El 'Olvidado' Submarino Nuclear Que Hundió Un Buque de Guerra—Y Sigue Siendo el Único en la Historia

April 3, 1982. Faslane, Scotland. HMS Conqueror set sail the day after the Argentine invasion. Without fanfare. Without headlines. Twenty-one days later, it reached the waters south of the Falklands. It detected the ARA General Belgrano one hundred nautical miles away. It tracked it for twenty-four hours without being detected. The Argentine cruiser's sonar was not operational. On May 2, 1982, at 2:57 p.m., Wreford-Brown chose World War II torpedoes over modern ones. The modern ones were not reliable enough. Three Mark 8s. Two hits. One cruiser sunk. 323 dead. The entire Argentine Navy returned to port and never sailed again. The ARA General Belgrano had its own extraordinary history: built in 1938 as the USS Phoenix, it had survived the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. Four years in the Pacific. Nine Battle Stars. Transferred to Argentina in 1951. Renamed in 1956. Forty-four years of naval history. Sunk in twenty minutes. Wreford-Brown returned to Faslane flying the Jolly Roger. He was asked about the attack. He replied: "The Royal Navy spent thirteen years preparing me for such an occasion. It would have been considered extraordinarily tedious to have failed." This is the story of the only nuclear submarine to have sunk an enemy warship in combat in the entire history of navigation. ⏱️ TABLE OF CONTENTS 00:00 — April 3. Faslane. The Silent Departure. 2:30 AM — Why Nuclear Submarines Changed Naval Warfare 5:00 AM — The USS Phoenix: From Pearl Harbor to the ARA General Belgrano 7:30 AM — The Conqueror at 100 Miles: Invisible Detection 10:00 AM — The Aircraft Carrier Veinticinco de Mayo and the Pincer Movement Threat 12:30 PM — Thatcher and the War Cabinet: The Authorization That Changed the War 3:00 PM — Why Wreford-Brown Chose World War II Torpedoes 5:30 PM — 2:57 PM. Three Mark 8s. Two Hits. Twenty Minutes. 8:00 PM — 323 Dead. The Entire Argentine Navy Returns to Port. 10:30 PM — The Jolly Roger and the War's Most Famous Phrase 11:00 AM — The Political Controversy: Was the Belgrano Fleeing? 27:30 — 1994: Argentina recognizes the attack as legitimate 29:00 — The only record of its kind in all of naval history 📌 SOURCES AND REFERENCES — HMS Conqueror (S48) — Wikipedia and Grokipedia, full records. — Sinking of ARA General Belgrano — Wikipedia, operational records. — ARA General Belgrano — Wikipedia, complete history of the ship. — Covert Shores — Belgrano 1982, technical analysis of the attack. — War History Online — HMS Conqueror's Surprise Strike on the Belgrano. — 19FortyFive — Death by Nuclear Submarine: How HMS Conqueror Sank the General Belgrano. — National Interest — Sink the Belgrano: How a Nuclear Submarine Helped Win the Falklands War. 🔔 If you found this story as extraordinary as we did, like and subscribe. Your support helps us more than you can imagine to continue producing this type of content. And if there's a battle, operation, or war story you'd like us to analyze in the next video, let us know in the comments. See you in the next video.