecue - about 250 sailors died in the first seconds of the attack. This fact clearly indicates that all the hatches and doors inside the cruiser at the time of the tragedy were wide open, the Argentine sailors once again demonstrated amazing carelessness.
The explosion of the second torpedo destroyed the generators and de-energized the ship, the pumps and the radio were turned off, cold water rolled over the decks of the doomed cruiser … 20 minutes after the torpedo attack, the crew left the ship. A couple of minutes later, the General Belgrano lay on the port side and disappeared under water, taking 323 human lives with it into the depths of the sea.
The Conqueror submarine, which returned to the square a day later, watched as the Argentine destroyers rescued the surviving sailors from the cruiser's crew. Filled with noble feelings, the British did not dare to launch a new torpedo attack - the effect of the Belgrano sinking had already exceeded all their expectations.
According to Argentine data, out of 1,093 people on board the cruiser, 770 were saved.
The significance of the Conqueror attack was so great that the event was rated "The boat that won the war" … The loss of the cruiser and three hundred men made a terrible impression on the Argentine command: fearing further losses, the Argentine fleet returned to its bases, ensuring the British complete dominance at sea. There were still many fierce battles ahead, but the blocked garrison of the Falkland Islands was doomed.
As for the ethical side of the Belgrano sinking, there are a number of contradictory points. The cruiser was sunk outside the declared 200-mile "war zone" around the Falklands. At the same time, there is not a single legal document establishing the procedure for the appearance of these "zones" - the British only unilaterally warned ships and aircraft of all countries of the world that they should stay away from the Falkland Islands, otherwise they could be attacked without warnings.
Patrolling along the southern borders of the declared "war zone", the Argentine cruiser posed a clear danger to the British squadron, and naturally, he came to this square clearly not to admire the ocean sunsets.
To avoid unnecessary conversations and meaningless investigations, the British, with their usual calm, upon returning to the base, took and "lost" the logbook of the nuclear submarine "Conqueror". As they say, the ends are in the water!
It is worth considering that the instigator of the Falklands War was still Argentina, whose troops landed in disputed territories in order to provoke a "small victorious war."
The crew of the cruiser General Belgrano made a number of serious mistakes, however, one should not stigmatize the Argentine sailors with eternal shame - literally 2 days later, on May 4, 1982, the British destroyer Sheffield found itself in a similar situation. British "sea wolves" have shown an unforgivable stupidity, turning off the search radar in the war zone. For which they immediately paid.
Characters of the sea drama:
HMS Conqueror
The first and only nuclear submarine to date that sank an enemy ship in combat conditions. After the victorious return from the South Atlantic, the Conqueror took part in another sinister operation, codenamed "Waitress" - the theft of a Soviet sonar station in the Barents Sea.
In August 1982, a peaceful Soviet anti-submarine patrol, disguised as a trawler under the flag of Poland, plowed the Arctic waters. A long "trawl" with a secret device attached to the end was dragged behind the stern of the ship. Suddenly, a steel "pike" appeared from the depths of the sea with automatic cutters fixed to its body. "Chick!" - the tool was bitten by the trawl and the boat with the prey disappeared into the ocean without a trace.
Since then, according to one of the British officers, the name of the boat "Conqueror" has been pronounced at the headquarters "with great respect and always in a half-whisper."
ARA General Belgrano
The cruiser who cheated fate in the harbor of Pearl Harbor, but ingloriously died 40 years later in the South Atlantic. Frankly, by the early 1980s, the General Belgrano was a museum artifact. However, given the status of Argentina's "great naval power" and the realities of the Falklands War, it still retained sufficient combat capability. If "Belgrano" managed to break through to the British squadron, it would have shot all of Her Majesty's destroyers and frigates with impunity from its large-caliber guns - the British sailors had no serious anti-ship weapons, except for three dozen subsonic attack aircraft "CHarrier" with conventional free-falling bombs.
Destroyers "Piedra Buena" and "Ippolito Bouchard"
During World War II, 59 Allen M. Sumner-class destroyers were modestly considered the best in the world. In general, the American destroyers of those years differed significantly from the British, German or Soviet ships of a similar class - suffice it to say that they were larger than the leader "Tashkent"! Hefty vessels with an ocean range (6000 miles at 15 knots), six main guns and a full set of radar and sonar equipment.
By the beginning of the 80s, they were already pretty outdated, and it was simply indecent for any developed country to have such rubbish in its fleet. However, given the realities of the Falklands conflict, in which the impoverished Great Britain “butted” with the equally poor Argentina, the old American destroyers still represented a formidable force. In the event of a possible duel with the destroyer Sheffield, the latter did not have a single chance - six 127 mm guns against a single 114 mm cannon! It is a pity that the Argentine command turned out to be so cowardly …
Summing up
In the First World War, the British too self-confidently declared that submarines were "the weapon of the poor." But despite the scorn of the British Admiralty, the angry little fish quickly proved they could bite painfully. The legendary U-9 submarine sank three British cruisers in one battle: Hawk, Aboukir and Crucie …
During the Second World War, submarines became one of the most terrible misfortunes - German "wolf packs" sank about 3000 transports and warships! Alas, despite the tremendous successes, it became clear to the Germans that no heroism and high technology could bring victory when the enemy had a whole anti-submarine system deployed. The battle for the Atlantic was lost, the blockade of the British Isles was not carried out, and more than 700 "steel coffins" with 28 thousand Kriegsmarine sailors locked inside the ocean floor.
The situation changed dramatically with the advent of nuclear power plants - from that moment on, the boats became really "underwater", and not "diving", as it was before. Their secrecy has sharply increased - until now, no reliable means have been found that can withstand nuclear submarines. With an experienced crew and a drop of luck, a modern nuclear "pike" can sneak unnoticed through all security systems, even into the Mexican or the Kola Bay.
Sounds amazing, but powerful nuclear-powered ships, capable of passing under the ice to the North Pole and circling the Earth underwater, in 60 years of their existence sunk only one ship - the same Argentine cruiser! (Of course, not taking into account such cases as, for example, the sinking of the Japanese fishing schooner "Ehime Maru", accidentally overturned during the ascent of the US Navy submarine "Greenville").
On January 19, 1991, the American nuclear submarine Louisville (SSN-724) opened fire on the positions of the Iraqi forces, firing two dozen Tomahawk cruise missiles from the Red Sea. In subsequent years, multipurpose nuclear submarines of the Los Angeles type were regularly involved in shelling ground targets in Iraq, Yugoslavia and Afghanistan. For example, the Newport News nuclear submarine fired 19 Tomahawks during the invasion of Iraq (2003), and the Providence, Scranton and Florida submarines hit Libyan army positions with Tomahawks in 2011. Florida (a modernized nuclear submarine of the Ohio type) was especially distinguished, firing 93 axes on the territory of Libya per day!
All this, of course, can be considered the combat use of nuclear submarines. Nevertheless, the overall result is logical - nuclear submarines have never had a chance to engage in a real sea battle - the one for which they were created. The Tridet and Sineva submarine-based intercontinental ballistic missiles remained rusty in the mines, the Granit super-missiles did not fly anywhere, and 50 torpedoes from the Seewulf-class nuclear submarine ammunition never left their racks. The mighty nuclear-powered ships remained, fortunately, a weapon of deterrence, only occasionally frightening to death a group of surface ships, suddenly appearing and just as elusively disappearing into the depths of the ocean.
