The most dangerous submarines lying at the bottom (5 Videos). The largest accidents on Soviet and Russian nuclear submarines

The idea of a submarine itself appeared in the 15th century. This idea came to the brilliant head of the legendary Leonardo da Vinci. But, fearing the devastating consequences of such a hidden weapon, he destroyed his project.

But this always happens, if the idea already exists, then sooner or later humanity will embody it. For more than half a century, submarines have been plying the seas and oceans. And, of course, from time to time they get into accidents. Of particular danger in this case are nuclear submarines equipped with nuclear power plants. Let's talk about them today.

USS Thresher

The first nuclear submarine to sink in history was the USS Thresher, which sank in the distant 1963. Built three years earlier, she was the first Thrasher-class submarine of its kind.

On April 10, the USS Thresher was taken out to sea to test deep-sea dives and test the strength of the hull. For about two hours, the boat sank and periodically transmitted data on the state of its systems to headquarters. At 09:17 USS Thresher stopped communicating. The last message read: "... limiting depth ...".

When they found it, it turned out that it fell apart into six parts, and all 112 crew members and 17 researchers died. The reason for the death of the boat is called a factory marriage in the welding of the hull, which could not withstand the pressure, cracked, and the water that got inside caused a short circuit in the electronics. The investigation will establish that the shipyards where the USS Thresher was serviced had extremely low quality control, and in addition, deliberate sabotage could occur. This was the reason for the death of the submarine. Her hull still rests at a depth of 2560 meters east of Cape Cod.

USS Scorpio

In the entire history of the US Navy, only two submarines have been definitively and irrevocably lost. The first was the USS Thresher mentioned above, and the second was the USS Scorpion that sank in 1968. The submarine sank in the Atlantic Ocean near the Azores. Literally five days after the accident, she was supposed to return to the base in Norfolk, but she did not get in touch.

In search of the USS Scorpion, 60 ships and planes set off, which found a lot of interesting things, including a sunken German submarine from the Second World War. But the sought-after boat was discovered only five months later at a depth of 3000 meters. The entire crew of 99 perished. The causes of the disaster are not completely known, but there is a version that one of the torpedoes could explode on board the boat.

USS San Francisco

But the case of the American boat USS San Francisco is just the story of a miraculous rescue. On January 8, 2005, a collision occurred 675 kilometers southeast of Guam. At a depth of 160 m, San Francisco collided with an underwater rock.

The rock broke through the ballast tanks, so that the ship could go to the bottom very quickly. But by the joint efforts of the team, they managed to maintain buoyancy and raise the USS San Francisco to the surface. The hull was not broken, and the nuclear reactor was not damaged.

At the same time, there were victims. Ninety-eight crew members received various injuries and fractures. Mate Second Class Joseph Allen died of head injuries the next day.

Let's move on to the Soviet submarines. The submarine K-8, which sank in the Bay of Biscay on April 12, 1970, was the first such loss of the Soviet fleet.

The cause of death was a fire in the hydroacoustic cabin, which began to spread rapidly through the air ducts and threatened to destroy the entire ship. But he was saved by simple human heroism. When the sailors from the first shift of the main power plant realized that the fire continued to spread, they drowned out the nuclear reactors and battened down all the doors to other compartments. The submariners themselves died, but did not let the fire destroy the submarine and kill the rest. A nuclear reactor did not release radiation into the ocean.

The surviving sailors were taken on board by the Bulgarian motor ship Avior, which was just sailing nearby. Captain 2nd rank Vsevolod Bessonov and 51 members of his crew died fighting the fire.

K-278 "Komsomolets"

The second sunken Soviet nuclear submarine. K-278 "Komsomolets" also destroyed the fire that broke out on board on April 7, 1989. The fire broke the tightness of the boat, which quickly filled with water and sank.

The sailors managed to send a signal for help, but due to damaged electronics, they were able to receive and decipher it only from the eighth time. Some crew members managed to get out and swim to the surface, but they ended up in icy water. As a result of the disaster, 42 sailors died, and 27 survived.

K-141 "Kursk"

We have already written about the mysterious death of the Kursk submarine, the strange behavior of the Russian authorities and questions that no one has answered yet. So now let's focus on the main points.

On August 2, 2000 at 11:28 a.m., the systems of the cruiser Pyotr Veliky recorded a strong bang, followed by a slight shake of the ship. "Kursk" participated with the cruiser in the exercises of the Northern Fleet and six hours later was supposed to get in touch with him, but disappeared.

After almost two days, the submarine will be found at a depth of 108 meters, already at the bottom. All 118 crew members were killed. The reasons for the death of the Kursk are still not completely clear, since the official version of the fire in the torpedo room raises too many questions.

Ukraine is out of competition

If any conclusion can be drawn from all these stories, it is to understand that the work of submariners is harsh and dangerous. And Ukrainians know how to cope with any dangerous work. Therefore, despite the fact that we do not yet have a submarine fleet, this is a matter of time. As soon as Ukraine has free resources for its creation and development, it will be created.

And we have plenty of strong sailors, whose Cossack ancestors sailed on seagulls all the way to Turkey, and whose fathers and grandfathers served on Soviet submarines, we will find in abundance. Ukraine usually has no shortage of heroes.

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 the major cities of the Pacific coast and the 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 submarine fleet. For the first time, the documentary tells what really happened to the K-129 submarine. Specialists 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 special services, but by the Americans, having spent several years searching for it?

Which version of the submarine's death turned out to be correct: a crew error, a technical accident - a hydrogen explosion in the submarine's hull compartment, or the third - a collision with another underwater object, the American Swordfish submarine?

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 kept deathly silence. The officers of the Pacific Fleet were forbidden to have any conversations on this subject.
To unravel the mystery of the death of the submarine, you need to go back 46 years ago, when all the participants in this tragedy were still alive.
K-129 was not supposed to go to sea then, because just a month and a half before this tragedy, she returned from a planned campaign. The crew was exhausted by a long raid, and the materiel required refurbishment. The submarine, which was to sail, was not ready to go. In this regard, the command of the Pacific Fleet decided to send the K-129 on patrol instead. The situation developed on the principle of "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 own life, but also the lives of all the members of the crew entrusted to him. But at what cost!
As a matter of urgency, K-129 began preparing a new campaign. Only a part of the officers were recalled from leave. The missing composition was forcedly understaffed from other submarines. In addition, a group of apprentice sailors from the submarine was taken 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 - K-129 did not give a signal about the passage of the control line, due to the combat order. And then it turned out that at the command post of the squadron there was not even a list of the crew signed personally by the submarine commander and certified by the ship's seal. From a military point of view, this is a serious malfeasance.
From mid-March to May 1968, an operation unprecedented in scope and secrecy was carried out to search for the disappeared submarine, in which dozens of ships of the Kamchatka Flotilla and aviation of the Northern Fleet were involved. Stubbornly searched at the calculated point of the route K-129. The weak hope that the submarine was drifting on the surface, without a course and radio communications, did not materialize after two weeks. The congestion of the ether 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 spot is solarium and is identical to the fuel used in the submarines of the Soviet Navy. The exact place of the death of K-129 in official documents was designated as the "K" point.
The search for the submarine continued for 73 days. After their completion, the relatives and friends of all crew members received a funeral with a cynical record "declared dead." It was as if they forgot about 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. The official refusal of the government of the USSR from the sunken
K-129 resulted in her becoming "orphan property", thus any country that discovered the missing submarine would be considered its owner. And of course, everything that is inside the submarine. If we take into account that in those days all submarines leaving the coast of the USSR were painted over the number, then if K-129 was found, it would not even have identification marks.
Nevertheless, to investigate the causes of the death of the K-129 submarine, two commissions were created: a government commission under the leadership of the Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the USSR 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 acknowledged that the fault of the crew of the submarine in the death of the ship is not.
The most reliable cause of the disaster could be a failure to a depth below the limit due to freezing of the float valve of the RDP air shaft (mode of operation of diesel engines under water). An indirect confirmation of this version was that the command of the fleet headquarters ordered the commanders to use the RDP regime as much as possible. Subsequently, the percentage of sailing time in this mode became one of the criteria for the success of the cruise tasks. It should be noted that the K-129 submarine has never lagged behind in this indicator during long-term navigation at extreme depths. The second official version was a submerged collision with a foreign submarine.
In addition to the official ones, there were a number of unofficial versions expressed in different years by various experts: a collision with a surface vessel or transport at periscope depth; failure to depths exceeding the maximum immersion depth, and due to this violation of the design strength of the hull; falling on the slope of the internal waves of the ocean (the nature of which has not yet been precisely established); explosion of a storage battery (AB) during its charging as a result of exceeding the permissible concentration of hydrogen (American version).
In 1998, a book by Sherri Sontag and Christopher Drew, The Blind Man's Bluff. The Untold History of American Underwater Espionage. It presented three main versions of the death of K-129: the crew lost control; a technical accident that developed into a catastrophe (AB explosion); collision with another ship.
The version of the AB explosion on the submarine was deliberately false, because in the entire history of the world's submarine fleets, many such explosions were recorded, but not one of them caused the destruction of the strong hulls of the boats, at least because of the outboard water.

The most plausible and proven is the version of the collision of the K-129 submarine with the American submarine "Swordfish" (translated as "swordfish"). Already its name 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 the 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 from the left side in the bulkhead area between the second and third compartments. The boat itself was lying on the ground on an even keel, which meant that the collision occurred when it was under water at a depth safe for a surface ship to ram. Apparently, the Swordfish, which was following 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. The journalist of the newspaper "Sovershenno sekretno" A. Mozgovoy rejects it, referring primarily to the damage to the K-129, because the Swordfish's heel angle did not allow it to cause such damage to the Soviet submarine. A. Mozgovoy defends the version that the K-129 died as a result of a collision with a surface transport. And there is also evidence for this, although the same “swordfish” appears again in them. In the spring of 1968, reports began to appear in the foreign press that a few days after the disappearance of the K-129 submarine, the Swordfish entered the Japanese port of Yokosuka with a crushed conning tower and began emergency repairs. The entire operation was classified. The boat was under repair for only one night, during which it was redecorated: patches were applied, the hull was touched up. In the morning she left the parking lot, and a non-disclosure agreement was taken from the crew. After this incident, Swordfish did not 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 clearly did not correspond to reality, 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, and not just in spring.
Even in defense of the version of the collision of two submarines, the fact that the Americans surprisingly accurately and quickly determined the place of death of the K-129 speaks. At that time, the possibility of detecting it with the help of an American satellite was excluded, meanwhile 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 place of death of the K-129, its position and the condition of the hull with the Trieste-2 deep-sea bathyscaphe (according to other sources, Mizar), which allowed the CIA to conclude that the Soviet submarine could be raised. The CIA developed a covert operation codenamed "Jennifer". All this was carried out in the hope of obtaining cipher documents, combat packets 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 foundations for the development of ciphers. In connection with 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 US were aware of the operation: President Richard Nixon, CIA Director William Colby, and billionaire Howard Huoz, who financed these works. 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 an expanding bottom equipped with giant gripping pincers resembling the shape of a Soviet submarine hull. Both ships were built 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 the 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 the CIA tried to classify this operation, the activity of American ships in a certain place in the Pacific Ocean did not go unnoticed. The head of the USSR Navy, Vice Admiral I. N. Khurs, received a cipher message stating that the American vessel Glomar Explorer was completing the stage of preparatory work to lift the K-129. However, he answered the following: "I draw your attention to the better implementation of planned tasks." In principle, this meant - do not meddle with your nonsense, but mind your own business.
As it later became known, in Washington, a letter was planted under the door of the Soviet embassy with the following content: “In the near future, US intelligence services will take action to covertly raise a Soviet submarine that sank in the Pacific Ocean. Well-wisher."
The operation to lift the K-129 was technically very difficult, since the boat rested at a depth of more than 5000 m. All work lasted 40 days. When 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 adopted in the Soviet fleet. The sarcophagus with the bodies was covered with the flag of the Soviet Navy and lowered into the sea to the sound 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 they were so interested in, but did not reach the desired goal. The reason for everything was the Russian mentality: during the repair of K-129 in 1966-1967 in Dalzavod, the chief builder, at the request of the commander of the submarine, Captain 1st Rank V. Kobzar, transferred the cipher-cabin to the missile compartment. He could not refuse this tall, heavily built man, who was tormented in the cramped and tiny cabin of the second compartment, and therefore retreated from the project.

But the secret of lifting the sunken submarine was not observed. An international scandal erupted around Operation Jennifer. The work had to be curtailed, and the CIA never got to the aft part of 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 mad; William Colby left intelligence for unknown reasons. Congress barred the CIA from engaging in such dubious operations.
The only thing that the motherland did for the dead submariners after the boat was raised was that the USSR Foreign Ministry sent a note to the US State Department, in which it accused the Americans of violating international maritime law (lifting a foreign 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 give any information shedding light on the causes of the tragedy.
Later, the American-Russian film "The Tragedy of Submarine K-129" was shot, which reveals only twenty-five percent of the factual material, is replete with errors and embellishment of reality, which is familiar to Americans.
There are many half-truths in the picture, which are much worse than outright lies.
On the proposal of the Minister of Defense I. Sergeez, by decree of the President of the Russian Federation of October 20, 1998, all members of the crew of the K-129 submarine were awarded the Order of Courage (posthumously), but the awards were presented only to eight families of the dead sailors. In the city of Cheremkhovo, a monument was erected to the heroes of submarines 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 the two superpowers - the USSR and the USA.
Vladimir Evdasin, who once served on this submarine, has his own version of her death
March 8, 2008 marked the 40th anniversary of the death and rest in the abyss of the Pacific Ocean of the K-129 submarine. The media on this day were busy with banal congratulations to women, and the memory of the dead sailors was not paid attention. Including in Novosibirsk. Meanwhile, among the 99 submariners who died on K-129, seven were our fellow countrymen: assistant commander captain 3rd rank Motovilov Vladimir Artemyevich, foreman of the bilge machinist team, chief foreman of extra-long service Ivanov Valentin Pavlovich, commander of the launch department foreman of the 2nd article Saenko Nikolai Yemelyanovich , senior electrician senior sailor Bozhenko Vladimir Alekseevich, electricians sailors Vladimir Matveevich Gostev and Dasko Ivan Aleksandrovich, minder sailor Kravtsov Gennady Ivanovich.
Only thirty years after the death, our fellow countrymen, like all members of the K-129 crew, were awarded "for courage and bravery shown in the performance of military duty" posthumously with the Order of Courage. And ten years later, few remembered the fate of this crew. And it's not fair. The crew of the K-129 did not die in an accident. He fell victim to the forty-five-year war of 1946-1991, designated in history as the cold war (meaning: conditional, bloodless). But there were direct confrontations in this war, there were also victims - the fate of the 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 launched the world's first successful launch of a ballistic missile from a submarine in the surface position, which made it possible to deliver a nuclear strike against enemy ground targets. In July 1960, American submariners took the lead by launching ballistic missiles from under the water. But already in October of the same year, the launch of a rocket from under the water was also carried out in the USSR. So rapidly unfolded the battle of submarine fleets for superiority in the oceans. At the same time, the cold war under water was fought on the verge of a hot war. Submarines of the United States and other NATO countries constantly monitored the warships of the USSR. Soviet submarines responded in kind. These reconnaissance operations, and sometimes acts of intimidation, often led to incidents on the verge of a foul, and in the case of the K-129, they led to the death of the ship and its crew.
On February 24, 1968, on a ninety-day trip (the return was planned for May 5), from the submarine base in the Kamchatka Bay, whose name is translated from French as a grave, the K-129 diesel-electric submarine with three ballistic missiles and two torpedoes with nuclear warheads on board. Until now, the secret task that was stored in the package has not been disclosed, which the commander had the right to open only after arriving at a given point in the oceans. It is only known that the submarine was prepared for the campaign in an emergency order, and the officers were “whisted out” (withdrew) from vacations by telegrams, no matter where in the country they rested.
One can guess about the goals of the campaign, knowing what kind of events were taking place at that time in the zone of responsibility of the Pacific fleets of the USSR and the USA, 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. He was attacked and captured by Korean border guards, and his crew was captured (one American was killed). 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 release 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 put the fleet on full alert and in early February deployed 27 submarines, a squadron of surface ships led by the Varyag missile cruiser and long-range naval reconnaissance aircraft in the maneuvering area of American aircraft carriers. Vigelent carrier-based attack aircraft began to take off from American aircraft carriers and tried to intimidate our sailors, flying, almost touching the masts above the Soviet ships. Admiral Amelko radioed to the Varyag: “The order to open fire should be given only in the event of a clear attack on ships. Maintain composure and safety measures. Nobody wanted to fight "hot". But the Americans had to be stopped. A regiment of 21 Tu-16 missile carriers was raised from the ground airfield of naval aviation with orders to fly around aircraft carriers and other ships of the American squadron at extremely low altitudes, demonstrating a threat with missiles fired from hatches. This had the right effect. Both carrier formations turned around and left for Sasebo, the 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.
Here, against the background of what events, the K-129 submarine received an order to urgently and preparing for the trip. War could break out at any moment. Judging by the armament, the K-129, if necessary, was ready to deliver nuclear strikes with two torpedoes against naval aircraft carrier formations and three ballistic missiles against ground targets. For this, they had to patrol in the zone of a possible theater of operations.

Leaving the bay, the submarine moved south, reached the fortieth parallel and turned along it to the west, towards the Japanese islands. At the appointed time, 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 of the route of transition to the combat mission area at a distance of about 1230 miles from the coast 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 on the next scheduled communication session, the hope that the silence was due to malfunctions in the radio equipment melted away. On March 12, active searches began. More than 30 ships and aircraft along and across furrowed the alleged area of the disappearance of the submarine, but did not find any 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 in the tradition of the then authorities. The causes of the tragedy are still being debated.
The main version of the death of the K-129 of our submariners and experts: the submarine collided with another submarine. This happens and more than once has led to disasters and accidents with boats from different countries.

I must say 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 called our diesel-electric submarines for the noise, managed to break away from the high-speed nuclear submarine, and therefore, experts believe, there was probably a spy nuclear submarine in the area of the K-129 sinking. The commanders of American atomic marines consider it a special chic to conduct surveillance, approaching at critically small distances from one side, then from the other, then diving under the bottom of the observed ship on the verge of a collision. Apparently, this time the collision occurred, and experts call the culprit of the death of the K-129, the American atomic submarine Swordfish (Swordfish), which was specially designed for underwater reconnaissance operations, which had already had to collide with another of our submarines, however, then both submarines escaped with minor damage. The fact that it was Swordfish that collided with K-129 is believed on the basis that shortly after the disappearance of our submarine, Swordfish reached the Japanese port of Yokosuka and, in an atmosphere of extreme secrecy, began repairing the bow and cabin with periscopes and antennas. Such damage to an atomic marine could only be received in a collision with another ship, and 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 submersibles, and in 1974 to raise the bow of the dead submarine with espionage targets from a depth of 5 km, they knew exactly the coordinates of her death and did not waste time on a long search.
The Americans, even now that the Cold War has become history, deny the involvement of their submarine in the death of the K-129, and explain the damage to the Swordfish by a collision with an ice floe. But in those latitudes in March, floating ice floes are nothing more than a myth. They present images taken by deep-sea submersibles of the K-129 lying at the bottom. A three-meter hole in a strong and light hull, a destroyed stern part of the felling fence, a bent stern and damaged middle ballistic missile silos, torn off covers of these silos and missile warheads thrown somewhere - all these damages are above or near the battery pit in the fifth compartment and, the Americans say , could be obtained from the explosion of hydrogen released by batteries. They are not embarrassed that there are dozens of such explosions in the history of the submarine fleet of all countries, but they always led only to destruction and fires inside the submarine. Calculations show that the power of such an explosion is not enough for the submarine to receive fatal injuries, which were recorded by the cameras of American naval spies.
From June 1960 to March 1961 I had a chance to serve on K-129. Her fate is not indifferent to me, and therefore I dare to give such, it seems, 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, K-129 surfaced and sailed on the surface. In the surface position on the bridge, in the fence of the felling, according to the staffing table, three people went up and kept watch: the watch officer, the steering signalman and the “watcher in the stern”. The body of one of them in a fur raglan was recorded by an American spy camera in the cabin fence, which confirms that at the time of the disaster the boat was on the surface, because inside the submarine on the second day of the underwater course the air temperature reaches 40 or more degrees, and "in furs" divers don't flaunt. Since hydroacoustics lose control of the situation under water during the operation of diesel engines, they did not notice the noise of a maneuvering alien submarine. And she carried out transverse diving under the bottom of the K-129 at a critically dangerous distance and unexpectedly hooked the hull of our submarine with the wheelhouse, and she capsized without even having time to squeak a radio signal. Water rushed into the open hatch and air intake shaft, and soon the submarine fell to the bottom of the ocean. Upon impact with the bottom upside down, the hull of the boat broke. Rocket launchers were also destroyed. Let me remind you that the boat fell to a depth of 5 km and began to collapse even at a depth of 300 m - the maximum calculated immersion depth. It took a few minutes for everything.

This version of what happened is quite real. Submarines 629 of the project, and hence the K-129, were the very first specially designed missile submarines in the world. But, alas, they were not "roly-poly". Ballistic missiles did not fit into the hull of the submarine, launchers had to be placed in a special compartment, and a special fence was built above it, rising above the upper deck to the height of a three-story building. In the bow of the fence, a cabin with a bridge and all retractable devices were placed. With the length of the submarine itself about 100 m, about a quarter of this distance fell on the fence. In width, from side to side, it was no more than 10 m. This design made the submarine very unstable on the surface, it swayed from side to side quite strongly even with the wind. And when an external powerful force intervened, the center of gravity shifted to a catastrophic line, the boat capsized and fell to the bottom, dragging 99 divers with it. Eternal memory to them.
It would be nice to introduce a tradition in Novosibirsk to commemorate our fellow countrymen and the entire crew of the K-129 by laying flowers, and even salute at the Monument to sailors and rivermen who gave their lives for the Fatherland. Let every year on March 8, on the day of the death of K-129, veterans of the Navy, cadets of the river command school, cadets, members of children's and youth military patriotic associations come to the monument on the Ob embankment near the pier River Station. 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 crash was kept under wraps. Some time later, the US military decided to raise the nuclear submarine, for which, in an atmosphere of the strictest secrecy, a special vessel, the Explorer, was built. The lifting operation cost $500 million. Apparently, the price of Soviet military secrets was higher.

A major spy game was played around the lifting of the boat. Until the last moment, the Soviet side believed that lifting the submarine was impossible and did not confirm the information about the loss of the boat at all. And only after the start of work on raising the boat by the Americans, the Soviet government protested, threatening even the bombing of the disaster area. But the Americans successfully completed their task of lifting the boat. A scandal erupted. However, the CIA obtained Soviet military ciphers 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 a speedy meeting. But sometimes life brings us terrible things. Fighting guys died, going into the depths of the ocean.

One of the last photos of the K-129 submarine team, in the center Zhuravin Alexander Mikhailovich, senior assistant to the boat commander.

Staff officers:

1. KOBZAR Vladimir Ivanovich, born in 1930, captain of the 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 III rank, deputy. political boat commander.
4. Vladimir Artemyevich MOTOVOLOV, born in 1936, captain of the 3rd rank, assistant boat commander.
5. PIKULIK Nikolai Ivanovich, born in 1937, captain-lieutenant, commander of BC-1.
6. DYKIN Anatoly Petrovich, born in 1940, lieutenant, commander of the BCH-1 electric navigation group.
7. PANARIN Gennady Semenovich, born in 1935, captain of III rank, commander of BCH-2. graduate of VVMU named after P.S. Nakhimov.
8. ZUEV Viktor Mikhailovich, born in 1941, captain-lieutenant, commander of the control group BC-2.
9. KOVALEV Evgeny Grigorievich, born in 1932, captain of the III rank, commander of the BC-3.
10. OREKHOV Nikolai Nikolaevich, born in 1934, engineer-captain III 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 BCh-5.

Seconded officers.

1. Sergey Pavlovich CHEREPANOV, born in 1932, major of the medical service, doctor of the submarine, by order of the Civil Code of the Navy N 0106 dated 01/18/1968, due to difficult family circumstances, was transferred to Vladivostok as a teacher at the medical institute. By permission of the OK, KTOF was left on the submarine to ensure 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-signalmen.
2. LAPSAR Pyotr Tikhonovich, born in 1945, foreman of the 2nd article, commander of the helmsman-signalers department.
3. OVCHINNIKOV Vitaly Pavlovich, born in 1944, sailor, helmsman-signalman.
4. KHAMETOV Mansur Gabdulkhanovich, 1945. birth, foreman 2 articles, foreman of the team of electricians navigation.
5. KRIVIKH Mikhail Ivanovich, born in 1947, senior sailor, senior navigational electrician.
6. GUSHCHIN Nikolai Ivanovich, born in 1945, senior sailor, commander of the control department.
7. Viktor Ivanovich BALASHOV, 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, foreman of the 1st class, foreman of the preparation and launch team.
10. LISITSYN Vladimir Vladimirovich, born in 1945, foreman of the 2nd article, squad leader board. appliances.
11. KOROTITSKIKH Viktor Vasilievich, born in 1947, sailor, senior gyroscope operator.
12. SAYENKO Nikolai Emelyanovich, born in 1945, foreman of the 2nd article, commander of the launch department.
13. CHUMILIN Valery Georgievich, born in 1946, foreman of the 2nd article, commander of the torpedo squad.
14. KOSTUSHKO Vladimir Mikhailovich, born in 1947, sailor, torpedo pilot.
15. MARAKULIN Viktor Andreevich, born in 1945, foreman of the 2nd article, commander of the torpedo electricians department.
16. TERESHIN Vitaly Ivanovich, born in 1941, midshipman, foreman of the radiotelegraph team.
17. ARKHIVOV Anatoly Andreevich, born in 1947, sailor, radiotelegrapher.
18. NECHEPURENKO Valery Stepanovich, born in 1945, foreman of the 2nd article, commander of the telegraph department.
19. PLYUSNIN Viktor Dmitrievich, born in 1945, foreman of the 2nd article, commander of the minders department.
20. TELNOV Yury Ivanovich, born in 1945, senior sailor, senior minder.
21. ZVEREV Mikhail Vladimirovich, born in 1946, sailor, senior minder.
22. SHISHKIN Yuri Vasilyevich, born in 1946, sailor, senior minder.
23. VASILYEV Alexander Sergeevich, born in 1947, sailor, minder.
24. OSIPOV Sergey Vladimirovich, born in 1947, sailor, minder.
25. BAZHENOV Nikolai Nikolaevich, born in 1945, foreman of the 2nd article, commander of the department of electricians.
26. KRAVTSOV Gennady Ivanovich, born in 1947, sailor, minder.
27. GOOGE Petr Ivanovich, born in 1946, foreman of the 2nd article, minder.
28. ODINTSOV Ivan Ivanovich, born in 1947, sailor minder.
29. OSHCHEPKOV Vladimir Grigorievich, born in 1946, foreman of the 2nd article, commander of the electricians department.
30. POGADAEV Vladimir Alekseevich, born in 1946, sailor, senior electrician.
31. BOZHENKO (sometimes BAZHENNO) Vladimir Alekseevich, born in 1945, senior sailor, senior electrician.
32. OZHIMA Alexander Nikiforovich, born in 1947, sailor, electrician.
33. GOSTEV Vladimir Matveyevich, born in 1946, sailor, electrician.
34. DASKO Ivan Alexandrovich, 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 sergeant-major beyond conscript service, sergeant-major of the bilge machinist 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 of the 2nd article, medical chemist.
42. LABZIN (sometimes - LOBZIN) Viktor Mikhailovich, born in 1941, chief foreman 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 of the 2nd article, commander of the radio telegraph department.
45. KOZIN Vladimir Vasilyevich, born in 1947, sailor, radiotelegrapher.
46. LOKHOV Viktor Aleksandrovich, born in 1947, senior sailor, senior hydroacoustic engineer.
47. POLYAKOV Vladimir Nikolaevich, born in 1948, sailor, apprentice bilge engineer.
48. TORSUNOV Boris Petrovich, born in 1948, sailor, electrician
49. KUCHINSKY Alexander Ivanovich, born in 1946, foreman of the 2nd article, senior instructor.
50. KASYANOV Gennady Semenovich, born in 1947, sailor, student of navigational electrician.
51. POLYANSKY Alexander Dmitrievich, born in 1946, foreman of the 2nd article, commander of the bilge machinists department.
52. SAVITSKY Mikhail Seliverstovich, born in 1945, foreman of the 2nd article, commander of the bilge machinists department.
53. KOBELEV Gennady Innokent'evich, born in 1947, senior sailor, senior bilge engineer.
54. SOROKIN Vladimir Mikhailovich, born in 1945, senior sailor, senior bilge engineer.
55. YARYGIN Alexander Ivanovich, born in 1945, senior sailor, bilge engineer.
56. KRYUCHKOV Alexander Stepanovich, born in 1947, sailor, bilge engineer.
57. KULIKOV Alexander Petrovich, born in 1947, senior sailor, commander of the hydroacoustic department.
58. KABAKOV Anatoly Semenovich, born in 1948, sailor, minder.
59. REDKOSHEEV Nikolai Andreevich, born in 1948, sailor, minder.

By replacement:

1. KUZNETSOV Alexander Vasilievich, born in 1945, foreman of the 1st article, foreman of the motor team = 453 submarine crew.
2. TOKAREVSKIH Leonid Vasilvich, born in 1948, senior sailor, helmsman-signalman = 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 pilot = 453 submarine crew.
7. SHPAK Gennady Mikhailovich, born in 1945, foreman of the 1st article, senior minder = 453 submarine crew.
8. KOTOV Ivan Tikhonovich, born in 1939, midshipman, foreman of the team of electricians = 337 submarine crew.
9. NAIMISHIN (sometimes - NAIMUSHIN) Anatoly Sergeevich, born in 1947, senior sailor, commander of the radiometric department = submarine “K-163”.
10. KHVATOV Alexander Vladimirovich, born in 1945, foreman of the 1st article, foreman of the radiotelegraph team = submarine “K-14”.
11. GUSHCHIN Gennady Fedorovich, born in 1946, foreman of the 2nd article, SPS specialist = 337 submarine crew.
12. BASHKOV Georgy Ivanovich, born in 1947, sailor, bilge engineer = 458 submarine crew.
13. ABRAMOV Nikolai Dmitrievich, born in 1945, chief foreman beyond military service, commander of the electricians department = 337 submarine crew.
14. KARABAZHANOV (sometimes - KARABOZHANOV) Yuri Fedorovich, born in 1947, senior sailor, senior helmsman signalman = submarine “K-163”.

1. KOLBIN Vladimir Valentinovich, born in 1948, sailor, minder = 453 submarine crew.
2. MINE (sometimes - RUDNIN) Anatoly Ivanovich, born in 1948, sailor, minder = 453 submarine crew.
3. PESKOV Evgeny Konstantinovich, born in 1947, sailor, senior hold = 453 submarine crew.
4. KRUCHININ Oleg Leonidovich, born in 1947, sailor, radiotelegraph operator = 453 submarine crew.
5. Crybaby Vladimir Mikhailovich, born in 1948, sailor, apprentice radiotelegrapher = submarine “K-116”.
6. MIKHAILOV Timur Tarkhaevich, born in 1947, senior sailor, commander of the radiometric department = 453 submarine crew.
7. ANDREEV Alexey Vasilyevich, born in 1947, foreman of the 2nd article, commander of the hydroacoustic department = submarine “K-163”.
8. KOZLENKO Alexander Vladimirovich, born in 1947, sailor, torpedo pilot = 453 submarine crew.
9. CHERNITSA Gennady Viktorovich, born in 1946, sailor, cook = submarine “K-99”.
10. Alexander Alexandrovich PICHURIN, born in 1948, sailor, senior hydroacoustic engineer. Arrived on "K-129" as a hydroacoustic student on February 1, 1968. By order of the division commander, he was transferred to the 453rd crew. However, in fact, he was not transferred to the crew and participated in the preparation of the submarine for combat service. Before the K-129 left, the senior assistant commander, captain of the 2nd rank, Zhuravin, did not report to the division commander about the presence of sailor PICHULIN on board the submarine and did not correct the list submitted by him earlier.
11. SOKOLOV Vladimir Vasilyevich, born in 1947, sailor, electrician = submarine “K-75”.

On October 22, 1998, on the basis of the Decree of the President, the commander's son Andrey, the wife of the first mate Zhuravina Irina Andreevna, the wife of the group commander Zueva Galina Nikolaevna were awarded the Order of Courage. Thanks to the perseverance of Irina Andreevna Zhuravina, the work of restoring the good memory of the submariners of the K-129 submarine crew has been moved forward.

Here are some photos of the K-129 submarine crew.

Senior assistant RPL K-129 Zhuravin Alexander Mikhailovich, captain 2nd rank.

The commander of the warhead-1 Zhuravin A.M. ON the K-129 submarine, an earlier photo.

Kozlenko Alexander Vladimirovich, sailor BCh-3, torpedo pilot, born in 1947. Photo from the only surviving negative.

The personnel of the RPL K-129

Commander of the submarine K-129 Kobzar Vladimir Ivanovich

"Project Azorian" was the code name for a covert operation that later became one of the major scandals of the Cold War. It was in those distant years that a camouflaged US warship pulled a sunken Soviet K-129 out of the ocean.

On a dark bottom in the North Pacific lies the remains of the most courageous submarine in the history of the world. These fragments testify to the terrible tragedy that happened on March 11, 1968 with the Soviet nuclear submarine K-129, as a result of which 98 officers died. The place of the tragedy was kept secret from the USSR and only 6 years later it was announced ...

The Americans found and examined the sunken submarine during the first 2 weeks. With modern technology, the CIA launched a unique project to raise part of the K-129 boat from the seabed in August 1974.

Since K-129 sank at a very great depth, about 5000 m, the ship Glomar Explorer was designed and built specifically for the operation, equipped with unique equipment for ultra-deep sea work. The operation was secretly carried out in international waters and was disguised as exploration work on the sea shelf.

Trouble course

... Under the cover of darkness in the early morning of February 24, 1968, the K-129 diesel-electric submarine, tail number “574”, left Krasheninnikov Bay and headed for the Pacific Ocean, to the Hawaiian Islands.

Submarine project 629-A. Maximum immersion 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 give a signal about the passage of the control line. The faint hope that the boat was drifting on the surface, devoid of power and radio communications, dried up after two weeks.

A truly massive search operation has begun. For 70 days, three dozen ships of the Pacific Fleet surveyed the entire K-129 route from Kamchatka to Hawaii. All along the way, water samples were taken for radioactivity (there was an atomic weapon on board the submarine). Alas, the boat has sunk 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 K-129 crew in the cities of the Soviet Union, where the column “cause of death” read: “deem dead.” The military-political leadership of the USSR hid the fact of the disappearance of the submarine from the whole world, quietly excluding the K-129 from the Navy.

The only one who remembered 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 of Soviet ships and submarines went to sea. It was surprising that the sonars of the ships of the Soviet Navy, including submarines, constantly "worked" in active mode.

It soon became clear that the Russians were not looking for an American boat at all. Their ships were rapidly moving eastward, filling the 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 to listen 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 the “clap” was recorded.

The signal came from a bottom station installed on an elevation of the Imperial Mountains (a section of the ocean floor) at a distance of over 300 miles from the alleged crash site. Given the SOSUS direction finding accuracy of 5-10 °, the position of K-129 was determined as a “spot” 30 miles in size.

The Soviet submarine sank 600 miles northwest of about. Midway (Hawaiian archipelago), in the middle of an ocean trench at a depth of 5000 meters.

The Soviet government's official rejection of the sunken K-129 resulted in it becoming "orphaned property", thus any country that discovered the missing submarine would be considered its owner. Therefore, in early 1969, discussions began in the CIA about the possibility of lifting 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 instruments, sonars, documents. Particularly tempting was the idea of penetrating into the radio communications of the USSR Navy, "breaking" the ciphers of radio traffic.

If you manage to extract the radio communication equipment, you can use a computer to open the information encoding algorithms, to understand the key laws for the development of USSR ciphers, i.e. open the entire system of deployment and control of the Navy of the Soviet Union. Of no less interest was nuclear weapons on board the boat: design features of the R-21 ICBM and torpedo warheads.

By July 1969, a clear plan was prepared for several years ahead, and work began to boil. Given the enormous depth at which the K-129 sank, the success of the operation was estimated at 10%

Mission Khalibat

To begin with, it was necessary to establish the exact location of the K-129 and assess its condition. This was done by the nuclear submarine for special operations USS "Halibut" (Halibut).

The former missile carrier was thoroughly modernized and filled to capacity with oceanographic equipment: side thrusters, an anchor device with a bow and stern mushroom anchor, a diving camera, far and near side sonars, as well as a deep-sea towed Fish module equipped with photo and video equipment and powerful spotlights.

When "Khelibat" was at the calculated point, the days of hard work dragged on. Every six days, a deep-sea submersible was raised to reload film in cameras. Then the photo lab worked at a frantic pace (the camera did 24 frames per second).

And then one day a picture with a clearly defined submarine rudder fell on the table. "K-129" lay on the bottom of the ocean, according to unofficial information, at the point 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 the K-129, Khalibat took another 22,000 photographs of the Soviet submarine.

Initially, it was planned to open the K-129 hull with the help of remote-controlled underwater vehicles and extract the materials needed by the American special services from the submarine without lifting the boat itself. But during the Khalibat mission, it was found that the K-129 hull was broken into several large fragments, which made it possible to raise the entire compartments of interest to scouts from a five-kilometer depth.

Of particular value was the bow of the K-129, 138 feet (42 meters) long. The CIA and Navy turned to Congress for financial support, 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. (Pennsylvania, US East Coast) the MV Hughes Glomar Explorer was laid down. The giant, with a total displacement of 50,000 tons, was a single-deck vessel with a “central slot” above which was a giant A-shaped tower, an aft engine room, a bow two-tier and aft four-tier superstructures.

Layout on the deck of the ship "Hughes Glomar Explorer" of the main equipment used in the installation of pipe columns (lifting pipes): 1-bridge crane; 2-main deck; 3-"lunar pool"; 4-A-shaped frame; 5-external gimbal suspension; 6-internal gimbal suspension; 7-base of the cargo device; 8-tower; 9-pipe tray; 10-trolley of the pipe-feeding tray; 11-pipe transfer crane; 12-lift for pipes.

One of the myths about the Azorian project - the K-129 broke during the ascent and most of it fell to the bottom - is refuted by the discrepancy between the dimensions of the Lunar Pool (length 60 meters) and the length of the K-129 hull (length according to design waterline - 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 HMB-1 barge (Hughes Marine Barge) and the Clementine deepwater capture were under construction. Such a 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, capture and barge).

After a series of tests on the East Coast, on 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 barge HMB-1 with a grapple mounted on it was waiting for him.

The process of loading "Clementine" on the Glomar Explorer

The barge was slowly loaded and fixed at a depth of 30 m, the Glomar Explorer stood above it; the shutters of its central connector were moved apart and two columns were lowered into the water; at that moment, the roof of the barge opened, and the columns, like Chinese chopsticks, moved the Clementine inside the ship - into the Moon Pool.

As soon as the capture got on board the ship, the massive underwater shutters were closed and water was pumped out of the internal pool. After that, a huge, invisible to prying eyes, work began on the vessel to mount the gripper, attach all cables, hoses and sensors.

Clementine

The cold summer of 1974, a depression north of the island of Guam in the Western Pacific. The depth is 5000 meters… Every 3 minutes a section 18.2 m long is fed by a crane. There are 300 such sections in total, each one is as strong as a gun barrel.

The lowering and lifting of the deep-sea grip "Clementine" occur with the help of a pipe string - a lifting pipe, 5 kilometers long. Each section of the pipe has a conical thread, the sections are carefully screwed into each other, the grooves provide a secure locking of the entire structure.

The actions of the Glomar Explorer were watched with interest by Soviet sailors. The very purpose of the operation is not clear to them, but the fact that deep-sea work was carried out in the middle of the Pacific Ocean aroused suspicion among the command of the Soviet 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 raised aboard the Glomar Explorer.

Although official information remains classified, researchers believe that ballistic missiles, code books and other equipment remained at the bottom, therefore it is believed that the goals of the operation were not fully achieved.

The Chazhma measuring complex ship and the SB-10 rescue tug, which were nearby, caused a lot of trouble for the Yankees. Out of fear that the Russians would take the Glomar Explorer by storm, they had to fill up 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, one of the nuclear charges apparently collapsed.

"Clementine" with parts of "K-129" boards the ship, "Glomar Explorer" and leaves with its prey for Hawaii ...

Memorial to the submariners "K-129" in the garrison Vilyuchinsk

In the mid-1980s, the Soviet Union built a superboat like no other. This submarine "Komsomolets", accepted into the fleet in 1984, had high speed and could fight at great depths. A new era has begun in the Soviet Navy.

But five years passed, and Komsomolets with its nuclear weapons was at the bottom of the ocean, and two-thirds of its crew died due to another manifestation of Soviet incompetence.

The history of Komsomolets began in 1966. The team of the design bureau "Rubin" under the leadership of N. A. Klimov and the chief designer Yu. Research and development work continued for 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 a titanium alloy.

The project 685 boat (aka K-278) was supposed to become a prototype for testing 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 period of construction was due to the difficulties that arose in the processing of titanium.

Context

For 10 years, there were no plans to raise the sunken nuclear submarine

Russian submarines have no equal

For the first time in the recent history of Russia

The boat was equipped with a pressurized water reactor OK-650B-3 with a thermal power of 190 MW, which powered two steam generators with a capacity of 45 thousand horsepower on the shaft. This allowed the boat to develop an underwater speed of 30 knots, and a surface speed of 14 knots.

The submarine was equipped with the MGK-500 Skat low-frequency passive-active hydroacoustic system, the same one that is currently used in attack submarines of the Yasen project. He transmitted data to the Omnibus-685 combat information and control system. The armament of the boat consisted of six standard 533 mm torpedo tubes with ammunition from 22 type 53 torpedoes and Shkval anti-submarine missile torpedoes moving in the cavitation cavity.

The submarine Komsomolets 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 diving depth record - 1027 meters. This was an outstanding achievement, considering that the American submarine of its class "Los Angeles" 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 to purge 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 had become a fully combat-ready ship. She was given the name "Komsomolets", as the members of the Communist Youth Union were called.

April 7, 1989, being at a depth of 380 meters, "Komsomolets" ran into 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 damage control.

A fire started in the seventh compartment aft, and the flames damaged the air supply valve, due to which compressed air began to flow into the fire. Measures to combat the fire did not give results. The reactor was shut down and the ballast tanks were purged to make the boat float. But the fire continued to spread, and the crew fought it for another six hours before the command was given to abandon the boat. According to Polmar and Moore, the fire was so intense that due to the high temperature, rubber coating plates began to peel off from the outer hull, increasing the stealth of the ship.

The ship's commander, Captain First Rank Evgeny Vanin, together with four crew members, returned inside the boat in search of those crew members who might not have heard the evacuation order. Far Vanin with his rescue team failed to advance, because the boat gave a trim to the stern of 80 degrees, and he was forced to climb into the rescue chamber. At first, the camera could not undock from the mortally wounded boat, but then broke away from it. When she was on the surface, the hatch was torn off from the pressure difference and two submariners were thrown into the sea. The camera, where the commander and members of the rescue team were located, went under water.

At that time, only four people died, but after the boat sank, many sailors underwent hypothermia in the water, the temperature of which was only two degrees Celsius. An hour later, the floating base "Aleksey Khlobystov" and the fishing vessel "Oma" approached, which saved 30 people. Some of them later died from hypothermia and from wounds. Of the 69 crew members on board, 42 people died, including the boat commander, Captain 1st Rank Vanin.

The Kosomolets sank to the bottom to a depth of 1,600 meters, along with a nuclear reactor and two nuclear-armed 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 into the boat by "foreign agents" were found.

Kyle Mizokami lives and works in San Francisco and writes on defense and national security topics. His articles have appeared in The Diplomat, Foreign Policy, War is Boring and The Daily Beast; he is also a founding member of Japan Security Watch, a defense and security blog.

The sunken nuclear submarines of the USSR and Russia are the subject of ongoing discussions. During the Soviet and post-Soviet years, four nuclear submarines (K-8, K-219, K-278, Kursk) died. The sunken K-27 was sunk on its own in 1982 after a radiation accident. This was done because the nuclear submarine was not recoverable, and dismantling was too expensive. All these submarines were assigned to the Northern Fleet.

Nuclear submarine K-8

This sunken submarine is considered the first officially recognized loss in the Union nuclear fleet. The cause of the death of the ship on April 12, 1970 was a fire that occurred during his stay in (Atlantic). The crew fought for the survivability of the submarine for a long time. The sailors were able to shut down the reactors. Part of the crew was evacuated aboard a Bulgarian civilian ship that arrived on time, but 52 people died. This sunken submarine was one of the first nuclear-powered ships of the USSR.

Submarine K-219

Project 667A at one time was one of the most modern and survivable ships of the submarine fleet. It sank on October 6, 1986 due to a powerful ballistic missile explosion in the mine. The accident killed 8 people. In addition to two reactors, the sunken submarine had at least fifteen and 45 thermonuclear warheads on board. The ship was severely crippled, but showed amazing survivability. It was able to surface from a depth of 350 meters with terrible damage to the hull and a flooded compartment. The nuclear-powered ship sank only three days later.

"Komsomolets" (

K-278)

This project 685 sunken submarine died on April 7, 1989 as a result of a fire that broke out during a combat mission. The ship was located near the (Norwegian Sea) in neutral waters. The crew fought for the survivability of the submarine for six hours, but after several explosions in the compartments, the submarine sank. There were 69 crew members on board. Of these, 42 people died. "Komsomolets" was the most modern submarine of that time. His death caused a great international outcry. Before that, the sunken submarines of the USSR did not attract so much attention (partly because of the secrecy regime).

"Kursk"

This tragedy is probably the most famous disaster associated with the death of a submarine. The Carrier Killer, a formidable and modern nuclear-powered cruiser, sank in a 107-meter depth, 90 km from the coast. 132 submariners were locked at the bottom. Rescue measures for the crew were unsuccessful. According to the official version, the nuclear submarine sank due to the explosion of an experimental torpedo that occurred in the mine. However, much remains unclear about the death of the Kursk. According to other versions (unofficial), the nuclear-powered ship sank due to a collision with the American submarine Toledo, which was nearby, or due to a torpedo fired from it. The unsuccessful rescue operation to evacuate the crew from the sunken ship was a shock to the whole of Russia. 132 people died on board the nuclear-powered ship.