1981: Whiskey on the Rocks

this episode of the history guy is brought to you by [Music] incog in the Autumn of 1981 the Cold War very nearly turned hot when an incident involving a Soviet submarine came very close to sparking a war that very likely could have included nuclear weapons but oddly this was not a conflict between the Soviet Union and its NATO Rivals but between the Soviet Union and its neutral neighbor Sweden the odd incident referred to as whiskey on the Rocks deserves to be remembered you know it's it's so easy to lose control of your data these days I mean I was researching I subscribed to a free newsletter that sounded interesting and then suddenly bam my em box is just starts get crowded with lots of spam I signed up for a store loyalty program even more spam heck I I even started getting phone calls what's going on what's going on is that there's these Shady companies that are collecting and aggregating and selling all of your data and personal information without you even knowing it and at at 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always check out progress on a handy dashboard and I really have noticed the reduction of spam coming into my inbox so go to Inc og.com thehistoryguy and use the code the history guy to get an exclusive offer of 60% off an annual plan it's a great deal that's inc.com thehistoryguy use the code the history guy or go ahead and use that link down below and take your personal data off the market on October 28th 1981 Swedish fisherman Beale Sturman discovered a rather startling site stranded upon rocks in the archipelago called goes fardan near the Swedish Port of Carl Crona was a 249 ft submarine the website the national interest writes that an officer was standing on the submarine's conning Tower staring at him through binoculars and holding a machine gun the submarine was the Soviet submarine s363 a diesel electric attack submarine that had been commissioned nearly three decades earlier although the Soviets at the time gave the number u137 and that's the name under which it was generally known in Sweden at the time the national interest rights of the craft the short range diesel electric submarine had a crew of 56 had been designed in the 1940s with snorkel and Battery Technology derived from the Nazi type 21 electrical boat the Soviet Union built more than 200 of the submarines while the Soviet designation of the class was Project 613 Soviets typically kept such names secret and thus NATO created their own set of reporting names based on the NATO phonetic alphabet this was a w class or by the alphabet whiskey class submarine that designation combined with the submarine's location LED one Stockholm newspaper to call the situation Whiskey on the Rocks its location was a particular concern in Sweden as Carl Crona is the location of Sweden's largest naval base and the headquarters of the Swedish Coast Guard the stranded submarine was according to a United States Navy intelligence report in the middle of a restricted military area prohibited to aliens more than 12 nautical miles within Swedish territorial Waters in fact fact strickman's Discovery was not the first indication of the offending vessel the Swedish Maritime Museum reports that the boat had been trying to free itself all night and the Roaring of its diesel engines Was Heard by many residents and even reported to the Coast Guard but no action was taken the US Navy intelligent report indicated that the submarine had grounded during a period of Swedish Naval exercises and that many fishermen believed that the noise came from the diesel engines of Swedish torpedo boats the report speculates that the submarine had likely been maneuvering on the surface but it is common knowledge that the diesel Electric submarines designed for submerged navigation handle very poorly on the surface and so the submarine ran into Swedish granite rocks in the middle of a turn when the alarm was raised the Swedish Navy deployed a number of vessels notably placing the Icebreaker Tuli at the mouth of the ghost jardan to H the submarine in the chief of staff of the Naval Base Captain Carl Anderson was taken to the stranded submarine on a Coast Guard Cutter and Captain third rank anat gushin explained that all the compasses on his submarine had broken down and that the radar was unserviceable he claimed that he believed that he had been stuck on another small Rock Island that was some 45 nautical miles from where the boat was actually Stranded the claim that virtually all of the submarines navigational gear had malfunctioned at once was frankly not credible the Associated Press wrote that Sweden rejected his claim saying the vessel's penetration of the restricted Zone which is peppered with Islands showed very careful navigation the US Navy intelligence reported that almost certainly he would have stuck on one of the many rocks of shardan much earlier had he not been using his gyro magnetic compass dep Sounder and radar moreover the claim that he was off by 45 nautical miles is hard to believe of a trained submarine commander in peacetime still the intelligence report notes gushin held stubbornly to that claim when news of the discovery was brought to the naval base in Carl Kona the reaction was not what you might expect the Swedish Maritime Museum writes that when news of the grounding came the chief of the defense staff is said to have exclaimed finally the United States Naval Institute press explains for some years Swedish Naval units had detected inexplicable underwater contacts well inside territorial Waters and although they maintained that these were foreign submarines they had never secured positive identification a pattern of detections have begun to emerge around September during the fleet's annual major exercises but because this period precedes the Swedish parliament's annual debate on the defense budget some commentators claimed that the Navy was emphasizing these ghost detections to increase its appropriation thus by 1981 the detections were becoming derisively known as Budget Boats the indisputable presence of the whiskey submarine was therefore taken as Vindication of all the previous Navy claims The Maritime Museum writes the military would now take care of the submarine and required her to stay grounded until further notice the submarine's captain would be interrogated and the Soviets would apologize that would however raise certain questions how would the defense regulations be applied what will Sweden do if the submarine tries to escape AP what if someone in the crew wants to defect and how will the Soviet Union react to the Swedish demands What followed was a diplomatic standoff the Swedish Fleet prevented Soviet vessels from entering Swedish territorial Waters and assisting the submarine demanding that they be the ones to refloat the vessel but the Associated Press reported on October 30th after an emergency meeting with military leaders the Swedish government said that the sub would not be refloated until the Soviets cooperated fully in sorting out the incident the talks between Anderson and G were the AP reported at a stalemate we have no intention of leaving the vessel voluntarily or of providing the Swedish authorities with any log documents gushin reportedly told Anderson the standoff was clearly tense as the associate press noted that Swedish prime minister torbor valdine said any attempt by the sub to escape would be stopped by force the two nations were coming close to conflict us intelligent report writes when the alarm was sounded all conceivable measures were taken by the Swedish commander-in-chief not only the ships of the Naval Base were placed in Readiness and remained in the gfin area but a torpedo boat division was dispatched to Carl's Crona as was a division of the new guided missile Patrol boats fighter and reconnaissance aircraft from King military Airbase around 30 km west of Carl's krono was constantly Airborne the boundary of the territorial waters 12 nautical miles from the so-called Baseline were under constant watch a second Soviet submarine was located inside the limits but was immediately turned away an entire Soviet escad or Squadron gathered at the limits of the territorial Waters in the stormy fall weather some were Salvage ships one tanker but especially a unit with one kashen guided missile destroyer one killed and modified guided missile destroyer and later some new nunua guided missile Corvettes Etc was this gunboat diplomacy in the making the coastal batteries and the Swedish scires were ready for action and on the islands around the stranded submarine so-called Coastal infantry and even parachute troops had taken up firing positions and Mann bunkers the the Prime Minister and the commander-in-chief had made it clear if necessary force will be used however after the arrival of Soviet diplomats on the 31st the situation changed the US Navy intelligence report writes that there were tough demands for the superpower Soviet Union but a few days later possibly after internal discussions between the political and the military authorities in the Soviet Union Ambassador yakovlev returned to the foreign Ministry to announce that the Soviet Union was prepared to aced to the Swedish demands the US Naval Institute press writes that the Soviets agreed to the conditions while still maintaining their excuse of a navigational error although the US Navy intelligence report explains that politically the incident was a hard blow for the propagandist in Moscow were so ready to pay lip service to the term Baltic Sea of peace and who were desirous of demonstrating the Soviet desire for peace now before the arms limitation negotiations gusin was flown by helicopter to a Swedish Naval vessel to be interrogated with the Soviet diplomats present but then another crisis US Naval Institute press rights on 2nd November Captain gushin smartly dressed in full shorgo uniform boarded a Swedish fact attack craft for questioning by Captain Anderson during this inquiry the weather deteriorated rapidly and the crew of the w137 fired distress flares Swedish Naval units responded quickly and pulled the submarine off the rocks to Anchor in Clear Water although the US Navy intelligence report suggested that the issue was an increasingly frustrated crew rather than bad weather it was later said that there was was no real emergency condition on board it was the crew which for a week had eaten only cold food and had to endure in the cold and in the bad air of the submarine they had halfway Mutiny to reach calm water so as to be able to light the stove and get some warm food to eat meanwhile the London Daily Telegraph reported on November 5th that Moscow had finally broken its silence on the affair claiming that the submarine was on an ordinary training cruise but there was more to come the evening of the 5th the US Naval intelligence report writes prime minister valine held one of the most exciting press conferences since the second world war in the new governmental headquarters at rosenbad his announcement hit like a bombshell the Soviet submarine very probably has nuclear explosives aboard with a probability which borders uncertainty we have found that there is uranium 238 aboard the Soviet reply according to the March 1982 edition of the bulletin of the atomic Sciences did not deny that there were nuclear weapons on board the Soviet submarine 137 carries as to all other Naval vessels at Sea the necessary weapons and ammunition however this has nothing to do with the circumstances surrounding the unintentional intrusion by the submarine into Sweden's territorial Waters Swedish authorities wanted to board the submarine to determine if they were nuclear weapons on board Soviet authorities refused another impass seemed likely but after 10 days the US Navy intelligence report writes the Swedish government decided that all or at least most of the Swedish demands had been satisfied the commander-in chief was therefore four able to release the submarine submarine was refloated by Swedish tugboats escorted to the Soviet Fleet outside of Swedish territorial Waters and released Sweden issued an extremely strongly worded protest described by the US Navy as the sharpest set by Sweden since the end of the war in parted red the investigation which has conducted by the commanderin-chief makes clear that a navigation era is to be excluded as the main reason for the penetration of Swedish territory the Swedish government draws the conclusion from the investigations conducted that the Soviet submarine intentionally violated Swedish territory in order to carry out unpermitted activities there the Swedish government demands that the Soviet Union prevent a repetition of the gross violation of Swedish territorial rights and of the fundamental principles of international law the bulletin of the atomic scientists write that the Soviet response was tur upon its release the Soviet Union rejected the Swedish protest complaining that the Swedish government statement was devoid of any legal and factual grounds that it had not displayed a correct attitude or made an objective appraisal while the decision to release the submarine seemed to surprise the Swedish public the US Naval Institute press writes the Swedish decision to release the submarine can be seen as a pragmatic solution to an unprecedented situation which avoided a number of consequential problems not the least of which would have been the need to enter the boat and capture the crew by force the weight of that decision would show later in 2006 the Swedish online paper often badet quoted sections of a book written by the submarine's political officer outlining the potential consequences if the Swedish Navy had tried to take control of the vessel that was in fact carrying nuclear tipped Torpedoes our officers were ordered to blow up the submarine along with its crew if the Swedish military forces tried to take possession of the boat the situation was such that these orders would have been carried out on board in the torpedo tubes there were Torpedoes with combat charges the impact of a shattered nuclear warhead is about the same as the impact of the a bomb dropped on Hiroshima nuclear explosion it is terrible to think of all the destruction and the long-term consequences it would have had for the whole of Sweden to this day Russia continues to maintain the and I don't take sides lightly positively ridiculous claim that this subing somehow managed to navigate through some of the world's most difficult Waters at night into Swedish restricted Waters by accident but as to that the US Naval intelligence report notes exactly what gushin and his 25 to3 5-year-old submarine were actually supposed to be doing in the reefs around Carl's Crona we can only guess Sweden continued to suffer incursions by submarines collectively called the Swedish submarine incidents throughout the Cold War until the dissolution of the Soviet Union both the Soviets and the swedes made various concessions in order to resolve the thorny situation of whiskey on the Rocks but it did remind us of the of the difficulty of the times as Swedish former prime minister Olaf P said at the time the grounded most likely nuclear armed submarine is a frightening reminder of how close we are to the precipice how great the risk is of nuclear war I hope you enjoyed watching this episode of the history guy and if you did please feel free to like And subscribe and share the history guy with your friends and if you also believe that history deserves to be remembered then you can support the history guy as a member on YouTube a supporter on our community at locals or as a Patron on patreon you can also check out our great merchandise shop or book a special message from the history guy on cameo [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music]

Channel: The History Guy: History Deserves to Be Remembered

Views: 62,264

Keywords: history, history guy, the history guy

Id: NuUtQ2AcQ0g

Length: 16min 5sec (965 seconds)

Published: Wed Apr 17 2024