The
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Get the Tbilisi
This scenario is an interpretation of the account from Michael A. Palmer's, "The War that Never Was".
"... A large convoy of eight Soviet cargo vessels carrying supplies and equipment had rounded the North Cape and was making its way to Harstad. Attack NATO aircraft were driven off by the Tbilisi's Flankers and Forgers. The Soviet carrier had covered the landing of the Northern Fleet's Marines at Harstad and seemed likely to safeguard the movement of the brigade's equipment and supplies to the newly established beachhead as well. Moreover, the carrier's fighters hindered movement by air of Norwegian reinforcements from the south to Bardufoss.
To Sir Owen, the continued presence of the Tbilisi in the Norwegian Sea ensured early defeat for NATO in north Norway. 'I would never have believed before the war', he confided to his naval aide, 'that one relatively small carrier could cause so many large problems.' At 0430 on the fifteenth of July, a tired GEN Peirse call CINCEASTLANT Hill-Norton at his Northwood, Middlesex, headquarters and explained the situation. 'Ben, your subs have got to get that Russian carrier out of there so my air can get to their cargo ships. Otherwise, we're facing disaster up north. My Norwegian boats can't do it alone.'
Hill-Norton was sympathetic. The ability of the Tbilisi's air group to fend off attacks from NATO land-based air and the Forrestal had surprised the Royal Navy's CINC, upset a variety of plans, and led to the wholesale destruction of Norwegian surface forces. 'Yes,' Hill-Norton responded, 'if we are going to get that carrier any time soon, our submarines will have to do the job. I'll talk to Dave.'"
"... Following the successful Soviet amphibious landing at Harstad, [Dave] Livesay had directed his submarines to focus their efforts against the well-screen Soviet supply convoy making its way along the Norwegian coast. Many of his submarines had been drawn inward toward the coast in an unsuccessful last-ditch attempt to prevent the amphibious landing on Hinnoy Island. Others had sparred, with some success, throughout D day with the Russian ASW group which screened the Tbilisi force further north. Later-arriving boats had been sent toward the North Cape, to loop around the rear of the powerful Russian task forces covering the approach of the supply convoy, and to get at the freighters, the sinking of which Hill-Norton himself had assigned top priority."
By 0600 on the fifteenth, several NATO SSNs had managed to make shallow runs and "pick up their mail," as one U.S. Navy submarine commander put it.
Author: Herman Hum
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