ARA General Belgrano

ARA General Belgrano
ARA General Belgrano underway, c. 1968
History
United States
NameUSS Phoenix
Acquired3 October 1938
IdentificationHull number: CL-46
FateDecommissioned 3 July 1946; Stricken 27 January 1951
History
Argentina
Name17 de Octubre
Namesake17 October 1945, the day popular demonstrations forced the release of Juan Perón
Acquired9 April 1951
RenamedARA General Belgrano
NamesakeManuel Belgrano
IdentificationPennant number: C-4
FateTorpedoed and sunk on 2 May 1982
Badge
General characteristics
Class and typeBrooklyn-class light cruiser
Displacement9,575 tons (empty) 12,242 (full load)
Length608.3 ft (185.4 m)
Beam61.8 ft (18.8 m)
Draft19.5 ft (5.9 m)
Speed32.5 knots (60.2 km/h; 37.4 mph)
Complement1,138 officers and men
Armament
Armor
Aircraft carried2 helicopters (One Aérospatiale Alouette III was on board when sunk)

ARA General Belgrano (C-4) was an Argentine Navy light cruiser in service from 1951 until 1982. Originally commissioned by the U.S. Navy as USS Phoenix, she saw action in the Pacific theatre of World War II before being sold to Argentina. The vessel was the second to have been named after the Argentine founding father Manuel Belgrano (1770–1820). The first vessel was a 7,069-ton armoured cruiser completed in 1896.

She was sunk on 2 May 1982 during the Falklands War by the Royal Navy submarine Conqueror with the loss of 323 lives. Losses from General Belgrano totalled just under half of Argentine military deaths in the war.

She is the only ship to have been sunk during military operations by a nuclear-powered submarine[1] and the second sunk in action by any type of submarine since World War II (the first being the Indian frigate INS Khukri, which was sunk by the Pakistani submarine PNS Hangor during the 1971 Indo-Pakistani War).

  1. ^ Kemp (1999), p. 68.