The Killing Tradition

With the Falklands War anniversary, thoughts go back to the Belgrano.

The fact that is nearly always missed is that it was the Navy who insisted that the ship must be sunk and permission was only given after a lengthy debate by the War Cabinet.

To understand this, you need to understand the Royal Navy. It is an organisation steeped in tradition. Court martials are stilled held in the Great Cabin of HMS Victory. It is an institution with a collective memory measured in hundreds of years.

In 1914, Admiral Troubridge was court martialed for failing to stop the fleeing Goeben. Though acquitted, he was completely shunned by the Navy for the rest of his life. He was given the most out of the way postings possible. Others officers would make excuses not to eat at the same table. What made this worse was that he bore the name and was a descendant of one of Nelson's "Band of Brothers".

Later that year, Admiral Cradock buried his medals in the garden of the Governor of the Falkland Islands. He sailed out to attack a superior German force - to nearly certain defeat. He stated that he was motivated, in part, by Troubridge's infamy. His aim was to try and slow down or cripple the Germans. He failed.

In December 1914 the RN got a measure of revenge at the Battle of the Falkland Isles. Admiral Graf Spee was attempting to capture the Falkland Islands - some speculate that the German plan was to turn them over to Argentina and lease them as a base.... As he bore down on Port Stanley harbour, the British fleet emerged. Two battlecruisers in the lead, they methodically chased his ships down and sank virtually all of them. None surrendered - though it was an utterly hopeless fight. One escaped - the Dresden. Wilhelm Canaris, then a Lieutenant, escaped with one of her flags....

In 1939 the pocket battleship Graf Spee (named after the ill fated German Admiral of the first war) was chased into Montevideo harbour by a force of British cruisers led by Henry Harwood. For this action, Admiral Cunningham personally congratulated him on wiping away the shame of the escape of the Goeben in 1914.

The Graf Spee was scuttled and her captain shot himself. Draped in his room was the flag from the Dresden - the last relic of Von Spee. He did so because British Intelligence had convinced him, via rumours that a British battlecruiser was waiting for him - his ship would suffer the fate of Von Spee's and his entire crew would die. He could not surrender and dishonour the greatest German naval hero....

So, in 1982... as a British Admiral, do you "forbear to chase .... being an enemy...." - the dread words of the Troubridge court martial. Do you remember Cradock in his tomb in the deeps? Do you remember Harwood ordering his ships, already badly damaged, to turn towards the Graf Spee? Do you remember the words of Cunningham - "It takes three years to build a ship; it takes three centuries to build a tradition"? What would Capt. Fegan have said?