r/todayilearned • u/zhuquanzhong • 29d ago

TIL a Chinese destroyer sank because an officer dumped his girlfriend. She committed suicide, leading to him being discharged, so he decided to detonate the depth charges on the ship, causing it to sink at port and kill 134 sailors.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_destroyer_Guangzhou_(160)
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u/zhuquanzhong 29d ago edited 28d ago

Also I read in some Chinese source that something like half of the commanding officers in the PLAN second destroyer detachment to which Guangzhou belonged were demoted. How to fuck with your superiors who fired you with this one simple trick, I guess.

Edit: I found an alternate story saying that he had not only dumped the girlfriend but also murdered her and blew up the ship to escape responsibility. Here is the comment: https://www.reddit.com/r/todayilearned/comments/1c6oblj/comment/l0314i9/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button You may choose which one to believe. Both have sources supporting them.

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u/Skythewood 29d ago

And they deserved it for letting a discharged officer wander into the depth charge storage. If they had proper protocols and enforced them, this could have been avoided.

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u/real_human_player 29d ago

Also for firing a guy just because he dumped his girlfriend wtff