The next anniversary of the tragic and mysterious death of the battleship Novorossiysk, formerly the Italian Giulio Cesare (Julius Caesar), is approaching.
On the night of October 29, 1955, the flagship of the Black Sea squadron of the Soviet Navy, the battleship Novorossiysk, sank right at the site of anchorage (barrel # 3) in the Northern Bay of Sevastopol, right at the site (barrel # 3), more than 600 sailors were killed.
According to the official version, an old German bottom mine exploded under the bottom of the ship, but there are other versions, more or less plausible. This article is another attempt to deal with this terrible secret, as well as pay tribute to the memory of our sailors.
At the moment, the true cause of the death of the battleship has not been revealed, despite many publications and discussions of the tragedy in various television programs. For example, the TV channel "Zvezda" in the program "Evidence from the Past" also failed to put an end to it. Nevertheless, simulating several explosions in laboratory conditions and on a computer made it possible to conclude that the explosion of a bottom mine, which is the main emphasis in the official version, cannot be an explanation for the death of the battleship.
All the detonations of ships (ours and the allies) on German bottom mines did not have a case of through-breakdown of the hull, as in the "Novorossiysk". After the war, on October 17, 1945, the cruiser Kirov was blown up on a German bottom mine in the Gulf of Finland. The depths and power of the explosive are close, the explosion also occurred in the area of the bow towers, but the nature of the damage was completely different, the cruiser received a general contusion of the ship's hull, welds on the bottom parted in places, various mechanisms went out of order. "Novorossiysk" received a through hole while maintaining the efficiency of mechanisms outside the affected area.
These are fundamental differences that refute the detonation of the battleship "Novorossiysk" on the bottom mine.
It will be useful to emphasize once again that by 1955, all the batteries of the surviving German bottom mines were completely discharged (incapable of combat). There were no other detonations, although mines were still found both before and after the tragedy.
So what if not a bottom mine? Not an explosion at all at the bottom? In various versions of this tragedy, there is even the intervention of aliens, it is difficult to add something fundamentally new here, but there is common sense and obvious facts that need to be connected, and, relying on them, to look for the only correct explanation for the death of the battleship.
During the explosion of the battleship "Novorossiysk", we see that almost all the energy of the explosion rushed upward, at the bottom there were insignificant deepenings (up to 1.5 meters), but the ship's hull was pierced through, from the bottom, through the steel sheets, to the upper deck, with the release of flame explosion into the sky.
Could not a charge or two charges (according to two craters found on the ground under the ship) cause such catastrophic destruction to the battleship and leave such small traces on the bottom. The dimensions of the crater in a conventional explosion of a bottom mine on the ground and damage to the ship are interconnected phenomena, and they must be either equally huge or equally insignificant. In our case, this is not the case.
The version of the explosion of the ammunition load of 320-mm guns, like the gasoline depots, was initially refuted. The artillery shells and powder charges for them remained intact, this was confirmed by eyewitnesses and further examination. Gasoline warehouses were empty for a long time and did not pose a threat to an explosion, especially of such force. Then what is this, if not an accident, not an alarmed and "awakened" old mine, not a fire and explosion in artillery cellars?
It is known that the option with sabotage categorically did not suit our KGB, since it turned out that the special service had overlooked the agents of a foreign power, allowing them to infiltrate the main base of the Black Sea Fleet. Moreover, at the same time, the image of the entire Soviet Union suffered as a whole, and not only the KGB or the leadership of the fleet, in the person of its commander-in-chief, Nikolai Gerasimovich Kuznetsov.
In this regard, I would like to immediately draw a line under all conversations in the version about the involvement of the Soviet special services themselves in sabotage to discredit Kuznetsov. This seems completely absurd, at the level of the spiteful critics of the "bloody gebna".
In general, to discredit or even physically eliminate someone objectionable to the general secretary of the same KGB, simpler and more reliable methods would be enough. Nothing prevented Nikita Sergeyevich from shifting the priorities of military development, not only to the detriment of the fleet, but also of aviation. For example, nothing prevented him from transferring Crimea from the RSFSR to the Ukrainian SSR or from imposing corn on sowing. It is unlikely that Khrushchev needed a special reason to remove Kuznetsov, especially one in which their own special services actually had to destroy the flagship battleship, which was very necessary in that difficult international situation, to destroy many of its sailors.
Yes, the loss of the ship and the large casualties among the personnel for Kuznetsov undoubtedly complicated the situation, but this was already a consequence of the tragedy, and not its cause.
Not only Admiral Kuznetsov, who was dismissed, was punished, but the admirals Kalachev, Parkhomenko, Galitsky, Nikolsky and Kulakov were also punished, they were demoted in positions and ranks.
It is possible that the official version allowed our special services to “save face”, gave Khrushchev another reason against Kuznetsov and the fleet in general, but it does not explain the true cause of the explosion. The tragedy itself did not happen from "unacceptable and criminal negligence", but, as it must be stated, from cold-blooded and cruel sabotage.
Who and how blew up the battleship Novorossiysk?
Speaking of sabotage, first of all, they recall the "black prince", Valerio Borghese, the former commander of the Italian combat swimmers of the 10th IAS flotilla, with his belated confessions, in his fanatical desire to take revenge on the Bolsheviks for raising the Soviet flag over the Italian battleship.
It must be assumed that there is as much truth in this as in the accusations of the involvement of Soviet special services in blowing up their own warship.
First, until the very beginning of the war, the Soviet Union cooperated with Italy. Almost all new Soviet destroyers and cruisers are somehow made under the influence of Italian projects, the Italian school of shipbuilding will be traced in the architecture of Soviet warships for a long time after.
The famous leader "Tashkent" was ordered and bought from Italy shortly before the attack of Nazi Germany on the USSR. There were virtually no active hostilities between Italy and the Soviet Union during the war years, and if Borghese hated anyone, then the same British, as former enemies in naval battles in the Mediterranean, or even the Germans, who in 1943 drowned the battleship with guided aerial bombs. "Roma" going to surrender to Malta.
In addition, the former Italian saboteurs were under the scrutiny of both our and foreign special services, and preparations for "revenge" could hardly have gone unnoticed.
By the way, Borghese himself during the Second World War was a participant in the well-known undermining of two British battleships in Alexandria. This is interesting as a comparison to the explosion on the battleship Novorossiysk.
Valerio Borghese led on December 19, 1941, the sabotage actions of the assault unit of the Italian Navy (10th IAS flotilla) on British battleships in the port of Alexandria.
Italian saboteurs, using human torpedoes, infiltrated the guarded port and mined two British battleships, Queen Elizabeth (Queen Elizabeth) and Valiant (Valiant). The transported explosives were fastened under the keel and dropped onto the ground under the bottom.
As a result of the sabotage, "Valiant" was out of order for six months, and "Queen Elizabeth" - for 9 months. On "Valiant" casualties were avoided, and on the battleship "Queen Elizabeth" 8 sailors were killed.
All participants in the direct mining of ships were caught by the British almost immediately, the Italian saboteurs turned into prisoners of war.
These are real wartime facts, while it should be noted that when attaching magnetic mines, installing explosives, the most vulnerable places are selected, such as: artillery cellars, the central part of the hull, but not the bow end.
In the case of the battleship "Novorossiysk", a powerful charge was found precisely in the bow end, not in the center of the ship, not under the powder magazines, not even under the rudders and propellers. An explanation for this fact is difficult to find, it is not rational for underwater sabotage, since maximum damage is needed with minimum risks, and not maximum problems, with the expenditure of time and effort to obtain the required explosion power.
It is necessary to take into account the details that many leave behind the scenes, producing the most time-consuming and fantastic versions in the tragedy of "Novorossiysk", considering the most incredible schemes of how an external explosion could cause such monstrous destruction of the ship.
Here is a piece from a flooded barge as a screen for a directed explosion, and a bunch of mines that the Germans thought of leaving from the war, carefully laying a cable along the bottom for remote detonation from a secret place on the shore. Particularly impressive is the towing of tons of explosives from the outer raid with a brave raid of saboteur mini-submarines. All this is long and too troublesome, and most importantly, all this does not explain the strength and nature of the explosion that took place on the battleship.
The version where the Italian "old robbers" allegedly struck a personal vendetta against the USSR fleet also does not stand up to criticism. Rather, these are "revelations" to divert the eyes from the true customers and performers. On top of that, no one, not even all the Italian Navy, at that time would have pulled such an operation against the USSR, especially without NATO sanction, without the permission of the United States. Only one country at that time could do this without the sanction of NATO and the United States - Great Britain, a former ally of the USSR in the anti-Hitler coalition.
Now there is an important historical moment that needs to be mentioned. During the Second World War, Malta was the base of the British Navy, being the headquarters in the Mediterranean theater of operations. It was to Malta that the remaining Italian ships came to surrender in the fall of 1943, among which was the Giulio Cesare. In Malta, the battleship stood with the British until 1948, after which it was transferred to the Soviet Union as reparations.
Understanding the causes of the tragedy of 1955, one should not forget the history: the transfer of the battleship to the USSR took place in a sharply aggravated international situation, by 1948 the former allies were becoming enemies, the prospect of a new war arose quite realistically. Indeed, Winston Churchill's anti-Soviet speech has already been made in Fulton, and the United States had plans to atomic bomb Soviet cities. It is very doubtful that they wished the Soviet Union well even in the case of the forced transfer of a strong combat unit of the fleet for reparations.
The Soviet leadership expected to receive one of the new Italian battleships, Littorio or Vittorio Veneto, but the former allies, citing the fact that the Soviet Union did not take an active part in the war in the Mediterranean, agreed to transfer only the older Giulio Cesare. In other words, the future “Novorossiysk” was initially chosen for the transfer to the USSR.
This is important, since the ship had a unique feature with a bow end, in the process of pre-war modernization, moreover, there was time to study the ship in detail and use it against the strengthening of the Soviet fleet.
Immediately before the transfer of the battleship to the Soviet Union, its partial repair was carried out, as noted, mainly of the electromechanical part. The battleship, the only one of all the transferred Italian ships, was transferred with full ammunition.
It is known that the transfer and the transfer to the USSR itself took place in an extremely nervous atmosphere, rumors of mining and possible sabotage alarmed the entire crew.
Did you look for possible explosives after? Yes, they were looking, in addition, the ship from 1949 to 1955 underwent various repairs and upgrades eight times. The explosive device was not found. There may be several reasons for this, one of them is the insufficiently complete documentation of the ship's drawings up to the deliberate distortion of the compartment diagrams, the difficulty of translation from Italian. It should be noted and the professionalism necessary for such a level of sabotage in the very secrecy of mining, a high degree of masking of the place where the charge was laid.
To ensure the exclusion of such a bookmark, it was required not just a random inspection, but a complete dismantling of the overhead part of the bow end, which was not done.
No external detonation would have had the nature of damage that was on the Novorossiysk, would not have inflicted such damage. It can be argued that the explosion that killed the battleship Novorossiysk was internal. Only the peculiarities of internal mining could give such a powerful directed explosion.
The internal explosion is also indicated by the testimony of witnesses who asserted that after the explosion, a strong smell of explosives was felt on the ship, which is possible only with an explosion in the air, that is, inside the battleship's hull. It does not even matter how the internal charge was activated, with already laid explosives, even one scuba diver could carry out sabotage, with minimal costs and risks, getting the maximum effect.
It was the powerful explosion in the Novorossiysk hull that burned out all the air in the adjacent space, creating a vacuum. The vacuum created a pressure difference at which the rushing streams of water bent the notches of the hole inward. In addition, the water currents have drawn in the bottom sludge.
The most likely place for the bookmark is the junction of the old dreadnought nose with the new bow tip, which was added during the pre-war modernization of the battleship in Italy. Moreover, the laying was as close as possible to the artillery cellars of the bow towers.
Naturally, secret mining was carried out when the battleship was identified for transfer to the Soviet Union. Former allies did not risk anything here, it was always possible to blame everything on the Italian fascists. The alleged explosion during the passage did not take place for a number of reasons, including due to the precautionary measures taken by the Soviet side, but a dangerous "gift" remained with the ship "on demand."
Why was it only in October 1955 that the “gift” in the bow was remembered?
The Suez Canal, Egypt, the strengthening of the Soviet Union in this region, which is very important for Great Britain, the direct preparation of our squadron, led by Novorossiysk, to enter the Mediterranean at an extremely tense political moment. Finally, a lot of time has passed since the transfer of the ship, which would also complicate any accusations, reduce the political risks for the customers of this war crime.
The official version under Khrushchev is almost "he drowned" … All the materials of the commission to investigate the tragedy were classified, most of the materials were completely destroyed. Nikita Sergeevich hushed up a difficult to prove and inconvenient incident, turned the arrows to the negligence of Admiral Kuznetsov, and less than half a year had passed since he arrived at his British "partners" on a visit to Foggy Albion to establish peaceful coexistence with the West.
By the way, the gentlemen distinguished themselves there in April 1956 with the cruiser Ordzhonikidze, but this is another story, known as the “Crebb case”. Here we can only add that fearing an international scandal, this case was also hushed up, mainly thanks to British Prime Minister Anthony Eden.
Like this. "And you Brute?" - could have said the Soviet steel "Caesar" on the cold night of October 29, 1955, both to the former allies in the anti-Hitler coalition, and to Khrushchev, who later found an excuse for cutting the ship and pogroming the USSR shipbuilding program.
The death of the battleship "Novorossiysk" is not just a sabotage. After the Stalin era, this was a litmus, a watershed both in Khrushchev's inhibition of the development of a powerful ocean-going fleet, and in flirting with a mortal enemy, which is destructive for socialism, in the hope of "peaceful coexistence" with an antagonist, an antipode, ready for any crime.
