USS Wayne in TSWLM
SeanIsTheOnlyOne
Posts: 723MI6 Agent
When the Liparus captures the USS Wayne, why doesn't Stromberg decide to use this submarine instead of the Ranger (like Blofeld in YOLT with the shuttles)? If he wants to launch a nuclear war between the US and the Soviets, it would be more relevant to have the soviet government conclude this attack is attributable to an american submarine. What makes him so certain the retaliation will target the whole territory of the US for sure?
Of course, the US will target Moscow because of the nuke on New York attribuable to the soviet sub, but the Brits are supposed to be 'responsible' for the initial attack, and if the Americans really wanted to nuke Moscow first, everyone knows they would have done it with one of their own subs. It's this point which could lead the governments of those three countries to finally understand there's a hidden entity playing with them (like in TND). For me, the fact Stromberg uses an english sub makes his plot a little bit dubious from a geopolitical point of view.
Comments
Firstly, it is a plot convenience. End of.
Secondly, maybe Stomberg simply needed a NATO nuclear armed sub - it could just as easily be a French sub - as NATO was very prominent during the Cold War era. A nuclear attack by the Soviet Bloc on any NATO country would be considered a declaration of war and vice versa. Its basically fear of wotld annihilation that kept the two sides in balance for so long.
Thirdly, his replacement crew might only have been trained on a Royal Navy sub, so he had to capture the Ranger, hence why he developed the tracking system.