HUNTER KILLER ANTI-SUBMARINE WARFARE U.S. NAVY FILM 30102

we're about 150 miles off the east coast we're standing on the flight deck of the carrier Gilbert Islands this is part of what is called a hunter-killer group we're looking for a submarine the group is made up of this aircraft carrier 14 aircraft four helicopters and a screen of five destroyers this is the destroyer USS Owen the own is the flagship of a contingent of five destroyers operating in this hunter-killer group off the Atlantic coast for this operation our code name is Firefly the code word for the carrier is dragon now go over just to our right a bit here and consult an expert on this hunter-killer group Commodore officially Commodore where would you be likely to get your first information regarding the presence of a submarine in this area tomorrow I usually hang out in that greenhouse up there and the word would come to me up there and from what source generally well any number of sources so we might get a sighting from a ship at sea or from intelligence sources not known to us we would get the dope from some shore base or from one of our planes on patrol and then what is your first action after you receive that signal sir well we're sort of like a football team we have a lot of prearranged signals and based on the situation that existed at the time I would call one of the signals well now with all this electronic gear you have what is the basic difficulty in detecting a submarine that's a simple question is it a very tough question the basic difficulty is that the submarine has a lot of advantages physics gets us there are certain laws of physics that make it very difficult for us to solve the problem in the first place we can we have a lot of devices or listening underwater and detecting underwater we have others such as radar radio and other electronic devices for detecting in the atmosphere but there is a plane that separates the two and joining the intelligence that you get from both of them together and finding the solution of the problem is really a difficult one as you will see on this ship it's a very complex place full of an awful lot of very complicated machinery which I can't understand well I certainly can we operate to try to search out detect and finally kill any submarine that is threatening our control of the sea somewhere between the southern point of Greenland and the east coast of the United States is a US Navy submarine simulating an enemy craft carrying a guided missile with an atomic warhead reporter bill Downes is aboard we seem to come up the most miserable part of a day at dawn this is the US Navy submarine vicuna we are now located some 300 miles east of Destin that's straight ahead at a spot called latitude 40 to 30 north 60 to 30 west and thirty two hours from now we will be within guided missile range or torpedo range or rocket range of Cape Cod the best Harbor Charleston Navy Yard Harvard University the common Old North Church be control and Bunker Hill that's possible for such a submarine to make this journey be a friendly or enemy we are going to try captain you know more about this operation than I do would you tell us about it our mission is to make an undetected approach on the port of Boston in just five minutes we're going to dive and continue on snorkel we will run on snorkel as long as possible that is until air or surface activity becomes so intense that we are forced to completely submerge and run on battery power captain Scheer had planned to submerge just after dawn but before he could an unidentified liberty ship crust over rice they could not see us in his life much less water reporters but the captain took no chances and ordered in the maneuver room here the batteries take over from the diesels control I'll add 2/3 three we shall be done shut all this Wow at 55 feet the submarine levels off that bubble is like a carpenter's level the captain's eye now is a periscope it's an excellent radar target he makes his sweep in a matter of seconds now scope back on the carrier there is an incoming message the Liberty ship through the eastern sea frontier has notified us there is an unidentified submarine 400 miles away remain calm the message goes to flag no friendly submarines this area x-ray locate and destroy Frank well alert the force will take a course for the East about zero six six yeah that's good course speed eighteen tell the ship to launch searches right away either get the ship first oh they're the Commodore commands the class course they carrier has its own commanders that's captain Joe buddy person mate time flight quarters mr. bridges one of the engineers we're coming up to eighty nuts on the Gilbert Islands as on old Ironside the bosun's pipe sounds action stations the CIC roll the nerve center which collects evaluates and plots all combat information submarine has been reported at 40 to 30 north 60 to 30 west proceeding in a westerly direction our present position is 40 30 north 70 degrees west our course is zero six zero speed 18 are there any questions before the briefing on the search plan the plan for the first launch will be ten Queen team number one twenty miles to the north of our intended course team number two twenty miles to the south plan axis is zero six zero track spacing twenty miles length of the legs one hundred fifty miles ahead of the task group are there any questions no questions pilots and crews stand by to man your planes pilot to crew standby this will be accountable Hwang's a lot harness that the tamper catapult shots this is the catapult roll a hydraulic piston shoots the planes into the air the first search flight is made up of two teams of Grumman guardians the planes spread out in pairs and a frequency to search plan this is the submarine vicuna again we don't know whether the Liberty Ship reported us or not but we are running on smokey captain we've been submerged now running on snorkel for about an hour and that's about an hour out of 40 to 30 north and 60 to 30 west now what would that put us right now as this moment right now that puts us about 150 miles southeast of Halifax and above 400 miles due east of Boston well this would be on the Great Circle Route from the Arctic say if any submarine was coming from say Murmansk why that would be a logical first apartment that is correct three hours out from the carrier one of the teams picked up a radar signal radar as Terry did not Feli under people are in this case the radar operator thought he had picked up a signal from the subspace Reich combat aircraft search team one reports periscope bearing 0 for 530 miles say well this is Roger Roger can't be informed radar has picked up a plane overhead and is ordered to the deep dive all ahead standard Moorhead standard I that's all add status well whenever the planes radar has picked up the next morning all flight operations were canceled because of rough seas from Halifax to Cape Hatteras on the afternoon of the second day the weather cleared and the Commodore was able to get his planes into the air and resumed the search the first flight out reported a radar contact 30 miles to the northeast in this case the Commodore ordered the planes to return and the helicopters and the Destroyers out for the kill ten'll combat to get the anti-submarine helicopters going we're talking to you now from one of the Dragons choppers the helicopters job is to go out ahead of the destroyers and lead them to the submarine if we can find it this is the bridge of the destroyer on the leader of the group work to find strikers this is firefly ASW helicopters will join us on station this will be a hunt to kill the helicopter team is made up of two choppers each with sonar detection gear almost like deep-sea fishing the chopper gots a line with a big fall crammed with sound equipment falls in the water what that ball in the water hears is registered on this sculpt and in the earphone down here in the sub we picked up a pink it could be a helicopter General Quarters sonar contact bearing 1 to 8 range one six double o drank it this is three six dragon have sought our contact dragon here's the message but the destroyers hear it simultaneously and maneuver for the kill this is the sonar room of the destroyer the more incessant those audio pings get the closer we are to the submarine now we hear not only the ping but the Freak train sound of the destroyer screws defacing faction has ordered the story are directly overhead right now during his 1/4 3/8 1/4 of a load out on the deck the ordinance men load the hedgehogs but no hedgehogs until the sonar contact so directs steady the signal to fire comes from the Destroyers sonar room incidentally those Hedgehog loads have plaster head instead of the usual high-explosive but if they're on target they'll hear them down in the submarine Tigers fifty halfway to our port during three five five stay by the fire hedgehogs Main Street at this stage in the sub there's a good attack he really had us then how far smoke so they know exactly where we are in this maneuver the captain considers the hip to be lethal he orders a black smoke for the submarine captain is both enemy and umpire and a smoke float means a direct hit back on the carrier we had asked the Commodore the big question in case of war with the Soviet Union how do you think we would do against their submarines frankly mr. Murrow I don't know but we would do our best and I hope that our paths would be good enough I think it would be but we have to remember that America's control of the Seas is one of the most important facets of her security Kaiser bill almost won World War one with his u-boats the Battle of the Atlantic raged for months before we knew who was going to be the victor US or Hitler our own submarine campaign against Japan almost as a major factor in the downfall of Japan this hunter-killer group is one of the tools that will be needed to control the sea there are many other tools that will be needed to the job will be long and tough and expensive in the first months of war would be bad for us because the enemies you votes would be disposed to see already but I think we have the tools to do the job we will do it well and it will be important for America that we recognize the magnitude of the task

Channel: PeriscopeFilm

Views: 38,487

Rating: 4.8400002 out of 5

Keywords: Periscope Film, Stock Footage, Submarine (Ship Type), Hunter Killer, Film (Media Genre), Submarine Warfare, United States Navy (Armed Force), Anti-submarine Warfare, See It Now (Award-Winning Work), USS Becuna (Ship), Helicopter (Invention)

Id: HtlObZEbGT4

Length: 21min 15sec (1275 seconds)

Published: Tue Jul 28 2015