Military historian Dmitry Boltenkov — about how for 100 years naval sabotage has become the most important tool of foreign policySince the creation of such a means of armed struggle as a warship, the task of sinking it in various ways has also arisen.
And the idea of destroying the ship from under the water looked very tempting: the development of surveillance means did not allow to see an underwater object, and this ensured the secrecy and surprise of the attack. But if in antiquity technology did not allow such a project to be implemented, then with the development of technology there was also the possibility of an underwater attack. The first known one took place on September 7, 1776, when the ultra-small submarine "Turtle" of the USA tried to attack British ships near New York. The attempt failed, but went down in history. After that, the development of submarine attack technologies followed the path of creating submarines. And the very idea of a covert attack from under the water by saboteurs remained.
The First World War gave a tangible impetus to the creation of military technologies. The Italians, in their struggle with the fleet of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, came up with a new military technology — combat swimmers. Dressed in light diving suits, on guided torpedoes, they arrived at the place of attack in the enemy's harbor and attached mine charges with a time timer to the object of attack. The first successful application of such technology took place at the end of the First World War — on November 1, 1918, when two Italian officers mined the battleship Viribus Unitis. In fact, at this point in time, the battleship already actually belonged to the State of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs. Nevertheless, the battleship was blown up.
After the First World War, it was the Italians who continued the development of their underwater sabotage forces. As a result, during the events of the Second World War, the Italians inflicted a number of very serious blows on the forces of the British Royal Navy. In particular, on December 19, 1941, two battleships "Veliant" and "Queen Elizabeth" were seriously damaged and permanently disabled in the Egyptian port of Alexandria. After looking at this case, other countries, in particular Britain, began to create their own underwater saboteurs. To carry out sabotage, she used, among other things, ultra-small submarines, which were transported to the place of attack using conventional submarines.
So, the headache of the British fleet — the German battleship Tirpitz — was put out of action for a long time during the attack of ultra-small submarines on September 22, 1943. In general, attacks on enemy ships and vessels in protected naval bases led to large material losses and to heavy moral blows for the enemy. At the same time, the attacker used much less expensive resources. Two permanently disabled British battleships are clearly much more expensive than two torpedoes and four captured Italians.
After the Second World War, the technology of conducting sabotage activities under water was further developed. Aqualungs, means of delivery of various means, such as torpedoes and ultra-small submarines, were actively developing. Methods and methods of conducting combat operations under water were improved. In particular, today underwater swimmers are part of the naval forces of a large number of countries. For example, the US Navy has a large SEAL detachment, the British are developing a Special boat service, the Israeli fleet includes the so-called flotilla number 13, and so on.
At the same time, the task of combating underwater saboteurs arose. Although the death of the battleship Novorossiysk in Sevastopol on October 29, 1955, as it was recognized, occurred from a German naval mine remaining at the bottom of the bay, this prompted the Soviet naval leadership to create both units of naval saboteurs and units to combat them. And if nothing is known about the activities of Soviet naval saboteurs, then the units to combat them were also involved in combat conditions. Two Soviet and one Cuban transport were mined by unknown persons on the night of June 6, 1986 in the Angolan port of Namib. At that time there was a fierce war in South Africa between Angola and South Africa. A group of specialists was sent from the squadron to combat underwater saboteurs of the 68th brigade of ships guarding the water area of the Black Sea Fleet. The Cuban transport had already exploded by this time, and the Soviet ones managed to remove mines, and one whole one. The parts that made up the removed mine could be bought at any store. It was clear that this was the work of the Yuar swimmers, but there was no evidence.
The French special services did not act so professionally. There was a big showdown between Greenpeace and France in the 1980s due to the fact that France was actively testing nuclear weapons on atolls belonging to this country in the South Pacific Ocean. Greenpeace, for its part, actively prevented this. In the end, the angered highest authorities of France ordered the explosion of the Greenpeace ship Rainbow Warrior. Which was done on July 10, 1985 in New Zealand. However, one person was killed in the explosion, and some of the saboteurs were arrested. As a result, a huge scandal broke out. Israeli swimmers regularly conducted underwater operations against both their Arab opponents and the Palestine Liberation Front. Hence, a new phenomenon appeared when conducting underwater sabotage: the use of special underwater forces against non-governmental organizations and against countries with which military operations have not been officially declared.
In 1983, the United States began conducting naval terrorist attacks against Nicaragua. In particular, a group of combat swimmers from among persons of Latin American appearance was created under the auspices of the CIA. The group itself masqueraded as the "Contras". She carried out a number of attacks on the objects of the oil structure of this country. So, on October 11, 1983, a number of oil storage facilities in the port of Corinto were blown up. On October 14 of the same year, the group blew up an underwater pipeline in the port of Puerto Sandino. The following year, the sea waters of this free country were mined, as a result of which a number of ships were blown up by mines. However, the whole story surfaced in the press, an international scandal broke out, after which the operation was curtailed. Nicaragua suffered serious economic damage, and also switched to oil supplies from Mexico and Europe to the USSR.
Three conclusions can be drawn from these stories. First, the operation must be carefully planned, the circle of participants must be limited, the operation must be carried out secretly. The second is that saboteurs cannot be caught. And the third — mines should be assembled from parts that cannot give an explicit indication of the country that used them.
With the development of economic activity in the depths of the World Ocean, new possible targets have appeared, such as underwater communication channels, gas and oil pipelines and other objects of economic importance. A large number of new marine technologies have also appeared, which can be used for both peaceful and military purposes. For example, a variety of underwater drones.
Accordingly, new targets for attacks by underwater saboteurs have appeared. So, on September 26, 2022, the Nord Stream – 1 and Nord Stream–2 gas pipelines were blown up. It is noteworthy that just a few days ago, the international exercises Baltops-2022 were held in the same area of the Baltic Sea, during which various tasks of underwater mine clearance and the use of underwater drones were also worked out. But it is very difficult to assume that the United States has clearly carried out such an attack both against Russia and against its own allies. As a result of this terrorist attack, both Russia and, first of all, the EU countries have suffered enormous economic damage.
Most likely, these exercises were used by a group of unknown persons to cover up their activities. In contrast to the opinion that only a militarily powerful state can do this, it is worth noting that the development of modern underwater commercial technologies, the availability of trained specialists from among those who have served in marine underwater sabotage units and money, very big money, can allow a group of unknown persons to carry out a sabotage of this scale. Well, getting explosives is not a problem. For example, Ukraine has now become a cosmic-scale hole in terms of the disappearance of all types of weapons and military equipment on its territory. The main thing is to do everything as carefully as possible. And water, as you know, will hide all traces, and it will be almost impossible to establish all the details of the terrorist attack carried out.
Now countries operating a variety of underwater civilian facilities will have to create underwater systems for their protection and defense, operating 24/7. The very fact of such an event as the explosion of underwater gas pipelines brings terrorist activity to a new level — the level of attacks on the most important objects of civil economic activity. Their destruction leads to enormous economic damage. The disappearance of a couple of hundred meters of one of the underwater communication cables between Europe and the United States will cause catastrophic damage to the global financial system. And in addition, such events can become a Casus belli, after which the existing world order will never be the same.
The author is a military historianThe editorial board's position may not coincide with the author's opinion
