BBC2 - Thursday, Dec 5th 2013 - 21:00 - The Silent War: Know Your Enemy

BBC2 - Thursday, Dec 5th and Dec 12th 2013 - 21:00 - The Silent War




"For decades, Britain and America's Cold War submarines waged a secret war of espionage against the Soviet navy. Deep in the ocean, crews were locked in a game of cat and mouse as each side battled to gain the tactical and technological advantage.

...

Shadowing submarines was dangerous. The film explores close encounters between western and Soviet forces that put the lives of submariners at risk. Candid interviews with British, American and Russian submariners reveal the pressures of lengthy underwater patrols that drove them to the edge of their physical and mental limits."

BBC Two - The Silent War, Know Your Enemy

 

We were once driven to the extremes of our limits on one patrol during the 70's..a Part 3 turned the lights on in the bunkspace because he couldn't find a valve. I ask you, lights on in a bunkspace!!

 

Or you could look here

http://www.navy-net.co.uk/submariners/72348-expr-cold-war-cat-mouse-games-put-us-red-alert-says-submarine-commander-2.html#post1176304

 

We once had to resort to making our own 'orange and tea' wine in the Cab Space! *

Don't know why, 'cos the mess door was opposite the Cab Space door!



* It was gopping too!

 

I think the only thing I gained from all the Cold War patrols was the ability to make Milack that actually looked like milk, didn't taste like it though.

 

This looks like an interesting programme - more background to it here:

BBC Two - The Silent War - The Making of The Silent War

Some of the featured Submariners:

BBC Two - The Silent War - Profiles

 

I'll be watching, I'll even dig out my old white (nearly) wooly pully, have the vacuum cleaner humming away in the corner and not change my nix and sox, just for the atmosphere

 

Normal night in chez Wrecks then.


Just the thoughts of a blonde ex wren

 

I might even squeeze into a corner of the living room after scran....and get my other half to makes all the wets...as she's usually nearest the urn... plus she's a BSQ...I know, I know, she shouldn't be in the living room til she's qualified but what the hell!...it's nearly christmas.

 

Absolutely, old habits 'n' all that.

 

If you like, I'll 'drop one' in your bunkspace.....just to make the aroma more authentic ! :fart:

 

I've told SWMBO what I fancy for scran tonight, but also told her to do something completely different and to make it look and taste disgusting! (Shouldn't really be a problem fo her!) Also to make sure there is not enough for both of us.

For my part, as I have no hydraulic oil handy, I'll periodically spray a can of penetrating oil in the air. As it is now dark we already have the red lighting on..........










Oi - who put the blue emoticon thing in there? Not bleedin me!

 

Herrings in for tea, mouldy bread for 4 o'clocks, penguins for duff. Rise and Scream for goffers.
Interesting program but it seems DB's stopped doing patrols when the nukes came along.
Nice to see Black Mac after 40 years still going strong.


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Cheated a bit as some of the Swiftsure scenes were filmed on a T boat but I liked it.

 

Always thought you Cold War submariners deserved a dedicated bar to the GSM.

Regards,
MM

 

A dedicated bar?...that would have been nice...instead the only bars available were full of 4 knot fudge packers. Nothing changes...apart from the speed i suppose.

 

What GSM would that be? I went (possibly) to places where gongs were being dished out right left and Chelsea, but the policy is/was that it was never acknowledged where a boat had been, In fact we never even got Blue Nose certificates - who knows, maybe we never went that far north. Maybe the MIZ was dragged south.










Marginal Ice Zone, thankyou for asking!

 

A generic 'Submarine Operations 19xx-1989' (assuming it would fit on the bar!) awarded after a suitable period would imho have been just reward for the nature of the ops without compromising where they took place.

It's just always struck me as unjust that many of you chaps gained little if any acknowledgement beyond an OBE awarded to a boat's captain for particularly dodgy activity.

Regards,
MM

 

Let us not forget the "silent service" festoon themselves with kissing-kipper brooches and even a 1:32 scale model of a submarine, in some cases, on their port breast. There isn't any room for medals too. ^^

 

An interesting programme but I thought they had the chronological order of the SSBNs and SSNs a little confused. I'm not exactly certain as to when the first Yank SSNs were launched but I'm reasonably sure that they predated the SSBNs and not as the programme had it the other way about.