Monument to the Participants of the Defense of Dixon Island
The theme of Nazi military expeditions to the Arctic has become one of the most mythologized in the history of World War II - from the "Nord" base to everything connected with the "Annenerbe". In fact, everything was, to put it mildly, differently.
LEGENDED DATABASES AND A REAL RADER
Much has been said about the alleged joint Arctic research carried out by the Land of the Soviets and the Third Reich before World War II and even after its start.
But in fact, cooperation with Germany in this area (as well as other cooperation with Berlin in military and peaceful areas) falls mainly on the days of the democratic Weimar Republic. Then, in fact, joint scientific expeditions were carried out in the Arctic, for example - the international expedition on the airship "Graf Zeppelin" in 1931 (the materials of which were later actually used by the Abwehr). After Hitler came to power, almost all joint activities were curtailed at the initiative of Berlin, but after the conclusion of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, relations revived. So, in Murmansk, in connection with the outbreak of World War II, the German liner Bremen took refuge from the British Navy, and in total in the Kola Bay more than 30 German ships were saved from the British at different times, which did not go beyond the international provisions concerning neutral countries.
But most of all the myths were around the posting by the Northern Sea Route to the Far East of the German raider "Komet" in August 1940. And in this case, the USSR also did not violate neutrality, because the raider was listed as a merchant ship according to the ship's documents, and the artillery was dismantled and hidden in the holds before it arrived in Murmansk. The Soviet government received from Germany for this operation 950 thousand Reichsmarks. This operation, which the German command gave the code name "Fall Grün" ("Green Case"), received coverage in the works of naval historians of the United States, England, Denmark and Germany in the 50s. In 1953, Switzerland even published a book of memoirs by the former raider commander Rear Admiral Robert Eissen "On the Comet along the Northeast Passage." In the USSR, this story was not advertised until perestroika, although it was not completely hushed up. (By the way, there was nothing unusual in it - in the 30s foreign ships sailed the Northern Sea Route to Igarka for the forest; even its opening for end-to-end international navigation was discussed - which was prevented by the war.)
Finally, about the notorious "Base" Nord, allegedly built by the Germans with the consent of the USSR near Murmansk, from where German submarines in 1939-1940s went to sink English ships. So this base, and even nothing similar to it, simply did not exist, except in the works of dissidents-revisionists like Alexander Nekrich and sensational books in the spirit of "Arctic secrets of the Third Reich."
Germany really turned to the USSR with such proposals, promising in return for the basing point in the Kola Bay, the supply of naval equipment like torpedo boats, but the matter did not come to any serious negotiations (even negotiations!).
NESOLONO BREAD LINKOR
Of all the fleets of the Soviet Union, by the beginning of the Great Patriotic War, the Northern one turned out to be the weakest - of the large ships on it, there were only six destroyers. All the more worthy are its results and how such small forces managed to thwart the German plans.
In June 1942, the naval headquarters of the Third Reich received information that about 50 Soviet and allied ships, including the leader "Baku" and three destroyers, accompanied by the Soviet icebreakers "Anastas Mikoyan" and "Admiral Lazarev" and the American tanker "Lok-Batan”, Left on July 15 from Vladivostok. This convoy became one of the targets of Operation Wunderland - Wonderland. It involved the "pocket" battleship "Admiral Scheer" and four submarines. It was assumed not only the defeat of the convoy, but in general the violation of Soviet navigation in the Kara Sea by destroying ports, meteorological stations, ships. Real successes have been very modest. The Germans managed to destroy two Soviet aircraft of polar aviation, burn down the warehouses and houses of polar explorers, sink the transport "Krestyanin" and the icebreaker steamer "Sibiryakov" - the first ship to sail in one navigation along the Northern Sea Route in 1934. On August 27, the battleship approached Dixon Island. As is now known, the enemy attached great importance to the capture or at least destruction of the port of Dikson. "Admiral Scheer" was supposed to suddenly land a landing party of up to several hundred people on the island. It was planned to seize the leadership of the headquarters of the western sector of the Northern Sea Route, set fire to coal depots, destroy the radio station and cut off communication with Krasnoyarsk. However, an unaccounted battery of two 152-mm howitzers under the command of Lieutenant Nikolai Kornyakov was in the way of the plans, which was served by only 12 artillerymen with the participation of local residents, including girls who worked on the delivery of shells. Frankly, not a very significant force in comparison with six 280-mm guns of the Sheer main caliber and eight 150-mm barrels of auxiliary artillery on board. Twice "Admiral Scheer" approached the port, but both times was forced to withdraw. At the same time, one of the Soviet shells very successfully set fire to the warehouse with fuel for the onboard reconnaissance aircraft, so the team had to wage a serious struggle for the survivability of the ship. Reporting on his campaign, the commander of the "pocket" battleship, captain zur see Meendsen-Bolken, informed the leadership with captivating naivety: “To no small surprise, a coastal battery of 150-mm cannons suddenly opened fire. As a result, the landing had to be abandoned."
In the battle, the enemy damaged the ships "Dezhnev", "Revolutionary" and SKR-19, burned down two wooden houses, put out of action a power plant, a bathhouse and several other buildings. After that, "Admiral Scheer" was forced to leave the Kara Sea.
Thus, despite the complete superiority of the Germans over the forces available to the USSR in this area, the results of the campaign of the "pocket" battleship were, in fact, negligible. It is no coincidence that the German command canceled the next operation in the Kara Sea - "Double Strike". During it, it was supposed to attack all Soviet ships coming from the east, as well as the coast of the Kara Sea, including the Ob Bay. But due to the failure of Operation Wonderland, the new military action remained in the staff archives. From now on, the submarines of Admiral Doenitz, united in the Viking tactical group, were entrusted to interfere with Soviet navigation in these parts. However, they did not really succeed either.
PARTIAL SUCCESSES WITH COMPLETE FAILURE
In 1942-1944, the Kriegsmarine undertook a number of operations in the Soviet Arctic: Crusader, Arctic Wolf, Cellist, Migratory Birds. In the course of them, reconnaissance missions were carried out mainly, the loudest of which was the capture of the Soviet polar station in 1944, when, although having suffered losses, the Germans managed to seize some of the documentation and ciphers. Also, several secret Kriegsmarine bases were organized on Novaya Zemlya and Franz Josef Land (found after the war).
However, it must be borne in mind that all the bases were small and carefully camouflaged reconnaissance points with no more than two or three dozen personnel. For example, the “airbase” (as journalists called it in the 90s), created by the Germans with the help of submarines on Mezhsharsky Island near Novaya Zemlya, was just an ordinary parking lot with a small supply of fuel for seaplanes, even without permanent personnel. There were no underground shelters for submarines and concrete runways, as even respected publications wrote about it in the 90s, at these bases. Moreover, the Germans all the time experienced serious problems with repairs and supplies, even in occupied Norway. For example, in the port of Kirkenes, the Kriegsmarine had only a floating workshop, and the submarines went to Bergen or Germany for serious repairs. The last major operation of the Germans in the Soviet Arctic was the landing in the fall of 1943 in the western part of the Franz Josef Land archipelago of a detachment to organize a radio direction-finding point. However, in the spring of 1944, people had to be evacuated - almost all of them fell ill with trichinosis due to eating polar bear meat.
On the whole, despite some favorable moments, German efforts in this direction have not brought significant success. And soon the Petsamo-Kirkinesky operation of the Red Army deprived the Germans of ports and bases in Northern Norway, and the Soviet Arctic became extremely difficult for them to access, and the general unfavorable situation forced the Reich to abandon polar adventures.
