Word: belgrano
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...wire-guided torpedoes of the Tigerfish type, one of the many exotic modern weapons that have come into play in the Falklands dispute (see box), flashed toward the Belgrano. Both hit their target. About 40 minutes later the stricken Belgrano disappeared from British and Argentine radar screens, the biggest casualty of the war. Indeed, it was the largest warship sunk in a naval engagement since Admiral William Halsey's attacks on the Japanese Inland...
...first report, only about 125 members of the Belgrano's crew were said to have survived. Later, as Argentine rescue boats combed the waters of the area, the number of known survivors rose to about 800. But the strike against the cruiser was as much a psychological shock as a military one. The Belgrano was the second largest ship in the Argentine navy, behind the 39-year-old aircraft carrier Veinticinco de Mayo. Loss of the vessel was a substantive blow to Argentine prestige. Moreover, the decision to sink the Belgrano outside the 200-mile blockade constituted a sharp...
...government's explanation was that on April 23 it had warned that any Argentine ship or plane representing a clear threat to the fleet would risk an "appropriate response." The dangers of broadening the war, British officials asserted, had to be measured against the risk of allowing the Belgrano to train its impressive firepower on the British task force. As Prime Minister Thatcher told the House of Commons, "The worry that I live with hourly is that Argentine forces, in attacks both naval and air, will get through to our forces...
...Argentine reaction to the Belgrano's sinking was heated. At first, Buenos Aires said that Britain's announcement was "a lie" and part of a campaign of "psychological warfare." The next day, however, Argentina conceded the ship's loss and denounced the attack as a "treacherous act of armed aggression...
...well as the Belgrano, the Argentines announced-mistakenly it turned out-that yet another navy vessel had been lost. According to Buenos Aires, a dispatch ship, the Sobral, had been fired on by British missile-carrying Lynx helicopters as it searched for a downed Canberra bomber crew within the 200-mile zone. The British said that the Sobral and another Argentine boat had been hit and at least one sunk. A day later, the Sobral limped back into the Argentine port of Deseado with eight dead crewmen...