U-boat Kursk

Submarines are considered to be secret ships, and probably not only because their lives are shrouded in mystery. Sometimes this also concerns their death.

After all, the sea almost never leaves either witnesses or traces ...

Submarine Kursk was assembled in 1994 at the Severodvinsk machine-building plant and immediately sent to the seventh division of the valiant Northern Fleet.

Commander of the ship was appointed captain first rank Lyachin, an experienced submariner.

Specialists were sure that Kursk is a new generation submarine, absolutely reliable and has a huge margin of vitality.

The nuclear submarine safely participated in many training operations, and during air strikes against Yugoslavia from the depths of the sea secretly controlled American aircraft carriers.

For its one Mediterranean expedition, the submarine Kursk has fulfilled five conventional attacks for quite realistic purposes, for which 72 crew members were presented for awards. She was nicknamed the "killer of aircraft carriers": she disappeared and just as suddenly appeared, causing panic and striking a blow to "American vanity."

In August 2000, the submarine was in the Barents Sea. It was the last day of military exercises. On the 12th the submarine Kursk with its tail number K 141 went to its final combat mission.

And she did not return ...

The official version, which sounded quite dry, says that the submarine died as a result of a spontaneous explosion.

The whole crew died, 118 people ...

The whole country watched the fate of the submarine with tears in her eyes for several days. Hope, albeit very small, did not leave people until the very last second ...

What happened, why the reliable and unsinkable Kursk submarine, which had more than two dozen cruise missiles at the time of the catastrophe, was so sad and at the same time mysteriously completed its journey at the bottom of the Barents Sea?

The State Commission published its conclusion: the submarine Kursk, which died on August 12 at 11.28, exploded as a result of a hydrogen leak - the fuel component of the torpedo. As a result of a literally instantaneous fire, detonation began. There was a second, more violent explosion, which destroyed several compartments.

However, some submariners believe that the cause of the second explosion was a sharp collision with the bottom of the bottom of the submarine, going at a speed of three knots, with the first compartment fully filled with water, at a depth of more than one hundred meters.

But there are other versions: several Admirals of the Northern Fleet are certain at once that the Kursk submarine was torpedoed by one of two American ships in the vicinity and watching the demonstration shots of the new Shkval torpedo produced from the K14.

There were other versions, such as a collision with a mine, an underwater object, supposedly another boat, a ballistic missile in Kursk, etc. But all of them were rejected after the announcement of the official version.

Since August 13, rescue work began, but because of the great depth, poor visibility and strong speed of the current, they were unsuccessful. And today it is not known whether the crew could have been saved if luck had been on the submarine's side and rescuers could have descended to the bottom.

In October 2001, it, however, without the first compartment, with the help of the Norwegians was raised from the water. A detailed study already in the dry dock, as well as the data of the recorders made it possible to reconstruct in detail the chronicle of the last tragic hours of the existence of Kursk.

The official version has been fully confirmed.

And let today many argue that the torpedoes onboard the nuclear submarines do not explode by themselves, that the conclusions of the commission are not entirely correct, the lives of 118 submariners can not be returned ...

And the mystery of the deceased Kursk will forever be buried at the bottom of the cold and severe Barents Sea.