On February 13, 1856, a congress of representatives of the great European powers opened in Paris to sum up the results of the Crimean War. It was the most ambitious European forum since 1815. Finally, on March 18, after 17 congressional sessions, a peace treaty was signed, according to which, in peacetime, Turkey closes the Black Sea straits to all military ships, regardless of their ownership, with the exception of the stationaries in Istanbul. The Black Sea is declared neutral and open to merchant ships of all nations. Russia and Turkey undertake not to have "naval arsenals" on its shores. They are allowed to keep on the Black Sea for coastal service no more than 10 light military ships each.
At the insistence of the Minister of Foreign Affairs Gorchakov, the Sevastopol Fortress was officially abolished in 1864. The guns were taken to Nikolaev and Kerch, the artillery companies were disbanded. The post of military governor was also abolished, and Sevastopol became part of the Tauride province. Initially, the city was included in the Simferopol and then Yalta counties.
The southern part of Sevastopol lay in ruins, which no one tried to restore. In the summer of 1860, the playwright Alexander Ostrovsky visited the city. He wrote: “I was in the unfortunate Sevastopol. It is impossible to see this city without tears, in it positively there is no stone unturned. The restoration of the city began only in 1871.
RECOVERY BEGINS BUT …
Since the beginning of the 1860s, two infantry regiments of the 13th Infantry Division and the 13th Artillery Brigade were garrisoned in the city. Since 1865, in Sevastopol, the procurement of components for underwater mines began secretly, and a warehouse for the Kerch fortress artillery (78,970 poods of gunpowder and 143,467 shells) was organized. For the construction and repair of buildings and structures of the Military Department, the Simferopol Engineering Distance was created, which was controlled in Sevastopol.
After the abolition of the "neutralization of the Black Sea" in 1871, Russia was formally untied in the construction of the fleet and coastal defense. But then both the Military and the Naval Ministries practically did nothing. I would like to note that the London Treaty of March 1, 1871 finally resolved the issue of building the Lozovaya-Sevastopol railway line with a length of 613 km. And although the Paris world did not forbid the construction of roads even along the entire perimeter of the Black Sea, trains went to Kharkov from Moscow in 1869, and the first train passed from Lozovaya station to Sevastopol only in January 1875.
In the early 1870s, the aged Lieutenant General Count Totleben drew up a plan for the construction of seven coastal batteries in Sevastopol. However, its implementation began only in 1876, when Alexander II finally decided to start a war in the Balkans.
As of October 15, 1876, the list of fortifications of Sevastopol looked like this (all batteries under construction). North side: battery No. 1 - two 6-inch mortars of the 1867 model and four 24-pounder cast iron cannons, battery No. 2 - two 6-inch mortars of the 1867 model, battery No. 3 - two 6-inch mortars of the 1867 model; South side: battery No. 5 (formerly Aleksandrovskaya) - four 9-inch cannons of the 1867 model and two 24-pounder cast iron cannons, battery No. 6 (formerly No. 10) - four 9-inch cannons of the 1867 model and four 24-pounder cast iron guns, battery No. 7 (former No. 8) - fourteen 6-inch mortars of the 1867 model, in stock - six 12-pounder cast-iron cannons of the 1867 model.
Moreover, all the coastal batteries in Sevastopol already at the end of 1876 were interconnected by a telegraph line.
However, a few weeks after the tsar's ratification of the Berlin Congress on July 15, 1878, the War Office decided to disarm the batteries of the Sevastopol Fortress. The official wording is: for financial reasons, "so as not to give Sevastopol the status of a fortress." At the same time, the coastal fortresses of Odessa and Poti were disarmed. Thus, not a single coastal battery remained on the shores of the Black Sea. Their guns were removed from the batteries and stored in these cities in the so-called "emergency reserve". This reserve was intended for arming fortresses in case of war.
In such conditions, the disarmament of Sevastopol was actually a crime. Moreover, there was money for the maintenance of the fortress in Sevastopol. Another question is that many high-ranking officials had huge incomes in the form of bribes from the commercial activities of the Sevastopol port. The trade turnover of the Sevastopol commercial port has been continuously growing since 1859, and by 1888 it reached 31 million rubles in foreign traffic alone, and together with cabotage traffic it amounted to over 47 million rubles. In 1888, 42,981 passengers arrived at the Sevastopol port and 39,244 people left. Naturally, the officials dreamed of turning Sevastopol into a second Odessa and did their best to prevent the militarization of the city.
NEW THREAT
At the end of 1884, in connection with the advance of Russian troops in Central Asia, a new crisis erupted, which was dubbed in the press of that time "the military alert of 1884-1885". In fact, England and Russia were on the brink of war. The spring and early summer of 1885 became the apogee of the Russo-British conflict, and only on August 29 (September 10) an agreement was reached in London on the division of the spheres of influence of Russia and England.
From the beginning of 1885, Sevastopol began to prepare for defense. By April 1885, 28,078 people lived within the Sevastopol city administration. In addition, 5,177 people from two regiments of the 13th Infantry Division and the 13th Artillery Brigade were stationed there. On April 12, the Supreme Command was issued, according to which seven old batteries, built in 1876-1877, were to be restored in Sevastopol, and two new batteries were to be built. It took two weeks to restore old batteries, and six weeks to build new ones. RUR 160 thousand were allocated for the engineering expenses.
On April 28, 1885, the frightened Sevastopol authorities began to look for the guns stored in 1879. At the artillery equipment depot in Sevastopol in the "emergency stock" were found: three 11-inch cannons of the 1877 model, twelve 9-inch cannons of the 1867 model, sixteen 24-pound long cast-iron cannons, six 12-pounder cast-iron cannons, two 9- 1867 inch steel mortars and twenty-four 6-inch 1867 copper mortars. In addition, there were 400 mines in the mine depot of the War Department.
According to the Imperial order of April 12, 1885, seven 11-inch cannons of the 1867 model and seven 9-inch mortars of the 1867 model from the Kerch fortress and nine 9-inch cannons of the 1867 model from the Poti fortress were to be delivered to Sevastopol. Fortunately, on March 9, 1885, the Highest command was issued to abolish the Poti fortress.
The work on the restoration of old batteries and the construction of new ones was carried out mainly by the forces of the 5th Sapper Brigade of the Odessa Military District.
Based on the conclusion of the Special Meeting of May 3, 1886, chaired by the Minister of War, it was decided to build temporary land fortifications around Sevastopol. At the same time, in April 1886, a serf artillery department and one serf artillery battalion of five companies were formed in Sevastopol to carry out service on batteries.
As a result, by March 1888 in Sevastopol for arming coastal batteries there were: thirteen 11-inch cannons (three models in 1877 and 10 models in 1867), twenty-one 9-inch cannons of the 1867 model, two 6-inch guns weighing 190 pounds,four 11 "mortars and nine 9" 1867 model mortars. To arm the land batteries that defended the fortress from the rear, there were six 6-inch cannons of 190 pounds, forty 24-pound long and six 24-pound short cannons, thirteen 6-inch copper mortars of the 1867 model and several smaller caliber guns. On August 31, 1887, three more 11-inch cannons of the 1867 model were transported from the Ochakovskaya fortress to Sevastopol. In addition, in the fall of the same year, thirteen 6-inch copper fortress mortars of the 1867 model were delivered from Ochakov to Sevastopol.
IT WAS SMOOTH ON PAPER
On paper, everything looked smooth - dozens of fortress guns defended Sevastopol from the rear. In fact, all the land defense weapons lay peacefully in the warehouse. This was revealed only on May 30, 1889. At 5:30 in the morning, for an unknown reason (apparently, it was still a sabotage), a fire broke out in the artillery depot in the Laboratory Beam. I would like to note that our genius generals decided, in order to save money and for their own convenience, to build a powder magazine for 45 thousand poods of gunpowder next to the weapons depot.
The fire turned into a disaster. The Sevastopol authorities tried to hide its size even from the leadership of the Military Department in St. Petersburg. Therefore, the scale of the catastrophe can only be judged by indirect data that I found in the Military-Historical Archive. So, having received serious damage, four 6-inch cannons of 190 pounds on September 6, 1891 were sent for overhaul as much as Perm, and thirty-eight 24-pound long cast-iron cannons, four 24-pounder short guns, twenty-six 9-pounder cannons of the sample 1867 and eleven 6-inch mortars of the 1867 model were sent for repairs to the Bryansk arsenal. As you can see, 83 guns received heavy damage.
Meanwhile, on May 17, 1890, Sevastopol was officially ranked among the fortresses of the 3rd class.
GUNS AND PRODUCTS
Initially, shells with a lead sheath were adopted for the guns of the 1867 model, and in the 1880s, shells with copper belts were specially developed for them. However, there was no interchangeability of shells with copper belts for guns of the 1867 model and shells of the same caliber for guns of the 1877 model, since their belts had a different design.
Until the end of the 10-ies of the twentieth century, the largest caliber in the Russian coastal artillery remained the caliber of 280 mm, that is, 11 inches (single 14-inch and 13.5-inch guns in the Kronstadt fortress are a special question). The Sevastopol Fortress was armed with three types of 11-inch guns: 11-inch model 1867, 11-inch model 1877 and 11-inch 35 calibers (the latter were initially called 11-inch cannon model 1887, but this name did not catch on) … From the mid-80s of the XIX century and up to January 1, 1918, the Sevastopol Fortress consisted of ten 11-inch cannons of the 1867 model (in 1885, four 11-inch cannons of the 1867 model were sent from Sevastopol to Vladivostok by sea, and in 1889 year took from Ochakov three of the same cannon).
These 10 guns were manufactured at the Krupp plant and at first stood on the carriages of the 1870 model of the Semenov system with a maximum elevation angle of 15 degrees. By 1895, such an elevation angle, which limited the firing range of 5, 3 km, was recognized as small, and in 1897, at the Main Artillery Range, the Semyonov machine was successfully tested, converted by Colonel Durlakher for firing at angles up to 35 degrees. Accordingly, the firing range of a projectile weighing 224 kg increased from 5.3 km to 10.3 km, that is, almost doubled. The first six gun carriages of the 1870 model departed from Sevastopol for alteration to St. Petersburg at the Metal Plant in 1897. By July 1, 1908, all ten 11-inch cannons of the 1867 model were on machines with an elevation angle of 35 degrees.
As of January 1, 1891, there were shells for 11-inch guns of the 1867 model in Sevastopol: old armor-piercing made of hardened cast iron with a thin lead sheath - 1762, old cast iron made of ordinary cast iron with a thick lead sheath - 450, new steel with a centering thickening of the sample 1888 (shells with leading belts, close to the shells of the 1877 model) - 255 pieces.
Three 11-inch cannons, model 1877, manufactured by the Krupp plant were delivered to Sevastopol at the end of 1879. Initially, they stood on Krupp's "first delivery" machines with an elevation angle of 24 degrees. In 1895, at the Putilovsky plant, the alteration of Krupp machines according to the project of Durlyakher began. The converted machines had an elevation angle of 35 degrees, due to which the firing range increased from 8.5 km to 12 km. By July 1, 1908, all three cannons were on converted machines, and three unreconstructed Krupp machines remained in reserve until the end of 1911, when they were scrapped.
By January 1, 1891, in Sevastopol, for three 11-inch cannons of the 1877 model, there were shells: old cast iron - 296, old armor-piercing hardened cast iron - 734, new steel armor-piercing (delivered in 1889) - 162 pieces.
In connection with the abolition of the Batumi fortress at the beginning of 1911, eight 11-inch cannons of the 1877 model produced by the Obukhov steel plant arrived from Batum. In addition, by March 1, 1888, five 11/35-inch guns of the Krupp plant were delivered to Sevastopol. The first of them was put on battery number 10 in June 1889, and the last - on August 10 of the same year. However, there were no shells for them. But the Journal of the Artillery Committee (JAC) No. 592 of 1888 was allowed, if necessary, to shoot from 11/35-inch guns with shells from 11-inch guns of the 1877 model, although this would burn out the barrels, since the guns of the 1877 model did not have obturating rings. So, on July 24 and 26, 1891 in Sevastopol, training firing took place from four 11/35-inch cannons (No. 1, 2, 3 and 4), as a result, gun No. 2 had a premature burst of a shell in the channel.
By January 1, 1891, Sevastopol had five 11/35-inch cannons and only 496 bombs made of ordinary cast iron, that is, shells that were formally considered high-explosive fragmentation, but were not such because of the low power of the explosive. Later, three more 11/35-inch cannons made by the Obukhov plant with carriages were delivered to Sevastopol. At the end of 1910, five 11/35-inch cannons arrived from the disarmed fortress of Libava (four of them were made at the Obukhov plant and one at the Perm plant). In 1911, one of these guns departed to the Main Artillery Range in St. Petersburg.
In 1912, the Putilov plant was ordered new machines for 11/35-inch guns. However, by January 1, 1918, the crooks at the Putilov factory had not made a single machine tool, and most of the 11/35-inch guns lay in warehouses throughout the 1914-1918 war.
On June 1, 1913, a contract was signed with the Putilov Plant of the War Department for the manufacture of 13 machine tools for 11/35 inch guns at a price of 37 thousand rubles. each. 12 machines were intended for the Northern Fortress, and one for the GAP. The machines were supposed to have electric drives for vertical and horizontal guidance and projectile feed.
THE OVERVIEWED ROLE OF MORTIRS
The Main Artillery Directorate of Russia greatly overestimated the role of coastal mortars in the 70s of the XIX century, and by the beginning of the XX century they had become absolutely useless when firing at ships, with the exception of narrowness. Nevertheless, the military department spent huge amounts of money on the production of 9-inch and 11-inch coastal mortars and the construction of coastal mortar batteries.
Since the mid-80s of the 19th century, twenty-one 9-inch mortars of the 1867 model were in the Sevastopol Fortress. Of these, 16 mortars were with a wedge lock manufactured by the Obukhov plant, and five were with a piston lock manufactured by the Perm plant. All 9-inch mortars were mounted on Semenov's carriages, which allowed a maximum elevation angle of 17 degrees. In addition, there were two more spare carriages in the warehouse. By January 1, 1891, for 9-inch guns and mortars in the fortress were stored shells: ordinary cast iron with a thick lead sheath - 569, hardened cast iron with a thin lead sheath - 5177, steel with a thin lead sheath - 105 pieces.
By the beginning of 1905, the fortress consisted of seventeen 9-inch cannons of the 1867 model. Moreover, twelve of them, with a wedge lock, were installed on new machines of the Durlakher system with a hydraulic compressor instead of friction compressors at Semyonov's carriages and with an elevation angle of 40 degrees. All twelve 9-inch guns were on battery No. 1 in combat readiness. By this time, five 9-inch piston-bolt cannons lay on the linings, and 13 Semyonov's gun carriages were kept separately. This junk was scrapped at the end of 1911.
In the first half of 1915, four 9-inch cannons of the 1867 model were sent from Sevastopol to the Kerch fortress, and in the second half of 1915, four more such cannons were poisoned on the Danube to the city of Reni.
By the beginning of 1888, the Sevastopol Fortress consisted of nine 9-inch mortars of the 1867 model. In 1893, the first eight 9-inch mortars of the 1877 model arrived from Perm. In 1897, eight more such mortars arrived from Perm. As a result, by 1905, all 9-inch mortars of the 1867 model were removed from Sevastopol, and the number of 9-inch mortars of the 1877 model was brought to 40.
After a survey in 1907, three 9-inch mortars were found to be unusable, and three new 9-inch mortars were sent in return. However, unsuitable mortars were not excluded from official reports, and it was believed that there were 43 mortars in the Sevastopol fortress. All mortars were installed on Durlaher machines, which have been produced since 1899.
In the second half of 1915 (hereinafter, the second half refers to the period from July 1 to January 1 of the next year), combat-ready 9-inch mortars were removed from Sevastopol: 24 mortars together with carriages - to the Grodno fortress, and 16 mortars - to the Peter fortress Great to the Baltic. The three remaining unusable mortars were taken out of the Sevastopol fortress in the first half of 1916.
By the beginning of 1888, the first four 11-inch mortars of the 1877 model, manufactured by the Obukhov plant, were delivered to Sevastopol. At the same plant, unique machine tools of the Lieutenant Razkazov system were manufactured for them. The main difference between the Razkazov machine and other cannon and mortar carriages is the tilt of the swing frame not forward, but backward in order to reduce the pressure on the frame during rollback.
The machine consisted of the actual machine of the Vavaler system and the frame of the cobbled system. In addition to a hydraulic compressor, Balvilev springs were used to reduce recoil, they also provided the machine's self-rolling after a shot. Each compressor rod was fitted with 209 springs. When fired, the mortar with the machine, due to recoil, slid down the rotary frame, and after the end of the roll, the Belleville springs, unclenching, lifted the machine. At the same time, difficulties arose with the adjustment of the springs when the charges were reduced. The device of the machines was extremely complex, and they began to function normally only after the modernization, made in 1895 at the Sevastopol Marine Plant. More Razkazov's machines were not made.
By 1905, the Sevastopol fortress had sixteen 11-inch mortars, of which four were on Razkazov's machines, and twelve - on the Kokorin's machine tools. This situation persisted at least until September 15, 1917, after which no reports were made in the Sevastopol Fortress. Eight 11-inch mortars were on battery no. 3 on the North Side and eight on battery no. 12 near Karantinnaya Bay.
WEAK SPACE IN DEFENSE
The weakest guns, which have been in service with the coastal batteries of Sevastopol since 1885, were 6-inch guns weighing 190 pounds of the 1877 model.
I'll start by explaining the name of the gun. In 1875-1878, about one hundred 6-inch cannons of the 1867 model were produced, which weighed 190 pounds. From the beginning of the 1880s, they began to be made with a channel of the 1877 model and, in parallel, they made lighter 6-inch cannons weighing 120 pounds. Both systems were intended for siege fortress artillery and in order to distinguish them, the weight was introduced into the name - 190 pounds and 120 pounds. In the late 1880s - early 1890s, all 190 pounds of cannons with a channel of the 1867 model were redesigned by inserting a new pipe with a channel of the 1877 model. After that, the words "model 1877" disappeared from the names of guns at 190 and 120 pounds.
By March 1888, there should have been eight on the coastal batteries of Sevastopol, but in fact there were two 6-inch cannons of 190 pounds, and for the defense of the land front of the fortress there were six 6-inch cannons of 190 pounds, but the latter were not on batteries, but rusted in warehouses. By 1907, the number of 6-inch cannons of 190 pounds, transferred for coastal batteries, was brought to 20.
Initially, 6-inch cannons of 190 pounds were installed on high serf carriages of the 1878 model, which did not have a swivel mechanism. It is clear that it was extremely inconvenient to shoot at a moving ship by manually turning the entire carriage with high wheels. Therefore, in 1889, the coastal carriage of the Durlakher system was tested. The swivel frame of the new gun carriage rotated on a pedestal, which allowed rapid horizontal guidance and circular firing.
By 1907, out of twenty 6-inch 190 pounds of guns, 14 were on the carriages of Durlaher, and six were on machines from 9-inch light mortars. These machines were transferred to the jurisdiction of the Sevastopol fortress artillery in 1906 from the part of the Special Reserve located in Sevastopol. A special reserve was created back in the 1880s and was intended for the landing in the Bosphorus. In total, four 9-inch light mortars were transferred to the property of the Sevastopol Fortress with carriages. Note that the maximum firing range of such a mortar with a 160-kg projectile was only 3 km. And for nothing else, except for shooting in the Black Sea straits, this weapon was not suitable. Therefore, four 9-inch light mortars remained in the same warehouse where they were, and were only formally listed for the Sevastopol Fortress. Where they disappeared between July 1, 1913 and July 1, 1914, the author was unable to establish.
But back to the 6-inch cannons weighing 190 pounds. They were of no use in coastal defense due to poor ballistics and low rate of fire. At the beginning of 1915 they were sent to Riga and Reni.
Order No. 31 of February 28, 1892 for the Military Department, adopted the 57-mm Nordenfeld coastal gun. Readers will have a reasonable question: what could such a "cracker" do, not only with an battleship, but even with a cruiser? Quite right, but the point is different. The leadership of the War Ministry desperately clung to the old coastal systems of the 1877 and 1867 models and instead of replacing them with new rapid-fire guns with improved ballistics, they went to various tricks in order to improve the capabilities of the old guns. Since 8-11-inch guns of the 1867 and 1877 models could make one shot in three to five minutes, the Main Artillery Directorate decided to introduce 57-mm rapid-fire cannons with good ballistics into the armament of fortresses for use as sighting guns. Since by 1890 our generals planned to fight enemy battleships at distances from 0.5 km to 5 km, the 57-mm cannon could provide zeroing at all "real" battle distances. In addition, the 57-mm coastal guns were planned to be used to combat enemy destroyers and landings. 57-mm Nordenfeld cannons were installed on or near the batteries of heavy guns.
By November 24, 1906, 24 coastal 57-mm Nordefeld guns were supposed to be in Sevastopol, but there were only two, and 18 more were transferred from the Special Reserve.
