There are two stories I noticed over the weekend that I think are worth mentioning this afternoon. The first one is a first-hand account of the tracking and sinking of the Argentine flagship Belgrano during the Falklands War. Here’s a sample:

McIntosh told Scotland on Sunday: “I’ll always remember the countdown to impact, the captain saying: “Up periscope, hit right of stern, hit centre,” and then feeling the explosion.

“It was like a thud and a hollow clap, and a weird tinkling, which was the metal of the ship breaking up. There was also the smell of cordite, the explosive substance coming back up the torpedo tubes.”
…
After the sinking “the elation was phenomenal”, he said. “We had done what we were trained to do. Everything was textbook, even the evasive action we took afterwards was perfect.

“It was only afterwards that we realised that the Belgrano’s escort, that was supposed to pick up survivors, had done a runner. You could tell from the captain’s face when he looked through the periscope… He was thinking that shouldn’t have happened.”

The second concerns secret submarine resupply missions in support of the Philippino resistance prior to MacArthur’s return to the PI. The missions were classified until 1992.

Unknown to many Filipinos, the United States Navy in 1944 deployed top-secret submarine missions to the Philippines to deliver arms, ammunitions, medicines and radio gear to Filipino guerrillas.

These missions were conceived, organized and directed by Commodore Chick Parsons from Australia, on orders of MacArthur, the commander of the US forces in the Pacific who had retreated to Australia after the fall of Corregidor and Bataan.

One of the last major secret submarine landings was on Aug. 27, 1944 by the USS Stingray at Caunayan Bay, Pagudpud, Ilocos Norte, just six weeks before the Leyte Landing which brought back to the Philippines the US forces under MacArthur to begin the liberation of the country.

The USS Stingray off-loaded more than six tons of armaments and supplies for the Filipino guerrillas, including 15 Filipino-American commandos led by Capt. Joe Valera.

Both stories are worth reading in their entirety.

Trackposted to Outside the Beltway, Perri Nelson’s Website, Blog @ MoreWhat.com, Mark My Words, The Random Yak, DragonLady’s World, Shadowscope, Leaning Straight Up, The Amboy Times, Conservative Cat, Conservative Thoughts, Allie Is Wired, Faultline USA, third world county, stikNstein… has no mercy, The World According to Carl, Blue Star Chronicles, Pirate’s Cove, The Pink Flamingo, Wake Up America, Dumb Ox Daily News, and High Desert Wanderer, thanks to Linkfest Haven Deluxe. Also at Argghhh!

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