by James Jinks
The UK Nuclear Programme
19. TNA/PREM/8/1244, Hall to Attlee, 4 May 1950. 20. TNA/DEFE/7/2055, The Nuclear Powered Submarine, Memorandum by the Admiralty, 14 January 1958. 21. TNA/ADM/1/26860, Note on the Development of Nuclear Fuelled Submarines, 5 July 1951. 22. TNA/DEFE/7/2055, DRP(50), Nuclear Fuel Submarines, Memorandum by the Admiralty, 5 June 1950. 23. Ibid. 24. Ibid. 25. Ibid. 26. TNA/ADM/189/237, Soviet Scientific Research and Development, Paper Read at Torpedo Anti-Submarine Conference, 1954. 27. Norman Polmar and Kenneth Moore, Cold War Submarines: The Design and Construction of US and Soviet Submarines (Potomac Books, 2005), pp. 71–84. 28. TNA/DEFE/7/2055, DRPS/P(53)5, The Nuclear Submarine, Papers for Naval Review, 26 February 1953. 29. TNA/ADM/1/26860, ACNS to First Lord/First Sea Lord, 31 January 1950. 30. TNA/DEFE/7/2055, DRP(50), Nuclear Fuel Submarines, Memorandum by the Admiralty, 5 June 1950. 31. TNA/ADM/1/26860, Note on the Development of Nuclear Fuelled Submarines, 5 July 1951. 32. Margaret Gowing (assisted by Lorna Arnold), Independence and Deterrence: Britain and Atomic Energy, 1945–1952, Vol. 1: Policy Making (Macmillan, 1974), pp. 273–6. 33. TNA/ADM/1/26860, Note on the Development of Nuclear Fuelled Submarines, 5 July 1951. 34. TNA/ADM/1/26860, Nuclear Fuelled Submarines, 29 January 1952. 35. Ibid. 36. Three submarine designs were considered. The first was a twin-screw design of about 2500 tons with an underwater speed of 25 knots. The second was 3400 tons with a speed of 22 knots. The third was 4500 tons with a speed of 20 knots. The hull diameter had increased from 25 feet in the first design to 31 feet in the third design; Brown and Moore, Rebuilding the Royal Navy, p. 120. 37. TNA/ADM/1/26860, Controller to First Lord, Nuclear Submarine, 29 January 1952. 38. TNA/DEFE/7/2055, Design Studies on Nuclear Propulsion Units for Naval Vessels, August 1953. 39. TNA/ADM/1/26860, Nuclear Fuelled Submarines, 29 January 1952. 40. TNA/PREM/11/2635, The Nuclear Submarine Project, 12 September 1957. 41. TNA/ADM/1/23729, Minutes of the 30th Submarine Liaison Meeting with the Naval Staff, 19 September 1952. 42. Ibid. 43. TNA/ADM/1/23729, Director Tactical & Staff Duties Division, Paper for SDPC Consideration, 12 November 1952. 44. TNA/1/23729, The Requirements for an HTP Submarine, September 1952. 45. TNA/DEFE/7/2055, Nuclear Propulsion Systems for the Navy, Note by the Admiralty, 25 June 1953. 46. Vice Admiral Sir Ted Horlick, ‘Nuclear Submarine Propulsion in the RN’, The Thomas Lowe Gray Memorial Lecture to the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, January 1982. 47. The US Navy completed a small experimental midget submarine, X-1, powered by an HTP plant, but it suffered from so many engineering and design problems that it was confined to a museum. 48. Grove, Vanguard to Trident, p. 230.
Securing American Help
49. See Gowing, Independence and Deterrence, Vol. 1; Margaret Gowing (assisted by Lorna Arnold), Independence and Deterrence, Vol. 2: Policy Execution (Macmillan, 1974). 50. Ian Clark, Nuclear Diplomacy and the Special Relationship: Britain’s Deterrent and America, 1957–1962 (Oxford University Press, 1994), p. 105. 51. John Baylis, ‘Exchanging Nuclear Secrets: Laying the Foundations of the Anglo-American Nuclear Relationship’, Diplomatic History, 25/1 (2001), p. 36. 52. TNA/DEFE/7/2055, Exchange of Information with USN on Nuclear Propulsion, Note by Deputy Controller (Research and Development) Admiralty, January 1954. 53. TNA/DEF/7/2055, Wheeler to Elliot, 5 January 1954. 54. TNA/ADM/205/106, Director of Plans to First Sea Lord, 19 July 1955. 55. Admiral Rickover, CBS 60 Minutes interview with Diane Sawyer, 1984. 56. Francis Duncan, Rickover: The Struggle for Excellence (Naval Institute Press, 2001), p. 81. 57. TNA/ADM/205/116, Godlet to Harrison Smith, 1 June 1955. 58. TNA/DEFE/7/2055, Gretton to Roper, Meeting between Rear Admiral Fawkes and Rear Admiral Rickover, 6 September 1955. 59. TNA/ADM/205/106, Harrison Smith to Engineer-in-Chief, Bath, 7 June 1955. 60. John Coote, ‘How Lord Mountbatten Secured a Reactor from the USN’, United States Naval Institute Proceedings, 1981. 61. Quoted in John Coote, Submariner (Leo Cooper, 1991), pp. 202–3. 62. Ignatus Galantin, Submarine Admiral: From Battlewagons to Ballistic Missiles (University of Illinois Press, 1995), p. 196, 63. Coote, ‘How Lord Mountbatten …’ 64. Bud and Gummett, Cold War, Hot Science, p. 161. 65. Galantin, Submarine Admiral, pp. 196–7.
Future Submarine Policy
66. TNA/ADM/205/112, Record of Conversation on 3 November 1955. 67. Ibid. 68. TNA/ADM/205/106, Eisenhower to Mountbatten, 23 November 1955. 69. Philip Ziegler, Mountbatten: The Official Biography (HarperCollins, 1985), p. 557. 70. TNA/ADM/1/26779, Minute by Head of Materiel Branch I, 13 February 1957. 71. Ibid. 72. TNA/ADM/205/106, Edwards to Mountbatten, 27 September 1955. 73. TNA/ADM/205/112, Note of a Conference Held by the First Sea Lord to Discuss Submarine Policy, 2 February 1956. 74. Ibid. 75. Norman Polmar, The Naval Institute Guide to the Soviet Navy (Naval Institute Press, 5th edn, 1991), pp. 87–93. 76. TNA/ADM/205/112, Note of a Conference Held by the First Sea Lord to Discuss Submarine Policy, 2 February 1956. 77. Ibid. 78. Ibid. 79. Ibid. 80. TNA/ADM/205/112, Mountbatten Memo, Conference on Submarine Policy, 26 January 1956. 81. Ibid.
Collaboration Restored?
82. Hearings before Sub-committee, JCAE, 1958 (85th Cong., 2nd sess., 1958, 516–19). 83. Hansard, House of Commons Debates, 20 June 1958, Vol. 544, Col. 1406. 84. John Simpson, The Independent Nuclear State: The United States, Britain and the Military Atom (Macmillan, 1986), pp. 128–42. 85. TNA/ADM/205/112, Elkins to Mountbatten, 19 September 1956. 86. TNA/ADM/205/112, Elkins to Admiralty, Exclusive for First Sea Lord, 20 June 1956. 87. Ibid. 88. John Coote, Submariner (Leo Cooper, 1991), p. 203. 89. Duncan, Rickover, p. 154. 90. TNA/ADM/205/112, Meeting with Admiral Rickover at Broadlands on Monday, 20 August 1956. 91. TNA/ADM/205/112, Elkins to Mountbatten, 20 June 1956. 92. TNA/ADM/205/112, Meeting with Admiral Rickover at Broadlands on Monday 20 August 1956. 93. TNA/ADM/205/112, Edwards to Mountbatten, 27 August 1956. 94. Ibid. 95. TNA/ADM/205/112, Meeting with Admiral Rickover at Broadlands on Monday 20 August 1956. 96. Ibid. 97. TNA/ADM/205/112, Edwards to Mountbatten, 27 August 1956. 98. TNA/ADM/205/112, Meeting with Admiral Rickover at Broadlands on Monday 20 August 1956. 99. MB1/I299, Mountbatten to Denning, 4 September 1956, quoted Hill, Admiral Hyman G. Rickover 100. Ziegler, Mountbatten, p. 558. 101. TNA/ADM/1/27372, Woods to Secretary of the Admiralty, Staff Requirements for the First Nuclear Submarine, 19 December 1956. 102. TNA/ADM/1/27372, Edwards Memo, 22 January 1957.
A Vision of the Future
103. Polmar, Guide to the Soviet Navy, p. 38. 104. Sergei Khrushchev, Memoirs of Nikita Khrushchev, Vol. 2: Reformer, 1945–1963 (Pennsylvania State University Press, 2006), p. 446. 105. Ibid., p. 75. 106. Polmar and Moore, Cold War Submarines, pp. 93–6. 107. TNA/ADM/1/27479, Woods to Secretary of the Admiralty, The Role of the Submarine, 11 August 1956. 108. TNA/ADM/205/169, William Hiliman interview with Admiral Arleigh Burke, North American Newspaper Alliance, September 1956. 109. TNA/ADM/1/27479, Woods to Secretary of the Admiralty, The Role of the Submarine, 11 August 1956. 110. Ibid. 111. Ibid. 112. Ibid. 113. Both these missiles were later cancelled when the Americans decided to concentrate on ballistic systems. 114. TNA/ADM/1/27479, The Functions of Our Submarine Forces in Peace and War, 11 August 1956. 115. TNA/ADM/1/27479, Minute by Director of Plans, 24 September 1956. 116. Ibid. 117. Ibid. 118. Ibid. 119. TNA/ADM/205/112, Note of a Meeting on Submarine Policy Held in First Sea Lord’s Room on 8 October, 1956. 120. Ibid. 121. Ibid. 122. Ibid. 123. TNA/ADM/1/26286, Fawkes to Secretary of the Admiralty, 1 October 1955. 124. TNA/ADM/189/237, Submarine Weapons and Control Systems, Paper by Commander S. A. Hammick, May 1958. 125. John Wise, ‘The Royal Navy and the Evolution of the “True Submarine”, 1945–1963’, in John Jordan (ed.), Warship 2009 (Conway Maritime Press, 2009). 126. TNA/ADM/251/114, Investigation of an Incident in HM S/M Explorer, 8 February 1957. 127. Polmar and Moore, Cold War Submarines, p. 38. 128. John Winton, ‘The Worst Hangover’, Naval Review, Vol. 50, No. 1, January 1970. 129. RNSM/A1984/52, Commander Chistopher Russell, ‘Explorer/Excalibur – What they were like?’. 130. Winton, ‘The Worst Hangover’, p. 245. 131. Ibid. 132. TNA/ADM/116/5632, Memorandum on the Development of Machinery for the Fast Underwater Propulsion of Submarines, 1 Septembe
r 1949.
The Special Relationship
133. Hearing before the Sub-committee on Agreements for Cooperation, Joint Committee on Atomic Energy, Amending the Atomic Energy Act of 1954 – Exchange of Military Information and Material with Allies, 85th Congress, 2nd Session, p. 162. 134. Ibid. 135. TNA/DEFE/7/2055, Willis to Pierson, 9 April 1957. 136. Sir Alex Smith, Lock up the Swings on Sundays (Memoir Club, 1998), pp. 272–3. 137. John Jacobsen, ‘Mountbatten Asked My Opinion’, in Friends of the Royal Navy Submarine Museum, All Round Look: Year Book 2010/2011 (Royal Navy Submarine Museum, 2010), p. 18. 138. Smith, Lock up the Swings, pp. 273–4 139. Quoted in Vice Admiral Sir Robert Hill, ‘Admiral Hyman G. Rickover USN and the UK Nuclear Submarine Propulsion Programme’, The Thomas Lowe Gray Memorial Lecture to the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, 19 April 2005. 140. Jack Daniel, The End of an Era: The Memoirs of a Naval Constructor (Periscope Publishing, 2003), p. 135. 141. MB1/I300, First Sea Lord Newsletter, August 1957 quoted in Hill, ‘Admiral Hyman G. Rickover’. 142. Horlick, ‘Nuclear Submarine Propulsion in the RN’; the zero energy reactor used enriched uranium as fuel and ordinary water as the moderator. As it was only capable of producing a few watts of heat it did not require any special cooling. 143. Admiral of the Fleet of the Soviet Union S. G. Gorshkov, Vo Flotskom Stroyu (military memoirs) (Logos, 1996), p. 175. 144. Although the Hotels were initially fitted with the surface-launched R-11 missiles, seven of them, along with fourteen Golfs, were retrofitted with the R-21 underwater-launched missile in the mid-1960s. 145. See Owen Cote Jr, The Third Battle: Innovation in the U.S. Navy’s Silent Cold War Struggle with Soviet Submarines (Naval War College Newport Papers, 2003). 146. TNA/DEFE/7/2055, Macmillan to Selkirk, 7 August 1957; TNA/DEFE/7/2055, Selkirk to Macmillan, 12 September 1957. 147. TNA/DEFE/7/2055, Selkirk to Macmillan, 12 September 1957. 148. Ibid. 149. TNA/DEFE/7/2005, Unknown to Way, Nuclear Submarines, 8 October 1957. 150. TNA/PREM/11/2635, Thorneycroft to Macmillan, 14 October 1957. 151. Evening News, ‘Atomic Sub Plan May be Scrapped’, 23 October 1957; Daily Telegraph, ‘Check to British A-Ship Plans’, 26 October 1957; Sunday Times, ‘Navy to Lose I-Sub’, 1 December 1957.
Operations ‘Rum Tub’ and ‘Strikeback’
152. TNA/ADM/205/169, Mountbatten to Burke, 10 November 1957. 153. Ziegler, Mountbatten, p. 560. 154. TNA/ADM/189/237, Exercise Rum Tub and the Problem of the Fast Submarine, Paper read by Commander John Coote, Royal Navy, 1957. 155. TNA/DEFE/7/2055, The Nuclear Powered Submarine, Memorandum by the Admiralty, 14 January 1958. 156. TNA/ADM/189/237, Exercise Rum Tub and the Problem of the Fast Submarine, Paper read by Commander John Coote, Royal Navy, 1957. 157. Coote, Submariner, p. 213. 158. Ibid. 159. TNA/DEFE/7/2055, The Nuclear Powered Submarine, Memorandum by the Admiralty, 14 January 1958. 160. TNA/ADM/189/237, Exercise Rum Tub and the Problem of the Fast Submarine, Paper read by Commander John Coote, Royal Navy, 1957. 161. Ibid. 162. Coote, ‘How Lord Mountbatten …’, 1981. 163. TNA/ADM/1/27796, Commander-in-Chief Home Fleet to Secretary of the Admiralty, 30 October 1957. 164. Ibid. 165. Ibid. 166. Ibid. 167. Ibid. 168. TNA/ADM/189/237, Introduction by Rear Admiral Sir Guy Grantham, Commander-in-Chief Portsmouth, 1957. 169. TNA/ADM/189/237, Exercise Rum Tub and the Problem of the Fast Submarine, Paper read by Commander John Coote, Royal Navy, 1957. 170. TNA/ADM/1/27796, Woods to Secretary of the Admiralty, Visit of USS Nautilus, 9 November 1957. 171. Eric Grove, ‘Mountbatten as Chief of Naval Staff’, Paper presented at ‘Aspects of British Defence and Naval Policy in the Mountbatten Era’, conference at the University of Southampton, 25–26 September 1990. 172. TNA/ADM/1/27796, Woods to Secretary of the Admiralty, Visit of USS Nautilus, 9 November 1957. 173. Dwight D. Eisenhower and Harold Macmillan, ‘Declaration of Common Purpose between the President of the United States and the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom’, Washington DC, 25 October 1957. 174. Dwight D. Eisenhower, ‘Special Message to the Congress Transmitting Agreement with the United Kingdom for Cooperation on Uses of Atomic Energy for Mutual Defense’, 3 July 1958.
The Agreement
175. Amending The Atomic Energy Act Of 1954 – Exchange of Military Information and Material with Allies, Congress of the United States, Sub-committee on Agreements for Cooperation Joint Committee on Atomic Energy, 27 February 1958, p. 164. 176. TNA/DEFE/19/50, Elkins to Brundrett, 9 January 1958. 177. Hill, ‘Admiral Hyman G. Rickover’. 178. MB1/K208A, Mountbatten to Hamersley, 31 July 1979 quoted in Hill, ‘Admiral Hyman G. Rickover’. 179. Ibid. 180. Ziegler, Mountbatten, pp. 558–9. 181. MB1/K208A, Mountbatten to Hamersley, 31 July 1979 quoted in Hill, ‘Admiral Hyman G. Rickover’. 182. TNA/DEFE/19/50, Note of a Meeting, 24 January 1958. 183. TNA/CAB/131/19, D(58) 2nd Meeting, 5 February 1958. 184. TNA/DEFE/19/50, Note of a Meeting, 24 January 1958. 185. Hearing before the Sub-committee on Agreements for Cooperation, Joint Committee on Atomic Energy, Amending the Atomic Energy Act of 1954 – Exchange of Military Information and Material with Allies, 85th Congress, 2nd Session, 27 February 1958, pp. 501–3. 186. Ibid. 187. Ibid. 188. Ibid.; Baylis, ‘Exchanging Nuclear Secrets’, p. 48. 189. TNA/DEFE/7/2055, BJSM to Cabinet Office, 6 March 1957. 190. TNA/ADM/116/6411, Elkins to Mountbatten, 26 March 1958. 191. Solly Zuckerman, Six Men Out of the Ordinary (Peter Owen, 1992), p. 151. 192. TNA/ADM/116/6411, Elkins to Mountbatten, 21 April 1958. 193. TNA/DEFE/13/523, Unknown to Sandys, 30 January 1958. 194. TNA/ADM/116/6411, Elkins to Mountbatten, 21 May 1958. 195. Baylis, ‘Exchanging Nuclear Secrets’, pp. 33–61. 196. Agreement between Government of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and Government of United States of America for Co-operation on the Uses of Atomic Energy for Mutual Defense Purposes, Washington, 3 July 1958.
The Dreadnought Programme
197. TNA/DEFE/19/50, Note of a Meeting, 24 January 1958. 198. TNA/DEFE/72/45, Baker, 9 April 1958. 199. TNA/DEFE/7/2055, Selkirk to Sandys, 24 March 1958. 200. TNA/ADM/116/641, Admiralty Board Minutes, 13 February 1958. 201. TNA/ADM/116/641, Extract from Board Minutes, 13 February 1958. 202. TNA/DEFE/13/523, Brief about Changes to Agreement, 28 January 1959. 203. TNA/PREM/11/2635, Macmillan to Selkirk, 9 February 1959. 204. TNA/DEFE/13/523, Selkirk to Macmillan, 10 February 1959. 205. TNA/ADM/DEFE/72/45, Le Fanu Memo, 15 March 1961. 206. TNA/ADM/116/6411, Lang to Makins, 21 February 1958. 207. Ministry of Defence, ‘The United Kingdom’s Defence Nuclear Weapons Programme: Plutonium and Aldermaston – An Historical Account’, 2000, p. 9. 208. TNA/DEFE/7/2055, Memo, 18 September 1956. 209. TNA/DEFE/19/50, First Lord to Sandys, 24 January 1958. 210. Ibid. 211. TNA/DEFE/116/6411, Dreadnought Policy, Agenda for Controller’s Meeting, 21 March 1958. 212. TNA/DEFE/69/749, Dreadnought Project, 2 April 1958. 213. David K. Brown, Sir Rowland Baker, KB, RCNC: A Personal Appreciation (MOD, 1996). 214. TNA/ADM/1/27568, Director of Tactical & Weapons Policy, 15 September 1959. 215. David K. Brown, Century of Naval Construction: The History of the Royal Corps of Naval Constructors (Conway Maritime Press, 1983), p. 235. 216. Brown and Moore, Rebuilding the Royal Navy, p. 121. 217. TNA/DEFE/69/749, Dreadnought Project, Some Difficulties as of 28th July 1958. 218. K. Hall and K. C. Mansbridge, ‘Materials for Royal Navy Submarines’, paper presented at the Symposium on Naval Submarines, London, 17–20 May 1983. 219. TNA/ADM/1/28241, Alfred J. Sims, HMS Dreadnought, paper to the Royal Institute of Naval Architects and Institute of Mechanical Engineers, undated. 220. Sir Rowland Baker and Professor L. J. Rydill, ‘The Building of the Two Dreadnoughts. European Shipbuilding: One Hundred Years of Change’, in Proceedings of the Third Shipbuilding History Conference at the National Maritime Museum Greenwich, 13–15 April 1983 (National Maritime Museum, 1983). 221. Anthony Preston, ‘The Influence of the Cold War on Submarine Design’, in Edmonds (ed.), 100 Years of the Trade, p. 79. 222. Bud and Gummett, Cold War, Hot Science, pp. 172–3. 223. Christopher Andrew, The Defence of the Realm (Allen Lane, 2009), pp. 483–9. 224. Bud and Gummett, Cold War, Hot Science, pp. 176–7. 225. Ibid., p. 177. 226. Preston, ‘The Influence of the Cold War on Submarine Design’, p. 79. 227. TNA/DEFE/7/2055, Brief for Sandys, undated. 228. Daniel, End of an Era, p. 139. 229. TNA/DEFE/7/
2055, Brief for Sandys, undated. 230. Ziegler, Mountbatten, p. 558. 231. TNA/ADM/127198, A Report by Chief Constructor Rowland Baker, Discussions with Admiral Rickover & Mr Mandil, 2–6 February 1959. 232. Daniel, End of an Era, p. 139. 233. TNA/DEFE/72/45, Le Fanu Memo, 15 March 1961. 234. Peter Kimm, ‘Dinner With Rickover’, in Naval Review, Vol. 85, No. 1, January 1997, pp. 43–5. 235. Ibid. 236. MB/1/I276, Mountbatten to Vice Admiral Sir Charles Lambe, 29 January 1959 quoted in Hill, Admiral Hyman G. Rickover. 237. John ‘Sandy’ Woodward, One Hundred Days: The Memoirs of the Falklands Battle Group Commander (HarperPress, 2012), p. 57. 238. Coote, ‘How Lord Mountbatten …’. 239. Peter Hammersley, ‘The Propulsion System’, in John E. Moore, The Impact of Polaris: The Origins of Britain’s Seaborne Nuclear Deterrent (Richard Netherwood, 1999), p. 155. 240. Brown, Century of Naval Construction, p. 235. 241. Harry Dickinson, Wisdom and War: The Royal Naval College Greenwich 1873–1998 (Ashgate, 2012). 242. Leslie Shore, Vickers’ Master Shipbuilder (Black Dwarf Publications, 2011), p. 111. 243. Ibid. 244. Theodore Rockwell, The Rickover Effect: How One Man Made a Difference (Naval Institute Press, 2002), p. 274. 245. Baker and Rydill, ‘The Building of the Two Dreadnoughts’. 246. Daniel, End of an Era, p. 153. 247. Ibid. 248. MOD Archive.