We are celebrating the seventieth anniversary of the Great Victory, everyone has heard the famous battles that decided the outcome of the war. But there were also less significant episodes in our war, without these small details the overall picture of our Victory would not have formed. Some of the events that I would like to tell the reader about ultimately influenced the course of hostilities and allowed other participants in the war to become heroes.
Linear icebreaker "Anastas Mikoyan"
The combat history of this icebreaker is still shrouded in secrets and mysteries, historians have bypassed the feat accomplished by the crew members of this icebreaker. There are several versions that differ in details, but these differences do not affect the main thing in any way: “Mikoyan” did the impossible and emerged from all the troubles as a true hero!
Icebreaker "A. Mikoyan "was the fourth in a series of linear icebreakers of the" I. Stalin "and was built longer than its brothers. In June 1941, the icebreaker was tested by the plant's acceptance team. After that, there should have been State tests and acceptance by the State Commission. Introduction “A. Mikoyan "in operation was planned in the fourth quarter of 1941, after which it was supposed to go to the Far East.
The war that began on June 22 mixed up all peace plans. By the decision of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, mobilization began in the country from 00.00 hours. On June 28, “A. Mikoyan ". Out of any plans, the factory began to re-equip it into an auxiliary cruiser. It was planned to use it for operations on communications and the defense of the coast from enemy landings. At the same time, commissioning and testing continued. They had to forget about the pre-war plans. Captain 2nd Rank Sergei Mikhailovich Sergeev was appointed in command of the ship. The crew, formed of Red Navy men and foremen, voluntarily included workers from the factory delivery team, who wished to beat the enemy "on their own ship."
It was equipped with seven 130-mm, four 76-mm and six 45-mm guns, as well as four 12, 7-mm DShK anti-aircraft machine guns.
In terms of artillery armament power, the icebreaker was not inferior to domestic destroyers. Its 130-mm guns could fire their almost 34-kilogram shells at a distance of 25.5 km. The rate of fire was 7-10 rounds per minute.
At the beginning of September 1941, the re-equipment of the icebreaker was completed, and “A. Mikoyan "by the order of the commander of the Black Sea Fleet was included in the detachment of ships of the north-western region of the Black Sea, which, as part of the cruiser" Comintern ", destroyers" Nezamozhnik "and" Shaumyan ", battalion of gunboats and other ships, was intended to provide fire support to the defenders of Odessa.
On September 13 at 11.40 “Mikoyan” weighed anchor and guarded by two small hunters and two MBR-2 aircraft and headed for Odessa, where it arrived safely early in the morning on September 14. Preparing for battle, "Mikoyan" weighed anchor. At 12 hours 40 minutes, the ship lay down on a combat course. The gunners wrote on the shells: "To Hitler - personally." At 12:45, the first sighting shot was fired. Having received the data of the spotters, they went over to defeat. The enemy noticed the appearance of the Mikoyan in the sea, and it was successively attacked by three torpedo aircraft. But observers noticed them in time. With a skillful maneuver, the commander dodged the torpedoes. The gunners continued to fire at the enemy. Acting near Odessa, the gunners suppressed the firing points, helped the defenders to reflect the attacks of enemy tanks and infantry. Several firing sessions were carried out per day, firing up to 100 shells at the enemy. Only in the first five firing at the enemy, 466 shells of the main caliber were fired. Anti-aircraft gunners repulsed numerous attacks of enemy aircraft.
When the situation near Odessa was especially difficult, the cruisers Krasny Kavkaz, Krasny Krym. The Chervona Ukraina and the auxiliary cruiser Mikoyan fired 66 and fired 8,500 shells on the enemy. The ships fired mainly at invisible targets at a distance of 10 to 14 cables.
The commander of "Mikoyan" and the crew were able to fully master the new, extraordinary maneuverability of the ship. All the days of the operation near Odessa, the ship was constantly attacked by enemy aircraft. The special maneuverability helped to quickly get out of the fire, dodge the bombs of enemy aircraft attacking a heavy, wide ship, clearly visible to pilots, which seemed to them an easy prey. In one of the raids, the Mikoyan attacked three Junkers at once. Anti-aircraft fire one of them was hit, caught fire and began to fall on the ship. "Mikoyan" maneuvered, the enemy's plane crashed into the water.
Operating near Odessa, "Mikoyan", with its low speed of 12 knots (unlike cruisers, leaders and destroyers) did not receive direct hits from bombs and shells and did not lose a single person. But from frequent forcing and changing moves, shaking nearby ruptures, six out of nine boilers received damage to the water pipes. This is where the high skill of the sailors - former factory specialists - came in handy. They suggested, without leaving the combat position, one by one taking the damaged boilers out of action, to eliminate the malfunctions. Captain F. Kh. Khamidulin. In a short time, working at night, in asbestos suits and kapok vests moistened with water, boiler operators (firemen) eliminated the malfunction - they minted all the pipes.
Supporting the Primorsky army with fire, the auxiliary cruiser Mikoyan received gratitude from the command of the Odessa defense region. And only having used up all the ammunition, on the night of September 19, he left for Sevastopol.
On September 22 "Mikoyan" took part in the landing at Grigorievka. The Mikoyan had a large draft and a full speed lower than that of warships. Therefore, he was included in the artillery support squad. Together with the gunboats Dniester and Krasnaya Gruziya, he supported the paratroopers of the 3rd Marine Regiment. Later, the crew found out: with their fire, they suppressed 2 enemy batteries. In the area of the village of Dofinovka, anti-aircraft gunners shot down two enemy aircraft "Yu-88". Before dawn, the Mikoyan, which had a low speed, headed for Sevastopol. By the way, the gunmen “A. Mikoyan”for the first time in the fleet with the fire of their main caliber they began to repel the raids of enemy aircraft. At the suggestion of the commander of BCH-5, Senior Engineer-Lieutenant Józef Zlotnik, the embrasures in the shields of the guns were increased, the angle of elevation of the guns became larger. Autogen, however, did not take armor steel. Then the former shipbuilder Nikolai Nazaraty cut the embrasures with the help of an electric welding unit.
Before receiving the order to evacuate the Odessa defensive area, "Mikoyan", continuously under attack from aviation and the fire of coastal batteries, together with the ships of the fleet, continued to fire at enemy positions. Then he moved to Sevastopol, where the damaged boilers and mechanisms were qualitatively repaired at the plant No.-201.
In October, Mikoyan received an order to move to Novorossiysk. In Sevastopol, a military unit, 36 barrels of long-range naval guns and ammunition were loaded onto it. The guns were very heavy, and only Mikoyan could transport them. After repelling the attack of enemy aircraft on the transition, on October 15 the ship arrived in Novorossiysk.
The auxiliary cruiser also took part in the defense of Sevastopol, systematically making flights from Novorossiysk. Delivering replenishment, military supplies to the besieged city, took out the wounded and the civilian population. The personnel and weapons of the 2nd brigade of torpedo boats were evacuated on it, and the dismantled artistic and historical value - “Panorama of the defense of Sevastopol. In October, more than 1,000 wounded were evacuated on it. In early November, the fleet headquarters moved to Novorossiysk on the Mikoyan. The ship also fired at enemy positions near Sevastopol.
Then "Mikoyan" was relocated to Poti. On November 5, they received an unexpected order - to completely remove weapons. Red Navy men, foremen, officers, helping the workers of the local plant to disarm the ship, were unhappy with this and openly spoke out against sitting in the rear, when at this difficult time their comrades were fighting to the death with the enemy. They did not know, and should not have known, that preparations for a covert operation had begun. In five days, all the guns were dismantled. Auxiliary cruiser “A. Mikoyan”again became a linear icebreaker. The personnel of the artillery combat unit was decommissioned ashore. Was written off to the shore and part of the command staff. Soon they demanded to surrender machine guns, rifles and pistols. Captain 2nd Rank S. M. Sergeev with great difficulty managed to leave 9 pistols for officers. Of the weapons on board was a hunting rifle.
A special counterintelligence department of the fleet began to work on the ship. Each sailor was checked in the most thorough way. After such a check, someone in the cockpit was missing. New, tested ones arrived to replace them. All were confiscated documents, letters and photographs of relatives and friends.
The crew was ordered to destroy and burn the military uniform. In return, they were given a variety of civilian clothes from the warehouses. All were photographed and soon they were given seaworthy books (passports) of civilian sailors. The naval flag was lowered and the state flag was raised. The team was at a loss for all these actions. But no one gave an explanation.
These oddities were connected with the fact that in the fall of 1941 the State Defense Committee of the USSR made a very peculiar decision - to drive three large tankers (Sakhalin, Varlaam Avanesov, Tuapse) and a linear icebreaker from the Black Sea to the North and the Far East "A. Mikoyan ". This was due to an acute shortage of tonnage for the carriage of goods (domestic and lend-lease). In the Black Sea, these ships had nothing to do, but in the North and the Far East they were needed to the bone. That is, the decision in itself would be quite correct, if not for one geographic circumstance. It was necessary to go through the Sea of Marmara to the Mediterranean, then by no means around Europe (this was a guaranteed death either from German submarines or from their own bombers), but through the Suez Canal to the Indian Ocean, then across the Atlantic and the Pacific Ocean to the Soviet Far East (from there "Mikoyan" was supposed to continue sailing along the Northern Sea Route to Murmansk). Thus, there was almost a trip around the world, and it was necessary to conduct it in the conditions of war. The most interesting thing awaited the Soviet ships at the beginning of the journey. During the war, almost all merchant ships of all belligerent countries received at least some kind of weapons (1-2 cannons, several machine guns). Of course, it was purely symbolic, but in some situations (against single aircraft, boats, auxiliary cruisers) it could help. In addition, whenever possible, merchant ships were accompanied by warships. Alas, for the Soviet four, all these options were excluded.
The fact is that from the Black Sea to the Mediterranean, the route lay through the Bosphorus, the Sea of Marmara and the Dardanelles, belonging to Turkey. And she, observing neutrality, did not let the warships of the belligerent countries through the straits. Moreover, she also did not allow armed transports. Accordingly, our ships could not have even a symbolic pair of cannons. But that was not so bad. The trouble was that the Aegean Sea lying beyond the Dardanelles was completely controlled by the Germans and Italians, who captured both mainland Greece and all the islands of the Greek archipelago, through which Soviet ships were to go south.
The icebreaker arrived in Batumi. After him three tankers came here: “Sakhalin”, “Tuapse” and “Varlaam Avanesov”. All three are the same in displacement, carrying capacity and with approximately the same full speed.
On November 25, 1941, at 3:45 am, a convoy consisting of an icebreaker, three tankers and escort ships went out to sea under cover of night. For some time they walked towards Sevastopol, and then headed for the Bosphorus. The leader was the leader "Tashkent" under the flag of Rear Admiral Vladimirsky. Behind him, in the wake - "Mikoyan" and tankers. To the right of the icebreaker was the destroyer "Capable", to the left - the destroyer "Savvy". But warships could only accompany the caravan to Turkish territorial waters.
The passage to the Bosphorus, 575 miles long, was planned to be completed in three days. It was calm during the day, the sky was overcast. In the evening it started raining with sleet, the wind rose, and a nine-point storm broke out. The sea was covered with dark, foamy shafts, and the pitching began. The wind grew stronger, pitch darkness engulfed ships and escort ships. At night, the storm reached 10 points. We were sailing at a speed of about 10 knots - the tankers could no longer, and especially the Mikoyan with its coal boilers, it lagged behind all the time. The tankers loaded up to the neck held up well, only sometimes the waves covered them up to the navigating bridges. On the Mikoyan, with its egg-shaped body, the swing reached 56 degrees. But his powerful body was not afraid of the impact of the waves. Sometimes he then buried his nose in the wave, then, rolling over another huge shaft, exposed the screws. The warships had a hard time. "Tashkent" heeled up to 47 degrees with an ultimate roll of 52 degrees. From the blows of the waves, the deck in the bow sagged and cracked on both sides in the midship area. Destroyers with a roll of up to 50 degrees almost went on board. Correcting the received damage, we went forward. Sometimes ships and vessels disappeared from view behind a curtain of rain and thick snow storms.
At night, the storm sometimes subsided. Suddenly, the commander of the "Soobrazitelny" reported that silhouettes of unknown ships were found. The escort ships prepared for battle. "Savvy", by order of Vladimirsky, approached unknown courts. It turned out that these were three Turkish transports. To avoid a tragic mistake, they stalled the course and illuminated large images of the national flag painted on the sides with searchlights. Dispersed, the convoy continued on its way.
Three days later, the storm began to subside, delaying the arrival of ships in Istanbul for a day. On the morning of November 29, the Turkish shores appeared. 10 miles from the Bosphorus, the escort ships raised the flag signal "We wish you a happy voyage" and turned on the opposite course. In Turkish territorial waters, we met patrol ships, which for some time walked alongside, looking for weapons on the decks of the ships.
Soon the caravan anchored in the roadstead of Istanbul. The representatives of the Turkish port authorities who arrived at the Mikoyan were not too interested in the cargo and did not look into the hold. We walked along the upper deck, in the cabin of the captain of the 2nd rank Sergeev, we issued the necessary documents in such cases, drank a glass of Russian vodka and left the ship.
The Soviet naval attaché in Turkey, Captain 2nd Rank Rodionov, climbed aboard the Mikoyan, and with him the assistant to the British naval attaché, Lieutenant-Commander Rogers. A meeting of ship captains took place in Sergeev's cabin. Rodionov announced the decision of the State Defense Committee, in which the captains were tasked with breaking through to the port of Famagusta on the island of Cyprus, to the allies. Tankers were ordered to temporarily enter the allied command's order, and the icebreaker to follow to the Far East.
By agreement between the Soviet government and the government of Great Britain, from the Dardanelles to Cyprus, the ships were to be accompanied by British warships. But, although they promised, they could not provide any protection. The English Mediterranean fleet suffered heavy losses in the battles. The British did not consider it possible to risk their ships for the sake of guarding the Soviet icebreaker and tankers. The British representative informed the captain of "Mikoyan" about this. The situation was further complicated by the fact that Turkey, which declared its neutrality in the war between Germany and the USSR on June 25, had a pro-German orientation. Despite all the measures taken, information about the expedition was made public. The Turkish pilot, who anchored the Sakhalin tanker, told Captain Prido Adovich Pomerants that they were waiting for the approach of another group of Soviet tankers, which were supposed to be sent on the second echelon. The arrival of Soviet ships did not go unnoticed in the city, where enemy agents built their nests. At the end of November 1941 (The dispatch of the second echelon consisting of the tankers "Vayan-Couturier", "I. Stalin", "V. Kuibyshev", "Sergo", "Emba" was canceled.) that in Turkey, especially in Istanbul, there were many German "tourists", and this was during wartime ?! Near the tankers, boats scurried about with “fishing enthusiasts” taking photographs. Observation was carried out both through binoculars from the shore and from the ships of Germany's allies. The ships of the Turkish navy were also nearby: destroyers, submarines. The cruiser Sultan Selim - the former German Goeben - bristled with guns.
The Sakhalin tanker stood just opposite the building of the German consulate. But even the most captious eye could not notice anything special on the ship. There was the usual unloading of oil products delivered to one of the Turkish firms. It seemed that Sakhalin would just hand over the cargo and leave for Batumi again. The head of the expedition, Ivan Georgievich Syrykh, summoned all the captains of the ships on November 29. The Soviet naval attaché in Turkey, Captain 2nd Rank KK Rodionov, also came. After a short exchange of views, it was decided that it was time to carry out the planned plan: each ship should proceed to the Far East separately, at indefinite intervals, with different coordinates of the routes laid out on the navigational maps …
In a special instruction handed by Rodionov to Captain 2nd Rank Sergeev, it was categorically ordered: "In no case should the ship be surrendered, it should be drowned by an explosion, the crew should not surrender."
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