#88
Post
by Undried Plum » Wed Jan 19, 2022 11:05 am
That sub showed itself at periscope depth because it wanted to be seen. It's not like the WW2 diesel boats which needed to snort. That thing can stay deep for weeks or months. I'm pretty sure they have comms floats just like the RN's grey catamaran ones for whenever they need to squirt a burst transmission to a satellite. They would quite certainly have heard the helicopter and were aware of what its task du jour was likely to be.
Quite why it wanted to be seen is unclear.
Could it be that there were actually two subs? Could the one sighted have been a decoy to draw the search away from the other one? Russians are quite good at chess. I got the impression that the officers on that ship were a bit fick.
With those klaxon alarms and the very loud pipe of the various breakdowns Northumberland would have been audible to the submarine(s?) from 60 miles away.
Yes, the PWO or OOW or skipper really did say "What **** have I hit?", but the spin doctors insist on saying that the sub hit the ship, not the other way around.