On Her Majesty's Cold War Nuclear Submarine Service (162)

Cold War Conversations - "vivid & compelling" The NY Times

Ian Sanders

History, Documentary, Society & Culture

4.8 • 865 Ratings

🗓️ 6 February 2021

⏱️ 88 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Commodore Eric Thompson MBE is the author of the book “On Her Majesty’s Nuclear Service. He is a career nuclear submarine officer who served from the first days of the Polaris missile boats until after the end of the Cold War. He joined the Navy in the last days of Empire, made his first sorties in World War II type submarines, and went on to become the top Engineer in charge of the Royal Navy’s operational nuclear submarine force based at Faslane. In this vivid personal account of his submarine operations, he reveals top-secret submarine patrols, hush-hush scientific trials, and a chat with British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. It is essentially a human story, rich in both drama and comedy, like the Russian spy trawler that played dance music at passing submarines. There was never a dull moment. Behind the lighter moments was a deadly serious game. Eric’s chat reveals some the secretive life of submarines and the men who served on them. If you donate monthly via Patreon or Buy Me a Coffee you will get the sought after CWC coaster and bask in the warm glow of knowing you are helping to preserve Cold War history. Just go to https://coldwarconversations.com/donate/ If a financial contribution is not your cup of tea, then you can still help us by leaving written reviews wherever you listen to us as well as sharing us on social media. It really helps us get new guests on the show. I’d like to thank some of our recent reviewers incldung Faye Dingaway, Syb 1, Cold War Gav and Romford Stu. I am delighted to welcome Eric Thompson to our Cold War conversation… There’s further information on this episode in our show notes which can also be found as a link in your podcast app here. https://coldwarconversations.com/episode162/ If you can’t wait for next week’s episode do visit our Facebook discussion group where guests and listeners continue the Cold War Conversation. Just search Cold War Conversations in Facebook. Thank you very much for listening. It is really appreciated – goodbye. Support the project! https://coldwarconversations.com/donate/ Follow us on Twitter https://twitter.com/ColdWarPod Facebook https://www.facebook.com/groups/coldwarpod/ Instagram https://www.instagram.com/coldwarconversations/ Youtube https://youtube.com/@ColdWarConversations Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to Cold War Conversations, the home of real stories of the Cold War.
0:06.1	It was fascinating because I was actually looking at Russians.
0:09.5	We'd heard about them.
0:10.7	They were supposedly the enemy.
0:12.4	And then a guy went out onto the wing of their bridge and trained a loud speaker on us and started playing dance music.
0:20.7	Anyway, the captain might make Harris the captain who went on to become an admiral.
0:24.0	He said, don't look at them, Eric. Just keep looking straight ahead.
0:29.8	This is Cold War Conversations. If you're new here, you've come to the right place to listen
0:37.1	to first-hand Cold War history accounts.
0:40.4	Do make sure you subscribe in your podcast app so that you don't miss out on future episodes.
0:46.5	Eric Thompson is the author of the book on Her Majesty's Nuclear Service.
0:51.9	He is a career nuclear submarine officer who served from the first days of
0:56.4	the Polaris missile boats until after the end of the Cold War. He joined the Navy in the last
1:03.1	days of Empire, made his first sorties in World War II type submarines and went on to become the
1:08.9	top engineer in charge of the Royal Navy's operational
1:12.4	nuclear submarine force based at Fasley. In this vivid personal account of his submarine operations,
1:20.8	he reveals top secret submarine patrols, hush-hush scientific trials, and a chat with British
1:27.2	Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher.
1:29.6	It's essentially a human story both rich in drama and comedy,
1:33.8	like the Russian spy trawler that played dance music at passing submarines.
1:38.4	There was never a dull moment, but behind the lighter moments it was a deadly serious game,
1:44.5	and Eric's chat reveals some of the secretive life of submarines and the men who served on them.
	...

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