BBC 1980s Submarine documentary Part1 Perisher

[Music] [Music] oh [Music] [Applause] so [Music] so [Music] [Applause] thanks for watching 30 miles outside glasgow a royal naval frigate is charging straight towards a royal naval submarine this is the most demanding test in the navy designed to find out whether each of these men is capable of becoming captain of a submarine standard steer 180 the perisher is an extraordinary test of nerve and skill in order to be able to test someone and in order to prove someone fully capable of taking the responsibility of commanding it's important that you actually take them to the limits and that's what we do we actually create situations which takes the student to the limits right ahead that's green the idea is that at the end of the perishable course uh a student by that stage an embryo commanding officer should be able to take his submarine to war the other way that's 28 minutes [Music] august 22nd watford the very beginning of the parish of course there are still four weeks before these would-be captains known to everyone as the parishes will be allowed onto a real submarine they've been working towards the perisher ever since they joined the navy 10 or more years ago they know that failure means a career in ruins there is no second chance one of the teams is led by commander dai evans who used to captain a polaris submarine evans has a tough reputation on the previous course he failed three of his students the four parishes whose future he currently controls are lieutenant commander gavin mclaren like all the parishes he's been a submarine officer for many years being selected for the course means he'll either take command or leave submarines see every time you put the wheel on we sank and you couldn't see the person lieutenant david charlton charlton rose from the ranks to become an officer eight years ago his father has already had a successful career in the services sam frye completely different style you know he was grinning lieutenant simon levington already has 11 years of naval service behind him like all the parishes he's an experienced submarine officer he's come straight from the second in command position short comments in the professional part this man will be first seen lieutenant commander david lister lister switched from a career as an engineering officer when he failed a crucial examination his huge height and bulk means known to all and sundry as tiny all of them know that failure in the perisher means they will never go to sea on a submarine again [Music] at the time it is the most important thing you're doing and uh and it overrides everything else one's domestic life one's home life and as david would david or my wife will tell you who lived locally you're not a very nice person to know for the five months the course is going on because you're putting that first we both have we've told our wives you know for the next few months uh you know we are going to concentrate on perisher and you know the domestic life and the home life will have to take second place the most important thing about passing is the fact you you got over a major hurdle and as we said before it's a thing that you've been aiming for since the very moment that you walked in to start your first job as a seaman officer in submarines you do pass this course at age in your early 30s i think for all of us or possibly simon but younger somebody's actually going to give you this fantastic expensive complex and potentially enormously powerful weapon it's yours you know how you go quite unbelievable i've been thinking about it now somebody's actually going to give me one of those things to uh and i'm sure we all feel the same in a way um that i think is the most marvelous thing about it okay opportunity of command that's right it's all yours and there's gonna be nobody standing behind you can say didn't do that very well i'll prepare 0-1-9 now what's me august 31st the clyde submarine base has lane in this control room simulator evans can teach the parishes how to handle a submarine together together together in this first part of the course they must learn to maneuver their submarine to mount torpedo attacks against high-speed warships which may turn to ram them at any moment evans will want to see how they react under the pressure of conducting a torpedo attack come on fire for the moment it's like a very expensive video game but in three weeks time the parishes will do this in a real submarine against a real frigate stop the attack mr stern a target zigged during that particular run and it wasn't until you actually went up for that all-round look that you actually seen that the target had zigged and yet that information was available in the and i heard the report and uh on one occasion you actually did two all-around looks down there and one of them one and a half a good one and um the parishes know that evans will not tolerate mistakes for long even now he is carefully assessing each one of them every time they take command of the simulator he's known as teacher but he will also be their examiner they know that he could fail any one of them at any time of the earlier points in your all-round look you must actually look at the target [Music] six o'clock in the morning september 20th teacher and the parishes board their submarine off the island of aaron today the attacks start [Music] for the next three weeks from dawn till dusk real frigates will speed up and down the aran trench a strip of deep water in the approaches to the clyde they'll do their best to push hms oracle's four embryo captains to the limits it's a prospect which at the moment is making simon bevington feel physically ill with nerves i think it's just i mean we've all handled a periscope before and all that sort of thing so i mean none of that's new it's just you know sort of suddenly you're there and the one who's doing it as opposed to sitting back watching yeah suddenly you're it three miles to the north the enemy limbers up as oracle dives just beneath the surface to periscope depth these two steel chargers will race towards each other in a 20th century joust both will be vulnerable to running like all of us are very well aware of is it's no longer the exact teacher uh it is actually at sea and if we do something wrong then uh you know we could cause collision and although it would be um bad for us to be hit you know we might dare is a fin or the mask that sort of thing i friggin doing at 28 29 knots periscope went through that hole and probably the side out i may even sink it the first attack is now only minutes away ready for run one evans will monitor the frigate's course through one of the submarine's two periscopes if the perisher lets the warship come dangerously close evans will take over and order the submarine deep the parishes must stick to the principle of raising the periscope as seldom as possible the telltale wake will always reveal a submarine's position however for these attacks the tall wireless mast behind the two periscopes will be kept raised it allows the frigate to pinpoint the submarine the frigate has started its run suddenly the controlled pace of the simulator is far away and real problems of visibility and communication take over foreign [Music] the frigate is close lister must now constantly check whether it is altering course towards him well [Applause] up check atv [Applause] if he's not careful he'll miss his opportunity to fire a salvo [Music] [Applause] the torpedoes didn't get fired not a good start [Music] but at least it's over a bit confusing really uh the weather was quite good so we uh see the target but uh by the time we got uh set up to to go on the run i was expecting something more to happen instead of just sort of trundled past and i was waiting you know thinking ah i'm gonna put deepsea kept saying we think he's always of course i think he's out of course i kept looking and nothing happened [Music] next is david charlton's turn and the frigate is already close to make the crucial decision to go deep the parishes use the principle of the go deep circle [Music] it's an imaginary circle around the submarine which if penetrated by the frigate forces the perisher to flood the special cue tank with five tons of water and go into the emergency queue routine this drags the submarine down 35 feet deeper in exactly one minute at that depth the frigate's keel will pass just over the top of the submarine now this escort made what we need mid chips slow together stop my queue the imminent prospect of having to flood queue has made david charlton forget the main point of the attack how about firing at him captain that's 24 minutes down at 1 600 yards but charlton is close to making his decision 20 seconds raise me up well range third 25 minutes you put [Music] the frigate passes just over the submarine now that he's gone deep charlton's problem is to decide if it's safe to increase speed and go back up to periscope depth it's a difficult decision the frigate may have turned back towards him how do you know that uh this chap's going away guys and takes the submarine back up halfway together starboard together you have to put on an act out there um however nervous and dreadful you're feeling you can't let it show you know you've got to appear confident and uh calm and collected when in fact you're in a mental turmoil i'm sure it'll get better as the time goes on we've all done more times i don't find the waiting easy yes drew barry three five seven two thousand four hundred yards twenty two hundred yards time is the frigate is coming straight towards him but is still well outside his go deep circle that rain 12 minutes put it together he's panicked into going deep prematurely it's as bad a mistake is going deep dangerously late firing at the frigate from deep by sonar will be much less accurate so the entire attack is called off as well now realizes that he could have stayed at periscope depth until the frigate was as close as 1200 yards it's such a relief to have got the attack over that you'd hardly guess he'd made a mistake certainly [Music] i feel much better for that settles the nerves and you know sort of you can get the fear of things yeah much better might enjoy a few more [Applause] at last it's gavin mclaren's turn to be captain for the first time [Music] he too has been forced deep now as the frigate thunders overhead mclaren must stay cool and decide what to do next we kept the speed on far too much captain your speed this is only the first of 70 such attacks that each perisher will carry out over the next three weeks the pressure's got to be hard i'm afraid because at the end of the road there is the responsibility of command of one of these submarines and command of um suddenly approaching [Music] we must find out what each individual is capable of doing there is no way that you can put a man in command of one of these submarines unless you're absolutely sure of his capabilities yes much better very very nice to do one and to discover how much you can see through that periscope and uh you know it's not too difficult really i mean it isn't any more difficult than uh than the training has uh led you to believe it just gets rid of the nervous butterflies in the stomach i'm really looking forward to the next one whereas 10 minutes ago i was dreading it the end of a very long day each perisher has done five attacks the submarine is still unscathed already evans can see a pecking order developing this is our first day at sea two of them have done really quite well i'm quite pleased with their progress one of them um not doing all that well and the the fourth member actually beginning to struggle even at this stage but there's still nearly three weeks of attacking to go friday september the 30th the pressure has been steadily raised in the past 10 days there are now not one but three frigates plowing up and down the clyde at maximum speed all dedicated to pushing the parishes to the limits it's no wonder that the cost of the course has been estimated at one million pounds per man the three frigates all attack the submarine simultaneously and to test the parish's skill and nerve they perform some wicked maneuvers there's the skirt for instance two frigates the left wing and the right wing come straight towards the submarine's go deep circle at maximum speed at the last moment they both turn and skirt around the edge of the circle tempting the perisher to go deep [Music] simultaneously the third frigate the target charges straight towards the submarine forcing the perisher to keep a constant check on all three ships any one of which could suddenly change course and force him to go deep the three frigates have started their run they're still over a mile away but approaching fast the perisher must establish how far away they are and what time interval he can allow between checking that each one hasn't penetrated his go deep circle down 2 000 yards 40 seconds range to me left right right wing up to find the range charlton uses a split image device inside the periscope what 24 minutes and some complex mental arithmetic 3 200 yards then the time interval one minute 50 seconds arrange me left right up so he has just one minute and 50 seconds to check the other two frigates god 25 minutes down 1600 yards 20 seconds turning away a stopwatch for each figure it helps a little good correction range for me up left it's looking like a skirt the left wing is close to the edge of his go deep circle about 23 minutes down at 1700 yards 25 seconds abroad but it could turn towards him at any moment down arrange me black hand and the right wing about range minutes down 2 200 yards coming straight towards interval interval one minute goes in 50 seconds 50 precious seconds to check the other two [Music] pull out together 90 feet the left wing does turn and forces charlton deep as the right wing slides past just on the edge of the go deep circle the submarine is already on its way down safe from all three frigates but teacher is satisfied it was a well-conducted attack charlton is doing well although he knows that a few bad attacks could still put him in jeopardy the parishes could fail at any time but the next most likely moment is just six days away at the end of this first part of the course there are now two who are struggling for gavin mclaren the problem is a surprising one fishing boats they're slow and harmless but their sheer presence keeps triggering him into a premature cue routine down 1600 yards 20 seconds full head together flood queue 90 feet down almost up look to the target well bearing now that he's deep the fishing boat is still flustering him well how about getting a sunlight onto him roger attacker look for the fishing vessel on the scanner scanner in hand look for the fishing vessel on the porch bow the scanner intensity will give you a feeling for rain [Applause] stop at 30. [Applause] not uh a great attack i think would be the best way to put it certainly not an enjoyable it's a worry to be doing that sort of thing at this sort of uh time so i don't know how i'm doing i really don't um sometimes i do pretty well other days i think this is dreadful you know i'll never make it the things that i want to see next week from you is a concentration on those aspects which you know require attention the handling of fishing vessels particularly and the other thing is the the thinking time between your all-round looks now you've illustrated that you can do it um but what i want to see is avoid these these dips in your performance in graphical terms you know you're you're you're going up but there's a sort of uh it's thorny progress yeah that's right and if you can if you can actually um cut down that um the troughs then i think you're gonna be okay the other one who's been making too many mistakes is tiny lister it's a bit of a blow when you uh you think you've done it right and uh sully pointed out they've done it very wrong but i'm generally enjoying the uh the time so far but it's uh certainly given me uh it gives you a lot to do and i mean this last week it just shot by and as you know they're very long days uh in the sea days there goes another one now that was a ship passing over the top you can hear the cavitation of the propellers the uh as i was speaking just now we felt the boat tipped down as he went into a cue routine and that was the charger going straight over the top about 25 feet or so above us you've made pro progress i mean there's no doubt of that in my mind but your the progress has been um on the ascendancy but sort of sinusoidal earth and the peaks have been good but the troughs you need to get rid of entirely and when you there's traps and the rate that you are hitting them then you know i'm concerned both tiny and gavin know that if they don't get rid of those troughs very soon they'll fail the perry show yes you do think about failure not during the day but in the evening perhaps or when you first wake up in the morning or over the weekend uh and it's a worrying and i think anybody who doesn't think about a failure is not uh telling the truth of course you do you don't talk about it and you try not to think about it you certainly don't think about it during the attacks certainly uh it's a worry because you want a boss this man wants to captain a submarine get out of the way [Music] this man must decide whether he's capable of doing so look at the balls two minutes arranged for me on the target tiny lister's submarine is just beneath the surface maneuvering to fire salvo simulated torpedoes the tall mast is a marker for three warships to aim at they are racing towards him at maximum speed lister must show that he can stay cool and calm but the periscope keeps getting covered in water no get me up down come on engineer some speed the engineer hasn't balanced the submarine properly so it's difficult to hold it up at the correct depth it's a nuisance for commander die evans too engineering it makes judging lister's performance more difficult come on engineer engineer you're gonna go and put up your ass if you don't get this boat on depth but evans knows that lister shouldn't react so strongly and that he's making too many mistakes stay up three four five three four five reach me on the target go your way up this attack put the submarine in danger 42 minutes 180 what does that give you oh my gosh yeah 1 900 yards could you come up on that no from the day that a student comes on course to the day that the course finishes then he is being judged the whole time so that the the final assessment is the right one for the submarine fortuna and for the navy as a who just took a dtg on that room listen knows that the final assessment may not be far away he's beginning to crack under the strain of doing endless attacks well that wasn't very good at all that one general it's been pretty patchy um it's it's not been going as well as i hoped uh things have picked up a bit in the last two or three days but uh it's it's it's not been particularly good and i've been working pretty hard at it to try and bring the level up uh the last two attacks i did went uh pretty well but this one uh i got shot down a share of flames at the at the end another of the four students simon biddington is getting a little over confident 3 200 yards 2 minutes 12 seconds so the submarine's resident captain george webster decides to play an old trick on him and discreetly hands round some ear mufflers to the rest of the control room team even an aspiring submarine captain should always be aware of what's going on around him but when three frigates are charging towards you at maximum speed it's very easy to over concentrate on the periscope [Applause] that's 38 minutes one thousand yards hm check pick up captain i can't hear you thank you range for me up shut one two three four two cats thank you thank you [Music] the commanding officers qualifying course is known throughout the submarine service as the perisher because you either pass or perish failure which can happen at any moment in the four-month course means never going to see in a submarine again there is no second chance every day for the first three weeks of the course the parishes return to a comfortable hotel on the island of aaron [Music] and i didn't i didn't recognize what they were it's friday september 30th the next few days are the most likely time for evans to fail one of the parishes so tonight there's a formal dinner to thank the submarine's officers for their help it could be the last time all the students are together [Music] the role of ms president for the evening goes to the most senior of the parishes tiny listers in six days time die evans knows he may have to face a difficult decision one gets to know them as people you get to like them and yet one's faced with a problem of having to stand back and make the decision on a purely professional basis you can't and must not throw a man's career after eight years to the wind you really can't i mean there's no question of ever no question ever of giving up on someone the following wednesday evening bob stevens is teaching another team of parishes in a different submarine since the dinner the parishes have had three more days of intense attacking tomorrow these two teachers must each decide who passes and goes through to the next part of the course well i mean simon is there he's been he's got it he's got it completely um david charlton is very close behind gavin i was a little bit concerned about but uh he had one attack today which is uh i mean he was outstanding he didn't put a foot long steer one four zero one blind attack so i reckon that providing he has a good day tomorrow he will be entirely okay tiny on the other hand continues to make mistakes which have no pattern to them under extreme stress you know he just alienates the team in the control room well get out of the way brainstorming playing the nation at the moment is 55 against him passing and 45 for i mean if if there was any he knows what he's doing he understands the problem but he cannot be consistent and at friday's uh debrief i told him just exactly that that what i was after this week was consistency and he's not achieving it so unless i mean if he has a good day tomorrow then i will i'll take him through to the next period if he doesn't have a good day then that's it he will he'll go the next afternoon with the light failing the normal rotation of attacks among the parishes stops lister is told to do a run of consecutive attacks it's the final test he must show that he can work out the ranges of all three frigates without a moment's hesitation and that he can judge instantly how to maneuver the submarine [ __ ] 30 minutes down 3 300 yards branch me on the surface caught up back 21 minutes uh 1 900 yards 35 seconds correction yes 48 40 seconds range from me over that right wing up [Applause] is still making too many mistakes [Applause] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] when chirpy finch evan's personal steward puts his sweater on it can only mean that the submarine is about to surface running up on the surface then suddenly the captain takes over in the control room [Music] let's love draining search [Music] the reasons why i had to fail chinese were because of his inconsistency he was aware as in fact most people who go down are aware that they have shortcomings but it's not sufficient to understand the problem one has to be able to deal with the problems as well [Music] he was absolutely marvelous about it he took it in um he took it with tremendous dignity really it's a it's a day that i i loathe because uh after all it's it's a decision that's affecting the man's career in the submarine service i mean he will never go back to sea in submarines the other three students have been told they are through to the second part of the course first phrase to us yes very good pretty good but there's still the uh not the cloud but the thought of the next phase coming up as well so there's also tinged a little bit with uh having lost because it's quite surprising how close you get as a team during the texas phase and then the sea time now we always i mean everybody starts of course knowing what the stakes are and the way things happen so i don't think anybody's got any complaint i think also now you suddenly realize how tired you feel you know and how generally sort of uh weary yes and you haven't really let yourself think about that a restful weekend up until now and now you're suddenly right absolutely what whale says the second part of the course is codenamed cockfight the parishes spend three concentrated weeks at sea learning the broader tactics of submarine warfare now they must prove themselves complete captains capable of dealing with any situation they take it in turns to command hms oracle one of the royal navy's 15 diesel electric submarines the torpedo compartment is the biggest single space on oracle there is no separate area for sleeping bunks are squeezed into every nook and cranny and along the side of the single narrow passageway that snakes tortuously from one end of the submarine to the other first watch uh the design of these submarines dates from the 1950s they're not much bigger than the u-boats germany was sending to sea at the end of the second world war [Music] the single galley feeds the crew of 70. patrol for these submarines can last for many weeks the seven officers work eat and sleep in the tiny wardroom these small quiet submarines can be used for all kinds of covert operations sliding close to enemy coastlines to take photographs through the periscope or dropping off teams of special boat service marines but they're uncomfortable places to live the captain may have his own cabin but it's right opposite the submarine's only four lavatories when it's on the surface oracle's two diesel engines pound away charging the huge batteries that will drive it when it's submerged right fixing points have been marked on the chart during cockfight each of the three remaining parishes is kept in for up to 24 hours the escape course relate is approximately simon bevington must show teacher he can brief the submarine's crew about his next operation alter either way into deep water to avoid any threat or anybody we wish to evade from head together today david charlton will act as bebington's second in command levington's task is to simulate laying mines which will be fired from the submarine's torpedo tubes he must show evans that by using the submarine's periscope and its sensitive sonar equipment he can guide the submarine close to the coastline and not be detected by the searching patrol craft shut off for attack you see in the senate it's quiet [Applause] foreign i know from the earlier part of the course that he is capable of using the periscope but now it's what i'm after um is the refinements but i can i'm using his eyes and i'm looking at the sonar information that's coming in and combining the two to judge for myself what's happening up top it's broad daylight every time he raises the periscope could give him away i don't go deep i need to look if required uh engineering you can put it up on a bearing [Applause] the hourly ritual of checking the battery mustn't stop much of the space under oracle's floor is taken up with the equivalent of fifteen thousand car batteries used sparingly they'll drive the submarine for several days but high speed work could exhaust them in a matter of hours [Music] with the submarine moving so slowly there are still several hours of life left it's a slow waiting game of cat and mouse time for one all round submarine slang for a quick cigarette break three two zero that's a patrol craft at about a thousand yards away which is obviously going to pose him a problem he mustn't be detected by that patrol craft yet at the same time he's actually got his task to do and he must keep the submarine safe i mean that's his that's his principal aim how far is he away he's about to 12 members to 500 yards at the moment we should turn inside in front of you is he turning no seriously [Music] decides not to fire his minds the sea above is so calm that their discharge might give him away it's a difficult but correct decision the situation that he had there in the final stages in the final stages of the approach to uh the firing was that there was a patrol craft there and the patrol craft was at a range of about 1500 yards down to a range of 200 yards any trained observer would be able to spot bubbles or some form of discharge on the surface and make an assessment of what it wants the parishes are now within days of achieving their ambition command of a submarine but the round-the-clock operations of these last few days become an endurance test which takes everyone to their limits [Applause] then just five days before the end of the four-month course gavin mclaren has a crisis of confidence the constant worry of harmless but distracting fishing birds whose nets are always a potential danger for submariners so preyed on mclaren's overstretched mind that his judgments snapped the fishing boats became more and more of a problem to me they occupied more and more of my mental time if you like but in the end to the extent that i was unable to think or do anything else except worry about the fishing boats and it became apparent to me in a sort of blinding flash really that i was never going to be able to cope with that particular aspect of submarining therefore i couldn't in any honesty go to see as a submarine captain with 75 other people dependent upon my making the right judgments in that sort of situation it didn't need me to to really tell him that that he couldn't do it and it's just very sad very sad indeed when when that happens when this man is bitterly disappointed and it's not it's not a nice experience really to try and explain to him the problem that i had was quite difficult and it was all a bit emotional because you know one is uh it's basically failing the course that you've been aiming to do for the last 10 years so i wasn't very happy 15 minutes with him and we agreed then and there that uh that would be the end of the course as far as i was concerned david it's the end of the course for the others too congratulations captain [Music] [Music] [Music] again you've done bloody well there is nothing i would like to have done more than to have been the captain of a polaris submarine or an ssn but i don't think i feel a failure i feel a sense of failure but there are other things that i can do and other things that are important to me in life like this food i felt uh felt a little bit of a loss really i all of a sudden had become a sort of outsider in the in the system it feels very unusual not to to have broken all links really with the submarine service and it's still not really completely sunk in that that is in fact the case that i will not be involved in in submarine work again other people have difficulty knowing quite what to say to you even the people i've seen so far um and you have a certain amount of difficulty knowing what to say to them as well but uh i intend to try and work that one out what do you mean they have a certain amount of difficulty in knowing what to say to you well people don't really know whether to be uh sort of um in a way it's like coming across somebody who who's just had a had a bereavement in the family you know do you mention it or don't you do you say i was totally sorry to hear about certain then let the topic drop or do you try and bring it out into the open no banging on the boat wrong v8 hello [Music] since that program was made all four of the perisher officers have stayed in the navy david charlton is now captain of hms opossum and has taken his submarine to norway spain and portugal charlton has been promoted to lieutenant commander as has simon bebbington who is second in command of hms sovereign and nuclear-powered submarine barrington may well get command of the submarine in a few months time tiny lister transferred to surface ships he's now on the frigate hms beaver in fact lister is poacher turned gamekeeper since he's beaver's anti-submarine warfare officer his next posting is second in command gavin mclaren is still with the submarine service but in a short job at a remote torpedo testing range in scotland where he'll stay for the next two years

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Id: I1LF2I3fTbY

Length: 57min 14sec (3434 seconds)

Published: Mon Jul 27 2020