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Belgrano crew 'trigger happy'

This article is more than 20 years old
Argentine commander casts new light on Falklands war controversy

It was one of the most bitter controversies of the Falklands war: the sinking of the ageing Argentine cruiser the General Belgrano, with the loss of 323 lives by a British submarine as it steamed out of the British maritime exclusion zone. It was regarded by some as a war crime.

Now, in comments that appear to exonerate the actions of the British commander of the Falklands Task Force, Admiral Sandy Woodward, and Margaret Thatcher, Prime Minister at the time, the commander of the Belgrano has broken a 21-year silence. He admits he had not only been commanded to attack the British fleet wherever he encountered it but was also 'anxious to pull the trigger'.

Captain Héctor Bonzo also admits that, far from retreating from the British Task Force as he sailed west with two accompanying destroyers, his change of direction was a temporary manoeuvre.

The revelations come in a documentary to be broadcast tonight on the National Geographic Channel, in which Bonzo, commander of the General Belgrano, reveals the fact that by the end of April 1982, one month into the war, the Argentine navy had changed its rules of engagement, and he was under orders to fire on any British warships that came within range of his guns.

Sunk by a British submarine on 2 May 1982, the demise of the Argentine battleship remains controversial to this day, not least for the trial and subsequent acquittal of Ministry of Defence civil servant Clive Ponting, who leaked details of attempts to mislead a Select Committee examing the sinking to Labour MP Tam Dalyell.

Critics of the action ask why Thatcher condemned to death 323 sailors by ordering the sinking of a vessel outside the exclusion zone and sailing away from the Falklands. They also ask why the ship was sunk at all when the British Government had been made aware of Peruvian efforts to find a peaceful solution to the crisis caused by the Argentine invasion of the Falklands.

'Our mission in the south wasn't just to cruise around on patrol but to attack,' says Bonzo in a previously unseen interview. 'When they gave us the authorisation to use our weapons, if necessary, we knew we had to be prepared to attack, as well as be attacked. Our people were completely trained. I would even say we were anxious to pull the trigger.'

According to Bonzo, the Belgrano's move before dawn on 2 May was only a temporary manoeuvre. Woodward explains the potential impact of this manoeuvre: 'I think a lot of people outside didn't understand how important a threat Belgrano and her destroyers were.'

Bonzo's account is supported by naval historian Martin Middlebrook, also interviewed for the documentary. 'The surface attack group, the carrier group and the Belgrano group all turned westwards - not to the mainland, but to a holding point off the mainland ready to come in the next day if necessary,' he says.

'Nearly every Argentine ship was equipped with the seaborne version of the Exocet missile [the type of missile that would sink HMS Sheffield a few days after the Belgrano], so any of those getting within Exocet range of the Task Force - and the Belgrano had two escorts with Exocet missiles - meant we could have lost a carrier. It is now reckoned the loss of one carrier would have destroyed the British operation.'

The surviving crew scrambled into liferafts to endure ocean swells, gusting winds and frigid sea temperatures. Rescue ships saved more than 700 men in what has been described as one of the most difficult rescue operations in naval history. Despite the rescue effort, some men died of exposure or injuries, bringing the total loss of life to 323 out of the 1,093 on board.

The documentary, The Sinking of the Belgrano, also contains accounts of four sailors from the Belgrano and the British submarine Conqueror, who met for the first time to return to the scene of the attack together.

The two-hour documentary will be shown on the National Geographic Channel at 9pm tonight.

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