Throughout history, numerous wars have been prevented at the very last second. Find out about some wars that never happened

A Near Nuclear Disaster

Location: Several miles off the coast of Cuba

Date: October 27, 1962

You’ve probably heard of the Cold War. Lasting from 1947 until 1991 (when the Soviet Union collapsed), tensions between the United States and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) were really high. The Cold War was essentially a war between democracy and Communism. There were no battles, which is why it’s called the “Cold War,” but everyone knew that war could break out any minute.

One of the tensest times during this period of almost half a century was the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962. Cuba was (and is) a Communist state with close ties to the Soviet Union. The leader of the USSR, Nikita Khrushchev, thought it wise to get some Russian nuclear missiles over to Cuba. That’s because Cuba is only about 150 miles from the southern coast of America. Having nuclear missiles so close to the enemy of the USSR would come in handy if the Soviets decided to attack the US. Plus, just keeping the missiles in Cuba was a good threat, even if they would never actually be used.

President John F. Kennedy was alarmed. He immediately ordered a naval blockade around Cuba’s territorial waters. The American naval ships made sure that no cargo or other ships could get to Cuba.

Which brings us to that fateful Saturday in October, a day later known as Black Saturday.

Early Saturday morning, a US spy plane was shot down over Cuba, and its pilot, Major Rudolf Anderson, killed. It was the first time such a thing had happened. The situation was very serious.

Deep below the waters of the Straits of Florida (which lies between Florida and Cuba), Soviet submarine B-59 was waiting to break through the naval blockade. For several days the submarine had been out of radio contact with Moscow. This was because the American ships above were dropping depth charges, an anti-submarine weapon, and now the sub was too deep in the ocean to communicate with the surface. The captain of the Soviet sub, Valentin Savitsky, had no idea that these depth charges were actually duds that wouldn’t explode on impact. The American ships had no wish to destroy the sub; they simply wanted to force the submarine to rise to the surface and reveal itself.

However, since the submarine’s communication with Russia had been cut off, the captain didn’t know what was going on up there. All the captain knew was what he had been told when his mission had begun: “If you are attacked with depth charges, fire!”

Based on all the depth charges being sent his way, Captain Savitsky was certain that World War III had begun. And that’s when he made the potentially earth-shattering decision (literally!) to fire one of the missiles on board.

What the Americans didn’t know was that the sub was outfitted with a torpedo with a nuclear warhead. Basically, there was a nuclear bomb on this submarine.

“We are going to blow them up now! We will die, but we will bring them all down with us. We will not be an embarrassment to our navy!” Savitsky railed furiously. He ordered the crew to prepare the torpedo for firing. The Americans above, simply expecting the submarine to rise to the surface, were clueless to the fact that their warning charges were triggering the beginning of a nuclear war.

(Excerpted from Mishpacha Jr., Issue 786)