Phoenix & Belgrano - The Life & Death of a Warship Paperback – November 3, 2023

The General Belgrano.A war machine from another time: a war of big guns, thick, steel plated armour and thunderous, pulverising, multi-barrelled firepower. Yet like the ill-fated Titanic, she is a ship famous, seemingly, only for sinking.It is too often forgotten that she had another life, as the Brooklyn Class Cruiser USS Phoenix - a purpose-built fire platform, designed to batter an enemy warship or land-based fortress into atoms - a role which she excelled at above all.For the first time, Military Historian Ricky D Phillips takes us on a journey to discover both the life and death of this incredible warship, from the destruction of Pearl Harbor, through the terror of the War in the Pacific and finally into the Argentine Navy alongside one of her sister ships, where she would finally meet her end at the hands of the British Nuclear Submarine HMS Conqueror in the 1982 Falklands War.This is a book which covers two wars, both worlds apart in every sense, in depth and told by the men who served on the mighty ship themselves. It is a tale of men at war, of hunters and hunted, of fire and steel, and of the most famous incident of the Falklands War, lifting the veil on over forty years of controversy.Working from personal testimony and accounts, official documents and reports, newly declassified material and photographic evidence, Ricky D Phillips explores the story of this outstanding warship for the first time, from the drawing board all the way through to her contentious sinking and the aftermath of the event which has raged for over four decades.This is not just the story of the sinking of the Belgrano, but of the life - and death - of a warship. Read more