September 3, 2024 • 9 mins
On this episode of Our American Stories, in 1984, during a period of Cold War tension, a Soviet submarine collided with a United States aircraft carrier. Here’s The History Guy with the story of the USS Kitty Hawk collision.
Support the show (https://www.ouramericanstories.com/donate)
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:11):
This is our American Stories, and our next one comes
from a man who's simply known as the History Guy.
His videos are watched by hundreds of thousands of people
of all ages on YouTube. The History Guy is also
heard here on Our American Stories. In nineteen eighty four,
during a period of Cold War tension, a Soviet submarine
(00:31):
collided with the United States aircraft carrier. Here's the History
Guy with the story of the USS Hittihok collision.
Speaker 2 (00:39):
It was March twenty first, nineteen eighty four, and the
supercarrier USS Kittihowk was in the Sea of Japan. Commissioned
in April nineteen sixty one, KITTIHOWK was the first of
a class of three so called supercarriers, upgraded versions of
the previous Forestall class, capable of carrying eighty five aircraft
with a crew complement of five six hundred and twenty
four office and men. The Kittihawk had served about the
(01:02):
Vietnam War, continued serving in the Western Pacific. She had
been sent to the Sea of Japan in March to
participate in Team Spirit exercises. Team Spirit was a joint
exercise of the United States and the Republic of Korea,
held annually from nineteen seventy six to nineteen ninety three.
The exercise was designed to evaluate and improve the interoperability
of the ROK and US forces. The operation so close
(01:26):
to the Soviet Far East attracted the attention of the
Soviet military. Kittyhok reported that over the course of the exercise,
the carrier and its escorts came in contact with forty
three Soviet aircraft, six Soviet surface elements, and one Soviet submarine.
The submarine was the Victor class submarine K three fourteen,
(01:46):
designated Projects six seventy one or Scorpionfish by the Soviet
Navy and given the NATO designation victor Ian. The Victor
class was a series of nuclear powered attack submarines designed
to counter enemy vessels, especially American nuclear attack submarine. Although
its exact armament at the time is still classified, the
submarine was likely armed with both torpedoes and missiles, including
(02:08):
ss IN fifteen Starfish nuclear armed anti submarine missiles. The
Kitty Hawk was aware there's being shadowed by the submarine
since it had left the South Green port of Poussar
on March nineteenth. Such behavior was not uncommon as an
officer board Kitty Hawk explained to The New York Times
they played catamouse with us all the time. As part
of their tracking, the US had simulated destroying the submarine
(02:31):
that has had units in a position where they could
have destroyed the submarine in a combat situation fifteen times.
A former aviator who piloted a P three b Orion
anti submarine and surveillance aircraft explained, chasing Ivan was great fun,
serious business, but nevertheless great fun. The only problem was
that when you caught Ivan, you had to let him go.
(02:52):
On the night of March twenty first, the Kitty Hawk
was leaving the Sea of Japan, heading south to the
Yellow Sea. As they deployed, the Kittyhawk's escorts moved away
some two point five miles distant. This, in essence, left
the Kittihock blind to the location the K three fourteen.
The carrier did not have its own sonar equipment, but
instead relied on its escort vessels and aircraft to track
(03:12):
the submarine. If it were a wartime situation, the submarine
would never have gotten within the Battle Group Pentagon. Spoken
Michael Birch explained in a UPI report. In peacetime it's
not required that the Navy keep twenty four hour watchings
of its submarines. Birch continued, these were peacetime conditions. It's
not unusual to lose contact. Still, the pilot of the
(03:32):
P three b Orion explained that he and his crew
knew that the submarine was in the area of the carrier,
and in fact speculated that the submarine was attempting a
maneuver where it tries to hide underneath the carrier to
mass the submarine sound techniques, which the pilot said generally
doesn't work, but the K three fourteen wasn't trying to hide. Instead,
the submarine under the command of Captain Vladimir If Sinko
(03:54):
had lost track of the Kittie Hawk, the most likely
reason was simply the rough seas. Next Time, quoted in
the Washington Post, commented that it is very confusing world
beneath the surface. Observed that the Sea of Japan, which
is relatively shallow and is teeming with commercial and military ships,
is one of the noisiest in the world, confusing the
sonar that submarrang ews to track other ships. There is
(04:15):
an additional problem as well as sonar, which tracks sound
leaves a notorious blind spot in the baffles behind a submarine,
where the noise of its own screws makes it impossible
to detect other ships across them approximately sixty degree arc.
Some sailors suggest that either the Kittyhawk had made an
abrupt course change or was engaging in a deceptive lighting exercise,
(04:36):
so the ship would change its running lighting configuration to
appear like the guided missile cruiser the USS Long Beach.
While such operations would have been intended to confuse surface ships,
it may also have confused the K three fourteen. In
any case, Having lost his target, Captain if Cinko decided
to bring the K three fourteen to periscope depth. When
he looked through the periscope, he was stunned to see
(04:56):
that he and the Kittihawk were on a collision course.
Immediately ordered the submarine to dive, but by then it
was already too late. At approximately ten pm, some one
hundred and fifty miles off the coast of Korea, in
rough seas and pitch black night, the nuclear powered in
armed Soviet submarine K three point fourteen collided with the
nuclear armed carrier USS Kiddihawk. Captain Rogers was on the
(05:20):
bridge at the time. Hoombering one of the ship's radars,
he said, we felt a sudden shutter, a very violent shutter.
The radar was designed to detect surface contacts and would
not have seen the still submerged submarine. There was no
indication that anyone on the Kitty Hawk saw the submarine
in the moments before the collision, and there likely wouldn't
have been time to make a response if they had.
(05:40):
A sailor on the flat deck felt the shutter too,
explaining that is something you normally don't feel on a carrier.
A sailor in the messroom said his trade jumped up
four inches. Others, however, seemed to barely notice, riding the
shut off as rough seas one sailor described acting shipmates
in a TV lounge if they felt something and they
insisted that he was crazy. On the P three Orion,
(06:01):
they could hear a great scraping noise through their hydrophones.
Sailors on the Kittihocks had the scraping noise lasted five
to eight minutes as the submarine dragged along the keel.
If Sinco was quoted on the website Russia beyond, recalling
that the first thaw was that the conning tower had
been destroyed and the submarine's body was cut to pieces.
They confirmed that the periscope and antennas were still working
(06:22):
when they felt a second strike on the starboard side.
The collision could have been much worse. It was a
glancing blow off the right side of Kittyhawk's bow. The
second strike that of Sinko felt, was when the submarine's
propeller struck the hull of the Kittihock, breaking off a
piece that was left in the Kittyhawk's bow. The submarine
was forced to surface. The Kittihock immediately launched a pair
(06:44):
of SH three Sea King helicopters to render assistance. The
submarine appeared to have a dent or crease between its
stern and sail. Its reported moving at a slow five
knots towards the Soviet naval base at Ladivostok, while the
guided missile cruiser Pentropavlosk steamed apparently to the submarine's assistance.
The submarine did not answer the Kittyhock's offers of assistance,
(07:05):
nor did it request any, and the Soviet government refused
to comment. News reports at the time said that the
Kittihock detected no nuclear leak from the submarine, and that
President Reagan was apprised of the situation. The Kittihock remained
for approximately two hours in order to be available in
case it needed to render assistance, but then continued on
its course. Other US Navy ships remained in the area.
(07:26):
While the initial reports were that the Kittihak had taken
only superficial damage, within a day of the Navy reported
that the carrier was taking on water. The collision had
ruptured a fuel tanks during aircraft fuel which was then
becoming contaminated with sea water. The crew had to pump
the fuel from the tank. The Kittihock had a hole
in the bow and a gash from the submarine's propeller
below the water line. Divers the next day brought up
(07:47):
a piece of the propeller that had been lodged in
the hole, and the crew had it mounted in a hangar.
The Navy described the damage as miner saying that it
could be repaired at sea. It was not significant enough
to effect normal operations, although members aboard Kittihock speculated that
there was a significant risk for the crew of the
submarine after being rolled over in a collision. The Russian
Navy has never provided information on the extent of the
(08:09):
damage to the K three fourteen. Several members of the
Kittihawk and other US ships crews noted seeing welding sparks
as members of the K three fourteen crew engaged in
apparent repairs. The K three fourteen was not able to
return to base under its own power, and was eventually
met by a sea going tug. The report in Russia
Beyond quotes captain of Sinko saying that there was no
(08:31):
loss of life aboard the submarine. The general feeling aboard
the Kittihock was that the submarine had taken more damage
than the carrier, prompting jokes about the Kittihock being the
first anti submarine carrier weapon. The crew painted a red
submarine on the ship's island near the bridge to mark
their victory, but the Navy later made them remove it.
The Kittihawk underwent repairs at Subic Bay Naval Base in
(08:51):
the Philippines, which crew members described as filling the damaged
voids with concrete. During the repairs, it was discovered that
some of the submarines. Specialized outer coding had scraped off
onto Kittihawk could be analyzed along the USA Minor intelligence coup.
The USS Kittihwk continued to serve clear into the next
century and wasn't decommissioned until two thousand and nine. After
(09:12):
an impressive nearly forty nine year service in the United
States Navy. She was the last oil fired US carrier
to serve. Sometimes the story about what did not happen
is as interesting as a story that what did. The
fact that an event was well far less catastrophic than
it might have been, is history that deserves to be remembered.
Speaker 1 (09:33):
Indeed, and you're listening to The History Guy. If you
want more stories of forgotten history, please subscribe to his
YouTube channel, The History Guy. History deserves to be Remembered.
A great story, The History Guy's story the day a
Soviet nuclear attack submarine rammed an American aircraft carrier here
on our American Stories
This is our American Stories, and our next one comes
from a man who's simply known as the History Guy.
His videos are watched by hundreds of thousands of people
of all ages on YouTube. The History Guy is also
heard here on Our American Stories. In nineteen eighty four,
during a period of Cold War tension, a Soviet submarine
(00:31):
collided with the United States aircraft carrier. Here's the History
Guy with the story of the USS Hittihok collision.
Speaker 2 (00:39):
It was March twenty first, nineteen eighty four, and the
supercarrier USS Kittihowk was in the Sea of Japan. Commissioned
in April nineteen sixty one, KITTIHOWK was the first of
a class of three so called supercarriers, upgraded versions of
the previous Forestall class, capable of carrying eighty five aircraft
with a crew complement of five six hundred and twenty
four office and men. The Kittihawk had served about the
(01:02):
Vietnam War, continued serving in the Western Pacific. She had
been sent to the Sea of Japan in March to
participate in Team Spirit exercises. Team Spirit was a joint
exercise of the United States and the Republic of Korea,
held annually from nineteen seventy six to nineteen ninety three.
The exercise was designed to evaluate and improve the interoperability
of the ROK and US forces. The operation so close
(01:26):
to the Soviet Far East attracted the attention of the
Soviet military. Kittyhok reported that over the course of the exercise,
the carrier and its escorts came in contact with forty
three Soviet aircraft, six Soviet surface elements, and one Soviet submarine.
The submarine was the Victor class submarine K three fourteen,
(01:46):
designated Projects six seventy one or Scorpionfish by the Soviet
Navy and given the NATO designation victor Ian. The Victor
class was a series of nuclear powered attack submarines designed
to counter enemy vessels, especially American nuclear attack submarine. Although
its exact armament at the time is still classified, the
submarine was likely armed with both torpedoes and missiles, including
(02:08):
ss IN fifteen Starfish nuclear armed anti submarine missiles. The
Kitty Hawk was aware there's being shadowed by the submarine
since it had left the South Green port of Poussar
on March nineteenth. Such behavior was not uncommon as an
officer board Kitty Hawk explained to The New York Times
they played catamouse with us all the time. As part
of their tracking, the US had simulated destroying the submarine
(02:31):
that has had units in a position where they could
have destroyed the submarine in a combat situation fifteen times.
A former aviator who piloted a P three b Orion
anti submarine and surveillance aircraft explained, chasing Ivan was great fun,
serious business, but nevertheless great fun. The only problem was
that when you caught Ivan, you had to let him go.
(02:52):
On the night of March twenty first, the Kitty Hawk
was leaving the Sea of Japan, heading south to the
Yellow Sea. As they deployed, the Kittyhawk's escorts moved away
some two point five miles distant. This, in essence, left
the Kittihock blind to the location the K three fourteen.
The carrier did not have its own sonar equipment, but
instead relied on its escort vessels and aircraft to track
(03:12):
the submarine. If it were a wartime situation, the submarine
would never have gotten within the Battle Group Pentagon. Spoken
Michael Birch explained in a UPI report. In peacetime it's
not required that the Navy keep twenty four hour watchings
of its submarines. Birch continued, these were peacetime conditions. It's
not unusual to lose contact. Still, the pilot of the
(03:32):
P three b Orion explained that he and his crew
knew that the submarine was in the area of the carrier,
and in fact speculated that the submarine was attempting a
maneuver where it tries to hide underneath the carrier to
mass the submarine sound techniques, which the pilot said generally
doesn't work, but the K three fourteen wasn't trying to hide. Instead,
the submarine under the command of Captain Vladimir If Sinko
(03:54):
had lost track of the Kittie Hawk, the most likely
reason was simply the rough seas. Next Time, quoted in
the Washington Post, commented that it is very confusing world
beneath the surface. Observed that the Sea of Japan, which
is relatively shallow and is teeming with commercial and military ships,
is one of the noisiest in the world, confusing the
sonar that submarrang ews to track other ships. There is
(04:15):
an additional problem as well as sonar, which tracks sound
leaves a notorious blind spot in the baffles behind a submarine,
where the noise of its own screws makes it impossible
to detect other ships across them approximately sixty degree arc.
Some sailors suggest that either the Kittyhawk had made an
abrupt course change or was engaging in a deceptive lighting exercise,
(04:36):
so the ship would change its running lighting configuration to
appear like the guided missile cruiser the USS Long Beach.
While such operations would have been intended to confuse surface ships,
it may also have confused the K three fourteen. In
any case, Having lost his target, Captain if Cinko decided
to bring the K three fourteen to periscope depth. When
he looked through the periscope, he was stunned to see
(04:56):
that he and the Kittihawk were on a collision course.
Immediately ordered the submarine to dive, but by then it
was already too late. At approximately ten pm, some one
hundred and fifty miles off the coast of Korea, in
rough seas and pitch black night, the nuclear powered in
armed Soviet submarine K three point fourteen collided with the
nuclear armed carrier USS Kiddihawk. Captain Rogers was on the
(05:20):
bridge at the time. Hoombering one of the ship's radars,
he said, we felt a sudden shutter, a very violent shutter.
The radar was designed to detect surface contacts and would
not have seen the still submerged submarine. There was no
indication that anyone on the Kitty Hawk saw the submarine
in the moments before the collision, and there likely wouldn't
have been time to make a response if they had.
(05:40):
A sailor on the flat deck felt the shutter too,
explaining that is something you normally don't feel on a carrier.
A sailor in the messroom said his trade jumped up
four inches. Others, however, seemed to barely notice, riding the
shut off as rough seas one sailor described acting shipmates
in a TV lounge if they felt something and they
insisted that he was crazy. On the P three Orion,
(06:01):
they could hear a great scraping noise through their hydrophones.
Sailors on the Kittihocks had the scraping noise lasted five
to eight minutes as the submarine dragged along the keel.
If Sinco was quoted on the website Russia beyond, recalling
that the first thaw was that the conning tower had
been destroyed and the submarine's body was cut to pieces.
They confirmed that the periscope and antennas were still working
(06:22):
when they felt a second strike on the starboard side.
The collision could have been much worse. It was a
glancing blow off the right side of Kittyhawk's bow. The
second strike that of Sinko felt, was when the submarine's
propeller struck the hull of the Kittihock, breaking off a
piece that was left in the Kittyhawk's bow. The submarine
was forced to surface. The Kittihock immediately launched a pair
(06:44):
of SH three Sea King helicopters to render assistance. The
submarine appeared to have a dent or crease between its
stern and sail. Its reported moving at a slow five
knots towards the Soviet naval base at Ladivostok, while the
guided missile cruiser Pentropavlosk steamed apparently to the submarine's assistance.
The submarine did not answer the Kittyhock's offers of assistance,
(07:05):
nor did it request any, and the Soviet government refused
to comment. News reports at the time said that the
Kittihock detected no nuclear leak from the submarine, and that
President Reagan was apprised of the situation. The Kittihock remained
for approximately two hours in order to be available in
case it needed to render assistance, but then continued on
its course. Other US Navy ships remained in the area.
(07:26):
While the initial reports were that the Kittihak had taken
only superficial damage, within a day of the Navy reported
that the carrier was taking on water. The collision had
ruptured a fuel tanks during aircraft fuel which was then
becoming contaminated with sea water. The crew had to pump
the fuel from the tank. The Kittihock had a hole
in the bow and a gash from the submarine's propeller
below the water line. Divers the next day brought up
(07:47):
a piece of the propeller that had been lodged in
the hole, and the crew had it mounted in a hangar.
The Navy described the damage as miner saying that it
could be repaired at sea. It was not significant enough
to effect normal operations, although members aboard Kittihock speculated that
there was a significant risk for the crew of the
submarine after being rolled over in a collision. The Russian
Navy has never provided information on the extent of the
(08:09):
damage to the K three fourteen. Several members of the
Kittihawk and other US ships crews noted seeing welding sparks
as members of the K three fourteen crew engaged in
apparent repairs. The K three fourteen was not able to
return to base under its own power, and was eventually
met by a sea going tug. The report in Russia
Beyond quotes captain of Sinko saying that there was no
(08:31):
loss of life aboard the submarine. The general feeling aboard
the Kittihock was that the submarine had taken more damage
than the carrier, prompting jokes about the Kittihock being the
first anti submarine carrier weapon. The crew painted a red
submarine on the ship's island near the bridge to mark
their victory, but the Navy later made them remove it.
The Kittihawk underwent repairs at Subic Bay Naval Base in
(08:51):
the Philippines, which crew members described as filling the damaged
voids with concrete. During the repairs, it was discovered that
some of the submarines. Specialized outer coding had scraped off
onto Kittihawk could be analyzed along the USA Minor intelligence coup.
The USS Kittihwk continued to serve clear into the next
century and wasn't decommissioned until two thousand and nine. After
(09:12):
an impressive nearly forty nine year service in the United
States Navy. She was the last oil fired US carrier
to serve. Sometimes the story about what did not happen
is as interesting as a story that what did. The
fact that an event was well far less catastrophic than
it might have been, is history that deserves to be remembered.
Speaker 1 (09:33):
Indeed, and you're listening to The History Guy. If you
want more stories of forgotten history, please subscribe to his
YouTube channel, The History Guy. History deserves to be Remembered.
A great story, The History Guy's story the day a
Soviet nuclear attack submarine rammed an American aircraft carrier here
on our American Stories
Host
Lee Habeeb
Popular Podcasts
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
NFL Daily with Gregg Rosenthal
Gregg Rosenthal and a rotating crew of elite NFL Media co-hosts, including Patrick Claybon, Colleen Wolfe, Steve Wyche, Nick Shook and Jourdan Rodrigue of The Athletic get you caught up daily on all the NFL news and analysis you need to be smarter and funnier than your friends.