Reminds me of the HMS Invincible (battlecruiser). Sunk by magazine detonation during the Battle of Jutland, and also was one of the first few ships sunk during the battle. Ironic for the _Invincible_
That is so scary true I was just sitting here thinking the same damn thing every time that guy would say Unsinkable I would think of that right there mostly the Titanic he has the same couple
After this incident, Russians learnt their lesson. Some years later, there was a mini submarine which was snarled in undersea cables. Putin quickly approved the request of assistance from UK and US Navies and the former carried out a successful rescue of the mini sub. In times of crisis, the servicemen of all countries come together to help one another and this was a good example. Putin reciprocated with awards to the British personnel involved in the rescue.
@@miamijules2149 He's not. He's embezzled billions from the state and has worked to crush Russia's fledgling democracy. He's also building out their nuclear weapons (including cobalt warheads) and he interferred with the US election in 2016. He's not a good person.
@@miamijules2149 Crimea does count as well as increasing the stock of nuclear weapons, selling weapons to China (up to some years ago) and participating in military exercises with China as well.
Mr Putin learned that mistakes were made and the negative effect of publicized opinions cannot be suppressed. A gesture of capitulation is a cheap form of damage control.
Having spent the better part of 6 years in the Australian Submarine Service, I can say without doubt that the survivors of that initial blast suffered through every submariners' nightmare - trapped on the bottom of the ocean, in the dark, with no way out, waiting to die. May they all rest in peace.
There was a small chance they could of made it to the surface before their lungs got too much nitrogen in it but being the waters so cold they chose to wait thinking surely there coming for us
They were Orcs and like all Orcs they were addicted to invading and slaughtering people in neighboring countries... They can't help it, it's in their DNA!
I served for a few years on a US Navy SSBN submarine as a reactor operator. What happened to these young men was preventable and tragic. God bless their souls.
I was on the C-5 crew that was going to fly to North Island to pick up the DSRV and fly it to the Bering Sea. We waited for hours for the Russians to decide and when they rebuffed the US offer of assistance, we continued on our original mission. I'm very sad that the Kursk sailors perished and very angry that the Russian government let them die due to arrogance, hubris and incompetence. Fair Winds and Following Seas, Heroes...
No, you don't tend to drown as a submariner you cook. Also, there were definitely at least 3 guys alive for a few days in the aft ends. Given the size of the hole forward of the explosion area I can't say I'm surprised the russians refused yank assistance
Titanic: unsinkable Bismarck: unsinkable Yamato: unsinkable Kursk: unsinkable When navies and sailors learn that describing your vessel as unsinkable assures it of being sunk in a humiliating or anti-climatic way
Space ships are unsinkable. Next minute on the ISS: "the water tanks are leaking Houston! It's filling every compartment! Please help u**gurgling sounds**"
Submariners across the globe have such a special bond... if you are going to die on a submarine you will certainly suffer immensely. RIP to the crew and may we never deal with something alike ever again
Actually they didn't heard banging on the hull. The Kursk was found 16h after the explosion. At that time nobody was alive. In the first official announcement, the Russians told that they had established contact with the crew and were pumping air and power to the boat, and that "everyone on board is alive." This was a lie. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kursk_submarine_disaster
@@Ulrich.Bierwisch wow, thanks for clarifying that. I was a little kid when it was happening on tv and also heard it reported they were alive and banging on the hull
In the summer of 2000, I was living in Sevastopol, Crimea. I remember how little pieces of this story were reported until the fate of the crew was finally revealed. The Russian Black Sea Fleet held a memorial concert to honor the dead. It was somber and moving. As I remember, about 14 of the Kursk crew were from Sevastopol.
The British learned the danger of a hydrogen peroxide-based (H₂O₂) torpedo when one detonated in the forward torpedo room while the submarine was moored to a quay. As fuel-grade (~90%) H₂O₂, comes into contact with metal, it vigorously decays to H₂O and O₂. This reaction is heat-producing (exothermic) leading to the ignition of the freed O₂. In the presence of metal, even 1% H₂O₂ contains sufficient energy to rupture a plastic containment vessel (personal experience).
Important to note that the exothermic reaction flashes the water instantly to STEAM, which is where the extreme pressure comes from. And the O2 doesn't ignite, since it's an oxidizer, but hot pure oxygen is extremely reactive to hydrocarbons, like oil and grease, which will cause additional combustion.
I worked in a polyolefin unit where we injected h2o2 into plastic mixture to make it fire retardant one day a rail car laid over and sent the h2o2 all over......it was no joke how a 90pct or purer can change everything
I was in the control room with blast proof walls and clean air system so i got on phone to safety man and told him to come and visit and wear oxygen when he does
I remember this very well. Countries offered assistance to help the trapped sailors but it was denied. I also remember a video clip where a very angry parent I believe a mother to one of the trapped sailors, gave total hell to the Russian government and military. Her angry speech gave me chills down my spine. One small lady giving the military officials one hell of a mouthful. They didn’t even have the balls to look at her and just looked scared and embarrassed down to the ground while she ripped them a new asshole. I can’t remember all of her speech, but she basically said something like " How can you sit there and do nothing! You have been offered help! Why don’t you accept it! These are your loyal countrymen and our beloved sons you are letting to die! How can you sit there like cowards and do nothing. You are letting my son to die for nothing! You can’t even look at me can you. You ARE COWARDS!" She gave the officials one hell of a mouthful. One little broken mother had more balls than the entire Russian government. And she made them all look like little scared and ashamed kids... I think there is truth when one say "Don’t piss off mama bear"
It was Norway, and the U.K. Royal Navy - who are lead UWW for NATO. Putin stayed on Holiday whilst we in the RN watched on in horror. The film “Kursk” portrays it well. It was likely the presence of hydrogen peroxide as a fuel in her torpedoes, which did for her. Worth remembering the RN ceased using it in WW2
I just want to point out, that the Kursk sunk in shallow enough water that the crew could have been saved, potentially. The UK had a few experimental sub saving ships in its fleet with successful trial runs proving it worked. The Russian government simply didn't want to risk any of their technology or knowledge of their submarines to fall into UK hands, as they knew that any UK crew would be greatly debriefed for any and all info they noticed, or saw during the operation.
The US has a rescue sub they can put in a C-5 or C-17 and fly it anywhere on the planet. They then mount it to an attack sub and take it to the site of the accident.
A rescue mission would not be able to gain intimate technological knowledge by just perching atop the stricken vessel and removing stranded crew members. This was seamen wanting to help other seamen out of a terrible situation. The Russian navy's top brass didn't want to look "weak" by letting the west help rescue their boys.
@@benmmbk765 We don't make submarines like they do. Even gleaning as little information as where the control room is and how it's laid out can be detrimental to the defense of their submarine fleet if we do go to war. It's not always about the technology. There is reason why both sides constantly captured vehicles from each other in WWII, and tested its limits, as to understand how they operated, where things were, etc.. It's how we became more capable knocking out Tiger tanks as the war went on, we learned where the commander sat, where the loader was, where the ammo was stored, and it's weak points.
I remember when this happened I was in the Navy in Groton, CT. The submarine capital of the world. When this news first broke, everyone felt sick their stomachs as this could have happened to any submariner. Scary stuff.
Ah, the mention of Rotten Groton. I commissioned the USS Dace SSN 607 in MS. We were assigned to SUBDEVGRU 2 in Groton to replace the Thresher. And yes, we were a Thresher class sub.
Excellent, concise presentation of the Kursk disaster. Decades of Soviet neglect had left its navy with too many examples of "rushian" engineering, with slim safety margins and poor quality control. At the Kursk event, this glaring defect was laid bare for Western eyes, and little wonder the Russian admiralty resisted asking other nations for help. Other Russian submarines have been lost in peacetime. One of them, the K19, was dramatized in a Hollywood movie starring Harrison Ford. In that disaster, the submarine's nuclear reactor almost went out of control, and brave crewmen entered the reactor chamber to impose control manually on the reactor. The sorrow and pity was, protective anti-radiation suits had not been delivered in time for the K19's departure from port.
There is a joke about the t-34 that still applies: It was so angled because so many corners were cut. Just a feature of that nation. They clearly fell behind technologically, but there is a shortcut to catching up, which is to use radical design approaches to bump up the specifications. Naturally, an unhinged approach leads to unreliable and dangerous products. A similar approach used for the T-series main battle tanks led to poor visibility, ergonomics and elevation/depression, which was laid bare in the battles of the Golan heights and the Sinai peninsula. 3-man crews were not enough to maintain a tank platoon, so they suffer from poor reliability and readiness to this day.
I was in Norway when this happened during an exercise with my unit and a few others. We were bouncing between Bardufoss and Tromso. We NEVER got retasked to help with rescue or recovery (special operations heavy lift helicopter squadron based out of RAF Mildenhall, UK). All of us involved would have been more than willing to do what was necessary.
@@michaelhellwinkle9999 Helicopter support is often used in maritime rescue/recoveries. The point is, there was not a peep in taskings and we got a ton of BS taskings when “helos” weren’t necessary.
@@johnhickman106 maritime rescue on a ship, or even a surfaced submarine is one thing. But for a boat at the bottem it's pretty much useless unless we are talking about it using dipping sonar to find the boat. I was a submariner, and I can tell you in all honesty if we were in trouble and on the bottem, and knew a helicopter was our only hope for rescue, I'd kiss my ass goodbye.
@@michaelhellwinkle9999 And you are completely missing the point. You want ALL assets to help. It's not about a helo doing anything direct for a rescue or even a recovery, but for the logistical support. I guess you've never had to depend on helicopters for anything.
@@johnhickman106 I literally said for a surfaced submarine it they can be useful, we had a guy get medevaced off once. But for a submarine on the bottem asking a helicopter for help just doesn't make any sense. I guess you could bring supplies to a ship, but the Russians have helicopters too. I just don't understand why you think your unit would of been asked for help in this situation.
Coming from a years long sub of the OG “Dark 5” where there never used to be any narration but just low music and words & pics. The way the DARK family of channels have grown is amazing & regardless if you’re a regular fan of military history or a veteran like myself that loves to learn about the military history that came before me it doesn’t matter. Dark always comes through not only with amazing factual information but with photos & videos as well. Now with the expansion from the OGs Dark 5 & Dark Docs to Dark Seas, Dark Space, Dark Files, etc. this family of channels are easily my favorite on UA-cam. If it weren’t for these channels I wouldn’t use UA-cam at all bc none of the so called “new entertainment” entertain me in the least bit but thank god DARK keeps posting consistently on each of his channels and making awesome content! Not only are the DARK channels my main reason to even open YT their absolutely the only reason that I would ever use notifications for an app like this & when I got a notification for any DARK video I’m immediately watching if I I’m able! Keep rocking out the awesome content!
Dude I gotta say you are literally the History Channel now. The actual "History Channel" only shows reality tv now, so I come here for actual history 😂 Really detailed videos, thank you for putting in so much effort - they are all top notch
If I’ve learned one thing in this life, it’s to never declare your vessel as unsinkable, but still, this is a really sad unfortunate event, rest easy sailors.
It tends to lead to hubris, yes. Although in titanic's case it was technically called that by the news at the time. And when it sank on its maiden voyage it was just following protocol at the time
Watched a film about this and it is a very sad story. The crew are something Russia can be proud of, but how those in charge started and then responded to the disaster was an utter disgrace. Should of shown the footage of one of the crews wifes getting syringed for speaking out about it. What a way to treat the loved ones of yours hero's.
@@danielculver2209 In Russia, no-one is allowed to publicly reprimand the great leader! (Communist ideology George Orwell Animal Farm. The pigs are in charge and all other animals are irrelevant- just like Russia. If youre part of the party, youre allowed to get financially fatter while everyone else sits, struggles in poverty.) Modern day communism just like China.
This submarine carrying mass killing nuclear weapons can kill hundreds of millions of ppl and this soldiers ready kill us all and you sorry for them !!!!
@@ousabed4593 Did you know there had been several close calls on both sides just be thankful these people kept cool heads and checked in triplet just to make sure WW3 didn't happen
Its impossible to fathom what it would be like trapped in a compartment at the bottom of the sea. Not knowing if you will make it at the same time knowing that you most likely wont. A horror that we should all be thankful we haven’t experienced.
The thing that always blows my mind about this disaster, more than anything else.....was that this sub was 505 feet long and only 354 feet down. In other words, it was so big, that if it stood on its tail, the nose would have poked 151 feet out of the water
@@fenderstratguy "communist bureaucracy" 😂😂😂 you're stuck in the wrong decade... also if you think any other other country would of let foreigners near a top secret military weapons system, your dreaming! Let's say it was an American or English submarine that had the accident, you think they would of accepted Russia's or China's help recovering it if they offered to help? Going to go with a solid NO on that. In saying that, the whole situation should of been handled better and it was a terrible tragedy with lots of unfortunate and innocent casualties... and in reality we'll never know the real reason for this accident, there are probably a handful of people in this world who do. I highly doubt what is said in this video was the actual cause. Although I do enjoy all the dark series and watch them regularly
@@Critical-Thinker895 Hi CT. Except a lot, or all, of this stuff is bull. As soon as something goes down, the press always looks for the "unsinkable" label to pump up the story. They always find it. If they don't, they just make it up themselves. Does anyone believe "This aircraft can never crash" Rubbish.
Disasters of this scale invite, absolutely invite, the insertion of a claim of "unsinkable". I don't believe there has ever been a sailor, enlisted or an officer, who has stepped aboard a ship and thought to himself "yeah, this thing can't sink." No construction crew ever believed its job was to create a vessel incapable of going under. Sure, safety measures, double hulls, watertight doors...But even then all that is an attempt to slow a sinking, not to deny its possibility. Its all about not letting facts get in the way of telling a good story, and the "man's hubris is swallowed by the sea" thing is a really good trope.
It reminds me of the story of the Argentine submarine. That went missing a few years ago. And it says alot about the Russian government. That they initially declined help from other countries.
That's normal. No Navy wants anyone else to know about their vessels. Even when the USN sells a ship for scrap you still can't go in with a camera and take pictures.
The picture in the thumbnail really drives home just how little of a submarine's interior space is habitable. It looks like there's space for 3 decks, with the widest one about 25 feet across. The missile pods occupy more space than the crew does.
I can only imagine what it felt like being a sailor near by, but from another country... Hearing that other sailors are in trouble and could use any help. But was told not to help.
Thank you for taking an honest and respectful approach in your video, placing context to the situation. The Kursk has been and will continue to be an example of the horrible consequences of pride and distrust. I have a hard time not believing that if action had been taken immediately and with the help of the world, those trapped couldn't have been saved. The more important thing would have been proper precautions and comprehensive safety measures to prevent the use of outdated and unsafe equipment in the first place. Unfortunately "big military officials gotta show off" was more important than those in harm's way.
Hard to say if they could have been saved, the clip showed that the remaining crew burned up their own oxygen in a flash fire trying to fix the equipment that makes oxygen. The people topside didn't know this of course, but I'm not sure there was much hope for them after that happened.
Agreed not much hope, yet there was some. At the least it would have looked better if they had tried, even if it had the same outcome. Especially since everybody else knew anyway and asked to help. I get it, state secret and all, however at that time that sub really wasn't a secret (not new, known to US).
Tbf the fact that it blew up with its own internal explsives and one compartment was still water tight on the sea floor for hours is incredibly impressive. Just a shame the quality was not consistent throughout the whole sub
My father was one of the norwegian divers who took part in the salvage operation. He also recovered bodies from Estonia in 1994. He worked full time as a sat diver from 1983 - 2002 before he became a supervisor. I would go mental if I did that for such a long time.
We watched events unfold with genuine concern and respect for Russia's "silent service". All submariners face the same risk with the same courage. It was a terrible reminder of the constant perile we share while maintaining weapons of war in order to secure peace. The irony was lost on no one. RIP.
I still remember this tragedy. Back then I was still reading the newspapers and following the media. I read the news about the Kursk every morning praying that possible survivors could've been rescued. Something was telling me that there were survivors down there. So sorry for everyone who lost their lives and I wish the Russian authorities would have allowed the Norwegian divers to access the submarine right away. :'(
I once heard someone say in reaction to photos of the interior of a WWI German U-boat, something along the lines of, "It's insane the conditions humans will put themselves in to kill other humans." With everything that can go wrong in a military submarine, or any naval vessel for that matter, you'd think the horror would keep us all away from settling our feuds at sea. Hopefully we as a species can put war to rest before we all go extinct.
As long as there have been humans, there has been war. You might as well wish for unicorns. It's like asking a lion not to hunt. Humans war, and there has never been a peaceful time in recorded history. DNA?
I retired from the USN and served aboard 5 subs. My first was built in 1944 and was propelled entirely by 4 Fairbanks Morse diesel engines. I first boarded the boat in '58. Your description of a German U-boat basically identifies the living conditions I lived through with 94 shipmates. Fortunately, my next four subs were powered by Westinghouse S5W nuclear reactors. While aboard a nuke fast attack, we followed a Russian nuke fast attack for miles before it did a U-turn on us. We called that maneuver a Crazy Ivan.
Can you imagine those guys down there, the ship laying on the bottom and crowded into a cramped compartment as the air gets thinner and thinner and then in desperation they send a few guys to try and create some oxygen with chemical reactions. The guys who remain staring out at each other in the dim light, hoping they succeed long enough for rescue. But then they hear the loud bang that ignited the oxygen and hears the hiss of air being pulled from their chamber that feeds the fire on the other side of the wall? Slowly their vision blurs as they crumble to the floor, gasping..gasping….darkness
As a former army infantry soldier, I would think that there’s no place in the military where people are more disciplined and perfectionists about attention to detail than on a submarine. Much respect to submariners.
The Kursk sank in water shallower than its length :( So tragic. I don't care how tense things are between Russia and the US, that's a horrible way for any human being to die, regardless of what uniform they wear.
I don't know how deep the water it sank in was but made that point for this video Not even mentioning that specifically which was a Missed opportunity especially if what you stated is true. I'm about to see if I can verify that right now and Thanks for mentioning it.
The early 2000s were an interesting time. With so much residual optimism from the 1990s, we didn't quite realize that the world was becoming a darker place. Russia was no longer seen as the universal "bad guys" and it seemed that some parts of global politics were going in the right direction. Back then, some folks in the west (myself included) were actually rooting for Russia to do well. Emerging from a communist dictatorship is not for the faint of heart. I was disappointed that some Russian officials tried to initially blame the incident on NATO. It seemed obvious at the time that they didn't know how to deal with the tragedy and were trying to save face. And for what it's worth, I would still wish only peace and freedom to all people of the world.
You buy into propaganda like Christians buy into the Bible. Have you ever stopped to think that maybe the Russkis never really were the "bad guys"? And if you were to make anyone out to be the villain, it would be BOTH USSR & US. It all seems like a ridiculous length to go to just to press your economic beliefs on the rest of the world but I'm not here to speculate on which was the greater of the two evils, just to point out that the US is in no way, a savior of sorts to the world.
@@matthewcetorelli8451 If you read my original post more carefully, you'll notice the wording I used: "seen as the universal "bad guys". I did not actually call them the universal bad guys. I do not buy into the narrative that Russia was always Evil. However, I do not support or condone communist dictatorships. And never will. So while I do happen to admire many Russian accomplishments in engineering and aerospace through out the 20th century, I cannot condone or apologize for the USSR. If it interests you, I'm also not American. My roots trace to eastern Europe but I live in the west and if I had to choose between capitalism and socialism, I would choose capitalism every time. I agree there were plenty of evil acts committed by NATO and other so-called "Allied" Nations. Many are still playing out even now. When I mentioned the world was becoming a darker place in the early 2000s, I wasn't really referring to the Eastern Hemisphere; I was referring to what's happening in the west with loss of free speech, privacy and more recently, loss of bodily autonomy. All of which is now fully enforceable by an autocratic big tech oligarchy (including on UA-cam). So yes, Capitalism has it's problems as well. I can't blame Russia for turning the world into a darker place because we're doing it to ourselves. But that's how Empires often fall: We do it to ourselves.
@@grndiesel Lots of areas of the world have been backwards when it comes to human rights--Russia has been for hundreds of years. Being invaded and crushed by the Mongols threw them back socially far behind China and Europe. Most nations have periods of regression, then climb back out of it to some level or another, but Russia never has. That their communist dictatorship period allowed them to marshal economic power to push technical progress isn't much of an accomplishment--enforced iron will by strongmen has always been their way. Their experiment with democracy was short and ended with a whimper.
@@rikk319 I would argue their communist ideology actually held back their technological advancement. Stalin was known for many (MANY) foolish and deadly acts during his reign. One of which was to purge many of the best and brightest minds in aviation and engineering. All because he didn't trust people that were experts in cutting edge fields that he didn't understand. It got so bad that innovation simply stopped and set Russian Aviation back by at least 15 years compared to the west. That's why they had to use the Rolls Royce engine for their Mig-15. That's why they had to partner with Fiat in order to build the Lada Riva. Even Russia state media documentaries make a brief and sanitized mention of these purges and the technical stagnation that it caused. I give little credit to the USSR for Russia's accomplishments, but I do give some credit to Russian ways of thinking that look for simpler, and more robust solutions.
The Kursk disaster was shocking and incredibly sad. The USA suffered 2 terrible losses in the 60’s when the Thresher and Scorpion sank off New Hampshire and the Azores. Rest In Peace brave Submariners.
Excellent video as always!! Kind of had me on the edge of my seat for a minute or two.... a ton of wonderful information, and a great video! Thank you so much to all the dark channels for your hard work on producing researching and posting these films!!
I remember this event clearly and followed it extensively as it transpired in real time. I remember the reports of the surviving submariners banging on the hull. This is an EXCELLENT video. Great job on the detailed reporting!!!
Except that report was false. They had been dead for hours before the first rescuers had reached the sub. The timeline of events shows that. it was put out by the navy to ease tensions while they were sorting things out.
Wonderful that so many countries offered help but initially this was refused by Russia. After this sad incident hopefully any future emergency at sea will be tackled by many nations to protect and rescue brave sailors of the human race, despite national differences. Thank you for this video.
I was aboard USS Moosbrugger DD 980, Part of Standing Naval Forces Atlantic (SNFL). We were part of the war games. Everyone in the battle group knew something bad happened to one of the Russian boats. We also knew that the Russians had told us to stay the fuck away. All any of us could do was pray for those boys.
Kursk was running classified weapons test. NATO assistance was not an option as it would have completely compromised the entire program which Russia could not afford in every meaning of the word.
@@BigSmartArmed we had a port visit in Russia planned; on the official fuckin itinerary! Nope. Scrap that. They wouldn't let us near. We were all pretty bummed. It's one thing to admire the Russian people (they're tough motherfuckers!), but actually visiting would have been the shit. Missing a port wasn't as bad as dying helpless and cold where no one can get to you though. Some tough ole boys..
To bad you did not mention the Dutch company Smid Tak that that brought up the remains of the Kursk. That was a tough operation, and a one of a kind one.
It was not until I saw this Documentary that I had ever heard of the Kursk ever having been called 'Unsinkable'. As far as I know, the Titanic was the First & Last Ship ever to be referred to as 'Unsinkable'.
The Titanic got the moniker of "unsinkable" only because some marketing people responded to the description they heard of "practically unsinkable." Being in Marketing, they couldn't allow the "practically" to stay in there, and started putting it about that the ship was "unsinkable," discarding the adverb.
Regardless of political beliefs, world outlooks ,when something like this happens it should be a world mandate to save as many of the souls on board as possible .RIP sailors of Kursk
There needn't be a mandate. All that WAS needed was for permission to be given to other countries to help. Those Norwegian divers got the hatch open in one day after the Russians gave up after 5 fruitless days of failure.
I remember when this happened, though I was just a kid. I thought it was absolutely crazy of them to refuse outside assistance that was readily available for the sake of pride. We knew quick that lives were at stake and time not on our side.
to be fair its a nuclear capable submarine, one of the top secrets of any military, letting your "allies help" would mean potential leakage of secret information
My grandad served 12 years on Subs, I asked recently, where did you sail? He looked at me… Don’t know mate, but I’m sure the water was cold outside. A glimmer in his eye and a smile on his face. I know those are his golden days. A true old submariner, rum in hand and the Royal Navy News on a table. Classic 🇬🇧
I remember this happening, and I prayed for my Russian bothers in arms. But after the initial info, I was shipped off to fight in Iraq and Afghanistan for several years and never knew what the outcome of this event was... Thank you for letting this old soul know what happened to those poor men... I wish it would have turned out better... No more brother wars...
Could you please display the metric conversations of the values you mention in your videos? Would make it much easier to understand every detail. Thank you :)
@@nateframbach830 Yeah, three feet is about 1 m. I can also just quickly google it for an exact result, but it would be way more enjoyable if one wouldn't have to stop the video and convert the measures and rather have it quickly display in the video itself :)
Based on Russia's performance in the Ukraine to-date, it appears little has changed in terms of investing in equipment, maintenance, training, and leadership (both political and military leadership.) Seems something is inherently off about the culture of Russian leadership.
What you didn't mention is that the unfinished Belgorod submarine, laid down in 1993, was resumed and recently completed in order to replace the Kursk. The scary part-- it doesn't have missiles, but rather is a mothership for the "Poseidon" underwater drone system, AKA, stealthy mini-submarines that carry colossal nuclear warheads, which sneak into enemy harbors or close to enemy shores, before detonating.
Belgorod is the mothership for the Losharik and Paltus class mini subs. The Poseidon is the autonomous nuclear powered nuclear armed torpedo that it is equipped with.
@@pandamw3 From what I'm finding, they are both parts of the Status-6 Oceanic Multipurpose Platform and thus either the mini subs you speak of as well as the Poseidon nuclear drones can be equipped.
It also had an emergency buoy that would auto deploy at any pressure change but in 99 it was deactivated for concerns it could deploy accidentally and give away the subs location.
Not an exact parallel but the Maritime Museum in San Diego used to have a Soviet Sub B-39 (since scrapped) alongside an American Sub , the USS Dolphin, that was more or less contemporaneous. The differences were stark. Though laid down within months of each other in 1962, the Soviet sub looked about 20 years older in terms of clumsy, cramped design and sloppy, inconsistent welds. Admittedly, it looked cool in a sort of dank, dystopian kind of way, like something from a Terry Gilliam film. I guess technically the Kursk wasn't a Soviet Sub per se, but I wonder to what extent the notoriously poor Soviet/Russian build quality affected the Kursk.
3:30 Excuse me, I thought Attack subs were those that were designed without vertical missile launch capability... yet you call the Kursk and Oscar 2 missile sub, an attack sub. Were you misspoken or do I have it wrong somewhere?
The way the Russian government handled this is almost the exact same way, the Soviet Union handled the Chernobyl disaster. Denial, denial and lies. Well, still today that's the common approach to disasters.
Exactly and Bill Clinton is among them... as there was a mysterious call between him and Putin after which Russian foreign debt was written off. All this was happening while USS Memphis one of 2 US submarines (the other being USS Toledo) monitoring the exercise had to make a port call after dawn, in Bergen to make mysterious repairs.
The one thing you Never mentioned was the depth anywhere in the explanation which would have been appreciated the moment you said the second explosion emanated at the same depth as the Sea bed which you Didn't disclose either.
It's a shame when the pride and ego of a government is bigger than the will to accept help from outside in a situation like this. Russia tried saving face but they did everything but that. I was 15 when the disaster happened and remember being perplexed at their unwillingness to let other nations assist. My father, born in 1940s Bulgaria, wasn't quite as surprised.....
Moral of the story is if anyone tells you the boat your about to get on is "unsinkable" get the hell off the boat we've all heard about every "unsinkable" boat and they never work out!!!it's like once you think it's "unsinkable" you automatically start doing stuff you wouldn't have done if it were just a normal boat
I'm sorry for the loss to the Russian Families of the Russian sailors of the Kursk and to the Russian People, but it NEVER ceases to amaze me that nations will build vessels and claim that they're "unsinkable." They said about the same thing about the R.M.S. Titanic and IJN Yamato. Both sank as well. The never-ending arrogance of Man against Nature.
@@franciscosansalone Research would help. Survivor Lawrence Beesley, in his book "Loss of the SS Titanic" said many press reports made the sinking even more dramatic than it really was. "I think it is no exaggeration to say that those who read of the disaster quietly at home and pictured to themselves the scene as the Titanic was sinking had more of the sense of horror than those who stood on the deck and watched her go down inch by inch," Beesley concluded in his book. "The fact is that the sense of fear came to the passengers very slowly - a result of the absence of any signs of danger." Beesley and others talked about how no one at the time thought the Titanic was going to go under. At first, they joked that they had to stop for a fresh coat of paint to be applied to where the iceberg scrapped the hull. After all, the Titanic was "unsinkable," they figured. "The improbability of such a thing ever happening was what staggered humanity," Beesley wrote. "That phrase `unsinkable' became notorious," Foster said. The phrase was originally "practically unsinkable" and was from an obscure engineering journal, but after a while it didn't matter. On top of that, someone claims to have heard ship Capt. Edward John Smith say "Even God himself couldn't sink this ship," Foster said. Link: www.cbsnews.com/news/titanics-legacy-a-fascination-with-disasters/ Even some newspapers at that time pushed that narrative. Sometimes, Man's hubris tends to get knocked down by Mother Nature. Anything that floats eventually sinks. Even pumice.
@@southtexasprepper1837 Panic didn't reach passengers at first because they didn't know the extent of the damage, Thomas Andrew's ran terrified up the grand staircase after researching the damage to notify the captain, the only reason passengers didn't panic was because they were never explicitly told the ship was sinking, they were only told to get onto the lifeboats, the claim of Smith saying that was made by someone who served aboard Olympic who after the sinking of Titanic said he heard Smith say that after the collision whit the Hawke
@@franciscosansalone Being an amateur historian, I'm well aware of the circumstances of the sinking and how at first the passengers of the Titanic reacted to the disaster. There's been numerous books, news articles, survivor interviews, and documentaries on the subject that have been written and produced on the sinking. Not to mention movies. Your points have nothing to do with the initial comment that I made. You're 'preaching to the choir.' My initial comment had to do with the MYTH of the concept of "an unsinkable ship." Not arguing about the background of the sinking of the Titanic." That's beyond dispute. Even the Imperial Japanese thought that the IJN Yamato was "unsinkable." Anything that floats, sinks.
@@southtexasprepper1837 I'm also still talking about the myth that she was unsinkable, and I'm telling you that no one believed she was unsinkable, panic didn't reach passengers not because they thought she was completely unsinkable and that God himself would have have intervene to sink her, but because iceberg collisions were common and smaller ships survived them, in 1885 Bayard hit an iceberg and made it to port, leaking and badly damaged but still made it, Kings country a wooden barque survived a collision whit an iceberg in 1893, in 1907 SS Ohio survived a collision whit an iceberg on the bering sea whit only 4 passengers died who panicked and jumped into the water, all of those were smaller ships and survived, and the Hawke incident was still fresh in people's minds, if a warship designed to ram and sink other armored warships had rammed an identical ship whit no armour and that identical ship didn't sink, what could sink those ships? Whit no knowledge of the extent of the damages you can only assume and thats what people did, some panicked, some went into the lifeboats and some didn't.
Cutting off the front of the boat and blowing the remains up with explosives is super suspicious to me. If there were no reactors, or the international community didn’t know about its sinking. I’d imagine the Soviets would have covered up the whole thing
One thing Ive learned from seeing a lot of documentories on different ships that have sunk is that you never ever call anything unsinkable.
Wordd lol I was just saying to myself I don’t want to get on any ship that they dubbed unsinkable
Reminds me of the HMS Invincible (battlecruiser). Sunk by magazine detonation during the Battle of Jutland, and also was one of the first few ships sunk during the battle. Ironic for the _Invincible_
The bigger they are the harder they fall.
Lol so true
That is so scary true I was just sitting here thinking the same damn thing every time that guy would say Unsinkable I would think of that right there mostly the Titanic he has the same couple
After this incident, Russians learnt their lesson. Some years later, there was a mini submarine which was snarled in undersea cables. Putin quickly approved the request of assistance from UK and US Navies and the former carried out a successful rescue of the mini sub. In times of crisis, the servicemen of all countries come together to help one another and this was a good example. Putin reciprocated with awards to the British personnel involved in the rescue.
@@miamijules2149 He's not. He's embezzled billions from the state and has worked to crush Russia's fledgling democracy.
He's also building out their nuclear weapons (including cobalt warheads) and he interferred with the US election in 2016. He's not a good person.
@@miamijules2149 Crimea does count as well as increasing the stock of nuclear weapons, selling weapons to China (up to some years ago) and participating in military exercises with China as well.
Certainly did. 3 were awarded the Russian Order of Maritime Achievement. 1 being UK R.N. 2 being Rumic UK personnel
Mr Putin learned that mistakes were made and the negative effect of publicized opinions cannot be suppressed. A gesture of capitulation is a cheap form of damage control.
Snarled in the cable they were tapping into in order to spy on the west
Having spent the better part of 6 years in the Australian Submarine Service, I can say without doubt that the survivors of that initial blast suffered through every submariners' nightmare - trapped on the bottom of the ocean, in the dark, with no way out, waiting to die. May they all rest in peace.
There was a small chance they could of made it to the surface before their lungs got too much nitrogen in it but being the waters so cold they chose to wait thinking surely there coming for us
They were Orcs and like all Orcs they were addicted to invading and slaughtering people in neighboring countries... They can't help it, it's in their DNA!
That's a truly horrific scenario
What’s more sad is that they potentially could have been rescued.
There was actually 127 people aboard
I served for a few years on a US Navy SSBN submarine as a reactor operator. What happened to these young men was preventable and tragic. God bless their souls.
Amen..
Thank you for your service. 🇺🇸
@@m.h.6499Thank for thanking folk for their service.💞
@@robertcottam8824 thank you for thanking the folk who thanked folk for their service.
@@geofreyr
And thank you for thanking me for thanking folk for thanking folk for the service.
There's no need to thank me for tha....
Bugqer it....
I was on the C-5 crew that was going to fly to North Island to pick up the DSRV and fly it to the Bering Sea. We waited for hours for the Russians to decide and when they rebuffed the US offer of assistance, we continued on our original mission. I'm very sad that the Kursk sailors perished and very angry that the Russian government let them die due to arrogance, hubris and incompetence.
Fair Winds and Following Seas, Heroes...
Yeah, my buddy was one of those guys that was trained in the DSRV and would have went on this mission. He told me it was sad that they were ready.
Something tells me the 118 men onboard died in the initial explosion or drowned shortly after the 2nd.
@@yeahdaddy7534 AKA the video.
No, you don't tend to drown as a submariner you cook. Also, there were definitely at least 3 guys alive for a few days in the aft ends. Given the size of the hole forward of the explosion area I can't say I'm surprised the russians refused yank assistance
Those "heroes" were training for nuking your carriers and cities. You just betrayed your country dude, loud and clear.
Titanic: unsinkable
Bismarck: unsinkable
Yamato: unsinkable
Kursk: unsinkable
When navies and sailors learn that describing your vessel as unsinkable assures it of being sunk in a humiliating or anti-climatic way
Space ships are unsinkable.
Next minute on the ISS: "the water tanks are leaking Houston! It's filling every compartment! Please help u**gurgling sounds**"
You would think they would want a submarine to be able to sink.
Anything made of steel is easy to sink.
The tricky part getting it to come back up.
You forgot HMS Invincible
Yeah with the titanic they even laughed in the face of god by claiming that even god could not sink her umm yeah where is that ship today.
Submariners across the globe have such a special bond... if you are going to die on a submarine you will certainly suffer immensely. RIP to the crew and may we never deal with something alike ever again
@yaboynickgurr Pretty much
All sailors have that bond. The enemy is the sea! It will take any of them!
Thanks again
the enemy is their own country's leader. Humanity dont need warcraft and don't need war
Steam line rupture in the engine room is the worst way.
I remember watching the accident on TV. The sailors could be heard banging on the hull in hopes of someone hearing them. Excellent video as always.
Actually they didn't heard banging on the hull. The Kursk was found 16h after the explosion. At that time nobody was alive.
In the first official announcement, the Russians told that they had established contact with the crew and were pumping air and power to the boat, and that "everyone on board is alive." This was a lie.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kursk_submarine_disaster
@@Ulrich.Bierwisch wow, thanks for clarifying that. I was a little kid when it was happening on tv and also heard it reported they were alive and banging on the hull
@@Ulrich.Bierwisch thank you for clarifying that. I guess soviets never change.
@@steventhompson399 For what's its worth, I heard that reported on the news in the UK too.
@@metal-potato Im sure the UK was just repeating the crap Russia was saying.
In the summer of 2000, I was living in Sevastopol, Crimea. I remember how little pieces of this story were reported until the fate of the crew was finally revealed. The Russian Black Sea Fleet held a memorial concert to honor the dead. It was somber and moving. As I remember, about 14 of the Kursk crew were from Sevastopol.
Even here in America, we watched and prayed. Even today, it is still hard felt moments for all.
The British learned the danger of a hydrogen peroxide-based (H₂O₂) torpedo when one detonated in the forward torpedo room while the submarine was moored to a quay. As fuel-grade (~90%) H₂O₂, comes into contact with metal, it vigorously decays to H₂O and O₂. This reaction is heat-producing (exothermic) leading to the ignition of the freed O₂. In the presence of metal, even 1% H₂O₂ contains sufficient energy to rupture a plastic containment vessel (personal experience).
Important to note that the exothermic reaction flashes the water instantly to STEAM, which is where the extreme pressure comes from. And the O2 doesn't ignite, since it's an oxidizer, but hot pure oxygen is extremely reactive to hydrocarbons, like oil and grease, which will cause additional combustion.
I worked in a polyolefin unit where we injected h2o2 into plastic mixture to make it fire retardant one day a rail car laid over and sent the h2o2 all over......it was no joke how a 90pct or purer can change everything
I was in the control room with blast proof walls and clean air system so i got on phone to safety man and told him to come and visit and wear oxygen when he does
@@johnw3078 too much.
probably learned it much earlier, but real accidents usually have to happen before changes are made
I remember this very well. Countries offered assistance to help the trapped sailors but it was denied.
I also remember a video clip where a very angry parent I believe a mother to one of the trapped sailors, gave total hell to the Russian government and military. Her angry speech gave me chills down my spine. One small lady giving the military officials one hell of a mouthful. They didn’t even have the balls to look at her and just looked scared and embarrassed down to the ground while she ripped them a new asshole.
I can’t remember all of her speech, but she basically said something like " How can you sit there and do nothing! You have been offered help! Why don’t you accept it! These are your loyal countrymen and our beloved sons you are letting to die! How can you sit there like cowards and do nothing. You are letting my son to die for nothing! You can’t even look at me can you. You ARE COWARDS!"
She gave the officials one hell of a mouthful. One little broken mother had more balls than the entire Russian government. And she made them all look like little scared and ashamed kids...
I think there is truth when one say "Don’t piss off mama bear"
Not even that but they drugged her that way she would stop yelling and dragged her away. That way the people wouldn't look bad
she was probably never seen again.
@@sithgman7454 and later they got her to thank the .gov for drugging her so she didn’t embarrass herself further.
It was Norway, and the U.K. Royal Navy - who are lead UWW for NATO. Putin stayed on Holiday whilst we in the RN watched on in horror. The film “Kursk” portrays it well. It was likely the presence of hydrogen peroxide as a fuel in her torpedoes, which did for her.
Worth remembering the RN ceased using it in WW2
Yea and after the cameras went away, she was never seen again.....
I just want to point out, that the Kursk sunk in shallow enough water that the crew could have been saved, potentially. The UK had a few experimental sub saving ships in its fleet with successful trial runs proving it worked. The Russian government simply didn't want to risk any of their technology or knowledge of their submarines to fall into UK hands, as they knew that any UK crew would be greatly debriefed for any and all info they noticed, or saw during the operation.
The US has a rescue sub they can put in a C-5 or C-17 and fly it anywhere on the planet. They then mount it to an attack sub and take it to the site of the accident.
Yea Russian pride is what killed the survivors.
A rescue mission would not be able to gain intimate technological knowledge by just perching atop the stricken vessel and removing stranded crew members. This was seamen wanting to help other seamen out of a terrible situation. The Russian navy's top brass didn't want to look "weak" by letting the west help rescue their boys.
There was NO technology that the russians have, that is new to the WEST.
It was the ETERNAL fear, the russians have that caused the refusal.
@@benmmbk765 We don't make submarines like they do. Even gleaning as little information as where the control room is and how it's laid out can be detrimental to the defense of their submarine fleet if we do go to war.
It's not always about the technology. There is reason why both sides constantly captured vehicles from each other in WWII, and tested its limits, as to understand how they operated, where things were, etc.. It's how we became more capable knocking out Tiger tanks as the war went on, we learned where the commander sat, where the loader was, where the ammo was stored, and it's weak points.
I remember when this happened I was in the Navy in Groton, CT. The submarine capital of the world. When this news first broke, everyone felt sick their stomachs as this could have happened to any submariner. Scary stuff.
Ah, the mention of Rotten Groton. I commissioned the USS Dace SSN 607 in MS. We were assigned to SUBDEVGRU 2 in Groton to replace the Thresher. And yes, we were a Thresher class sub.
Nothing sinks a vessel faster than the word “Unsinkable.”
Excellent, concise presentation of the Kursk disaster. Decades of Soviet neglect had left its navy with too many examples of "rushian" engineering, with slim safety margins and poor quality control. At the Kursk event, this glaring defect was laid bare for Western eyes, and little wonder the Russian admiralty resisted asking other nations for help.
Other Russian submarines have been lost in peacetime. One of them, the K19, was dramatized in a Hollywood movie starring Harrison Ford. In that disaster, the submarine's nuclear reactor almost went out of control, and brave crewmen entered the reactor chamber to impose control manually on the reactor. The sorrow and pity was, protective anti-radiation suits had not been delivered in time for the K19's departure from port.
Yep, but what language is this guy speaking? Just a babble!
There is a joke about the t-34 that still applies: It was so angled because so many corners were cut. Just a feature of that nation.
They clearly fell behind technologically, but there is a shortcut to catching up, which is to use radical design approaches to bump up the specifications. Naturally, an unhinged approach leads to unreliable and dangerous products. A similar approach used for the T-series main battle tanks led to poor visibility, ergonomics and elevation/depression, which was laid bare in the battles of the Golan heights and the Sinai peninsula. 3-man crews were not enough to maintain a tank platoon, so they suffer from poor reliability and readiness to this day.
I was in Norway when this happened during an exercise with my unit and a few others. We were bouncing between Bardufoss and Tromso. We NEVER got retasked to help with rescue or recovery (special operations heavy lift helicopter squadron based out of RAF Mildenhall, UK). All of us involved would have been more than willing to do what was necessary.
How exactly would a helicopter help a sub on the sea floor?
@@michaelhellwinkle9999 Helicopter support is often used in maritime rescue/recoveries. The point is, there was not a peep in taskings and we got a ton of BS taskings when “helos” weren’t necessary.
@@johnhickman106 maritime rescue on a ship, or even a surfaced submarine is one thing. But for a boat at the bottem it's pretty much useless unless we are talking about it using dipping sonar to find the boat.
I was a submariner, and I can tell you in all honesty if we were in trouble and on the bottem, and knew a helicopter was our only hope for rescue, I'd kiss my ass goodbye.
@@michaelhellwinkle9999 And you are completely missing the point. You want ALL assets to help. It's not about a helo doing anything direct for a rescue or even a recovery, but for the logistical support. I guess you've never had to depend on helicopters for anything.
@@johnhickman106 I literally said for a surfaced submarine it they can be useful, we had a guy get medevaced off once. But for a submarine on the bottem asking a helicopter for help just doesn't make any sense. I guess you could bring supplies to a ship, but the Russians have helicopters too. I just don't understand why you think your unit would of been asked for help in this situation.
Coming from a years long sub of the OG “Dark 5” where there never used to be any narration but just low music and words & pics. The way the DARK family of channels have grown is amazing & regardless if you’re a regular fan of military history or a veteran like myself that loves to learn about the military history that came before me it doesn’t matter. Dark always comes through not only with amazing factual information but with photos & videos as well. Now with the expansion from the OGs Dark 5 & Dark Docs to Dark Seas, Dark Space, Dark Files, etc. this family of channels are easily my favorite on UA-cam. If it weren’t for these channels I wouldn’t use UA-cam at all bc none of the so called “new entertainment” entertain me in the least bit but thank god DARK keeps posting consistently on each of his channels and making awesome content! Not only are the DARK channels my main reason to even open YT their absolutely the only reason that I would ever use notifications for an app like this & when I got a notification for any DARK video I’m immediately watching if I I’m able! Keep rocking out the awesome content!
Dude I gotta say you are literally the History Channel now. The actual "History Channel" only shows reality tv now, so I come here for actual history 😂
Really detailed videos, thank you for putting in so much effort - they are all top notch
If I’ve learned one thing in this life, it’s to never declare your vessel as unsinkable, but still, this is a really sad unfortunate event, rest easy sailors.
It tends to lead to hubris, yes. Although in titanic's case it was technically called that by the news at the time. And when it sank on its maiden voyage it was just following protocol at the time
Watched a film about this and it is a very sad story. The crew are something Russia can be proud of, but how those in charge started and then responded to the disaster was an utter disgrace. Should of shown the footage of one of the crews wifes getting syringed for speaking out about it. What a way to treat the loved ones of yours hero's.
Here is the video of which you speak. She is "sedated" at 11.06 ua-cam.com/video/Ey3u46Qi9PE/v-deo.html
@@billspooks Wow, that clip is gnarly AF... who even thought of bringing sedatives to such an event? This must have been a common occurrence
That’s communism for you.
Russians are always told to be proud of millions of victims of their own government. Same story for ages.
@@danielculver2209 In Russia, no-one is allowed to publicly reprimand the great leader! (Communist ideology George Orwell Animal Farm. The pigs are in charge and all other animals are irrelevant- just like Russia. If youre part of the party, youre allowed to get financially fatter while everyone else sits, struggles in poverty.) Modern day communism just like China.
RIP to the crew of the Russian submarine Kursk and my deeps and sincere condolences to the family and friends who lost their love ones.
I English your like
Yes my condolences goes out to them as well
This submarine carrying mass killing nuclear weapons can kill hundreds of millions of ppl and this soldiers ready kill us all and you sorry for them !!!!
@@ousabed4593 Did you know there had been several close calls on both sides just be thankful these people kept cool heads and checked in triplet just to make sure WW3 didn't happen
@@ousabed4593 Well maybe the Muslims may want the WW3 but no one else does
Its impossible to fathom what it would be like trapped in a compartment at the bottom of the sea. Not knowing if you will make it at the same time knowing that you most likely wont. A horror that we should all be thankful we haven’t experienced.
Humans: Name a vessel “Unsinkable”.
Fate: “And I took that personally.”
Calling a submarine “unsinkable” is like saying “this vacuum doesn’t suck”
The thing that always blows my mind about this disaster, more than anything else.....was that this sub was 505 feet long and only 354 feet down.
In other words, it was so big, that if it stood on its tail, the nose would have poked 151 feet out of the water
Crazy. I was thinking i was alot deeper. Explains why it wasnt crushed.
@@fukkitful It makes it all the more tragic that the Communist bureaucracy would not react….not even to save their own men.
@@fenderstratguy "communist bureaucracy" 😂😂😂 you're stuck in the wrong decade... also if you think any other other country would of let foreigners near a top secret military weapons system, your dreaming! Let's say it was an American or English submarine that had the accident, you think they would of accepted Russia's or China's help recovering it if they offered to help? Going to go with a solid NO on that.
In saying that, the whole situation should of been handled better and it was a terrible tragedy with lots of unfortunate and innocent casualties... and in reality we'll never know the real reason for this accident, there are probably a handful of people in this world who do.
I highly doubt what is said in this video was the actual cause. Although I do enjoy all the dark series and watch them regularly
@@fenderstratguy Dude, year 2000, the USSR was long gone.
@@Krolmir96 Not gone, just changed names.
As long as people continue to say, “This ship is unsinkable.” ships will continue to sink.
More truer words have never been spoken.
Just like the Titanic unsinkable but did it on the first run.
@@Critical-Thinker895 Hi CT. Except a lot, or all, of this stuff is bull. As soon as something goes down, the press always looks for the "unsinkable" label to pump up the story. They always find it. If they don't, they just make it up themselves. Does anyone believe "This aircraft can never crash" Rubbish.
Until someone makes a ship, larger than the ocean itself.
Disasters of this scale invite, absolutely invite, the insertion of a claim of "unsinkable". I don't believe there has ever been a sailor, enlisted or an officer, who has stepped aboard a ship and thought to himself "yeah, this thing can't sink." No construction crew ever believed its job was to create a vessel incapable of going under. Sure, safety measures, double hulls, watertight doors...But even then all that is an attempt to slow a sinking, not to deny its possibility. Its all about not letting facts get in the way of telling a good story, and the "man's hubris is swallowed by the sea" thing is a really good trope.
It reminds me of the story of the Argentine submarine. That went missing a few years ago. And it says alot about the Russian government. That they initially declined help from other countries.
That's normal. No Navy wants anyone else to know about their vessels. Even when the USN sells a ship for scrap you still can't go in with a camera and take pictures.
The picture in the thumbnail really drives home just how little of a submarine's interior space is habitable. It looks like there's space for 3 decks, with the widest one about 25 feet across. The missile pods occupy more space than the crew does.
I can only imagine what it felt like being a sailor near by, but from another country... Hearing that other sailors are in trouble and could use any help. But was told not to help.
Been waiting for this one
What a disaster this was. RIP to the crew.
Thank you for taking an honest and respectful approach in your video, placing context to the situation. The Kursk has been and will continue to be an example of the horrible consequences of pride and distrust. I have a hard time not believing that if action had been taken immediately and with the help of the world, those trapped couldn't have been saved. The more important thing would have been proper precautions and comprehensive safety measures to prevent the use of outdated and unsafe equipment in the first place. Unfortunately "big military officials gotta show off" was more important than those in harm's way.
It's kind of theme with Russia, ever heard of Chernobyl...
Hard to say if they could have been saved, the clip showed that the remaining crew burned up their own oxygen in a flash fire trying to fix the equipment that makes oxygen. The people topside didn't know this of course, but I'm not sure there was much hope for them after that happened.
Agreed not much hope, yet there was some. At the least it would have looked better if they had tried, even if it had the same outcome. Especially since everybody else knew anyway and asked to help. I get it, state secret and all, however at that time that sub really wasn't a secret (not new, known to US).
Anyone here after the titan has gone missing? Praying they are found how terrifying
😬
Tbf the fact that it blew up with its own internal explsives and one compartment was still water tight on the sea floor for hours is incredibly impressive. Just a shame the quality was not consistent throughout the whole sub
My father was one of the norwegian divers who took part in the salvage operation. He also recovered bodies from Estonia in 1994. He worked full time as a sat diver from 1983 - 2002 before he became a supervisor. I would go mental if I did that for such a long time.
We watched events unfold with genuine concern and respect for Russia's "silent service". All submariners face the same risk with the same courage. It was a terrible reminder of the constant perile we share while maintaining weapons of war in order to secure peace. The irony was lost on no one. RIP.
Well spoken, thank you.
I still remember this tragedy. Back then I was still reading the newspapers and following the media. I read the news about the Kursk every morning praying that possible survivors could've been rescued. Something was telling me that there were survivors down there. So sorry for everyone who lost their lives and I wish the Russian authorities would have allowed the Norwegian divers to access the submarine right away. :'(
Lesson? Never, ever, get on a sea going vessel that is described as “unsinkable”…
You should have stopped at the word "vessel."
8:03. "Minor technical difficulties". Oh, I see. Kind of like "Special Military Operation".
I once heard someone say in reaction to photos of the interior of a WWI German U-boat, something along the lines of, "It's insane the conditions humans will put themselves in to kill other humans."
With everything that can go wrong in a military submarine, or any naval vessel for that matter, you'd think the horror would keep us all away from settling our feuds at sea. Hopefully we as a species can put war to rest before we all go extinct.
As long as there have been humans, there has been war. You might as well wish for unicorns. It's like asking a lion not to hunt. Humans war, and there has never been a peaceful time in recorded history. DNA?
@@JC-tq8gm Considering ants have been around for 100 million years, and have wars, I'd say so.
I retired from the USN and served aboard 5 subs. My first was built in 1944 and was propelled entirely by 4 Fairbanks Morse diesel engines.
I first boarded the boat in '58. Your description of a German U-boat basically identifies the living conditions I lived through with 94 shipmates. Fortunately, my next four subs were powered by Westinghouse S5W nuclear reactors. While aboard a nuke fast attack, we followed a Russian nuke fast attack for miles before it did a U-turn on us. We called that maneuver a Crazy Ivan.
Can you imagine those guys down there, the ship laying on the bottom and crowded into a cramped compartment as the air gets thinner and thinner and then in desperation they send a few guys to try and create some oxygen with chemical reactions. The guys who remain staring out at each other in the dim light, hoping they succeed long enough for rescue. But then they hear the loud bang that ignited the oxygen and hears the hiss of air being pulled from their chamber that feeds the fire on the other side of the wall? Slowly their vision blurs as they crumble to the floor, gasping..gasping….darkness
A Dutch company mammoet retrieved the Kursk ..I talked to one of the guys.
Amazing story that I recalled perfectly .
Any chance you'd be willing to share some of that story here?
@@grndiesel that you can find here:
ua-cam.com/video/uQJ6IMREvz8/v-deo.html
@@scarecrow108productions7 Thanks
"Un-sinkable Ship" is one of life's greatest oxymorons.
Just like Jumbo Shrimp!!
As a former army infantry soldier, I would think that there’s no place in the military where people are more disciplined and perfectionists about attention to detail than on a submarine. Much respect to submariners.
Erm, 0:32 not sure how footage of a Fleet Air Arm Phantom bolting on HMS Ark Royal (decommissioned in 1979) is relevant to a disaster in 2000...
The Kursk sank in water shallower than its length :( So tragic. I don't care how tense things are between Russia and the US, that's a horrible way for any human being to die, regardless of what uniform they wear.
I don't know how deep the water it sank in was but made that point for this video Not even mentioning that specifically which was a Missed opportunity especially if what you stated is true. I'm about to see if I can verify that right now and Thanks for mentioning it.
@@constitution_8939 From Wikipedia:
Length154.0 m (505.2 ft)
Sank 12 August 2000 with all 118 hands in 100 m (330 ft) of water in Barents Sea
The early 2000s were an interesting time. With so much residual optimism from the 1990s, we didn't quite realize that the world was becoming a darker place. Russia was no longer seen as the universal "bad guys" and it seemed that some parts of global politics were going in the right direction. Back then, some folks in the west (myself included) were actually rooting for Russia to do well. Emerging from a communist dictatorship is not for the faint of heart.
I was disappointed that some Russian officials tried to initially blame the incident on NATO. It seemed obvious at the time that they didn't know how to deal with the tragedy and were trying to save face.
And for what it's worth, I would still wish only peace and freedom to all people of the world.
You act like Globalist care about your opinion....
You buy into propaganda like Christians buy into the Bible. Have you ever stopped to think that maybe the Russkis never really were the "bad guys"? And if you were to make anyone out to be the villain, it would be BOTH USSR & US. It all seems like a ridiculous length to go to just to press your economic beliefs on the rest of the world but I'm not here to speculate on which was the greater of the two evils, just to point out that the US is in no way, a savior of sorts to the world.
@@matthewcetorelli8451
If you read my original post more carefully, you'll notice the wording I used: "seen as the universal "bad guys". I did not actually call them the universal bad guys. I do not buy into the narrative that Russia was always Evil. However, I do not support or condone communist dictatorships. And never will. So while I do happen to admire many Russian accomplishments in engineering and aerospace through out the 20th century, I cannot condone or apologize for the USSR.
If it interests you, I'm also not American. My roots trace to eastern Europe but I live in the west and if I had to choose between capitalism and socialism, I would choose capitalism every time. I agree there were plenty of evil acts committed by NATO and other so-called "Allied" Nations. Many are still playing out even now.
When I mentioned the world was becoming a darker place in the early 2000s, I wasn't really referring to the Eastern Hemisphere; I was referring to what's happening in the west with loss of free speech, privacy and more recently, loss of bodily autonomy. All of which is now fully enforceable by an autocratic big tech oligarchy (including on UA-cam). So yes, Capitalism has it's problems as well.
I can't blame Russia for turning the world into a darker place because we're doing it to ourselves. But that's how Empires often fall: We do it to ourselves.
@@grndiesel Lots of areas of the world have been backwards when it comes to human rights--Russia has been for hundreds of years. Being invaded and crushed by the Mongols threw them back socially far behind China and Europe. Most nations have periods of regression, then climb back out of it to some level or another, but Russia never has. That their communist dictatorship period allowed them to marshal economic power to push technical progress isn't much of an accomplishment--enforced iron will by strongmen has always been their way. Their experiment with democracy was short and ended with a whimper.
@@rikk319 I would argue their communist ideology actually held back their technological advancement. Stalin was known for many (MANY) foolish and deadly acts during his reign. One of which was to purge many of the best and brightest minds in aviation and engineering. All because he didn't trust people that were experts in cutting edge fields that he didn't understand.
It got so bad that innovation simply stopped and set Russian Aviation back by at least 15 years compared to the west. That's why they had to use the Rolls Royce engine for their Mig-15. That's why they had to partner with Fiat in order to build the Lada Riva. Even Russia state media documentaries make a brief and sanitized mention of these purges and the technical stagnation that it caused.
I give little credit to the USSR for Russia's accomplishments, but I do give some credit to Russian ways of thinking that look for simpler, and more robust solutions.
The Kursk disaster was shocking and incredibly sad. The USA suffered 2 terrible losses in the 60’s when the Thresher and Scorpion sank off New Hampshire and the Azores. Rest In Peace brave Submariners.
I was an active duty Navy Sailor and remember this event well. As a Sailor, I felt bad for those fellow Sailors.
I’ve heard a couple of different versions of the story but I like yours the best.
Forgive my ignorance but isn't an unsinkable submarine just another word for boat?
Excellent video as always!! Kind of had me on the edge of my seat for a minute or two.... a ton of wonderful information, and a great video! Thank you so much to all the dark channels for your hard work on producing researching and posting these films!!
Thanks, another fascinating story!
I remember this event clearly and followed it extensively as it transpired in real time. I remember the reports of the surviving submariners banging on the hull. This is an EXCELLENT video. Great job on the detailed reporting!!!
Except that report was false. They had been dead for hours before the first rescuers had reached the sub. The timeline of events shows that. it was put out by the navy to ease tensions while they were sorting things out.
Wonderful that so many countries offered help but initially this was refused by Russia.
After this sad incident hopefully any future emergency at sea will be tackled by many nations to protect and rescue brave sailors of the human race, despite national differences. Thank you for this video.
The engineers and crew who worked to raise the kursk are brilliant!
This is a standard salvage, nothing special. A barge and steel cables at a shallow depth. K-129 was brilliant, despite not being a complete success.
I was aboard USS Moosbrugger DD 980, Part of Standing Naval Forces Atlantic (SNFL). We were part of the war games. Everyone in the battle group knew something bad happened to one of the Russian boats. We also knew that the Russians had told us to stay the fuck away. All any of us could do was pray for those boys.
Kursk was running classified weapons test. NATO assistance was not an option as it would have completely compromised the entire program which Russia could not afford in every meaning of the word.
@@BigSmartArmed we had a port visit in Russia planned; on the official fuckin itinerary! Nope. Scrap that. They wouldn't let us near. We were all pretty bummed. It's one thing to admire the Russian people (they're tough motherfuckers!), but actually visiting would have been the shit. Missing a port wasn't as bad as dying helpless and cold where no one can get to you though. Some tough ole boys..
To bad you did not mention the Dutch company Smid Tak that that brought up the remains of the Kursk.
That was a tough operation, and a one of a kind one.
May GOD have Mercy on the souls of these brave sailors. Rest in peace.
The Oscar class sub was a respected foe speaking as a former Sonar Tech. It was FAR superior to earlier Soviet nuke boats.
It was not until I saw this Documentary that I had ever heard of the Kursk ever having been called 'Unsinkable'. As far as I know, the Titanic was the First & Last Ship ever to be referred to as 'Unsinkable'.
The Titanic got the moniker of "unsinkable" only because some marketing people responded to the description they heard of "practically unsinkable." Being in Marketing, they couldn't allow the "practically" to stay in there, and started putting it about that the ship was "unsinkable," discarding the adverb.
Regardless of political beliefs, world outlooks ,when something like this happens it should be a world mandate to save as many of the souls on board as possible .RIP sailors of Kursk
No more Mandates, please. LOL How about the Ethical seaman code of honor to help each other out.
@@JuergenGDB Excellent my good man
There needn't be a mandate. All that WAS needed was for permission to be given to other countries to help. Those Norwegian divers got the hatch open in one day after the Russians gave up after 5 fruitless days of failure.
I'm never getting on any vessel that someone has declared "unsinkable". That's step one in the how to doom a ship and everyone on board game.
I remember when this happened, though I was just a kid. I thought it was absolutely crazy of them to refuse outside assistance that was readily available for the sake of pride. We knew quick that lives were at stake and time not on our side.
Same.
to be fair its a nuclear capable submarine, one of the top secrets of any military, letting your "allies help" would mean potential leakage of secret information
My grandad served 12 years on Subs, I asked recently, where did you sail?
He looked at me…
Don’t know mate, but I’m sure the water was cold outside.
A glimmer in his eye and a smile on his face. I know those are his golden days.
A true old submariner, rum in hand and the Royal Navy News on a table.
Classic 🇬🇧
Why show a f4 phantom taking off from a us aircraft carrier at the start ?
Why not?
@@toddlinder-flowman6687 because the US Navy retired F-4 Phantoms by 1996 which would make the stock footage incorrect for this time period.
Probably stock royalty free footage.
I remember this happening, and I prayed for my Russian bothers in arms.
But after the initial info, I was shipped off to fight in Iraq and Afghanistan for several years and never knew what the outcome of this event was...
Thank you for letting this old soul know what happened to those poor men... I wish it would have turned out better...
No more brother wars...
Could you please display the metric conversations of the values you mention in your videos? Would make it much easier to understand every detail. Thank you :)
@@nateframbach830 3 foot is closer to 1 meter
@@nateframbach830 why not just make it up like you metres to feet conversion
And approximately 2.2 pounds per kilogram. That is kilograms times Two, plus (one tenth times two).
@@nateframbach830 Yeah, three feet is about 1 m. I can also just quickly google it for an exact result, but it would be way more enjoyable if one wouldn't have to stop the video and convert the measures and rather have it quickly display in the video itself :)
All of your vids are awesome. Serious dedication.
It seems like a really bad idea to call anything “unsinkable”.
RIP to the crew of the submarine Kursk.
This vid shows how expensive military readiness really is. Good job.
Note to all: NEVER name or travel on any vessel associated with the word “unsinkable” in any way.
This is a great channel name and footage. Could be a TV show.
Well done.
Greetings from Sweden.
You, Sir, just got yourself a new subscriber.
Never call anything “unsinkable.”
To quote the titanic movie “She is made of iron, sir. I assure you, she can. And she will. It is a mathematical certainty.”
Based on Russia's performance in the Ukraine to-date, it appears little has changed in terms of investing in equipment, maintenance, training, and leadership (both political and military leadership.) Seems something is inherently off about the culture of Russian leadership.
What you didn't mention is that the unfinished Belgorod submarine, laid down in 1993, was resumed and recently completed in order to replace the Kursk. The scary part-- it doesn't have missiles, but rather is a mothership for the "Poseidon" underwater drone system, AKA, stealthy mini-submarines that carry colossal nuclear warheads, which sneak into enemy harbors or close to enemy shores, before detonating.
Belgorod is the mothership for the Losharik and Paltus class mini subs. The Poseidon is the autonomous nuclear powered nuclear armed torpedo that it is equipped with.
@@pandamw3 From what I'm finding, they are both parts of the Status-6 Oceanic Multipurpose Platform and thus either the mini subs you speak of as well as the Poseidon nuclear drones can be equipped.
Stunning! I was aware of the Kursk incident but knew little of the detail you shared in the video.
Thanks
Bob
England
It also had an emergency buoy that would auto deploy at any pressure change but in 99 it was deactivated for concerns it could deploy accidentally and give away the subs location.
The only Kursk I know is the meatgrinder battle with ALL the tanks and prepared defenses. Time to learn more!
Im suprised you don't remember this....it wasn't that long ago
Not an exact parallel but the Maritime Museum in San Diego used to have a Soviet Sub B-39 (since scrapped) alongside an American Sub , the USS Dolphin, that was more or less contemporaneous. The differences were stark. Though laid down within months of each other in 1962, the Soviet sub looked about 20 years older in terms of clumsy, cramped design and sloppy, inconsistent welds. Admittedly, it looked cool in a sort of dank, dystopian kind of way, like something from a Terry Gilliam film.
I guess technically the Kursk wasn't a Soviet Sub per se, but I wonder to what extent the notoriously poor Soviet/Russian build quality affected the Kursk.
who else is getting this recommended after the recent titan submersible incident?
Me
Awesome.
Please keep these videos coming. Love this channel.
3:30 Excuse me, I thought Attack subs were those that were designed without vertical missile launch capability... yet you call the Kursk and Oscar 2 missile sub, an attack sub. Were you misspoken or do I have it wrong somewhere?
The way the Russian government handled this is almost the exact same way, the Soviet Union handled the Chernobyl disaster. Denial, denial and lies. Well, still today that's the common approach to disasters.
Indeed, same was with the sinking of Moscow last year. 🤦
The “truth” is a very relative term in this case.
Only a handful of people know exactly what happened to the Kursk
All the best to everyone
Exactly and Bill Clinton is among them... as there was a mysterious call between him and Putin after which Russian foreign debt was written off. All this was happening while USS Memphis one of 2 US submarines (the other being USS Toledo) monitoring the exercise had to make a port call after dawn, in Bergen to make mysterious repairs.
The one thing you Never mentioned was the depth anywhere in the explanation which would have been appreciated the moment you said the second explosion emanated at the same depth as the Sea bed which you Didn't disclose either.
It was not deep at all. The depth was less than the length of the Kursk, which made the lack of rescue even more of a tragedy.
Awesome documentary 👍
It's a shame when the pride and ego of a government is bigger than the will to accept help from outside in a situation like this. Russia tried saving face but they did everything but that.
I was 15 when the disaster happened and remember being perplexed at their unwillingness to let other nations assist.
My father, born in 1940s Bulgaria, wasn't quite as surprised.....
Slightly ironic having an 'unsinkable' submarine, seeing as that's exactly what it's meant to do
My thoughts exactly!
R I P, to all hands aboard. How can anyone who sails the seas call anything "Unsinkable" ?
Human arrogance. We sometimes think we are so advanced that we have mastered the world, we are wrong
Moral of the story is if anyone tells you the boat your about to get on is "unsinkable" get the hell off the boat we've all heard about every "unsinkable" boat and they never work out!!!it's like once you think it's "unsinkable" you automatically start doing stuff you wouldn't have done if it were just a normal boat
Can't watch the video without an AD! When did you sell out?
Dark Docuseries are just the best. Thank You.
I'm sorry for the loss to the Russian Families of the Russian sailors of the Kursk and to the Russian People, but it NEVER ceases to amaze me that nations will build vessels and claim that they're "unsinkable." They said about the same thing about the R.M.S. Titanic and IJN Yamato. Both sank as well. The never-ending arrogance of Man against Nature.
No one said Titanic was unsinkable, it was said by a magazine that it was as close to unsinkable as an ocean liner could get
@@franciscosansalone Research would help. Survivor Lawrence Beesley, in his book "Loss of the SS Titanic" said many press reports made the sinking even more dramatic than it really was.
"I think it is no exaggeration to say that those who read of the disaster quietly at home and pictured to themselves the scene as the Titanic was sinking had more of the sense of horror than those who stood on the deck and watched her go down inch by inch," Beesley concluded in his book. "The fact is that the sense of fear came to the passengers very slowly - a result of the absence of any signs of danger." Beesley and others talked about how no one at the time thought the Titanic was going to go under. At first, they joked that they had to stop for a fresh coat of paint to be applied to where the iceberg scrapped the hull. After all, the Titanic was "unsinkable," they figured. "The improbability of such a thing ever happening was what staggered humanity," Beesley wrote. "That phrase `unsinkable' became notorious," Foster said. The phrase was originally "practically unsinkable" and was from an obscure engineering journal, but after a while it didn't matter. On top of that, someone claims to have heard ship Capt. Edward John Smith say "Even God himself couldn't sink this ship," Foster said. Link: www.cbsnews.com/news/titanics-legacy-a-fascination-with-disasters/ Even some newspapers at that time pushed that narrative. Sometimes, Man's hubris tends to get knocked down by Mother Nature. Anything that floats eventually sinks. Even pumice.
@@southtexasprepper1837 Panic didn't reach passengers at first because they didn't know the extent of the damage, Thomas Andrew's ran terrified up the grand staircase after researching the damage to notify the captain, the only reason passengers didn't panic was because they were never explicitly told the ship was sinking, they were only told to get onto the lifeboats, the claim of Smith saying that was made by someone who served aboard Olympic who after the sinking of Titanic said he heard Smith say that after the collision whit the Hawke
@@franciscosansalone Being an amateur historian, I'm well aware of the circumstances of the sinking and how at first the passengers of the Titanic reacted to the disaster. There's been numerous books, news articles, survivor interviews, and documentaries on the subject that have been written and produced on the sinking. Not to mention movies. Your points have nothing to do with the initial comment that I made. You're 'preaching to the choir.' My initial comment had to do with the MYTH of the concept of "an unsinkable ship." Not arguing about the background of the sinking of the Titanic." That's beyond dispute. Even the Imperial Japanese thought that the IJN Yamato was "unsinkable." Anything that floats, sinks.
@@southtexasprepper1837 I'm also still talking about the myth that she was unsinkable, and I'm telling you that no one believed she was unsinkable, panic didn't reach passengers not because they thought she was completely unsinkable and that God himself would have have intervene to sink her, but because iceberg collisions were common and smaller ships survived them, in 1885 Bayard hit an iceberg and made it to port, leaking and badly damaged but still made it, Kings country a wooden barque survived a collision whit an iceberg in 1893, in 1907 SS Ohio survived a collision whit an iceberg on the bering sea whit only 4 passengers died who panicked and jumped into the water, all of those were smaller ships and survived, and the Hawke incident was still fresh in people's minds, if a warship designed to ram and sink other armored warships had rammed an identical ship whit no armour and that identical ship didn't sink, what could sink those ships? Whit no knowledge of the extent of the damages you can only assume and thats what people did, some panicked, some went into the lifeboats and some didn't.
Cutting off the front of the boat and blowing the remains up with explosives is super suspicious to me.
If there were no reactors, or the international community didn’t know about its sinking.
I’d imagine the Soviets would have covered up the whole thing
?
*Designer:*
_"She is totally unsinkable Comrade Commissar!"_
*Commissar:*
_"WHAT?! Idiot! It's a Submarine!"_
I remember hearing about it on the news. Very heartbreaking💔
Excellent review!
I've always loved the story of the Kursk, I'm glad to see it get your masterclass treatment.
Would’ve been better that the Russians smugly walked away from a successful training operation instead of shamefully dodging blame for a disaster.