The Hunt for Red October

Hunt for Red October ( Original title: The Hunt for Red October ) is the first novel by Tom Clancy from 1984, which quickly became a bestseller. The German translation is by Hardo Wichmann and first appeared in 1986 in the Scherz Verlag, Bern, Munich and Vienna. This transfer has since been used for all editions.

Action

The Soviet Union, it is possible - during the Cold War - to shift the strategic balance ( arms race ) with the United States to its favor. The Red October, a strategic nuclear submarine of the Typhoon class is equipped with a so-called near-silent track drive, which is almost impossible to detect by sonar. This makes the Red October is the ideal Erstschlagswaffe.

The captain of the boat named Marko Ramius is planning, however, to overflow along with its officers (up to four) and handed over to be tipped with nuclear submarine of the United States. The Soviet Union then mobilized its entire Northern Fleet to intercept the deserters, and warns the U.S. government, Ramius had gone mad and plan to attack the United States. While large parts of the U.S. government ' to doubt the intentions of Ramius, Jack Ryan is convinced that the Soviet captain actually wants to run. He goes aboard the British aircraft carrier HMS Invincible and tries to make contact with Ramius after the Typhoon has been tracked down by the USS Dallas. Once this has been achieved, Ramius simulates a reactor accident aboard his boat and his crew can evacuate up to most of the officers and a GRU agent of an American rescue submarine of the Mystic class. To create in the rescued crew the illusion that the Red October was destroyed, can the U.S. Navy, the decommissioned submarine USS Ethan Allen detonate under water.

Ryan even goes aboard the Red October. Together with the other Soviet officers, he is able to neutralize another GRU agents and to escape the Soviet fleet. Red October is provisionally hidden in Pamlico Sound, where some crew members of the Dallas - including its commander Mancuso - are used as support crew on board. In the short time later following underwater fight between a total of four submarines ( the USS Dallas, USS Pogy, the Red October and the VK Konovalov, a Soviet fighter submarine the Alfa class and the name alludes to the real submarine commander Vladimir Konovalov on ) the Soviet attacker is destroyed. The Red October is thereby damaged ( by a torpedo and a self-initiated ramming ), but can be hidden in the naval port of Norfolk in a shielded dock.

Success

First published in October 1984 in Publishing Naval Institute Press, the debut novel Clancy on first attempt the leap into the bestseller lists and was an international success. The first edition consisted of only 14,000 units, due to high demand had to be reissued immediately to the novel. Meanwhile, several million copies were sold in different languages.

Filming

1990 best-selling novel, directed by John McTiernan with Sean Connery was filmed as captain Marko Ramius and Alec Baldwin as Jack Ryan; see: Hunt for Red October (film). The act has been amended slightly in the film.

Trivia

• Clancy's novel is based on the mutiny on the Soviet frigate Storoschewoi ( Kriwak class) in 1975.
• Clancy revealed in his novel for the first time details about the SOSUS listening system that has been officially declassified until 1991.