A Bad Day For Communism
By Philip Gardocki
It was September 1981. Mohamar Quaddaffi, Dictator of
Libya, claimed as territorial waters, all of the Mediterranean within 200 miles of the Libyan shoreline.
The fact that this included Sicily and
Malta
did not seem to bother the
Dictator. In response to this, President Reagan sent a Navy Carrier group to
operate within the 200 mile "Line of Death" but outside of the 12 miles
considered territorial waters by the rest of the world. It was then reported
that Libyan aircraft attacked aircraft from the Nimitz, which was
operating in the Mediterranean. The
Nimitz aircraft shot down two Libyan aircraft.
Largely unreported at this
time was 48 hour confrontation between a Navy cruiser and Libyan forces
containing a submarine, a missile boat, and at intervals at least two aircraft.
At times, all weapon doors were open on the Libyan forces. The Libyans
eventually stood down and retired.
It was in this environment
that our destroyer, the USS King, DDG-41 arrived in the Mediterranean. The incidents
described were less than two days old and already there were tee shirts of
downed Libyan aircraft, and camels being targeted by Harpoon missiles. Initially
we were unaffected by the events and had shore leave in Marseilles, France. Then, we were ordered to sail
with FFG-7, the Oliver Hazard Perry, to sneak up on the Soviet Flagship
in the Mediterranean, the "large antisubmarine warship" Leningrad
, currently operating
in Libyan waters.
I was skeptical we would be
successful. Besides being the flagship of the Soviet Navy in the Mediterranean,
the Leningrad
had a goodly number of
radars and over 20 helicopters for air search. When you consider that the
Libyans were feeling very watchful on their territory, the odds looked slim that
we were going to sneak up on them.
A day later, we were towing
the Oliver Hazard Perry back to port. She had a single turbine engine design and when it
failed, she was immobile. It was a bad day for Democracy. We dropped her off in
Marseilles
and, four days later, alone, we were
back on our original mission of hunting bear and antagonizing a minor power.
Large Antisubmarine Warship
Leningrad, off the coast of Libya,
as photographed by the author.
Early one morning,
after several days sailing, there was an announcement that we were closing in on
the Leningrad
. OK, how did we do
this?
It was really nothing that we
did. The Soviets spent most of their budget on building weapons and next to
nothing maintaining them. In the case of their Navy, ships did not use any
equipment that was not necessary. Leningrad
was at anchor, radars
off, helicopters stowed, engines cold. As soon as our ship broke the horizon,
the Soviet escort destroyer, a Krivak*, raised steam, and sailed to intercept us. Once we
were identified, the Leningrad
raised steam, and
started running away. The maximum speed of the
Leningrad
was about 38 knots,
while ours was 33, and she began to pull away from us.
I was disappointed at our
inability to get a close-up view of this ship, when suddenly, the cloud of smoke
emanating from her stack ceased. Her engines had failed! So it was, we closed on
to the flagship of the Soviet Navy, at 5 knots. By my estimate, there was over
$100,000 of camera gear on deck, none of it government owned, and we were
snapping pictures with abandonment.
Of course we offered to
provide technical help. Our kind offer was ignored.
It was a bad for day for
Communism.
After the initial cruise by, we took our post at a
respectful distance of maybe 5 miles. By mid afternoon,
Leningrad
raised
steam again. Then, in what only could be considered a show for our benefit, she
lit off her radars, exercised her missile launchers and launched most of her
helicopters. She looked like a grey beehive with 20 helicopters buzzing around
her.
Then, she lost one. It looked like an invisible
hand just reached up from the water and plucked it out of the
sky.
We offered to help. Our offer was
ignored.
It was a bad for day for
Communism.
* The
Soviets also classified the Krivak
class as "large antisubmarine warships".
