Sink the Belgrano - Softcover

On the evening of 30 March, 1982, Commander David Hall, chief engineer of the British nuclear submarine HMS Conqueror received a telephone call giving him the order to 'store for war'. At first he didn't believe it. In the early hours of 2 April, Argentine forces invaded the Falkland Isles.

The sinking of the Belgrano was one of the most dramatic moments of the Falklands conflict. For many it signalled Britain's entry into the war and it has been seen as a politically motivated decision deliberately designed to take the country irrevocably into the fight. Now Mike Rossiter - with unprecedented access to sailors from the Belgrano and HMS Conqueror - gives us a dramatic and definitive retelling of the events that led up to the sinking.

With all the pace and tension of a thriller, Sink the Belgrano takes us inside the battle for the South Atlantic and shows us the human drama behind the famous, and controversial, Sun headline 'Gotcha!' We track the collision course between the British submarine Conqueror and the Argentine warship - as the two sides and everyone aboard head towards the climactic moment just outside the exclusion zone set up by the British around the Falkland Isles. We witness the behind-the-scenes arguments , discussions and powerbroking that led to the decision to fire the three torpedoes. And, for the first time, we hear from the sailors on both sides - the personal testimony of the hunt for and attack on the Belgrano, and from the Argentine side the experience of being under attack and the sinking that left 340 members of her crew dead.

On the evening of 30 March 1982, Commander David Hall, chief engineer of the nuclear submarine HMS Conqueror, received a telephone call giving him the order to 'store for war'. At first he didn't believe it. In the early hours of 2 April, Argentine forces invaded the Falkland Islands.

On 4 April, HMS Conqueror sailed out of the Faslane naval base to begin her 8,000 mile journey to the South Atlantic. She was sailing towards war and towards one of the most iconic battles of the Falklands conflict, an encounter that would result in the torpedoing of the first warship since the end of the Second World War.

When the order was given to sink the Belgrano, the British nuclear submarine began a cat and mouse game with the Argentine warship. Conqueror stalked the Belgrano for two days, sometimes sailing as close as fifty yards to the warship's stern, before the torpedoes were fired.

For the first time, we hear from sailors on both vessels as they tell their own stories of the events of that day. We witness the behind-the-scenes arguments and power-broking that would culminate in the launch of three torpedoes from the Conqueror, and a vivid picture of the terror, confusion and courage that marked an attack that left 340 of the Belgrano's crew dead. Sink the Belgrano, written with all the pace and tension of a thriller, is the definitive retelling of those dramatic events.