Early Career
The warship was built as USS Phoenix, the sixth of the Brooklyn-class light cruisers, in New Jersey by the New York Shipbuilding Corporation starting in 1935, and launched in March 1938. She survived the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941, and went on to earn nine battle stars for World War II service. She was decommissioned from the US Navy (USN) after World War II ended, in July 1946.
Phoenix was sold to Argentina in October 1951 with another of her class, (USS Boise, which was renamed ARA Nueve de Julio), for US$7.8 million (Nueve de Julio was scrapped in 1978). She was renamed 17 de Octubre after the "People's Loyalty day", an important milestone for the political party of the then-president Juan Perón.
She was one of the main units which joined the 1955 coup in which Perón was overthrown, and the ship was renamed General Belgrano after General Manuel Belgrano, who had fought for Argentine independence from 1811 to 1819 and founded the Escuela de Náutica (School of Navigation) in 1799. The cruiser accidentally rammed her sister Nueve de Julio on exercises in 1956, which resulted in damage to both cruisers. The Belgrano was outfitted with the Sea Cat anti-aircraft missile system between 1967 and 1968.
Read more about this topic: ARA General Belgrano
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