Hi Banjomad, you ask:

"..why did all the British government papers relating to the General Belgrano mysteriously disappear ?"

Did they mysteriously disappear??

Or did they just disappear??

Or were they merely misplaced??

Or did they ever really exist??

I do know the guy who sank the Belgrano, maybe he can shed some light on the papers you refer to?

Claymore's appreciation of the situation wrt the Belgrano and the potential threat posed is spot on - that was why she was sunk - the Belgrano's anti-submarine escorts ran for cover, Conqueror could have sunk them and the vessels that returned to pick up the Belgrano's survivors, they were left alone because they did not constitute anything like the threat posed by the Belgrano. And before anyone mentions how old and obsolete she was, consider the following. In the Pool of London visitors can look round a Second World War 6" gun Cruiser, HMS Belfast. In the late 1960's she was HMS Bellerophon, Flagship for the Royal Naval Reserve Fleet. She was initially saved from the scrappers yard by an arguement being put to the Ministry of Defence to retain her purely for Naval Gunfire Support. In terms of armament she was comparable to the Belgrano. As a Forward Observer you direct gunfire from ships offshore to specific land targets, while ranging in you correct the fire from one gun until it drops on the target, you then give the order to fire for effect and all the guns on the ship open fire on the selected target. Albeit Second World War hardware from the time the Forward Observer calls for fire for effect until the first 6" shell lands there are 120, 6" shells on their way that cannot be called back - extremely crude but very effective. The lunatic fringe (Tony Benn and Tam D) can argue semantics and niceties wrt the declared exclusion zone around the Falklands in 1982 till the cows come home, the stark reality was an undeniable need to remove the remotest possibilty of allowing that sort of fire-power to be directed against our troops and fleet. There was no politics in the decision to sink the Belgrano at all.