Who was the one in the Cuban Missle Crisis who...?

Question

Who was the one in the cuban missle crisis that was the one in the submarine that got attacked by the depth charges. The one who disobeyed Soviet orders and decided not to fire their nuclear device on the United States?

Source is a Ph.d in American History.

There was a Blockade setup and the soviets were told to fire if they were attacked at all by the blockade. We released a charge on one of their submarines and the guy decided not to fire.

Answer 1

There were two occasions of nuclear tipped torpedos being readied for use in the Cuban Missile Crisis. The first occured on approximately 24 October when the US Navy deployed small 'practice depth charges' (PDC's) in an attempt to signal several Soviet attack submarines that they were tracking. The use of the PDC's was standard signaling procedure for the US Navy, and the devices yielded a blast equivelant to that of hand grenade.

The Soviets however did not know this, and assumed they were a more destructive type of depth charge. On 24 October the US Navy attempted to singal the Soviet submarine B-130 commanded by Captain Nikolai Shumkov in such a manner. Captain Shumkov ordered his torpedo tubes loaded, as well as the preparation of a nuclear torpedo with a 15 kiloton yield (approximately that of Hiroshima).

B-130's special weapon's security officer (name unknown) warned Captain Shumkov that nuclear weapons could not be armed without permission from Moscow, after which he promptly fainted. Since Captain Shumkov needed the security officer to launch the missile, the decision was made not to do so.

The next incident occured on 27 October when the US Navy attempted to signal the Soviet attack submarine B-59 with PDC's. B-59's commander, Captain Valentin Savitskiy, unable to communicate with Moscow, ordered his nuclear torpedo readied. The submarine's deputy commander, Second Captain Vasili Archipov, calmed Captain Savitskiy down and the decision was made not to launch the torpedo.

In either event the soviet submarine's most likely would have been destroyed along with their intended targets. As communication with Moscow was impossible at the time, it is unlikely that the sub commanders were ordered to launch their nuclear torpedos. It is also unlikely that they were given standing orders to launch their nuclear torpedos in response to depth charges.

Answer 2

Sounds like a Tom Clancy story. I lived the Cuban Missle crises and never heard that one.

Answer 3

my dad was on a dde, destroyer escort, the charles P. cecil. he has a picture of them making a russian sub surface after a depth charge attack during the cuban crises. he told me that a watch on the sub gave them away. i ll go see him and get the numbers off the sub.

Answer 4

what is the origin of this story..it looks suspicious...i never heard that there was "an order" to the best of historic knowledge....the russians retreated....the last minute or before the last minute...i have read a couple of books on the subject. please site the source of your information.