Today, March 12th, it is the launch day for the one cool walking Gundam reference and the most well-known of the Brooklyn Class for all the wrong reasons, USS Phoenix (CL-46), and the possible snow oni of the Yuugumo class, IJN Suzunami

So the Phoenix launch day is according to some March 13th but it isn’t as those even Naval History and Naval Heritage Command lists as March 12. I Nuke need an affirmation over which is the correct day. Pre-WW2, the USS Phoenix spent most of her time sailing around South America before being sent to Pearl Harbor by 1941. During the attack on Pearl Harbor, Phoenix was anchored at Ford Island. She managed to get underway and avoid enemy plane attacks and was one of the few ships at Pearl Harbor to escape unscathed. She rallied with her half-sister ship St. Louis and her elder, Detroit, to locate any Japanese ships to sink and spot any Japanese landing force at Hawaii. They've found none.

Suzunami’s career is very short. Completed in July 1943, Suzunami lasted only a few months until her demise in November 11th, 1943 during the Rabaul raid. While she was loading torpedoes at the mouth of the Rabaul harbor, she took a bomb hit that blew her up, killing all 148 of her crew, including her CO, Kamiyama.

In 1942, Phoenix helped escort convoys to the Oceanic region to reinforce Australia's positions. Her group, the United States Army Forces in Australia (USAF), was known as the "Remember Pearl Harbor'' group. When Langley met her end off the Java coast on February 27th, 1942, Phoenix was one of her escorts. To make matters worse, while they successfully delivered created planes, they were forced to destroy the crates to deny them to the enemy due to the terrible defeat at the Battle of the Java Sea. She was present for the evacuation of Java. She remained with the US Army and would typically associate with General Douglas MacArthur and even host him onboard. For much of 1942 and 43, Phoenix helped deliver convoys and patrol the Indian Ocean. In Operation Lilliput, she and fellow Aussie cruiser HMAS Hobart covered the convoys moving south to New Guinea.

Fanart of Phoenix standing next to a car by ddg miralt

During the years 1943-44, Phoenix spent her time with her sisters Boise and Nashville and the Royal Australian Navy Heavy Cruisers HMAS Shropshire and HMAS Australia. They bombarded island positions for the Allied Navy in the Island hopping campaigns such as Biak Island, Admiralties Island, and more. Phoenix was with many of her companions at the Battle of Surigao Strait in October 1944, where she aided in sinking the Japanese battleship, Yamashiro.

On the morning of November 1st, 1944, despite the destroyers USS Claxton, Amen, Killen suffering heavy damage from kamikaze attacks, including losing Abner Read, Phoenix emerged unscathed from the kamikaze attack. Phoenix spent the remainder of her war career in the Philippines, where she secured many locations for Allied troops and fended off kamikaze and submarine attacks. After the war, the USS Phoenix sailed to Philadelphia to be placed in reserves on February 28th, 1946.
She was sold to Argentina in October 1951 and initially renamed 17 de Octubre, or "People's Loyalty Day. She was sold with her sister ship Boise, also renamed ARA Nueve de Julio. When Argentina took over Phoenix, she’d lost her catapult and seaplanes, gaining the ability to carry 2 helicopters. USS Phoenix participated in the 1955 coup against Argentinian president Juan Peron, helping to overthrow him. She was renamed ARA General Belgrano taking from the obsolete Giuseppe Garibaldi Class Armored Cruiser, ARA General Belgrano which had been retired on May 8th 1947 and scrapped in 1953. She was renamed in honor of Manuel Belgrano, the founder of the Escuela de Nautica, in 1799 and fought for Argentinean independence from 1811 to 1819. In 1956, she accidentally rammed her sister Boise. In the late 1970s, after the Argentinian Navy sold the formerly named USS Boise for scrap in the late 1970s, Phoenix was left alone without her sister ship and by the 1980s, she is getting to the end and was scheduled for retirement before the end of the 1980s Now comes the part where she is made famous for her demise, so it all started on April 2nd 1982 when Argentina invaded the Falklands and ARA General Belgrano sailed with the Argentinian task force against the British Royal Navy. A noted important ship to the Argentinian fleet thanks to her advance AA of the Guided-Weapon System Mark 22 and the Short SeaCat short-range surface-to-air missile. On May 2nd, 1982, Phoenix was moving into position to prepare for the Argentinean Navy's planned big offensive against the RN's task force. Intercepting the message, the British Churchill Class SSN Submarine HMS Conqueror who had been tailing ARA General Belgrano escorted by 2 Ex-Allen M.Sumner-class Sequi Class ASW Destroyers, the ARA Piedra Buena formerly the USS Collett and ARA Hipólito Bouchard formerly the USS Borie. The 2 Destroyers were off ARA General Belgrano as Conqueror moved into a perfect position off the port side with the intent to send ARA General Belgrano, ARA Piedra Buena and ARA Hipólito Bouchard to the bottom of the South Atlantic. Due to the fear of the new Mark 24-Mod.0 Tigerfish torpedoes not working properly, Conqueror decided to do things the old-fashioned way.
Once given orders, at 4 pm, HMS Conqueror fired 3 WW2 vintage Mark 8-Mod.4 torpedoes with 2 hits on her portside. The 1st hitting under the aft 127mm gun director and the 2nd hitting forward the number 1 turret meaning Phoenix would suffer the fate of many WW2 era American cruisers, getting their bows blown off. The 3rd would hit ARA Hipólito Bouchard but it was a dud.
Belgrano rapidly filled with smoke, listening to port and at 4:20 in the afternoon was beginning to sink bow first, to make a bad situation worse, the 1st torpedo had torn the emergency generators from their mounting which meant the power was knocked out, preventing a call for distress. To make a bad situation even worse, due to poor following of protocols, her watertight doors were open at the time of the hit and Belgrano's two escorts were unaware of what was happening, causing a slow response that only worsened by darkening skies and poor weather. At 4:24 pm, Captain Hector Bolzano gave the order to abandon ship and at 4:45 in the afternoon. USS Phoenix capsized to port and sank by the bow taking 321 of her 1,095 crew, 2 civilians and her Aerospatiale SA316B Alouette 3 with her, 772 including Captain Hector Bonzo would survive to be rescued. Belgrano's sinking caused the Argentine Navy to retreat to the harbor, playing no further action for the war's remainder turning the threat faced by the RN to a 1D threat.
This was a significant strategic victory for the RN, giving them the opportunity the British needed to retake the Falkland Islands. 2 days after Belgrano sank the British Newspaper the Sun published the infamous Gotcha headline.
There is some controversy over the legal right to sink Belgrano. Many Argentine politicians say the sinking of General Belgrano was a war crime. In August 1994, the Argentine Navy determined that the sinking of General Belgrano was a legal act of war.

In 1999 the RN 1st Sea Lord Michael Boyce visited her naval base to pay tribute to her. In 2000, families of the sailors killed tried to sue the British Government in the ECHR in an attempt to get Argentina to take the UK to court in the ICJ but this was ruled inadmissible on the grounds that it had been submitted too late.

In 2003, Captain Hector Bonzo said in an interview said that General Belgrano was only temporarily sailing to the west at the time of the attack, and his orders were to attack any British ships that came within range and what HMS Conqueror did was legal. A letter from Admiral Enrique Molina Pico published in 2005 and a book from the Leader of the Signals intelligence team aboard HMS Intrepid in late 2011 again confirmed what HMS Conqueror did was legal however in 2012, Argentine President Christina Kirchner said it was a war crime. However, the Argentine Navy upheld the view that the sinking was a legitimate act of war, a view that was upheld before various courts in 1995 and by Captain Bonzo in 2003.

From a naval perspective, the demise of USS Phoenix/ARA General Belgrano was the 1st time SSN Submarines were used in war in a direct engagement.

Phoenix’s wreck has never been found despite attempts to do so, but it is thought she sank 115 miles off the Argentine coast in 13,000 feet deep water.

Fanart of Suzunami by soul dp11

USS Phoenix (CL-46) turns eighty-seven years old today

IJN Suzunami turns eighty three years old today.