HMS Conqueror was a British Churchill-class nuclear-powered fleet submarine which served in the Royal Navy from 1971 to 1990. She was the third submarine of her class, following the earlier Churchill and Courageous, all designed to face the Soviet threat at sea. She was built by Cammell Laird at Birkenhead.
Conqueror is the only nuclear-powered submarine to have engaged an enemy ship with torpedoes, sinking the cruiser General Belgrano during the 1982 Falklands War.[note 1]ARA General Belgrano was an Argentine Navy light cruiser in service from 1951 until 1982. Originally commissioned by the U.S. Navy as USS Phoenix, she saw action in the Pacific theatre of World War II before being sold to Argentina.
Operational history
Falklands War
Conqueror, commanded by Commander Chris Wreford-Brown, was deployed during the Falklands War, setting sail from Faslane Naval Base on the Gareloch in Scotland on 3 April 1982, one day after the Argentine invasion. Conqueror arrived in the exclusion zone around the Falkland Islands 21 days later and was ordered to scan the area for Argentine shipping, particularly the aircraft carrier Veinticinco de Mayo ("25th of May").
On 30 April she detected, at a range of 100 nautical miles (nm) on long range sonar, a task force of the Armada de la República Argentina (ARA-Argentine Navy). The taskforce was composed of the WWII era ex-USN light cruiser General Belgrano, and two destroyers, ARA Piedra Buena and ARA Bouchard (both also ex-United States Navy vessels). General Belgrano was originally commissioned in 1944 but significantly modernised in 1960-62 with SPS 40 LRAW radar and SQS29 sonar. By the early 1980s the ARA were no longer receiving parts from the USA to maintain these systems, but the destroyers had recently been re-armed with French Exocet anti-ship missiles. The missiles were a real threat, unlike the 6-inch (150mm) guns on General Belgrano which only had a range of 13 miles (21 km). The task force was sailing southwest of the Falklands, just outside the exclusion zone imposed by the British on all shipping. With Veinticinco de Mayo approaching the islands from the north, the commander of the British carrier battle group in the South Atlantic, Rear Admiral "Sandy" Woodward, feared a pincer attack, with General Belgrano attacking from the south and Veinticinco de Mayo from the north. Woodward requested permission from his superiors to sink General Belgrano.
After some debate, permission to engage General Belgrano was sent to the submarine from the Commander-in-Chief Fleet and Task Force commander, Admiral Sir John Fieldhouse, at the Royal Navy's command centre in Northwood in the United Kingdom. In the intervening period, General Belgrano had retired from its attack position and turned west, since Veinticinco de Mayo was not yet ready to engage the British fleet. This would cause some controversy, although General Belgrano's captain and the Argentine government acknowledged that the attack was a legitimate act of war.
Operation Barmaid
Later in 1982, Conqueror completed a raid to acquire a Soviet passive towed sonar array from its Polish-flagged towing vessel. The operation, a joint mission between British and American forces, was conducted on the boundary of Soviet territorial waters. Conqueror used cutters affixed to her bow to shear through the 3 in (76 mm) thick wire before silently returning to her base on the Clyde.
Collision
On 2 July 1988 Conqueror was involved in a collision with the Army Sail Training Association yacht Dalriada south of the Mull of Kintyre. The yacht sank and four crew members were rescued.
Decommissioning
HMS Warspite (left) and HMS Conqueror (centre) with HMS Valiant (at rear) at HMNB Devonport Navy Days, 26 August 2006.
Conqueror was decommissioned in 1990 and the periscopes, captain's cabin and main control panel from the submarine's control room are on display in the Royal Navy Submarine Museum in Gosport. As of 2019, Conqueror is one of 20 nuclear submarines still held in storage by the Ministry of Defence, awaiting final disposal.
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29 июн 2024
