 B-59 near Cuba with a US Navy helicopter circling above,c. October 28–29, 1962 | |
| History | |
|---|---|
 Soviet Union | |
| Name | B-59 |
| Builder | Admiralty Shipyard |
| Laid down | 21 February 1960[1] |
| Launched | 11 June 1960 |
| Commissioned | 6 October 1961 |
| Decommissioned | 19 April 1990[1] |
| General characteristics | |
| Class & type | Foxtrot-classsubmarine |
| Displacement |
|
| Length | 91.3 m (299 ft 6 in) |
| Beam | 7.5 m (24 ft 7 in) |
| Propulsion |
|
| Speed | |
| Range |
|
| Complement | 70 |
| Armament |
|
Soviet submarineB-59 (Russian:Б-59) was a Project 641 orFoxtrot-classdiesel-electric submarine of theSoviet Navy.B-59 was stationed nearCuba during the 13-dayCuban Missile Crisis of October 1962 and was pursued and harassed by US Navy vessels. Senior officers in the submarine, out of contact withMoscow and the rest of the world and believing they were under attack and possibly at war, came close to firing aT-5 nuclear torpedo at the US ships.[2]
On the night of October 1, 1962,B-59, theflagship of a detachment of sister shipsB-4,B-36 andB-130, departed secretly from its base on theKola Peninsula for the Cuban port of Mariel, close toHavana,[3] where it was intended to establish a Soviet naval base.[4] The submarines, built inLeningrad[5] in 1959–1961 and said to be "the best in the world", had a range of up to 26,000 miles and were each armed with 22 torpedoes, one of which had anuclear warhead.[3] They were sent to theCaribbean Sea in support of Soviet arms deliveries to Cuba in an operation known to the Soviets asAnadyr, which had been in preparation since March/April.[6] The arms deliveries consisted ofnuclear missiles, for which launch facilities had been prepared on Cuba. The discovery of this precipitated a major confrontation between the US and Russia after the submarine group had put to sea.[6]
The submarines arrived at their assigned positions in theSargasso Sea, east of Cuba, in the week beginning 20 October.[6] USPresident Kennedy announced a blockade of Cuba on the evening of 22 October.[3] The US was preparing a major airborne assault on the island.[5] A radio interception group onB-59 heard Kennedy warn America that there was a possibility ofthermonuclear conflict with the Soviet Union.[5] The need for the utmost secrecy had been emphasised, butB-130 was forced to surface after all three of its engines broke down,[7] which revealed the presence of the other submarines.[5] The US Navy sent more than 200 combat surface ships, almost 200 shore-based aircraft and four aircraft carrier search and assault groups with 50-60 planes on each – 85 per cent of its anti-submarine forces in the Atlantic[5] – to search for them.DestroyersBarry,Lowry,Beale,Bache,Biddle,Eaton,Cony,Conway andMurray[6] were charged with finding and destroying the submarines if military action became necessary.[6]
The US Navy had an existing tactical protocol against diesel submarines called "hunt to exhaustion" which was similar to tactics used by the British in World War II.[3] The Soviet submarines were pursued for several days and US Naval Command ordered that any submarine discovered in the area should be made to surface and be identified.[3] Commanders of US ships were instructed to be ready to attack if a submarine refused to surface.[3]
On October 27, after three days of searching,[3] blockading units of theUnited States Navy, an aircraft carrier-based search and attack group consisting of the aircraft carrierUSSRandolph anddestroyers using multi-frequencysonars, Julie sonobouys, towed sono-locators, radio hydroacoustic buoys and "all means available",[3] locatedB-59 off the coast of Cuba and used grenade explosions as a signal that it should surface.USSCony, which first detected the sub,USSBeale and other destroyers began dropping signallingdepth charges of the type used for naval training, which contained very little charge and were not intended to cause damage.[8] Messages from the US Navy stating the type of depth charges being used did not reachB-59 or, it seems, Soviet naval HQ.[citation needed]
B-59 had not been in contact with Moscow for several days. The submarine's crew had been picking up US civilian radio broadcasts, but once they began attempting to hide from pursuers the vessel had to run too deep to monitor radio traffic and those on board did not know whether or not war had broken out. Conditions inside the vessel were becoming extremely difficult. The submarine had nine extra people on board, members of anOSNAZ radio interception group, with all their equipment.[9] There was now only emergency lighting, the interior was overcrowded and unbearably hot, and the crew of 70 were short of drinking water and breathable air[9] and suffering from lack of ventilation, high levels of CO2, diesel fumes and increasingly high temperatures. Some were collapsing from heat stroke.[5]
The submarine was under what seemed to be attack for about four hours. Fourteen surface vessels surrounded it and tightened the circle, dropping grenades which exploded close to the hull.[9] WhenB-59 was finally hit with something stronger than depth charges the captain, Valentin Grigoryevich Savitsky, who was by then "totally exhausted",[9] became furiously angry and ordered the officer assigned to the nuclear torpedo to assemble it to battle readiness and load it into its tube.[9][10] He is reported to have said, "Maybe the war has already started ... We're going to blast them now. We will die, but we will sink them all. We will not disgrace our navy." The situation inside the submarine and Savitsky's words were described later by naval intelligence officer Vadim Pavlovich Orlov, Commander of the Special Assignment [radio interception] Group on the submarine.[9] (Orlov's account has been described as "controversial" and it has been stated that other submarine commanders did not believe that Savitsky would have issued this order.[11])
The three most senior officers on boardB-59 were Captain Savitsky; thepolitical officer Ivan Semyonovich Maslennikov; and Chief of Staff of the deployed submarine detachmentVasily Arkhipov, who was equal in rank to Savitsky but the more senior officer. They were only authorized to launch a nuclear weapon if all three agreed to do it.[citation needed]B-59 was the only sub in the flotilla that would have required the authorisation of three officers in order to fire the "special weapon". The other subs would only have required the captain and the political officer to approve the launch, but onB-59 Arkhipov's position as detachment commander meant that he also had to give his consent. Of the three men, Arkhipov alone opposed the launch, and he persuaded Savitsky to surface and await orders from Moscow.[9]
The submarine's batteries had run very low and its air-conditioning had failed and eventually, late in the evening of October 27,[12]B-59 had to surface. It surfaced amid the US warships that were pursuing it and was immediately subjected to intense harassment with searchlights and what appeared to be mock attacks from planes and helicopters from theRandolph.[6][3] The submarine made contact with thedestroyerUSSCony and after discussions with the ship,B-59 was ordered by the Russian fleet to set course back to theSoviet Union.[10][13]
At the Cuban Missile Crisis Havana Conference in 2002, which marked its 40th anniversary, this was recognized for the first time as having been the most dangerous moment of the crisis. The Americans had not been aware thatB-59 was armed with a nuclear torpedo, of roughly the power of the bomb which was dropped on Hiroshima.[14][15] During the three-day conference, between October 11–13, 2002, which was sponsored by the privateNational Security Archive,Brown University and the Cuban government,[16] Robert McNamara, Kennedy's Defence Secretary, said that nuclear war had come much closer than anyone had thought. Thomas Blanton, director of theNational Security Archive, said Vasily Arkhipov had "saved the world".[16]
Soviet documents about the incident are available online.[17]