Product Description

At 11.30 a.m. on Saturday 12 August 2000, two massive explosions roared through the shallow Arctic waters of the Barents Sea. The Kursk, pride of the Northern Fleet and the largest attack submarine in the world, was hurtling towards the ocean floor. In A Time to Die, award-winning television journalist Robert Moore vividly recreates this disaster minute by minute. Venturing into a covert world where the Cold War continues out of sight, Moore investigates the military and political background to the tragedy. But above all, he tells the nail-bitingly poignant human story of the families waiting ashore, of the desperate efforts of British, Norwegian and Russian rescuers, and of the Kursk sailors, trapped in the aft compartnemt, waiting for rescue, as a horrified world followed their battle to stay alive ...

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #165188 in Books
• Published on: 2003-07-01
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 329 pages

Review
'The Kursk was once the pride of the Russian navy and a symbol of state power . . . her story, harrowingly detailed . . . stands as a testament to the bravery and loyalty of men to a nation that failed them.', Martin Robson, The Times .'A gripping tale . . . a moving tragedy redeemed by acts of extraordinary courage . . . has the plot, the tension and the excitement of a film.', Orlando Figes, Sunday Telegraph

From the Back Cover
The acclaimed and harrowing true story of the fate of Russia's most powerful submarine - now revised and updated in paperback.

At 11.28 a.m. on Saturday, 12 August 2000, a massive and mysterious blast punched through the shallow Arctic waters of the Barents Sea. 135 seconds later, another colossal explosion was detected by seismologists around the globe. The Kursk, pride of Russia's Northern Fleet and the largest attack submarine in the world, was plunging to the ocean floor, fatally wounded.

In A Time to Die, award-winning television journalist Robert Moore vividly recreates this disaster minute by minute. Venturing into a covert world where the Cold War continues out of sight, Moore investigates the military and political background to the tragedy. But above all, he tells the nail-bitingly poignant human story of the families waiting on shore, of the desperate efforts of the British, Norwegian and Russian rescuers, and of the twenty-three sailors, trapped in the aft compartment of the stricken submarine, waiting for rescue, as a horrified world followed their fight to stay alive.

About the Author
Robert Moore:
Robert Moore is an award-winning television reporter. He was ITN's Moscow correspondent during the collapse of the Soviet Union. As ITN's Diplomatic Editor he covered wars in Chechnya, the Balkans and Sierra Leone. He is currently ITN's Washington correspondent. A Time to Die is his first book. An acclaimed international bestseller in the UK and overseas, it has now been translated into six languages.

Customer Reviews

A worthy read for non-specialists
Robert Moore has done a capable job with this retelling of the gripping and tragic tale of K-141's end. He has done a decent job of gathering facts, both common and obscure, and pulling them together. For a non-specialist in this area, this book is a fine beginning in coming to grips with the events, their causes, and their consequences. Unfortunately for me, I have more than a little experience in the area, and I was left wanting much more than I found. Moore goes over all the obligatory points, and gives an adequate, if somewhat limited, explanation of the salient facts. His explanations are short on depth though, and are even occasionally trite. His repeated return to the sheer size of the KURSK, for instance, begins to pall after the forth or fifth repetition, and he is repetitive in other areas as well. What I really found myself wanting was more on the internal manoeuvrings of the Russian Federation government and armed services, more on the word games and spin presented to the world, more on the international implications resulting from the attempts to place an external blame on the whole incident, and more on the salvage efforts, especially after the crew was found to be dead. The raising of the KURSK alone was a monumental achievement, worthy of a book in it's own right, as are the geo-political implications of the event. The bare facts of the sinking, and the tragedy unfolding within the K-141 are only sufficient to fill part of the story, and Moore neglects them for significant portions of the book, loosing the sense of immediacy. Moore does bring to light much that was not widely known before, especially in regards to the advanced state of decay of the Russian Federation Navy, but never fully explores their causes and implications. Budget disasters, manpower shortages, and official myopia were likewise insufficiently explored. The book never really develops the sense of urgency that this story really deserves.

Moore has found and gathered a worthy collection of facts, information, and anecdotes, but he ultimately fails to produce a gripping tale. What he does deliver, though, is enough: A story of courage, pride, neglect, suspicion, miscommunication, parochialism, and incompetence. If it were not for the lives lost, it would be sadly amusing. Instead, it's heartbreaking. Those were good men aboard the K-141, better by far than their leaders deserved: That much, Moore makes abundantly clear.

A fitting memorial.
The truth, or as near as we will get, to the tragedy that had the nation glued to the television/news reports. How the cutbacks affecting the Russian Northern Fleet led to unsuccesful attempts to free the survivors and the delay in obtaining western assistance is explained in a factual manner that removes any doubt that there was any neglect on the part of the Russians with regards to the well-being of those trapped in the Kursk. As well as detailing the reasons for the reluctance of the Russians to allow western military personnel access to the Kursk, this book gives an easy-to-read account of the logistics involved in getting the Norwegian vessel and the British rescue sub to the Barents sea and an account of the problems faced by the rescue divers working at great depths, which are easy to understand even by those with no knowledge of diving physics or decompression problems. Very difficult to put down once started, this account of the Kursk tragedy serves as a fitting memorial to those who perished as well as highlighting the bond that exists between submariners and naval personnel, irrespective of their nationality.

Harrowing
When I read this book, I couldn't believe the sheer contempt and disregard for life that some of the hierarchy in the Russian government showed. Lying at the bottom of the Barents were 23 men waiting to be rescued. The Russian Navy didn't have the technology to save them, but the British and Norweigan Navies (along with a private deep sea saturation diving team) did and were on hand ready and waiting, only beauracrats in Moscow didn't want western Navies to see what there submarine looked like. It didn't matter that there may be men alive waiting to be rescued.
Some people showed immense courage, from the Northern Fleet captains who tried to rescue the sailors even though they were putting their own lives at risk, to the Admiral of the Northern Fleet who went against his governments wishes and let western nations in to help. But all was in vain, and all 118 men who were on board the Kursk were to lose their lives.