Working in the nuclear missile compartment of a Cold War Royal Navy Polaris submarine (213)

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

Ian Sanders

History, Documentary, Society & Culture

4.8 • 865 Ratings

🗓️ 18 December 2021

⏱️ 47 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

John Andrews joined the Royal Navy in 1981 and went on to serve aboard the HMS Repulse, one of the UK’s Polaris nuclear missile submarines from 1982. His role was Missile Compartment Control Patrol which included security of the nuclear missile compartment as well as assisting in the maintenance of the missile tubes and the nuclear missiles themselves. John shares details of life aboard the ship including missile launch tests, alcohol, practical jokes, escape procedures from a submerged submarine and many more. This podcast relies on listener support to enable me to continue to capture these incredible stories and make them available for free. You can support my work and help to preserve Cold War history via one-off or monthly donations Just go to https://coldwarconversations.com/donate/ for more details. Do join our Facebook discussion group where the cold war conversation continues between episodes. Just search Cold War Conversations on Facebook. Now, this episode was recorded at the Hack Green Nuclear Bunker Soviet Threat event so you will hear some background noise, but I am delighted to welcome John Andrews 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. 0:00 Introduction and guest John Andrews' role in the Royal Navy 3:05 Detailed background of John's service 6:13 Discussion on John's claustrophobia and PTSD diagnosis 9:02 Recollection of a missile launch test 15:32 Understanding of ship-wide activities 20:38 Role of detonators in missile launch 24:28 Monitoring radiation exposure and experiences with PTSD 28:17 Relationships and interactions with officers 31:40 Family communication on the submarine 37:52 Running quiet on the submarine when being followed 42:22 Rivalry between submarines and crews 44:30 Closing remarks by Ian Sanders 43:55 Acknowledging patrons and call for donations 44:45 Cold War Conversations store advertisement Table of contents powered by PodcastAI✨ 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.
0:05.7	Somebody in the control room messed with the wrong valves.
0:08.9	Instead of surfacing, bow first, they come out to our send first, and the prop got chewed up.
0:14.9	But we only missed the bottom of the lock, allegedly, by 25 foot.
0:19.5	So he was quite close to getting killed.
0:23.6	This is Cold War Conversations. Thanks to Patreon supporter Jim Black for providing our intro today.
0:33.8	If you're new here, you've come to the right place to listen to first-hand Cold War history accounts.
0:40.3	Do make sure you follow us in your podcast app so that you don't miss out on future episodes.
0:46.0	John Andrews joined the Royal Navy in 1981 and went on to serve aboard HMS Repulse,
0:53.8	one of the UK's Polaris nuclear missile submarines from 1982.
0:59.5	His role was missile compartment patrol, which included the security of the nuclear missile compartment
1:06.4	as well as assisting in the maintenance of the missile tubes and the nuclear missiles themselves.
1:13.1	John shares details of life aboard the ship, including missile launch tests,
1:18.3	the use of alcohol, practical jokes and escape procedures from a submerged submarine, and many more.
1:26.2	Now, this podcast relies on listener support to enable me to continue to capture these
1:33.7	incredible stories and make them available to you for free.
1:39.1	I'd really appreciate it if you could support my work and help to preserve Cold War history via one-off
1:46.4	or monthly donations. If you'd like to learn more, just go to cold warconversations.com
1:53.3	slash donate. You can also join our Facebook discussion group where the Cold War
2:00.4	Conversation continues between episodes.
2:03.5	Just search for Cold War conversations on Facebook.
2:08.3	Now, this episode was recorded at the Hack Green Nuclear Bunker Soviet threat event,
	...

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