In the early predawn hours of March 7, 1968, creeping along the surface at 24N, 163W at about 2 knots was a Golf 2 sub. ID K129. This in and of itself was unusual because she was way out of her patrol box and only 360 miles away from Honolulu, and Pearl. This was way to close for a missile boat, she had no need to be this close. What was even more unusual was the fact that the Soviets lost contact with her shortly after she departed. She failed to report in, and blew right through her assigned patrol box. She also had no need to be on the surface but was. Inside the sub is where the story starts:
Half the crew was locked in a couple forward compartments, the other half was making preparations to lunch missile number 1 at coordinates 21 18N, 157W. Said missile was known as a "serb" and had a one megaton nuclear warhead. The target was Pearl Harbor. The officers in charge along with the crew were going through the procedure. Confirming codes, entering codes, turning the three keys needed to arm the missile. Preparations were also complete for an emergency dive after the launch. The hatch was open, all safeties were off, the final countdown began. When the count down hit 0 they tried to lunch the missile. Unknown to them they forgot one last fail safe Moscow had installed that the KGB lacked codes for. A little black box that was berried deep inside the missile, to prevent something just like this. Instead of the missile being ejected from the tube, and the main engine igniting it blew up. The explosives around the war head blew, destroying it and setting off the rocket fuel. Everyone was dead and the sub sank within minutes. Nothing was left but a radioactive oil slick.
The Soviets had a rogue, looks like the KGB along with hard liners in the navy tried to spark a war between the US and China. K129 was acting like a Chinese sub, her course was that of which a Chinese sub would follow. She surfaced and almost stopped to lunch her missile, like a Chinese sub had too. She also came in close the Chinese missiles lacked the range the Soviets had. Projected casualties in Pearl Harbor and the surrounding area would have been large. 500,000 dead soon as the warhead went off, probably another few hundred thousand from radiation poisoning. The navel base of Pearl would be vaporized.
The US would have responded, whether if the plan worked ICDM’s would have been fired at China, or the Soviets is a question that thankfully will never be answered. This certainly could have started a MAD scenario.
The events of that day were kept highly classified in both countries. Just recently some 40 years later people are starting to talk, and documents are being de classified.
Scary isn’t it?
