K-19 Submarines

On Sunday, July 22, 1945, at around 1:30 a.m. a one man, Japanese suicide submarine, “human torpedo”, slipped into Buckner Bay and slammed into the anchored Marathon…detonating on contact.

A complete representation of the combat voyage, "The American Turtle" can be described in this essay. Browsing through the 3 sources in this text will provide information about the one man submarine a.k.a the American Turtle submarine. British Thomas Gage and Admiral Lord Howe faced a new stage of war in June 1776 when they sailed into New York Harbor.

The submarine was called the

The submarine is heading to its assigned patrol area in the central Pacific. Suddenly, on March 1st, after a week at sea, “the first indication that something is amiss aboard the submarine comes…” (77) K-129 failed to send its regularly scheduled message to fleet headquarters. Four days later, on March 5th, another signal that something is wrong on board. “The submarine instead of slowing down to begin the usual silent patrolling in the mission, K-129 keeps sailing towards Pearl Harbor.”(78) After two weeks at sea, the submarine surfaces and then proceeds to attempt a nuclear missile launch at Pearl Harbor. The author points out that what exactly happened will never be known unless Russian files are declassified and the CIA release what documents they recovered from the submarine. Although Mr. Sewell cannot provide a first-hand account, he can relate with a fair degree of certainty what happened based on his experience as a submariner and his experience in dealing with the Soviet navy. Also with the use of recently declassified documents, Mr. Sewell can provide more accurate descriptions of what possibly happened then anyone before.

At 1:00 A.M. on 25 April, the command was given to start reducing power to the station. “This could not be done quickly because the xenon gas that came from the radioactive decay of uranium 135 absorbed neutrons. If not allowed to decay, which it did in a few hours, it could accelerate the decline in the reactor’s activity and close it down altogether.” (Read p.59) Twelve hours after the start of the power reduction, the reactor had reached half-power, and generator number 7 was switched off. The number 8 generator would be next, but there was a slight risk that the decrease in water supply to the reactor or the start up of the auxiliary generator would signal an emergency to the system sensors that would automatically start the emergency core cooling system. If this happened, the reactor would be flooded and it would be closed down. Dyatlov had the emergency system disconnected so that the test could continue uninterrupted. After the this system was disconnected, the test was ready to proceed, which was to reduce power in the number 8 generator and take it off line, all the while keeping the reactor on low power. As the order was given, a call came in from the power grid dispatcher in Kiev saying that the power that the number 8 generator produced was needed until 11 P.M., which meant that the test had to be postponed. (Read, 1993)

In this particular submarine attack that has been called by United States Navy officials “virtually a suicide mission – a naval epic,” a large ammunition vessel exploded after receiving one of the eight direct torpedo hits from the submarine USS Barb (SS-220) (Schudel). The Joint Army-Navy Assessment Committee has “provided final, official tallies for World War II submarine attacks” (Goldstein). Fluckey is credited with “destroying 95,360 tons of Japanese shipping,” the highest total for a United States Navy commanding officer of a submarine during World War II (Goldstein). According to his own findings and research he did after World War II, about 145,000 tons of Japanese shipping were destroyed while he was the commanding officer of the submarine USS Barb (SS-220). Fluckey is also credited with “sinking 16 Japanese ships and taking part with two other skippers in a 17th sinking,” the fourth-highest total for a United States Navy commanding officer of a submarine during World War II (Goldstein). Once again, according to his own findings and research he did after World War II, he sank 28 Japanese ships and took part with two other skippers in a 29th

Cornelius Drebbel was the first inventor to make a working submarine who was hired in 1603 by James 1 of England. With this it is obvious that the development of an underwater boat has been there for a long time, but as time went on, it was perfected each time while learning something new every time. “On April 11, 1900, the U.S. acquired its first submarine” (Today in History - April 11.) which transformed the Progressive Era by changing on how wars would be

On Saturday, 26 April 1986 a reactor at the Chernobyl Power Plant near Pripyat, Russia has a sudden power surge which caused mass damage. The Power Plant tried for immediate

realize that the plant was having an accident with the coolant level. The tubes holding the nuclear fuel began to melt since they became over heated which also caused fuel pellets to melt. Even though this was the most dangerous kind of nuclear accident, the radiation did not reach outside of the containment building nor did it release out into the environment. There were no immediate injuries or deaths reported from the raditation to the faculty workers.

Early in the morning of April 27, 1986, the world experienced its largest nuclear disaster ever (Gould 40). While violating safety protocol during a test, Reactor 4 at the Chernobyl power plant was placed in a severely unstable state, and in a matter of seconds the reactor output shot up to 120 times the rated output (Flavin 8). The resulting steam explosion tossed aside the reactor’s 1,000 ton concrete covering and released radioactive particles up to one and a half miles into the sky (Gould 38). The explosion and resulting fires caused 31 immediate deaths and over a thousand injuries, including radiation poisoning (Flavin 5). After the

Around seventy eight years ago, World War Two was inevitable and would last for six years, while becoming one of the world’s greatest conflicts. With the catastrophic effects of The Great War, the further advancement of current technology and the advent of newer warfare, World War Two was set to be the turning point of the twentieth century. The war caused the Berlin wall to separate Germany, it indirectly caused the Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union. World War Two’s legacy includes The Holocaust, the bombing of Pearl Harbor, and the first use of atomic bombs. The United States’ use of the first atomic bombs has great complications, however the act is justified because of Japan’s reluctance to surrender, the amount of

Three days later, after Japan failed to heed our cry for surrender, we dropped the second bomb on Nagasaki, killing another 40,000. This was quite possibly one of the most questionable acts during World War II, if not during the modern era.While on one hand, Japan wasn’t going to surrender without one hell of a fight and this act saved millions of young american lives, it also negatively affected that many japanese in one way or another. However this ethical dilemma wasn’t the driving force behind this essay. Rather it was astounding success of the Manhattan project. Scientists from all over the globe came together against a common enemy and managed something spectacular. Before the war, nuclear anything was in its infancy. However, together these physicists and engineers and rocket scientists managed to break down a new frontier. While it would be immoral to condone the creation of such a destructive device, one can’t deny its purpose. It saved lives and brought to an end a war that had gone on too

The disaster took place on April 1986, and was caused by inexperienced staff. When the power plant had to undergo a special test, to make sure that sufficient amount of cooling water would be supplied to the reactor in case of a power outage. However, the test had been delayed, because the national grid required the power output more than the expected time. Hence, the test was postponed after midnight where the night shift had to come. The night shift had little experience about such a test as most of them were electrical engineers rather than nuclear. On the other hand, the night shift had to perform the test before the grid needed the power again, otherwise they would have all been fined or fired. Consequently, lead to an unnecessary pressure on the personnel, which in turn increased the probability of making incorrect

The harbinger of Death was finally at the command of humankind. The arguably darkest days of armed conflict, characterized by the brightest of lights, was a result of unlocking the power of the atom. In an instant and a flash, at the Trinity test site, the nuclear age was born. The United States Army had its bomb, but the bomb was just the beginning. The United States Army Air Forces realized not only the tactical advantage of wielding such power, but the most effective means of exercising that power. The inception of the 509th Composite Group, 1st Atomic Bombardment coupled with the advent of the B-29 Superfortress offered the United States the means to devastate Japan, destroy their will to fight, and ultimately silence the Japanese

his led to the melting of the fuel and a drastic increase in radioactivity within the reactor coolant.This also resulted in leaks in the coolant system, which led to small amounts of radiation escaping into the environment.[7]