High Seas They Couldn't Hit a . . . Oops!

Though only half a mile away Warsaw Pact ships were firing at targets, the crew on the 300-ft. West German navy tender Neckar exhibited no alarm. Nothing ever happened during routine surveillance missions. So, midmorning in the Baltic Sea, the NATO craft sat passively while two 600-ton Soviet-made corvettes of the Polish navy blasted practice shots at unmanned drones.

Suddenly a burst of fire hit the water just 16 ft. from the Neckar. Then a corvette struck the German craft with eight 30-mm shells, setting her stern gun turret afire and punching a hole in her hull beneath the waterline. Three crewmen were injured. After the fire was put out and the leak plugged, the Neckar limped into its home port of Kiel. To prevent damage to NATO-Warsaw Pact relations, Bonn described the attack as an accident, perhaps caused by the poor aim of Polish gunners. Warsaw began an investigation into the occurrence.