Quote:
First RN ship sunk in 37 years. First of four to be sunk in the War.
A related fact. The Argentine cruiser
General Belgrano which the British sub
Conqueror torpedoed and sank was the largest line warship sunk since WW II.
Belgrano was the ex-USS
Phoenix, which had survived Pearl Harbor, and had a close call in the Java Sea operations that destroyed the US Asiatic Fleet. She was a sister-ship of the more famous
Helena.
They don't get much bigger than a cruiser after that war, though if you count accidental sinkings the Soviet battleship
Novorrossisk sinking in the Black Sea in 1955 tops it.Rather overlooked disaster at sea. (It was the former
Cai Duilio)