1 00:00:03,360 --> 00:00:06,600 Throughout the 1970s and '80s, 2 00:00:06,600 --> 00:00:10,520 the nuclear balance between East and West was constantly shifting... 3 00:00:10,520 --> 00:00:16,200 and the front line of the Cold war was now hidden beneath the ocean. 4 00:00:16,200 --> 00:00:17,760 Oh, my God! 5 00:00:18,560 --> 00:00:20,240 All hell broke loose. 6 00:00:20,240 --> 00:00:27,720 They were having a major antisubmarine warfare exercise and we were the target! 7 00:00:30,200 --> 00:00:33,800 This was a war of espionage and intimidation, 8 00:00:33,800 --> 00:00:38,080 a constant struggle to gain technological advantage. 9 00:00:53,720 --> 00:00:58,840 Submariners from three navies, American, Soviet and British, 10 00:00:58,840 --> 00:01:01,640 played a deadly game of hide-and-seek. 11 00:01:02,480 --> 00:01:04,880 He was always known in the trade as the Prince of Darkness, 12 00:01:04,880 --> 00:01:07,480 because he was so difficult to detect. 13 00:01:19,520 --> 00:01:22,960 Soviet submarines were now more sophisticated than ever... 14 00:01:23,760 --> 00:01:27,840 ..bigger... faster and more luxurious. 15 00:01:31,120 --> 00:01:35,560 The Soviets were also developing the ability to launch nuclear missiles 16 00:01:35,560 --> 00:01:38,600 from the most hostile environment in the world. 17 00:01:40,240 --> 00:01:42,320 When you get to the ice, it's terrible. 18 00:01:42,320 --> 00:01:45,800 The cracking, the screeching, it sounds like you are in an insane asylum sometimes. 19 00:01:47,360 --> 00:01:54,640 The details of this tense Cold War stand-off have been a closely guarded secret for over 40 years. 20 00:01:55,280 --> 00:01:59,560 President Reagan wanted me to poke the Soviets right in the eye 21 00:01:59,560 --> 00:02:03,400 and tell them, "We're up here to show you that we're going to be able to kick your ass!" 22 00:02:05,440 --> 00:02:09,520 Now, submariners are able to talk more openly than ever before 23 00:02:09,520 --> 00:02:13,080 about this silent war beneath the sea. 24 00:02:34,240 --> 00:02:40,760 In early 1973, an American nuclear-powered submarine, the Flying Fish, 25 00:02:40,760 --> 00:02:43,800 left her home port of Norfolk, Virginia. 26 00:02:46,080 --> 00:02:52,800 Equipped with the latest sonar, she sailed 4,500 miles to the Barents Sea. 27 00:02:53,920 --> 00:02:59,040 Her mission, to spy on Soviet ships and submarines. 28 00:03:01,640 --> 00:03:06,920 Commander JD Williams had orders to track down one very special target. 29 00:03:09,400 --> 00:03:14,120 What I knew was that they had built a new Soviet class submarine 30 00:03:14,120 --> 00:03:15,840 called the Delta, 31 00:03:15,840 --> 00:03:19,880 which no-one had ever seen, and that was about it. 32 00:03:19,880 --> 00:03:22,440 No-one knew where it was, where it operated, 33 00:03:22,440 --> 00:03:30,560 so based on my experience in the Barents, I would go and monitor traffic going in and out. 34 00:03:34,400 --> 00:03:36,200 The US Navy had intelligence 35 00:03:36,200 --> 00:03:41,120 suggesting that the Delta was armed with new long-range nuclear missiles 36 00:03:41,120 --> 00:03:46,280 capable of targeting American cities from the safety of Soviet waters. 37 00:03:47,320 --> 00:03:53,280 If true, this could tip the nuclear balance in favour of the Soviet Union. 38 00:03:54,640 --> 00:03:59,360 Frank Turban was a senior communications technician on the Flying Fish. 39 00:04:01,800 --> 00:04:04,960 The captain was on there, "We've got to find the Delta. 40 00:04:04,960 --> 00:04:06,720 "We've got to find the Delta!" 41 00:04:06,720 --> 00:04:11,000 And he was one of the best skippers I've ever been under, 42 00:04:11,000 --> 00:04:17,080 because, as far as we were concerned, we wanted to be in where the action was, 43 00:04:17,080 --> 00:04:20,480 and Captain Williams was a hard charger, as we called them. 44 00:04:23,440 --> 00:04:28,480 Within days the Flying Fish detected unusual submarine signals. 45 00:04:29,560 --> 00:04:32,280 We were picking up sound characteristics 46 00:04:32,280 --> 00:04:35,120 different than any submarine I had ever trailed before. 47 00:04:35,120 --> 00:04:38,960 So right away I said, "Oh, this could very well be the Delta!" 48 00:04:41,760 --> 00:04:47,600 We trailed the submarine for a number of hours, maybe even days, before he surfaced. 49 00:04:48,920 --> 00:04:53,800 And this enabled the captain to get pictures from an exterior point of view, 50 00:04:53,800 --> 00:04:59,080 and he wanted to get really close. 51 00:05:00,920 --> 00:05:03,360 I mean, really close. 52 00:05:04,760 --> 00:05:10,120 So, I remember explicitly when he, in the periscope, went, 53 00:05:10,120 --> 00:05:14,280 "Oh, this is the Delta! This is... we've got him, we've got him. 54 00:05:14,280 --> 00:05:15,320 "This is it!" 55 00:05:18,400 --> 00:05:23,200 Until now the most powerful Soviet submarine had been the Yankee class, 56 00:05:23,200 --> 00:05:27,560 capable of firing missiles over a range of about 1,000 miles. 57 00:05:27,560 --> 00:05:30,840 But this submarine was different. 58 00:05:33,680 --> 00:05:38,200 I could see that the missile tubes were longer and bigger than the Yankee, 59 00:05:38,200 --> 00:05:42,440 which would indicate to me that the missiles had a longer range, which they did, of course. 60 00:05:44,840 --> 00:05:47,800 Everybody was pretty excited because we knew it was a... 61 00:05:47,800 --> 00:05:50,480 as soon as I looked at it, I knew it was the Delta. 62 00:05:54,040 --> 00:05:58,280 This discovery of a new Soviet submarine came at a critical time. 63 00:05:59,240 --> 00:06:02,560 In 1973, America was in crisis. 64 00:06:03,680 --> 00:06:06,200 The Vietnam War was going badly. 65 00:06:06,200 --> 00:06:09,400 What I have stated has been the truth... 66 00:06:09,400 --> 00:06:13,440 Back home, Richard Nixon was embroiled in Watergate, 67 00:06:13,440 --> 00:06:17,120 a political scandal that would end his Presidency. 68 00:06:17,120 --> 00:06:21,560 MUSIC: "No More Mr. Nice Guy" by Alice Cooper 69 00:06:24,800 --> 00:06:28,680 But the Soviet Union, under the leadership of Leonid Brezhnev, 70 00:06:28,680 --> 00:06:31,800 was enjoying an era of powerful economic growth. 71 00:06:33,720 --> 00:06:37,000 They were pouring vast amounts of money into the military. 72 00:06:37,000 --> 00:06:39,840 The submarine service was a priority. 73 00:06:42,440 --> 00:06:46,760 In the Barents Sea, JD Williams was about to come face to face 74 00:06:46,760 --> 00:06:50,680 with the Soviet Navy's latest top-secret development. 75 00:06:52,800 --> 00:06:56,080 My guess is we were within 1,000 yards. 76 00:06:57,120 --> 00:07:00,200 Captain Williams was at the periscope, 77 00:07:00,200 --> 00:07:03,640 and periscopes stick up about six feet, 78 00:07:03,640 --> 00:07:08,360 and he could see the officer on the bridge, on the conn, 79 00:07:08,360 --> 00:07:14,800 pointing right at us and then yelling down below, 80 00:07:14,800 --> 00:07:19,680 and then again somebody else came up and he pointed right at us. 81 00:07:19,680 --> 00:07:26,560 When I saw the watch on the bridge pointing right at me in the scope, 82 00:07:26,560 --> 00:07:29,000 I said, "Uh-oh, I've been had!" 83 00:07:29,000 --> 00:07:32,040 And so then I lowered the scope... 84 00:07:32,040 --> 00:07:34,560 ..And he slowly submerged. 85 00:07:36,520 --> 00:07:39,080 And in that slowly submerged, 86 00:07:39,080 --> 00:07:46,920 he didn't want to make a ripple to tell this submarine which way we were going to go. 87 00:07:57,000 --> 00:07:58,280 Oh, my God! 88 00:07:59,400 --> 00:08:00,920 All hell broke loose. 89 00:08:04,400 --> 00:08:12,440 They had helicopters in the air, they had TU95 surveillance bombers in the air, 90 00:08:12,440 --> 00:08:16,200 they had brought out more ships to look for us, 91 00:08:16,200 --> 00:08:24,040 they were having a major antisubmarine warfare exercise, and we were the target! 92 00:08:26,840 --> 00:08:32,160 So the captain decides, "They're not going to look for me to go closer to them, 93 00:08:32,160 --> 00:08:35,760 "they're going to look for me to escape and get out of here! 94 00:08:35,760 --> 00:08:40,720 "So what I'm going to do is I'm going...I'm going to get closer." 95 00:08:44,920 --> 00:08:51,720 So we just stayed there and we watched the entire whole exercise. 96 00:08:51,720 --> 00:08:58,600 We got exactly how they would prosecute an enemy submarine completely. 97 00:08:59,920 --> 00:09:05,600 The analysts said the information we brought back was one of the best they had ever seen. 98 00:09:09,280 --> 00:09:14,200 I went to Washington to brief the head of the Submarine Force, the Chief of the Naval Operations, 99 00:09:14,200 --> 00:09:20,120 the Secretary of the Navy, the CIA Director...it was fairly a big deal. 100 00:09:20,120 --> 00:09:22,600 The Secretary of the Navy happened to say, 101 00:09:22,600 --> 00:09:27,000 "Commander, you're the most important person in the Navy right now," like this, 102 00:09:27,000 --> 00:09:30,680 and here's the Admirals sitting all around. So...it was well received. 103 00:09:32,000 --> 00:09:38,800 It was the Soviets' newest class missile-carrying submarine, 104 00:09:38,800 --> 00:09:45,920 and it was going to carry the latest version of their intercontinental ballistic missiles, 105 00:09:45,920 --> 00:09:48,560 the latest and greatest of what they had. 106 00:09:48,560 --> 00:09:52,640 And it wasn't even operational yet, and we knew everything about it! 107 00:09:54,040 --> 00:10:00,960 I don't have the superlative words in my vocabulary to be able to describe how big that is. 108 00:10:03,680 --> 00:10:09,120 Before the launch of the Delta, Soviet submarines with shorter-range missiles 109 00:10:09,120 --> 00:10:17,120 had to sail through the Barents Sea, curve around Norway and drop down between Greenland and the UK 110 00:10:17,120 --> 00:10:21,200 to get within striking distance of the United States. 111 00:10:22,120 --> 00:10:27,160 British and American hunter-killer submarines secretly trailed them, 112 00:10:27,160 --> 00:10:31,000 primed to destroy them immediately in the event of war. 113 00:10:32,840 --> 00:10:35,480 The Delta threatened to change the game. 114 00:11:14,680 --> 00:11:19,280 The Barents Sea became a fortress for a growing fleet of Deltas 115 00:11:19,280 --> 00:11:24,400 armed with enough ballistic missiles to destroy every city in North America. 116 00:11:25,880 --> 00:11:32,360 It was teeming with hundreds of Soviet attack submarines, surface ships and aircraft. 117 00:11:35,280 --> 00:11:41,520 To maintain the nuclear balance, British and American submarines would now have to enter the Barents, 118 00:11:41,520 --> 00:11:49,000 to hunt down and shadow every Russian missile submarine while remaining undetected themselves. 119 00:11:53,480 --> 00:11:56,880 Submarines could detect each other in two main ways... 120 00:11:58,160 --> 00:12:03,000 ..active sonar, pinging and analysing the sound reflected back. 121 00:12:03,000 --> 00:12:07,040 But by making noise, you also reveal your own presence. 122 00:12:08,200 --> 00:12:10,040 Or passive sonar... 123 00:12:10,040 --> 00:12:16,480 silently listening for sounds made by the engines, pumps or propellers of enemy submarines. 124 00:12:19,520 --> 00:12:25,840 But the newest Soviet submarines, like the Delta, were getting much harder to detect. 125 00:13:09,280 --> 00:13:15,560 We were having a more difficult time of detecting Soviet submarines because they had become quieter. 126 00:13:15,560 --> 00:13:21,040 That means we had to change our strategy and tactics in order to detect the Soviet submarines. 127 00:13:23,320 --> 00:13:28,360 JD Williams was the first to use revolutionary new listening technology 128 00:13:28,360 --> 00:13:31,080 that enabled him to hunt down the Delta. 129 00:13:32,440 --> 00:13:38,840 Behind his submarine he towed a mile-long array of ultra-sensitive hydrophones. 130 00:13:38,840 --> 00:13:42,960 It was called the passive towed array sonar. 131 00:13:44,400 --> 00:13:52,000 These hydrophones were so sensitive they could detect low-frequency sounds, inaudible to the human ear. 132 00:13:53,600 --> 00:13:56,000 And towing them up to a mile behind 133 00:13:56,000 --> 00:14:00,720 meant there was less interference from the noise generated by their own submarine. 134 00:14:02,720 --> 00:14:08,160 Paul Williamson was one of the first sonar operators to use it in the Royal Navy. 135 00:14:09,160 --> 00:14:12,000 The towed array advantage was huge. 136 00:14:12,000 --> 00:14:16,640 It gave us a long-range detection for miles and miles and miles. 137 00:14:17,160 --> 00:14:20,760 Then you'd go out and there were contacts all over the place, 138 00:14:20,760 --> 00:14:23,360 you would just...you know, you'd want to switch it off, 139 00:14:23,360 --> 00:14:27,600 because the level of work in the sound room went up two-, three-fold. 140 00:14:29,080 --> 00:14:30,680 Towed array came in 141 00:14:30,680 --> 00:14:36,600 and it was really as though you are walking down a dark street... 142 00:14:38,640 --> 00:14:40,360 ..in some town somewhere, 143 00:14:40,360 --> 00:14:43,920 wondering what's actually happening and then somebody turns the lights on. 144 00:14:43,920 --> 00:14:45,720 It was like that. 145 00:14:47,680 --> 00:14:52,280 When I joined the Navy, I would talk to sonar operators that had been in the Navy for 17 years, 146 00:14:52,280 --> 00:14:55,480 "What's it like detecting a Soviet submarine at sea?" 147 00:14:55,480 --> 00:14:58,120 and they'd say "I've never done it, I've never detected one." 148 00:14:59,160 --> 00:15:00,400 Yep. 149 00:15:00,400 --> 00:15:05,440 So now when you put the towed array on, that's a totally different ball game. 150 00:15:05,440 --> 00:15:07,920 The game had changed big time. 151 00:15:11,120 --> 00:15:15,280 MUSIC: "Speed Of Life" by David Bowie 152 00:15:19,480 --> 00:15:26,560 The 1970s was the era of detente, when relations between the superpowers seemed to thaw. 153 00:15:28,480 --> 00:15:35,160 American Presidents Nixon, Ford and Carter negotiated with Russian leader Leonid Brezhnev 154 00:15:35,160 --> 00:15:37,960 to agree limits to the number of nuclear missiles. 155 00:15:39,040 --> 00:15:45,240 But at the same time, the Soviets were pouring vast sums of money into their submarine fleet. 156 00:15:46,880 --> 00:15:51,480 By 1977, the American Navy had been halved, 157 00:15:51,480 --> 00:15:57,640 and the Soviets now had more ballistic-missile submarines than Britain and America combined. 158 00:16:04,760 --> 00:16:10,240 The Soviet Union was developing cruise missiles to attack American aircraft carriers. 159 00:16:11,080 --> 00:16:17,960 Skimming feet above the ocean, they were guided to their targets with extraordinary pinpoint accuracy. 160 00:16:22,840 --> 00:16:28,320 Spying on Soviet Navy weapons-testing was now more important than ever. 161 00:16:29,520 --> 00:16:32,160 You could see the missile... 162 00:16:32,160 --> 00:16:33,400 did it have radars? 163 00:16:33,400 --> 00:16:36,120 If it did, you wanted to track those so that counter-measures 164 00:16:36,120 --> 00:16:36,840 could be developed. 165 00:16:38,240 --> 00:16:39,680 Did it hit? 166 00:16:39,680 --> 00:16:41,080 Did it miss? 167 00:16:42,280 --> 00:16:44,240 So it was... it was up close and personal. 168 00:16:47,240 --> 00:16:53,720 This information on cruise missile shooting was very important in developing countermeasures 169 00:16:53,720 --> 00:16:58,400 for our surface ships primarily so that they could block the radars. 170 00:16:58,400 --> 00:17:01,200 So it was very important in that regard. 171 00:17:16,240 --> 00:17:21,160 In 1982, Al Konetzni was sent on his first mission 172 00:17:21,160 --> 00:17:26,280 as commander of the USS Grayling, a hunter-killer submarine. 173 00:17:28,640 --> 00:17:31,880 The Grayling would be submerged for up to eight weeks. 174 00:17:33,360 --> 00:17:39,600 There's no psychological and no physical privacy on a submarine. 175 00:17:39,600 --> 00:17:42,640 Everyone knows one another. 176 00:17:42,640 --> 00:17:44,080 I mean, I will tell you, 177 00:17:44,080 --> 00:17:46,720 in a submarine if you have a problem at home, 178 00:17:46,720 --> 00:17:51,280 whether it be, you know, your financials are bad or your wife, whatever it might be, 179 00:17:51,280 --> 00:17:56,280 the children are acting up, there is not a soul in that sewer pipe who doesn't know that. 180 00:17:56,280 --> 00:18:01,160 I don't care if you are the commanding officer or the most junior seamen or fireman on board, 181 00:18:01,160 --> 00:18:03,760 and that appealed to me because it was real. 182 00:18:05,600 --> 00:18:10,080 After a month and a half spying on Soviet military exercises, 183 00:18:10,080 --> 00:18:15,160 Al Konetzni reported a dramatic change in Soviet tactics. 184 00:18:15,160 --> 00:18:20,520 A Delta submarine was leaving the Barents Sea and heading north. 185 00:18:21,800 --> 00:18:26,480 He edged his way, way into the Greenland Sea, north of Bear Island, 186 00:18:26,480 --> 00:18:30,200 up outside of my area so I had to let the National Command Authority know. 187 00:18:30,200 --> 00:18:34,560 We got the word back, "Straight on, go out of your area, keep trailing." 188 00:18:35,600 --> 00:18:37,560 And that's when my problems really occurred. 189 00:18:37,560 --> 00:18:40,800 But here we are, we're trudging up the coast of Greenland. 190 00:18:40,800 --> 00:18:46,120 This guy's going north and I didn't have any charts, I didn't have those charts. 191 00:18:46,120 --> 00:18:49,280 Honestly, we were using an atlas up there. 192 00:18:49,280 --> 00:18:54,640 And we followed this guy, and our guy, our contact, would go up and we'd go up. 193 00:18:58,160 --> 00:19:02,560 The Delta led the USS Grayling further and further north. 194 00:19:05,760 --> 00:19:08,560 Then it did something even more unexpected. 195 00:19:11,760 --> 00:19:14,480 It disappeared beneath the polar ice. 196 00:19:16,840 --> 00:19:22,320 Soviet submarines had far more experience of these Arctic conditions. 197 00:20:02,440 --> 00:20:04,880 When you get to the ice, it's really difficult. 198 00:20:04,880 --> 00:20:09,360 It almost sounds like you are driving an automobile through a couple of concrete walls 199 00:20:09,360 --> 00:20:12,560 with all of the noise that you're making. It's very loud. 200 00:20:13,600 --> 00:20:19,000 There's bubbling and fizzing as ice breaks. It's terrible. 201 00:20:19,000 --> 00:20:22,360 The cracking, the screeching, it sounds like you're in an insane asylum sometimes. 202 00:20:31,200 --> 00:20:34,320 Beyond the reach of surface ships and aircraft, 203 00:20:34,320 --> 00:20:41,600 this was the perfect environment for Soviet submarines to hide with their arsenal of nuclear missiles. 204 00:20:43,160 --> 00:20:45,920 They could loiter under the ice in a static way 205 00:20:45,920 --> 00:20:51,160 by just anchoring themselves happily to a bit under the ice... 206 00:20:51,160 --> 00:20:54,520 And I would liken that to rustlers who'd rustled some cattle 207 00:20:54,520 --> 00:20:56,680 and they've put them in the canyon in the cowboy film, 208 00:20:56,680 --> 00:21:00,680 and before John Wayne can come and rescue them they've got to reveal their presence. 209 00:21:03,520 --> 00:21:05,720 So to find this needle in the haystack, 210 00:21:05,720 --> 00:21:13,320 really difficult, because how do you get your weapon to find him if he is hidden in this canyon, 211 00:21:13,320 --> 00:21:19,800 upside-down canyon, if you like, where there are peaks coming down deep into the sea? 212 00:21:19,800 --> 00:21:21,680 A really difficult problem. 213 00:21:31,480 --> 00:21:39,720 Undetected, Konetzni observed the Delta's every move and discovered that it had new capabilities. 214 00:21:41,480 --> 00:21:43,800 We'd been under the ice for a couple of weeks with this guy, 215 00:21:43,800 --> 00:21:50,280 and we didn't realise until then that this Delta had a hovering system 216 00:21:50,280 --> 00:21:55,760 that allows you to go completely still in the water and neutrally buoyant 217 00:21:55,760 --> 00:21:56,960 and hover up under the ice. 218 00:21:56,960 --> 00:22:00,480 You need that kind of a system if you are going to break through ice. 219 00:22:00,480 --> 00:22:04,280 So that's when I started putting together that this is important stuff. 220 00:22:42,240 --> 00:22:47,960 Soviet deployment beneath the Arctic ice was a terrifying new challenge to NATO. 221 00:22:47,960 --> 00:22:53,280 Missiles fired over the North Pole could reach their targets within 20 minutes, 222 00:22:53,280 --> 00:22:56,280 giving the West little time to retaliate. 223 00:23:08,680 --> 00:23:10,320 Very scary to the Americans, 224 00:23:10,320 --> 00:23:13,560 because with a submarine sitting still within the ice 225 00:23:13,560 --> 00:23:15,120 and she's on the surface 226 00:23:15,120 --> 00:23:17,200 and she could launch her missiles... 227 00:23:17,200 --> 00:23:20,640 Ooh! That really kind of changes the balance. 228 00:23:30,000 --> 00:23:34,720 After 33 days, the Delta finally turned back towards base. 229 00:23:36,040 --> 00:23:39,760 Al Konetzni's orders were to follow it all the way. 230 00:23:40,480 --> 00:23:43,160 But as they approached the Barents Sea, 231 00:23:43,160 --> 00:23:47,560 they were counter-detected by a Soviet submarine, a hunter-killer. 232 00:23:49,120 --> 00:23:51,080 We didn't even know he was in the area. 233 00:23:51,080 --> 00:23:55,440 He went active to make sure nobody was behind the Delta, his friend. 234 00:23:55,440 --> 00:24:00,960 The Delta went by and he started ringing out with what the NATO would call blocks-of-wood sonar, 235 00:24:00,960 --> 00:24:02,920 and it's a very strong sonar. 236 00:24:04,200 --> 00:24:09,000 It sounds like the rhyme, Three Blind Mice, that's what it sounds like. 237 00:24:09,000 --> 00:24:15,520 # Three blind mice, three blind mice, doh doh doh, doh doh doh. # 238 00:24:15,520 --> 00:24:17,320 And I heard it through the hull. 239 00:24:19,200 --> 00:24:25,800 When they are using blocks of wood, their submarine is in an aggressive mode. 240 00:24:25,800 --> 00:24:31,920 You switch to blocks of wood for a specific reason, i.e. "My weapon's coming next!" 241 00:24:31,920 --> 00:24:40,080 So if you heard blocks of wood, they are accurately locating your bearing and they're there to sink you. 242 00:24:42,160 --> 00:24:44,760 I was very concerned. I said "This is not good." 243 00:24:45,760 --> 00:24:53,560 So we basically did what I'm trained to do, we went down to test depth and ran away. 244 00:24:57,960 --> 00:25:05,560 The Grayling successfully evaded the Soviet hunter-killer, but supplies onboard were now critically low. 245 00:25:07,640 --> 00:25:13,400 So this baby had gone on a long time. I mean, we were 85 days. 246 00:25:13,400 --> 00:25:15,600 It was the longest time I've ever been submerged. 247 00:25:15,600 --> 00:25:21,120 We ran out of one of the critical chemicals that you use to make pure water, we were out of butter, 248 00:25:21,120 --> 00:25:24,360 we were out of anything, and when you're out of coffee... 249 00:25:24,360 --> 00:25:26,760 And in those days many more of the guys smoked, 250 00:25:26,760 --> 00:25:29,840 and when you're out of smokes, you're close to having a mutiny. 251 00:25:29,840 --> 00:25:31,440 The boys were getting ready to go home. 252 00:25:32,080 --> 00:25:34,120 So that's how it worked out. 253 00:25:39,120 --> 00:25:45,480 These intense surveillance missions placed an emotional strain on both the sailors and their families. 254 00:25:47,360 --> 00:25:51,160 You love to be home, you hate to leave the kids, you hate to leave the wife, 255 00:25:51,160 --> 00:25:54,280 but it's also part of the job. 256 00:25:54,280 --> 00:25:57,280 You can't make a special op unless you leave the family. 257 00:25:57,280 --> 00:26:01,320 There was no communications with Dorrie as long as I was at sea, 258 00:26:01,320 --> 00:26:03,760 I'd be at sea, like, 60 days at a time submerged. 259 00:26:07,400 --> 00:26:13,720 There were times, especially just before they went to sea, 260 00:26:13,720 --> 00:26:16,080 and the wives would get together at something, 261 00:26:16,080 --> 00:26:19,240 and it was obvious that all the guys were excited 262 00:26:19,240 --> 00:26:25,520 about what they were about to do, and that provoked a feeling of jealousy, really, 263 00:26:25,520 --> 00:26:31,400 because they were off, you know, doing their thing and it was exciting and rewarding, 264 00:26:31,400 --> 00:26:36,880 and we were left, you know, to clean the toilets. 265 00:27:38,800 --> 00:27:40,360 I'm on my third marriage. 266 00:27:40,360 --> 00:27:43,920 And wives 1 and 2 267 00:27:43,920 --> 00:27:47,200 was during my career in the Navy. 268 00:27:47,200 --> 00:27:52,560 Because when I got back, instead of wanting to be with the family, 269 00:27:52,560 --> 00:27:59,560 all the time I wanted to be out with the guys raising hell. 270 00:27:59,560 --> 00:28:07,920 And I was an adrenaline junkie, where if you're working on the edge 271 00:28:07,920 --> 00:28:16,200 and living in something that is a life-and-death situation at times, 272 00:28:16,200 --> 00:28:18,240 it took a toll. 273 00:28:19,080 --> 00:28:24,520 60% of all submariners are divorced at least once... 274 00:28:26,120 --> 00:28:30,000 ..and officers, it's even higher. 275 00:28:42,200 --> 00:28:48,520 The Soviet Navy confirmed its mastery of the Arctic seas when it unveiled a new submarine 276 00:28:48,520 --> 00:28:53,120 specially designed to smash its way through the thickest of Arctic ice. 277 00:28:53,840 --> 00:28:58,240 This was the biggest submarine ever built, the Typhoon. 278 00:29:16,720 --> 00:29:20,760 The Typhoon could stay submerged for up to six months. 279 00:29:22,480 --> 00:29:27,040 And it afforded its crew a level of luxury never seen in a submarine before. 280 00:30:58,760 --> 00:31:05,200 The Typhoon was armed with 20 nuclear missiles, each with 10 self-guided warheads. 281 00:31:05,200 --> 00:31:09,080 It was able to hit twice as many targets as the Delta. 282 00:31:09,080 --> 00:31:16,240 In the event of nuclear war, the Typhoon could destroy every major US city within 20 minutes. 283 00:31:16,240 --> 00:31:19,000 TRADITIONAL RUSSIAN MUSIC 284 00:31:35,080 --> 00:31:40,280 There seemed to be no end to Soviet investment and technological innovation. 285 00:31:40,280 --> 00:31:46,440 In the early '80s, a new generation of Soviet hunter-killer submarines was launched, 286 00:31:46,440 --> 00:31:48,440 the Victor Three. 287 00:31:49,360 --> 00:31:53,160 In the event of war, these new attack submarines 288 00:31:53,160 --> 00:31:58,480 were primed to destroy all British and American submarines armed with nuclear missiles. 289 00:31:59,440 --> 00:32:01,880 The Victor Three was the big thing, 290 00:32:01,880 --> 00:32:04,840 the Victor Three was a very capable unit. 291 00:32:04,840 --> 00:32:08,280 You really had to be on the top of your game to get the upper hand. 292 00:32:10,000 --> 00:32:15,240 We saw a real step change in performance with the Victor Threes, 293 00:32:15,240 --> 00:32:17,120 and they were extremely quiet, 294 00:32:17,120 --> 00:32:20,160 approaching parity with ourselves and the Americans. 295 00:32:21,640 --> 00:32:27,200 This was costing them huge amounts of money, but their declared aim was they were going to get as good as us. 296 00:32:29,080 --> 00:32:33,000 NATO was struggling to maintain the nuclear balance. 297 00:32:33,000 --> 00:32:38,240 And the speed of the Soviet technological advances in the underwater war 298 00:32:38,240 --> 00:32:42,120 was both alarming and puzzling to the West. 299 00:32:43,080 --> 00:32:44,680 We want Reagan! 300 00:32:44,680 --> 00:32:46,320 We want Reagan! 301 00:32:46,840 --> 00:32:49,680 This is Chris Wallace at the Century Plaza Hotel. 302 00:32:49,680 --> 00:32:53,080 There you see the new First Family of the United States. 303 00:32:55,880 --> 00:33:00,400 Into this climate of fear came President Ronald Reagan. 304 00:33:00,400 --> 00:33:07,560 Taking office in January 1981, he reversed his predecessors' military budget cuts. 305 00:33:08,520 --> 00:33:13,480 In his first press conference, he dismissed the policy of arms control. 306 00:33:14,800 --> 00:33:16,840 Detente's been a one-way street 307 00:33:16,840 --> 00:33:19,720 that the Soviet Union has used to pursue its own aims... 308 00:33:19,720 --> 00:33:26,280 the promotion of world revolution and a one-world socialist or communist state... 309 00:33:30,400 --> 00:33:33,560 Reagan's intent was to be in their face. 310 00:33:37,120 --> 00:33:40,440 Immediately after his inauguration, 311 00:33:40,440 --> 00:33:46,960 he approved the most aggressive naval exercises really since World War II. 312 00:33:48,320 --> 00:33:51,680 And what we did was to go all the way up to the North Cape 313 00:33:51,680 --> 00:33:57,040 and practise running attacks into the Soviet Union. 314 00:34:00,440 --> 00:34:05,160 I held a press conference and poked the Soviets right in the eye 315 00:34:05,160 --> 00:34:08,000 and told them exactly what it was all about. 316 00:34:08,000 --> 00:34:11,560 We're up here to show you that we're going to be able to kick your ass. 317 00:34:13,760 --> 00:34:21,200 And the purpose was to scare the... scare the bullpucky out of the Soviets 318 00:34:21,200 --> 00:34:24,040 by showing them that they couldn't stop us. 319 00:34:32,560 --> 00:34:34,040 In the event of war, 320 00:34:34,040 --> 00:34:39,320 the US Navy now planned to storm the Soviet Navy in the Barents Sea. 321 00:34:41,400 --> 00:34:47,440 This new strategy was designed to force the Soviet Navy to keep its attack submarines close to home 322 00:34:47,440 --> 00:34:51,880 to defend its nuclear-missile carrying Deltas and Typhoons. 323 00:34:54,360 --> 00:35:02,280 In 1983, Ronald Reagan unveiled America's own massive new investment in Cold War technology. 324 00:35:02,280 --> 00:35:05,680 Let me share with you a vision of the future which offers hope... 325 00:35:05,680 --> 00:35:09,040 The Pentagon is looking hard at something called the X-ray laser. 326 00:35:10,200 --> 00:35:13,840 Tensions between East and West were close to breaking point. 327 00:35:16,000 --> 00:35:19,440 Not since the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962 328 00:35:19,440 --> 00:35:24,400 had the world come so close to the brink of nuclear Armageddon. 329 00:35:25,840 --> 00:35:30,880 When you hear the attack warning, you and your family must take cover at once. 330 00:35:30,880 --> 00:35:32,920 Do not stay out of doors. 331 00:35:32,920 --> 00:35:35,960 If you are caught in the open, lie down. 332 00:35:39,720 --> 00:35:45,160 I urge you to beware the temptation to ignore the facts of history and the aggressive impulses 333 00:35:45,160 --> 00:35:49,200 of an evil empire, to simply call the arms race a giant misunderstanding, 334 00:35:49,200 --> 00:35:54,080 and thereby remove yourself from the struggle between right and wrong, and good and evil. 335 00:36:31,680 --> 00:36:38,120 In 1985, a new Soviet leader came to power with a radical modernising agenda. 336 00:36:47,480 --> 00:36:50,960 Mikhail Gorbachev introduced "perestroika", 337 00:36:50,960 --> 00:36:55,680 a complete restructuring of the Soviet political and economic system. 338 00:36:56,480 --> 00:37:00,480 He also reopened negotiations on arms control with America. 339 00:37:06,000 --> 00:37:11,880 In the same year, it suddenly became clear that the Soviet Union's huge investment 340 00:37:11,880 --> 00:37:17,200 was not the only reason behind their rapid advances in submarine technology. 341 00:37:18,240 --> 00:37:23,800 One of the most devastating military spy rings since the war has just been smashed in the United States. 342 00:37:23,800 --> 00:37:25,440 The damage is enormous. 343 00:37:26,880 --> 00:37:33,400 On the 19th of May, John Walker, a retired submariner and naval communications specialist, 344 00:37:33,400 --> 00:37:38,440 was revealed by his estranged wife to be at the centre of a spy ring. 345 00:37:39,760 --> 00:37:42,440 He'd recruited members of his family, 346 00:37:42,440 --> 00:37:47,160 including his son, a sailor serving onboard a US aircraft carrier. 347 00:37:49,480 --> 00:37:56,080 For 20 years, John Walker had been selling the US Navy's secrets to the Soviet Union. 348 00:37:56,080 --> 00:38:01,200 It was the biggest intelligence leak in the history of the US Navy. 349 00:38:01,200 --> 00:38:07,800 The Walker spy ring compromised so much of our operational intelligence, 350 00:38:07,800 --> 00:38:11,800 it's hard to overstate how damaging it was. 351 00:38:11,800 --> 00:38:18,920 They provided some of the critical technical secrets for silencing submarines, 352 00:38:18,920 --> 00:38:25,000 and so we saw very rapidly the Soviets incorporate this in their new classes of submarines 353 00:38:25,000 --> 00:38:27,360 and it just got much harder to deal with. 354 00:38:28,640 --> 00:38:30,920 I blame that spy team 355 00:38:30,920 --> 00:38:35,520 for giving the former Soviet Union a great jump up on us 356 00:38:35,520 --> 00:38:39,680 because those sorts of leaks back in those days really, really hurt us. 357 00:38:42,200 --> 00:38:46,920 The Victor Three had incorporated so much Western technology, 358 00:38:46,920 --> 00:38:49,320 including towed array sonar, 359 00:38:49,320 --> 00:38:54,440 that US sailors dubbed it The Walker Class after the American spy. 360 00:38:57,320 --> 00:39:03,360 And in March 1987, while Reagan and Gorbachev prepared for arms talks in Iceland, 361 00:39:03,360 --> 00:39:06,880 the Victor Threes and their stolen technology 362 00:39:06,880 --> 00:39:12,520 were turned against the NATO forces in a Soviet operation called Atrina. 363 00:39:14,280 --> 00:39:18,480 Vladimir Chernavin was Commander-in-Chief of the Soviet Navy. 364 00:39:45,400 --> 00:39:47,880 In the spring of 1987, 365 00:39:47,880 --> 00:39:52,480 we saw an unexpected deployment of Soviet frontline Victor Threes, 366 00:39:52,480 --> 00:39:54,440 in the North Norwegian Sea. 367 00:39:55,520 --> 00:40:01,280 The Victor Three was the most capable anti-submarine operator in the Soviet order of battle 368 00:40:01,280 --> 00:40:08,560 and had most chance of upsetting our submarine operations and in particular the national deterrent. 369 00:40:12,680 --> 00:40:19,320 The Victor Threes had been detected by NATO's underwater Sound Surveillance System, SOSUS, 370 00:40:19,320 --> 00:40:21,560 as they moved into the Atlantic. 371 00:40:23,960 --> 00:40:26,080 I was in the Ministry of Defence at the time, 372 00:40:26,080 --> 00:40:30,600 and it was the political and strategic concern 373 00:40:30,600 --> 00:40:33,480 as to why the Soviets had decided 374 00:40:33,480 --> 00:40:35,360 to send what was their A-Team 375 00:40:35,360 --> 00:40:38,840 of nuclear-powered submarines out, 376 00:40:38,840 --> 00:40:42,200 in strength. Why would you do that? 377 00:40:46,400 --> 00:40:49,920 It rapidly became clear that they intended to continue south. 378 00:40:49,920 --> 00:40:55,360 Within a couple of days, we had a good handle on four of the five submarines. 379 00:40:55,360 --> 00:40:57,280 008. 380 00:40:57,280 --> 00:40:58,360 Good firm contact. 381 00:40:59,400 --> 00:41:04,120 The fifth one, although of the same class, was obviously very much quieter than the others. 382 00:41:04,120 --> 00:41:09,360 Now it maybe that he was a particularly well-maintained, well-managed submarine. 383 00:41:11,040 --> 00:41:15,800 He was always known in the trade as the Prince of Darkness because he was so difficult to detect. 384 00:41:17,920 --> 00:41:22,920 One of the commanders of the Victor Threes was Vladimir Alikov. 385 00:41:48,040 --> 00:41:53,840 They swept through the water just off the continental shelf west of the United Kingdom, slowly, 386 00:41:53,840 --> 00:41:58,320 in a well-organised, well-structured, previously thought-out plan. 387 00:44:43,360 --> 00:44:46,520 The Soviets were turning the tables on the West, 388 00:44:46,520 --> 00:44:50,800 hunting down and monitoring American missile submarines. 389 00:45:24,520 --> 00:45:27,880 I knew what was going on, and the fact that they wanted to show, 390 00:45:27,880 --> 00:45:31,760 "We can cruise into your waters any time we want..." Fine! 391 00:45:34,000 --> 00:45:39,720 And so to have real, the latest, quietest things to exercise against 392 00:45:39,720 --> 00:45:43,800 was, well, I'm sure the Navy... I wasn't in charge at the time, 393 00:45:43,800 --> 00:45:49,200 but had I been I would have sent 100% of available assets out 394 00:45:49,200 --> 00:45:54,400 to get the experience of operating against these real targets. 395 00:46:26,960 --> 00:46:29,440 I think it had two objectives. 396 00:46:29,440 --> 00:46:36,320 Firstly it was to prove to their own senior management and their own political management 397 00:46:36,320 --> 00:46:41,160 that the Soviet Navy's new submarines were capable of doing a job. 398 00:46:41,160 --> 00:46:46,840 Also, of course, it sent a message to the West that despite all the talks that were then going on 399 00:46:46,840 --> 00:46:50,160 about arms reductions and so on, that they weren't going to be pushed around. 400 00:46:59,960 --> 00:47:05,120 The Soviet Union was developing some of the most sophisticated submarines in the world. 401 00:47:05,120 --> 00:47:12,480 But they weren't typical of the Soviet Navy, which still relied on a fleet of much older submarines. 402 00:47:13,880 --> 00:47:16,720 The K219 was one of them, 403 00:47:16,720 --> 00:47:20,200 and it was armed with 16 nuclear missiles. 404 00:47:24,120 --> 00:47:30,760 Gennady Kapitulsky led the engineering team responsible for the submarine's nuclear reactor. 405 00:47:49,680 --> 00:47:52,520 ALARMS SOUND 406 00:48:04,960 --> 00:48:06,920 BOOM! 407 00:48:30,800 --> 00:48:33,560 Two sailors were killed during the explosion. 408 00:48:35,160 --> 00:48:39,640 Seawater had leaked into the missile tube and mixed with the liquid fuel, 409 00:48:39,640 --> 00:48:42,880 producing a highly toxic and very flammable gas. 410 00:48:43,720 --> 00:48:48,080 A third sailor died when the toxic gas seeped through the stricken submarine. 411 00:48:48,080 --> 00:48:53,960 The K219 was now rapidly filling up with tons of seawater. 412 00:50:04,360 --> 00:50:10,040 Within minutes of the accident, every compartment in the submarine had been sealed. 413 00:50:10,040 --> 00:50:13,160 This prevented the whole ship from flooding. 414 00:50:15,520 --> 00:50:20,560 But 25 submariners were trapped in the damaged section. 415 00:51:19,520 --> 00:51:23,800 For nearly 14 hours, the crew fought to save the submarine. 416 00:51:23,800 --> 00:51:31,240 They knew it was vital to shut down its nuclear reactor to prevent a catastrophic meltdown. 417 00:51:31,240 --> 00:51:35,400 But the automatic system designed to do so had been disabled. 418 00:51:37,800 --> 00:51:43,560 Conscripted sailor Sergei Preminin volunteered to go into the reactor chamber. 419 00:51:43,560 --> 00:51:49,800 Wearing an oxygen mask, he remained in constant radio contact with Kapitulsky 420 00:51:49,800 --> 00:51:52,800 as he attempted to shut the reactor down. 421 00:53:22,240 --> 00:53:28,320 Preminin had prevented a nuclear disaster and saved his fellow submariners, 422 00:53:28,320 --> 00:53:32,160 and now the survivors were rescued by another ship. 423 00:53:32,160 --> 00:53:39,440 Three minutes after the last man had left, the K219 submerged for the last time. 424 00:53:40,720 --> 00:53:47,800 16 missiles, 48 nuclear warheads and the body of Sergei Preminin 425 00:53:47,800 --> 00:53:52,320 went down with her 2½ miles to the bottom of the sea. 426 00:53:58,160 --> 00:54:02,200 The sinking of the K219 was a human tragedy. 427 00:54:03,440 --> 00:54:10,600 It was also a symbol of the unreliable condition of the Soviet Navy and the whole Soviet economy 428 00:54:10,600 --> 00:54:13,200 in the last days of the Cold War. 429 00:54:46,520 --> 00:54:52,880 In 1991, the Soviet Union and its empire in Eastern Europe disintegrated. 430 00:54:54,520 --> 00:55:00,080 The Soviet Union's extraordinary investment in the arms race finally broke them. 431 00:55:06,800 --> 00:55:10,920 I always say, though I am a little biased as a submariner, 432 00:55:10,920 --> 00:55:16,400 that the submarine force helped drive the Soviet Union to the poorhouse, 433 00:55:16,400 --> 00:55:21,360 because they tried to gain undersea superiority from us. 434 00:55:21,360 --> 00:55:27,120 And they tried every which way, and so they spent a lot of money and they ended up in the poorhouse, 435 00:55:27,120 --> 00:55:30,160 and I think the submariners can take credit for some of that. 436 00:55:35,280 --> 00:55:40,880 They spent all this money, they sacrificed so much of their standard of living and everything 437 00:55:40,880 --> 00:55:44,360 to deploy this huge navy, air force and army, 438 00:55:44,360 --> 00:55:48,360 because here they had been spending 48% of their GDP, 439 00:55:48,360 --> 00:55:55,960 and here's the United States and NATO spending 6½% of GDP, 440 00:55:55,960 --> 00:55:58,200 not even huffing or puffing, 441 00:55:58,200 --> 00:56:04,560 and that was a huge factor in bringing about the end of the Cold War. 442 00:57:09,080 --> 00:57:13,080 Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd