How Heat Stroke Nearly Started World War Three

7/30/2023

Even with air conditioning, according to the EPA heat related deaths in the United States have totaled over 11,000 since 1979. Heat exhaustion happens when your body overheats and can't cool itself down. It usually results from physical activity in hot weather. The symptoms include dizziness, confusion and nausea. Heat emergencies have three stages; heat cramps, heat exhaustion, and heat stroke which can prove deadly.

All three stages of heat emergency are serious. Any exposure above 108 degrees for prolonged periods of time usually results in brain and other organ damage.

The Center for Disease Control (CDC) has indicated that hospitals have recorded a large spike in heat related illnesses in the regions that include Texas, Arkansas, Louisianna, New Mexico and Oklahoma. In fact, Las Vegas recorded over 152 deaths during 2022 related to excessive heat. So with the latest heat wave across the country, I was reminded of the brutal conditions aboard the B-59 Foxtrot and the extraordinary courage the crew demonstrated during the Cuban Missile Crisis

Fahrenheit 111-B-59 Foxtrot Submarine Text

(With Apologies to Ray Bradbury- “Fahrenheight 451” )

On the night of October 27th, 1962, The US destroyers Cony, Beal, and other ships in the ASW task Force led by the Essex Carrier managed to surface the B-59 after it had successfully evaded its pursuers for nearly 72 hours. The B59 had been on a mission since October 1st to escort Soviet ships through the United States blockade of Cuba. The Foxtrots were built for duty in the North Atlantic and the mechanical problems they encountered due to the warm water and salinity of the Caribbean caused temperatures to reach unbearable levels on the 27th after being submerged for such a lengthy period of time.

Here is an account from Captain Savitsky (B-59) and others:

The submarine B-59, commanded by Captain Second Rank Valentin Savitsky, was forced to surface by U.S. destroyers in the Cuban area on 27 October, because her batteries were running low. His account of the conditions in his submarine and the encounter was spellbinding:

Only emergency lighting was functioning. The temperatures in the compartments was 45–50 C [113–122 F], up to 60 C [140 F] 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.

The account, as told to a Russian journalist, continued:

The totally exhausted Savitsky, who in addition to everything, was not able to establish [a radio] connection with the General Staff, became furious. He summoned the officer who was assigned to the nuclear torpedo, ordered him to assemble it to battle readiness. “Maybe the war has already started up there, while we are doing somersaults here”—screamed emotional Valentine Grigorievch [Savitsky], 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!”

So how “cooler heads” prevailed when the order to fire the nuclear tipped torpedo was given is a testament to Vasili Arkipov and a few others aboard the B-59. They saved the world from a nuclear famine which surely would have followed a war where over 7,000 MTs of nuclear bombs would have been launched by the US alone.