This extraordinary book describes the events surrounding an accident on the Soviet submarine K-21 9 in 1986, just before a Russian-American summit meeting between Ronald Reagan and Premier Gorbachev.
The missiles in Soviet submarines used a liquid propellant that, when mixed with sea water, combined to form a very corrosive acid and poisonous gas.

The K-219 left her home port with a small leak in one of her missile silos. The missile officer thought he could keep it under control by pumping out the water, which, it was later determined, was coming from an ill-fitting hatch K-218 was a very old sub, one that had suffered an explosion in a missile silo before with the result that she carried only 15 instead of 16 nuclear missiles.

The book describes in detail how the United States managed to know constantly where a II the Russian submarines were located, despite the Soviet Navy's best efforts to defeat our intelligence gathering through acoustical devices. K-218 was being followed very closely by one of the latest American attack subs, the Augustus, skippered by an arrogant and fearless U.S. submariner. During the transittion to her station off the U.S. coast northwest of Bermuda, the K-219, through some fancy maneuvering, managed to actively ping the Augustus, something that was very humiliating to the American skipper, for it meant he had been effectively targete d by an older, noisier enemy submarine.
He was determined to retaliate.

During a "Crazy Ivan," a 1800 turn that permitted the more sensitive sonar gear in the bow of the ship to listen for trailing submarines, the K-218 dove deeply and inadvertently was bumped by the closely trailing Augustus. That collision caused a tear in the missile silo cover that already was leaking, and the water that entered the hole overwhelmed the pumps and caused an explosion in the silo, ejecting the missile and forcing K-218 into a steep, almost unrecoverable dive. With fires in several compartments and poisonous gas leaking through out th e sub, the captain managed to get her to the surface where, because of damage to the control cables which ran through the missile compartment, they lose control of the two nuclear reactors, threatening a melt-down that would send radioactivity across the eastern seaboard. Violating all Russian protocols, the captain sends messages about his ship in the clear, i.e., without encrypting them, so that in effect everyone could hear the status of his vessel.

Naturally, American intelligence was listening carefully. One of the more interesting aspects of this non-fiction thriller - and it is a thriller, indeed - is the description of the inter-service rivalries and how the military used information to try to sway the outcome to its own use. At one point, the author remarks that the Navy was very worried that its most bitter enemy number 1, the U.S. Air Force, might become involved and get some credit. The submariners themselves formed a very tightly knit "sub-service" within the Navy that would often obfuscate and not release information to their own Navy brass if they feared the information might be used against them. Admiral Poindexter and Caspar Weinberger, Secretary of Defense, were concerned that Reagan was too much of a nice guy and would "give away the farm" at the forthcoming summit. In their paranoia, they feared the whole incident was a ruse created as a diversion by the Russians to influence the outcome of the summit. Poindexter withheld vital evidence from the president, and Weinberger manipulated information that he leaked to the press in order to force Reagan into making decisions that Weinberger favored.

In the meantime, the skipper of the Augustus, having been given orders to try to force the K-218 into American waters for salvage (i.e., intelligence gathering) was ramming the tow cable between a Russian freighter and the K-21 g, putting his own ship, the Russian sub and perhaps the world at risk. To make matters worse, he then tried to overturn a launch carrying survivors to a waiting Russian freighter ostensibly so he could get a look at the code bags also being transferred. A real cowboy. A major world incident was narrowly averted. It was this act of "piracy" that infuriated his crew. Years later, upset that his actions had not been reprimanded, several of the crew released duplicate copies of the sonar logs.

The official naval investigation remains classified, but his career was over. The authors, one of whom was an earlier executive officer of the K-218, another a retired U.S. Navy officer, assembled from interviews and newly available Russian documents the actual conversations and details of the entire incident which makes Tom Clancy novels pale by comparison. And everything is true.

See also: [b:Crazy Ivan Based on a True Story of Submarine Espionage|2157914|Crazy Ivan Based on a True Story of Submarine Espionage|W. Craig Reed|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1266590666s/2157914.jpg|2163424] (not read but on my list supposed to be good) There's also a movie that was made about this incident. ( )

fantastically written and researched - not easy no doubt when dealing with Russian authorities who probably were kept in the dark, and Amercian authorities who wouldnt want to admit anything.
it is a book that had me cheering for the 'nasty commies' and booing the 'good ole Yanks'. for anyone who wants an insight into the secret war of covert sub ops, and Cold War propoganda and distrust, you cannot beat this ditty. ( )