U 137
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| Career |  |
|---|---|
| Name: | U 137 |
| Builder: | Ordzhonikidze Yard, Leningrad |
| Yard number: | 252 |
| Laid down: | January 12, 1956 [1] |
| Launched: | November 16, 1956 |
| Commissioned: | September 17, 1957 |
| Struck: | 1990s |
| Homeport: | Leiepaja |
| Fate: | Museum ship |
| General characteristics | |
| Class and type: | Whiskey-class submarine |
| Displacement: | 1,030 tons |
| Length: | 76 m (249 ft 4 in) |
| Beam: | 6.7 m (22 ft 0 in) |
| Draft: | 4.6 m (15 ft 1 in) |
| Propulsion: | Diesel-electric 2 × 37-D diesels, 2,000 bhp each. 150 kW electric engines for creep drive. Engines new 1987. |
| Speed: | 13 knots (24 km/h) submerged 18 knots (33 km/h) surfaced |
| Range: | 12,000 nmi (22,000 km) to 15,000 nmi (28,000 km) |
| Test depth: | ~400-450 meters [2] |
| Complement: | ~60 |
| Armament: | 6 × torpedo tubes 18 torpedoes or 24 mines |
- For German submarines designated U-137, see Unterseeboot 137.
U137 was the unofficial Swedish name of a Soviet submarine, the actual designation of which was S-363, based on its tactical number, as the Soviets considered names of most of its submarines to be classified at the time and didn't disclose them. This Whiskey class submarine of the Baltic Fleet became famous under the U137 designation when it ran aground 10 km from Karlskrona, one of the larger naval bases of the Swedish fleet, on the East coast of Sweden on October 27, 1981.
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[edit] Standoff
When the Swedish Defence Research Agency secretly started measuring for radioactive materials through the hull, using a specially configured coast guard boat, they detected something that was almost certainly Uranium-238 inside the submarine. They speculated it originated from a nuclear weapon – a torpedo, in the upper port tube.[citation needed] The yield of this weapon was estimated to approximately the same as the bomb dropped over Nagasaki in 1945. However, no nuclear weapon on board U 137 was ever officially confirmed by the Soviet authorities.[1] Vasily Besedin later confirmed that there were nuclear warheads on some of the torpedoes, and that the crew was ordered to destroy the boat, including these warheads, if Swedish forces tried to take control over the vessel.[2]. Recent interviews and investigations of Russian officers and naval commanders involved in this situation revealed that the U 137 commander had orders to launch the vessel's nuclear weapons against Swedish targets if any attempt was made from the Swedish forces to capture the vessel.
Sweden's Conservative government at the time was determined to safeguard Sweden's national integrity. As the Soviet recovery fleet appeared off the coast on the first day, a fixed coastal artillery battery locked onto the ship's showing there where active coastal batteries on the islands to the Soviets. The fleet didn't turn immediately and as they came closer to the 12-mile territorial limit the battery was ordered to go into war mode on its targeting radar turning it from a single frequency radar to a jump frequency one. The Soviet fleet reacted almost immediately to this and everything except a heavy tugboat turned and stayed in international waters, the tugboat was quickly met by Swedish torpedo boats and it left as well.
Days later as the Soviet Captain was being interrogated the weather was very bad and the Soviet submarine sent a distress call. In Swedish radar control centers the storm was interfering with the radar image. Soviet jamming could also have been a factor. As the Soviet submarine sent its distress call two ships from the nearby Soviet armada passed the 12 mile limit headed for Karlskrona. This produced the most dangerous period of the crisis and is the time where the Swedish Prime Minister gave his famous order to "Hold the Border" to the military. The coastal battery now fully manned as well as the mobile coastal artillery guns and mine stations went to "action stations". The Air Force scrambled strike aircraft armed with modern anti-ship missiles and reconnaissance aircraft knowing full well that the weather didn't allow rescue helicopters to fly in the event of an engagement. After a tense 30 minutes Swedish FAC's had met the ships and identified them a West German grain carriers, the crisis was over.
[edit] Interpretations
At the time the incident was generally seen as a proof of widespread Soviet infiltration of the Swedish coastline, but this interpretation is still open to debate. The generally held belief in Sweden is that the submarine was there to spy on torpedo tests being performed by the Swedish Navy.[citation needed]
In an interview in 2006, Vasily Besedin, the political officer on board, gave a different picture. The vessel had dual navigation systems, a well-trained crew and the captain, Pyotr Gushchin, was among the best. On board was staff officer Joseph Avrukevich, who was trained in security techniques. Besedin claimed the incident was caused by an error in calculations by the navigation officer.[3]
The area in which the Soviet submarine ran aground was at the time a restricted military zone, where no foreign nationals were allowed. The exact location served as one of only two routes that could be used to move bigger ships from the naval base in Karlskrona to open water. Although the submarine did not make it far into the archipelago, it had required at least two exact turns at specific points in order to get where it was.[citation needed]
This incident is popularly known in the West as "Whiskey on the rocks". In Soviet Navy the sub became to be known as "Swedish Komsomolets", a pun on both the incident, and the then widespread tendency to give the subs Komsomol-themed names.
