Sink the Belgrano

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HMS Conqueror fired three torpedoes at ARA General Belgrano on the evening of May 2. HMS Conqueror had used World War II-era MK8 torpedoes as opposed to the more modern Mark 24 Tigerfish homing torpedoes as the submariners decided that the MK8 was more reliable—ironically, WWII-era torpedoes for WWII-era targets. Two of the torpedoes hit ARA General Belgrano and the third allegedly hit an escorting destroyer but did not explode. The torpedoes tore two holes in the ARA General Belgrano, sinking it in just a few minutes and killing more than 300 Argentine sailors out of slightly more than 1,000 total onboard. Shortly after his resignation, The Observer began to serialise Ponting's book The Right to Know: The Inside Story of the Belgrano Affair. The Conservative government reacted by amending the secrets legislation and by introducing the Official Secrets Act 1989. Before the trial, a jury could take the view that if an action could be seen to be in the public interest, the right of the individual to take that action might be justified. As a result of the 1989 modification, that defence was removed. After the enactment, it was taken that "'public interest' is what the government of the day says it is". His historical works have attracted attention from other academics, with scholar Paul Addison writing that "Ponting writes well and the clarity with which he summarises the issues calls to mind a model civil servant briefing his minister. He swoops like a hawk on the damning quotation or the telling statistic." [16] [17] [18] C. J. Coventry reviewed Ponting's biography of Churchill, writing that "Ponting shattered the Churchill illusion for his readers leaving them little to piece together, just marble shards on the floor of his looted temple". [19] Personal life [ edit ] Video interview with Steven Berkoff about the original production of Sink the Belgrano! at the Half Moon Theatre

Ponting was married four times. In 1969 he married Katherine Hannan. After their divorce in 1973 he married Sally Fletcher, who also worked in the Ministry of Defence. Laura, a teacher, was his third wife. His fourth wife, Diane Johnson, died before him in 2020. [4] Retirement [ edit ] Hannan, Martin (14 November 2018). "Clive Ponting warns of Brexit threat to Scottish Parliament". The National. Elton, Rodney (20 March 1985). "Official Secrets Legislation". Parliamentary Debates (Hansard). HL Deb vol 461 c613 . Retrieved 1 December 2017. the highly classified chronology prepared by Mr. Ponting now known as 'the crown jewels' According to the British Council, Sink the Belgrano is among Berkoff's "lesser-known works". [2] Characters [ edit ]The events of Ponting's charge and trial were dramatized by Richard Monks on BBC Radio Four in May 2022. [14] Academic career [ edit ] a b Rosenbaun, Martin (18 March 2011). "Clive Ponting case: Where is the investigators' report?". BBC News. However, ministers demanded his prosecution. It came in the wake the MoD’s embarrassment over the case of Sarah Tisdall, a junior civil servant jailed the year before for sending photocopies of documents concerning the deployment of US cruise missiles in Britain to The Guardian. On August 17, 1985 – 35 years ago next week – Ponting was charged under Section 2 of the 1911 Official Secrets Act.

Coventry, Cameron (2019). "CJ Coventry, Clive Ponting's Churchill, Before/Now, 1(1) (2019)". Before/Now. 1 (1): 78–79. doi: 10.17613/4dj5-f938. The papers were soon traced to Ponting, who was interviewed by two MoD police officers, who told him they were not sure an offence had been committed. They suggested he quietly resign. Dalyell had resigned from the shadow Cabinet over the reconquest of the Falklands and was as voluble opponent of Thatcher’s. He had spoken in Parliament against the action and was therefore an obvious destination for the “jewels”. Dalyell realised they were political dynamite. When he was asked later about the sinking of the Belgrano, the Conqueror’s captain, Chris Wreford-Brown, responded wryly: “The Royal Navy spent 13 years preparing me for such an occasion. It would have been regarded as extremely dreary if I had fouled it up.” Gott, Richard (9 November 2008). "Review: Three books about Churchill". The Observer– via www.theguardian.com.

The controversy over the sinking did not end with the war (although officially it wasn’t one, as there had been no declaration of it). Brown, Cynthia Stokes (2012). Big History: From the Big Bang to the Present. The New Press. p.xiii. ISBN 978-1595588456. While other warships circled each other off the Falkland Islands, a British submarine stalked the Argentine light cruiser In 1985 Ponting came across the one file about Operation Cauldron—1952 secret biological warfare trials that had led to a trawler being accidentally doused with plague bacteria off the Hebrides—that had not been destroyed, and confidentially told The Observer newspaper about it, [4] leading to a story that July headlined "British germ bomb sprayed trawler". [13] Dalyell, Tam (13 June 1985). "Defence Estimates 1985". Parliamentary Debates (Hansard). HC Deb vol 80 c1057 . Retrieved 1 December 2017. Ponting... compiled the 'crown jewels'