Author:Mike Rossiter
On the evening of 30 March, 1982, Commander David Hall, chief engineer of the British nuclear submarine HMS Conqueror received a telephone call giving him the order to 'store for war'. At first he didn't believe it. In the early hours of 2 April, Argentine forces invaded the Falkland Isles.
The sinking of the Belgrano was one of the most dramatic moments of the Falklands conflict. For many it signalled Britain's entry into the war and it has been seen as a politically motivated decision deliberately designed to take the country irrevocably into the fight. Now Mike Rossiter - with unprecedented access to sailors from the Belgrano and HMS Conqueror - gives us a dramatic and definitive retelling of the events that led up to the sinking.
With all the pace and tension of a thriller, Sink the Belgrano takes us inside the battle for the South Atlantic and shows us the human drama behind the famous, and controversial, Sun headline 'Gotcha!' We track the collision course between the British submarine Conqueror and the Argentine warship - as the two sides and everyone aboard head towards the climactic moment just outside the exclusion zone set up by the British around the Falkland Isles. We witness the behind-the-scenes arguments , discussions and powerbroking that led to the decision to fire the three torpedoes. And, for the first time, we hear from the sailors on both sides - the personal testimony of the hunt for and attack on the Belgrano, and from the Argentine side the experience of being under attack and the sinking that left 340 members of her crew dead.
These diaries...convey a fresh and vivid sense of the tensions and strains of this period
—— Literary ReviewDonoughue's diaries of his time as political advisor to Jim Callaghan are proving gripping reading
—— The TimesSuperb book... historians will plunder the Donughue diaries to gain an understanding of one of the great turning points in modern British history. But this book also has a huge contemporary resonance. It is very accessible to the general reader an I cannot recommend it highly enough
—— Daily MailAn admirable and important contribution to British history ... A copy of Donoughue's fascinating book should be sent to every minister in office
—— Roy Hattersley , ObserverAs an inside account of the collective political nervous breakdown suffered by the Labour movement in the late Seventies, these diaries have no equal
—— Daily TelegraphBernard Donoughue's superb Downing Street diaries
—— Matthew D'Ancona , Sunday TelegraphAn absorbing political thriller written by someone on the inside track
—— Brian MacArthur , Daily TelegraphDonoughue's diaries of the death rattles of Labour's last administration should be essential reading at No. 10. Books such as this rise far above mere political gossip: they are essential reading for any member of British government
—— Dominic Lawson , Sunday TimesHistorical biography's newest star
—— BooksellerHis conclusions neatly balance the equally pertinent questions of why Communist systems collapse, and why they lasted so long
—— Stephen Howe , IndependentOne of Britain's leading experts on communism provides a grimly humorous and richly anecdotal study
—— George Pendles , Financial Times, History books of the yearScholarly, well-paced and critical...few can match him for insider knowledge
—— Tristram Hunt , Sunday TimesBalanced, insightful, illuminated by intriguing detail and flashes of humour, this worldwide panorama is a miracle of compression
—— Christopher Hirst , IndependentThis superb book gives the history of the ideology and the reasons for its decline
—— Simon Heffer , TelegraphIt reads like Sovietology rendered by John le Carré
—— Timothy SnyderThe book is well written with flashes of mordant humour and sufficient records of personal foibles and institutional stupidity to keep the reader going through some dreadful moments of human history
—— Political Studies Review
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