Book description
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.
Mike Rossiter is an independent documentary film-maker, whose work
has been nominated for BAFTA and Emmy awards. In 2001 he filmed the
search for and recovery of the body of Donald Campbell and his
record-breaking jet boat,
Bluebird
, from Coniston Water. He produced the series War at Sea for the BBC and
discovered and filmed the wreck of the aircraft carrier
Ark Royal
. He is also the author of
Ark Royal
. He lives in North London.
