Military Power

The sinking was very controversial at the time, the loss of so many sailors and the loss of a magnificent vessel. I have to agree with Rear Admiral Woodwards assessment that she was a threat to the British task force, as he said, “She had to go.”

Years later during a TV documentary on the sinking, a sailor who served on HMS Conqueror stated, “A certain Government Minister called me a murderer, he was the one who sent me there!”

In 1994, the Argentine Government agreed that it was “A legal act of war.”

However, there has been a lot of controversy around this, so, I thought it should be discussed. Hobilar, what do you think?

Firstly, let’s dispel the myth that the sinking of the Belgrano was politically motivated. Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher never said ‘Sink the Belgrano’. . It was more prosaic than that. She said ‘You have freedom of action to engage enemy warships in the following areas of the South Atlantic…’. The rules of engagement ware actually approved by Rear Admiral Anthony Whetstone, Deputy Chief of Naval Staff at the MoD, Whitehall, who passed them to Admiral Terry Lewin, Chief of Defence Staff for authority to issue.

When the ‘Freedom of Action’ signal was received and deciphered by the Captain of the Royal Navy submarine Conqueror, it so happened that the submarine had been tracking the Belgrano, which had been tracking all over the place, all day. As such she represented a very real and serious threat to the security of the Task Force. Having the Belgrano already in his sights the ‘Freedom of Action’ signal was interpreted as a clear order to launch an attack against Belgrano (which, according to an Officer aboard her, had only short range Sonar and was therefore unable to detect the Conqueror).

The Press in the UK knew of the sinking even before those in the Task Force. Controversy broke out almost immediately, fuelled by the (rather distasteful) ‘GOTCHA’ headline to the report of the action which appeared in ‘The Sun’ (a pro-Tory newspaper). Whilst this headline may have met the mood of the general public it was seized upon by a Member of the Opposition Labour party, Tam Dalyell MP, as an excuse to hound the Prime Minister at Question Time with accusations that the Belgrano had been sunk in order to keep the war going, not through military necessity, but purely for political aggrandisement. He was not alone. Other members of the Labour leadership joined in the attack on the Government. Dennis Healey even going as far as to accuse the PM of glorifying in the slaughter. Even Neil Kinnock, the Leader of the Opposition, would land himself in trouble by responding to a heckler who called out that Margaret Thatcher had Guts with the reply that ‘it was a pity that other people had had to leave theirs at Goose Green to prove it’. Such backstabbing within Parliament was sure to be seized upon abroad by those willing to attack British Foreign Policy.

The sinking of the Belgrano in fact had several consequences. Firstly, it indicated that this dispute was really going to develop into a shooting war in which only military action could bring about a conclusion (President Reagan had already decided that Secretary of State Alexander Haig’s further appeasement of Argentina’s General Leopoldo Galtieri’s military Junta in Argentina was futile and had therefore opted to support the British with Intelligence and Sidewinder missiles-But held back from committing the US Armed Forces which may have jeopardised US interests in Latin America). Secondly the loss of the Belgrano forced the Argentinean Navy (whose Senior Officers were the biggest of Galtieri’s supporters within the Junta).to never again risk their vessels by leaving the safety of their coastal waters for the remainder of the war.

Whilst the ‘GOTCHA’ headline was causing political turmoil back home feelings were not quite the same with the Task Force. Michael Nicholson the ITN correspondent with the Task Force would write later:

“The British public knew all the facts about Belgrano before we did….No sailor aboard our ship is celebrating. ‘Sailors do not rejoice in the deaths of other seamen no matter who they are’. It was true the ship was silent. There was no cheering aboard Hermes, and I can’t believe they are cheering on Invincible’ I’m sure that story was invented by The Sun”.

Bibliography
Andrew Marr, A History of Modern Britain
Hugh McManners, Forgotten Voices of the Falklands.

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