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During Cold War, CIA Plucked Soviet Submarine from Ocean Floor Using Giant Claw

smithsonianmag.com

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Re: During Cold War, CIA Plucked Soviet Submarine from Ocean Floor Using Giant Claw

#51

Post by fsloth »

dogma1138 wrote: post #23
ilamont wrote: post #7

two separate Soviet ships (likely loaded with intelligence operatives) closely monitored the supposed mining vessel as it worked to retrieve the submarine. It sounds like they knew exactly what was going on. Tangent: My grandfather was part of a U.S. Navy operation during WWII that was responsible for verifying enemy submarine sinkings ... basically, sending someone down to pick up an artifact that would prove the su…

Of course they knew, but there was very little they could do about it. The Soviets and even Russia today kinda sucks at deep sea recovery, even to raise the Kursk they had to contract a Dutch company. Russia never had much offshore oil, and while even for the US navy a sub sinking is likely a recovery operation rather than a rescue one the US navy seem have been much more concern with developing the operational capab…

US also non-surprisingly attempted to block all 'allied' businesses from contributing to soviet deep sea capabilities.

The story of Mir submarines is an interesting example of cold war era business:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mir_(submersible)

Re: During Cold War, CIA Plucked Soviet Submarine from Ocean Floor Using Giant Claw

#52

Post by appwiz »

asmithmd1 wrote: post #16

There is a well researched book about this whole project: https://www.amazon.com/Taking-K-129-Russian-Operation-Histor...

That’s a great book. It has a lot of details provided by the mission participants and also reveals the politics between the CIA and the Navy.

A bonus for me in this book was the coverage about how the CIA built the U-2 and the A-12 Oxcart in secret.

Re: During Cold War, CIA Plucked Soviet Submarine from Ocean Floor Using Giant Claw

#53

Post by adolph »

jacquesm wrote: post #15
reaperducer wrote: post #6

"That May, Soviet operatives increased the amount of microwave radiation trained on the American embassy in Moscow." This was the 1970's. Today people eschew the idea of similar treatment of Western embassies in Cuba. https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/11/world/americas/cuba-unite...

That may well have been to provide power to passive listening devices. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Thing_(listening_device)

It’s amazing to think that it was invented by Theramin. Also:

Theremin created the Buran eavesdropping system. A precursor to the modern laser microphone, it worked by using a low-power infrared beam from a distance to detect sound vibrations in glass windows.

Re: During Cold War, CIA Plucked Soviet Submarine from Ocean Floor Using Giant Claw

#54

Post by lb1lf »

qychtkd wrote: post #25
Udik wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't find it very spooky. Moving though, considering it's a solemn burial of the bodies of enemy soldiers. And if really it was top-secret, it's not even propaganda. Better times than ours. And how cool is the Soviet anthem?

I’d say the Soviet anthem is one of the best there is. They missed it so much it was brought back as the Russian national anthem after Yeltsin. Red Army Chorus has some good tracks like it. Very catchy and “patriotic” if you are in line to fight western imperialism.

-They've kept the melody (which, I agree, as far as national anthems go, is the one to beat) - but the lyrics have changed, three times I believe in Soviet times and then again as it became Russia's anthem.

Now they're stuck with it, though - all versions had lyrics written by the same guy, Sergei Mikhalkov, who died in 2009.

Re: During Cold War, CIA Plucked Soviet Submarine from Ocean Floor Using Giant Claw

#55

Post by sandworm101 »

qychtkd wrote: post #25
Udik wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't find it very spooky. Moving though, considering it's a solemn burial of the bodies of enemy soldiers. And if really it was top-secret, it's not even propaganda. Better times than ours. And how cool is the Soviet anthem?

I’d say the Soviet anthem is one of the best there is. They missed it so much it was brought back as the Russian national anthem after Yeltsin. Red Army Chorus has some good tracks like it. Very catchy and “patriotic” if you are in line to fight western imperialism.

It's is a communist anthem. So it is meant to be sung by a group, ussually with instruments too. It is therefore always more impressive than others like the american which are mostly performed as solos.

There was a canadian opera singer who did anthems for hockey games. He would sing three notes then turn the mic to the crowd. That is how national anthems should be done.

There is also a great vid of a game where the american soloist had a mic fail. The canadian crowd finished the american anthem for her.

Re: During Cold War, CIA Plucked Soviet Submarine from Ocean Floor Using Giant Claw

#56

Post by ghaff »

posnet wrote: post #3

If you found this interesting, I can't recommend Blind Man's Bluff[0] enough. [0] https://www.amazon.com/Blind-Mans-Bluff-Submarine-Espionage/...

There's apparently some controversy over the Scorpion theory presented in the book and presumably no one will know the actual answer at this point. But, yeah, it's a good read.

Re: During Cold War, CIA Plucked Soviet Submarine from Ocean Floor Using Giant Claw

#57

Post by PinballWizard »

snthd wrote: post #50

Where's the salvaged piece now? Did the Glomar just dump most of it? Is it implausible that it was sunk by the Americans? It certainly would have helped them know where to look.

The is has a mess load of mic under the ocean, that's how they knew it sunk

Re: During Cold War, CIA Plucked Soviet Submarine from Ocean Floor Using Giant Claw

#58

Post by rossenberg79 »

Udik wrote: post #9
cameldrv wrote: post #8

Possibly the coolest and most spooky Cold War artifact: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aJAJUJ41PBI It's the video on board the Glomar Explorer of a burial at sea ceremony of Soviet sailors found in the half of the submarine they managed to bring to the surface. Supposedly this was Top Secret until a copy was given to Yeltsin in 1991 or so.

I don't find it very spooky. Moving though, considering it's a solemn burial of the bodies of enemy soldiers. And if really it was top-secret, it's not even propaganda. Better times than ours. And how cool is the Soviet anthem?

> Better times than ours.

Not sure why it’s necessary to make a slight against our times? Even Osama Bin Laden was given a proper burial at sea, and he wasn’t even a soldier, he was a damn criminal. We didn’t even use photos of his remains for propaganda.

Re: During Cold War, CIA Plucked Soviet Submarine from Ocean Floor Using Giant Claw

#59

Post by foobarbecue »

Shame on Smithsonian for publishing those beautiful plans for the ship in such a low resolution! (https://thumbs-prod.si-cdn.com/ByKMeWPL7ACAflt-TkueyIb8ZmI=/...) Can anyone find a readable version of these? I tried google image search to no avail.

Re: During Cold War, CIA Plucked Soviet Submarine from Ocean Floor Using Giant Claw

#60

Post by auntienomen »

seppin wrote: post #37
DoreenMichele wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The phrase "Cold War" isn't without meaning. They were generally deemed to be the enemy by Americans at that time, enough so that Americans were often surprised to learn that Russia and the US were on the same side during WW2. This is how search auto completed my query on the matter: were russia and us allies in ww2 That suggests people are still surprised to learn that and routinely search that question. Americans t…

Allies is a bit much, they had a common enemy. Once the enemy was destroyed, no longer allies. Compare that to US/UK aka true allies.

This shouldn't be downvoted because it's spot on. Russia and the US were allies of convenience right up to the moment the tide turned. After that it was a race to be first in Berlin. They were competing militarily before the Germans had surrendered.
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