the belgrano was outside the zone and heading away from it,...........
The Belgrano was a serious threat to our task force and as a WW2 battleship and at 12,000 tons fully loaded and with a decent array of weapons (including British Sea Cat missiles), the Belgrano was considered to be a threat to the Task Force even if she was outside of the Exclusion Zone.
In fact it needed two torpedoes to sink her. The first did damage to the bow area but internal bulkheads meant that she was still able to function, this hit killed no one. The second to the stern area took out the electrical system and killed an estimated 270+ and it was the lack of power that meant that the pumps could not keep her afloat. The British government maintained that the Belgrano still represented a threat to the Task Force and in this they were, to an extent, supported by the Belgrano’s captain. Hector Bonzo later made the point that though the Belgrano was sailing away from the Exclusion Zone, it was not sailing to its port in Ushuaia in Tierra del Fuego, It was simply moving to another unspecified position to await further orders – that could have included attacking the Task Force. The naval commander of the Task Force, Admiral Sandy Woodward, made the point that the Belgrano and its escorts were more than capable of turning about at speed and thus returning to a course towards the Task Force.
Also on April 23rd, the Argentine government was handed a message from the British government (via the Swiss Embassy) that it held the right to take whatever action was required to defend itself if any Argentine “warship, including submarines, naval auxiliaries or military aircraft” seemed to threaten the naval Task Force. Clearly as the Belgrano was considered to be a threat, it was attacked and sunk. After the war, Argentinean Rear- Admiral Allara admitted that the whole of the South Atlantic became an operational theatre during the conflict and that the Belgrano was a casualty of war.
The sinking of the ‘General Belgrano’ sent a salient message to the military junta that ruled Argentina. The Argentinean Navy after the sinking was effectively confined to port, especially their aircraft carrier, ‘Veinticinco de Mayo’.
BTW the Atlantic Conveyor that the Argentinian air force sank was an unarmed merchantman.
Rules of war?? apart from the Geneva Convention there arn't any.
War doesn't decide who is right it decides who is left!!!
Roy
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