Sunken submarines 1948 194 1952 Death in the abyss: the worst submarine disasters. Dead Sea - the mystery of Sodom and Gomorrah

Submarine K-129 after conversion according to project 629A. Photo by Nikolay Baymakov, provided by the author

In our previous publication, we showed in sufficient detail why the American nuclear submarine USS Swordfish (SSN-579) has nothing to do with the sinking of the Soviet submarine K-129 in March 1968 (see “Who is to blame for the death of K-129", "NVO" from 11.24.17). In fact, on the night of February 24-25, 1968, when K-129 left the waters of Avachinskaya Bay and, taking an underwater position, moved south, tracking the Soviet naval forces On the approaches to the naval base (NAB) Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, during its 70-day mission, another American multi-purpose submarine, the Permit-class nuclear submarine USS Barb, SSN-596, carried out its 70-day mission. However, she was unable to detect the exit of K-129 and did not establish tracking of her. At the same time, after the start of the search operation for the missing K-129, it was the nuclear submarine “Barb” that discovered the exit of a group of Soviet ships and reported this to its command.

According to the received assignment, K-129 moved south along the 162nd meridian to the 40th parallel, after which it turned east. The movement along the 40th parallel was intended to minimize the likelihood of detection of the submarine by American base patrol aircraft, since the US Navy had established a so-called no-fly zone between parallels 39 and 41 degrees north latitude. in order to avoid interference between P-3 Orion aircraft flying from Adak airbase (Adak Island, Aleutian Islands), and by planes flying from Barber's Point airbase (Oahu, Hawaiian Islands).

At midnight on February 26, K-129 transmitted a radio report (RDO) in ultra-fast mode. The forces of the US radio reconnaissance points in the western part of the Pacific Ocean recorded the RDO and determined that it belonged to the Soviet submarine No. 722. But the RDO itself was not deciphered, and American experts believed that it was transmitted by the K-129 returning from its next trip to sea. The error was caused by the fact that the K-129 with tail number 722 had previously been detected at sea during its control exit, and was aggravated by the fact that the nuclear submarine Barb did not detect the K-129 entering combat service.

RESULTS OF OPERATION AZORIAN

Despite the Soviet government’s concealment of the fact of the death of K-129 and the special secrecy measures taken by the American side that accompanied the operation to raise it, today quite extensive material is freely available that sheds light on the disaster. In addition, to date, some materials have been declassified and published, including a certain amount of photo and video materials from the archive of the special operation “Azorian” (Project Azorian; previously for a long time in foreign and domestic sources it was incorrectly mentioned under the name “Jennifer”).

For a long time, the most likely root causes of the boat’s death were considered:

– a collision in poor visibility with a surface vessel (ship) with the subsequent entry of water through a hole into the pressure hull;

– failure of the submarine due to crew errors or an emergency inside the submarine, similar to the situation that arose on board the S-80 submarine of Project 644 in January 1961, when the measures taken for emergency ventilation, giving full speed and shifting the rudders for ascent turned out to be late and ineffective.

According to many commanders and commanders of the electromechanical combat unit (BC-5), who served on Project 629 submarines, the K-129 submarine died due to an unintentional failure beyond the maximum depth. The fact is that the Project 629 submarines had insufficient power for their displacement, which did not allow the crew to use vigorous emergency maneuvers available to other diesel boats.

At the same time, for Project 629A submarines, the standards existing at that time required that at least 90% of the time of combat service be submerged or at periscope depth. Complicating the situation was the need to have a battery charge of at least 2/3 of the nominal capacity to ensure immediate pre-launch preparation at any time, which forced commanders to either frequently charge the batteries or use diesel for propulsion. Taking this into account, it becomes obvious why most of the time the boats of this project were in the RDP mode - a very complex and dangerous mode, requiring continuous effort and unflagging attention from the sea watch.

INTERNAL REASONS

Statistics of known accidents with submarines in the post-war period only confirm the version of the internal cause of the death of the K-129. None of the boats that had collisions with other submarines underwater, the circumstances of which are reliably known, were lost. But at the same time, it is known about the death of many submarines that fell to depth without external influence: the Soviet C-80 (1961), the American Thresher (USS Thresher, SSN-593, 1963), the Israeli Dakar (INS Dakar, 1968 ) and etc.

An interesting coincidence: two days before the death of K-129, the end of another unsuccessful search operation to find the Israeli submarine Dakar, which went missing during the transition from Portsmouth to Haifa, was officially announced. The boat sank on January 25, 1968 in the Mediterranean Sea and was discovered only in May 1999 at a depth of about 3 thousand m. The exact cause of the death has not yet been established. Three versions were considered probable: as the main one, the failure of the submarine beyond the maximum diving depth for technical reasons, not excluding the human factor; exposure to anti-submarine weapons from Soviet ships of the 5th operational squadron or a collision with an unidentified surface vessel (ship). After declassifying the investigation data, inspecting the hull of the sunken submarine using the Remora 6000 underwater robot and lifting the Dakar's conning tower to the surface, the relatives of the victims were provided with materials for review, from which it followed that external influence onto the boat was out of the question.

Another tragic coincidence can also be noted: the lost S-80 was the lead diesel missile submarine with cruise missiles of Project 644, and K-129 at the beginning of modernization was designated the lead diesel missile submarine with underwater launch ballistic missiles of Project 629A. Both of them died with the entire crew, both of them went to the bottom and both were subsequently discovered and raised.

SEARCH OPERATION AND AMERICAN DATA

On March 10, 1968, after an alert was announced for the fleet, reconnaissance aircraft were activated, including those deployed from Northern Fleet. More than 280 flights were carried out from the Yelizovo and Burevestnik airfields by Tu-95RTs and Tu-16R aircraft.

Only on March 14, a group of ships, commanded by the recently appointed deputy commander of the 29th division, joined the operation to search for the dead K-129 submarines(diploma) captain 1st rank Valentin Ivanovich Betz. The SB-43 icebreaker, the rescue ship SS-23 and two oceanographic research vessels that were part of the group were the first to follow the deployment route. Over the next 24 hours, they were joined by other ships and submarines. However, joint searches from the water did not bring any results and no signs of the missing boat were found.

The materials of Operation Azorian, which have now been declassified, as well as testimonies and memories of participants in the events, shedding light on the circumstances of the death of K-129, provide grounds to refute assumptions that the death of the boat was sudden and fleeting.

Soviet sources clearly indicate that the failed planned RDO from the K-129 was scheduled on the night of March 7-8, and on the afternoon of March 8, the division and fleet command was already notified of the lack of communication with the K-129. Thus, the commander of the 29th division, Rear Admiral Viktor Ananyevich Dygalo, subsequently recalled that when he was at home with his colleagues and their wives on the occasion of the celebration of March 8, he was urgently called by telephone to the office of the commander of the 15th squadron, Rear Admiral Yakov Ionovich Krivoruchko to a meeting where possible reasons for the loss of contact with K-129 were discussed.

At the same time, American sources provide the following information: the sounds of explosions on board the K-129 were recorded by the cable ship USNS Albert J. Myer, T-ARC-6 on March 11, 1968 in the eastern Pacific Ocean from points with coordinates 29 degrees 32 minutes north latitude. and 147 degrees 06 minutes west, that is, at a distance of 1,730 nautical miles from the site of the death of K-129. The vessel carried out scheduled work to inspect hydrophones installed on the seabed. The first acoustic event was recorded around midnight from March 11 to March 12 local time (about 12:00 March 11 GMT), the second - 6 minutes after the first. Recordings from hydrophones of the SOSUS system in the period from March 1 to March 15 did not give any concrete results, since the system had poor capabilities for recording short-term acoustic events, but was intended to accumulate, process information and identify long-term noisy sources.

However, the US Air Force also had another system that collected acoustic information. On April 1, 1948, the nuclear explosion surveillance system was launched under the control of the Air Force Technical Applications Center (AFTAC). The system had at its disposal space and air sensors for detecting factors of nuclear explosions, as well as seismic and underwater acoustic ones. The underwater component in the Pacific region was deployed off the coast of Enewetak Atoll (Ralik Archipelago), Midway and Wake Atolls and the island of Oahu (Hawaii Islands). The AFTAC Center also received hydrophones from the SOSUS system of the observation center located on Adak Island.

On May 14, American naval intelligence specialists held a meeting with the leadership of the AFTAC center on the issue of studying information related to two acoustic signals recorded on March 11. AFTAC specialists calculated exact data on the time at which these signals were recorded at various points. Midway: 12:14:30Z – 12:20:28Z, Adak: 12:18:56Z – 12:24:55Z, Wake: 12:30:12Z – 12:36:10Z, Oahu: 12:33:22Z – 12:39:20Z, Eniwetok: 12:40:30Z (Z is the Greenwich time conversion symbol. - I.K.).

Comparisons of data from four AFTAC observation sites and the SOSUS observation site, carried out at the AFTAC technical center, gave the location of the source of acoustic events to an accuracy of 2 nautical miles: 40 degrees 06 minutes N. and 179 degrees 57 minutes west. On June 9, to check the calculations, a test series of four-kilogram charges was detonated in the North Pacific Ocean, which demonstrated the accuracy of the data obtained.

In 2009, technicians analyzed in detail the recordings of acoustic events made on March 11, 1968 by the AFTAC surveillance system. Their conclusion was that two main acoustic events lasting 155 seconds with an interval of 6 minutes, which can be identified as explosions of missile silos No. 2 and No. 3 in a submerged position, were preceded by three more acoustic events at 11:58:58Z, 11:59 :43Z, and 11:59:47Z. Each of them consists of energy pulses lasting 0.7, 1.5 and 0.7 seconds, respectively. These short-term pulses were localized inside the pressure hull because they did not have the “acoustic portrait” characteristic of an underwater explosion, which is longer lasting due to the “bubble pulse” effect and is easily identified by SOSUS operators. No characteristic sounds of destruction of the pressure hull, similar to those recorded when identifying records of the SOSUS system during the search for the missing American nuclear-powered ship Scorpion (USS Scorpion, SSN-589), were found. All this may indicate that the K-129 submarine sank to depth with its pressure hull already partially submerged.

Thus, when comparing information from the Soviet and American sides, an important assumption can be made, which has not previously been considered or discussed by experts: K-129 was in an emergency condition for at least three days before the sinking on March 11 with the impossibility of transmitting the RDO and the signal about the accident. There is no good reason to assume that the American side falsified the date of detection of acoustic signals at the point of death of K-129. Firstly, the expensive and costly cover-up and legendization of the cover-up operation for the search and recovery of the boat ended in 1974, and, secondly, there is no point as such in falsifying this date in declassified documents.

CIA GOES FOR SOVIET SECRETS

The decision to search for the sunken Soviet submarine was made in the summer of 1968. The search vessel "Mizar" (USNS Mizar, T-AGOR-11) at the disposal of the US Navy, with the help of which the sunken American nuclear submarines“Thresher” and “Scorpion” were not suitable for searching for K-129, since the operation of this vessel at the point of death of K-129 clearly violated the secrecy of the entire operation.

At the same time, US naval intelligence had at its disposal the special-purpose nuclear submarine USS Halibut, SSN-587, designed to search for sunken objects. The boat passed the test program and already had experience searching for sunken Soviet weapons using Fish guided vehicles in March 1968. The use of a submarine, although it had less chance of detecting the K-129, fully ensured the secrecy of the search.

During the search operation, codenamed “Velvet Fist,” the submarine “Helibat” discovered the wreckage of K-129 in August 1968 and took about 22 thousand photographs. A Soviet submarine with a heavily deformed and broken hull lay on the starboard side, the stern part, starting from the 5th compartment, was 100 m from the bow.

When comparing information about explosions on board with available photographic materials, it is clear that part of the fence of the K-129 wheelhouse at the location of the missile silos is badly damaged, the hull of the cabin is turned far to the sides, and shafts No. 2 and 3 above the superstructure deck are absent as such, only heaps can be discerned shapeless metal structures. There are also no warheads or missiles inside the silos. From this we can draw the following conclusion: already at an extreme depth inside the mines, a rocket fuel explosion occurred, which led to the destruction of the mines and the aft part of the conning tower fence.

A similar situation occurred on board the submarine missile carrier K-219 of project 667AU from the 19th division of the Northern Fleet in October 1986 with a liquid-fuel missile R-27U of a similar design. Sea water penetrating through a leak in the faulty top cover led to the creation of excess pressure inside the shaft, as a result of which the fuel and oxidizer tanks were crushed. An explosion occurred when mixing the components. After the K-219 was sunk, the same thing happened to all the other missiles, but after some time. Inspections of the sunken K-219 by deep-sea survey and search robots of the Lortodromiya complex in 1987 showed that all the mines in which the missiles remained were destroyed. In the same way, as in the case of the K-219, it took colossal pressure around the K-129 diving below the maximum depth for water to flow into the mines and destroy the rocket fuel tanks. The shafts themselves have a safety margin comparable to a strong hull, and therefore they first lost their tightness from outboard pressure, and were completely destroyed by an explosion of fuel and oxidizer.

At the same time, shaft No. 1, although it had damage from explosions in shafts No. 2 and 3, its lid remained in the closed position with the ratchet lock pressed, which indicated that the missile warhead was inside the shaft. This fact was enough for the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) to decide on the costly lifting of part of the 42 m long hull.

In addition to the R-21 monoblock warhead, the lifting part also contained:

– two 53-56 torpedoes with a nuclear special combat charging compartment (ASBZO);

– two SET-53M torpedoes;

– a set of secret combat and operational documentation in the secret part located on the 1st deck of the 4th compartment;

– communications equipment, including ZAS equipment (classified communications equipment) in the communications room, combined with the ZAS post on the 1st deck of the 2nd compartment.

The SPS post (extended security communications) with encryption equipment and codes was located in the 5th compartment. The evidence often repeated in various publications that, at the request of the K-129 commander, during the modernization of the ship, the SPS post was moved from the 2nd compartment to the 4th to increase the area of ​​the commander’s cabin, is nothing more than an artistic fiction. The ship repair yard was not authorized by the current regulations to move the combat post, which has access to documents marked “SS” (top secret) and “OV” (special importance), to another compartment at its own discretion and without working drawings from the designer. The encryption post was located in the 5th compartment in accordance with the design documentation of the design bureau - the designer.

According to the American side, at the moment of lifting, the grips broke and the hull being lifted was destroyed. Only the 1st compartment with torpedo ammunition remained in the grips.

However, there is no reliable information about the composition of the weapons and secrets that fell into the hands of the Americans. At the same time, the captain of the Hughes Glomar Explorer subsequently testified under oath that his ship performed six operations to lower the grips, and only two of them were training.

The remains of Soviet sailors discovered inside the hull of the submarine were buried on board the Hughes Glomar Explorer on September 4, 1974, approximately 90 nautical miles southwest of the island of Oahu, at coordinates 18 degrees 29 minutes north latitude. and 157 degrees 34 minutes west.

In December 1941, German submarines went to sea on a secret mission - they crossed the Atlantic undetected and took up positions a few miles from east coast USA. Their target was the United States of America. The German command's plan was code-named "Drumbeat", which consisted of delivering a surprise attack on American merchant shipping.

In America, no one expected the appearance of German submarines. The first attack took place on January 13, 1942, and America was completely unprepared. January turned into a real carnage. Shipwrecks and corpses washed ashore, and oil covered the waters off the coast of Florida. During this period, the US Navy did not sink a single German submarine - the enemy was invisible. At the very height of the operation, it seemed that the Germans could no longer be stopped, but an unusual reversal occurred - the hunters turned into prey. Two years after the start of Operation Drumbeat, German submarines began to suffer significant losses.

One of these lost German submarines was U869. It belonged to the German submarines of the 9th series, which were marked as IX-C. It is these submarines with large supply The ships were used to patrol the remote coasts of Africa and America. The project was developed in the 1930s during the rearmament of Germany. It was on these boats that Admiral Karl Dönnitz had high hopes with their new group tactics.

U-869 is a German submarine type IXC/40. The order for the construction of the submarine was given on August 25, 1941. The boat was laid down on April 5, 1943 at the shipyard of the shipbuilding company AG Weser, Bremen, under construction number 1077, launched on October 5, 1943, on January 26, 1944, under the command of Lieutenant Commander Helmut Nörburg, it became part of the 4th training flotilla. On December 1, 1944, it became part of the 33rd flotilla.

In this two-hour special, the new Star follows a team of divers on an annual survey that ultimately determined the identity of a sunken World War II submarine - and rewrote history in the process. German submarine, first with Hedgehog bombers and depth charges from the American destroyer escorts USS Howard D. Crow and USS Koiner. All 56 crew members were killed.

It was long believed that U-869 was sunk near the entrance to Gibraltar. The remains of the boat's hull were found in 1991 by divers 60 miles off the New Jersey coast.

In 1991, a fisherman lost his net; it got caught on something at the bottom. On September 2, a group of divers dived to survey the day. They found a hatch, and inside was a torpedo.

The divers contacted the US Navy. According to all sources of shipwrecks along the east coast, there was no information regarding this site.

The six-year search that led to solving the mystery began with a discovery. During the second dive, one of the divers managed to recover some things from the sunken submarine, among which was a plate on which an eagle and a swastika were depicted. This find was dated 1942. This suggests that at the bottom lies a German submarine from the Second World War. But it shouldn't be there. According to the US Navy, there should not be a single German submarine within 100 nautical miles.

Submarines appeared relatively recently. The wars of the early twentieth century saw the first use of submarines. Now they have spread throughout the world. Thanks to them, people were able to dive to the depths of the oceans. This immediately found application, both in research work and military operations. You can watch films about submarines for free online in this section about this and much more. The list of films in this section contains the best films about submarines, and here you can watch the best films about submarines online. Here you will find films from different countries of production: American or Russian; by release time: old or new; Well, of different genres and types: feature films, action films, documentaries - here you will find any films about submarines.

Due to the usefulness of this technology, almost all countries that could afford it began to buy it. They carried out a variety of missions, from delivering saboteurs and surveillance to exploring the depths of the sea. They are used almost everywhere. Thanks to them, people were able to explore the underwater world much better. Hundreds of new species of underwater inhabitants have been discovered. All this has given rise to many films about submarines, which allow you to learn a lot of new things. In this category you can watch the best films about submarines online for free.

For 45 years there was a war under the surface of the ocean, nuclear submarines of the USA and the USSR played a dangerous game of hide and seek, threatening destruction off the enemy’s coast. Submarines carried out dangerous missions, sometimes accidents occurred, which were then kept in the strictest confidence. During one of the watches, an accident occurred on one of the most armed nuclear submarines of the USSR - K-219.

During the Cold War, the US and USSR sent submarines into hostile waters. These secretive machines were supposed to determine the winner in a nuclear war. When the Soviet submarine K-129 sank in 1968, the United States had a golden opportunity to unravel the secrets hidden behind the Iron Curtain. This is a story about American ingenuity and the Soviet Union's crushing response.

Sensational detection of German submarines

On April 16, 1944, depth charges forced the German submarine U-550 to surface in front of Nantucket Island. Shortly before this, a German submarine sank the American tanker Pan-Pennsylvania. A little later, U-550 also sank to the bottom of the Atlantic. During the naval battle, 44 Germans and 25 Americans were killed. Now divers from a salvage company have discovered the wreckage of a submarine on the bottom of the Atlantic, more than 100 km off the coast of Nantucket.

Within one day, two German submarines from the Second World War were discovered. Shortly before American divers announced their discovery, Canadian rescue divers searching for the three missing men came across what they also believed to be a German submarine in the Churchill River. Such a discovery more than 100 km from the coast would be a real sensation, but there is still no concrete evidence that this is really a German submarine.

The German Embassy in Ottawa does not exclude the possibility of opening a submarine in Churchill. “We know that German submarines operated in this region", said Deputy Head of the Embassy Georg Jurgens. Of course, it would be sensational “and unusual” if a submarine could get into the interior of the country. “We must prepare for the unexpected,” Jurgens added.

The discovery of U-550, on the contrary, was not an accident, but the result of many years of searching. Divers found the wreckage on Monday using an echo sounder. They photographed the submarine and plan to return to the discovery site again.

Sources: korabley.net, voenhronika.ru, mult-film-pro.ru, documentalfilms.ucoz.ru, europe-today.ru

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There were 47 young men on board from all over the Union. After the Crimean authorities published the crew lists, journalists found a relative of the only Crimean from the Soviet submarine found by Crimean scuba divers in the Tarkhankut area, VG reports.

"Pike" prevented the Nazis from exporting stolen goods - it hunted German ships and sank them until it came under fire from high-speed ships. German ships. With a hole in the living compartment, she lay on the bottom, the crew, weakening from lack of oxygen, tried unsuccessfully to start the engines. On February 17, 1944, the last radio signal came from the Shchuka. 69 years later, it was accidentally discovered by divers at a depth of 52 meters. The sensational discovery raised a lot of questions: why was it found only now, who were the crew members, and is it true that it’s dry inside the “pike”. With the help of experts, we will try to answer them.

Why was the submarine found only now?

Why? Well, this is not the last, as many as 16 more submarines in the Black Sea are listed as missing, says Sergei Voronov, head of the Black Sea Center for Underwater Research. - And 52 meters is a large, technical depth. We came to that square to continue the search for paleotraces at the bottom of the Black Sea, which we started last year - then we came across a whole field of methane fountains and mud volcanoes, and this year we returned to shoot a video. Suddenly we recorded an object. It turned out that this was the only “pike” of the X-bis project number “Shch-216” that fought in the Black Sea at that time. A total of 41 pikes were built, 36 sank in battle, and not a single one survived intact. This one might be the first. Another one was found in the Black Sea, near Zmeiny Island, but the torpedoes are in such a state that it’s scary to even move a flipper there!

The boat prevented the Nazis from exporting the loot

In the Black Sea Fleet there was an entire division consisting of “pike” of various types, in 1944 they prevented the Wehrmacht troops from exporting stolen goods to the ports of Romania and Odessa, says Voronov. - Based in Feodosia and Georgia. "Shch-216", according to the website submarine-at-war.ru, moved to Sevastopol on July 3, 1941, and to Feodosia in August. She sank the Romanian transport Carpati and damaged the German tanker Firuz. On February 16, 1944, she torpedoed one of the German transports, and after that she did not make contact. She was attacked by two German military ships, ours wanted to lie on the bottom and wait until they left, but, alas, the Germans hit. Our second submarine reported that it heard 34 depth charge explosions in the area, and then a large oil slick, cigarette packs, scraps of clothing and books appeared on the surface of the sea. At 12 noon on February 17 the next day, the Germans reported that a Soviet submarine had been sunk,

The crew of the "Pike" - who are they?

According to the chairman of the Reskom for the Protection of Cultural Heritage Larisa Opanasyuk, the commander of the submarine was a Sochi resident, captain of the 3rd rank Grigory Karbovsky, the same age as the first submarine in Russian history, the Pike, launched in 1904. The crew is 47 young men from all over the Union, mostly Russians, and the gunner is the only Crimean on the ship, Nikolai Ivanovich Nudga, born on September 18, 1923 in the village of Borogan, Razdolnensky district, non-partisan. Relatives of the heroically dead sailors are already being searched using special databases.

If it is whole and dry, it will be a miracle

Deputy Chairman of the Council of Ministers of Crimea Aziz Abdullayev at one time in Kamchatka in Avacha Bay commanded a platoon for servicing submarines. In his opinion, it can indeed be dry in the six compartments of the submarine, but this is only with a lot of luck.

It must be taken into account that the rubber bands on the manhole covers could not have been preserved for so many years, since salt water is an aggressive environment. And if the sealant was no longer there, only soft stainless steel could survive; the submarine’s hull is made from it. - said Aziz Refatovich, adding that the crew of the sunken boat could hold out for another 3-4 days until the oxygen ran out.

Captain 1st Rank Anatoly Yugov, who commanded a separate division of submarines of the Ukrainian Navy in the 90s, believes that on the Pike now everything can be the same as at the time of the death of the crew.

When the boat is at sea, all bulkheads are battened down, and in the event of an accident they are immediately sealed. Another thing is that the seams could be damaged by corrosion, and then water might begin to seep through. But cases where submarines lifted and found the remains of sailors are real; in 1968, the Americans lifted our submarine from a depth of 5 thousand meters.

Journalist Leonid Pilunsky, who served as captain of the underwater scientific vehicle Gidronaut I in the 70s, on the contrary, is sure that the Pike did not survive.

It is very difficult for me to believe that after 70 years all the compartments of the boat remained unflooded, except one. Knowing well how a submarine works, I tell you that this is fantastic. Pipelines run through the entire boat from the stern to the bow, where the torpedo tubes are located, so within seven decades it would have been completely submerged a long time ago.

A relative of a Crimean from "Pike" lives in Yevpatoria.

The young man’s name is Andrei Nudga, and he really wants Nikolai Ivanovich to be his great-great-grandfather.

Yes, I'm almost sure that this is my relative, everything matches! My grandparents told me that one of ours, a relative on my grandfather’s side, was listed as missing after the war. I’m talking to you now, and I’m getting goosebumps! - Andrey spoke excitedly into the phone. He promised to go to his grandfather in the evening to find out everything for sure.

Submarine type "Shch" (Pike)

Soviet diesel-electric submarine. Over the entire history of submarines of this type, 86 units were built.

Speed ​​- surface 13 knots (25 km.h.), underwater 8 (15 km.h.);
- Maximum diving depth 90 meters;
- Autonomy - 20 days;
- Length 58.8 meters;
- Width 6.2 meters;
- Armament - torpedoes and 45 mm. artillery gun on deck.

FULL LIST OF CREW MEMBERS

1. Grigory Evstafievich Karbovsky, born in 1903, ship commander.

2. Gennady Alekseevich Larionov, born in 1917, senior lieutenant, assistant ship commander.

3. Lyubimov Evgeniy Vasilievich, born in 1916, senior lieutenant, commander of warhead-1.

4. Glotov Nikifor Vasilievich, born in 1919, senior lieutenant, commander of warhead-2-3.

5. Lane Ilya Abramovich, born 1919, senior engineer-lieutenant, commander of warhead-5.

6. Savin Pavel Andrianovich (erroneously, Andreyanovich), born in 1915, captain of the medical service, head of the sanitary service of the Neva PB.

7. Shvets Ivan Konstantinovich, born in 1915, chief petty officer, boatswain.

8. Bubnov Alexey Ivanovich, born in 1914, petty officer 1st class, boatswain of the submarine "Shch-207".

9. Belousov Stepan Trifonovich, born in 1920, senior Red Navy man, helmsman.

10. Minchev Pyotr Nikolaevich, born in 1923, Red Navy man, helmsman.

11. Plaksin Grigory Sergeevich, born in 1924, Red Navy man, helmsman.

12. Kuznetsov Pavel Fomich, born 1921, Red Navy man, helmsman.

13. Lesnikov Pyotr Iosifovich, born in 1921, Red Navy man, commander of the navigator electricians department.

14. Kosulnikov Evgeniy Aleksandrovich, born in 1919, petty officer 1st article, commander of the gunners’ squad.

15. Nudga Nikolai Ivanovich, born in 1923, Red Navy man, gunner.

16. Vasily Dmitrievich Gorokhov, born in 1917, foreman 1st class, foreman of the torpedo group.

17. Morozovsky Alexey Vladimirovich, born in 1914, foreman 2nd class, commander of the torpedo squad.

18. Peresypkin Nikolai Fedorovich, born in 1921, senior Red Navy man, senior torpedoist.

19. Litvinenko Ivan Petrovich, born in 1923, Red Navy man, torpedo operator.

20. Efimov German Agafyevich, born in 1914, chief foreman, foreman of a group of radio operators.

21. Somov Alexey Nikolaevich, born in 1919, Red Navy man, commander of the radio operator squad.

22. Fadeev Andrey Mikhailovich, born in 1922, Red Navy man, radio operator.

23. Samoilenko Viktor Ivanovich, born 1924, Red Navy man, hydroacoustic.

24. Grishkin Sergey Anisimovich, born 1924, Red Navy man, hydroacoustic.

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 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 radioactivity ocean water. The indicators did not exceed the norm. Senior American officers insist that the reactor is harmless. Sea depths 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 Series IX diesel-electric torpedo submarine, 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.

Idea combat use the idea of ​​an underwater vessel was first proposed by Leonardo da Vinci. He subsequently destroyed his project because he feared the devastating consequences of submarine warfare. The idea of ​​using a submarine in combat was popularized in Jules Verne's novel 20 Thousand Leagues Under the Sea, written in 1870. The novel describes the Nautilus submarine, which rams and destroys surface ships.

Although the most important tactical property and advantage of a submarine is stealth, until 1944 all submarines spent most of their time on the surface and were essentially submersible boats - surface ships.

Today we will remember the largest submarine disasters, because sometimes these metal monsters go under water forever...

US Navy submarine SS-109 (1927)

40 people died when the US submarine SS-109 (USS S-4) sank after it was rammed by a US Coast Guard ship off Cape Cod.

An amazing fact: the submarine returned to service a year after this accident and served actively until its decommissioning in 1936.

Soviet submarine S-117 "Pike", 1952

"Shch-117" is a Soviet diesel-electric torpedo submarine from the Second World War, belongs to the V-bis series of the Shch - "Pike" project. On June 10, 1949, renamed S-117.

Shch-117, 1930s:

By the early fifties, the S-117 was no longer a new ship, but it successfully performed the tasks assigned to it. In December 1952, in the Sea of ​​Japan, the Pike was supposed to take part in exercises. On the way to the maneuver area, its commander reported that due to a breakdown of the right diesel engine, the submarine was going to the designated point on one engine. A few hours later he reported that the problem had been fixed. The boat never made contact again.

The exact cause and place of death of the submarine are unknown. It was as if she had disappeared.

There were 52 crew members on board the boat, including 12 officers. Searches for the C-117, carried out until 1953, yielded nothing. The cause and place of the boat's death are still unknown.

US Navy submarine USS Thrasher, 1963

An American submarine sank during a training exercise off the Cape Cod Peninsula off the coast of Massachusetts, killing 129 crew members.

Mechanical failure caused the boat to quickly sink and explode. According to the conclusions made by expert Bruce Rule, who examined the death of the boat, the final destruction of the Thresher’s hull occurred at a depth of 732 m and took no more than 0.1 seconds. Its wreckage was discovered at a depth of more than 2,500 meters. The boat's hull split into six main parts - the bow section, the sonar dome, the wheelhouse, the tail section, the engine room, and the command compartment, all located within a radius of 300 meters.

Photo of the Thrasher's vertical rudder lying on the bottom:

The sinking of the Soviet submarine K-129, 1968

The diesel submarine of the USSR Navy K-129, which, according to various sources, carried from 96 to 98 crew members, went on combat duty in the North Pacific Ocean in February 1968.

On March 8, 1968, the diesel-electric missile submarine K-129 from Pacific Fleet, equipped with nuclear warheads. The submarine carried out combat service in the Hawaiian Islands, and since March 8 it has stopped communicating. According to various sources, there were from 96 to 98 crew members on board the K-129, all of them died.

The cause of the disaster is unknown. There are a number of theories regarding the accident, including a collision with an American ship, but Washington has consistently denied this, and, according to the official US Navy report, the sinking of the Soviet submarine was blamed on a “tragic explosion on board.” Subsequently, the Americans discovered K-129 and recovered it in 1974.

The Soviet side organized a search for the missing submarine, which did not bring any results. Subsequently, K-129 was discovered by the Americans, who organized its recovery.

Submarine K-129 at the bottom:

During the rise, the submarine broke in two, but several of its compartments were delivered to one of the US Navy bases. During their examination, the bodies of six Soviet submariners were discovered. The Americans gave military honors to the dead and buried the dead submariners at sea.

American USS Scorpion (SSN-589), 1968

The keel of the US Navy ship took place on August 20, 1958. The boat sank on May 21, 1968, 740 km southwest of Azores at a depth of 3000 meters, 5 days before returning to base in Norfolk. 99 people died.

They searched for the sunken boat for 5 months; more than 60 ships and vessels, and up to 30 aircraft were involved in the search. A week after the search began, a German submarine, sunk during the Second World War, was discovered 100 miles from Norfolk. The search was in vain for a long time.

Soon the boat was found at a depth of 3047 meters and photographed by the Mizar vessel. The cause of the ship's death has not yet been established; the most likely version is a torpedo explosion. But there are other versions...

For almost 40 years, by mutual agreement, the United States and Russia have been carefully concealing the fact of the destruction of the American nuclear submarine Scorpion by a combat torpedo fired by a Soviet submarine, says the author of the new investigative book “Scorpion Down” published in the United States, military journalist Ed Offley.

Offley claims that the destruction of the Scorpion was the “revenge” of Soviet submariners, who believed that the United States was involved in the death of the Soviet submarine K-129, which sank to the bottom after an explosion on board with the entire crew of 98 people in Pacific Ocean in March 1968.

The tragedies of 1968 were part of an underwater “reconnaissance war,” many of the details of which are still classified, the author of the book believes.

Fragment of a boat hull. Visible deformations from excessive pressure:

Soviet submarine K-8, 1970

The Soviet nuclear submarine K-8 of Project 627A “Kit” joined the Northern Fleet on August 31, 1960.

The submarine, which was on combat duty in the Mediterranean Sea, was sent to the North Atlantic region to participate in the largest exercise in the history of the Soviet Navy, Ocean-70, in which the forces of all USSR fleets participated. Its task was to designate the “enemy’s” submarine forces breaking through to the shores of the Soviet Union. The start of the exercises was planned for April 14, the end - for the 100th anniversary of the birth of V.I. Lenin - April 22, 1970.

The last hours of the life of K-8 and part of her crew:

The nuclear submarine K-8 was lost on April 12, 1970 in the Bay of Biscay of the Atlantic Ocean as a result of a severe fire, which led to the loss of buoyancy and longitudinal stability. The submarine sank at a depth of 4680 meters, 490 km northwest of Spain. 52 crew members were killed. While dying, they managed to shut down the nuclear reactors.

Monument to the K-8 crew:

The death of K-8 and 52 crew members was the first loss of the Soviet nuclear fleet.

Nuclear submarine K-278 "Komsomolets", 1989

The Soviet 3rd generation nuclear submarine K-278 Komsomolets was the only submarine of Project 685 Plavnik. The boat belongs absolute record diving depth among submarines - 1027 meters (August 4, 1985). The boat had six bow 533-mm torpedo tubes with a quick loader. Each TA had an autonomous pneumohydraulic firing device. Shooting could be carried out at all diving depths.

The nuclear submarine K-278 Komsomolets sank on April 7, 1989 in the Norwegian Sea. The submarine was moving at a depth of 380 meters at a speed of 8 knots. As a result of a fire in two adjacent compartments, the main ballast tank systems were destroyed, through which the boat was flooded with sea water. 42 people died, many from hypothermia.

Russian submarine "Kursk, 2000"

K-141 "Kursk" is a Russian nuclear submarine missile-carrying cruiser of Project 949A "Antey". Laid down at Sevmash in 1990 and put into operation on December 30, 1994.

The Russian submarine Kursk sank on August 12, 2000, at a depth of 108 meters during naval exercises in the Barents Sea, in waters between Norway and Russia, after two explosions occurred on board caused by a torpedo motor fuel leak.

Most of the 118 people on board were killed instantly. 23 people managed to get out into the rear compartment, but died of suffocation the next day.
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.

All stages of the operation to raise the Kursk were carried out over the course of a year. About 120 companies from 20 countries were involved in it. The cost of the work was estimated at 65 - 130 million US dollars. As a result of the operation of raising the Kursk boat, 115 bodies of dead submariners were found and buried. Three bodies were never found. A boat's potentially dangerous ammunition and two nuclear reactors were evacuated from the bottom of the Barents Sea

Chinese submarine "Min 361", 2003

The submarine was launched in 1995. Assigned to the Eastern Fleet of the People's Republic of China Navy

On April 16, 2003, during an exercise, the diesel engine of the Min 361 submarine broke down while it was in Bohai Bay in the Yellow Sea off the northeastern coast of China. The breakdown led to a sharp decrease in oxygen on board and suffocation of all 70 crew members.

This was the first time China has made public the death of its diesel-electric submarine. According to Xinhua on May 2, 2003, the boat was discovered by Chinese fishermen on April 25, 2003, when they caught its periscope with nets. The submarine was later raised to the surface and towed away.

Argentine submarine "San Juan", 2017

The Argentine Navy submarine San Juan stopped communicating on November 15 while en route from the Ushuaia naval base to Mar del Plata. At the time of the last communication session, the submarine reported an accident. There were 44 people on board.

15 days after the disappearance of the submarine, the Argentine Navy announced that the operation to rescue the 44 crew members of the San Juan submarine was being stopped, but the search for the submarine itself would continue.

The captain of the missing Argentine Navy submarine San Juan promised his mother that this would be his last voyage. That's how it happened.

As for nuclear submarines, a total of 8 nuclear submarines sank from 1955 to 2017: 4 Soviet, 2 Russian, 2 American. All of them died as a result of various accidents: three due to technical malfunctions, two as a result of fires, two due to problems with weapons, the cause of the death of one boat is not reliably known.