Well, finally, I again grasped my favorite theme of museums after the winter break. And I decided to start with a wonderful monument to Russian engineering work - the fifth fort of the Brest Fortress.
When we hear the familiar and familiar words "Fortress-Hero Brest", then inevitably the barracks, walls and fortifications of the Brest Fortress, familiar from the films, appear before our eyes. Meanwhile, the fortress is much more than we are used to understanding.
The citadel of the fortress itself is a very impressive structure, but according to the plans, the forts were supposed to carry the main combat load. It can be seen from the diagram that the fortress and its forts were a mighty defensive knot.
Fifth fort. Why exactly he? Simply because this structure has survived three wars perfectly and has survived to this day. Since 1995, it has been a historical monument of the Republic of Belarus and is included in the Brest Fortress memorial complex.
Let's get acquainted.
The fifth fort was built in 1878-1888, overhauled in 1908-1911. Located 4 km southwest of the Brest Fortress. Occupies an area of 0.8 sq. km.
We can say that the fort has a pentagonal shape with a kind of spear tip, a front caponier. It was originally built of bricks, surrounded by an earthen rampart and a moat filled with water. In the rear, a garrison barracks was built, numbering eleven casemates.
The front caponier is connected with the ported barracks, that is, by an underground passage. As we understood from our wanderings underground, if you wanted to, you could not go to the surface at all, traveling from one point of the fort to another. Today, however, many passages and branches are closed.
Since 1908, the fort has been modernized under the leadership of Staff Captain Ivan Osipovich Belinsky. The brick structures were covered with concrete about 2 m thick, side porches were built, connecting the barracks with the side half-caponiers. In 1911-1914. a gorzhe (rear) caponier was built, the positions of the shooters were partially concreted.
Ivan Osipovich Belinsky (1876 - 1976).
Major General of the Soviet Army, participant in the Russian-Japanese, World War I and the Great Patriotic War. A man of extraordinary mind and iron character. Decorated with Russian and Soviet orders and medals, including the St. George's weapon.
However, the Brest-Litovsk fortifications became the main activity for Belinsky between the wars. In the development and construction of which he was directly involved with another famous engineer, General Karbyshev. Only to Ivan Osipovich fate turned out to be more favorable.
By June 22, 1941, the 3rd rifle battalion of the 44th rifle regiment was in the fort. With the outbreak of World War II, the battalion was alerted. After serving several attacks by the Germans, and actually using up the ammunition, some of the soldiers tried to break through to the Brest Fortress, and some withdrew to the east with battles.
Let's go back to the fort.
The diagrams show how it was supposed to fire the defenders of the fort. For me, at first, this arrangement was surprising. Later, however, much became clear.
Indeed, through the embrasures of the fort it was most convenient to destroy the enemy's manpower, which bypassed the fort along the flanks. It is quite logical, because it is simply unrealistic to take such a structure head on. Today, the entire territory is overgrown, and in those days not just everything green was cut down, but for many kilometers. So you can't really come up from the front. Shooting cells, machine guns, a moat, three meters deep … The pleasure is below average, so to speak.
And a little later, I found another plus for pleasures.
This is just a postcard, but it captures exactly how the artillery worked in such forts. The cannons, mostly of medium caliber, were simply rolled out by hand onto the traverse and forward. The casemated traverse will cover from enemy fire. Observers-spotters in the fortified NP will tell you where and how.
This is one of the casemates with an equipped NP. The seat is steel, but …
And this is all that is visible from the other side. Not every sniper of that time was in the teeth.
This is the casemated traverse. That is, a shaft with casemates.
And in the casemates, too, there was something to greet the enemy. And there were also caponiers and half-caponiers. And that's a completely different story.
These are half-caponiers. Left and right.
You can, of course, get close. If there is a boat, if they won't shoot from the caponier. And they will shoot … And they did.
A cannon casemate for the 57-mm Nordenfeld cannon. A very rapid-fire weapon for those times. Up to 20 rounds per minute. Pig-iron grenades, shrapnel, buckshot grenades.
In two half-caponiers and two caponiers (front and gorzhe), there were 20 such guns. Each casemate was equipped with a system for exhausting powder gases, an armored cabinet for 150 shells.
Hood.
The walls of caponiers are not often, but there are traces of that war.
It is difficult to say why this is so, but it is impressive that the thickness of the wall is that the energy of the projectile. As if the cruiser was driven into Mukhavets.
Ammunition feed window.
This is called posterna. Long underground passage. There is no lighting.
These are the doors …
We cannot say exactly what these things are for. Apparently a multifunctional device. And you can sit, and lie down, and clean the rifle. But speculation, to be honest.
Ascent to the gorge caponier. That is, covering from the rear.
It is he, the most caponier bristling with trunks. Because only from the rear is it possible to go through the bridge to the fort so that it is painless.
Here, along with 57-mm cannons, there were already more serious guns.
76-mm fortress guns of the Durlaher system.
On the 1st floor of the caponier there were 8 75-mm guns, on the 2nd - 8 76-mm guns.
"Anti-sabotage coating".
Inside the caponier.
There are traces of heating everywhere. Pechny.
And this is the draft of the barracks. Long corridor, to the whole barracks. Draft - possibly from the word "see through" or "draft". Its main task is to extinguish and deflect the blast wave.
Overlapping. They inspire respect.
By the time the reconstruction was completed in 1914, according to Russian military engineers, the fort was able to withstand the most severe siege. In essence, the modernized fort was a small independent fortress, with powerful weapons and an echeloned (several lines) defensive system. In August 1915, this fortress was to engage in a battle with the Austrians and Germans advancing from the south to Brest.
But history, a thing sometimes harmful, ordered otherwise.
Fort No. 5, like the Brest Fortress itself, was left without a fight. Russian troops retreated into the depths of Polesie. Before the retreat, all weapons and other military equipment were removed from the fort.
Since 1920, the fort has been used as a warehouse by the Polish military. When Poland ended, the Red Army came to the fort. Since 1939, the fifth fort has become the location of separate military units. Here the 3rd Infantry Battalion of the 44th Infantry Regiment of the 42nd Infantry Division, which was practically crushed in the first days of the war, took battle on June 22.
During the occupation, the Germans used the fort as a warehouse.
After the liberation of Brest from the invaders, the military "service" of the old fortifications continued. For many years, the fort was the territory of one of the military units and served as army warehouses.
And now it is a museum for more than 20 years. Virtually no exhibits. Yes, there are several guns in the courtyard of the barracks, but they have nothing to do with the fort.
The fort is an exhibit in itself.
Photos will not give even a tenth of the impressions that can be obtained by going through all its corridors and passages. We spent over two hours. And it could have been twice as much, but to be honest, there was no strength.
But on June 22, 2016, Fort No. 5 opened its casemates and caponiers for us. You know, he looks like Svyatogor the hero from a fairy tale. The need will be - will wake up.
And do you know, dear ones, what was the main question we asked when we went out into the sun?
How? How did they dig it up, build it up, build it up? Without technology, without anything? With shovels, carts and hands?
Little remains of the Brest Fortress to this day. And here you are imbued with the grandeur and power of this old fort, created by Russian engineers Ivanov and Belinsky and thousands of builders who remained unknown to history.
Frost on the skin, to be honest, even in a thirty-degree heat.
Glory to those who built, defended, preserved! Glory and memory!
