37 years: the moving story of a Belgrano survivor

37 years after the collapse of the ARA General Belgrano Cruise, one of the survivors, the boneárense Gustavo Altoe, recounted his moving experience in the program Another wayof MDZ radio.

About this terrible chapter of the Falklands war that killed 323 Argentines during an attack outside the zone of exclusion, the man from Luján de Buenos Aires remembers everything as if it was today.

"On the night of 1 May, we entered the exclusion zone with all the compartments closed and the cruiser had 256 compartments which, in principle, must be closed when attacked or attacked. No longer would we be attacked and all these compartments were open.We were attacked, practically devoured by the English submarine Conqueror, who hit us with two torpedoes, one at the back and the other on the front, which caused us more damage, left 275 people without luck, and whoever touched the bow was the one who caused the most material damage. "

-What memory do you have of that day, around 4 o'clock in the afternoon, when the first torpedo struck?

-A strong explosion. He carried it to Belgrano, sank it, cut off the light, and immediately a gas began to suffocate. Some calculate that it is the torpedo that caused this. And four seconds later, another loud explosion lifted him from the front. Immediately, the electricity was cut off. It was quite voice with voice, as we could.

– In which sector did you find yourself at the time of the attack?

"It was right in the middle of where the torpedoes fell, but from the main deck, one below. One of the torpedoes reached 25 meters below and 20 on the side.

– When do you realize the magnitude of what happened and the fact that you were attacked by an English ship?

-We were escorted by the good stone and the Bouchard. At first I thought we had collided with another ship, which we had hit, because the shot was so loud and the crew was not really ready to fight. But when he hit the other torpedo, I already understood that they were attacking us. And it was under water. The cruise was vulnerable because of this place as it did not ring. The Good Stone and the Bouchard of course had the sound, but they could never catch the English submarine.

Listen to the full interview with Gustavo Altoe in Another way: