Whiskey On The Rocks


On October 27, 1981, the Soviet submarine S-363, a modified replica of the German submarine "Type XXI", which is on an illegal espionage mission, with a crew of 52 men in the Swedish archipelago of Blekinge in front of the Karlskrona naval base due and is applied by the Swedish Navy ...:











Since the Soviet diesel boat (home port: Kaliningrad) belongs to the "Whiskey Class" (so-called by NATO), the western media maliciously write of "Whiskey on the rocks" ...

The Swedes board the submarine. The next picture shows the political deputy of the commandant,
Wassilij Besedin, in negotiations with the Swedish captain Karl Andersson ...:



The Swedes are not satisfied with that, they get the unfortunate commander, Captain 2nd rank Anatolij Mikhailowitsch Gushtshin ...





... disembark and interrogate him in the presence of Soviet diplomats...:



The boat is Gushtshin's first independent command and he is making his first voyage as a commander.

Captain Gushtshin initially gave the Swedes a wrong name for the ship (S-137 instead of S-363), blamed navigation errors for the stranding, and vigorously denied any unfriendly intentions on the part of his boat.

To this day it remains unclear whether the submarine has nuclear weapons on board, as the Soviets strictly refuse to let the Swedes search their boat! Measurements from outside, however, result in significantly increased radiation levels ...

Neither side has any interest in the incident escalating. The Sweden under Prime Minister Olof Palme relies on relaxation and the Soviets want the embarrassing incident off the table as quickly as possible.

After ten days, Swedish tugs pull the wrecked ship off the rocks and escort it out of Swedish territorial waters ...





The Soviets then only reported via Commander Gushtshin that he had been "transferred to another post" after his return home.

In reality, on his return to the Liepaja naval base, he was released from his command, tried before a military tribunal, removed from command, demoted and sent to service in the coastal unit. Political deputy Besedin was found not guilty.

The boat's navigational officer, Lieutenant Anatoly Korostow (far left in the next photo) ...



... on the other hand hit the whole anger of the authorities:

He was expelled from the Navy and sentenced to "two to three years" in a labor camp.

Today a memorial commemorates the stranding of the boat ...:



Gushtshin's boat, however, still exists: Today it is moored as a museum ship at Saint Petersburg ...:

Naughty naughty! They got their hands well caught in the cookie jar that time eh? The Swedes have developed a very good submarine detection system as a result of such incursions, which are quite regular. I love the cockpit shot of the Viggen buzzing the released sub!
I saw the sub in passing on our St Petersburg visit, but didn't realise its history. Interesting as always Martin

Phil