[The depth charges] exploded right next to the hull [of our submarine]. It felt like you were sitting in a metal barrel, which somebody is constantly blasting with a sledgehammer. The situation was quite unusual, if not to say shocking—for the crew.
The accumulators on [our submarine] were discharged to the state of water, only emergency light was functioning. The temperature in the compartments was 45-50C, up to 60 C in the engine compartment. It was unbearably stuffy. The level of CO2 in the air reached a critical practically deadly for people mark. One [of] the duty officers fainted and fell down. Then another one followed, then the third one… They were falling like dominoes. But we were still holding on, trying to escape. We were suffering like this for about four hours. The Americans hit us with something stronger than the grenades – apparently with a practical depth bomb. We thought – that’s it – the end. After this attack, the totally exhausted [Captain], who in addition to everything, was not able to establish connection with the General Staff, became furious. He summoned the officer who was assigned to the nuclear torpedo, and ordered him to assemble it to battle readiness. ‘Maybe the war has already started up there, while we are doing summersaults here’ – screamed [our] emotional [Captain], trying to justify his order. ‘We’re going to blast them now! We will die, but we will sink them all – we will not disgrace our Navy.’ But we did not fire the nuclear torpedo – [our Captain] was able to rein in his wrath. After consulting with Second Captain Vasili Alexandrovich Arkhipov and his deputy political officer Ivan Semenovich Maslennikov, he made the decision to come to the surface. We gave an echo locator signal, which in international navigation rules means that “the submarine is coming to the surface.” Our pursuers slowed down.
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