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Benu5 t1_jd63cip wrote

There was no false alarm for nuclear war. They hadn't recieved any information in days due to being submerged.

The Captain and the Commisar wanted to use the tactical nuclear torpedo on a US ship dropping depth charges in an attempt to get the sub to surface. It is pure luck that Captain Arkhipov was also on board and thus required to also approve of the use of the tactical nuke. He argued that the depth charges were likely to be an attempt to get them to surface ans communicate with the US ships.

The initial confusion was that the US had changed their protocol as to how they would use depth charges to signal a demand to surface, something about the number and sequence of depth charges used had changed, leading the other Captain and Commisar to assume they were under attack. Arkhipov argued that it may be a demand to surface, and that they should do so to confirm what was actually happening. They surfaced, and the US ships told them to return to the USSR.

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Hip_Hop_Hippos t1_jd6hkar wrote

I could be remembering this wrong, but I think the confusion was about whether they were being depth charged at all.

I think the US Navy was using small concussive charges that wouldn’t actually do any damage to try and signal them to surface, and the Soviets worried they were being attacked with actual depth charges.

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dmitryredkin t1_jd7ac32 wrote

Regarding the "other captain": Arkhipov was a Chief of Staff of the Submarine Brigade, and thus wasn't in charge of the ship, but, being in a more senior position than the captain, managed to calm him down, while the latter was really ready to launch the torpedo.

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Affectionate_Reply78 t1_jd96ppn wrote

Didn’t know the part about the Russian officers wanting to use nukes. They would have gotten along well with US General LeMay who apparently wanted to escalate to nuclear weapons in this crisis as well.

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