Authors: Kenneth Sewell
1
It had only been a few years:
The author served aboard the USS
Parche
(SSN-683), assigned to Submarine Development Group One. Although the
Parche
was listed by the Navy as an ocean research vessel, in 1987 the book
Blind Man’s Bluff
disclosed that it participated in some of the most daring and critical covert missions of the Cold War.
2
This was not simply:
From transcript of “Cold War Chat,” conducted March 14, 1999, with retired KGB major general Oleg Kalugin and former CIA senior analyst Melvin Goodman. Online chat was moderated by CNN Interactive senior editor John Hashimoto (accessed March 2003): http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/cold.war/guides/debate/chats/spies/
3
In the dark hours of March 7:
The exact date of the sinking of a Soviet Golf II submarine in the North Pacific has been elusive, with various authoritative accounts from sources in both Russia and the United States ranging from March 7 to March 11, 1968. The author will more closely fix the time and date from new analysis of existing material, in later chapters of this book.
4
The coat was much too large:
Open letter, written in 2000, by Soviet Rear Admiral Rudolf A. Golosov (Retired) in response to accounts of the K-129 incident that had appeared in several Russian publications during the previous year. Golosov was commander of the K-129’s squadron at the time of the incident. In Russian: Online Kamchatka Database Project. Translations by author’s Russian researcher, Eugene Soukharnikov, January 24, 2003: http://library.iks.ru:8081/law?doc&nd=6&nh=1.
5
Each carried a one-megaton:
Pavel Podvig, ed.,
Russian Strategic Nuclear Forces
(Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 2001), p. 288.
6
That harsh command:
Excerpts from interviews with former Soviet submarine commanders and intelligence officers conducted by Paul Neumann, a naval historian and engineer in Vancouver, B.C., were provided to the author, February 2004. Included in this material was information that the bodies of at least sixty Soviet submariners were recovered from K-129’s two forward compartments, an area where no more than a handful of men would normally be berthed or working.
7
Their course was:
Author’s calculations of the real location of the K-129 at the time of an attempted launch of a ballistic missile are based on new information from several sources, which will be fully developed in later chapters of this book. In previous documents and publications, this location has been widely disputed, with estimates ranging from six hundred miles to seventeen hundred miles northwest of the Hawaiian Islands.
8
The Soviets had struggled:
Gary E. Weir and Walter J. Boyne,
Rising Tide: The Untold Story of the Russian Submarines that Fought the Cold War
(New York: Basic Books, 2003), p. 30.
9
The Soviet navy also had:
“Russia: Pacific Fleet,” prepared by Dr. James Clay Moltz, assistant director, Center for Nonproliferation Studies at the Monterey Institute of International Studies, May 1, 2000; via NTI (Nuclear Threat Initiative), (accessed July 28, 2003): http://www.nti.org/db/nisprofs/russia/naval/nucflt/pacflt/pacflovr.htm
10
The Chinese wasted no time:
David Miller,
Directory of Submarines of the World
(London: Salamander Books, 2002), p. 421.
11
“[Soviet] relations with China”:
Central Intelligence Agency, Top Secret National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) #190422, “Soviet Strategic Attack Forces,” September 9, 1969; declassified by CIA Historic Review Program, p. 6.
12
Even as this new nuclear:
U.S. Navy report to the Committee on Armed Services, 90th Congress, 2d Session,
The Changing Strategic Naval Balance—U.S.S.R. vs. U.S.A.
(Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1968; declassified 1999), p. 14.
13
The U.S. Navy’s report:
Ibid., p. 42.
14
A National Intelligence Estimate:
CIA, NIE No. 190422, “Soviet Strategic Attack Forces,” p. 30.
15
The Kamchatka Flotilla based:
Podvig,
Russian Strategic Nuclear Forces,
p. 290.
16
The Kamchatka Flotilla also included:
Ibid., pp. 293, 297.
17
It was almost certainly:
Eric Morris,
The Russian Navy: Myth and Reality
(New York: Stein and Day Publishers, 1977), pp. 118–19.
18
K-129 looked rawboned:
Podvig,
Russian Strategic Nuclear Forces,
p. 258.
19
The volcanic peaks:
“Ballistic Missile Submarine Units,” Global Security.org (accessed December 22, 2003): http://www.globalsecurity.org/wmd/world/russia/plarb.htm
20
In appearance:
Robert Hutchinson,
Jane’s Submarines: War Beneath the
Waves, From 1776 to the Present Day
(New York: HarperCollins, 2001), p. 104.
21
It had a problem-free:
Joseph Allbeury, “Specifications” in
Russian Cobra: Foxtrot-class Submarine
(Sydney, Australia: Jasper Communications, 2002), unpaginated booklet.
22
A similar system:
Hutchinson,
Jane’s Submarines,
p. 104.
23
Golf submarines served:
“Project 629 Golf, Weapons of Mass Destruction,” updated September 26, 1998, Federation of American Scientists: http://www.fas.org/nuke/guide/russia/slbm/629.htm
24
Every submarine built:
William E. Burrows, “Imaging Space Reconnaissance Operations during the Cold War: Cause, Effect and Legacy,” 1996,
The Cold War Forum,
Bodø Regional University, Norway: http://webster.hibo.no/asf/Cold_War/report1/williame.html
25
Even though they proved:
Peter Huchthausen, Captain USN (Retired),
K-19: The Widowmaker
(Washington, D.C.: National Geographic, 2002), p. 176.
26
The Golf was built:
Podvig,
Russian Strategic Nuclear Forces,
p. 288.
27
The new sea-launched:
Ibid., p. 318.
28
During the overhaul:
Admiral Anatoliy Shtyrov, an intelligence officer with the Soviet Pacific Fleet who investigated the K-129 incident; from interview and correspondence conducted by Paul Neumann. Excerpts of transcripts provided to author.
29
Coincidentally, in September:
“Type 031 (Golf Class) Missile Submarine,”
Chinese Defence Today:
http://www.sinodefence.com/navy/sub/golf.asp
30
China had been testing:
“Peoples Republic of China Nuclear Weapons Employment Policy and Strategy,” Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA), March 1972, via Federation of American Scientists (FAS): http://www.fas.org/irp/ dia/product/prc_72/index.html
31
In addition, a dozen:
Dr. Srikanth Kondapalli, “China’s Naval Equipment Acquisition,”
Strategic Analysis: A Monthly Journal of the IDSA
23, no. 9 (1999).
32
That meant it was:
Podvig,
Russian Strategic Nuclear Forces,
p. 315.
33
K-129 was one of six:
“Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD) Around the World, 629 Golf,” September 26, 2000, Federation of American Scientists (accessed May 28, 2003): http://www.fas.org/nuke/guide/russia/slbm/629.htm
34
The submarine officer:
Dmitry Mikheyev, “The New Soviet Man: Myth and Reality,”
World and I,
vol. 3 (February 1988), p. 655.
35
Captain Kobzar was one of the most:
Admiral Shtyrov, correspondence with Neumann (see Chapter 3).
36
“Submariners are a special brotherhood”:
“Memorable Quotes,”
Submarine Sailor dot.com:
http://www.submarinesailor.com/quote.asp
37
The rapid career advancement:
Huchthausen,
K-19: The Widowmaker,
p. 52.
38
Submarine commanders bore:
Weir and Boyne,
Rising Tide,
p. 74.
39
One former Soviet:
Captain Third Rank (Retired) Igor E. Kolosov, former officer who served on Soviet attack submarines, interviewed by author, Los Angeles, July 2003.
40
At the end of January:
Rear Admiral Nikolai Mormul,
Accidents Under Water,
2d ed. (Murmansk, Russia: Elteko, 2001), p. 126.
41
A special security officer:
Huchthausen,
K-19: The Widowmaker,
p. 52.
42
Coincidentally, the U.S. Navy:
Sherry Sontag, Christopher Drew, with Annette Lawrence Drew,
Blind Man’s Bluff: The Untold Story of American Submarine Espionage
(New York: HarperCollins, 1998), pp. 225–26.
43
The order to embark:
Soviet submarine commander, retired in Russia; interviewed from Moscow and St. Petersburg by author via telephone and e-mail during 2003, on condition his identity not be published.
44
Headquarters gave:
Admiral Shtyrov, correspondence with Neumann.
45
In peacetime, Soviet:
Interviews with retired Soviet admirals of Pacific Fleet, by Neumann (see Chapter 1).
46
K-129 was not the only option:
Central Intelligence Agency, National Intelligence Estimate—Secret, May 16, 1968, “Table IV: Estimated Numbers and Deployment of Soviet General Purpose Ships and Submarine by Type, by Fleets.” Declassified August 12, 2003.
47
Captain Zhuravin, without telling:
Conversations and interviews with Irina Zhuravina, widow of first officer of K-129, conducted by Svetlana Stepanova (pseud.), Russian journalist and interviewer for the author, Moscow, October and November 2003. Interview transcripts translated by Kalash Moulayanov.
48
As members of the navy’s elite:
Sami Soininen, “A Soviet Submariner Recalls His Days at Sea,”
Helsingin Sanomat,
October 29, 2002, p. 1.
49
These last-minute assignments:
Article on ceremony honoring lost crewmen of K-129,
Independent Military Review
(Moscow), September 17, 1999. Translated by author’s Russia-based researcher, Eugene Soukharnikov (accessed September 26, 2003): http://submarine.id.ru/memory/K129.htm
50
Their aloofness:
Soviet submarine commander, retired in Russia, interviewed by author.
51
Admiral Golosov handed:
Golosov, open letter (see Chapter 1).
52
Captain Zhuravin gave orders:
Allbeury, “Diving the Submarine,” in
Russian Cobra.
53
The first surveillance:
“Sound Surveillance System (SOSUS),” November 21, 2002, GlobalSecurity.org (accessed August 5, 2003): http://www.globalsecurity.org/intell/systems/ sosus.htm
54
K-129, like all the Soviet:
Minutes of the Tenth Plenary Session of the United States–Russia Joint Commission on Prisoners of War/Missing in Action (subsequently abbreviated USRJC), Moscow, August–September 1994.
55
The U.S. Pacific coast system:
Jeffrey T. Richelson,
The U.S. Intelligence Community,
4th ed. (Boulder, Colo.: Westview Press, 1999), p. 233.
56
Even though K-129:
E. V. Miasnikov, “Characteristics of Noise Created by Submarines,” Appendix I in “The Future of Russia’s Strategic Nuclear Forces” (Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology, 1995), via Federation of American Scientists (FAS) (accessed March 21, 2002): http://www.fas.org/spp/eprint/snf03221.htm
57
He ordered the submarine:
Podvig,
Russian Strategic Nuclear Forces,
p. 278.