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The Silent War

Episode 1: Know Your Enemy

Duration: 59 minutes

First broadcast: on BBC Two HDLatest broadcast: on BBC Four HD

For decades, Britain and America's Cold War submarines waged a secret war of espionage against the Soviet navy. Deep in the ocean, crews were locked in a game of cat and mouse as each side battled to gain the tactical and technological advantage.

After decades of silence, submariners from both the east and west are now allowed to talk more openly than ever before about how they plotted to win the war beneath the waves. The west's superior technology allowed them to secretly shadow the Soviet fleet, at close quarters, giving them vital intelligence and the upper hand if war broke out.

Shadowing submarines was dangerous. The film explores close encounters between western and Soviet forces that put the lives of submariners at risk. Candid interviews with British, American and Russian submariners reveal the pressures of lengthy underwater patrols that drove them to the edge of their physical and mental limits. Show less

Contributors

Narrator:
Haydn Gwynne
Producer:
David Belton
Director:
David Belton
Executive Producer:
Chris Granlund
Participant:
Roger Lane-Nott
Participant:
Mikhail Kuznetsova
Participant:
Bo Bohannon
Participant:
Charles Young
Participant:
Norman Hodgson
Participant:
Martin MacPherson
Participant:
Anatolii Andreev
Participant:
Lillian Bohannon
Participant:
Sandy Woodward
Participant:
John Speller
Participant:
David Owen
Participant:
Owen Cote
Participant:
Bruce De Mars
Participant:
Gary Slaughter
Participant:
Igor Kurdin
Participant:
Toby Eliot
Participant:
Imogen Eliot
Participant:
Vladlen Navmov
Participant:
Kevin Whitehouse
Participant:
Gannon MacHale
Participant:
Victor Palamarchuk
Participant:
Frank Turvey
Participant:
Tatyana Kuznetsova
Participant:
Ian Hewitt

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