The Silent Deep

by James Jinks

  Up North

  128. Interview with Rear Admiral John Hervey, 30 January 2013. 129. Fry, Fruitful Rewarding Years, p. 124. 130. Ibid. 131. Patrick Middleton, Admiral Clanky Entertains (Matador, 2010), pp. 156–7. 132. Ibid., p. 157. 133. Ibid., p. 156. 134. Interview with Peter Herbert, 15 October 2013. 135. Ibid. 136. Ibid. 137. Ibid. 138. Nikita Khrushchev, Khrushchev Remembers: The Last Testament (Little Brown, 1974), p. 31. 139. Norman Polmar and Kenneth Moore, Cold War Submarines: The Design and Construction of US and Soviet Submarines (Potomac Books, 2005), pp. 97–9. 140. Iain Ballantyne, Hunter Killers: The Dramatic Untold Story of the Royal Navy’s Most Secret Service (Orion, 2013), chapters 22–5. 141. Frank Turvey, The Silent War, BBC documentary, episode 1: ‘Know Your Enemy’, broadcast 5 December 2013. 142. Interview with John Hervey, 6 January 2014. 143. Ibid. 144. Sherry Sontag and Christopher Drew, Blind Man’s Bluff: The Untold Story of American Submarine Espionage (Random House, 1999), p. 281; Soviet officials told the authors’ Russian researcher, Alexander Mozgovoy, that this was the first collision involving a NATO surveillance submarine and Soviet nuclear boat in northern waters. 145. Interview with John Hervey, 6 January 2014. 146. The Times, 19 October 1968. 147. The most detailed account of the collision, based in part on interviews with Warspite’s then XO, Tim Hale, can be found in Ballantyne, Hunter Killers, chapters 22–5; see also North West Evening Mail, ‘Did the Russians Hit Barrow Sub?’, 8 July 2006; North West Evening Mail, ‘Retired Submariner Graham Salmon Says Echo II Doing a “Crazy Ivan” Hit Warspite’, 8 July 2006; also, Middleton, Admiral Clanky Entertains; Sontag and Drew, Blind Man’s Bluff, p. 281; Dan Conley and Richard Woodman, Cold War Command: The Dramatic Story of a Nuclear Submariner (Seaforth Press, 2014), pp. 88, 101–2; Pitkeathly and Wixon, Submarine Courageous, p. 129. 148. Lord Owen, The Silent War, episode 1: ‘Know Your Enemy’, broadcast 5 December 2013. 149. Middleton, Admiral Clanky Entertains, p. 150. 150. Correspondence with John Hervey, 14 January 2014. 151. Ibid. 152. Interview with Sandy Woodward, 2 April 2012. 153. TNA/DEFE/13/949, Background Information on the Soviet Navy, 1 December 1969. 154. Pitkeathly and Wixon, Submarine Courageous, p. 241. 155. Interview with Sandy Woodward, 2 April 2012. 156. Middleton, Admiral Clanky Entertains, p. 158 157. Interview with Sandy Woodward, 2 April 2012. 158. Ibid. 159. The delay was partly due to Khrushchev’s priority for the land-based Strategic Missile Forces that lapsed after his removal, coupled with the difficulty of developing solid-fuel missiles. In the event a compact storable liquid-fuelled missile originally designed for strikes on carrier task forces was reconfigured as a land attack missile; Pavel Podvig, Russian Strategic Nuclear Forces (MIT Press, 2004), pp. 319–20; Pitkeathly and Wixon, Submarine Courageous, p. 181. 160. Podvig, Russian Strategic Nuclear Forces, p. 7. 161. Interview with Sandy Woodward, 2 April 2012. 162. Ibid. 163. Ibid. 164. Ibid. 165. Ibid. 166. Middleton, Admiral Clanky Entertains, p. 159. 167. Interview with Sandy Woodward, 2 April 2012. 168. Ibid. 169. Ibid. 170. Ibid. 171. Ibid. 172. Ibid. 173. Ibid.

  6 ‘NO REFUGE IN THE DEPTHS’: THE COLD WAR IN THE 1970S

  1. Michael Pitkeathly and David Wixon, Submarine Courageous, Cold War Warrior: The Life and Times of a Nuclear Submarine (The HMS Courageous Society, 2010), p. 129. 2. TNA/DEFE/69/727, Captain Peter Herbert comments accompanying Submarine ASW Philosophy, Richard Sharpe, 1973.

  The Decade of the Passive

  3. Norman Polmar, The Naval Institute Guide to the Soviet Navy (Naval Institute Press, 5th edn, 1991), p. 40. 4. Ibid., p. 41. 5. Henry S. Lowenhaupt, ‘How We Identified the Technical Problems of Early Russian Nuclear Submarines’, CIA Studies in Intelligence, Vol. 18, Fall 1974, pp. 1–9.

  SOSUS

  6. For more on sonar see John Hervey, Submarines (Brassey’s Sea Power: Naval Vessels, Weapons Systems and Technology, Vol. 7) (Brassey’s, 1994), pp. 91–124. 7. Rear Admiral Martin Wemyss, ‘Submarines and Anti-Submarine Operations for the Uninitiated’, RUSI Journal (September 1981), p. 24. 8. Guy Warner, ‘The Tactical Challenges of Submarine Operations: A Historical Perspective’, unpublished article. 9. http://www.navy.mil/navydata/cno/n87/usw/issue_25/sosus2.htm. 10. TNA/AIR/2/18731, draft paper for the ORC, UK Participation in SOSUS, 9 October 1970. 11. The Americans were also anxious to find a site in the UK at which they could reinstate the Norwegian array, should the political circumstances in Iceland produce a left-wing, anti-American government. 12. TNA/ADM/189/239, Discussion on Some Operational Aspects of A/S, paper presented to the Fifteenth TAS Conference, May 1958. 13. TNA/AIR/2/18731, Loose Minute, SOSUS, 11 October 1968. 14. TNA/AIR/2/18731, Annex to CDRE(INT)404/470, 20 October 1970. 15. TNA/AIR/2/18731, I. L. Emmett, 10 November 1970. 16. TNA/AIR/2/18731, D. M. Clause, Minute, 13 October 1970. 17. TNA/AIR/2/18731, Annex to CDRE(INT)404/470, 20 October 1970. 18. TNA/AIR/2/18731, J. W. Ring, SOSUS – UK Participation, 22 October. 19. Charlie Whitham, ‘Bargaining over Brawdy: Negotiating the American Military Presence in Wales, 1971’, in Luis Nunos Rodriguez and Sergiy Glebov (eds.), Military Bases: Historical Perspectives, Contemporary Challenges (IOS Press, 2009), pp. 40–55. 20. TNA/FCO/82/77, R. J. Murray to C. Lush, 24 May 1971. 21. TNA/FCO/82/77, N. H. Young to Chamier, Project Backscratch, 15 June 1971. 22. http://www.navy.mil/navydata/cno/n87/usw/issue_25/sosus2.htm. 23. Hervey, Submarines, p. 93. 24. MOD Archive. 25. TNA/DEFE/13/1357, Sea Air Warfare Committee – Operational Concept for Anti-Submarine Warfare, 25 May 1978. 26. TNA/AIR/2/18731, J. W. Ring, SOSUS – UK Participation, 22 October 1970. 27. Ibid. 28. TNA/DEFE/69/726, DIS Brief, ‘Your Problem’: Soviet New Construction Submarines, 1970. 29. Ibid. 30. TNA/CAB/186/9, JIC(A)(71)21, Soviet Maritime Policy, 30 July 1971. 31. Ibid. 32. Norman Polmar and Kenneth Moore, Cold War Submarines: The Design and Construction of US and Soviet Submarines (Potomac Books, 2005), pp. 158–9. 33. Pavel Podvig, Russian Strategic Nuclear Forces (MIT Press, 2004), p. 625. 34. TNA/CAB/186/9, JIC(A)(71)21, Soviet Maritime Policy, Report by Joint Intelligence Committee (A), 30 July 1971. 35. Podvig, Russian Strategic Nuclear Forces, pp. 11–12. 36. Tom Le Marchand, ‘Under Ice Operations’, U.S. Naval War College Review, May–June 1985, pp. 19–27. 37. Ibid.

  Under the Ice

  38. William R. Anderson, Nautilus 90 North (Tab Books, May 1989). 39. Polmar and Moore, Cold War Submarines, p. 335, fn.28. The available evidence indicates that Thresher suffered an electrical bus failure, which shut down the submarine’s main coolant pumps and led to a reactor scram. The crew were unable to restart the reactor to regain propulsion and unable to blow ballast to surface. Thresher slowly sank towards the ocean floor and imploded at a depth of about 2400 feet (more than 400 feet below her predicted collapse depth). 40. Pier Horensma, The Soviet Arctic (Routledge, 1991), pp. 107–8. 41. Gary E. Weir, ‘Virtual War in the Ice Jungle: “We don’t know how to do this” ’, Journal of Strategic Studies, 28:2 (2005), p. 413. 42. MOD Archive. 43. Ibid. 44. Ibid. SSK(N) is a rather confusing non-standard designation occasionally used for hunter-killer nuclear-powered submarines. Normally by this time SSK was used for conventionally powered boats, a reflection of their primary ASW hunter-killer role and SSN for all non-ballistic-missile nuclear-powered boats. 45. TNA/DEFE/24/99, FOSM, HMS Dreadnought – Proposed Arctic Patrol, 15 December 1970. 46. MOD Archive. 47. Ibid. 48. Ibid. 49. Ibid. 50. Ibid. 51. Ibid. 52. Ibid. 53. Ibid.

  A Specialist Service?

  54. RNSM/A2008, John Roxburgh to Tony Troup, Personal Turnover Notes, 22 June 1972. 55. Ibid. 56. Daily Express, 3 July 1971. 57. MOD Archive. 58. Daily Telegraph, 21 October 1971. 59. RNSM/A2008, John Roxburgh to Tony Troup, Personal Turnover Notes, 22 June 1972. 60. Ibid. 61. RNSM/A2000/061, The Origins of Submarine Sea Training/Work-Ups (undated manuscript).

  A Victor Penetrates the Clyde

  62. Rowland White, Vulcan 607: The Epic Story of the Most Remarkable British Air Attack since WWII (Corgi Books, 2006), pp. 66–7; Jim Ring, We Come Unseen: The Untold Story of Britain’s Cold War Submariners (John Murray, 2001), pp. 107–8. 63. The Times, ‘Navy Shadows Mystery Sub’, 30 January 1973. 64. Interview with Chris Ward, 23 June 2014. 65.
Ibid. 66. Interview with Roger Lane-Nott, 25 March 2014. 67. Interview with Chris Ward, 23 June 2014. 68. Ibid. 69. Ibid. 70. Ibid. 71. Interview with Roger Lane-Nott, 25 March 2014. 72. Interview with Chris Ward, 23 June 2014. 73. Interview with Roger Lane-Nott, 25 March 2014. 74. Interview with Chris Ward, 23 June 2014. 75. Interview with Roger Lane-Nott, 25 March 2014. 76. Interview with Chris Ward, 23 June 2014. 77. John Roberts, Safeguarding the Nation: The Story of the Modern Royal Navy (Seaforth Publishing, 2009), p. 99. 78. Basil Watson, Commander-in-Chief: A Celebration of the Life of Admiral of the Fleet The Lord Fieldhouse of Gosport (Royal Navy Submarine Museum, 2005), p. 118. 79. Ibid., p. 118; Interview with Richard Sharpe, 19 November 2013.

  A New Concept of Operations

  80. TNA/DEFE/69/727, Commander Llewelyn, Commander Round-Turner, SSN in Support of Surface Forces – State of the Art, 1973. 81. Ibid. 82. TNA/DEFE/48/285, The Nuclear Submarine in Defence of Surface Forces and Interdiction of Enemy Surface Movement, November 1974. 83. TNA/DEFE/69/727, Commander R. G. Sharpe, Submarine ASW Philosophy, 1973. 84. Ibid. 85. Weir, ‘Virtual War in the Ice Jungle’, p. 414. 86. Ibid. 87. Pitkeathly and Wixon, Submarine Courageous, p. 124. 88. Interview with Martin Macpherson, 24 May 2013. 89. Ring, We Come Unseen, p. 172. 90. TNA/DEFE/69/727, Commander R. G. Sharpe, Submarine ASW Philosophy, 1973. 91. Daily Telegraph, ‘War Games’, 20 August 2000. 92. Captain Donald Mitchell, ‘United States Navy Submarine Development Group Two and Submarine Development Squadron Twelve: A Royal Navy Perspective, 1995 to Date (2007)’, June 2007. 93. TNA/ADM/13/985, Loose minute from Head of DS5, 4 December 1973. 94. TNA/DEFE/69/653, Future Policy for Special Fit, 29 July 1977. 95. Ibid. 96. TNA/DEFE/24/1387, Naval Staff Target 7029 (New Patrol Class Submarine) Supporting Paper, June 1978. 97. Pitkeathly and Wixon, Submarine Courageous, p. 55. 98. Bruce Schick, Whales Tales: Recollections of a Diesel Submariner (DBF Press, 2005), p. 78–9. 99. RNSM/A2008, John Roxburgh to Tony Troup, Personal Turnover Notes, 22 June 1972. 100. MOD Archive. 101. Ibid. 102. Pitkeathly and Wixon, Submarine Courageous, pp. 128–9. 103. John ‘Sandy’ Woodward, One Hundred Days: The Memoirs of the Falklands Battle Group Commander (HarperPress, 2012), p. 61. 104. Ibid., p. 62. 105. Warner, ‘Tactical Challenges of Submarine Operations’. 106. TNA/DEFE/67/777, Choke Point Operations In Exercise Dawn Patrol 1973. 107. MOD Archive. 108. Ibid. 109. IWM/30390, Interview with John Coward, 20 November 2007. 110. Ibid. 111. Watson, Commander-in-Chief, p. 120. 112. IWM/30390, Interview with John Coward, 20 November 2007. 113. Pitkeathly and Wixon, Submarine Courageous, pp. 72–3. 114. MOD Archive. 115. Ibid. 116. Ibid. 117. Ibid. 118. Pitkeathly and Wixon, Submarine Courageous, pp. 246–7.

  The Perils of Special Operations

  119. TNA/PREM/16/146, Nichols to Butler, 17 May 1974. 120. TNA/DEFE/69/226, Ministry of Defence (Navy) surveillance operations reports: Operations Awless, Aver and Artellot: submarine patrols off Northern Ireland, 1 January 1974–31 December 1976. 121. TNA/DEFE/69/226, C. L. Carver, Headquarters Northern Ireland, Submarine Support for Northern Ireland, 12 June 1975. 122. TNA/DEFE/69/226, Littlejohns to Captain SM, HMS Dolphin, 28 July 1975. 123. TNA/DEFE/69/226, RMP Pool, Operation Aweless – Operation Report, 25 January 1975. 124. Major R. C. Clifford, MBE, RM, ‘Five Bells’, in Friends of the Royal Navy Submarine Museum, All Round Look: Year Book 2007/2008 (Royal Navy Submarine Museum, 2008), pp. 44–8. 125. Ibid. 126. Ibid. 127. Ibid. 128. Duncan Falconer, First Into Action: A Dramatic Personal Account of Life inside the SBS (Sphere, 2001), pp. 165–6. 129. Ibid., pp. 151–65; MOD Archive; Don Camsell, Black Water: By Strength and by Guile (Virgin Books, 2001). 130. Falconer, First into Action, pp. 160–65. 131. Ibid.

  The ‘Swiftsure’ Class

  132. Watson, Commander-in-Chief, p. 116. 133. Interview with Martin Macpherson, 24 May 2013. 134. 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, pp. 65–79. 135. ‘Design Philosophy’, Nuclear Submarine SSN-07, a Symposium, Wednesday, 28 February 1968, at Vickers Limited Shipbuilding Group, Barrow-in-Furness. 136. Ibid. 137. Ibid. 138. Robert Bud and Philip Gummett, Cold War, Hot Science: Applied Research in Britain’s Defence Laboratories, 1945–1990 (Science Museum, 2002), p. 166. 139. Core B was the first core designed entirely by Rolls-Royce and Associates. Initial criticality was achieved in June 1968 and Core B was eventually retrofitted into all Core A submarines as well as the ‘Swiftsure’ class. 140. Oral History with Dr Waldo Lyon, by Gary E. Weir, US Naval Historical Center, 16 April 1994, US Navy Operational Archive, Washington DC [OA]. 141. MOD Archive. 142. Ibid. 143. Ibid. 144. Ibid. 145. Ibid. 146. Warner, ‘Tactical Challenges of Submarine Operations’. 147. Ibid. 148. Pitkeathly and Wixon, Submarine Courageous, p. 159. 149. Warner, ‘Tactical Challenges of Submarine Operations’. 150. TNA/ADM/256/153, Pollock to Controller of the Navy, 5 February 1969. 151. TNA/DEFE/69/726, The Weapons Programme, 1970. 152. Ibid. 153. Ibid. 154. Ibid.; the SUW-N-1 was a nuclear-armed ASW missile carried by the large Soviet helicopter carriers. 155. TNA/DEFE/69/727, Anti SLAM tactics, 1970. 156. TNA/DEFE/24/1782, Updated NSR 6333 (Issue 2) – Underwater to Surface Anti-Ship Guided Weapon System (USGW), a paper by the Navy Department, August 1977. 157. Ibid. 158. Pitkeathly and Wixon, Submarine Courageous, pp. 195–6. 159. Ibid. 160. Hervey, Submarines, pp. 100–101. 161. TNA/DEFE/13/1357, Towed Arrays for Submarines – Sonar 2026, 18 July 1978. 162. Dan Conley and Richard Woodman, Cold War Command: The Dramatic Story of a Nuclear Submariner (Seaforth Press, 2014), pp. 156–7. 163. Interview with Mark Stanhope, 4 April 2014. 164. MOD Archive. 165. lbid. 166. Ibid. 167. Polmar and Moore, Cold War Submarines, p. 173.

  Operation ‘Agile Eagle’

  168. MOD Archive. 169. Roger Lane-Nott, ‘Submarine Intelligence and the Cold War’, in Michael R. Fitzgerald and Allen Packwood (eds.), Out of the Cold: The Cold War and Its Legacy (Bloomsbury Academic, 2013), p. 115. 170. MOD Archive. 171. Pitkeathly and Wixon, Submarine Courageous, p. 56. 172. TNA/DEFE/24/1387, Naval Staff Target 7029 (New Patrol Class Submarine) Supporting Paper, 7 June 1978. 173. MOD Archive. 174. lbid.175. Ibid. 176. Interview with Roger Lane-Nott, 25 March 2014. 177. Rear Admiral J. R. Hill, Antisubmarine Warfare (Naval Institute Press, 1984), p. 69.