Russian Sub. Damaged

Press, Volume CX, Issue 32214, 5 February 1970, Page 11

Russian Sub. Damaged

(N.Z.P.A.-Reuter—Copyright) GIBRALTAR, February 4. North Atlantic Treaty Organisation planes and ships were today keeping watch on a Soviet submarine going through the Mediterranean with part of its bow missing.

Royal Navy sources in London last night confirmed a statement from the American Sixth Fleet headquarters in Naples that the submarine with a crew of 90 to 100 men was in the western Mediterranean.

But the destination of the 2000-ton submarine, which has 25ft of its bow sheared

off, possibly in a collision with another Soviet vessel, was still uncertain.

It was reported on Monday to be anchored off north of Morocco, where it had been for several days. The diesel-powered submarine, first sighted by the Sixth Fleet on January 15, might call at Gibraltar for repairs, but a Gibraltar spokesman said last night that no request had so far been made by the Russians for repair work.

It was thought that the submarine will travel through the Mediterranean to a Soviet base on the Black Sea. A spokesman for the United States Sixth Fleet in Naples said last night that it might leave the Mediterranean in the next week.

The “F” class submarine, introduced into the Soviet Navy after 1960, was thought to have been damaged during Soviet exercises in the Mediterranean.

Other Soviet ships nearby have been assisting it, and neither N.A.T.O. nor the Sixth Fleet had been asked for help, the United States spokesman said. A Defence Department spokesman in London said: “We have had no approach from the Soviet Navy for any help but we would be glad to give it if asked.”