From a speech made by Vadim Orlov - The Doomsday Machine by Daniel Ellsberg

[Timothy]

From a speech made by Vadim Orlov, chief of the special signals intelligence detachment on the B-59 (a Soviet submarine in the Caribbean during the Cuban Missile Crisis). at the Havana conference in 2002. Not many people could get things back into control under these environmental and psychological circumstances.

From The Doomsday Machine: Confessions of a Nuclear War Planner by Daniel Ellsberg - Chapter 13

"At the Havana conference on the fortieth anniversary of the crisis in 2002—before an audience that included Robert McNamara, McGeorge Bundy, and naval officers from the Soviet Alfa group of hunter-killer submarines—Vadim Orlov, chief of the special signals intelligence detachment on the B-59, described conditions underwater that Saturday afternoon from the point of view of men in a barrel, or rabbits in a cage.

For some time we were able to avoid them quite successfully. However, the Americans were not dilettantes either.… [Starting at 4:59 P.M. on Saturday, October 27] they surrounded us and started to tighten the circle, practicing attacks and dropping depth charges. They exploded right next to the hull. It felt like you were sitting in a metal barrel, which somebody is constantly blasting with a sledgehammer.…

The temperature in the compartments was 45-50 C, up to 60C [113–122 degrees Fahrenheit, up to 140] in the engine compartment. The level of CO2 in the air reached a critical mark, practically deadly for people. One of the duty officers fainted and fell down. Then another one followed, then the third one.… They were falling like dominoes. But we were still holding on, trying to escape. We were suffering like this for about four hours. The Americans hit us with something stronger than the grenades [depth charges]—apparently with a practical depth bomb. We thought—that’s it—the end.

After this attack, the totally exhausted Savitsky, who, in addition to everything, was not able to establish connection with the General Staff, became furious. He summoned the officer who was assigned to the nuclear torpedo and ordered him to assemble it to battle readiness. “Maybe the war has already started up there, while we are doing somersaults here”—screamed emotional Valentin Grigorievich, trying to justify his order.

“We’re going to blast them now! We will die, but we will sink them all—we will not disgrace our Navy!” Orlov’s account continues: But we did not fire the nuclear torpedo—Savitsky was able to rein in his wrath. After consulting with Second Captain Vasili Alexandrovich Arkhipov and his deputy political officer Ivan Semenovich Maslennikov, he made the decision to come to the surface."

#History #ColdWar
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