Book Review – Tom Clancy’s “The Hunt for Red October”
Back in 1984, Tom Clancy rocked the world with his political and military thriller detailing the defection of a Soviet submarine to the United States of America.
Of course, this wasn’t just an ordinary submarine and an easy cruise across the Atlantic Ocean. The Russian submarine happens to be the Red October, the newest, largest and most technological advanced submarine in the world. It’s a submarine so advanced that most sonarmen cannot track the submarine. It’s a virtual ghost ship that carries a nuclear payload large enough to obliterate an entire country or group of countries.
The Hunt for Red October begins with the sailing of the Red October out of a Soviet submarine base. All seems well as Captain Marco Ramius, a seasoned submariner and a legend in the Soviet navy, cruises out to open water and then dives the ship. But Captain Ramius has a different set of mission orders in mind, something that will send almost the entire Soviet navy chasing him across the Atlantic Ocean.
On the first day of the cruise, Captain Ramius meets with Political Officer Ivan Putin in the captain’s private room. Ramius quickly overpowers and kills Putin, staging the political officer’s death as a tragic accident. The ship’s doctor buys the captain’s explanation and Putin’s death is treated as an accident. Captain Ramius then reveals his alternate set of mission orders and proceeds to take the Red October onto a new course —- right to the east coast of the United States. They engage the ship’s “caterpillar” engine, a very quiet drive system that uses water to propel the ship similar to an airplane’s jet engine, and sail away on their new course.
Meanwhile, Jack Ryan, an upper-level analyst for the CIA, flies from London to Washington DC with an urgent set of photos acquired by British Intelligence. He meets with Admiral James Greer and they inspect the photos. A spy in the USSR took some pictures of the new Red October submarine when she was still being constructed, and the ship has some massive doors on the bow and stern of the vehicle. The big question is, what are those doors?
Jack Ryan takes the photos to Skip Tyler, a former submarine commander who lost his leg in an automobile accident/ Tyler theorizes that the doors are for a new type of propulsion system. It’s a new type of propulsion system so quiet that it’s doubtful that the American and British sonar systems could hear the submarine. This is the “caterpillar” drive system that Captain Ramius is currently using in the northern Atlantic Ocean.
Admiral Yuri Padorin, the uncle to Captain Ramius’s late wife, Natalia, receives a letter from Captain Ramius stating his intentions to defect to the USA. Padorin sends the word to sail the Soviet Northern Fleet with the intention of hunting down and killing the renegade Soviet submarine.
The U.S. notices the massive sailing of Soviet ships with most of them heading westward across the Atlantic Ocean. The U.S. responds by positing its own naval vessels throughout the ocean and sending patrol aircraft into the skies.
Jack Ryan sees the launching of the Soviet fleet and learns of Admiral Padorin receiving a grim letter, and Ryan theorizes that the Soviets are hunting one of their own submarines. And why would the Soviets be hunting one of their own? Ryan theorizes that the submarine commander wants to defect, possibly with his entire crew. Such events have happened in the past. The evidence points to history repeating itself although things are much trickier now.
The problem with a submarine commander defecting is that the Soviet Union is going to request that the U.S. returns the submarine itself. It’ll take a year or two before clearing the legal circuit, during which engineers will inspect everything on board the sub, but the Soviets would eventually get their ship back. But if the Soviets believe that the submarine is somehow destroyed in a legitimate fashion, then they wouldn’t be requesting the return of fragments of the sub.
How do you fool the Cold War enemy and make them believe that their largest and best ballistic missile nuclear submarine is destroyed when, in fact, it’s still alive and well? How can you convince the crew members that their beloved captain went down fighting?
Those are some of the problems facing the U.S. as time is ticking in a very unique opportunity to seize a very large prize. As the CIA leaders decide how to handle Captain Ramius’s defection and gaining control of his ship, the Soviet navy is positioning itself along the east coast of the country, lining the shores with hunter-killer submarines waiting for the Red October.
As a whole, The Hunt for Red October is a thrilling, fast-paced book that brings readers into the world of modern (at least at the time of the book’s publishing) day submarines and naval tactics. Fans of the movie will quickly notice that much of the second half of the book is different, from Jack Ryan’s time on the British aircraft carrier to the way that the Red October‘s crew is removed from the ship to the way that the Red October is sailed and ultimately hidden at a U.S. naval base.
Fans of Tom Clancy novels will also notice that this is one of his shorter books. He’s known for writing very long and detailed stories (especially The Sum of All Fears), but The Hunt for Red October is one of the shorter books in the Jack Ryan series.
If you love submarine tales and stories of modern day navies (modern = early 1980s), then The Hunt for Red October is a must read. Be warned that the military jargon is fairly high and it covers everything from aircraft and flight maneuvers to carrier operations to submarines to oceanography. If you can handle it, then you’ll most likely enjoy this classic tale of a sneaky and daring naval operation.
