In 1968, the Soviet K-129 submarine mysteriously disappeared in the Pacific Ocean, the United States learned that the Soviet submarine sank to the bottom of the sea at 4880 meters, secretly went to salvage the nuclear warheads on the Soviet submarine, and was half of it, but did not expect that the American reporter openly reported the good news of salvaging the submarine!
On February 28, 1968, the Soviet submarine K-129 received orders to secretly conduct combat patrols in the Pacific Ocean west of the U.S. island of Oahu, Hawaii. During this voyage, the submarine was not only equipped with three R-13 ballistic missiles with nuclear-warheads, but also carried two nuclear torpedoes. In the event of an incident, the submarine can launch a nuclear strike against an important target of the United States at any time.
After the departure of the K-129 submarine, it was supposed to contact the submarine base in Kamchatka at a fixed time. Until March, however, the submarine did not report on its voyage and combat position as required. The base made several attempts to get in touch with the K-129 submarine, but received no response.
The Soviet naval headquarters suddenly realized that the K-129 submarine may have had an accident, at the same time, the Soviet Union received information, on March 17, the American "Swordfish" submarine had entered the Japanese port of Yokosuka to urgently repair the deformed periscope, and announced that it had hit an iceberg while floating.
The Soviet Union finally realized the seriousness of the problem and quickly sent its fleet to the sea where the submarine might sink to look for the missing submarine. The Soviet Company sent more than 20 warships of various types and 286 patrol aircraft to search, and the K-129 submarine disappeared out of thin air, and the Soviet army never found anything and had to abandon the search operation.
The United States was overjoyed to learn that the Soviets had abandoned the search for K-129 submarines, and secretly established an underwater surveillance network to deal with the threat of Soviet submarines. And the location of the sinking of the Soviet submarine, they already knew it, but they said they didn't know anything about it!
In order to obtain accurate information about the sinking of the K-129 submarine, the CIA used two nuclear submarines to conduct a detailed search and investigation of the sinking area of the K-129 submarine. The results showed that the K-129 submarine was basically intact.
The CIA immediately formulated the operation code-named "Azores", in order to be able to salvage the Soviet Union under the eyes of the Soviet Union without alarming the Soviet Union, the CIA specifically found billionaire Howard Hughes and asked him to secretly salvage it in the name of mining mineral resources on the seabed.
In order to successfully salvage the submarine, the CIA spent two years building a 36,000-ton ship named the Explorer.
In 1972, explorers set sail. But to further paralyze the Soviet Union, the Explorer first went to sea for two years of undersea mineral exploration and then returned to its home port.
On July 4, 1974, explorer set sail again, heading straight for the waters where the K-129 submarine sank. This time no one ever suspected that he had gone to salvage the submarine.
On July 26, after the salvage vessel determined the specific coordinates of the submarine, the salvage work began. It first slowly put a special working boat into the water, which had dozens of manipulators, and when the submarine was grasped by the manipulator, the salvage ship began to slowly lift the submarine slowly.
Suddenly, when the submarine was 1500 meters away from the sea, the hull of the submarine suddenly broke due to the huge pressure of the sea. The salvage boat quickly tightened its manipulator and barely grasped half of the vessel. The remaining half sank to the bottom of the sea, but fortunately did not detonate the nuclear bomb.
The salvaged wreckage of the submarine was quickly sent to Maui, Hawaii, for analysis, and the US military obtained the nuclear bomb information in the submarine as it wished. At the same time, there were also the bodies of six K-129 submarine crew members in the salvaged hull, but the codebook that the US military wanted to obtain was not found in the hull.
It turned out that the K-129 captain, Colonel Kobzari, had to sleep on his legs because of his tall stature and the small cabin of the submarine. Subsequently, during the submarine overhaul, the captain applied to move the code room to the rear compartment of the submarine, and the rear compartment had sunk to the bottom of the sea during the salvage.
Wanting to continue to obtain Soviet intelligence, the CIA was ready to continue the salvage operation, but while it was preparing for the operation, something unexpected interrupted the operation.
At the time, a gang of bandits in Los Angeles was eyeing billionaire Hughes. One night, the gang broke into Hughes's office and stole some cash and documents, including information on the salvage of the K-129 submarine. After several turns, the bandits sold the information to reporters, and then the newspaper publicly reported the whole process of the United States salvaging the Soviet submarine, and the world was shocked.
Upon learning of the news, the Soviet Union reacted strongly and immediately announced that it would carry out an indefinite "combat friendship" exercise in the area where the Soviet submarine was sunk, and all ships that appeared in the area would be sunk. The United States was under pressure at the time and had to abandon salvage operations.
Since the K-129 submarine was not fully salvaged, the specific reasons for the sinking are mainly the following conjectures:
First, the submarine battery in the charging process, because of poor exhaust caused by hydrogen explosion - explosion. This problem arose in a U.S. submarine.
Collision with an American submarine. On March 17, 1968, the U.S. Swordfish submarine repaired its periscope at Yokosuka Port, and although it was announced that it had hit an iceberg, Soviet officials believed that it was the Swordfish that sank the K-129 submarine during the chase.
Third, the submarine missile exploded. On October 3, 1968, the Soviet K-219 submarine sank due to the detonation of the missile, and the K-129 submarine may have a similar situation.
The above points are the speculation of posterity, as for the specific sinking reason of the K-129 submarine, no one knows, leaving posterity with only endless reverie!
