2016 will mark the 100th anniversary of the legendary event in the history of Russian aviation: on July 17 (July 4, old style), 1916, Russian naval pilots on domestic seaplanes won the first victory in air combat over the sea. Four M-9 seaplanes from the Orlitsa aircraft carrier of the Baltic Fleet shot down two German planes, and the other two put them to flight. This day is considered to be the birthday of the naval aviation of the Russian Navy. On the eve of the significant date, the authors of "Sea Heritage" recall those whose achievements and exploits were the first on the pages of the history of a new kind of forces in the navy. One of them is Mikhail Mikhailovich Sergeev, a sailor, aviator, scientist, and Arctic explorer.
One can only wonder how this man, with his dubious - from the point of view of Soviet power - origins and past, managed to survive in the fire of three wars and avoid repressions that almost cleaned out the people of his circle, and at the same time did not sacrifice the honor and dignity of the cadre. officer.
Warrant officer Sergeev M. M., 1914
The arrival in the aviation of Fleet Lieutenant Sergeev can be considered to some extent accidental. A graduate of the Marine Corps in 1913, who graduated thirteenth on the list, chose the Black Sea Fleet for further service. One can imagine the ambitious dreams of a young capable officer related to the upcoming appointment, and the depth of the disappointment that befell him. Instead of a warship, he turned out to be the commander of a battery of the battleship Sinop, launched in 1889, but hopelessly outdated by the beginning of the First World War, which was destined for the role of a guard ship guarding the entrance to the Sevastopol Bay. Perhaps midshipman Sergeev owed his origins to such a discouraging start to his career. Since the time of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich, when the ancestor of the Sergeev family, Father Mikhail, carried obedience in the Trinity-Sergius Lavra, several generations of his descendants were priests. So the father of our hero was a simple rural priest, rector of a church in the village of Sretensky, Vyatka province.
And in the Black Sea Fleet, as a rule, whole sea dynasties served, connected with each other by many years of kinship and friendship. Among them, in particular, can be attributed and the commander of the "Sinop" - Baron Peter Ivanovich Patton-Fanton-de-Verrion, from the Russified Belgians, an honored sailor, a participant in the Russian-Japanese war, who became Rear Admiral of the Russian Fleet in 1915.
Ships passed by "Sinop", going to sea and returning from campaigns, on which the friends of midshipman Sergeev served. Some managed to distinguish themselves in battles, advance in service, earn insignia, and days dragged on on the guardhouse filled with routine affairs and duties of an artillery officer.
Battleship "Sinop"
From the beginning of the war, the formation of aviation units of the fleet proceeded at an accelerated rate. The Black Sea squadron included two hydro-cruisers: "Emperor Nicholas I" and "Alexander I"; and later another - "Romania". They could carry 6-8 aircraft. In the course of hostilities, it became clear that the aviators were capable of taking on many important missions in the interests of the fleet.
The first experience of using naval aviation took place on March 24, 1915, when the Black Sea squadron, which included the Nicholas I hydro-cruiser, made a cruise to the shores of Rumelia. The planes, which rose from the deck of the aircraft, bombed enemy positions. And on May 3, Russian seaplanes raided the capital of the Ottoman Empire - Istanbul.
Just a few years ago, in the fall of 1910, Mikhail Sergeev, a student of the Marine Corps, had a chance to attend the All-Russian Aeronautics Festival held at the Commandant airfield, near the Black River. On that day, pilots Ulyanin, Rudnev and Gorshkov showed their skills on biplanes and "Farmanes", as well as Matsievich, Ermakov and Utochkin on "Blerio". And here, in the Black Sea Fleet, Sergeev first took to the air, as a passenger, on a training two-seat monoplane of the "Moran-Zh" type, piloted by the commander of the Belbek station aviation detachment, staff captain Karachaev.
Mikhail Mikhailovich decided to become a naval pilot and submitted a report to the command with a request to send him to study. The young officer's request was granted, and at the beginning of 1916, Warrant Officer Sergeev was enrolled in a naval pilot school located on Gutuev Island in Petrograd, where he was taught to fly on M-2 seaplanes. After its graduation in December 1916, Mikhail Mikhailovich, who had become a lieutenant by this time, returned to the Black Sea Fleet as a naval pilot.
By the beginning of 1917, the Black Sea Fleet's naval aviation forces had grown to 110 aircraft. An air division of the Black Sea was formed: the 1st brigade consisted of four ship detachments (then six), the 2nd brigade - 13 land-based detachments. It is noteworthy that almost all seaplanes were of domestic production, the designs of D. P. Grigorovich: M-5 (scout, artillery fire spotter), M-9 (heavy seaplane for bombing coastal targets and ships), M-11 (the world's first seaplane fighter).
Seaplanes M-9 of the Black Sea Fleet, captured by the Germans in 1918
In the order for the fleet for 1917, a wide range of tasks was assigned to the air division, testifying to the recognition of the role and importance of naval aviation:
1) attack of enemy ships, its bases and coastal fortifications;
2) the fight against enemy air forces;
3) anti-submarine warfare;
4) surveillance and aerial reconnaissance;
5) protection of the fleet at sea from enemy aircraft and its submarines;
6) adjusting the artillery fire of ships.
The main targets of naval pilots during this period were military installations in Varna and Constanta, as well as coastal fortifications in the Bosphorus region.
On March 12 (25), 1917, the 8th hydro-detachment of the Black Sea Fleet, in which Lieutenant Sergeev served, was ordered to embark on ships and go to the Bosphorus region. The pilots, along with reconnaissance and aerial photography of the coastal strip, had to destroy enemy artillery batteries installed at Cape Kara-Burun with bombs.
It was one of the most fantastic flights in the history of naval aviation. This is how these events are described in the "Combat Chronicle of the Russian Fleet": "The seaplane of the Black Sea Fleet aviation under the command of pilot Lieutenant Mikhail Sergeev and under the observer non-commissioned officer Felix Tur, having received a bullet hole in a gasoline tank during air reconnaissance over the Bosphorus during an air reconnaissance attack over the Bosphorus. gasoline, was forced to float in the area of Derkos (Rumeli coast) out of sight of the accompanying Russian ships.
Meanwhile, Sergeev and Tur, seeing a Turkish schooner not far from them, using the remains of gasoline, went on an attack on it and, opening machine gun fire, forced the Turks to hastily leave the schooner and run to the shore in a boat. Having captured the schooner, the pilots destroyed the plane, having previously removed all valuable parts from it, a machine gun and a compass, and, raising the sails, went to Sevastopol.
After a six-day voyage, having withstood the storm, without provisions and almost without water, the pilots arrived at the Dzharylgach Spit, where, having made themselves felt through the SNiS post, they were taken to the destroyer sent for them."
Mikhail Mikhailovich was sure that training in the Marine Corps, headed by an excellent sailor and artilleryman Voin Petrovich Rimsky-Korsakov, instilled in young people a love of the sea and sailing, helped him to withstand the strongest storm and safely come to the Crimean coast.
The distinguished pilot was summoned to the commander of the Black Sea Fleet A. V. Kolchak. The impressions of this meeting of M. M. Sergeev shared in his memoirs: “The next day I was summoned to Kolchak at the headquarters of the Black Sea Fleet on the battleship George the Victorious. and strong-willed facial features. He congratulated me on the seizure of the prize and listened attentively to the story of the capture of the schooner by plane - the first in the history of aviation. A week later I was presented with the St. George weapon."
The commander of the Black Sea Fleet, Vice Admiral A. V. Kolchak. March 1917
It should be noted that before that the young officer had managed to earn two orders: St. Stanislaus III degree with swords and a bow and St. Anna IV degree.
On May 5 (18), 1917, during a regular flight in the area of Constanta, Mikhail Sergeev, returning from a mission, was attacked by three German seaplane planes, one of which was shot down, but he himself could not evade a machine-gun burst, was wounded and taken prisoner.
So for the first time, death almost touched him with its wing.
He returned to his homeland after the war, in December 1918, unconditionally sided with Soviet power. It is difficult to imagine what could have happened to him if it had not been for his captivity. It is quite possible that Lieutenant Sergeev would have shared the fate of many officers of the Black Sea Fleet. According to modern historians, about 600 officers of the Russian army became victims of the "revolutionary sailors" in 1917-1918.
Despite the fact that the former lieutenant of the Russian Imperial Navy joined the Red Army voluntarily, he most likely did not enjoy trust. Otherwise, it is difficult to explain the fact of his long stay, first in the reserve of aviation specialists of the Moscow District Directorate of the Red Army Air Fleet, and then as a junior mechanic of the air train workshop of the Air Force of the Eastern Front. However, most of the pilots of the Red Army were former officers, many of them were forcibly mobilized, so the transition of the red military to the side of the whites at that time was a frequent occurrence. It is all the more surprising that in May 1919, a recent clerk for the technical part of the Air Force headquarters of the Eastern Front overnight became chief of the Air Fleet of the 3rd Army on the same front, where he was to support the actions of the Red Army against the troops of the former commander of the Black Sea Fleet, Admiral A. V. Kolchak, who has now become the Supreme Ruler and Supreme Commander-in-Chief of Russia.
It is difficult to judge what forces the head of the Air Fleet of the 3rd Army had. It is known, for example, that during the summer battles on Belaya, in the summer of 1919, the Reds had about 15 vehicles at their disposal. At the same time, due to the lack of bombs, such "formidable weapons" as rails and cobblestones were often used. In addition, most of the loss of flight personnel on both sides was associated with the technical condition of the aircraft: the airplane could literally fall apart in the air, not to mention the failure of the engine and controls.
The plane of the "Reds" captured by the "White" in the Perm region and again repulsed by the Red Army. Eastern Front, 1920
Later, until the end of the Civil War, M. M. Sergeev, without ceasing to fly, held the highest command positions in the air armies of the Southwestern and Southern fronts.
Shortly before the start of operations to liberate Crimea from Wrangel's troops - the Armed Forces of the South of Russia, Sergeev, as Deputy Chief of the Air Fleet of the Southern Front, had a chance to work under the command of Mikhail Vasilyevich Frunze, from whom he received operational tasks and to whom he reported on the preparation of operations.
The story of M. M. Sergeev about this period of his service: “During the first meeting, Frunze demanded a report on the state of the air forces, listened to him very carefully, demanded to immediately conduct reconnaissance of the Aleksandrovsk (now Zaporozhye) regions, south of the Crimean Isthmus in order to clarify the enemy's line of advance. from "farms" and "voisins" with a flight range of more than 400 km, completed the task.
Frunze personally supervised the preparations for the operation against Wrangel. His office hours were night and day, from 0 to 4 and from 12 to 16. On night reports, he usually gave instructions for the next day, on the basis of which a detailed plan of action was drawn up. The air forces of each army were assigned a specific task. By 10 or 11 o'clock in the morning, reports came to the headquarters about the performance of reconnaissance. The chief of staff systematized and processed reports: intelligence data, bombing results, information about air battles. Air reconnaissance reports were sent to the operational department of the front headquarters, where they were compared with data from other types of reconnaissance to clarify the location of the enemy's positions. Then the commander received reports on the fulfillment of the tasks received."
And the tasks of air force control were now of a completely different nature. By September 1920, the squadrons of the Southern Front numbered about 80 aircraft (of which about 50% were in good working order), including several heavy bombers "Ilya Muromets". Such an aircraft could lift up to 16 pounds (256 kg) of bombs and could inflict very serious damage on the enemy. On September 2, one of the "Muromtsy" under the command of the Krasvoenlet Shkudov dropped 11 poods of bombs on the Prishib station, where the headquarters of the Drozdovskaya officer division was located. Six people were wounded at the station, including artillery general Polzikov. Another successful operation was the bombing of the German colony of Friedrichsfeld, where about three thousand White Guards had accumulated.
After the civil war, M. M. Sergeev became the first "commander" - the head of the Air Fleet of the Black and Azov Seas, while at the same time acting as the head of the naval aviation school in Sevastopol. These skills came in handy when, after a short service, in 1927, he became a teacher at the Higher Air Force Academy. NOT. Zhukovsky.
As an experienced aviator and commander, Mikhail Mikhailovich never stopped studying. He graduated from the high school of aerobatics in the Sevastopol region of Kacha and advanced training courses for the senior commanding staff at the Naval Academy. K. E. Voroshilov.
By the time M. M. Sergeev on "long-term leave", as recorded in his pension book, in the buttonholes of the uniform of a veteran who served in the armed forces for 20 years, there were two rhombuses, which corresponded to the first "general" rank of division commander. The Air Force Commander Alksnis at that time had three such rhombuses, and the future "red marshal" K. E. Voroshilov - four.
Marshal of the Soviet Union, Chief of the General Staff of the Red Army A. I. Egorov, commander of the 2nd rank, commander of the Red Army Air Force Ya. I. Alksnis, corps commander R. P. Eideman, commander of the 2nd rank, head of the Military Academy of the Red Army named after Frunze, A. I. Cork at the Pushkin airfield. 1936
Leaving the army testified to the foresight of Mikhail Mikhailovich, who understood that the former lieutenant of the Imperial Navy, who came from the clergy "class alien" to the proletariat, would become the first victim of any purge of the ranks of the Red Army. Therefore, it was better for him to keep in the shadows, and even better - away from both capitals. It is easy to imagine what fate awaited Sergeev in 1937-1938, if he remained in the cadres of the Red Army …
MM. Sergeev moved to the Far North, where, at the suggestion of Otto Yulievich Schmidt, he became deputy chief for the sea part of the West Taimyr expedition of the Polar Aviation Directorate of Glavmorsevput. Along with hydrographic surveys, the expedition had to find places suitable for the creation of polar aviation airfields. The experience of Mikhail Mikhailovich as a sailor and as an aviator was equally in demand here.
During the 1933 expedition, the schooner "Belukha" under the command of M. M. Sergeeva conducted a sea reconnaissance and topographic survey of Bukharin Island, on which two navigation signs were installed. The second largest island of the archipelago received two names at once, as it was mistaken for two land areas. One was named the island of Sergeev - the captain of the "Belukha", and the other - the island of Gronsky (a famous Soviet public figure and writer). The maps also included the Belukha Strait, Gavrilin Island (in honor of the senior captain's mate), Cape Everling (named after a member of the expedition oceanologist A. V. Everling, a graduate of the Marine Corps in 1910). The expedition stayed off the coast of the archipelago until September 3, after which it headed towards the Island of Solitude. The Belukha reached the Fram Strait, the Izvestia TsIK archipelago, carried out a number of important scientific works. A documentary film was made about the campaign of the West Taimyr Expedition. But in the Kara Sea, on the way to Arkhangelsk, the Belukha got holes and sank. The crew was rescued by the steamer "Arkos".
Sergeev's life was again in the balance: the death of the ship could easily be regarded as a fact of sabotage. There were enough precedents, and it was not taken into account that the knowledge of the Arctic Ocean left much to be desired, and Arctic storms and ice can make adjustments to any plans. Only during navigation in 1933 did the Ruslan tugboat, returning from Franz Josef land, and the Revolutionary steamer, which was making the transition from Lena to Kolyma, perished. But this time everything worked out well.
After adventures in the Arctic, in 1935, Mikhail Mikhailovich Sergeev joined the group of the talented and assertive inventor Leonid Vasilyevich Kurchevsky. One of the areas of work of this team was the development of dynamo-reactive cannons (DRP), a prototype of recoilless guns.
Leonid Kurchevsky
Kurchevsky, who enjoyed the location of Marshal M. N. Tukhachevsky, were given almost dictatorial powers and unlimited funds. For him, a Special Design Bureau No. 1 of the RKKA Art Department was created, and plant No. 38 in Podlipki, near Moscow, where the engineer for aircraft weapons Sergeev worked from 1936 until the beginning of the Great Patriotic War, was transferred to him at full disposal.
Mikhail Mikhailovich was actively involved in the work related to the test of the DRP. The scope was adjusted in Pereslavl Zalessky, on Lake Pleshcheyevo. Shooting from aircraft was carried out at a target, which was used as a shadow from the airship "B-1" on the surface of the lake. Subsequently, 67 mm guns were installed on the I-4 fighters, and 102 mm on the I-12.
The Marshal believed in Kurchevsky's cannons so much that he decided to re-equip all the artillery of the Red Army, Air Force and Navy with them! At the same time, serious design flaws and limited possibilities of using this weapon in combat conditions were not taken into account. The adventurism of Tukhachevsky and Kurchevsky cost the country dearly. The enterprising inventor was arrested and accused of creating unpromising weapons on the instructions of Tukhachevsky since 1933. Almost simultaneously with the designer, Tukhachevsky and almost the entire leadership of the Red Army Art Department, headed by Corps Commander Efimov, were arrested.
As often happened with us, after this the development of promising weapons was stopped, despite the possibility of its effective use. In the late 1930s, DRP samples were removed from service. But soon recoilless armor-piercing guns appeared in Germany and our allies, and were successfully used on the fronts of World War II. Later, the production of DRP was resumed in the USSR. Modern domestic RPGs, based on the same principle as DRP, now penetrate armor with a thickness of more than 500 mm.
The wave of repressions did not bypass ordinary engineers, but this time Sergeev did not suffer. The fate of the former lieutenant of the Imperial Navy was still in the hands of fate.
With the beginning of the Great Patriotic War, the retired "division commander" submitted a report to the People's Commissar of the USSR Navy about his return to service. The request was granted, but the certification commission instead of the well-deserved rank of senior officer awarded him the rank of lieutenant.
It is also good that, taking into account the knowledge and experience of an artillery specialist, 50-year-old Mikhail Mikhailovich was not sent to the front with a rifle, but was appointed an artillery inspector of the Volga military flotilla in Stalingrad. There he was destined to meet with his son, Konstantin, who received the same title after graduating from the F. E. Dzerzhinsky. There, next to them, the wife of Mikhail Mikhailovich, Natalya Nikolaevna, worked as a nurse in a front-line hospital.
Armored boats of the Volga military flotilla. 1942 g.
The composition of the Volga military flotilla looked variegated: in addition to minesweepers armed with 7, 62-mm machine guns and trawls, it included monitors converted from tugs, barges that delivered gasoline, oil and fuel oil to the besieged city. Artillery mounts with caliber 100, 120, and even 150 mm were installed on them. Plywood river trams were used as vehicles. Armored boats were considered the most formidable warships. Their armament was extremely diverse: there were tank turrets, Lender's anti-aircraft guns, and large-caliber DShKs, not counting rifle-caliber machine guns. Some even had the legendary Katyusha multiple launch rocket launchers - M8 and M13. All the missile and artillery weapons of the flotilla were under the command of Lieutenant Sergeev, who knew his job very well. The gunners sincerely respected the inspector and cherished him like the apple of their eye.
The ships of the flotilla trawled, escorted and transported troops to Stalingrad, fired at enemy positions. Sometimes they made up to 12 flights over the Volga a night, and each could be the last. But it was not safe on the left bank either. German aviation reigned in the sky, from which it was impossible to hide in dugouts and cracks dug in the steppe. Particularly memorable was the raid on August 23, 1942, when Stalingrad was still living as a rear front-line city, not ready to repel massive air raids.
Enemy aircraft in a matter of hours turned the city into ruins, with more than 40 thousand people killed. Not only buildings were on fire, the earth and the Volga were on fire, since oil reservoirs were destroyed. The heat was so hot in the streets from the fires that the clothes of the people who fled for shelter caught fire. Konstantin Mikhailovich, remembering those days, could not hold back his tears.
The Sergeevs survived in this hell. One day, father, son and stepmother received medals "For the Defense of Stalingrad". After the Battle of Stalingrad, Mikhail Mikhailovich Sergeev, became a district management engineer, dealt with the use of aircraft weapons, was awarded the Order of the Red Star, and ended the war with the rank of lieutenant colonel.
Award list for Major M. M. Sergeeva
Konstantin Mikhailovich told how on November 19, 1944, on the Day of Artillery, on the anniversary of the beginning of the Battle of Stalingrad, he was released to Moscow for two weeks. He informed his father by telegram about his imminent arrival. At the railway station in Murmansk, an officer in the NKVD uniform approached him and asked him to give his relatives a small parcel, assuring him that he would be met at the Yaroslavl railway station in Moscow. When the train approached the platform, Konstantin saw his father hurrying to the carriage. But the first to come were several officers from the department of Lavrenty Pavlovich Beria. By that time, Mikhail Mikhailovich was already a convinced realist … He slowed down his steps, hid behind a column and began to observe how events would develop further. You should have seen his joy when he realized that nothing threatened his son.
Konstantin Mikhailovich said that his father was a wise and careful man, only this allowed him to save his life in the face of monstrous repression. Sergeev perfectly understood the situation, he knew that with his biography he was a tasty morsel for enthusiasts from the NKVD. Therefore, he was never arrogant, avoided making speeches and initiatives, managed not to make enemies for himself. He preferred hunting and fishing to an active social life, behaved with dignity, as befits a real naval officer, a cultured and educated person.
Father and son - M. M. Sergeev and Captain 1st Rank K. M. Sergeev. 1966 g.
For many years he taught at the Moscow State Technical University. N. Bauman, took an active part in the work of the Moscow veteran organization and died in 1974 at the age of 83. On the grave of the first commander of the naval aviation of the Azov and Black Seas at the capital's Vagankovskoye cemetery, the Black Sea pilots erected a granite boulder, specially brought by them from the Crimea.
In the footsteps of Mikhail Mikhailovich, his son and grandchildren, Andrei and Kirill, followed. All of them after graduating from the Higher Naval Engineering School of F. E. Dzerzhinsky became mechanical engineers. The life and merits of Captain 1st Rank Konstantin Mikhailovich Sergeev deserve a separate story.
