On March 15, 1969, fire arrows cut through the sky over Damansky Island, they crossed the Ussuri River and hit the Chinese coast, covering the territory on which the Chinese units were located with a sea of fire. So in the border armed conflict around Damansky Island, a fat point was put. Volleys of MLRS "Grad" from the 135th motorized rifle division transferred this conflict to a fading stage. After March 15, Chinese border guards and PLA troops no longer took active hostile actions on this section of the state border with the Soviet Union.
Now everyone has an idea of what the Grad MLRS is, and in March 1969 this weapon was secret. Until the moment when the "Grad" widely dispersed throughout the world, there were still many years. After the end of serial production by 1995, more than two thousand BM-21 combat vehicles will be in service with the armies of 50 states. And in total, 6536 BM-21 Grad combat vehicles were supplied for the armament of the Soviet Army during the serial production. Also, during serial production, more than three million rockets for various purposes were fired for this MLRS. The volume of production and distribution around the world allows us to compare the Grad system with the famous Kalashnikov assault rifle.
BM-21, which received the GRAU index - 9K51, has been actively developed since the late 1950s. Preliminary tests of the new installations, which became the heirs of the legendary Katyushas, took place at the end of 1961 and were recognized as successful. Full-scale tests of the new weapon were carried out in the spring of 1962 at training grounds located on the territory of the Leningrad region, during these tests, the systems transferred to the military had to carry out about 650 salvoes and pass 10 thousand kilometers. According to the results of the tests carried out at the end of March 1963, a new self-propelled multiple launch rocket system of 122 mm caliber was officially adopted by the Soviet Army, and already the next year the first production samples began to enter operational units.
RZSO "Grad", which were first used in real combat conditions on March 15, 1969, were part of the 13th separate rocket artillery division of the 135th motorized rifle division and were part of its regular artillery. It was on March 15 that the culmination of the armed conflict around the border island of Damansky took place, and the first truly serious battle on the island took place on March 2, 1969. Already after the first serious aggravation of the situation on the border in the rear of the reinforced border detachments, the 135th motorized rifle division began to deploy with the artillery attached to it, including the BM-21 Grad combat vehicles. The division was incomplete, it did not have a 3rd battery, so it included 12 BM-21 Grad combat vehicles instead of the standard 18 units. In addition, the division had the 378th artillery regiment, which included 12 152 mm D-1 howitzers and 24 122 mm M-30 howitzers.
At approximately 15:00 - 15:30 on March 15, two artillery divisions of the 378th artillery regiment, armed with 122-mm M-30 howitzers, were already at equipped firing positions located east of Damansky Island, about 4-5 kilometers from it. The third division of the artillery regiment arrived late due to a change in deployment location and difficult terrain. By the time its artillerymen reached new positions, two other divisions were already firing at the Chinese troops, while each of the batteries participating in the battle had already managed to fire about 300 shells at the enemy. According to the recollections of eyewitnesses, the artillery crews were so heated up by the battle that some of the soldiers worked at the guns, undressing to the waist to their underwear, while the weather outside was frosty, about -10 degrees Celsius.
According to the recollections of the commander of the 13th separate rocket artillery division, Major Mikhail Tikhonovich Vaschenko, by 16:20, as a result of the impact of cannon artillery fire on the fire weapons and positions of the Chinese, as well as the active actions of border guards, the advance of Chinese troops deep into Damansky Island was stopped. The Chinese military went on the defensive at positions located in the western part of the island. At the same time, the Chinese continued to draw up their reserves to the island, hoping with a massive attack to dislodge the Soviet border units from the eastern part of the island and capture it entirely. By this time, the firing positions of the Grad MLRS were about 9 kilometers east of Damansky, and the division's command and observation post was set up on Mount Kafila, on its southwestern slopes.
The Soviet secret weapon entered the business at 5 pm, when it became clear that the Chinese, due to their numerical superiority, would be able to shoot down the border guards from their positions on the island. It is believed that the order to use the Grad MLRS, which were secret at that time, was personally given by Lieutenant General Oleg Losik, the commander of the Far Eastern Military District. In a short time, 12 BM-21 combat vehicles could fire 480 rockets (40 guides per vehicle) of 122 mm caliber at enemy forces.
The fire raid, which was carried out simultaneously with the use of deployed cannon artillery and lasted 10 minutes, had disastrous consequences for the Chinese side. Artillery pieces, mortars and Chinese reserves, which were moving towards the island, fell under the distribution. The fire raid made it possible, in a short time, to destroy most of the material and technical resources at the disposal of the Chinese military group, including openly placed piles of shells. The attack by Soviet border guards and soldiers from the 2nd Motorized Rifle Battalion of the 199th Motorized Rifle Regiment, which followed after the fire raid, allowed the Chinese forces to be driven from Damansky Island.
The losses of the Chinese side in manpower are still classified information. According to various estimates, they can range from several hundred to several thousand people just killed. At the same time, the most adequate estimate of the Chinese irrecoverable losses at the level of about 300 servicemen, who became victims of not only the Grad MLRS strike, but also the fire of the cannon artillery of the Soviet troops, seems to be the most adequate. In general, it can be stated that the strike of multiple launch rocket systems made a great impression on the Chinese military. In addition to the fact that some secret weapon was used, hypotheses were expressed about the use of special incendiary (termite) shells and even fantastic versions about the use of a laser.
In reality, no special ammunition was used that day, a volley at the enemy was fired using standard 122-mm high-explosive fragmentation rockets 9M22 with a warhead weighing 18.4 kg. These shells made it possible to confidently hit the infantry, artillery batteries and enemy equipment located in open areas at a distance of up to 20.4 km. At the same time, the psychological effect of the use of such weapons was also noted during the Great Patriotic War, the fire of multiple launch rocket systems had a demoralizing impression on the enemy. Such weapons were disliked not only by the Germans, but also by the Soviet soldiers. For example, in the battle for the Island in early July 1941, the Germans used their six-barreled mortars quite massively. Soviet commanders noted the appearance of a new weapon and assessed its effectiveness, but could not understand what it was. The reports of the battles for the Island of the 3rd Panzer Division mentioned the simultaneous covering of large areas with incendiary shells, and the use by the Germans of aircraft with incendiary bombs and a certain combustible mixture was also mentioned. In March 1969, the Chinese military found themselves in about the same situation as the Soviet troops attacking the Island in 1941. Until this moment, the PLA had never encountered such a weapon.
It is worth noting that their own Grads appeared at the disposal of the Chinese military only in 1982, when the Type 81 multiple launch rocket system entered service with the PLA. It was an almost complete copy of the Soviet BM-21 combat vehicle. It is believed that the Chinese managed to copy this installation after several vehicles were captured by them during the 1979 Sino-Vietnamese war. At the same time, the organizational and staff structure of the PLA also repeated the Soviet one - 18 combat vehicles per division. In addition to the MLRS "Type-81", which was located, among other things, on off-road vehicles with a 6x6 wheel arrangement, in 1983 China adopted a lightweight version of the pirate "Grad" - the "Type-83" mount, which received 24 -barrel package of guides.
Damansky Island itself, which became the scene of the largest armed conflict between the PRC and the USSR, was transferred to the Chinese side on May 19, 1991 and is now called Zhenbao Dao (literally translated as “Precious Island”).
