Stephen Schwartz

45 yrs ago today, Soviet Whiskey-class coastal patrol diesel-electric submarine S-363 hit an underwater rock and ran aground about 6.2 miles from the large Swedish naval base at Karlskrona. This international incident—which wags dubbed “Whiskey on the Rocks”—occurred during a Swedish naval exercise.

Besedin later wrote a book about the incident, and in 2006 told a Swedish journalist: “Our officers were ordered to blow up the submarine together with its crew … . The effect of detonating such a nuclear warhead is about the same as the bomb dropped on Hiroshima.” web.archive.org/web/20061201...

45 yrs ago today, Soviet Whiskey-class coastal patrol diesel-electric submarine S-363 hit an underwater rock and ran aground about 6.2 miles from the large Swedish naval base at Karlskrona. This international incident—which wags dubbed “Whiskey on the Rocks”—occurred during a Swedish naval exercise.

When the Soviets sent a naval task force to retrieve S-363, it triggered a tense 10-day standoff with Sweden. Moscow ultimately allowed Sweden to extricate its submarine, which sailed home on November 7. In 1991 and 1992, the Soviet newspaper Izvestiya published two articles investigating claims …

45 yrs ago today, Soviet Whiskey-class coastal patrol diesel-electric submarine S-363 hit an underwater rock and ran aground about 6.2 miles from the large Swedish naval base at Karlskrona. This international incident—which wags dubbed “Whiskey on the Rocks”—occurred during a Swedish naval exercise.

60 years ago today, China launched a Dong Feng-2 medium-range ballistic missile carrying a live 12-kiloton nuclear warhead from its Shuangchengzi Missile Test Center. The missile flew 556 miles west across China before detonating 1,867 feet above the Lop Nor Nuclear Test Base in Xinjiang Province.

October 27, 1962, was arguably the most dangerous day of the Cuban Missile Crisis, a day when human error, rushed preparations, aggressive tactics, and sky-high tensions could have set off World War III intentionally or by accident at least four separate times. Here’s what happened (a long thread):

For more, read the surviving notes of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff meeting from that most dangerous and eventful October day, “a six-and-a-half-hour cascade of crises where human error, miscalculation, reckless deployment of nuclear weapons, and testosterone ruled the day.”

October 27, 1962, was arguably the most dangerous day of the Cuban Missile Crisis, a day when human error, rushed preparations, aggressive tactics, and sky-high tensions could have set off World War III intentionally or by accident at least four separate times. Here’s what happened (a long thread):

The Soviet test—codenamed 192—involved a 260-kiloton device airdropped and detonated 5,090 feet above Area C at the test site on the arctic archipelago of Novaya Zemlya. (This test was the reason SAC had ordered Maultsby and other U-2 pilots to fly radioactive air-sampling missions that day.)

October 27, 1962, was arguably the most dangerous day of the Cuban Missile Crisis, a day when human error, rushed preparations, aggressive tactics, and sky-high tensions could have set off World War III intentionally or by accident at least four separate times. Here’s what happened (a long thread):

The incredible story of the B-59 and Vasili Arkhipov was very effectively dramatized in this October 2012 episode of “Secrets of the Dead.”

October 27, 1962, was arguably the most dangerous day of the Cuban Missile Crisis, a day when human error, rushed preparations, aggressive tactics, and sky-high tensions could have set off World War III intentionally or by accident at least four separate times. Here’s what happened (a long thread):

Commander William Morgan, the Cony’s captain, quickly ordered Ensign Gary Slaughter to use a flashing signal lamp to apologize for the aggressive tactics. Savitsky had already gone below. Arkhipov and a signals officer were about to descend when the officer and his lamp got stuck in the hatch.

October 27, 1962, was arguably the most dangerous day of the Cuban Missile Crisis, a day when human error, rushed preparations, aggressive tactics, and sky-high tensions could have set off World War III intentionally or by accident at least four separate times. Here’s what happened (a long thread):

(Historical Footnote: Thirteen months earlier, on July 4, 1961, Arkhipov was aboard the nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarine K-19 when it suffered a catastrophic reactor accident that killed 23 crew members—8 of them within one to three weeks—and nearly led to the loss of the submarine.)

October 27, 1962, was arguably the most dangerous day of the Cuban Missile Crisis, a day when human error, rushed preparations, aggressive tactics, and sky-high tensions could have set off World War III intentionally or by accident at least four separate times. Here’s what happened (a long thread):

To remain hidden from US forces, B-59 was sailing too deep to monitor radio traffic. So no one aboard knew if the crisis had escalated into an actual war. Exhausted, confused, and rattled by the explosives, the captain ordered a nuclear-armed torpedo to be prepared to launch at his tormentors.

October 27, 1962, was arguably the most dangerous day of the Cuban Missile Crisis, a day when human error, rushed preparations, aggressive tactics, and sky-high tensions could have set off World War III intentionally or by accident at least four separate times. Here’s what happened (a long thread):

Later that evening, Soviet Foxtrot-class submarine B-59 was submerged in international waters off Cuba when a group of 12 US Navy vessels located it. In order to identify the submarine, the ships began dropping grenades and practice depth charges to force it to the surface. archive.is/aaG3B

October 27, 1962, was arguably the most dangerous day of the Cuban Missile Crisis, a day when human error, rushed preparations, aggressive tactics, and sky-high tensions could have set off World War III intentionally or by accident at least four separate times. Here’s what happened (a long thread):

As scholar Scott Sagan wrote his 1993 book “The Limits of Safety,” to make these ICBMs ready for war quickly (SAC went to DEFCON 2 on October 24), Air Force personnel jury-rigged systems and improvised their own safety procedures. Said one, “I could have launched it on my own, if I had wanted to.”

October 27, 1962, was arguably the most dangerous day of the Cuban Missile Crisis, a day when human error, rushed preparations, aggressive tactics, and sky-high tensions could have set off World War III intentionally or by accident at least four separate times. Here’s what happened (a long thread):

Maultsby’s mistake made the New York Times front page two days later, after Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev disclosed the incident in a letter to Kennedy. Neither leader specified the type of aircraft involved, and Khrushchev politely but firmly stressed the risk to peace such flights entailed.

October 27, 1962, was arguably the most dangerous day of the Cuban Missile Crisis, a day when human error, rushed preparations, aggressive tactics, and sky-high tensions could have set off World War III intentionally or by accident at least four separate times. Here’s what happened (a long thread):

President John F. Kennedy famously said of this very dangerous incident, “There is always some son-of-a-bitch who doesn't get the word.” But Maultsby was not at fault because no word had ever been given. No one at SAC had thought to review, modify, or suspend these flights during the crisis.

October 27, 1962, was arguably the most dangerous day of the Cuban Missile Crisis, a day when human error, rushed preparations, aggressive tactics, and sky-high tensions could have set off World War III intentionally or by accident at least four separate times. Here’s what happened (a long thread):

Maultsby actually ran out of fuel after leaving Soviet airspace and had to glide to a safe landing at a remote airstrip in Kotzebue, Alaska, at 2:25 PM EDT, after flying 10 hours and 25 minutes (making his the longest U-2 flight on record).

October 27, 1962, was arguably the most dangerous day of the Cuban Missile Crisis, a day when human error, rushed preparations, aggressive tactics, and sky-high tensions could have set off World War III intentionally or by accident at least four separate times. Here’s what happened (a long thread):

by instructing him to turn left until Orion’s Belt was off his right wingtip (thereby flying westward and back to Alaska). Alaska Air Defense Command also scrambled two F-102s from Galena Air Force Base to guide Maultsby home and, if necessary, intercept the MiGs.

October 27, 1962, was arguably the most dangerous day of the Cuban Missile Crisis, a day when human error, rushed preparations, aggressive tactics, and sky-high tensions could have set off World War III intentionally or by accident at least four separate times. Here’s what happened (a long thread):

starting at 8:00 AM Alaska time (Noon in Washington, DC) because he was blinded by the aurora borealis and unable to navigate accurately using the stars. MiG-19 fighters were scrambled from Pevek Airport on the Chukotka Peninsula at 11:56 AM EDT (and a little later from Anadyr), but were unable …

October 27, 1962, was arguably the most dangerous day of the Cuban Missile Crisis, a day when human error, rushed preparations, aggressive tactics, and sky-high tensions could have set off World War III intentionally or by accident at least four separate times. Here’s what happened (a long thread):

There he goes again!

Today in 1969, President Nixon’s secret global nuclear alert escalated when the Strategic Air Command initiated GIANT LANCE, a nuclear show of force that involved flying 18 nuclear-armed B-52s from March AFB, California, and Fairchild AFB, Washington State, to Eielson AFB, Alaska, and from there …

an after-action report deemed the operation “unsafe.” For more details, see the 2003 Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists article “Nixon’s Nuclear Ploy”(journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.2...), the 2003 International Security article “The Madman Nuclear Alert” (www.belfercenter.org/sites/defaul...), ...

Today in 1969, President Nixon’s secret global nuclear alert escalated when the Strategic Air Command initiated GIANT LANCE, a nuclear show of force that involved flying 18 nuclear-armed B-52s from March AFB, California, and Fairchild AFB, Washington State, to Eielson AFB, Alaska, and from there …

(starting the next day) over Alaska in an oval pattern and over the polar ice cap toward the Soviet Union. The 18-hour flights ran from October 27-29. The Joint Chiefs of Staff terminated GIANT LANCE on October 30, after US intelligence detected that the Soviet Union was aware of the airborne alert.