All language subtitles for Combat.Ships.S01E06.Cold.War.Warriors.1080p.WEB.h264-CAFFEiNE_track3_[eng]

[missile roars]

Narrator: For centuries,
an extraordinary war has raged

Across the world's oceans,
above and below the waves.

Man: You could kill hundreds
of people with one broadside.

These were extremely powerful
war machines.

Narrator: Shipbuilders designed
bigger and faster vessels

To outwit and crush
their opponents.

Man: That nation that has the
most powerful battleship fleet

Can destroy the enemy's
battleship fleet

And therefore control the seas,

And if you control the seas,
you control the world.

Narrator: They carried
terrifying weapons.

Man: This was gonna be
the first time

That somebody had fired
a torpedo in anger

Since world war ii.

They needed to get it right.

Narrator: But ships
have also liberated

And rescued thousands.

Man: You could think
of gerda iii

As basically a lifeboat for
persons hunted by the nazis.

Narrator:
And inspired men and women

To acts of incredible bravery.

Man: I will take you there now,
to your cannons,

To your death,
we will sink before surrender.

Narrator: These vessels
and their crews

Have shaped world history.

Man: As the commanding officer
of a missile-carrying submarine,

I was directly responsible

For helping to prevent
world war iii.

[missile roars]

Narrator: This time,

A bitter 40-year struggle
between east and west--

The cold war.

Woman: We were really on
the precipice of world war iii,

Nuclear war.

Narrator: It was an era
of espionage and treachery.

Man: The consequences
of being caught in the act

Are too horrible to contemplate.

Narrator: But amid
superpower politics,

There were surprising
acts of humanity.

Man: About $10 million worth
of american air capacity

Pushed off the deck
to save this one man.

♪

[explosion]

♪

Narrator: As crowds celebrated
the end of the war in europe

In may 1945,

Astute politicians knew

That a new conflict
was on the horizon.

Nazi germany had been defeated,

But the allies would now
turn on each other.

As winston churchill wrote:

Soviet leader
joseph stalin's sole aim

Was to secure territory
for his communist super state.

Taylor downing:
Stalin wanted to ensure

That there was a buffer zone,

That the soviets
could control completely

And prevent any
further attack from the west.

And so stalin began
a process of taking control

Of what became known

As the soviet satellites
in the west.

And that forced
a division in europe,

What churchill
famously called the iron curtain

That had descended
across europe by 1947.

Narrator: In response
to the soviet threat,

America and europe
formed the nato alliance.

An era of nuclear weaponry
build-up and global tension

Followed.

We've come to know it
as the cold war.

Downing:
The whole world was divided

And forced to choose
between either going behind

The soviet-led camp,
behind moscow,

Or behind the western-led camp,
behind the united states.

And what made it so terrifying

Was that both sides,
in the nuclear era,

Had enough weapons to destroy
the planet many times over.

Narrator: For four decades,

Vast sums were spent
on naval hardware--

Super carriers that dwarfed
their world war ii predecessors,

Destroyers that could launch
guided missiles,

And fearsome
nuclear-powered submarines

Armed with nuclear weapons.

[missile roars]

Throughout much of the cold war,

The soviet navy commanded over
a thousand ships and submarines.

Resources in the west
were just as impressive.

♪

All through the conflict,

The naval capabilities
of the rival forces

Were a closely guarded secret.

But now,

A quarter of a century after
the soviet union's collapse,

A remarkable discovery
lies in south east England,

On the river medway.

Two cold war enemies,
now just a mile apart.

Preserved in a dry dock

Is the royal navy submarine

Hms ocelot.

♪

Just upstream is another sub,

Privately owned
and awaiting restoration.

It's a relic
of the soviet fleet.

The foxtrot-class b-49.

♪

The medway's two subs
have a lot in common.

Both launched in the '60s.

Both are diesel-electric
hunter-killers,

Designed to seek out
and destroy enemy vessels.

But now they can
reveal their secrets.

Which is the better
fighting machine?

John sutton: During the 1960s

We are at the height
of the cold war, really,

And russia were going all out

To produce as many
of these as possible.

They ended up producing
66 foxtrot submarines.

They became the workhorse,
really, of the soviet navy--

They're not the flashiest
model they had,

But it was just the workhorse
that would patrol the oceans.

♪

Chris reynolds: Hms ocelot
would carry the mark 8 torpedo.

Here's a mark 8 torpedo here.

One of the first torpedoes

Developed for the royal navy
submarine service.

44, 45 knots
fire-and-forget weapon.

No homing or anything,

So it was very much

Towards the command team
in the control room

To make sure it went
in the right direction.

Narrator: The soviet b-49 sub

Also possessed
formidable firepower.

Sutton: There would have been
22 torpedoes altogether.

There would be four
in the tubes in the back,

And the remainder
would have been up here

In the forward torpedo room.

They did have the capability,

Up until 1991 they used to carry
a nuclear-tipped torpedo,

And that was 10 megatons.

Hiroshima was 13 megatons,

So you can imagine the damage

That one of those torpedoes
would have caused.

Narrator: Foxtrot-class
submarines like this

Were powered by electric
batteries when submerged

And by diesel engines
when on the surface.

It was a highly effective
propulsion system,

Enabling the b-49
to circumnavigate the globe.

This is the central
control room,

B-49's nerve center.

Sutton: As you can see,
there's a lot of exposed metal.

Not a lot of sound-proofing.

Foxtrot submarines were renowned
for being very noisy.

They have three propellers,

So they leave a big
acoustic sound after them,

A trail.

Submariners I've met have all
claimed to have tracked one

At some point in the oceans,

Either american sailors
or british.

They say that they're renowned
for being very noisy.

Narrator: When it came
to stalking enemy vessels

Across the world's oceans,

It's clear the british
held an advantage.

Reynolds: What these
submarines were good at,

They were
very, very, very quiet.

So if you went into
your quiet state or whatever,

It would be very difficult
for another submarine

Or surface ship to detect them,

And you could use the sea
and the layers in the sea

To hide from them.

♪

Narrator:
Even to the untrained eye,

It's easy to see that hms ocelot
is the more luxurious

And the better-equipped
of the two submarines.

Sutton: They all work
on the same principle.

This is a lada,

And the british submarines,
I'd say, were jaguars.

Reynolds: Here is the wardroom.

That was my bunk.

That was mine.

This is where you got some of
the best food I've ever had,

Came out of here.

The chefs who used to
cook in here were amazing.

Saturday night
was always steak and chips.

Ha ha ha!

Narrator:
Western subs in the 1960s

May have been better equipped,

But the soviet navy wasn't
interested in creature comforts.

Sutton: The one thing
that the russians do,

They build war machines
that are functional,

Whether it's a tank, a plane,
a submarine, or a boat.

They're not building them
for comfort;

You know, they're building them
to go to war.

♪

Narrator:
Submariners were well aware

Of the dangers of being hundreds
of feet below the surface

In a vessel loaded
with explosives.

Communication
in an emergency was critical.

Sutton:
This is the emergency system

For communicating.

If all else fails,
and there's no lights,

There's no electric,
no communication,

They could communicate by
tapping out a type of morse code

To alert people
in the other compartment

What the problem is.

It could either be
that we're on fire,

We're flooding, explosion.

That would be their way of
communicating in dire straits.

♪

Narrator: Soviet submarines
in the cold war

Had a poor safety record.

But b-49 crews
were considered lucky.

On other subs,
the stakes were even higher.

♪

In the 1960s,

The soviets
found themselves racing

To keep up with the americans'
new breed of submarine.

January 21, 1954.

The uss nautilus is launched.

It's a key moment
in the cold war.

Nautilus is the world's first
nuclear-powered submarine.

Patrolling the world's oceans
at 23 knots,

She is fast.

And unlike diesel submarines,

Nautilus can stay submerged
for weeks at a time.

For the next five years,

The united states
dominates the seas.

Finally the soviets respond.

Their nuclear sub
is called k-19.

But it earns the nickname
"the widowmaker."

Downing: K-19 was regarded
as an unlucky vessel.

Several people had died
in its construction.

We now know the construction
had been too hasty,

Too many things had been rushed

In the attempt to catch up
with the americans

And the technology
that they were using

To get this submarine out to sea

And to deploy it
on action stations.

Narrator: In July 1961,

K-19 was off the coast
of greenland

On an exercise designed to show
that soviet nuclear technology

Now matched the americans.

It was a false claim
with dire consequences.

A pipe ruptured
in k-19's nuclear reactor.

[klaxon horn blaring]

Downing:
Everybody's nightmare at sea

In a nuclear-powered submarine.

The reactor overheats,
and the cooling system fails.

There is no back-up.

There is no other way
of cooling the system.

The temperature gauge goes right
to the top end of the scale.

But it's still heating
more and more.

Narrator:
K-19's captain, nikolai zateyev,

Was faced with the terrifying
prospect of a nuclear explosion.

But he and his crew
kept their heads.

A group of courageous engineers

Entered the compartment
just above the reactor

To try and repair the damage.

Downing: They're only wearing
raincoats and gas masks.

They have no other defense
against the radiation.

And they construct this
alternative cooling system.

Narrator: Amazingly,
their hastily made device works.

Downing: And the temperature
slowly comes down.

Narrator: With the threat
of a nuclear explosion now over,

K-19 limped home.

Captain nikolai zateyev
was proclaimed a hero,

But at a cost.

Seven of the engineering team
died of radiation exposure

Within two months.

15 more crew members
died within two years.

The dead were buried at sea
in lead coffins,

And the survivors were told
never to discuss the disaster.

But one man on board,
officer vasili arkhipov,

Would carry the painful memories
of k-19 with him

And become an unsung hero
of the cold war.

An argument between arkhipov
and his own submarine commander

Would help prevent armageddon,

At the height
of the cuban missile crisis.

Woman:
The united states military

And president kennedy

Had made it very clear
in his address

That they were ready
for a full-on,

Full-scale nuclear war.

Narrator: The autumn of 1962

Is often called
the height of the cold war.

On October 14th,

An american u2 spy plane

Made a six-minute flight
over the island of cuba.

A thousand photos
revealed the construction

Of missile launch sites.

♪

Cuban leader fidel castro

Had allowed the soviets,
under nikita khrushchev,

To transport nuclear weapons
to the island.

Downing: This was a major shift
in the power balance,

The fact that the soviets
could put their missiles

Within 90, 100 miles
of the united states.

This really
sobered the americans.

They had to stop this,

They had to make a stand to get
these missiles out of cuba.

Narrator: To make matters worse,
president john f. Kennedy

Learned that half a dozen
soviet cargo ships

Were heading for cuba
with more nuclear weapons.

Craig symonds:
And once that information

Reached john kennedy,

He had to decide
what to do about it.

So he called
his advisors together.

There were those who said,

"we must launch
an immediate air attack

Before they become operational,

Blow up those sites,

So that we are not putting
american citizens in danger."

Narrator: But kennedy knew
such an aggressive response

Could lead to
all-out nuclear war.

Instead, he ordered
a naval blockade of cuba.

Weapons and their equipment
would not be allowed through.

Symonds: But since a blockade
is an act of war,

He decided to call it
a quarantine.

President kennedy:
To halt this offensive build-up,

A strict quarantine on all
offensive military equipment

Under shipment to cuba
is being initiated.

Narrator:
As the blockade got underway,

The armed forces were told to
prepare for all eventualities.

America held its breath.

Downing: In the soviet union,

People didn't hear about
what was going on,

But in the west,

Events were followed
hour by hour, day by day,

As both sides seemed
to stand at the brink

And stare at each other.

A lot of people felt,

Is it safe to send their
children to school the next day?

Was everybody
going to be blown up

In a giant mushroom cloud?

♪

Narrator: The cuban blockade was
a unique u.S. Navy operation.

One of the ships involved

Was a destroyer named after
the president's older brother,

The uss joseph p. Kennedy.

♪

The joey p., as she was known,

Was experienced
in anti-submarine warfare

And a veteran of the korean war.

Three days into the blockade,

Several ships
had been allowed through,

Including an oil tanker
and a passenger vessel.

But jfk knew it was time to show
the soviets he meant business.

He decided
a freighter named marucla

Should be stopped
as it approached havana.

The joey p. Was given the job.

At dawn on October 26th,

A boarding party
from the joseph p. Kennedy

Searched the freighter.

The joey p's crew
was experienced,

But this was a situation
unlike any they'd encountered.

And every few minutes,

The naval high command
radioed in, demanding updates.

Woman:
The united states military

And president kennedy had made
it very clear in his address

That they were ready for
a full-on nuclear war.

And I think a lot
of u.S. Citizens didn't know

Whether they were going to
wake up the next morning

Breathing fresh air
or breathing fallout.

So it was a very scary,
dramatic,

And very frantic time
for most americans,

Especially those
fighting in the navy.

Narrator: But after a thorough
two-hour search of the marucla,

No weapons were found.

Woman: The ship had trucks,

Mechanical parts
to take care of the trucks,

And other supplies such as wood,

So they sent the ship
on her way.

Narrator: Nearby,
the american blockaders

Were confronting
a different challenge.

A u.S. Navy task force

Led by the aircraft carrier
uss randolph

Had detected
an unidentified submarine

Close to the cuban-bound ships.

To force it to the surface,

They dropped
low-grade explosives.

[muffled explosions]

Knowing how tense
the situation was,

They radioed moscow
to make it clear

The charges were
relatively harmless.

Far below the surface,

The crew of the soviet
foxtrot-class submarine b-59

Never got those messages.

With no word from moscow,

They presumed
they were under attack.

Downing: And it's Saturday
the 27th of October, 1962,

The day we now call
black Saturday--

Probably the most dangerous day

Or the most dangerous moment
of the cold war.

The b-59 doesn't even know

That these are
practice depth charges.

They could be the real thing.

♪

Narrator: B-59's mission

Was to protect the soviet ships
heading to cuba.

Its weaponry included
a nuclear torpedo.

The stakes couldn't
have been higher.

Downing: They didn't know
if war had been declared.

They didn't know
if american missiles

Had already been launched
against the soviet union.

They didn't know if the missiles
that were already in cuba

Had been launched on america.

Narrator:
With its electric battery low

And short on air,

B-59 would have to surface soon.

The captain was insistent.

"we're going to blast them now!"
he shouted.

He'd already chosen his target
for the nuclear torpedo--

The uss randolph.

But b-59 required the approval
of three senior officers

To launch a nuclear attack.

One officer resisted.

Vasili arkhipov
had only just recovered

From the radiation accident
on submarine k-19

15 months earlier.

Downing: We don't know exactly
what went through his mind,

But he determinedly opposed
the firing of nuclear torpedoes.

Arkhipov may be
remembering the disaster,

The nuclear problem
on his previous submarine.

Narrator:
Presuming war was underway,

The captain pressed
for a decision to fire.

But arkhipov held his ground.

He refused to agree
to a missile launch.

The captain had no choice
but to back down.

♪

Downing: Had they fired and hit
and destroyed an american ship,

It would almost,
without any question,

Have begun
a nuclear conflagration.

[missiles roar]

For that reason alone,
we have to thank arkhipov

For, in a sense,
saving the world.

Narrator: In the end,

Kennedy's naval blockade worked.

Nikita khrushchev
and the soviets retreated.

Symonds: The russian ships

Clearly bringing
military equipment,

Missiles most likely,

Stopped at the quarantine line
when challenged

And turned around.

So that part of it
was successful

But of course it could not
remove the missiles

That were already there,

And that was the problem.

A navy can do
what a navy can do.

It can prevent more materiel
from coming in.

It can't remove the materiel
that's already there

Without an airstrike.

And that remained on the table

Until finally,
it was suggested by the russians

That in exchange for a promise
that we would not invade cuba

That they would remove
their missiles from cuba.

Narrator: Behind the scenes,

Kennedy also agreed to
the withdrawal of u.S. Missiles

Close to the soviet border
in turkey.

The crisis was over.

The cold war would play out
for almost three more decades.

But the united states
and the soviet union

Never did engage
in direct hostilities.

Instead, there were proxy wars

In far-flung countries
like vietnam...

[gunfire]

A remote war that depended
on u.S. Naval might.

On December 7, 1941,

Imperial japanese forces

Attacked the united states
naval base at pearl harbor.

Nearly 2,500 americans
were killed

And 19 ships sunk
or seriously damaged.

As the united states
entered the second world war,

A new type
of combat ship emerged.

Jessica williams: The japanese
attack on pearl harbor

Really woke people up
to how significant

Aircraft carriers
could be in war.

It showed really the power

Of a fleet being able
to bring aircraft

Thousands of miles
across the ocean,

And then attack
such a significant target.

Narrator: Since pearl harbor,

The united states has embraced
the aircraft carrier

Like no other nation,

Building more than
all other nations combined.

A cold war conflict in the 1960s

Demonstrated the strategic value
of aircraft carriers.

They facilitated a war
8,000 miles from home.

Fearing the spread of communism,

The united states entered
into a long and bitter war

In a country few americans
had ever heard of--

Vietnam.

Downing: It's often thought
that the cold war

Was really not much more
than a confrontation

Between the soviet union
and the united states.

But it wasn't.

It was a global conflict

That absorbed pretty well
all the nations of the world

Who had to choose between
the communist side

Or the western democratic side.

And a major player in this
becomes china.

[explosion]

Narrator: North vietnam,
backed by the chinese,

Wanted to unite the country
into one communist state.

But the pro-western south
resisted,

And the united states
came to its aid.

The iconic footage of the war

Is of u.S. Troops
fighting in the jungle.

The involvement of the u.S. Navy
is often overlooked.

Kendrick oliver:
The naval presence in vietnam

Is actually very significant.

A lot of the supplies

The american forces
are using in vietnam

Come through naval supply lines.

A lot of the bombing
of north vietnam

Comes from u.S. Naval
aircraft carriers.

Narrator: As america became more
and more embroiled in vietnam,

The navy turned to a veteran
of the second world war,

The uss intrepid.

♪

Williams: An aircraft carrier
is a floating military airfield,

So the most significant feature
of the aircraft carrier

Is its long, flat flight deck.

Underneath the flight deck
of an aircraft carrier

Is the hangar deck.

That's where aircraft
were stored and maintained.

The tall structure that
sticks up from the flight deck

Is called the island,

So that's where the crew
steers the ship

And navigates its way
through the ocean.

There's also something called
primary flight control,

Which is essentially like
the tower for the airport

That is the aircraft carrier.

Narrator: The intrepid
of the vietnam war

Was home to a new generation
of planes

And a new generation
of recruits.

Most hadn't even been born

When she last saw action
in the second world war.

Gerald feola
joined intrepid in 1967.

He flew as a crew member

On one of the most famous
carrier aircraft

Of the vietnam war,

The skyraider.

Gerald feola:
Wonderful piece of equipment.

It was slow and tough,

Carried lots of bombs,
lots of armament.

The version I was in was,
there was four seats, it was--

So you'd have the pilot
on the left side,

On the right side
was the navigator,

And then two crew members
in the back end,

And I was one of those,
mostly on the starboard side,

Which would be the back here.

Narrator:
Skyraiders escorted bombers

To their
north vietnamese targets.

Gerald's job as part
of the four-man crew

Was to jam enemy radar
to prevent detection.

Each day would begin with
a briefing in the ready room.

Feola: You know, we were kids,

But when we went into that room,

Everything got
very, very serious.

We knew some of our brothers

Were getting their butts kicked
on the ground,

And we wanted to get
those fighters in there safely

To do the damage
that they had to do.

Narrator: Like all carriers,

The intrepid was able
to launch aircraft

From a very short runway.

Feola: It's the best
amusement ride in the world.

It's like a slingshot,
just launching you.

You went from zero...Zero...

To 130 miles an hour
in a second and a half.

It's literally an explosion.

[engines roaring]

As soon as the catapult
released you and were flying,

It was like,
ooh, this is awesome!

It's a kick in the pants,
and it's really exciting.

Williams: Pilots flying off
intrepid during the vietnam war

Faced very, very intense danger.

North vietnam
was very well-defended

By anti-aircraft fire,

So they were really flying
into a very risky situation.

And a number of intrepid pilots

Were lost during
the vietnam war.

Narrator: On one mission,

As gerald's plane
approached the coast,

He and the crew saw
a surface-to-air missile

Coming straight for them.

Feola: My mind was, you'll never
get away from that thing.

It was so fast and violent.

Narrator: The skill of his pilot
saved gerald's life.

But the near miss
made a lasting impression.

Feola: It's an eye-opener.

That day I realized
this is no more fun.

Really, they're trying
to kill us.

Narrator: The missions
over vietnam were hazardous.

But so was the return trip.

Landing an 8-ton aircraft
on a 700-foot flight deck

Took considerable skill.

Feola: We turned to get
initial line-up to land.

The ship is just pumping out
whatever horsepower it had

To get this ship going
as fast as it could

To make the relative
speed of landing

Safer for the pilots.

Three miles out
it looks very small.

Two miles out, and it's still
looking very small.

I'm starting to grab
the armrest on this thing,

Like this thing is not real big.

Williams:
Aircraft land on a carrier

By means of arrester cables

That are stretched across
the aft end or the back end

Of the flight deck.

Carrier-based airplanes

Have something called
a tailhook on the back,

So as the pilot
comes down to land,

The tailhook comes down

And catches one of
those arresting cables,

Which slows the speed
of the airplane down

So it can land.

Feola: You would have been
landing from that direction,

Going this direction.

That white stripe
we see under this aircraft

Would be the center line
of the landing area.

Pilots would focus on that
to keep the plane centered.

And the planes would come in.

If they missed
the arresting gear--

Which would catch them
with the hook--

If they missed that,

They would fly off the end
and then take off.

The amazing part is that

This is not going straight
when the pilots are landing.

Not only is this
moving that way,

But it's doing this, too, guys,
so it's a little scary at times.

Narrator: Today the intrepid

Is moored alongside
the skyscrapers of manhattan

As a memorial to those
who served on her.

Feola: How proud am I?

I mean, you see me now?

Look at this.

Who would have ever thought

That I would see
this beautiful piece of steel

And manhattan skyline
all around us?

Every time I come on board,

I can almost feel
the history that this has.

I'm privileged
to serve on something

That had that kind of history.

I love this vessel,

And I love what it stands for.

Narrator: By April 1975,

The situation in vietnam
was very different.

It had been eight years

Since gerald feola's
first mission there.

American troops
had now withdrawn,

And the north vietnamese

Were poised to take
the south's capital, saigon.

U.S. Carriers were now involved
in operation frequent wind,

A last-minute evacuation

Of american civilians
and south vietnamese.

Oliver: There's a lot of south
vietnamese government officers,

Soldiers, military officials,
intelligence agents,

Who would not expect
to be treated very well

By the north vietnamese.

Narrator: U.S. Helicopters
made hundreds of flights

From the five carriers
stationed off the coast.

One was a carrier launched at
the end of the second world war,

The uss midway.

On April 29th,

Midway's crew spotted a small
civilian aircraft approaching.

They watched
as the plane circled

And noticed a small package

Being thrown onto
the carrier's flight deck.

It was a pistol
wrapped in a note.

It read...

Major buang-ly

Was a south vietnamese
air force officer.

He was fleeing with his family.

Oliver: You can imagine
his desperation to escape.

He heads out
to the south china sea,

And he doesn't know
what's going to happen.

Narrator: The only way
major buang can land

Is if the u.S. Navy helicopters
on the overcrowded deck

Are moved out of the way.

The midway's captain
didn't hesitate.

He ordered
several of his helicopters

To be pushed off the flight deck

And into the sea.

Oliver: About $10 million worth
of american air capacity

Pushed off the deck to save
this one man and his family.

Narrator: But with
the flight deck now cleared,

Major buang still had a problem.

His light aircraft was not
designed to land on a carrier.

It had no tailhook
to catch the arresting wire.

Plus, there was
a strong crosswind.

The american onlookers
held their breath...

♪

And watched the major
make a perilous landing.

The men of the midway
were so impressed

By major buang's bravery,

They started a fund
to help him and his family

Start a new life
in the united states.

After the war in vietnam ended,

The soviets and the west

Continued their
cold war activities

Well into the 1980s.

Conflict between
the united states

And the soviet union

Was avoided in part

By the terrifying naval threat
both sides posed to each other.

It was an era
of mutually assured destruction.

Stuart prebble:
The greatest threat at the time

Is obviously the launch
of a ballistic missile

Onto your territory
from a submarine.

So submarines that are capable
of launching nuclear weapons

Are really the key
frontline of the cold war.

Narrator:
The aim for both sides

Was to know
what the enemy was up to.

[beeping]

The ability to find and track
a missile-loaded vessel

Was vital.

For decades, the classic
underwater detection system

Was called
sound navigation and ranging,

Or "sonar" for short.

Prebble: Anybody's
who's watched those films

Is well used to hearing the ping

Which is the sound
of you emitting a bleep,

And it bounces off the thing
that you're looking for

And bounces back again.

Narrator: In the 1960s,

The british and american navies

Started using a sophisticated
listening device

Known as a towed array sonar.

Submarines or ships would pull
a two-mile long cable

Fixed with a series
of listening devices

Called hydrophones.

The towed array produced
a far more precise pinpoint

Of the enemy's location.

Prebble: The russians had
very advanced submarines.

So did we.

But our ability
to detect their submarines

Was way better.

Narrator:
But in the late 1970s,

The tables were turned.

Nato submarine commanders

Suddenly started receiving
warning signals

From soviet subs close by.

It was clear
they were now being tracked.

Prebble: So the question arose,

How did the russians suddenly
get this ability to detect us

In the way that we were
detecting them?

Narrator: British intelligence
discovered to their horror

That the soviets were using

A towed array system
of their own.

Prebble: Have the russians
developed this themselves,

Or do they have a spy
in british intelligence

That's given them
this technology?

Narrator: To answer that,

The americans proposed
an outrageous plan

To steal a soviet
towed array sonar.

It led to one of
the great cold war tales

Of industrial espionage.

In early July 1982,

The royal navy nuclear submarine
hms conqueror

Was returning to its base
in faslane, scotland.

It was flying the jolly roger--

The signal of a successful
engagement with the enemy.

Two months earlier, at the start
of the falklands war,

The conqueror had sunk
the argentine warship

The general belgrano

And made headlines
around the world.

But when the crew returned home,

They were promptly sent
on a very different mission--

One that remains
a classified secret to this day.

The west planned to steal
a towed array system

From right under
the soviets' noses.

They would do this by attaching
20-foot-long pincers

To the front of a submarine.

The submarine
would then approach

A soviet vessel undetected,

Cut the towed array cable,

And bring it home for analysis.

Prebble: If you just imagine,
there's this ship on the surface

Towing
a two-mile-long cable behind.

The entire purpose of this ship
is to listen.

So you've got to
come in underneath it

Completely undetected,

Go, pull up underneath it.

And so people,
when they first heard this idea,

Were absolutely aghast.

How could this possibly happen?

Narrator: The plan, drawn up
by britain and america,

Was codenamed operation barmaid.

It was fraught with danger,

And detection
would inevitably lead

To a dramatic escalation
of the cold war.

In the summer of 1982,
operation barmaid was launched.

As the conqueror returned
from the falklands,

Western intelligence reported
two polish spy ships

Disguised as trawlers

In the barents sea.

They were using
a towed array sonar.

It was the ideal opportunity.

Hms conqueror was already
fitted with the brackets

Needed to mount
the pincer equipment.

She was the obvious candidate
for the mission.

On the morning of August 12th,
she set sail

And soon verified
the intelligence reports.

The two spy ships
were close to the border

Between norway and the ussr.

What happened next

Has never been
publicly disclosed.

Prebble: I believe that
the reason it's classified

Is that it,
in fact it took place

Inside what were then
ussr territorial waters,

Which is technically
an act of war.

These are some of the most
heavily patrolled waters

Anywhere in the world

Because this is near murmansk

And where the soviet fleet
is based,

And so the consequences
of being caught in the act

Are too horrible to contemplate.

Narrator: With all unnecessary
machinery switched off,

Conqueror silently
and slowly approached

One of the spy vessels,

Which was traveling
at just six knots.

The crew, led by captain
chris wreford-brown,

Relied on
the technique they'd used

Cruising undetected
beneath the argentine fleet.

Conqueror's large pincers
were operated inside the sub

By two men using cameras
mounted on the hull.

With the sub
finally in position,

They grabbed
the towed array sonar.

Spy ship and sub
were now linked together.

Conqueror had to match her speed
to remain undetected.

Prebble: If you can imagine,

They're looking at tiny monitors

That are seeing a claw
try to get round a cable,

In the sort of the dark waters,

The propellers are turning.

It's an incredibly
sort of difficult thing.

Narrator:
And there was another challenge.

The pincers had to cut the cable
bit by bit,

As if it had been
snagged on a rock.

A clean cut would have
told the soviets

Exactly what had happened.

Finally,
the towed array was severed

And in the conqueror's
possession.

But then it started
to drag the sub downwards.

Prebble: Suddenly it takes
on board this additional weight,

And so the submarine sank,

And they can't
sort of start their engines

Because if they do,
they'll be heard.

Narrator: Finally,
conqueror gained control,

Slipped away to deeper waters,

And ultimately brought
the soviet towed array home.

Prebble: What the people
on the submarine say

Is that the bond
between the crew,

As a result
of the falklands war

And the fact that they
just acted as a unit,

Almost without anybody
having to give orders

Because they all
knew each other so well,

Was one of the factors

That enabled
to pull off this operation

That most people would have said
was completely impossible.

Narrator:
Prime minister margaret thatcher

Was delighted
that a british submarine

Had completed the mission.

Prebble: And if the name
of hms conqueror

Came up in the pentagon
for decades after,

People would say
that's the submarine

That carried out this absolutely
extraordinary operation.

Narrator: So what was learned
from the captured towed array?

Inspection revealed

That it was almost identical
to the british and u.S. Version.

Prebble: In 1985,

An american spy called
john walker was arrested,

And he had been giving this kind
of information to the russians

Since 1967.

Narrator: It seems likely

That the sonar
captured by conqueror

Had been built using plans
stolen by walker,

Himself a former submariner.

Eight years later,
as the 1990s arrived,

The soviet union was collapsing.

The high stakes cold war game
finally ended.

The world stepped back

From the threat of
mutually assured destruction,

And scores of warships
and submarines were scrapped.

A few have been kept
as a tribute

To those who served
during those tense years

And as a reminder of an era

When the world came close
to armageddon.

[missile roars]