December 4, 2007: After 25
years, another secret of the Falklands war has been revealed. Back then,
Britain used five of its nuclear attack submarines to monitor radio traffic
from Argentine air bases, and alert the British ships off the Falklands when an
air raid was coming their way. The subs were about 20 kilometers off the
Argentine coast, and the early warning give the rest of the British fleet about
45 minutes to prepare for the Argentine air raids. The British nukes suffered a
few attacks, but none were damaged. The most dangerous incident was when one of
the subs got the long radio antenna wire, trailing behind the sub, tangled in
the propeller. The sub had to surface, and eight sailors went into the water to
remove the wire. This was done without incident. If the sub was spotted during
the wire removal, the sub would have had to submerge immediately, leaving the
eight sailors to their fate (drowning or capture.)
This incident was kept secret
all this time because the monitoring technique could still be used, until
recently replaced with other techniques (which remain secret.)
