What happened to the Suez Canel ?!? HM Submarine Splendid Kosovo 1999
I served as an OM {WSM} 1 in HM Submarine Splendid during the Kosovan conflict - here is my story.
We had been scheduled to participate in a number of naval exercises with friendly middle eastern navies & were all looking forward to the promise of a jolly in Dubai. After an impromptu five day stop over in Gibraltar to repair a leaking refridgeration unit {freon gas & submarines don't mix} we learned of the worsening situation in Kosovo & the cynic in me guessed that Britain's first boat to be equipped with TLAM {Tomahawk Land Attack Missile} would not be making that photogenic surface transit through the Suez Canal afterall - Adriatic here we come. On leaving Gibraltar we made good progress & duly arrived in the Adriatic in mid March. There were some concerns that the Serbs may try to put their three old Soviet era subs to sea in an attempt to curtail our ops. but fortunately that never transpired, although i do remember always being more than a little concerned that we could end up bumping into a rogue mine left over from WW2 in the shallow clear waters off Yugoslavia.
When the signal through came to launch our first salvo of missiles i was sweating
with the rest of the Weapons Engineering team in the 'Bomb Shop' {Weapons Stowage
Compartment} hoping that our brand new shiny ordnance would fire correctly , i
recall the launch countdown in the Control Room being relayed to us & on it reaching
'8' being halted - 'Fuck ! have they surrendered already ?!' - no such luck - our
allies the French had graciously steered their aircraft carrier directly over us ! -
with the aid of some gently persuasive words {in English !} from our Skipper, they
moved a little to the left & allowed us to continue what we'd begun. We heard the
missiles' engines kick in on broaching the surface & we knew they were away. So far
so good.
This scenario continued over the next few days until we'd launched our complement of TLAM's {we used to get Int. back after each launch informing us how accurate we'd been - unlike the RAF & to a lesser extent the US Navy we were VERY accurate, not an idle boast but fact. A congratulatory signal from the USN Commander in the area confirmed we were head & shoulders above his boats & surface launched TLAM's results & we'd only completed the test firing program back in November !. A day's sailing to Sicily to bring on more weapons followed - arrived, brought on bombs & cleared off again in 24 hours - life was somewhat frantic to say the least!.
Life continued in this vein for the next two months i think {you tend to lose track of time underwater} but events i do remember include : more missile launches , a morale boosting surfaced bbq being curtailed due to an approaching Russian Int. Ship on the horizon, a Labour MP visiting the boat {what happened to morale boosters ?!?} & almost being thrown from my pit when the Helmsmen very quickly became heavy-handed to avoid us being cut in two by an Albainian ferry !.
Splendide Audax
ps - Due to the Official Secrets Act i'm unable to detail specific targets although i did try sending home a devious postcard i'd ingeniously crafted from a square of cardboard & photo cut from a copy of The Times brought aboard by the MP, of a Serb fireman standing outside the smouldering remains of the Secret Police HQ in downtown Belgrade with my added message of " Here's one we prepared earlier..." . Sadly it never reached home.
Name witheld.
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