Trivia: What US-built warship was attacked by the Japanese but ultimately sunk by the British?

[Cooley Hurd]

Answer: The USS Phoenix/ARA General Belgrano. Today is the 30th anniversary of its sinking.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ARA_General_Belgrano

The ARA General Belgrano was an Argentine Navy light cruiser in service from 1951 until 1982. Formerly the USS Phoenix (CL-46), she saw action in the Pacific theater of World War II before being sold to Argentina. After almost 31 years of service, she was sunk during the Falklands War (Spanish: Guerra de las Malvinas) by the Royal Navy submarine HMS Conqueror with the loss of 323 lives. Losses from the Belgrano totalled just over half of Argentine deaths in the Falklands War.

She is the only ship ever to have been sunk in anger by a nuclear-powered submarine and the second sunk in action by any type of submarine since World War II, the first being the Indian frigate INS Khukri by the Pakistani Hangor during the 1971 Indo-Pakistani War.
</snip>


USS Phoenix passing the burning hulks of Battleship Row at Pearl Harbor during the attack on 12/7/1941


ARA General Belgrano (ex-USS Phoenix) sinking after being torpedoed by HMS Conquerer during the Falklands Islands conflict on May 2, 1982.

[malthaussen]

1. I felt sad when the old girl went down

And in stupid war over the Falkland Islands? There's no justice.

-- Mal

[Cooley Hurd]

7. Me too - I remember being a bit dumbstruck that a ship that survived PH...

...was still in service in 1982!

[taterguy]

2. The USS Phoenix / ARA General Belgrano

Not much of a quiz if you include the answer in the OP

[Cooley Hurd]

6. Should've put spoiler in the subject line?

[taterguy]

10. No

[independentpiney]

3. My uncle was on the Phoenix at Pearl and through the duration of WWII

Besides their combat activities, they were also used to secretly transport Cordell Hull to one of the big conferences, Yalta I think. She was a lucky ship, only one US sailor was killed by enemy action on her, by Kamikaze at Luzon. Took him till he was in hi 80's to open up much about the Pearl attack..

[Cooley Hurd]

8. I knew a gentleman that was on the USS Helena sitting at 1010 dock...

She took a torpedo but stayed afloat. The ship moored outbound of the Helena, the USS Oglala, wasn't so lucky. Even though the torpedo passed underneath her and hit the Helena, the concussive force of the explosion split the Oglala's seams and she rolled over. She was ultimately salvaged and put back into service. In fact, only 3 of the ships that were sunk at Pearl were written off - the rest were salvaged.

[independentpiney]

11. Amazing that all but 3 of the ships were salvaged.

That I never knew. The Japanese so underestimated us. In my uncles reminisces he'd said that the Phoenix along with a few other ships started out to leave the harbor to look for the Japanese fleet. He was a gunners mate first class, I wonder if he was one of sailors on deck there in the photo.

Thanks for posting this, I hadn't realized it was the anniversary of her sinking. It was a sad ending for a proud little ship.

[Scuba]

4. Interesting history lesson. Thanks.

[Rhiannon12866]

5. K&R. Thanks so much for sharing this...

Fascinating (if sad ) story and great pix!

[Cooley Hurd]

9. The anniversary of her sinking made me think of her and her history.

[malthaussen]

12. Most of the Brooklyn Class

... were sold off to South American countries after WWII. They're all gone, now, alas. Such beautiful warships.

-- Mal

[Rhiannon12866]

13. The photos are wonderful

Really bring history alive. It's a sad story, but this was such a beautiful ship. We need to save as many as we can before it's too late, and before people forget.