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On March 22, 1968, a message was transmitted to the headquarters of the Soviet Pacific Fleet through intelligence personnel: a damaged US "swordfish" on March 17 The USS nuclear submarine secretly arrived in Yokosuka Port, Japan for repair operations. The confidentiality work of the entire repair operation was done very well, and only the Americans participated in the entire repair process and signed confidentiality agreements.
This information did not allow the commander-in-chief of the Soviet Pacific Fleet to take a breath, because since March 8, the K-129 nuclear submarine sent by the Soviet Pacific Fleet lost contact. There was no response within the time.
At first, the Soviet army thought it was just the captain of the K-129 nuclear submarine that might have missed the contact with the base for some reason, but it waited until March 12 when the K-129 nuclear submarine was still in a state of losing contact. In this way, it seems that the K-129 nuclear submarine is very likely to collide with the US military's "Swordfish" nuclear submarine and lose contact.
▲The K-129 nuclear submarine before sinking, which belongs to the 627A nuclear submarine, is equipped with three P-21 ballistic missiles with nuclear warheads and six heavy torpedoes, two of which are nuclear Torpedo, the submarine was sailing in a hurry at that time, and the conditions of the Kamchatka Peninsula were poor. The maintenance and repair work of the submarine and the rest of the crew were not in place, and it was not full when it sailed.
In fact, K-129 The search for the USS nuclear submarine began on March 12. The first to be involved in the search was a tugboat, accompanied by the deputy commander of the Soviet Navy’s submarine detachment at the time. In the following days, they continued to rush. About 36 warships, including 2 destroyers, 3 frigates, and 4 submarines, and a large number of aircraft were here to participate in the search and rescue work, and even the Baltic fighter planes were temporarily transferred.
On the route of K-129, Soviet warships patrolled the sea around the clock and searched the seabed with sonar and echometers, hoping that the nuclear submarine K-129 that may have sunk would be detected or It leaves marks on the water.
Within 73 days, the Soviets were searching and advancing in the sea area of 340 square kilometers one kilometer by one kilometer. The fleet in charge of the search sent progress to the naval headquarters in Moscow every day, but nothing was achieved.
One of the big reasons is that the average depth of the waters where the submarine was involved was about 5,000 meters, and the sea conditions at that time were poor, so the Soviets automatically stopped the search work, thinking that the K-129 nuclear submarine would never be found. , Can only lie on the bottom of the Pacific Ocean forever with a secret.
▲The area searched by the Soviet army and the area where the US army salvaged the submarine. The submarine plans to perform maritime patrols and is expected to return to the port on May 5, 1968.
But let the Soviets Unexpectedly, the submarine and her secret were salvaged by the Americans a few years later. The Soviet fleet that was in charge of the search at that time quickly attracted the attention of the US military, and US fighter jets and submarines often visited this sea area, which was not a rare event in the Cold War.
Because once the United States and the Soviet Union have a large-scale operation, the other side will inevitably send ships and planes to monitor. When the Soviet Union completely stopped the search and detected the wind, the United States immediately dispatched the most advanced ocean observation ship "Big Dipper Six Star" to carry out the search mission in the sea area. As for how the Americans knew about this, there are two explanations:
The first is that two fixed observatories dedicated to the detection of submarines in the United States received an unknown signal at the same time, and the coincidence of these two signals is near the large-scale search area of the Soviet Navy, so the US military judges that there is the Soviet Union Something happened to the submarine. Another explanation is that K-129 was caused by the U.S. Swordfish, so that the U.S. military knew that the sea area where K-129 sank was a normal thing.
▲The wreck of the K-129 nuclear submarine announced by the United States. According to the international law at the time, the right to salvage the sunken ship sunk in the high seas belongs to all the countries of the ship, but the problem is that the Soviet Union did not announce the K- The fact that 129 sank, So the Americans can use this to wrestle with the Soviets.
The "Big Dipper" equipped with deep-sea exploration equipment and submersible vehicles carefully searched about 10 square kilometers of sea area and finally determined The specific location of the sinking of K-129 was captured, and the wreck of K-129 lying on the seabed was photographed with a dedicated camera.
In addition to the 3 missiles carrying nuclear warheads and 2 nuclear torpedoes equipped on the boat, the communication code, encrypted radio contact equipment, and combat documents on the K-129 are all top-secret levels. Americans dream I want to get it, so I won't let this opportunity pass.
In the end, the U.S. Navy leader decided to take the risk and ask the CIA for help. Soon the CIA formulated a top-secret plan called "Azores", which intends to use private companies to fish K-129. After coming out, the U.S. military specially built a special salvage vessel named "Glomar Prospector" for this purpose, and promoted the vessel as a normal mineral exploration vessel during construction.
▲The built "Glomar Prospector" special salvage ship, in order to avoid direct conflict with the Soviet Union, although the ship was built by the US military, it was hung in a Under the name of private enterprise
In 1972, this special salvage vessel, nominally the property of billionaire Howard Hughes, came to the sinking sea area of K-129 and started salvaging operations under the guise of seabed mineral exploration. The salvage process has not been smooth sailing.
After determining the location of K-129, the salvage vessel "Glomar Prospector" slowly lowered its salvage machinery and firmly fixed the submarine with remote control steel claws in the sea at a depth of 6,500 meters The wreckage, but when the submarine wreckage was slowly rising, suddenly broke into two sections at a depth of 1,500 meters. In the end, only part of the bow was salvaged (about one-third of the entire boat).
However, when the CIA decided to take a break and start the second salvage, another very dramatic incident occurred.
▲The U.S. military's salvage plan, because only part of the hull was salvaged, so the Americans only obtained nuclear missiles and nuclear torpedo technologies. As for the more top-secret communication codes, radio communication equipment, and operations The Americans didn’t get many documents. In addition, during the salvage, the Soviets sent a survey ship to monitor nearby. Perhaps the Soviets had a hunch, but they didn’t know the exact location of the submarine sinking, so it’s hard to speak up.
The headline of the Los Angeles Times published on February 17, 1975 reported that the U.S. military was salvaging the K-129 nuclear submarine. It turned out that Ward Hughes’ office was visited by thieves. This top-secret plan was reported under the influence of thieves and the media.
Except for the silence of the Soviet media, all the major media began to hype, and the Soviets realized that the Americans were secretly salvaging the K-129 nuclear submarine.
So the completely enraged Soviet Union lodged a solemn protest to the United States and ordered an indefinite exercise in the waters where the submarine sank. Any unrelated ship would be sunk. Seeing that the Soviet Union’s attitude is so tough, it will be accepted. The US Congress ordered the suspension of the "Azore" plan.
▲Along with the submarine wreckage, there are also the remains of 6 Soviet naval soldiers. The picture above shows the Americans holding a funeral for these Soviet remains
About the K-129 nuclear submarine The reason for the sinking has never been determined: the first is the collision with the USS Swordfish nuclear submarine. Although the US military later stated that there were no traces of US submarine activities within 300 nautical miles where the K-129 sank at that time, it was secret. From the perspective of repairing the "Swordfish" nuclear submarine and accurately finding the coordinates of the submarine crash, this is not impossible.
Finally, there are two reasons for weapon explosion and battery explosion, because such accidents have occurred in submarines of the United States and the Soviet Union before this, but since the Soviet Union has not obtained the submarine wreck, it is difficult to determine the cause of the accident. . But for the family members of the K-129 crew, their husbands or sons are as if the world has evaporated, and what is left for them is Zhang XueBai's obituary.
Sister Harley WeChat
MilitaryGO
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