Re: Think you know your naval (not merely US) trivia?
Well done, Scott and john.
Phoenix was launched as a light cruiser (6' main battery guns) of the "Brooklyn" class. A survivor of the Pearl Harbor attack, she served throughout the war, earning 11 battle stars. Phoenix was decommissioned in 1946 and sold to Argentina in 1951. Renamed "General Belgrano," she was torpedoed and sunk by HMS Conqueror in May 1982 during the Falkland Island War. About 323 crew were killed in this attack; the remainder were rescued.
The battle for Okinawa took place in 1945, only six years after Phoenix was built. To "ship" a 10,000 ton ship to landlocked Phoenix would be virtually impossible and astronomically expensive. And of course, not a lot of shipbuilding OR ship scrapping is done in landlocked Switzerland.
