Stalingrad is different from all cities in Russia - a narrow strip of residential development stretches down the Volga for 60 kilometers. The river has always occupied a special place in the life of the city - the central waterway of Russia, a major transport artery with access to the Caspian, White, Azov and Baltic seas, a source of hydropower and a favorite vacation spot for Volgograd residents.
… If you go down a steep slope to the Volga on a warm spring evening, then on one of the piers in the central part of the city you can find a curious monument - a flat-bottomed longboat standing on a pedestal with hanging "mustaches" of anchors. On the deck of a strange ship there is a semblance of a wheelhouse, and in the bow - oh, a miracle! - installed a turret from the T-34 tank.
In fact, the place is quite famous - it is the BK-13 armored boat, and the monument itself, which bears the name “Heroes of the Volga Military Flotilla”, is a part of the “Battle of Stalingrad” panorama museum. A beautiful view of the bend of the giant river opens up from here. Modern "pioneers" come here to "swing at anchor." Volgograd Moremans gather here on Navy Day.
There is no doubt that the armored boat is a mute witness of that Great Battle: this is clearly evidenced by a bronze plaque on the wheelhouse with a laconic inscription:
The BK-13 armored boat as part of the WWF participated in the heroic defense of Stalingrad from July 24 to December 17, 1942
It is much less known that the BK-13 took part in the battles on the Dnieper, Pripyat and Western Bug. And then, the "river tank", deftly crawling over shallows and obstacles, penetrated the systems of European rivers and canals to Berlin. The flat-bottomed "tin", which even can hardly be called a ship (what kind of ship is it without a compass, in whose interior you cannot stand up to its full height?) Has a heroic history that any modern cruiser will envy.
Marshal Vasily Ivanovich Chuikov, the man who directly led the defense of Stalingrad, unambiguously spoke about the importance of armored boats in the Battle of Stalingrad:
I will say briefly about the role of the sailors of the flotilla, about their exploits: if they were not there, the 62nd Army would have perished without ammunition and food.
The military history of the Volga military flotilla began in the summer of 1942.
By mid-July, bombers with black crosses on their wings appeared in the skies of the Southern Volga region - the armored boats immediately began escorting transports and tankers with Baku oil that were climbing up the Volga. Over the next month, they conducted 128 caravans, repelling 190 air attacks from the Luftwaffe.
And then hell started.
On August 30, the sailors went on reconnaissance to the northern outskirts of Stalingrad - there, behind the tractor plant, the German units broke through to the water itself. Three armored boats moved silently in the darkness of the night, engine exhaust at low speed was discharged below the waterline.
They secretly went to the appointed place and were about to leave when the sailors saw the Fritzes screaming with joy, scooping up water from the Russian river with helmets. Embraced by righteous anger, the crews of the armored boats opened a hurricane of fire from all their barrels. The night concert went to a full house, but suddenly an unaccounted factor came into play - the tanks on the shore. A duel began, in which the boats had little chance: German armored vehicles were difficult to detect against the background of the dark coast, at the same time, Soviet boats were visible at a glance. Finally, the "armored" side, only 8 mm thick, protected ships from bullets and small fragments, but was powerless against the power of even the smallest artillery ammunition.
The fatal shot hit the side - an armor-piercing shell pierced the boat through and through, knocking out the engine. The current began to press the motionless "tin" against the enemy bank. When the enemy was only a few tens of meters away, the crews of the remaining boats managed, under fierce fire from the shore, to take the damaged boat in tow and take it to a safe place.
On September 15, 1942, the Germans broke into the Mamayev Kurgan - height 102.0, from where an excellent view of the entire central part of the city opens (in total, the Mamayev Kurgan was captured and again recaptured 8 times - a little less than the Railway Station - it passed from the Russians to the Germans 13 times, as a result, there was no stone left of it). From that moment on, the boats of the Volga Military Flotilla became one of the most important connecting threads of the 62nd Army with its rear.
Even the indigenous people of Volgograd do not know about this rare place. The pillar stands in the forecourt right in front of the running crowd - but rarely anyone pays attention to the ugly scars on its surface. The upper part of the pillar is literally turned inside out - fragmentation ammunition exploded inside. I counted two dozen marks from bullets, shrapnel and several large holes from shells - all this on a pillar 30 centimeters in diameter. The density of fire in the station area was simply appalling.
In the daytime, armored boats hid in numerous tributaries and tributaries of the Volga, hiding from enemy air raids and deadly artillery fire (during the day, German batteries from the mound shot through the entire water area, leaving the sailors no chance to land on the right bank). At night, work began - under the cover of darkness, boats delivered reinforcements to the besieged city, at the same time making daring reconnaissance raids along the coastal areas occupied by the Germans, providing fire support to Soviet troops, landing troops behind enemy lines and shelling German positions.
Fantastic figures are known about the combat service of these small, but very nimble and useful ships: during their work on the Stalingrad crossings, six armored boats of the 2nd division were transported to the right bank (to besieged Stalingrad) 53 thousand soldiers and commanders of the Red Army, 2000 tons of equipment and food. During the same time, 23,727 wounded soldiers and 917 civilians were evacuated from Stalingrad on the decks of armored boats of boats.
But even the moonless night did not guarantee protection - dozens of German searchlights and flares were continuously snatching out of the darkness sections of black ice water with "river tanks" rushing along it. Each flight ended with a dozen combat damage - nevertheless, during the night, armored boats made 8-12 flights to the right bank. All the next day, the sailors pumped out the water that entered the compartments, filled up holes, repaired damaged mechanisms - so that they could go on a dangerous voyage again the next night. The workers of the Stalingrad shipyard and the Krasnoarmeiskaya shipyard helped to repair the armored boats.
And again the avaricious chronicle:
October 10, 1942. Armored boat BKA No. 53 transported 210 soldiers and 2 tons of food to the right bank, took out 50 wounded, received holes in the left side and stern. BKA No. 63 transported 200 soldiers, 1 ton of food and 2 tons of mines, took out 32 wounded soldiers …
Winter 1942-43 turned out to be unprecedentedly early - already in early November, the autumn ice drift began on the Volga - the ice floes complicated the already difficult situation at the crossings. The fragile wooden hulls of the longboats were breaking through, ordinary ships did not have enough engine power to withstand the pressure of the ice - soon armored boats remained the only means of delivering people and cargo to the right bank of the river.
By the middle of November, the freeze-up was finally formed - the mobilized ships of the Stalingrad river fleet and the ships of the Volga military flotilla were frozen into the ice or were taken to the south, to the lower reaches of the Volga. From that moment on, the supply of the 62nd Army in Stalingrad was carried out only by ice crossings or by air.
During the active phase of hostilities, the guns of the "river tanks" of the Volga military flotilla destroyed 20 units of German armored vehicles, destroyed more than a hundred dugouts and bunkers, and suppressed 26 artillery batteries. From fire from the side of the water, the enemy lost in killed and wounded up to three regiments of personnel.
And, of course, 150 thousand soldiers and commanders of the Red Army, wounded, civilians and 13,000 tons of cargo transported from one to the other side of the Great Russian River.
Own losses of the Volga military flotilla amounted to 18 steamers, 3 armored boats and about two dozen minesweepers and mobilized passenger boats. The intensity of the battles in the lower reaches of the Volga was comparable to naval battles in the open ocean.
The Volga naval flotilla was disbanded only in June 1944, when work on demining the river water area was completed (irritated by the actions of river ships and vessels, the Germans abundantly "seeded" the Volga with sea mines).
Soviet boats on the Danube
Armored boat in the capital of Austria. Photo from the collection of V. V. Burachk
But the armored boats left the Volga region in the summer of 1943 - having loaded their "river tanks" onto railway platforms, the sailors set off for the West, following the fleeing enemy. Battles raged on the Dnieper, Danube and Tisza, "river tanks" made their way through the territory of Eastern Europe through the narrow channels of King Peter I and Alexander I, landed troops on the Vistula and Oder … Ukraine swept overboard, then Belarus, Hungary, Romania, Yugoslavia, Poland and Austria - right down to the den of the fascist beast.
… The BK-13 armored boat was in European waters until 1960, serving in the Danube military flotilla, after which it returned to the banks of the Volga and was transferred as an exhibit to the Volgograd State Defense Museum. Alas, for an unknown reason, the museum staff limited themselves to removing several mechanisms, after which the boat disappeared without a trace. In 1981, it was found among the scrap metal at one of the city's enterprises, after which, at the initiative of the veterans, BK-13 was restored and placed as a monument on the territory of the Volgograd shipyard. In 1995, on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the Victory, the grand opening of the monument to the Heroes of the Volga Military Flotilla took place on the Volga embankment, and the armored boat on the pedestal took its rightful place. Since then, the "river tank" BK-13 has been looking at the endlessly flowing water, recalling the great feat of those who, under deadly fire, brought reinforcements to besieged Stalingrad.
From the history of river tanks
Despite its curious appearance (the hull, like a flat-bottomed barge, a tank tower), the BK-13 armored boat was by no means a self-made impromptu, but a well-thought-out decision made long before the start of the Great Patriotic War - an urgent need for such a technique was demonstrated by the conflict on the Chinese Eastern Railway that happened in 1929. Work on the creation of Soviet "river tanks" began in November 1931 - the boats were intended, first of all, for the Amur military flotilla - the protection of the eastern borders became an increasingly urgent problem of the Soviet state.
BK-13 (sometimes in the literature BKA-13 is found) - one of 154 built small river armored boats of project 1125. * "River tanks" were intended to combat enemy boats, combat support of ground forces, fire support, reconnaissance and conduct of hostilities in water areas rivers, lakes and in the coastal sea zone.
The main feature of the 1125 project was a flat bottom with a propeller tunnel, shallow draft and modest weight and size characteristics, providing armored boats with mobility and the possibility of emergency transportation by rail. During the war years, "river tanks" were actively used on the Volga, on the Ladoga and Onega lakes, on the Black Sea coast, in Europe and the Far East.
Time has fully confirmed the correctness of the decision made: a certain need for such a technique persists even in the 21st century. Despite the missile weapons and high technology, the highly protected, heavy-armed boat can be useful in anti-guerrilla raids and in local low-intensity conflicts.
Brief characteristics of the Project 1125 armored boat:
Full displacement within 30 tons
Length 23 m
Draft 0.6 m
Crew 10 people
Full speed 18 knots (33 km / h - quite a lot for the river area)
Engine - GAM-34-VS (based on the AM-34 aircraft engine) 800 hp *
Fuel stock on board - 2, 2 tons
The boat is designed to operate with a 3-point roughness (in the years of the Second World War, there were cases of long-term sea crossings of boats with a 6-point storm)
Bulletproof booking: board 7 mm; deck 4 mm; wheelhouse 8 mm, wheelhouse roof 4 mm. The side armor was carried out from 16 to 45 frames. The lower edge of the "armored belt" dropped 150 mm below the waterline.
Armament:
A lot of improvisations and an extraordinary variety of designs took place here: tank turrets similar to the T-28 and T-34-76, Lender's anti-aircraft guns in open turrets, large-caliber DShKs and rifle-caliber machine guns (3-4 pcs.). On some of the "river tanks" were installed multiple launch rocket systems of 82 mm and even 132 mm caliber. During the modernization, rails and butts appeared to secure four sea mines.
Another rarity. Fire boat "Extinguisher" (1903) - in addition to its direct purpose, it was used at the Stalingrad crossings as a vehicle. In October 1942 he sank from the received damage. When the boat was lifted, 3,500 holes from shrapnel and bullets were found in its hull.
Armored boat in Moscow, 1946
Ferry crossing, rough snow, ice edge …
Facts and details about the use of armored boats are taken from the article "River tanks go to battle" IM Plekhov, SP Khvatov (BOATS and YACHTS №4 (98) for 1982)
