Soviet submariners revealed the details of the collision of submarines of the USSR and the USA near Scotland

So far, there have been no official confirmations and documents. But now—at the disposal of journalists were the declassified archives of the CIA. Of the 13 million documents declassified by the CIA this month and posted on the Internet, one cable received particular attention in English newspapers. In November 1974, President Ford’s National Security Adviser Brent Scowcroft sent it to Henry Kissinger, who was the US Secretary of State at the time. It was about the collision of two nuclear submarines off the coast of Great Britain.

In  1974, American missile submarines were based in Holy Lough in Scotland, 50 kilometers from Glasgow. One boat carried 16 ballistic missiles on board— that’s 160 warheads. What this clash threatened to turn into at the height of the Cold War does not need to be explained. All information about the incident was immediately classified for more than 40 years. And only now Western journalists have received documentary evidence that the collision did take place.

However, today’s sensation for Western journalists would not be so loud if they read the memoirs of Soviet submariners. They wrote about the collision in Holy Loch 13 years ago. True, for some reason our officers called the American submarine not “James Madison”, but “Nathaniel Green”. From our side there was a multi-purpose nuclear submarine K-306 , whose task was to wait for the “American” to leave the bay and record his so-called “noise portrait”. To do this, our sailors dropped stun grenades into the water. After each explosion, the sonar screens of both boats were illuminated for several minutes. Thus, both submarines, which were on a collision course, turned out to be “blind”.

Vladimir Podchinenov , foreman of the nuclear submarine K-306 : “ What were the times? You understand, there was a cold war. A new American submarine was released. It was necessary to record the noise of the propellers. Because the acoustics under water are guided only by the noise which ship is coming. And so, as they say, they were sent.”

The collision was quite strong. The Soviet boat received a small hole in the torpedo room, which was quickly dealt with. The “American” had a badly wrinkled nose.

Alexander Kuzmin , captain of the first rank: “The American boat was forced to surface. We surfaced under the periscope and immediately saw her. The Nathaniel Green was in the water, listing heavily to starboard. Confused sailors climbed onto the hull, the commander from the bridge tried to understand what had happened. It was necessary to photograph the picture through the periscope, but there was no film in the navigational camera. I had to take a pencil and quickly sketch.”

The American submarine sustained significant hull damage and was towed to Holy Loja drydock for inspection and repairs. K-306 went home for two weeks at a depth of 40 meters to relieve pressure on the torpedo tube covers. An investigation into the emergency was appointed, the commander of the submarine was severely reprimanded. The American crew was awarded the Golden Dolphin badges for their courage. But at the same time, until today, the US Navy has always refused to comment on what happened at Holy Loch in November 1974 .

1. I was unable to find any image of the K-306 or any other info other than it was a Northern Fleet boat.
2. “Soviet submariners revealed the details of the collision of submarines of the USSR and the USA near Scotland.” JSC NTV Television Company. https://www.ntv.ru/novosti/1751197