When he was asked later about the sinking of the Belgrano, the Conqueror’s captain, Chris Wreford-Brown, responded wryly: “The Royal Navy spent 13 years preparing me for such an occasion. It would have been regarded as extremely dreary if I had fouled it up.” Steven Berkoff". Contemporary Writers. British Council. Archived from the original on 17 July 2009 . Retrieved 30 September 2008.

Gott, Richard (9 November 2008). "Review: Three books about Churchill". The Observer– via www.theguardian.com. He later wrote a number of books on British and world history. These included a Green History of the World (1991), which was revised as A New Green History of the World in 2007, and a biography of Winston Churchill (1994) and 1940: Myth and Reality (1990).This single submarine action by HMS Conqueror, the first and only torpedo sinking of an enemy combat ship by a nuclear submarine, managed to deter and deny the Argentine Navy from threatening the British naval task force. HMS Conqueror’s performance demonstrated the value of nuclear-powered hunter-killer submarines. With the capability to travel at high underwater speeds with a long underwater endurance and large operational radius, nuclear hunter-killer submarines continue to be a prized strategic asset today. His historical works have attracted attention from other academics, with scholar Paul Addison writing that "Ponting writes well and the clarity with which he summarises the issues calls to mind a model civil servant briefing his minister. He swoops like a hawk on the damning quotation or the telling statistic." [16] [17] [18] C. J. Coventry reviewed Ponting's biography of Churchill, writing that "Ponting shattered the Churchill illusion for his readers leaving them little to piece together, just marble shards on the floor of his looted temple". [19] Personal life [ edit ] The play is about British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher's decision to torpedo the Argentinian ship General Belgrano, as it was purportedly retreating during the 1982 Falklands War between the United Kingdom and Argentina. [ citation needed] After the loss of Belgrano the Argentine navy withdrew all units to its nation’s coastal waters, where they remained for the duration of the war, leaving the fight against the Royal Navy to land-based air force and naval aviators. By June 14 the war was over, the British having retaken Stanley and ejected the Argentines from the islands.

The controversy over the sinking did not end with the war (although officially it wasn’t one, as there had been no declaration of it). The papers were soon traced to Ponting, who was interviewed by two MoD police officers, who told him they were not sure an offence had been committed. They suggested he quietly resign. Ponting was born in Bristol, the only child of Charles Ponting, who is thought to have worked in sales, and his wife, Winifred (née Wadham). [3] [4] He was educated at Bristol Grammar School [2] and the University of Reading. [4] Bureaucratic career [ edit ] General Belgrano papers [ edit ]

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Dalyell had resigned from the shadow Cabinet over the reconquest of the Falklands and was as voluble opponent of Thatcher’s. He had spoken in Parliament against the action and was therefore an obvious destination for the “jewels”. Dalyell realised they were political dynamite. However, Ponting had drafted two papers stating that the cruiser had altered course and was moving away from the zone. The Belgrano, an old World War II ship, was reported to have been severely damaged this morning. News that she had actually sunk came as the Defence Secretary, John Nott, was answering questions from journalists this afternoon. The Argentines were forced to use their airpower to oppose the British fleet, but the more than 400 nautical miles from their air bases on the Argentine mainland to the Falkland Islands limited their aircraft’s operational endurance. The extreme range constrained the aircrafts’ loitering time to a few minutes to locate and conduct air strikes against the British naval task force. The retreat of Argentina’s naval forces also inevitably resulted in terminating the resupplying of its forces on the Falkland Islands by sea, contributing to severe logistics support problems.

Ponting was married four times. In 1969 he married Katherine Hannan. After their divorce in 1973 he married Sally Fletcher, who also worked in the Ministry of Defence. Laura, a teacher, was his third wife. His fourth wife, Diane Johnson, died before him in 2020. [4] Retirement [ edit ] The sinking of ARA General Belgrano rattled the nerves of the Argentine naval groups, which, realizing the dangers and the vulnerabilities of their surface ships against advanced British nuclear submarines, decided to return to port, including the aircraft carrier ARA Veinticinco de Mayo. There would be no more attempts by the Argentine Navy to oppose or threaten the British naval task force which subsequently landed successfully on the Falkland Islands on May 21. The sinking of the General Belgrano remains controversial, mostly in Argentina and on the British left. The Argentine Navy and the captain of the Belgrano, however, have maintained that the sinking was legal. Focus on the Belgrano’s end, however, has obscured the service that USS Phoenix performed in the Pacific during World War II. She was the last of the survivors of Pearl Harbor to be lost to enemy action, even if the “enemy” turned out to be the Royal Navy. In 1951, it had been sold to Argentina and renamed the ARA General Belgrano. It would not see out 1982 and survive the Falklands War. In November 2018 he gave a speech in which he warned fellow Scottish National Party members that a No-deal Brexit would be used as context in which to disband or constrain the Scottish Parliament. [20]Thatcher had told the House of Commons the Belgrano was steaming towards the 200-mile exclusion zone imposed by Britain around the Falklands when she was torpedoed, with the loss of 323 of the ship’s company. Preston, Peter (30 November 2014). "Clodagh Hartley, chequebooks … and a Clive Ponting moment". The Observer. Ponting resigned from the civil service on 16 February 1985. In May 1987 he made an extended appearance on the first ever edition of Channel 4's After Dark discussion programme, alongside among others Colin Wallace, T. E. Utley and Peter Hain. Berkoff, Steven (2000). Steven Berkoff: Plays One (Reviseded.). Faber and Faber. p.145. ISBN 0-571-20721-9.

A Green History of the World: The Environment and the Collapse of Great Civilizations (1991), Penguin, ISBN 0-14-017660-8 Troubled history of Official Secrets Act". BBC. 18 November 1998 . Retrieved 8 June 2015. It was hailed as a victory for the jury system. The judge had indicated that the jury should convict him. Apart from conducting the initial landings, the Argentine Navy was largely quiet at the beginning of the Falklands War. On April 26, however, it was decided to dispatch the General Belgrano and two escort destroyers on patrol south of the islands. Although the political purpose of this patrol was understandable, its military logic is unclear. General Belgrano did have certain advantages against modern naval vessels. Her 6″ guns would have made very short work of any British ships unfortunate enough to wander within twelve or so miles. General Belgrano’s armor, while considerably lighter than a battleship, might still have been sufficient to provide considerable protection from the surface-to-surface missiles of the day. However, while General Belgrano’s initial probe was in the direction of the British task force, it is extremely unlikely that any British surface ship would have wandered into her patrol area. Having virtually no anti-air or anti-submarine capability, her ability to decisively affect the battle was extremely low. On May 2, General Belgrano and her group began repositioning toward the Argentine mainland, perhaps in preparation for another sortie to be coordinated with the Argentine Air Force.

Spotlight: Secrets are now surfacing over sinking of the Belgrano

In 1985 Ponting came across the one file about Operation Cauldron—1952 secret biological warfare trials that had led to a trawler being accidentally doused with plague bacteria off the Hebrides—that had not been destroyed, and confidentially told The Observer newspaper about it, [4] leading to a story that July headlined "British germ bomb sprayed trawler". [13] Shortly after his resignation, The Observer began to serialise Ponting's book The Right to Know: The Inside Story of the Belgrano Affair. The Conservative government reacted by amending the secrets legislation and by introducing the Official Secrets Act 1989. Before the trial, a jury could take the view that if an action could be seen to be in the public interest, the right of the individual to take that action might be justified. As a result of the 1989 modification, that defence was removed. After the enactment, it was taken that "'public interest' is what the government of the day says it is".