You can rely on these guys! Submariners achieve success in any situation - "steel wolves" have no equal on the sea, submarines are able to reach any enemy, even where their appearance is considered impossible. Every time, a meeting with an invisible underwater assassin turns into heavy losses and confuses all the enemy's cards.
But it happens that not only shipping in a given square, but also the fate of the whole world depends on the results of submarine attacks. I bring to your attention a small selection of curious cases that took place during the Second World War - many of the subjects presented have become (or could become) the cornerstone of modern history.
"Nelson". A national disaster
On October 30, 1939, submarine U-56 under the command of Wilhelm Zahn discovered a British battleship west of the Orkney Islands, surrounded by a large number of destroyers.
Something clearly unusual was happening. The submarine crawled closer, the commander Tsang gazed predatoryly at the periscope - So it is! Three main-caliber towers in front of the superstructure, this is the battleship "Nelson" - a powerful modern ship with a displacement of 40 thousand tons.
Torpedo tubes, fire!
Three torpedoes sank into the Nelson's side with a dull clang, but, alas, none of them detonated the fuses. Misfire! Not found by anyone, Wilhelm Zahn hastily led the boat towards the open sea. Scheise, damn G7e torpedoes - after all, the victory was practically in his hands!
As it became known later that day, Winston Churchill was on board the Nelson.
Having lost its great national leader, Great Britain could have surrendered already in 1940 - and it is not known what the map of the world would look like now. As for the battleship "Nelson", then just a month later she was blown up by mines placed in the Bay of Eves by a U-31 boat, and was out of action until August 1940.
Explosion of the ammunition cellars of the British battleship "Barham" (torpedoed in the Mediterranean by the submarine U-311, November 25, 1941)
The Sullivan family tragedy
On November 13, 1942, a procession of three cruisers - Juno, Helena and San Francisco - was returning slowly to the base in Esperito Santo for emergency repairs. The seriously wounded "San Francisco" was especially hard - the ship sank into the water with its bow 4 meters and with difficulty developed the 13-knot course. But the sailors' hearts were warmed with hope - yesterday's battle seemed like a terrible dream, and there was a long-awaited rest ahead.
Hope was cut short in an instant - at about 11 am a torpedo hit the Juno's side. The explosion caused the artillery cellars to detonate: the cruiser was smashed to pieces and sank within the next 20 seconds. The commander of the Japanese submarine I-26 widened his eyes in surprise: everything happened so quickly …
Of the 623 crew of the cruiser, only 10 survived.
In general, the sinking of the USS Juneau (CL-52) was not an outstanding achievement of submariners - by that time the Juno was already quite damaged, and the very loss of the light cruiser had no effect on the combat capability of the US Navy. The death of the cruiser could have gone unnoticed, if not for one legend associated with the ship:
The Juno had five sailors - brothers George (27), Francis (26), Joseph (24), Madison (23) and Albert (20).
… Thomas Sullivan was getting ready for work that morning when there was a knock on the door of his house. “I have news about your guys,” said the naval officer. "Which one is" Thomas asked."I'm sorry," the officer replied. "All five."
The simultaneous loss of five sons was the worst tragedy in American families during the war. Sullivan Brothers have become national heroes, and the US Department of Defense has developed the Sole Survivor directive to protect family members who have already lost loved ones in the war from conscription.
Such a mess was made by an unknown Japanese boat I-26.
Revenge ritual
On June 19, 1944, full moon, the American Navy performed the Great Rite of Vengeance: the USS Cavalla (SS-244) submarine sank the aircraft carrier Shokaku.
The Americans had a long history with the Soaring Crane - after all, it was he who was part of the fighting core of the Japanese unit that attacked Pearl Harbor in December 1941. And so, an aircraft carrier with a displacement of 32 thousand tons eternally disappeared under water, taking 1273 people of its crew to the bottom of the Mariana Trench.
The ritual itself turned out to be surprisingly simple: during her first military campaign (just 19 days after entering service), the little Kavella noticed a large enemy aircraft carrier ship - at this time, the Shokaku was providing landing operations, so she could not change its course and go anti-submarine zigzag. Perfect target!
Firing six torpedoes in a fan, "Cavella" disappeared without a trace in the water column. The distant explosions of depth charges dropped by the escort destroyers only peeled off the paint on its superstructure.
USS Cavalla (SS-244) has survived as a monument in Texas. However, it is not at all like the legendary "Cavella" that the Japanese aircraft carrier drank - after the war, the boat underwent extensive modernization under the GUPPY program, which completely changed its appearance.
The Shokaku died, and the Kevella continued her service - until the end of the war, the submarine chalked up one more destroyer and two flat-bottomed ships, and once returned to base more than one - a damaged British boat HMS Terrapin was towing behind the Kevella stern. …
On July 31, 1945, as the beaming victorious fleet was drawn into Tokyo Bay in an endless stream, the little Cavella cheekily followed everyone and proudly stood between the ranks of the majestic battleships and aircraft carriers. And what, she had a right to that!
The death of the leviathan
The case, of course, is unique: the submarine "Archer Fish" - a miserable "tub" with a surface displacement of 1.5 thousand tons, managed to sink the largest warship that took part in World War II - the Japanese super-aircraft carrier "Shinano" with a total displacement of 70 thousand tons !
As it became known after the end of the war, USS Archer Fish (SS-311) initially did not plan to drown anyone - during its sixth military campaign, the submarine patrolled off the southern coast of Fr. Honshu, preparing to retrieve the pilots of the downed Super Fortresses from the water. On November 27, 1944, the submarine received a fatal order: “No B-29 raids are expected in the next 48 hours. There are no other US Navy ships or submarines in your sector - sit back and go free hunting."
It was truly a royal gift for the crew of the submarine - in this area, nicknamed by the Americans "Hit Parade", there was always a great chance of meeting a major target. And they met her!
Until now, the sinking of "Shinano" causes a lot of controversy:
On the one hand, "Shinano" is a cruel experiment on the topic of how quickly a ship will perish with an unprepared crew, unpressurized bulkheads and lack of means of struggle for survivability. According to eyewitnesses, "Shinano" left the shipyard unfinished, and its "crew" stepped on deck just a few days before the first exit to sea. As a result, the water slowly rolled over the decks and penetrated into the compartments - the aircraft carrier, which initially did not receive critical damage, slowly sank after 7 hours.
On the other hand, there are all the signs of a real naval battle - an escort of three destroyers, an anti-submarine zigzag, attempts to counterattack the boat, 14 depth charges dropped. Also, there is evidence that one of the torpedoes that hit the aircraft carrier damaged the aviation fuel tank (luckily for the Japanese, it was empty).
It remains to be seen whether the Shinano could have held out for as long as 7 hours, had it been in a combat-ready state - with a trained crew, a full wing and a supply of aviation fuel on board. In a similar situation, the aircraft carrier Taiho (torpedoed on July 19, 1944 by the Albacore submarine) was destroyed by a massive internal explosion of gasoline vapors, 6 hours after the attack by an American boat.
The first victim of the war
Another notable story is the sinking of the British aircraft carrier Koreyges by the German U-29 submarine on September 17, 1939. As usual, a 626-tonne tub "cut into a nut" a ship with a displacement of 22 thousand tons: having received a powerful blow from under the water, "Koreyges" fell on board and sank just 15 minutes after the attack. 518 aircraft carrier crew members became victims of the shipwreck.
But the main "feature" of this whole story - "Koreyges" became the first warship sunk in the Second World War. Also, Korejges became the first British aircraft carrier lost in the course of hostilities (but not the last! - over the next two years, German U-bots will sink the Eagle and Arc Royal).
Dying HMS Ark Royal, November 13, 1941
"Nuclear suitcase" of the cruiser "Indianapolis"
… They were only four days late. The cruiser USS Indianapolis (CA-35) managed to deliver the components of the Malysh nuclear bomb to Tinian airbase (Mariana Islands).
The history of the cruiser "Indianapolis" looks like a terrible conspiracy theory: from Tinian the cruiser moved to Guam, where he received a new order, which surprised the officers with its senselessness: to follow without an escort to the Philippines, to Leyte Gulf. But why? Why drive a heavy ship across the ocean? Why risk it in vain? After all, Japan surrenders from day to day, most of the Imperial fleet lies at the bottom, and there are no suitable targets for 8-inch guns in the Philippines.
But the command of the Navy was adamant - to urgently go to the "exercises" in the open ocean.
According to one of the conspiracy hypotheses, the command of the fleet was in fear of an unknown cargo aboard the Indianapolis. Of course, the sailors did not know anything about the Manhattan Project, and the high secrecy and stripes of the chemical troops on the uniforms of the officers accompanying the "cargo" finally convinced the admirals that the cruiser was carrying bacteriological weapons. Plague, or worse?
Indianapolis is no longer allowed to return to Pearl Harbor or San Francisco. We urgently need to get rid of the infected ship! Send him to the ends of the Earth, without an escort, and if he dies on the way - so much the better.
And the doomed cruiser went to where the invisible killer, the Japanese submarine I-58, was moving under the waves. The last torpedo salvo in World War II reached its goal - the Indianapolis shuddered and fell into the abyss. The shipwreck killed 883 sailors - the sinking of the Indianapolis was the largest loss in the number of casualties in the history of the US Navy.
It is noteworthy that the cruiser and the I-58 submarine had a chance to "meet" even a week earlier - alas, the patrol Catalina, accidentally deviating from the course due to a malfunction of the navigation equipment, scared the boat, forcing it to abandon the attack. Indianapolis passed by. Now the city of Nagasaki was doomed.
Gold of the cruiser "Edinburgh"
- Torpedoed cruiser Edinburgh!
This message made the admirals on both sides of the Earth shudder - “No! Not Edinburgh! There is a precious cargo on board - 93 boxes with 465 gold bars. Payment for British military supplies during the summer-fall of 1941.
The cruiser was still afloat, but two well-aimed shots from the U-456 submarine did their job: "Edinburgh" lost speed and dangerously heeled to the port side. The distance to Murmansk was 187 miles, but the chance of successful towing under enemy fire was close to zero.
While there were disputes in the offices about plans for a rescue operation, German ships broke through to the crash site - the cruiser managed to fight back, sinking one of the Kriegsmarine destroyers, but a new torpedo hit was fatal for him. The British destroyers who arrived in time removed the crew and finished off the doomed cruiser. It was all over. The sea has swallowed up the treasures forever!
In terms of its combat effectiveness, the U-456 submarine became truly "gold" - the enemy suffered damage in the amount of 5.5 tons of precious metal. Now, even the destruction of 30 German U-bots in response could not compensate the allies for the bitterness of the loss. Fantastic efficiency.
The gold of the cruiser "Edinburgh" will be raised only 40 years later - in 1981, but this is a completely different story.
Pearl Harbor with a German accent
Another amazing story is connected with the secret visit of the U-47 submarine to the main base of the British fleet Scapa Flow (Scotland). The very fact of the penetration of an enemy boat into one of the most guarded harbors in the world can cause dumb surprise. They even got here!
Today it seems fantastic: How did the commander Gunther Prien manage to conduct his U-bot in the narrow Kirk Saud channel? How did you manage to bypass anti-submarine obstacles and barriers from sunken ships and block ships in unfamiliar waters, without having pilot maps and accurate navigation data? At night, with a strong countercurrent. On a primitive submarine, no radar or sonar.
The behavior of the British raises even more questions: U-47 was surfaced for several hours, but so it remained unnoticed from the shore.
The crew of the battleship Scharnhorst greets the U-47 after returning from a combat campaign
The result was a pogrom: a small U-47 "crashed" the battleship HMS Royal Oak. That night from 13-14 October 1939, 833 British sailors were killed, including the commander of the Metropolitan Fleet Rear Admiral Henry Blagrove.
Enchanting victory. To the sound of anti-aircraft guns firing, the "invisible" U-47 calmly left Scapa Flow on a familiar route and returned safely to base in Wilhelmshaven.
Fearing a repetition of new raids by German submarines, the British did not think of anything better than blocking the Kirk Sound with a stone dam. At least the U-bots didn’t know how to crawl on the ground, and this gave the British Admiralty a certain sense of relief.
Churchill's Barrier at Scapa Flow
Saving Private Ryan
On September 2, 1944, the USS Finback (SS-670) received the Mayday signal from the Avenger aircraft in distress. Four hours later, the boat arrived in the area of the disaster and began to search for the surviving crew members. The operation was crowned with success - the submariners were able to find and raise from the water a life raft with a frightened lanky pilot. Saved was George Herbert Walker Bush, the future 41st President of the United States.
