Destroyer Sokrushitelnyi, 54 dgs 42 min North, 19 dgs 33 min East, Tuesday, 13 April 1948
As Pylkiy prosecuted the submarine contact, Captain Second Rank Ivan Yenin of Sokrushitelnyi waited his turn. For the moment, Sokrushitelnyi would lay doggo, making five knots and listening passively, while the flotilla leader conducted an active sweep. Although the submarine had gone to quiet routine, the Pylkiy was still holding the contact with active echolation, and radioing detailed instructions to the other ships in the flotilla. Moltke's planes overhead, unfortunately, had limited antisubmarine capability, and thus the air commander ordered them to circle Pylkiy, looking for periscope feathers.
Yenin looked out the bridge windows, his expression thoughtful. He turned to his executive officer, Vasiliy Annikov, who had just arrived on the bridge. "Something bothers me about this, starpom," he said.
"The foreign submarine?" Annikov asked.
"Da. Pylkiy reported they were using a snort when first detected." Yenin paused, listening on the shortranged radio to another position update from Pylkiy. "They were using a snort, Vasiliy. But the boat isn't German. What does that tell you?"
Annikov had recently attended an antisubmarine school for junior officers, and he cocked his head in thought. "If it is using a snort, then it's not one of ours."
"No," Yenin said. The VMF Rossii was just now completing its first fleet submarines with snorts. "And the Germans say it is not theirs."
"Nordish? Polish?" Annikov asked. He paused. "Maybe a Dane?"
"The Polish and the Danes have not fitted snorts to any of their boats, starpom." Yenin pointed out. "We know this. As to the Nords, we think they might have snorts, but we have never seen one in the Baltic so equipped."
"Do you think it might be an outsider?" Annikov asked.
"That is what bothers me. I don't think the Danes let submerged submarines navigate the Belts, and we have a vested interest in helping them maintain that policy. It doesn't mean they didn't come through on the surface, of course."
The radio buzzed, and the flotilla leader ordered Sokrushitelnyi to begin prosecuting the contact. Yenin ordered fourteen knots and active sonar, picking up the submarine as they made their approach. That done, Yenin returned to the radio to talk quickly with Kozyukhin, sharing his doubts. "The thought had also crossed my mind," Kozyukhin concurred. "Do you have any proposals?"
"Yes," Yenin replied, hastily explaining his suggestion.
"Well, go ahead and try it," Kozyukhin said. "Nothing lost if it doesn't work. I'll radio and ask the Danish naval attache if any foreign submarines have transited the Belts."
Yenin grinned. "Mitschman, perpare to power the underwater telephone."
"It's good, sir."
Yenin stepped back to Sokrushitelnyi's sonar shack, and picked up the handset, waiting for the long pause between active pings to start talking in his broken Norse. "Johan Submarine, Johan Submarine, this is Ivan - VMF Rossii destroyer Sokrushitelnyi." Ping! "We are tired of drinking German beer! If you surface-" Ping! "-we will trade you cases if you have any Pripps or Carlsberg."
"Do you think it will work?" Annikov asked, once Yenin returned to the navigating bridge.
"Not really," Yenin admitted. "We play this game a lot in the Gulf of Finland. But if our friend is a Nordish snort boat, he's probably new to the Baltic, and not played the game before. He will know that we'll identify him if he surfaces. If he's a Nord that's not native to the Baltic, or if he's perhaps an Anglichanin who snuck past the Belts, I doubt he'll be willing to do that. Unless we're willing to spend a few days holding him down until he's forced to surface, then we might not get his identify from him."