Soviet "Hiroshima": three disasters that survived the crew of the submarine K-19

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

History submarine K-19 dramatic: for the Soviet Union it became a symbol of nuclear power, the main trump card in the Cold War, and for many sailors who served on it, it became a ruthless killer. The crew of the cruiser in different years experienced terrible disasters - the threat of a nuclear explosion, a collision with an American submarine and a fire. Because of these dramatic events, the American filmmakers who filmed the documentary about the K-19 called the submarine "the widowmaker," and the sailors themselves call it "Hiroshima" to this day.

The submarine entered the Northern Fleet in 1960. It was an innovative vessel, a thunderstorm for the Soviet fleet, a giant that should have gone unnoticed to NATO bases during the Arctic Circle exercise. It should be noted that the exercises took place at a turbulent time: an open confrontation broke out between the USSR and the West over the fate of Berlin. The submarine managed to reach the North Atlantic bypassing US radars. It seemed that the operation was successful, but suddenly tragedy struck. On June 4, 1961, at 4:15 am, Captain II Rank Nikolai Zateev received alarming data: the sensors recorded overheating of the fuel rods. The situation was frightening: a malfunction threatened to explode a submarine equipped with missiles with nuclear warheads. In this case, not only 149 crew members would have suffered, a massive explosion threatened an environmental catastrophe.

The decision to eliminate the accident was made without delay: there was no need to wait for outside help (the situation was aggravated by the secrecy of the operation), so a team of volunteers undertook to independently build a backup cooling system. The crew members coped with the task, but at the same time received a shock dose of radiation. By the time the K-19 surfaced, the 14 sailors who took the hit were already showing symptoms of radiation sickness. Eight of them subsequently died suddenly.

After the accident, it took three years to repair the K-19. In the winter of 1963, the K-19 returned to service, took up combat duty. It seemed that the hard times were over, the sailors successfully served on the formidable cruiser. However, six years later, the fate of the entire crew was again in the balance of death: during the next exercises, the Soviet cruiser collided with the American submarine USS Gato. The Americans took the K-19 maneuver for a battering ram, and already wanted to open aimed fire, but the tragedy was prevented by the captain of the torpedo compartment, who understood the situation.

Fate prepared for the K-19 crew one more terrible test. On February 24, 1972, a severe fire broke out on the submarine, engulfing 8 and compartments. 26 crew members and two rescuers who came to the rescue were killed - some from carbon monoxide poisoning, others were burned to death. After the fire was extinguished, the boat was towed to the base, but the story did not end there. A dozen more sailors for 23 days were in those compartments that were located behind the burned ones, their evacuation was impossible due to the high concentration of carbon monoxide. Fortunately, these sailors managed to survive.

The history of the K-19 ended in 1990 when it was finally decommissioned. In the 2000s, the sailors who served on the cruiser turned to the country's leadership with a proposal not to dispose of the ship, but to open a memorial museum on it in memory of the combat past of the K-19, of the exploits that were performed on board this submarine, in memory of those who, at the cost of their own lives, saved their comrades. However, the requests were not heard: the K-19 was cut into scrap metal, and only a part of the cabin remained as a keepsake, installed as a monument at the entrance of the Nerpa shipyard.

In the entire history of the fleet, there are eight known cases when accidents on nuclear submarines led to their death. The mystery of the death of the nuclear submarine USS Tresher has not yet been revealed.