Opening Moves

Each pair of submarines was accompanied by two surface ships, one a minesweeper, the other a destroyer, whose jobs were to exactly mirror the movements of the submarines to ensure little chance of detection, provide minesweeping capability and to overtly travel into the North Sea on their way to Goodwill visits in faraway places.

To the experienced eye, the minesweepers and destroyers were not of Soviet design but of American origin. The former were small Admirable class vessels, being the T-112, ex-USS Agent, and the T-116, ex-USS Arcade respectively. Both carried mines hidden below decks but only those who knew what to look for would have wondered about the new openings towards the stern of both vessels. The latter were both old American WW-I vintage flush-deckers, subsequently British ‘Town class’ destroyers, worn out in the service of the Royal Navy under the lend-lease scheme and then sent onto the Soviet Union for further use.

The first of these, Doblestnyj, in its previous service known as HMS Roxborough, had orders to visit France, making landfall at Cherbourg, and then to steam to Portugal to take the well-wishes of the Soviet People to the Iberian peninsula.

The second, Zguchij, formerly HMS Leamington, was tasked to make a brief stopover in Londonderry then sail on to New York.

These venerable vessels were employed on the expectation that they were so old, and that allied naval personnel would be so familiar with them that they would brook little attention or investigation, and that sightseers would feel uninspired by their appearance.

They were also expendable.

Both ‘Townies’ had been modified by the Soviets in line with an idea by the British Navy used on other ships, removing torpedo tubes, one boiler room, and two of the four smoke stacks in favour of cargo stowage. A sensible measure for England at a time when every piece of cargo landed kept the country alive and the U-Boats were more interested in sinking merchant vessels. Now the two destroyers carried the consumables of undersea warfare. Fuel oil, mines, battery sets, spare parts, engineering repair equipment and torpedoes, torpedoes, torpedoes.

The Allied Naval Authorities had been approached and accepted the proposed cordial visits between allies, even providing up to date information on possible drifting mine locations and promising a warm welcome.

The real Soviet plan was to clandestinely land the stores and personnel, establishing secret supply facilities to keep the submarines operational for as long as possible.

Doblestnyj to use the dark of night to stock a covert base in an inlet on the south side of Renonquet Island, near Alderney, safe from prying eyes on an uninhabited shore.

Zguchij, using contacts born and bred before the start of WW2, was to meet with supporters from the Irish Republican Army, and establish another site in a sheltered bay just north of the isolated village of Glenlara, Éire. The IRA would ensure the security of the site and keep snoopers at bay. The ship would then sail with T-116 to the Americas. Fuel for the submarines destined for American shores was less of a problem, with Soviet agents in place to provide support. However, a place to create a suitable clandestine supply site on the East Coast had not yet been established, and the agents in place searched on.

Doblestnyj, with T-112, would sail on south from the Channel islands, after doing her brief flag-waving duties in France. Both would leave some mines behind outside the French harbour and then sail to a bay north-west of Malpica on the north coast of Spain, clandestinely creating another site similar to Glenlara, this time set-up and policed by communists sympathisers, staunch veterans of the Spanish Civil War. Both vessels would then proceed to Portugal where it was expected they would be interned when the war started.

Zguchij carried the engineers and service personnel who would maintain the secret bases, roughly the same numbers as were aboard Doblestnyj, but she also carried extra submarine crew. The IRA were so sure that they could provide a secure site that the Soviet planning even allowed for crew rest and substitutions, so that time on shore was available to sailors in facilities created by the Irish dissidents, which was hoped would ensure more time at sea sinking allied tonnage.

Doblestnyj’s subtle difference in cargo was a small group of dangerous men who were to slip ashore near Malpica and make their way into the heart of Spain for a mission of extreme vengeance close to Beria’s heart.

T-112’s Captain, Senior Lieutenant Vladimirov, had further orders known only to himself, but he doubted he would be able to proceed with them, as Gibraltar was such a long way and the time margins were thin.