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All Hands Down

The True Story of the Soviet Attack on the USS Scorpion

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All Hands Down

By: Kenneth Sewell, Jerome Preisler
Narrated by: Malcolm Hillgartner
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About this listen

 Forty years ago, in May 1968, the submarine USS Scorpion sank in mysterious circumstances with a loss of 99 lives. The tragedy occurred during the height of the Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union. Now, drawing on hours of exclusive interviews as well as recently declassified United States and Soviet intelligence files, Kenneth Sewell and Jerome Preisler explain what really happened to Scorpion.

When a Soviet sub mysteriously sank near Hawaii, hundreds of miles from its normal station, Soviet naval leaders mistakenly believed that a U.S. submarine was to blame. Using a cryptographic unit acquired from the North Koreans to decipher classified Navy communications, they set a trap for revenge. All Hands Down explains how the plan was executed and why the truth of the attack has been officially denied for 40 years.

©2008 Kenneth Sewell and Jerome Priesler (P)2008 Blackstone Audio, Inc. Armed Forces Military Military Science Naval Forces Russia Soviet Union Submarine

Critic reviews

"[A] convincing argument....few will be able to resist the juicy details offered about this half-forgotten disaster and its aftermath....A satisfying historical whodunit, redolent with Cold War paranoia and tragedy." ( Kirkus Reviews)
All stars
Most relevant
A simply told narrative of this interesting phase in international history of underwater warfare and defence.
Well written and captivating, and eye-opening if you didn't know anything about this form of the military, seen from both sides.

Good listen

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Personally not my favourite. Wasn't really the content I was hoping for really but educational non the less.

Not my Favourite.

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This is an excellent and somewhat scary real life story. It is very well researched and written, and superbly related.

It gives a deep and unappreciated insight into the dangers service personnel face even in peace time, and confirms how political expediency keeps secret many things from the average person in the street.

Until listening to this book and concurrent personal reading elsewhere I had absolutely no idea that nine nuclear submarines have been lost since 1963 with the loss of over 400 sailors. Sobering thoughts.

I highly recommend this book to anyone with the slightest interest in the subject.

Fascinating and scary real life story

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It's well written alrigth, a pleasure to listen to perdormance-wise. But it appears the authors took some broad liberties when cooking up this story. So I did feel a bit betrayed when it came apparent that the events of the book are pretty much founded on hearsay and a sprikle of imagination from the author's part.

Well written fiction dressed as facts 😬

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This is not a book I would usually listen to but the narrative kept me coming back to it. Whether the actual conclusions are accurate or not the audiobook did give a deep insight into the life and duties within the submarine . It also illustrated the strain placed on the crews family members left in the dark by officials
I am glad I chose the title

Kept me coming back

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