The announcement by US Secretary of Defence Pete Hegseth that a US submarine had achieved the first torpedo sinking of an enemy warship since the Second World War has been presented in Washington as a dramatic milestone of sorts.

The vessel destroyed, the Iranian frigate IRIS Dena, was torpedoed by a US submarine in the Indian Ocean during the ongoing conflict with Iran, leaving dozens injured and scores dead and missing.

But if this is meant to sound like a grand naval moment to mark the upcoming 250th anniversary of the founding of the US, history suggests the scale may be a tad exaggerated.

After all, America’s closest naval ally managed a rather larger and more significant example of what torpedoes fired in wartime can do - back in 1982 - and with considerably less theatrical self-congratulation.

During the April 2 to June 14 Falklands War that year, the British nuclear-powered submarine HMS Conqueror sank the Argentine cruiser ARA General Belgrano with two torpedoes striking the ship – a third torpedo missed – on May 2. The ship went down in less than an hour, taking 323 sailors with it in the process – almost half of Argentina’s total casualties in the war.

The attack itself had a major strategic impact on both sides. The Argentine Navy’s surface fleet effectively withdrew to port for the remainder of the conflict, giving Britain unquestioned naval dominance in the South Atlantic.

Yet the British official tone at the time was notably restrained - almost understated by modern standards.

The UK Defence Secretary at the time, John Nott, speaking in the House of Commons two days later simply said “At about 8 pm London time on 2 May one of our submarines detected the Argentine cruiser General Belgrano, escorted by two destroyers.”

Nott added that “the cruiser posed a significant threat to our task force” and “In the light of this threat, the submarine was ordered to attack the cruiser” before adding almost as an afterthought “The General Belgrano was hit by torpedoes fired by the submarine and is believed to have sunk.”

No triumphant rhetoric. No talk of “historic demonstrations of global reach” as Hegseth opted for.

Just a matter-of-fact statement of naval warfare, and this makes the contrast rather striking.

In Washington in the past 24 hours Hegseth described the sinking of the Iranian vessel as “An American submarine sunk an Iranian warship that thought it was safe in international waters. Instead, it was sunk by a torpedo. Quiet death. The first sinking of an enemy ship by a torpedo since World War II” also adding that the US is winning its war against Iran “decisively, devastatingly and without mercy.”

The difficulty with presenting this as an epoch-making naval achievement, however, is that the Royal Navy managed essentially the same thing more than four decades ago - except the target was a 13,000-tonne cruiser escorted by destroyers and not a lightly armoured and unaccompanied frigate displacing just 1,500 tonnes.

The British engagement over 40-years ago reshaped an entire war at sea, and the announcement sounded closer to a daily shipping forecast than a victory speech.

It is one thing to sink a lone frigate. It is another thing entirely to sink the Belgrano, and then politely mention it before carrying on with the day’s other business.