Past Talks : JuLY 2024

“Cold War under the sea”, by Iain Ballantyne

Remember the Cold War? It lasted officially from 1947 to 1991. Most people today cannot grasp just how threatening and tense that period of decades was. Our speaker tonight, Iain Ballantyne, reminded us of one important, deadly and unseen element – underwater warfare. Iain is an author of several books and he is also the editor of ‘Warships – International Fleet Review’ magazine. He really knows his subject and many of the people who were there at the time.

Tonight’s subject started with an event on the 11 November 1944, when RN submarine HMS Venturer torpedoed and sank the German submarine U771, a very unusual occurrence. Not only that, but in February 1945, HMS Venturer was tasked with finding U864 which was in transit to Japan, carrying a cargo of precious materials, plus plans and components for a jet engine and the V2 rocket. A cat and mouse underwater chase ensued, until Venturer predicted the location and zig zag manoeuvres of U864 and fired a fan of four torpedoes, one of which struck and sank U864. It is still a unique event, never before or since has one submarine sunk another underwater.

At that time, submarines used diesel power on the surface and battery power submerged. The U771 was a Type VII, the most common German submarine in WW2, around 220ft long, displacing 770 tons, with speeds around 17kts on the surface and 9kts submerged. U864 was a later, but largely similar type IX U-boat.

However, by the end of the war, cutting edge Nazi technology produced the type XXI submarine, designed primarily to operate underwater and for periods up to 50+ hours. They were very streamlined, could attain 17kts submerged and incorporated the Dutch created snorkel system, to enable batteries to be recharged and internal air refreshed while the submarine remained submerged at periscope depth. In the 20 minutes that it took other submarines to load one torpedo, the type XXI could fire 18 torpedos. Although 118 Type XXIs were built, only two entered service before the end of the war, due to a variety of problems. 

Nevertheless, the Type XXI was a significant step forward and captured examples were taken by  Britain, USA, Russia and other nations to study, operate and use as a basis for their own future designs.

Since that time, espionage has lain at the heart of operations for submarines, to covertly study what the ‘enemy’ is doing.

The USS Tang was the lead boat of her class designed under the GUPPY programme (Greater Underwater Propulsion Power Program). Another GUPPY boat, USS Grenadier, distinguished itself by tracking and photographing a Soviet submarine for the first time in the Atlantic.

The next significant step in submarine design was the nuclear powered USS Nautilus, which entered service in 1954/55 and promptly started setting records, for example on her shakedown trial she travelled 1100 nautical miles underwater. In August 1958 Nautilus then sailed under the ice pack to the North Pole and beyond, prompting Britain’s defence Minister Duncan Sandys to send the message that the Jules Verne fiction of ’20,000 Leagues under the sea’, was now fact.

Shortly afterwards in 1959, the nuclear powered USS Skate actually surfaced at the North Pole. Three years later the first Russian Nuclear submarine K3 also sailed under the ice pack and surfaced at the North Pole.

Meanwhile, the RN submarine service was still based on ’T-class’ diesel-electric boats such as HMS Taciturn, where the crew lived in squalid conditions and ‘hot-bunks’ (when one crew member gets out of bed, another climbs straight into it), and condensation dripped off the bulkhead like rain – demonstrating the crew’s phenomenal level of tolerance and endurance under necessity. On one occasion, HMS Turpin remained closed-up for 39 days when it undertook a covert operation in Russian waters. On another occasion Turpin was depth charged and a Russian submarine attempted an attack by submerging directly above it. Despite this and successfully completing its task, it received no recognition from the British Government or the Admiralty.

Throughout the 1960s the Russian submarine fleet was the largest in the world by far and the West just could not compete.

In 1962 the Cuban Crisis brought the confrontation between Russia and the USA to a head. Russian nuclear missiles were being installed in Cuba and the USA demanded that they be removed immediately. It was the brink of WW3 for 13 very frightening days. The RN prepared for war and HMS Auriga (diesel-electric submarine) actually prepared to set off across the Atlantic in support of the USA. Russia sent four diesel electric Foxtrot class submarines to the region, one of which, B59, remained submerged for an extended time. It was soon detected by a US fleet carrier and destroyers, upon which training depth charges were dropped as a signal for the submarine to surface and be identified, which it did not do. Ultimately B59 was close to running out of breathable air and surfaced during the night. They were surprised to be dived upon immediately by aircraft with blinding searchlights trying to identify them. The B59 Captain interpreted this as an attack and ordered nuclear torpedoes to be loaded in readiness to dive and attack the surrounding warships. Fortunately, a senior official on board B59 persuaded the captain to hold-fire and a nuclear war was averted.

By the end of the 1950s the RN submarine fleet was still entirely diesel-electric, but at last HMS Dreadnought was launched in 1960. Although built at Vickers Shipyard in Barrow-in-Furness, the USA provided a great deal of input, to the extent that the front was UK design and content and the back end, including the engine, was US, resulting in the centre bulkhead being named ‘Check Point Charlie’. By comparison with the diesel-electric boats, Dreadnought’s underwater speed was 28kts and surface speed 20kts. Within a couple of years the RN nuclear submarine fleet expanded and HMS Valiant sailed non-stop 12,000 miles from the UK to Singapore, while HMS Warspite sailed 6,000 miles submerged throughout.

As ever, the principal business of submarines was to spy on the enemy, which often meant trailing opposition submarines. The Russians were well aware of this and in 1968 HMS Warspite had too close an encounter with a Russian Echo class submarine and they collided, damaging both submarines. On surfacing, an inspection deemed that the Warspite was still operational and able to submerge to return home for repairs. However, digging just a little deeper, it was soon discovered that these events happen far more than we might suppose, particularly with US and Russian submarines “bumping into each other”. Murky waters indeed.

In the same year of 1968, the USS Scorpion a Skipjack class nuclear submarine, had carried out observation of Russian naval activities in the Atlantic and was preparing to return to its Naval Station in Norfolk, USA. It never reached its home base and was subsequently discovered broken up on the seabed at a depth of 9,800ft off the south west of the Azores. Several very detailed enquiries have taken place, but none are conclusive. One enquiry suggested that one of its torpedoes detonated accidentally and many regard this as the most plausible cause. 

The year 1968 also saw a Soviet diesel-electric ballistic missile submarine, K129, disappear in the north Pacific. Large scale Russian air and sea searches failed to find any trace of the boat, but it sparked concentrated US interest in the event.

By 1969 the Russian submarine inventory included 375 boats including 60 nuclear powered; the USA listed 156 diesel and nuclear; the RN offered a total of 45 submarines including 8 nuclear.

The 1970s saw the RN grow into the Polaris ballistic missile age, with the introduction of HMSs Resolution, Repulse, Revenge and Renown. The missile range is stated as being in the order of 2,875 miles. Nevertheless, diesel-electric boats continued to provide valuable service and the Oberon class HMS Osiris, earned a name for itself by quietly positioning herself directly beneath Russian warships in its search for information.

During the Falklands War in 1982, HMS Conqueror sank the Argentine cruiser ARA General Belgrano using a Mk8, 21 inch torpedo, first designed in the 1920s. Of particular note is the fact that since WW2 only 3 vessels have been sunk by a submarine and Conqueror is the first nuclear boat to do so.

In the meantime, Russia has continued to build some remarkable submarines, including the Delta class, plus the much-vaunted Alfa class with an underwater speed in the order of 45kts and capable of accelerating from 6kts to 42kts within 120 seconds – thus making it easily able to outrun any pursuing warships. It could dive to 2,460ft (twice that of other submarines), but Alfa boats were  incredibly noisy. Although vastly superior to Western submarines, Alfa boats did have an Achilles heel in that if it attempted to fire a torpedo at depth there was a probability that it could sink itself due to the effects of water pressure at depth.

The next Russian generation was the Typhoon class nuclear powered ballistic missile submarine of 23,200 tons (48,000 tons submerged). Fortunately for the West, the cost of these submarines was stunning and just one reason for a pause in their development and consequently in their subsequent scrapping.

Later, in 1986 the Russian ballistic missile submarine K219 suffered an explosion which caused a fire, which led to other problems ultimately resulting in the loss of the boat and some of its heroic crew trying to save it. By sinking in 18,000ft of water the nuclear missiles were prevented from exploding and causing fallout far in excess of Chernobyl.

As previously mentioned, collisions between submarines were less unusual than we might like to think and both HMS Splendid and HMS Sceptre notched up encounters with Russian boats. However, even Russia acknowledged that marathon patrols by submarine crews were not pleasant or likely to win friends, and neither was Russia evidently winning the Cold War. However, the RN Trident class submarines are scheduled to be replaced by even larger boats – so the game continues.

Thank you to Iain Ballantyne for an engrossing and eye-opening evening. News and reports on submarine activities will now take a different slant and perception of what has happened behind the story we hear. I have barely scraped the surface of this subject. If you would like to learn more, read Iain’s books “Hunter Killers” and “The Deadly Trade”, plus of course his regular magazine “Warships – International Fleet Review”