Recent comments in /f/OldSchoolCool

Benu5 t1_jd63cip wrote

There was no false alarm for nuclear war. They hadn't recieved any information in days due to being submerged.

The Captain and the Commisar wanted to use the tactical nuclear torpedo on a US ship dropping depth charges in an attempt to get the sub to surface. It is pure luck that Captain Arkhipov was also on board and thus required to also approve of the use of the tactical nuke. He argued that the depth charges were likely to be an attempt to get them to surface ans communicate with the US ships.

The initial confusion was that the US had changed their protocol as to how they would use depth charges to signal a demand to surface, something about the number and sequence of depth charges used had changed, leading the other Captain and Commisar to assume they were under attack. Arkhipov argued that it may be a demand to surface, and that they should do so to confirm what was actually happening. They surfaced, and the US ships told them to return to the USSR.

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