The Americans hit us with something stronger than the grenades - aparently with a practical depth bomb. We thought - that's it - the end. After this attack, the totally exhausted Savitsky, who in addition to everything, was not able to establish conection with the General Staff, became furious. He summoned the officer who was assigned to teh nuclear torpedo, and ordered him to assemble it to battle readiness. "Maybe the war has already started up there, while we are doing summersaults here," screamed an emotional Valentin Grigorievich, trying to justify his order. "We're going to blast them now! We will die, but we will sink them all - we will not disgrace our Navy!" But he did not fire the nuclear torpedo - Savitsky was able to rein in his wrath. After consulting with Second Captain Vasili Alexandrovich Arkhipov [deceased] and deputy political officer Ivan Semonovich Maslennikov, he made the decision to come to the surface. We gave an echo locator signal, which in international navigation rules means that "the submarine is coming to the surface." Our pursuers slowed down.