The death of American submarines. Sunken submarine
On December 14, 1952, the submarine Shch-117 set out on its last voyage. She went missing.
The reasons for her death have not yet been established. On this occasion, we will talk about six submarines that died under unclear circumstances.
Soviet diesel-electric torpedo submarine of the Second World War, belongs to the V-bis series of the Shch project - “Pike”.
December 14, 1952 Shch-117 went on its last trip as part of the TU-6 exercise to practice attacking targets with a group of submarines. Six submarines of the brigade were supposed to take part in the exercises, and Shch-117 was supposed to guide them towards ships of the mock enemy. On the night of December 14-15, the last communication session took place with the boat, after which it disappeared. There were 52 crew members on board, including 12 officers.
The searches for Shch-117, carried out until 1953, yielded nothing. The cause and place of the boat's death are still unknown.
According to the official version, the cause of death could have been a failure of diesel engines in a storm, an explosion on a floating mine, and others. However, the exact cause has never been established.
American nuclear submarine "Thrasher" sank in the Atlantic Ocean on April 9, 1963. The worst submarine disaster in peacetime claimed the lives of 129 people. On the morning of April 9, the boat left the harbor of Portsmouth, New Hampshire. Then there were vague signals from the submariners that there were “some problems.” After some time, the US military stated that the boat, which was considered missing, sank. The causes of the disaster have not been fully established.
The Thresher nuclear reactor still rests somewhere on the ocean floor. Back on April 11, 1963, the US Navy measured the radioactivity of ocean water. The indicators did not exceed the norm. Senior American officers insist that the reactor is harmless. The depths of the sea cool it and prevent the core from melting, and the active zone is limited by a durable and stainless container.
Diesel-electric submarine of the "Pike" type, Shch-216, was presumed dead but undetected for many years. The submarine was lost on February 16 or 17, 1944. The submarine is believed to have been damaged but its crew struggled desperately to reach the surface.
In the summer of 2013, researchers discovered a boat near Crimea: they saw an exploded compartment and rudders set to the floating position. At the same time, apart from one destroyed compartment, the hull looked intact. Under what circumstances this boat perished has not yet been established.
S-2, a Soviet diesel-electric torpedo submarine of the IX series, set sail on 1 January 1940. The S-2 commander, Captain Sokolov, was given the following task: to break into the Gulf of Bothnia and operate on enemy communications. On January 3, 1940, the last signal from S-2 was received. The boat never made contact again; nothing was known for certain about its fate and the fate of the 50 members of its crew.
According to one version, the submarine died on a minefield laid by the Finns in the area to the pier of the lighthouse on Merket Island. The mine explosion version is official. In the history of the Russian fleet, until recently, this boat was listed as missing in action. There was no information about her, her location was unknown.
In the summer of 2009, a group of Swedish divers officially announced the discovery of the Soviet submarine S-2. It turns out that 10 years ago, the lighthouse keeper on the island of Merket Ekerman, who probably observed the destruction of S-2, showed his grandson Ingvald the direction with the words: “There lies a Russian.”
U-209- a medium-sized German Type VIIC submarine from World War II. The boat was laid down on November 28, 1940 and launched on August 28, 1941. The boat entered service on October 11, 1941 under the command of Lieutenant Commander Heinrich Brodda. U-209 was part of the "wolf packs". She sank four ships.
U-209 went missing in May 1943. Until October 1991, historians believed that the cause of death was the attack of the British frigate HMS Jed and the British sloop HMS Sennen on May 19, 1943. However, it later turned out that U-954 was actually killed as a result of this attack. The cause of the death of U-209 remains unclear to this day.
"Kursk"
K-141 "Kursk"- Russian nuclear submarine missile-carrying cruiser Project 949A “Antey”. The boat was put into operation on December 30, 1994. From 1995 to 2000 it was part of the Russian Northern Fleet.
The Kursk sank in the Barents Sea 175 kilometers from Severomorsk, at a depth of 108 meters on August 12, 2000. All 118 crew members were killed. In terms of the number of deaths, the accident became the second in the post-war history of the Russian submarine fleet after the explosion of ammunition on a B-37.
According to the official version, the boat sank due to the explosion of torpedo 65-76A (“Whale”) in torpedo tube No. 4. The cause of the explosion was a leak of torpedo fuel components. However, many experts still disagree with this version. Many experts believe that the boat could have been attacked by a torpedo or collided with a mine from World War II.
Post-war losses of the USSR submarine fleet
After the end of the Second World War, a new confrontation began - the Cold War. The guns did not fire, the planes did not bomb the enemy, and the ships did not exchange artillery and rocket salvoes, but this did not protect against losses involving dozens of human lives. And some of the biggest losses on the Cold War fronts were suffered by submariners.
In the post-war period, the Soviet fleet lost nine boats, including three nuclear-powered ones. In addition, many boats were seriously damaged, and the nuclear-powered K-429 sank, but was subsequently raised and put back into operation. At first, the destruction of submarines in the USSR concerned only diesel submarines. Between 1952 and 1968, six boats died from various causes, including one at the base, and several more boats were damaged in the explosion. A total of 357 people died. Accidents also occurred on nuclear boats during this period, but all of them were accomplished without “irretrievable losses” in technology.
The sunken submarines of the USSR belonged to different fleets: two boats each from the Northern, Pacific and Baltic fleets. On April 12, 1970, the Soviet nuclear submarine K-8 was lost, on board of which there was a fire during a military campaign. It was fires that became the main problem of Soviet submariners, regularly breaking out on boats of various projects. The crew fought the fire for four days, but were unable to save the boat, and the flames “took” the lives of 52 crew members.
The following year, the nuclear boat K-56 miraculously escaped death, having received a hole as a result of a collision with the scientific vessel Akademik Berg. The accident cost the lives of 27 sailors who battened down the compartment and saved the lives of others. This was followed by a long period of calm. The largest number of sunken submarines of the USSR occurred in the 80s, marked by glasnost and perestroika. And if the death of the diesel boat S-178 on October 21, 1981 did not cause a resonance (collision with a cargo ship), then the death of the nuclear-powered K-219 in October 1986 had great publicity. For three days in the Sargasso Sea, the crew fought the fire, but the boat could not be saved. Fortunately, only four people died.
In the interval between the two accidents, on June 24, 1983, the K-429, which went out for testing after repairs, sank. As a result, the boat took on water during the dive, and incorrect actions by the crew led to the boat sinking to the bottom. 104 people made it to the surface, and another 16 died. The boat was later raised and returned to service.
But the most famous death of a submarine in the USSR occurred on April 7, 1989, when, as a result of a fire and subsequent flooding, the newest submarine “Komsomolets”, returning from combat duty, sank. 42 sailors were killed in the accident. It is worth noting that the death of submarines in the USSR occurred much more often than in the United States, which lost only two of its nuclear submarines.
There were also losses in Russian time. And if the K-159 towed for scrapping cannot be considered a full-fledged combat boat, then the death on August 12, 2000 of the Project 945A nuclear submarine cruiser Kursk was a real tragedy, which led to the death of 118 submariners.
Finally, we note that sunken Soviet submarines are located in all parts of the world, from their native shores to the Sargasso Sea, Hawaii and the Bay of Biscay, indicating the location of the Cold War front line.
In the mid-1980s, the Soviet Union built a superboat the likes of which had never been seen anywhere else. This submarine "Komsomolets", accepted into the fleet in 1984, had great speed and could fight at enormous depths. A new era has begun in the Soviet Navy.
But five years passed, and the Komsomolets with its nuclear weapons ended up at the bottom of the ocean, and two-thirds of its crew died due to yet another display of Soviet incompetence.
The history of Komsomolets began back in 1966. The team of the Rubin design bureau, under the leadership of N. A. Klimov and chief designer Yu. N. Kormilitsyn, was tasked with starting the implementation of Project 685, or a deep-diving submarine. Research and development work lasted eight years. Obviously, this was due to the lack of a suitable metal that could withstand the colossal pressure at depth. But in 1974, the construction of a double hull was completed, and its inner part was made of titanium alloy.
The Project 685 boat (aka K-278) was supposed to become prototype to conduct tests as part of the construction of deep-sea Soviet submarines of the future. Construction began at the Sevmash plant on April 22, 1978, and was officially completed on May 30, 1983. The unusually long construction period was due to difficulties encountered in processing titanium.
Context
For 10 years, there have been no plans to raise the sunken nuclear submarine
The Independent Barents Observer 09/08/2013Russian submarines have no equal
Echo24 09/13/2016For the first time in modern history Russia
ABC Nyheter 07/04/2016The length of the K-278 boat was 110 meters and the width was 12.3 meters. The inner body was approximately eight meters wide. The submarine's displacement was 6,500 tons, and thanks to the use of titanium instead of steel, it was noticeably lighter. The inner hull was divided into seven compartments, two of which were reinforced, becoming a safe area for the crew. There was also a pop-up rescue chamber built into the wheelhouse, which allowed the crew to escape the ship, located at a depth of up to 1,500 meters.
The boat was equipped with an OK-650B-3 water-cooled reactor with a thermal power of 190 MW, which drove two steam generators with a capacity of 45 thousand shaft horsepower. This allowed the boat to develop an underwater speed of 30 knots and a surface speed of 14 knots.
The submarine was equipped with a low-frequency passive-active sonar system MGK-500 "Skat" - the same one that is used today in the attack submarines of the Yasen project. It transmitted data to the Omnibus-685 combat information and control system. The boat's armament consisted of six standard 533-mm torpedo tubes with ammunition of 22 Type 53 torpedoes and Shkval anti-submarine missile torpedoes moving in a cavitation cavity.
The Komsomolets submarine entered service with the Red Banner Northern Fleet in January 1984 and began a series of deep-sea diving experiments. Under the command of Captain 1st Rank Yuri Zelensky, she set an absolute world record for diving depth - 1027 meters. This was an outstanding achievement considering that the American submarine of its Los Angeles class had a maximum diving depth of 450 meters. The estimated diving depth of this submarine was approximately 1370 meters. The boat had a special Iridium ascent system with gas generators for purging ballast systems.
In the Soviet Navy, the K-278 boat was considered invulnerable at depths of more than a thousand meters. At such depths it is extremely difficult to detect any enemy torpedo, especially the American Mark 48, which has a maximum depth of 800 meters. Initially, the boat was planned to be a test boat, but by 1988 it became a fully combat-ready ship. It was given the name “Komsomolets”, as the members of the Communist Youth League were called.
On April 7, 1989, at a depth of 380 meters, Komsomolets encountered problems right in the middle of the Norwegian Sea. According to Norman Polmar and Kenneth Moore, there was a second crew on board who had just completed training. In addition, it was a test boat, and therefore there was no emergency team on it to ensure the fight for survivability.
A fire started in the seventh compartment in the aft section, and the flames damaged the air supply valve, causing compressed air. Measures to fight the fire did not yield any results. The reactor was shut down and the ballast tanks were vented to allow the boat to float. But the fire continued to spread, and the crew fought it for another six hours before the order was given to abandon the boat. According to Polmar and Moore, the fire was so intense that due to the high temperature, plates of rubber coating began to peel off from the outer hull, increasing the stealth of the ship.
The ship's commander, Captain First Rank Evgeny Vanin, along with four crew members, returned inside the boat to search for those crew members who might not have heard the order to evacuate. Vanin and his rescue team were unable to advance far, because the boat trimmed 80 degrees aft, and he was forced to climb into the rescue chamber. At first the camera could not undock from the mortally wounded boat, but then it became detached from it. When she reached the surface, the pressure difference caused the hatch to break off and two submariners were thrown into the sea. The cell where the commander and members of the rescue team were located went under water.
At that time, only four people had died, but after the boat sank, many sailors suffered from hypothermia in the water, which was only two degrees Celsius. An hour later, the floating base "Alexei Khlobystov" and the fishing vessel "Oma" arrived and rescued 30 people. Some of them later died from hypothermia and wounds. Of the 69 crew members on board, 42 people died, including the boat commander, Captain 1st Rank Vanin.
“Kosomolets” sank to the bottom to a depth of 1,600 meters along with a nuclear reactor and two nuclear-equipped “Shkval” torpedoes. Between 1989 and 1998, seven expeditions were carried out to secure the reactor and isolate the torpedo tubes. Russian sources claim that during these expeditions, traces of unauthorized entry of “foreign agents” onto the boat were discovered.
Kyle Mizokami lives and works in San Francisco and writes on defense and national security topics. His articles have appeared in publications such as The Diplomat, Foreign Policy, War is Boring, and The Daily Beast; he is also one of the founders of Japan Security Watch, a blog dedicated to defense and security issues.
April 7 is a special day in Russia - the Day of Remembrance of Dead Submariners. It is celebrated in memory of all the dead sailors of the submarine fleet, and the immediate reason for setting the date is 7...
April 7 is a special day in Russia - the Day of Remembrance of Dead Submariners. It is celebrated in memory of all the dead sailors of the submarine fleet, and the immediate reason for setting the date on April 7 was the tragedy that occurred on this day in 1989 in the Norwegian Sea. Then the nuclear combat submarine K-278 Komsomolets crashed. Of the submarine's 69 crew, 42 were killed.
Submariner is a heroic profession. Unfortunately, its specificity is such that, when setting sail, officers, midshipmen, foremen, and submarine sailors do not know whether they will see their family and friends again. The history of the Soviet and Russian submarine fleet is not only about achievements, increasingly advanced submarines and military victories. These include human losses, thousands of submariners who did not return from combat missions in both war and peacetime.
So, from 1955 to 2014. only six nuclear submarines sank - 4 Soviet and 2 Russian (although the K-27 was sunk for disposal purposes, but before that there was a serious accident on the boat, which subsequently became the reason for the decision to sink it).
The Soviet nuclear submarine K-27 was launched in 1962 and received the nickname “Nagasaki” among sailors. On May 24, 1968, the K-27 submarine was in the Barents Sea. The crew of the boat checked the parameters of the main power plant in running modes after completing work to modernize the equipment. At this time, the reactor power began to decrease, and the sailors tried to raise it. At 12:00, a release of radioactive gases occurred in the reactor compartment. The crew reset the emergency protection of the left reactor. The radiation situation on the boat has worsened. The accident led to serious consequences for the crew. All sailors on the boat were irradiated, 9 crew members died - one sailor suffocated in a gas mask on board the boat, eight people died later in the hospital from the effects of radiation doses received on board the boat. In 1981, the boat was disposed of in the Kara Sea.
On April 12, 1970, exactly 47 years ago, in the Bay of Biscay, 490 km from the Spanish coast, K-8, the Soviet nuclear submarine of Project 627A Kit, sank. The K-8 boat was commissioned into the USSR Navy on March 2, 1958, and launched on May 31, 1959. Like other first-generation nuclear submarines, the K-8 was not perfect - accidents often occurred on it due to various equipment breakdowns. For example, on October 13, 1960, a cooling circuit pipe ruptured in one of the reactors, resulting in a coolant leak, as a result of which the crew received various radiation doses. On June 1, 1961, a similar incident occurred again, as a result of which one of the crew members had to be discharged with acute radiation sickness. On October 8, 1961, an accident occurred again.
Vsevolod Bessonov, commander of the K-8 nuclear submarine.
However, despite the crew's attempts to save the boat, K-8 sank within a short time. A total of 52 people died on the submarine. Thus, 46 crew members managed to escape. By decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR dated June 26, 1970, Captain 2nd Rank Vsevolod Borisovich Bessonov was posthumously awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. The entire submarine crew received state awards. The death of K-8 and 52 sailors was the first such loss of the Soviet nuclear submarine fleet and opened the account of other similar tragedies.
The K-219 strategic nuclear submarine was laid down in 1970 - the same year when the terrible accident on the K-8 nuclear submarine occurred. In 1971, the nuclear submarine was launched. Over the fifteen years of service of the nuclear submarine, it has repeatedly encountered a wide variety of problems associated with nuclear missile launchers and missile silo covers. For example, already in 1973, the tightness of missile silo No. 15 was broken, as a result of which water began to flow into the silo, which reacted with the component rocket fuel. The resulting aggressive nitric acid damaged the rocket's fuel lines and an explosion occurred. One crew member became his victim, and the missile silo was flooded. In January 1986, there was a problem with a missile launch during a training exercise, which forced the boat to surface after launch and return to the naval base on the surface. However, on September 4, 1986, the nuclear submarine K-219 set off on a voyage to the US coast, where it was to carry out patrol duty with 15 nuclear missiles on board. The submarine cruiser was commanded by Captain 2nd Rank Igor Britanov. Before the K-219 went to sea, 12 submarine officers out of 32 were replaced. They had to go on a campaign with a new senior officer, assistant commander, commanders of the missile and mine-torpedo combat units, the head of the radio engineering service, the commander of the electrical division, the commanders of 4 compartments, the ship's doctor. In addition, 12 midshipmen out of 38 midshipmen of the crew were replaced, including two foremen of the missile warhead-2 teams. When the cruiser plunged into the Barents Sea, a leak opened in missile silo No. 6. The officer in charge of the missile armament did not inform the K-219 commander Britanov about this incident. It is likely that he was guided by considerations of his own career - he did not want to be responsible for the consequences of returning the boat to the naval base. Meanwhile, the malfunction in the missile silo had been known for a long time, but was not reported to higher command - the remark was removed by the division's flagship specialist.
While the boat was between the UK and Iceland, it was detected by US Navy sonar systems. At the same time, K-219 made every effort not to be detected. On October 3, K-219 was discovered by the Los Angeles-class submarine USS Augusta, which was heading to the USSR coast - also to perform patrol functions. By this time, it was already necessary to pump water out of missile silo No. 6 twice a day. However, in the end, in the early morning of October 3, 1986, missile silo No. 6 completely depressurized and water poured into it. The officer in charge of the missile armament, Petrachkov, put forward his proposal - to surface to a depth of 50 meters, fill the missile silo with water, and then fire the missiles by emergency starting the main engines. This way he hoped to protect the rocket from destruction in the silo itself. However, there was not enough time, and the rocket exploded in the mine itself. The explosion destroyed the outer wall of the missile body and warheads. Its parts fell inside the cruiser. The hole contributed to the rapid immersion of the ship to 300 meters - almost to the maximum permissible depth. After this, the cruiser commander decided to blow out the tanks in order to get rid of ballast water. Two minutes after the explosion, K-219 abruptly floated to the surface. Personnel left the missile compartment and battened down the sealed bulkheads. Thus, the boat was divided into halves - the command and torpedo compartments were isolated by the emergency missile compartment from other compartments - the medical, reactor, control and turbine compartments, located in the stern of the ship.
In memory of the fallen submariners. Major accidents on Soviet and Russian nuclear submarines The reactor compartment commander, senior lieutenant Nikolai Belikov, and 20-year-old special hold sailor Sergei Preminin (pictured) went to the reactor enclosure - they were going to lower the compensating grids. The temperature in the cell reached 70 °C, but senior lieutenant Belikov still lowered three of the four bars, and only then fell unconscious. The last fourth grate was lowered by the sailor Preminin. But he was unable to get back out - due to the difference in pressure, neither he nor the sailors on the other side were able to open the compartment hatch. Preminin died, at the cost of his life, preventing nuclear explosion. It is noteworthy that then his feat was not properly appreciated - the sailor was posthumously given the Order of the Red Star, and only in 1997, already in the post-Soviet period national history, Sergei Preminin was posthumously awarded the title of Hero Russian Federation.
K-219 established contact with the Soviet civilian refrigerator "Fedor Bredikhin". In addition to the refrigerator, the timber carrier "Bakaritsa", the tanker "Galileo Galilei", the bulk carrier "Krasnogvardeysk" and the roll-off vessel "Anatoly Vasilyev" approached the scene of the accident. Then the US Navy ships arrived - the tug USNS Powhatan and the submarine USS Augusta. The command of the USSR Navy decided to tow the K-219. There was a great danger that the boat, if abandoned by the crew, would be captured by the American Navy. Due to the spread of poisonous gas, the Soviet command eventually decided to evacuate the crew, but the commander of the K-219 Britanov remained on the boat to protect it from possible penetration of the Americans with weapons in their hands. He, a group of officers and secret documents, was the last to leave the boat - on a boat. As a result of the accident on the K-219, 4 people died - the commander of the warhead-2, captain 3rd rank Petrachkov Alexander; sailor for weapons Smaglyuk Nikolay; driver Kharchenko Igor; reactor engineer Sergei Preminin. Upon his return to the USSR, Igor Britanov was under investigation, then the charges against him were dropped, but he was dismissed from the ranks of the USSR Navy. Quite a lot of articles have been written about the accident on K-219, various versions have been put forward and are being put forward. possible reasons accidents. Without going into more detail on this issue, it should be noted that the sailors of the boat, at the cost of their lives, tried to correct the emergency situation that arose on the submarine. Eternal memory to them for this.
February 1968.
These days, the world has never been so close to World War III. Only a few people knew that the fate of the planet depended on one submarine - the Soviet submarine K-129, which, at the height of the Vietnam War, was tasked with targeting big cities Pacific Coast and ships of the US Seventh Fleet.
However, the submarine did not appear off the American coast.
On March 8, the crew did not contact the base. 70 days of searching yielded no results. The Soviet submarine disappeared into the ocean like the Flying Dutchman. There were 98 people on board the submarine.
This story is still considered the most mysterious and closed in the Soviet Union. submarine fleet. For the first time, the documentary tells what actually happened to the K-129 submarine. Experts and relatives of the missing talk about why they were forbidden to talk about the missing submarine for thirty years. How did it happen that the crew members were recognized as “simply dead”, but not killed while performing a combat mission? Why was the K-129 discovered not by the Soviet intelligence services, but by the Americans, after spending several years searching?
Which version of the submarine's death turned out to be correct: a crew error, a technical accident - a hydrogen explosion in a compartment of the submarine's hull, or the third - a collision with another underwater object, the American submarine Swordfish?
The mystery of the death of the submarine K-129
Source of information: All the greatest mysteries of history / M. A. Pankova, I. Yu. Romanenko and others.
An iron curtain hung over the mystery of the disappearance of K-129. The press remained deathly silent. Officers of the Pacific Fleet were prohibited from having any conversations on this topic.
To reveal the mystery of the submarine’s death, we need to go back 46 years ago, when all the participants in this tragedy were still alive.
K-129 should not have gone to sea then, because only a month and a half before this tragedy she returned from a planned cruise. The crew was exhausted by the long raid, and the equipment required restoration. The submarine, which was supposed to set sail, was not ready for the trip. In this regard, the command of the Pacific Fleet decided to send the K-129 on patrol instead. The situation developed according to the principle “for myself and for that guy.” It is still not known whether the commander of the unprepared submarine was punished. It is only clear that by his sloppiness he saved not only his life, but also the lives of all the members of the crew entrusted to him. But at what cost!
K-129 urgently began preparing a new campaign. Only some of the officers were recalled from vacation. The missing crew was forced to be replenished from other submarines. In addition, a group of student sailors from the submarine was accepted on board. Witnesses of those events recall that the crew went to sea in a bad mood.
On March 8, 1968, the operational duty officer at the central command post of the Navy announced the alarm - the K-129 did not give a signal to pass the control line, due to the combat order. And it immediately became clear that the squadron’s command post did not even have a crew list signed personally by the submarine commander and certified by the ship’s seal. From a military point of view, this is a serious crime.
From mid-March to May 1968, a search operation for the missing submarine, unprecedented in scope and secrecy, was carried out, in which dozens of ships of the Kamchatka Flotilla and aircraft of the Northern Fleet were involved. They searched persistently at the calculated point of route K-129. The faint hope that the submarine was drifting on the surface, without power and radio communications, did not materialize two weeks later. The overcrowding of the airwaves with constant negotiations attracted the attention of the Americans, who accurately indicated the coordinates of a large oil slick in the ocean located in Soviet waters. Chemical analysis showed that the stain is solar and identical to the fuel used on submarines of the USSR Navy. The exact location of the death of K-129 in official documents was designated as point “K”.
The search for the submarine continued for 73 days. After their completion, the relatives and friends of all crew members received funerals with the cynical entry “recognized dead.” It was as if they had forgotten about the 98 submariners. And the Commander-in-Chief of the USSR Navy, S.G. Gorshkov, made an unprecedented statement, refusing to acknowledge the death of the submarine and the entire crew. Official refusal of the USSR government from the sunken
The K-129 caused it to become an "orphan asset", thus any country that discovered the missing submarine would be considered its owner. And of course, everything that is inside the underwater ship. If we take into account that in those days all submarines leaving on a voyage from the shores of the USSR had their numbers painted over, then if discovered, the K-129 would not even have identification marks.
However, to investigate the causes of the death of the submarine K-129, two commissions were created: the government one, under the leadership of the Chairman of the USSR Council of Ministers L. Smirnov, and the Navy, which was headed by one of the most experienced submariners, First Deputy Commander-in-Chief of the Navy V. Kasatonov. The conclusions reached by both commissions were similar. They admitted that the submarine crew was not to blame for the death of the ship.
The most reliable cause of the disaster could have been a failure to a depth below the maximum due to freezing of the float valve of the RDP air shaft (operating mode of diesel engines under water). Indirect confirmation of this version was that the command of the fleet headquarters ordered commanders to use the RDP mode as much as possible. Subsequently, the percentage of sailing time in this mode became one of the criteria for successfully completing the mission tasks. It should be noted that the K-129 submarine was never lagging behind in this indicator during long-term navigation at extreme depths. The second official version was a collision with a foreign submarine while underwater.
In addition to the official ones, there were a number of unofficial versions expressed over the years by various experts: a collision with a surface vessel or transport at periscope depth; failure to depths exceeding the maximum immersion depth and, as a result, a violation of the design strength of the hull; the impact of internal ocean waves on the slope (the nature of their occurrence has not yet been precisely established); explosion of a rechargeable battery (AB) during charging as a result of exceeding the permissible hydrogen concentration (American version).
In 1998, the book “The Game of Blind Man's Bluff” by Sherry Sontag and Christopher Drew was published in the United States. The Unknown History of American Underwater Espionage." It presented three main versions of the death of the K-129: the crew lost control; a technical accident that developed into a catastrophe (explosion of a battery); collision with another ship.
The version of the AB explosion on a submarine was obviously false, because throughout the history of the world's submarine fleets many such explosions have been recorded, but none of them resulted in the destruction of the durable hulls of the boats, at least due to sea water.
The most plausible and proven version is the collision of the K-129 submarine with the American submarine Swordfish (translated as “swordfish”). Its name alone makes it possible to imagine the structure of this submarine, the conning tower of which is protected by two “fins” similar to sharks. The same version is confirmed by photographs taken at the site of the death of K-129 from the American nuclear submarine Hellibat using the Glomar Explorer deep-sea vehicle. They depict the hull of a Soviet submarine, on which a narrow, deep hole is visible on the left side in the area of the bulkhead between the second and third compartments. The boat itself lay on the ground on an even keel, which meant that the collision occurred when it was under water at a depth safe for a ramming attack by a surface ship. Apparently, the Swordfish, which was tracking the Soviet submarine, lost hydroacoustic contact, which forced it to follow the K-129 location, and the short-term restoration of contact between them a few minutes before the collision could no longer prevent the tragedy.
Although now this version is subject to criticism. Journalist of the newspaper “Top Secret” A. Mozgovoy rejects it, citing primarily the damage to the K-129, because the Swordfish’s roll angle did not allow it to cause such damage to the Soviet submarine. A. Mozgovoy defends the version that K-129 died as a result of a collision with a surface vehicle. And there is evidence for this too, although the same “swordfish” appears in them again. In the spring of 1968 in foreign press Reports began to appear that a few days after the disappearance of the K-129 submarine, the Swordfish entered the Japanese port of Yokosuka with a crumpled conning tower fence and began emergency repairs. The entire operation was classified. The boat was undergoing repairs only for one night, during which it was repaired redecorating: patches applied, body tinted. In the morning she left the parking lot, and the crew signed a non-disclosure agreement. After this incident, Swordfish did not set sail for a year and a half.
The Americans tried to explain the fact that their submarine was damaged by its collision with an iceberg, which was clearly not true, since icebergs are not found in the central part of the ocean in March. And in general, they do not “swim” into this area even at the end of winter, let alone in the spring.
Also in defense of the version of the collision between two submarines is the fact that the Americans surprisingly accurately and quickly determined the location of the death of the K-129. At that time, the possibility of detecting it with the help of an American satellite was excluded, however, they indicated the area with an accuracy of 1-3 miles, which, according to military experts, could only be established by a submarine located in the same zone.
Between 1968 and 1973, the Americans examined the site of the death of K-129, its position and the condition of the hull with the deep-sea bathyscaphe Trieste-2 (according to other sources, Mizar), which allowed the CIA to conclude that the Soviet submarine could be raised. The CIA developed a secret operation codenamed "Jennifer". All this was carried out in the hope of obtaining encryption documents, combat packages and radio communication equipment and using this information to read the entire radio traffic of the Soviet fleet, which would make it possible to open the deployment and control system of the USSR Navy. And most importantly, it made it possible to find the key fundamentals of cipher development. Due to the genuine interest in Soviet missile and nuclear weapons during the Cold War, such information was of particular value. Only three high-ranking officials in the United States were aware of the operation: President Richard Nixon, CIA Director William Colby and billionaire Howard Hyose, who financed the work. Their preparation took almost seven years, and the costs amounted to about $350 million.
To lift the K-129 hull, two special vessels were designed: the Glomar Explorer and the NSS-1 docking chamber, which had a sliding bottom equipped with giant gripping pincers, reminiscent of the shape of the hull of a Soviet submarine. Both ships were manufactured in parts at different shipyards on the west and east coasts of the United States, as if repeating the tactics of creating Captain Nemo's Nautilus. It is also important that even during final assembly the engineers had no idea about the purpose of these ships. All work was carried out in complete secrecy.
But no matter how much the CIA tried to classify this operation, the activity of American ships in a certain place Pacific Ocean did not go unnoticed. The Chief of the USSR Navy, Vice Admiral I.N. Khurs, received a code message that the American ship Glomar Explorer was completing the preparatory work for raising the K-129. However, he answered the following: “I draw your attention to better implementation of planned tasks.” This basically meant: don’t interfere with your nonsense, but mind your own business.
As it later became known, a letter with the following content was planted under the door of the Soviet embassy in Washington: “In the near future, US intelligence agencies will take action to covertly raise a Soviet submarine that sank in the Pacific Ocean. Well-wisher."
The operation to raise the K-129 was technically very difficult, since the boat rested at a depth of more than 5000 m. The entire work lasted 40 days. During the lifting, the Soviet submarine broke into two pieces, so only one was able to be lifted, consisting of the first, second and part of the third compartments. The Americans rejoiced.
The bodies of six dead submariners were removed from the bow of the ship and buried at sea according to the ritual accepted in the Soviet fleet. The sarcophagus with the bodies was covered with the flag of the USSR Navy and lowered into the sea to the sounds of the national anthem of the Soviet Union. Having paid their last respects to the Soviet sailors, the Americans began to search for the ciphers that interested them so much, but did not achieve their desired goal. The reason for everything was the Russian mentality: during the repair of the K-129 in 1966–1967 in the city of Dalzavod, the chief builder, at the request of the submarine commander, Captain 1st Rank V. Kobzar, moved the code room to the missile compartment. He could not refuse this tall, tightly built man, who was suffering in the cramped and tiny cabin of the second compartment, and therefore retreated from the project.
But the secret of raising the sunken submarine was not respected. An international scandal erupted around Operation Jennifer. The work had to be curtailed, and the CIA never got to the rear of the K-129.
Soon the main actors who organized this operation also left the political arena: Richard Nixon was removed from his post in connection with the Watergate scandal; Howard Hughes went crazy; William Colby left intelligence for unknown reasons. Congress prohibited the CIA from further engaging in such dubious operations.
The only thing that the homeland did for the dead submariners after the lifting of the boat was that the USSR Ministry of Foreign Affairs sent a note to the US State Department in which it accused the Americans of violating international maritime law (raising an alien ship from the ocean floor) and desecrating the mass grave of sailors. However, neither one nor the other had any legal basis.
Only in October 1992, the film on which the burial of six bodies of Soviet submariners was filmed was handed over to Boris Yeltsin, but did not provide any information shedding light on the causes of the tragedy.
Later, the American-Russian film “The Tragedy of the Submarine K-129” was shot, which reveals only twenty-five percent of the factual material, is replete with errors and the embellishment of reality familiar to Americans.
There are many half-truths in the film, which are much worse than outright lies.
According to the proposal of the Minister of Defense I. Sergeez, by decree of the President of the Russian Federation dated October 20, 1998, all crew members of the K-129 submarine were awarded the Order of Courage (posthumously), but the awards were presented to only eight families of the deceased sailors. In the city of Cheremkhovo, a monument was erected to the heroic submariners of the submarine K-129, who were born and raised in the Irkutsk region.
The circumstances that led to the tragedy on board the missile submarine are still unknown. His death is considered one of the biggest mysteries of the Cold War period, which unfolded between two superpowers - the USSR and the USA.
Vladimir Evdasin, who once served on this submarine, has his own version of its death
March 8, 2008 marked the 40th anniversary of the death and repose of the K-129 submarine in the depths of the Pacific Ocean. The media on this day were busy with banal congratulations to the women, and did not pay attention to the memory of the dead sailors. Including in Novosibirsk. Meanwhile, among the 99 submariners who died on the K-129, seven were our fellow countrymen: assistant commander, captain 3rd rank Motovilov Vladimir Artemyevich, foreman of the bilge engineer team, chief petty officer of long-term service Ivanov Valentin Pavlovich, commander of the launch department, foreman of the 2nd class Saenko Nikolai Emelyanovich , senior electrician senior sailor Bozhenko Vladimir Alekseevich, electricians sailors Gostev Vladimir Matveevich and Dasko Ivan Aleksandrovich, motor mechanic sailor Kravtsov Gennady Ivanovich.
Only thirty years after the death, our fellow countrymen, like all members of the K-129 crew, were awarded “for the courage and bravery shown in the performance of military duty” with the Order of Courage posthumously. And ten years later, few people remembered the fate of this crew. And it's unfair. The K-129 crew did not die as a result of an accident. He fell victim to the forty-five-year war of 1946–1991, designated in history as a cold war (implied: conditional, bloodless). But there were also direct confrontations in this war, and there were casualties - the fate of K-129 is an example of this. This should not be forgotten.
In 1955, the United States, three years ahead of the USSR, commissioned a nuclear submarine with torpedo weapons. But on September 16 of the same 1955, the USSR carried out the world's first successful launch of a ballistic missile from a submarine on the surface, which made it possible to launch a nuclear strike on enemy ground targets. In July 1960, American submariners took the lead by launching ballistic missiles super-secretly, from under water. But already in October of the same year, a rocket was launched from under water in the USSR. This is how the battle of submarine fleets for supremacy in the World Ocean unfolded rapidly. At the same time, the cold war under water was fought on the brink of a hot war. Submarines of the United States and other NATO countries constantly monitored Soviet warships. Soviet submarines responded in kind. These reconnaissance operations, and sometimes acts of intimidation, often led to near-foul incidents, and in the case of the K-129 led to the death of the ship and its crew.
On February 24, 1968, on a ninety-day voyage (the return was planned for May 5), the diesel-electric submarine K-129 with three ballistic missiles and two torpedoes with nuclear warheads on board. The secret mission that was kept in the package, which the commander had the right to open only after arriving in the country, has not yet been revealed. given point World ocean. It is only known that the submarine was prepared for the voyage in an emergency manner, and the officers were “whistled” (recalled) from vacation by telegram, no matter where in the country they were vacationing.
One can guess about the goals of the campaign, knowing what events were taking place at that time in the area of responsibility of the Pacific fleets of the USSR and the USA, and the degree of tension in the international situation.
It began with the fact that on January 23, 1968, the American reconnaissance ship Pueblo invaded North Korean territorial waters. Was attacked and captured by Korean border guards, and its crew captured (one American died). The North Koreans refused to give up the ship and its crew. Then the United States sent two aircraft carrier formations of ships to the East Korean Gulf, threatening to free their compatriots by force. North Korea was an ally, the USSR was obliged to provide it with military assistance. The commander of the Pacific Fleet, Admiral Amelko, secretly brought the fleet to full combat readiness and in early February deployed 27 submarines, a squadron of surface ships led by the Varyag missile cruiser, and long-range maritime reconnaissance aircraft in the maneuvering area of American aircraft carriers. Vigelent deck attack aircraft began to take off from American aircraft carriers and tried to intimidate our sailors by flying, almost touching the masts over the Soviet ships. Admiral Amelko radioed to the Varyag: “The order to open fire should only be given in the event of an obvious attack on the ships. Maintain restraint and safety measures." Nobody wanted to fight “hotly”. But the Americans had to be stopped. A regiment of 21 Tu-16 missile-carrying aircraft was raised from a ground-based naval aviation airfield with orders to fly over aircraft carriers and other ships of the American squadron at extremely low altitudes, demonstrating the threat of missiles fired from hatches. This had the desired effect. Both carrier formations turned around and left for Sasebo, an American military base in Japan. The transformation of the Cold War into a real war was prevented. But the threat persisted for another year, because the crew of the Pueblo was returned to the Americans only in December 1968, and the ship itself even later.
It was against the background of what events that the submarine K-129 received an order to urgently th preparation for the trip. War could break out at any moment. Judging by the armament, the K-129, if necessary, was ready to attack nuclear strikes two torpedoes against naval aircraft carrier formations and three ballistic missiles against ground targets. For this purpose, they had to patrol in the zone of a possible theater of military operations.
Coming out of the bay, the submarine moved south, reached the fortieth parallel and turned west along it, towards the Japanese islands. At the appointed hours, the command received control radiograms from her. On the twelfth day, March 8 at night, K-129 did not get in touch. At this time, she was supposed to be in the area of the next turning point on the route to the combat mission area at a distance of about 1230 miles from the shores of Kamchatka and about 750 miles northwest of the island of Oahu in the Hawaiian archipelago.
When the radiogram from K-129 was not received during the next scheduled communication session, the hope that the silence was due to problems with the radio equipment melted away. Active searches began on March 12. More than 30 ships and aircraft scoured the supposed area where the submarine disappeared, but never found traces of it either on the surface or in the depths of the ocean. The country and the world were not informed about the tragedy, which was the tradition of the then authorities. The causes of the tragedy are still debated.
The main version of the death of K-129 by our submariners and experts: the submarine collided with another submarine. This happens and has more than once led to disasters and accidents with boats from different countries.
It must be said that American submarines are constantly on duty in neutral waters off the coast of Kamchatka, detecting our submarines leaving the base into the open ocean. It is unlikely that the “roaring cow,” as American sailors nicknamed our diesel-electric submarines for their noise, managed to break away from the high-speed Atomarina, and therefore, experts believe, there was probably a spy Atomarina in the area where the K-129 was lost. The commanders of the American nuclear submarines consider it especially chic to conduct observation, approaching at critically short distances, either from one side or the other, or diving under the bottom of the observed ship on the verge of collision. Apparently, this time a collision occurred, and experts blame the culprit for the death of K-129 on the American Swordfish, which was specially designed for underwater reconnaissance operations. The submarines escaped with minor damage. It is believed that it was the Swordfish that collided with the K-129 on the grounds that shortly after the disappearance of our submarine, the Swordfish reached the Japanese port of Yokosuka and, in an atmosphere of extreme secrecy, began repairing the bow and the wheelhouse with periscopes and antennas. An atomic ship could only receive such damage in a collision with another ship, and while being under it. Another confirmation of the guilt of the American nuclear submarine is the fact that when the Americans attempted, a couple of months after the death of the K-129, to examine it with deep-sea vehicles, and in 1974, to lift the bow of the dead submarine from a depth of 5 km for espionage purposes, they they knew exactly the coordinates of her death and did not waste time on a lengthy search.
The Americans, even now, when the Cold War has become history, deny the fact that their submarine was involved in the death of K-129, and explain the damage on the Swordfish as a collision with an ice floe. But in those latitudes in March, floating ice floes are nothing more than a myth. They present photographs taken by deep-sea vehicles of the K-129 lying on the bottom. A three-meter hole in a strong and light hull, a destroyed aft part of the wheelhouse fence, a bent aft and damaged middle ballistic missile silos, torn off covers of these silos and thrown missile warheads somewhere - all this damage is above or near the battery pit in the fifth compartment and, according to the Americans , could have been produced by the explosion of hydrogen released by batteries. They are not embarrassed by the fact that there are dozens of such explosions in the history of the submarine fleet of all countries, but they always only led to destruction and fires inside the submarine. Calculations show that the power of such an explosion is not enough to cause the submarine to suffer fatal damage, as recorded by the cameras of American naval spies.
From June 1960 to March 1961, I had the opportunity to serve on the K-129. Its fate is not indifferent to me, and therefore I dare to give this, apparently not yet voiced in the USA, version of the death of this submarine.
I think that shortly before the scheduled communication session on the night of March 8, 1968, the K-129 surfaced and was on the surface. In the surface position, three people rose to the bridge, which is in the wheelhouse enclosure, according to the staffing schedule: the watch officer, the steering signalman and the “looker looking aft.” The body of one of them in a fur raglan was recorded in the fence of the wheelhouse by a camera of American spies, which confirms that at the time of the disaster the boat was on the surface, because inside the submarine already on the second day of the underwater passage the air temperature reaches 40 degrees or more, and “in the furs” Submariners don't show off. Since hydroacoustics lose control over the situation under water when diesel engines are operating, they did not notice the noise of a maneuvering alien submarine. And she was diving transversely under the bottom of the K-129 at a critically dangerous distance and unexpectedly caught the hull of our submarine with her wheelhouse, and it capsized without even having time to squeak a radio signal. Water poured into the open hatch and air intake shaft, and soon the submarine fell to the bottom of the ocean. When it collided with the bottom upside down, the boat's hull broke. The missile launchers were also destroyed. Let me remind you that the boat fell to a depth of 5 km and began to collapse at a depth of another 300 m - the maximum calculated diving depth. Everything took a few minutes.
This version of what happened is quite real. The Project 629 submarines, and therefore the K-129, were the world's very first specially designed missile submarines. But, alas, they were not “vanka-standers”. The ballistic missiles did not fit into the submarine’s hull; the launchers had to be placed in a special compartment, and a special fence had to be built above it, rising above the upper deck to the height of a three-story building. A wheelhouse with a bridge and all retractable devices were placed in the bow part of the fence. With the length of the submarine itself being about 100 m, about a quarter of this distance was accounted for by the fence. The width, from side to side, was no more than 10 m. This design made the submarine very unstable when on the surface; it swayed from side to side quite strongly even with the wind. And when a powerful external force intervened, the center of gravity shifted to a catastrophic point, the boat capsized and fell to the bottom, dragging 99 submariners with it. Eternal memory to them.
It would be nice in Novosibirsk to introduce into the tradition the commemoration of our fellow countrymen and the entire crew of K-129 by laying flowers, or even a gun salute at the Monument to sailors and rivermen who gave their lives for the Fatherland. Let every year on March 8, the day of the death of K-129, Navy veterans, cadets of the river command school, cadets, members of children's and youth military-patriotic associations come to the monument on the Ob embankment at the River Station pier. Those who gave their lives in the service of the Motherland during the Cold War deserve such attention.
FROM ANOTHER SOURCE
On March 8, 1968, during combat duty in the Pacific Ocean, the Soviet diesel submarine K-129 sank with three ballistic thermonuclear missiles on board. All 105 crew members were killed. There was an explosion on the boat, and it lay on the ground at a depth of more than 5,000 meters.
The disaster was kept secret. After some time, the American military decided to raise the nuclear submarine, for which a special vessel, the Explorer, was built in an atmosphere of strict secrecy. The lifting operation cost $500 million. Apparently, the price of Soviet military secrets was higher.
A major spy game was playing out around the boat's rise. Until the last moment, the Soviet side believed that raising the submarine was impossible and did not confirm the information about the loss of the boat at all. And only after the Americans began work on lifting the boat soviet government protested, even threatening to bomb the disaster area. But the Americans successfully completed their task of raising the boat. A scandal broke out. However, the CIA obtained Soviet military codes and other classified information.
The submariners did not return from the military campaign; they were eagerly awaited at home.
Mothers, wives, children, they all lived in hopes of meeting soon. But life sometimes brings us terrible things. The fighting guys were dying, going into the depths of the ocean.
One of the last photos of the K-129 submarine team, in the center Alexander Mikhailovich Zhuravin, senior assistant to the boat commander.
Full-time officers:
1. KOBZAR Vladimir Ivanovich, born in 1930, captain 1st rank, submarine commander.
2. ZHURAVIN Alexander Mikhailovich, born in 1933, captain of the 2nd rank, senior assistant to the boat commander.
3. LOBAS Fedor Ermolaevich, born in 1930, captain of the 3rd rank, deputy. boat commander for political affairs.
4. MOTOVOLOV Vladimir Artemyevich, born in 1936, captain of the 3rd rank, assistant boat commander.
5. PIKULIK Nikolai Ivanovich, born in 1937, captain-lieutenant, commander of warhead-1.
6. DYKIN Anatoly Petrovich, born in 1940, lieutenant, commander of the electronic navigation group BC-1.
7. PANARIN Gennady Semenovich, born in 1935, captain of the 3rd rank, commander of warhead-2. graduate of VVMU named after P.S. Nakhimov.
8. ZUEV Viktor Mikhailovich, born in 1941, captain-lieutenant, commander of the warhead-2 control group.
9. KOVALEV Evgeniy Grigorievich, born in 1932, captain of the 3rd rank, commander of warhead-3.
10. OREKHOV Nikolai Nikolaevich, born in 1934, engineer-captain of the 3rd rank, commander of warhead-5.
11. ZHARNAKOV Alexander Fedorovich, born in 1939, senior lieutenant, head of the RTS.
12. EGOROV Alexander Egorovich, born in 1934, engineer-captain-lieutenant, commander of the motor group BC-5.
Seconded officers.
1. Sergey Pavlovich CHEREPANOV, born in 1932, major of the medical service, submarine doctor, by Order of the Civil Code of the Navy N 0106 dated January 18, 1968, due to difficult family circumstances, he was transferred to Vladivostok as a teacher medical institute. With OK permission, the KTOF was left on the submarine to support the campaign.
2. MOSYACHKII Vladimir Alekseevich, born in 1942, senior lieutenant, commander of the OSNAZ reconnaissance group. Seconded for the period of going to sea. Commander of the reconnaissance group OSNAZ submarine “B-50”.
Ratings.
1. BORODULIN Vyacheslav Semenovich, born in 1939, midshipman, foreman of the team of helmsmen and signalmen.
2. LAPSAR Pyotr Tikhonovich, born in 1945, sergeant major 2nd class, commander of the steering-signalman squad.
3. OVCHINNIKOV Vitaly Pavlovich, born in 1944, sailor, helmsman-signalman.
4. KHAMETOV Mansur Gabdulkhanovich, 1945. birth, foreman 2 articles, foreman of the navigation electricians team.
5. Krivykh Mikhail Ivanovich, born in 1947, senior sailor, senior navigator electrician.
6. GUSCHIN Nikolai Ivanovich, born in 1945, senior sailor, commander of the control department.
7. BALASHOV Viktor Ivanovich, born in 1946, senior sailor, senior electrician operator.
8. SHUVALOV Anatoly Sergeevich, born in 1947, sailor, senior electrician operator.
9. KIZYAEV Alexey Georgievich, born in 1944, sergeant major of the first class, sergeant major of the preparation and launch team.
10. LISITSYN Vladimir Vladimirovich, born in 1945, petty officer 2nd class, squad commander on board. devices.
11. KOROTITSKIKH Viktor Vasilievich, born in 1947, sailor, senior gyroscopicist.
12. SAENKO Nikolai Emelyanovich, born in 1945, foreman 2nd class, commander of the launch squad.
13. CHUMILIN Valery Georgievich, born in 1946, foreman 2nd class, commander of the torpedo squad.
14. Vladimir Mikhailovich KOSTYUSHKO, born in 1947, sailor, torpedo operator.
15. MARAKULIN Viktor Andreevich, born in 1945, foreman 2nd class, commander of the torpedo electricians department.
16. Vitaly Ivanovich TERESHIN, born in 1941, midshipman, foreman of the radiotelegraph crew.
17. ARCHIVOV Anatoly Andreevich, born in 1947, sailor, radiotelegraph operator.
18. NECHEPURENKO Valery Stepanovich, born in 1945, foreman 2nd class, commander of the telegraph operator department.
19. PLUSNIN Viktor Dmitrievich, born in 1945, sergeant major 2nd class, commander of the motorists squad.
20. TELNOV Yuri Ivanovich, born in 1945, senior sailor, senior engine operator.
21. ZVEREV Mikhail Vladimirovich, born in 1946, sailor, senior motorman.
22. SHISHKIN Yuri Vasilievich, born in 1946, sailor, senior motorman.
23. VASILIEV Alexander Sergeevich, born in 1947, sailor, motor mechanic.
24. OSIPOV Sergey Vladimirovich, born in 1947, sailor, motor mechanic.
25. BAZHENOV Nikolai Nikolaevich, born in 1945, foreman 2nd class, commander of the electricians department.
26. KRAVTSOV Gennady Ivanovich, born in 1947, sailor, motor mechanic.
27. GOOGE Petr Ivanovich, born in 1946, foreman 2nd class, motor mechanic.
28. Odintsov Ivan Ivanovich, born in 1947, sailor mechanic.
29. OSCHEPKOV Vladimir Grigorievich, born in 1946, foreman 2nd class, commander of the electricians department.
30. POGADAEV Vladimir Alekseevich, born in 1946, sailor, senior electrician.
31. BOZHENKO (sometimes BAZHENO) Vladimir Alekseevich, born in 1945, senior sailor, senior electrician.
32. OZHIMA Alexander Nikiforovich, born in 1947, sailor, electrician.
33. GOSTEV Vladimir Matveevich, born in 1946, sailor, electrician.
34. DASKO Ivan Aleksandrovich, born in 1947, sailor, electrician.
35. TOSHCHEVIKOV Alexander Nikolaevich, born in 1947, sailor, electrician.
36. DEGTYAREV Anatoly Afanasyevich, born in 1947, sailor, electrician.
37. IVANOV Valentin Pavlovich, born in 1944, chief petty officer beyond military service, foreman of the bilge operator team.
38. SPRISHEVSKY (sometimes SPRISCHEVSKY) Vladimir Yulianovich, born in 1934, midshipman, foreman of the RTS team.
39. KOSHKAREV Nikolay Dmitrievich, born in 1947, sailor, senior radiometrist.
40. ZUBAREV Oleg Vladimirovich, born in 1947, sailor, radiometrist.
41. BAKHIREV Valery Mikhailovich, born in 1946, foreman 2nd class, chemist-sanitary.
42. LABZIN (sometimes - LOBZIN) Viktor Mikhailovich, born in 1941, chief petty officer beyond military service, senior cook instructor.
43. MATANTSEV Leonid Vladimirovich, born in 1946, senior sailor, senior cook.
44. CHICHKANOV Anatoly Semenovich, born in 1946, foreman 2nd article, commander of the radiotelegraph department.
45. KOZIN Vladimir Vasilievich, born in 1947, sailor, radiotelegraph operator.
46. LOKHOV Viktor Aleksandrovich, born in 1947, senior sailor, senior hydroacoustic.
47. POLYAKOV Vladimir Nikolaevich, born in 1948, sailor, student bilge operator.
48. TORSUNOV Boris Petrovich, born in 1948, sailor, electrician
49. KUCHINSKY Alexander Ivanovich, born in 1946, petty officer 2nd class, senior instructor.
50. KASYANOV Gennady Semenovich, born in 1947, sailor, apprentice electrician navigator.
51. POLYANSKY Alexander Dmitrievich, born in 1946, foreman 2nd article, commander of the bilge operators section.
52. SAVITSKY Mikhail Seliverstovich, born in 1945, foreman 2nd class, commander of the bilge operators section.
53. KOBELEV Gennady Innokentyevich, born in 1947, senior sailor, senior bilge operator.
54. SOROKIN Vladimir Mikhailovich, born in 1945, senior sailor, senior bilge operator.
55. YARYGIN Alexander Ivanovich, born in 1945, senior sailor, bilge operator.
56. KRYUCHKOV Alexander Stepanovich, born in 1947, sailor, bilge operator.
57. KULIKOV Alexander Petrovich, born in 1947, senior sailor, commander of the hydroacoustics department.
58. KABAKOV Anatoly Semenovich, born in 1948, sailor, motor mechanic.
59. REDKOSHEV Nikolay Andreevich, born in 1948, sailor, motor mechanic.
By replacement:
1. KUZNETSOV Alexander Vasilyevich, born in 1945, foreman 1st article, foreman of the motor team = 453 submarine crew.
2. TOKAREVSKIKH Leonid Vasilvich, born in 1948, senior sailor, signal helmsman = 453 submarine crew.
3. TRIFONOV Sergey Nikolaevich, born in 1948, sailor, senior helmsman-signalman = 453 submarine crew.
4. DUBOV Yuri Ivanovich, born in 1947, sailor, senior electrician-mechanic = 453 submarine crew.
5. SURNIN Valery Mikhailovich, born in 1945, foreman 2 articles, senior electrician-mechanic = 453 submarine crew.
6. NOSACHEV Valentin Grigorievich, born in 1947, sailor, senior torpedo operator = 453 submarine crew.
7. SHPAK Gennady Mikhailovich, born in 1945, petty officer 1st class, senior mechanic = 453 submarine crew.
8. KOTOV Ivan Tikhonovich, born in 1939, midshipman, foreman of the electricians team = 337 submarine crew.
9. NAYMISHIN (sometimes - NAYMUSHIN) Anatoly Sergeevich, born in 1947, senior sailor, commander of the radiometer department = submarine “K-163”.
10. KHVATOV Alexander Vladimirovich, born in 1945, foreman 1st article, foreman of the radiotelegraph team = submarine “K-14”.
11. GUSCHIN Gennady Fedorovich, born in 1946, foreman 2nd class, SPS specialist = 337 submarine crew.
12. BASHKOV Georgy Ivanovich, born in 1947, sailor, bilge operator = 458 submarine crew.
13. ABRAMOV Nikolai Dmitrievich, born in 1945, chief petty officer beyond military service, commander of the electricians department = 337 submarine crew.
14. KARABAZHANOV (sometimes - KARABOZHANOV) Yuri Fedorovich, born in 1947, senior sailor, senior helmsman = submarine “K-163”.
1. KOLBIN Vladimir Valentinovich, born in 1948, sailor, mechanic = 453 submarine crew.
2. MINE (sometimes - RUDNIN) Anatoly Ivanovich, born in 1948, sailor, mechanic = 453 submarine crew.
3. PESKOV Evgeniy Konstantinovich, born in 1947, sailor, senior bilge = 453 submarine crew.
4. Oleg Leonidovich KRUCHININ, born in 1947, sailor, radiotelegraph operator = 453 submarine crew.
5. PLAKSA Vladimir Mikhailovich, born in 1948, sailor, student radiotelegraph operator = submarine “K-116”.
6. MIKHAILOV Timur Tarkhaevich, born in 1947, senior sailor, commander of the radiometer department = 453 submarine crew.
7. ANDREEV Alexey Vasilievich, born in 1947, sergeant major 2nd class, commander of the hydroacoustics department = submarine “K-163”.
8. KOZLENKO Alexander Vladimirovich, born in 1947, sailor, torpedo operator = 453 submarine crew.
9. CHERNITSA Gennady Viktorovich, born in 1946, sailor, cook = submarine “K-99”.
10. PICHURIN Alexander Alexandrovich, born in 1948, sailor, senior hydroacousticist. Arrived on the K-129 as a sonar student on February 1, 1968. By order of the division commander, he was transferred to crew 453. However, he was not actually transferred to the crew and participated in preparing the submarine for combat service. Before the departure of the K-129, the senior assistant commander, Captain II Rank Zhuravin, did not report the presence of sailor PICHURIN on board the submarine when reporting to the division commander and did not correct the list he had submitted earlier.
11. SOKOLOV Vladimir Vasilievich, born in 1947, sailor, electrician = submarine “K-75”.
On October 22, 1998, on the basis of a Presidential Decree, the commander’s son Andrei, the wife of the first mate Zhuravina Irina Andreevna, and the wife of the group commander Zueva Galina Nikolaevna were awarded the Order of Courage. Thanks to the persistence of Irina Andreevna Zhuravina, the work of restoring the good memory of the submariners of the crew of the submarine “K-129” has moved forward.
Here are some photographs of the crew of the submarine K-129.
Senior assistant RPL K-129 Zhuravin Alexander Mikhailovich, captain 2nd rank.
Commander of BC-1 Zhuravin A.M. ON THE K-129 submarine, earlier photograph.
Kozlenko Alexander Vladimirovich, BC-3 sailor, torpedo operator born in 1947. Photo from the only surviving negative. Found on board the RPL K-129 in 1974 during an attempt to lift it.
Personnel of RPL K-129
Commander of the submarine K-129 Kobzar Vladimir Ivanovich
“Project Azorian” is the code name for a secret operation that later became one of the main scandals of the Cold War. It was in those distant years that a camouflaged US warship pulled the sunken Soviet K-129 out of the ocean.
On the dark floor of the North Pacific Ocean lie the remains of the most courageous submarine in world history. These wreckage testify to the terrible tragedy that occurred on March 11, 1968 with the Soviet nuclear submarine K-129, as a result of which 98 officers died. The location of the tragedy was kept secret from the USSR and was made public only 6 years later...
The Americans found and examined the sunken submarine within the first 2 weeks. Possessing modern technologies, the CIA launched a unique project to raise part of the K-129 boat from the seabed in August 1974.
Since the K-129 sank at a very great depth, about 5000 m, the Glomar Explorer ship, equipped with unique equipment for ultra-deepwater work. The operation was secretly carried out in international waters and was disguised as geological exploration work on the sea shelf.
The course of trouble
...Under the cover of darkness in the early morning of February 24, 1968, the diesel-electric submarine "K-129", tail number "574", left Krasheninnikov Bay and headed for the Pacific Ocean, towards the Hawaiian Islands.
Project 629-A submarine. Maximum diving depth - 300 m. Armament - 3 R-21 ballistic missiles, torpedoes with nuclear warheads. Autonomy -70 days. Crew - 90 people.
On March 8, at the turning point of the route, the submarine did not signal to pass the control line. The faint hope that the boat was drifting on the surface, deprived of power and radio communications, dried up after two weeks.
A truly major search operation began. Over the course of 70 days, three dozen ships of the Pacific Fleet examined the entire K-129 route from Kamchatka to Hawaii. Throughout the journey, water samples were taken for radioactivity (there were atomic weapons on board the submarine). Alas, the boat sank into obscurity.
The crew of the lost boat.
In the fall of 1968, mournful notices were sent to the relatives of the missing sailors from the crew of “K-129” throughout the cities of the Soviet Union, where in the column “cause of death” it was written: “recognized as dead.” The military-political leadership of the USSR hid the fact of the disappearance of the submarine from the whole world, quietly expelling the K-129 from the Navy.
The only one who remembered about the lost boat was the US Central Intelligence Agency.
The nuclear submarine Barb (SSN-596) was on duty in the Sea of Japan when something unexpected happened. A large detachment went to sea Soviet ships and submarines. What was surprising was that the sonars of the USSR Navy ships, including submarines, were constantly “working” in active mode.
It soon became clear that the Russians were not looking for an American boat at all. Their ships quickly moved east, filling the radio airwaves with numerous messages. The commander of the USS Barb reported to the command about what had happened and suggested that, judging by the nature of the “event,” the Russians were looking for their sunken boat.
Place of death of K-129
US Navy specialists began listening to kilometers of tape recordings received from bottom acoustic stations of the SOSUS system. In the cacophony of ocean sounds, they managed to find a fragment where a “clap” was recorded.
The signal came from a bottom station installed on the rise of the Imperial Mountains (a section of the ocean floor) at a distance of over 300 miles from the supposed site of the disaster. Considering the SOSUS direction finding accuracy of 5-10°, the position of “K-129” was determined as a “spot” measuring 30 miles.
The Soviet submarine sank 600 miles northwest of the island. Midway (Hawaiian archipelago), in the middle of an ocean trench at a depth of 5000 meters.
The official abandonment of the sunken K-129 by the USSR government resulted in it becoming "orphan property", thus any country that discovered the missing submarine would be considered its owner. Therefore, in early 1969, discussions began within the CIA about the possibility of recovering valuable equipment from a Soviet submarine from the bottom of the Pacific Ocean.
The Americans were interested in literally everything: the design of the submarine, mechanisms and tools, sonars, documents. The idea of penetrating the radio communications of the USSR Navy and “splitting” the radio communication codes was especially tempting.
If you manage to remove the radio communication equipment, you can use a computer to open information encoding algorithms and understand key laws development of USSR ciphers, i.e. reveal the entire system of deployment and management of the Navy of the Soviet Union. Of no less interest was nuclear weapon on board the boat: design features of the R-21 ICBM and torpedo warheads.
By July 1969, a clear plan for several years ahead was ready and work began to boil. Considering the enormous depth at which the K-129 sank, the success of the operation was estimated at 10%
Mission Helibat
First, it was necessary to establish the exact location of the K-129 and assess its condition. I did this nuclear submarine for special operations USS “Halibut” (Halibut).
The former missile carrier was thoroughly modernized and filled to capacity with oceanological equipment: side thrusters, an anchor device with a bow and stern mushroom-shaped anchor, a diving camera, far and near side sonars, as well as a deep-sea towed module “Fish”, equipped with photo and video -equipment and powerful spotlights.
Once the Helibat reached its target point, days of hard work dragged on. Every six days, the deep-sea submersible was raised to reload the film in the cameras. Then the darkroom worked at a frantic pace (the camera took 24 frames per second).
And then one day a photograph with a clearly defined rudder feather of a submarine lay on the table. “K-129” lay on the ocean floor, according to unofficial information, at 38°5′ N. latitude. and 178°57′ E. (according to other sources - 40°6′ N and 179°57′ E) at a depth of 16,500 feet.
The exact coordinates of the location of “K-129” are still a US state secret. After the discovery of K-129, Helibat took another 22 thousand photographs of the Soviet submarine.
Originally planned using remote controlled underwater vehicles open the hull of the K-129 and remove the materials needed by the American intelligence services from the side of the submarine without lifting the boat itself. But during the Helibat mission, it was established that the hull of the K-129 was broken into several large fragments, which made it possible to lift entire compartments of interest to reconnaissance from a depth of five kilometers.
Of particular value was the 138-foot (42-meter) nose section of the K-129. The CIA and Navy asked for financial support to Congress, Congress to President Nixon, and the AZORIAN project became a reality.
History of Glomar Explorer
The fantastic project required special technical solutions.
In April 1971, at the Shipbuilding Dry Dock Co. shipyard. (Pennsylvania, East Coast of the USA) the MV Hughes Glomar Explorer was laid down. The giant, with a total displacement of 50,000 tons, was a single-deck ship with a “central slot” above which a giant A-shaped tower was located, an aft location of the engine room, a bow two-tier and aft four-tier superstructure.
Layout on the deck of the Hughes Glomar Explorer vessel of the main equipment used in the installation of pipe columns (lifting pipes): 1-bridge crane; 2 main deck; 3-"moon pool"; 4-A frame; 5-external gimbal suspension; 6-internal gimbal suspension; 7-base of the cargo device; 8-tower; 9-pipe feed tray; 10-trolley for pipe feed tray; 11-pipe transfer crane; 12-pipe lifter.
One of the myths about the Azorian project is that the K-129 broke apart during ascent and most of fell to the bottom - is refuted by the discrepancy between the dimensions of the “Moon Pool” (length 60 meters) and the length of the “K-129” hull (length according to the water line - 99 meters). It was already initially planned that only part of the submarine would be raised.
At the same time, at the shipyards of National Steel Shipbuilding Corp. in San Diego (California, West Coast of the USA), the HMV-1 barge (Hughes Marine Barge) and the deep-sea capture Clementine were built. Such dispersal of production ensured complete secrecy of the operation.
Even the engineers directly involved in the project individually could not understand the purpose of these devices (ship, grapple and barge).
After a series of tests on East Coast, August 13, 1973 The Glomar Explorer set off on a 12,000-mile cruise around Cape Horn and arrived safely in Long Beach (California) on September 30. There, far from prying eyes, in a quiet bay of Santa Catalina Island, the HMB-1 barge with a grapple mounted on it was waiting for him.
The process of loading Clementine onto the Glomar Explorer
The barge was slowly loaded and fixed at a depth of 30 m, the Glomar Explorer stood above it; the doors of its central connector were moved apart and two columns were lowered into the water; at this time, the roof of the barge opened, and the columns, like Chinese chopsticks, moved “Clementine” inside the ship - into the “Moon Pool”.
As soon as the capture was on board the ship, the massive underwater doors were closed and the water was pumped out from the internal pool. After this, a huge work began on the ship, invisible to the prying eye, of installing the gripper, connecting all the cables, hoses and sensors.
Clementine
Cold summer of 1974, a depression north of the island of Guam in the western Pacific Ocean. Depth 5000 meters... Every 3 minutes a crane delivers a section 18.2 m long. There are 300 such sections in total, each as strong as a gun barrel.
The lowering and raising of the Clementine deep-sea capture occurs using a pipe column - a lifting pipe 5 kilometers long. Each section of the pipe has a conical cut, the sections are carefully screwed into each other, the grooves ensure reliable locking of the entire structure.
Soviet sailors watched the actions of the Glomar Explorer with interest. The very purpose of the operation is not clear to them, but the fact of carrying out deep-sea work in the middle of the Pacific Ocean aroused suspicion among the command of the USSR Navy.
As a result of technical problems during the lifting of the boat, its hull broke and most of it sank again, finally collapsing upon contact with the ground; only the bow section was lifted aboard the Glomar Explorer.
Although official information remains classified, researchers believe that ballistic missiles, code books and other equipment remained at the bottom, so it is believed that the objectives of the operation were not fully achieved.
The Chazhma measuring complex ship and the SB-10 rescue tug located nearby caused the Yankees a lot of trouble. Out of fear that the Russians would take the Glomar Explorer by storm, they had to fill the helipad with boxes and raise the entire crew to their feet.
Alarming data came from the “Moon Pool” - the wreckage of the boat is radioactive, apparently one of the nuclear charges has collapsed.
"Clementine" with parts of "K-129" boards the ship, "Glomar Explorer" and leaves with its booty for Hawaii...
Memorial to the submariners "K-129" in the Vilyuchinsk garrison