Stalking the Red Bear cover art

Stalking the Red Bear

The True Story of a U.S. Cold War Submarine's Covert Operations Against the Soviet Union

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Stalking the Red Bear

By: Peter Sasgen
Narrated by: Charlie Thurston
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About this listen

Stalking the Red Bear, for the first time ever, describes the action principally from the perspective of a commanding officer of a nuclear submarine during the Cold War - the one man aboard a sub who makes the critical decisions - taking us closer to the Soviet target than any work on submarine espionage has ever done before.

This is the untold story of a covert submarine espionage operation against the Soviet Union during the Cold War as experienced by the commanding officer of an active submarine. Few individuals outside the intelligence and submarine communities knew anything about these top-secret missions.

Cloaking itself in virtual invisibility to avoid detection, the USS Blackfin went sub vs. sub deep within Soviet-controlled waters north of the Arctic Circle, where the risks were extraordinarily high and anything could happen. Listeners will know what it was like to carry out a covert mission aboard a nuke and experience the sights, sounds, and dangers unique to submarining.

©2009 Peter Sasgen (P)2017 Tantor Armed Forces Engineering Freedom & Security Military Naval Forces Politics & Government Russia Weapons & Warfare Espionage War Submarine Soviet Union Cold War Imperial Japan Naval Warfare

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Critic reviews

"An exciting and realistic journey deep into the cold black waters of covert submarine espionage during the Cold War era." (Kenneth Sewell, New York Times best-selling author)
All stars
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A "factional" look at, cat and mouse, US cold-war sea patrols in the Barents Sea.

Interesting Listening.

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Good story overall, though if you've read other books on the topic then there is not much new in here. The tone and performance felt a bit monotone.
Good but not worth the price of a credit.

Entertaining story overall

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Whilst well written the reader does not manage to enliven their delivery quite enough to keep me personally engaged

Disappointed with the delivery

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The book gives a good description of what I did for many years of my life, but , according to the author the Americans did it all, single handed. It sheds light on the fact that the Americans occasionally got caught by the Russians in the Barents and Kara Seas…. We never got caught. But, according to good old Uncle Sam, they did it it all, with no help. ….. Which is absolute rubbish.

Pure American bias on a grand scale

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If you have any interest in this aort of stuff, I imagine you will become riveted by this book just as I did. Its like a real life Tom Clancy novel with lots of detail on submarine operations, crews, families, technology on both NATO and Soviet boats etc. etc. etc.
The book started a little bit slowly, but I then became hooked and could have listened to hours and hours of this. It's a shame it's only 7 hours worth but maybe the author will write more one day?!
Superb narration also. Some of the best I have heard in fact.

This is 27 million hours too short!

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Getting a narrative view into an area of history not covered by others was an interesting distraction from what could have otherwise been a dry account. Disappointed that the appendices were not included as they promised to add more detail to specific events

Interesting insights

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The listener is swamped with far too many acronyms which is fine if you are a sea faring mariner but much of the story fails to be understood, the story sometimes rambles on and on with meaningless sentences and words and one wonders where the story is heading, alas it was really hard going and went nowhere.
Sometimes hard to keep up with a boring storyline and found myself drifting off elsewhere many times, then having to retrace my steps to fill the gaps.
The story reader did a good job with good pronounces and a good grasp of the English language, despite this positivity I didn’t found what could have been another great Red October story somewhat less fulfilling and to be honest I was glad it was finished.
I had great expectations for this one but quickly got bored with the above which was quite disappointing.

Ok for submariners out there

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