The Last Torpedo: WWII vs. 1982 vs. 2026
The Last Torpedo: WWII vs. 1982 vs. 2026
On 2 May 1982, during the Falklands War, a quiet drama unfolded beneath the cold waters of the South Atlantic that would become one of the defining naval moments of the late twentieth century. A British submarine, the nuclear-powered HMS Conqueror (S48), fired torpedoes at the Argentine cruiser ARA General Belgrano. Within hours the ship was sinking, and the event would become the last confirmed time a submarine destroyed a ship with torpedoes in wartime — until today. This morning, a nuclear powered sub of the US Navy sank the Iranian destroyer Iris Dena with the loss of at least 87 sailors. Sri Lankan ships picked up 32 survivors. Around 100 are still missing. The US Department of Defense released stunning video of the moment ship was hit (link below).
The attack was notable for several reasons. First, HMS Conqueror was a nuclear-powered submarine, making this the first time a nuclear submarine sank a ship in combat. Although nuclear propulsion had revolutionized submarine operations since the Cold War, no such submarine had previously fired the decisive shot that sent an enemy ship to the bottom.
Yet the story of the ship that was sunk adds an extraordinary historical echo.
Before becoming General Belgrano, the cruiser had sailed under a different name and flag. She had originally been the USS Phoenix, a Brooklyn-class light cruiser of the United States Navy. On December 7, 1941, when the Japanese launched the attack on Pearl Harbor, the Phoenix was present there. Remarkably, she survived the attack completely unscathed, one of the few major ships to emerge intact from that catastrophic morning.
After the Second World War, the United States sold the cruiser to Argentina, where she was renamed ARA General Belgrano in honor of Argentine independence hero Manuel Belgrano.
Four decades after surviving Pearl Harbor, fate caught up with the old cruiser in the South Atlantic.
On that May afternoon in 1982, Conqueror fired three British Mark 8 torpedoes, a design whose lineage dated back to the Second World War. Two struck home. One tore away the cruiser’s bow; another devastated her engineering spaces. Within about twenty minutes the ship lost power and began to list heavily.
The order to abandon ship was given. In the frigid seas of the South Atlantic, hundreds of sailors struggled into lifeboats and rafts while the cruiser slowly slipped beneath the waves. Three hundred twenty-three Argentine sailors were lost, making it the deadliest single incident of the Falklands War.
Strategically, the sinking had an immediate effect. After the loss of Belgrano, the Argentine Navy withdrew its major surface ships to port for the remainder of the conflict, effectively ceding control of the surrounding seas to the British fleet.
From a historical perspective, the moment stands at a fascinating intersection of eras. A World War II cruiser that had survived Pearl Harbor was ultimately destroyed by a Cold War nuclear submarine, using torpedoes of a design rooted in the 1940s.
And since that day in 1982 — until today, 4 March 2026 — despite numerous conflicts around the world, no submarine has again sunk a ship with torpedoes in wartime. The sinking of the Iris Dena wasn’t the first torpedo sinking since WWII, but it was the first by a US vessel.