Quote:
Originally Posted by Chris
Santa Fe was forced to the surface by naval aviation, then strafed, then finally had a missile through its hull that went in one side and out the other, forcing the crew to make for land and abandon ship. It absolutely was destroyed by the RN, even though it didn’t sink immediately. It would be churlish to deny the RN a kill in those circumstances - though I did say ‘destroyed’, not ‘sunk’. Rostov-on-Don was likewise destroyed, but not sunk, being in dry dock at the time.
After surrendering to British forces a skeleton crew, under guard, was ordered to move Santa Fe to a different pier. It sank during that manoeuvre, though nobody drowned (one Argentine sailor was mistakenly shot and killed because his captor believed he might be trying to scuttle it). The Argentines never claimed to have scuttled the boat - they said a hatch had been left open in the confusion leading it to take on water and sink. The harbour was shallow enough that the conning tower remained above the surface.
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Apologies Chris, just noticed the nuance in "both destroyed by
British" missiles. Don't know how I missed that.
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