Chris Groves – First live firing of Spearfish torpedo

We were the first submarine to do a live firing of the Spearfish Torpedo and we sunk the ex-USS Wainwright about 90 miles to the east of Norfolk Virginia, which was a good and bad day.

One of the ships that we were in company with had a Lynx Helicopter that was involved in the firing exercise that we doing against this ship, and very sadly we lost that Lynx Helicopter and lost the Pilot and the Observer.

They were killed on that day, so that wasn’t very much fun if I am honest.

Particularly as we had been working with that ship probably for 3 months and knew the ship’s company and the Wardroom and the Pilot and Observer very well.