Tailships: The Hunt for Soviet Submarines in the Mediterranean, 1970-73
80 pages
John Roberts
I was intrigued by this book as I was serving on the NATO Staff of COMNAVSOUTH in Malta at the time. I kept watches in the operations room and one of our main tasks was to track and plot Soviet submarines as they transited the Mediterranean. Not being in Int Div I was never quite sure where all the intel came from, and this book provides some of the answer. A slim A4 ‘magazine format’, soft back, it tells the story of US Navy Special Escort Squadron ‘8’, the ‘Tail Ships’ in the Mediterranean 1970-73. Three elderly, obsolete, escort destroyers (DEs Hammerberg, Courtney and Lester) were taken out of reserve, gutted of their basic weapon fit and refitted with the latest ASW hunting and trailing equipment, towed arrays, ITASS (interim towed array surveillance system), upgraded sonars, etc. They were sent to the Mediterranean to support the Sixth Fleet. For three years they were based at the Molo San Vincenzo in Naples harbour. By coincidence when we (COMNAVSOUTH) were evicted from Malta by Mintoff in 1971, the headquarters redeployed to the same Molo San Vincenzo.
The book starts with an excellent broad overview of the Cold War at sea detailing the threat from the huge number of Soviet submarines being produced, which the USN, and the RN attempted to counter with advances in ASW technology as they prepared to fight a potential World War II style Battle of the Atlantic, in the event this turned out never to have been Soviet submarine strategy. It covers the particular strategic importance of the Mediterranean theatre of operations in the early seventies which was a critical area of Soviet naval activity (‘OKEAN 70’ etc), where the US Sixth Fleet faced the Soviet Fifth Escadra. It was “…one of the world’s most intensive maritime and naval environments. For the US Navy’s Sixth Fleet its operations were in many ways as extensive as those of the Seventh Fleet operating off the waters of Vietnam…” In addition, Admiral Kidd USN, stated that “…The Mediterranean is probably the worst body of water on the face of the earth in which to find a submarine…”.
After the Cuban Missile Crisis, Kennedy had been forced to agree the dismantling of the fixed site intermediate range ballistic missiles (IRBM) in Turkey. He then replaced them with three US Polaris ballistic missile submarines in the Eastern Mediterranean, under the Sixth Fleet, where most of the Fifth Escadra operated. This is followed by a chapter on the supposed USN trump card, Project HARTWELL, the technological development of anti-submarine warfare sensors, particularly ITASS.
The three converted ASW tail ships (Escort Squadron ‘8’) deployed to the Mediterranean in September 1970 for ASW equipment trials, especially ITASS, and to support the Sixth Fleet. They sailed from Naples at the end of the month and commenced testing, tuning and calibration trials against two USN Guppy converted submarines in the Tyrrhenian Sea before moving on to tracking US SSBNs. In early 1971 the ASW tail ships joined Exercise NATIONAL WEEK VIII, working up with the USS John Kennedy (CVA-67) and USS Forrestal (CVA-59) battle groups (later with the USSFranklin D. Roosevelt (CVA-42).
The book then gets into the real, detailed nitty gritty of all their many operations and deployments (extracted from the ship’s logs) throughout 1971- 1973. They carried out a whole range of tasks from CBG escort to lone patrols, hunting and tracking submarines and tailing Soviet major surface ships, such as the Leningrad. Full tables show all Fifth Escadra OOB, ships in the Mediterranean in 1971 and three major tables show all Soviet submarines operating in the area in each month of each year. In addition, there are over 20 track charts of individual hunts. It paints an amazingly detailed picture of Soviet naval activities over that period in the Mediterranean. After three years it was finally time for Escort Squadron ‘8’ to return to Norfolk VA.
The departure of the tail ships in October 1973 coincided with the outbreak of the Yom Kippur War. The Soviets doubled the number of submarines in the area in reaction to the heightened tension in the Middle East. Nevertheless, the tail ships were removed, and Commander 6th Fleet complained that “…loss of the three ITASS ships without relief in early October reduced our ASW capability…”. On arrival in Norfolk naval base, the tail ships were decommissioned and stricken from the Navy’s list. The book concludes that the tail ships laid the foundation for the Allied navies to effectively counter the Soviet Navy’s submarine threat.
The book has many data tables and charts and is handsomely illustrated with many photographs and some full colour pictures. It is well recommended.
