1960s in border history, it is primarily the confrontation on the Soviet-Chinese border. It ended in bloody massacres on Damansky Island, on the Ussuri River in the Primorsky Territory (March 2 and 15, 1969) and an armed clash near Lake Zhalanashkol (August 12-13 of the same year) in the Semipalatinsk region of Kazakhstan.
Panorama of Damansky Island (shot from a helicopter)
Border guards of the 1st outpost "Nizhne-Mikhailovka" on an armored personnel carrier, but with "medieval" spears
A map of the vicinity of Damansky, owned by Colonel D. V. Leonov
At the same time, the battle on March 2 had no analogues in world history and even entered the encyclopedia "Great Battles and Battles of the 20th Century": 30 Soviet border guards, armed mainly with machine guns and machine guns, defeated an artillery-reinforced battalion (500 people) of Chinese, killing 248 enemy soldiers and officers …
In general, all these three battles are also a series of debuts in the use of various types of weapons, mainly small arms, and in the development of tactics for actions with them in specific combat situations.
There is no way without a spear!
Even before the locks of machine guns snapped on Damanskoye and shots sounded, the border guards “went to the Chinese,” who were massively violating the border at that time, with home-grown melee weapons. Themselves, to their own surprise, returned to what was used, probably, only by prehistoric people in cave times and men in the course of large and small peasant uprisings. The Museum of the Border Troops has characteristic photographs taken in the winter of 1968.
Hero of the Soviet Union, Major General Vitaly Bubenin (at that time lieutenant, head of the 2nd outpost "Kulebyakiny Sopki") told the author of these lines about one of the first clashes with violators over Ussuri. On November 6, 1967, one and a half dozen Chinese went out on the ice of the river, began to hammer holes and set up nets. As soon as the border guards approached, the uninvited guests quickly gathered in a heap and unequivocally put in front of them what they were breaking through the ice - crowbars, pesnos and axes. It was not possible to expel them peacefully - they had to use the "belly tactics", as the soldiers themselves called this method. That is, they were taken by the arms and, trying to embrace the Chinese in a half-ring, displace them abroad.
Soon, dissatisfied with the sluggish actions of the inhabitants of the border area, the Chinese organizers of the provocations sent Mao's guardsmen - the Red Guards and the Zaofanes - to Damansky. These are radicals from young people under the age of 35 who helped the “great helmsman” to successfully carry out the cultural revolution and carry out a series of purges. And these fanatics, Bubenin notes, from one provocation to another became more and more fierce.
It was then, in order to protect the personnel and reduce the risk of injury during force contact, Lieutenant Bubenin I. "invented" spears and clubs. He also described in detail the tactics of actions with them in the book Bloody Snow of Damansky, Events of 1966-1969, published in 2004 by the publishing houses "Granitsa" and "Kuchkovo Pole". With the permission of the author, we quote:
“The soldiers with great pleasure and zeal fulfilled my command to prepare a new and at the same time the most ancient weapon of primitive man. Each soldier had his own oak or black birch, lovingly planed and polished club. And a lanyard is tied to the handle so that it does not fly out of your hands. They were stored in a pyramid along with weapons. So, on alarm, the soldier took a machine gun and grabbed a club. And as a group weapon they used spears. In appearance, in tactical and technical data, in terms of application, they resembled the weapons of Siberian hunters, who in ancient times went with them to bear.
They helped us out a lot at first. When the Chinese were shooting at us with a wall, we just put the spears forward, well, just like in medieval battles. The soldiers loved it. Well, if some daredevil nevertheless broke through, then, excuse me, voluntarily ran into a club."
But the Maoists also changed the tactics of provocations, introducing some novelty into each one. Against border clubs and spears, they "improved" their stakes and sticks, strengthening them with nails at the ends.
Fire foam and spray
And soon Bubenin used against the violators … standard fire extinguishers from an armored personnel carrier. He came up with the following: when the armored personnel carrier caught up with the Chinese, powerful jets of foam suddenly hit them from the loopholes of one of the sides of the armored vehicle. “The Chinese were literally stunned,” said General Bubenin. - Immediately they rushed scatteringly, but most of them fell into the wormwood, near which they stood. We got out and, in order not to get frostbitten, quickly left the island. True, out of frustration and anger, they managed to mock the armored personnel carrier: they left traces of blows with a crowbar on the sides, poured tar over them."
After a while, Bubenik used the restless and … fire engine. He borrowed it for a while from the district fire chief. While there were no provocations, Lieutenant Bubenin trained his fire brigade for several days. Further - we again quote the memoirs of General Bubenin:
- On that December day, about a hundred Chinese came out on the Ussuri ice. We moved to expel them. Our column had a rather menacing appearance; in front was an armored personnel carrier, behind it was a ZIL sparkling with fresh red paint with a huge fire barrel, similar to the barrel of a gun, a GAZ-66 with guards. The Chinese were definitely in shock … As usual, they climbed onto our soldiers with stakes. And then I gave the command to run away to the fire engine and cover it. At the same time, she roared and a powerful ice jet hit the crowd of Chinese people running after the soldiers from the fire barrel. You should have seen it!
Machine gun like a club
In February 1968, a new battle on the ice took place, in which up to a thousand servicemen had already taken part from the Chinese coast of the Ussuri in the area of Kirkinsky Island. There were significantly fewer border guards. Bubenin added the following details to the picture of this "cold battle": "The crackling of stakes, butts, skulls and bones was heard … The soldiers, wrapping their belts around their arms, fought with what was left of them."
In this battle, Bubenin for the first time used an armored personnel carrier against an angry mob of Maoists. He acted unconsciously, only feeling that there was no other way out. The situation was on the verge of irreparable, some kind of spark was missing, and to prevent it from arising, the head of the outpost jumped into an armored personnel carrier and ordered it to be directed directly at the Chinese. The car went to ram the crowd, cutting off the riots from the border guards. The Chinese in fear shied away from the powerful wheels and armor, began to scatter … Silence reigned. The battle was over.
- We looked around, looked around … - Bubenin says, - Imagine, they fought so that about fifty automatic rifles and machine guns were completely unusable! From them only barrels with belts remained, the rest - scrap metal.
First shots
In one of the described ice battles, the Chinese tried to capture a whole group of border guards from an ambush. The soldiers from the reserve were the last to rush to the rescue.
“At that moment,” recalls General Bubenin, “two pistol shots were fired on the Chinese side. The locks of our machine guns immediately clicked. Fortunately, the soldiers still did not dare to open fire without a command. And it seemed to me: here, now … I rushed to them and, shaking my fists, that there is urine yelled; “Without shooting-a-at! Put the fuse on! Back to everyone! The soldiers lowered the barrels reluctantly.
For the first time, warning fire on provocateurs was opened in August 1968. From the islands mentioned above, the Chinese managed to oust the border guards and establish crossings. It was then that machine guns hit the sky, and then mortars were used. With the help of the latter, they destroyed the crossings and "liberated" the islands.
In January 1969, not the Red Guards, but the soldiers of the People's Liberation Army of China (PLA) acted against the Soviet border guards on Damanskoye. “During the clashes,” writes in his historical research “Damansky and Zhalanashkol. 1969 "military journalist Andrei Musalov, - our border guards managed to recapture dozens of barrels. When inspecting the weapon, it was found that in some machine guns and carbines, cartridges were sent to the chamber "… Bubenin in his memoirs clarifies that in one of the battles he and his subordinates managed to get trophies in the form of five Kh-9957 carbines, an AK-47 machine gun and pistol "TT", and almost all of them were ready for fire use.
"Without a machine gun at the border, you are zero"
AK-47 of private V. Izotov. This machine gun fired in Damansky …
Meanwhile, despite the most difficult situation on the border, the diversion of forces to the expulsion of the Chinese and the elimination of the consequences of provocations, intensified fire training was going on at the 1st and 2nd outposts.
“My subordinates fired uniquely,” recalls Vitaly Bubenin. - The 2nd outpost, where I was the chief, spent at the shooting range around the clock. Shot - went to the service. It was like this: if you shoot a little, then you are reprimanded for it at a meeting, in a detachment. Two or three ammunition sets for training practice be so kind - shoot! Everyone at the outpost knew how to shoot from all standard weapons, including my wife.
One curious incident is connected with Bubenin's wife Galina, which Vitaly Dmitrievich described in his book "Bloody Snow of Damansky". In the summer of 1968, the head of the detachment, Colonel Leonov, arrived at his outpost - he decided to see how young officers live. He asked where Galina was and expressed a desire to talk to her. “Approaching the house,” writes Bubenin, “I heard incomprehensible sounds, vaguely reminiscent of the blows of a hammer on a nail. “The spouse seems to be engaged in repairs. - "It seems I was not going to." Entering the courtyard, we heard the sounds of small-bore rifle shooting. The arrow was not yet visible, but the cans, hung on the fence, punched aptly one after the other. It became clear to me that my wife was practicing the skills of using military weapons."
In these stories Bubenin is supplemented by General Yuri Babansky (at the time of the battles for the island, he served at the 1st outpost):
- A lot of attention was paid to fire training in the Border Troops. Each one fired exclusively from his own machine gun, and not from one or two brought to the shooting range, as, I know, it happened then in the units of the Soviet army … If the border guard at the training post did not learn to shoot accurately enough, he continues to improve his fire skills at the outpost. The first thing he does when he arrives at the outpost is to get a submachine gun and two magazines for him. And every day he cleans the weapon, cherishes it, groom it, shoots it, shoots it. At the outpost, weapons are an integral part of the daily life of a border guard. The understanding that without a machine gun at the border you are zero, everyone who has tried on a green cap, comprehends in the course of military service. If anything happens, you are obliged to take the battle and hold a section of the border until the arrival of reinforcements. It happened on Damansky …
“The tactics of the border troops,” the general continues. - is based on the techniques of warfare, which allow you to save the lives of people. And during the battle, these techniques were just used by us - already subconsciously; when they shot at us, we did not lie in one place, but quickly changed positions, ran across, rolled over, camouflaged, fired back … they knew how to shoot well, they were superb with their weapons! Plus, of course, courage, courage, high moral qualities. But gun ownership is the most important factor.
Damansky's debuts
The last pictures taken by private photographer N. Petrov. In a minute the Chinese will open fire to kill and Petrov will be killed …
A group of border guards from the V. Bubenin outpost (the picture was taken shortly after the battles in Damascus, armored personnel carriers of reinforcement troops are visible in the background
Captured weapons captured in the battles on Damanskoye (SKS carbine and M-22 machine gun made in China)
The events of March 2 and 15, 1969 have been described repeatedly in the literature and periodicals, so there is no point in repeating themselves. We will only recall that a group of senior lieutenant Strelnikov, consisting of seven people, was shot at close range by the Chinese in the first moments of the battle - none of this seven had time to respond with a single bullet. A minute before that, Private Nikolai Petrov, who was taking photographs and filming during negotiations with provocateurs, managed to take his last picture. You can clearly see how the Chinese soldiers disperse to their positions … The battle on March 2 began at about 11 am and lasted more than an hour and a half …
The parties acted against each other with practically the same type of small arms - Kalashnikov assault rifles and machine guns (the Chinese, as you know, during the years of "indestructible friendship of the two peoples" acquired a license from the Soviet Union to manufacture the AK-47 assault rifle). It was at Damanskoye that the Kalashnikov assault rifle, which was then already widespread throughout the world, for the first time became the main type of weapon used by both opposing sides.
In addition, the Chinese were armed with carbines and grenade launchers.
Let us dwell only on the most remarkable moments of the battle, which became novelties in the use of weapons.
Sergeant Babansky's group, which followed Strelnikov to intercept the intruders, lagged behind and took the fight after the head of the outpost was killed. In his research, military journalist Andrei Musalov writes that "as a result of intense shooting, Babansky's group almost completely fired off ammunition", or "unloading" - six). Babansky himself told the author of these lines the following:
- When we were moving along the island, then below, 25-30 meters away, I saw the negotiators, ours and the Chinese. It was heard that they were talking in a raised voice. I realized that something was wrong, and at that moment I heard a single shot on the island. After that, the Chinese parted and shot all our guys together with Strelnikov at point-blank range. And it became clear to me that it was necessary to open fire. I gave a command to my subordinates, who ran after me in a chain: "Fire on the Chinese!" We quickly intuitively felt that if we shoot in bursts - and the rate of fire of the machine gun is 600 rounds per minute - we will use up the ammunition in a second, and the Chinese will simply shoot us. Therefore, they began to shoot alone. And - aimed, and not anywhere. And that saved us. We fired at the nearest enemy, because he was more dangerous for us than the one that was hidden somewhere in the distance. We suppressed the firing points of the Chinese, especially machine-gun ones, and this made it possible to reduce the density of their fire, and to give us the opportunity to survive.
In general, it is best to shoot single players from a machine gun. To create a psychological situation, as if to induce panic in the enemy's ranks, burst fire is important, but in terms of its real destructive power, it is ineffective …
Due to the fact that the weapons were of the same type and the cartridges on both sides were of the same caliber, the border guards in some cases borrowed ammunition from the killed Chinese. The most notable episode is associated with the actions of junior sergeant Vasily Kanygin and the chef of the outpost, private Nikolai Puzyrev. They managed to destroy a large number of Chinese soldiers (later they counted - almost a platoon), and at that moment they ran out of cartridges. Puzyrev crawled to the dead and took the six shops mentioned above from them. This allowed both of them to continue fighting.
General Babansky, in a conversation with me, also noted the reliability of the weapon:
- No one had any refusals, despite the fact that the machine guns hit the ground, rolled in the snow …
Machine gunner Sergeant Nikolai Tsapaev.who gave an interview to Komsomolskaya Pravda at one time, said about his PK machine gun: “I fired at least five thousand shots from my small machine gun. The barrel turned gray, the paint melted, but the machine gun worked flawlessly."
For the first time, armored personnel carriers equipped with KPVT and PKT turret machine guns were used in a clash. In the late 1960s, these armored personnel carriers were still considered a novelty. The BTR-60PB, unlike other modifications, was fully armored. Bubenin, who operated on one of these machines, suppressed enemy firing points from machine guns, and crushed the Chinese with his wheels. In one of the episodes of the battle, he said, he managed to lay down an entire infantry company of PLA soldiers who had moved to the island in order to reinforce the violators who were already fighting. When one armored personnel carrier was hit, Bubenin moved to another, again went out on it to the Maoists and destroyed a fair number of them before this vehicle was also hit by an armor-piercing shell.
Therefore, already on March 15, PLA soldiers went out, armed with a significant number of hand grenade launchers, for here, in order to suppress a new military provocation, not two armored personnel carriers were involved, but 11, four of which operated directly on the island, and seven were in reserve.
The intensity of that battle can be judged by the recollections of Lieutenant Colonel Yevgeny Yanshin, commander of a motor-maneuverable border group, who was operating on one of the wheeled armored vehicles: “There was a continuous roar in my command vehicle, chad. powder smoke. I saw Sulzhenko, who was firing from the armored personnel carrier's machine guns, threw off a short fur coat, then a pea jacket, unbuttoned the collar of his tunic with one hand. I see I jumped up, kicked the seat and stood pouring fire. Without looking back, he stretches out his hand for a new can of cartridges. The round charger only has time to charge the tapes. "Do not get excited, - I shout, - save cartridges!" I point out to him the target … Because of the continuous fire, explosions of mines and shells of neighboring armored personnel carriers, it is not visible,., Then the machine gun fell silent. Sulzhenko was confused for a moment. Reloads, presses the electric trigger - only a single shot follows. He went to the cover of the machine gun, opened it, and fixed the malfunction. The machine guns started working …"
“Against the border armored personnel carriers,” he says in his book “Damansky and Zhapanashkol. 1969 "Andrey Musalov, - the Chinese threw a large number of single grenade launchers. They camouflaged themselves well among the bushes and trees that grew densely on the island. Yanshin allocated a group of border guards from the landing, whose task was to destroy the grenade launchers. Under heavy fire, this group had to look for grenade launchers, suppress them with small arms fire and not allow them to approach the armored personnel carriers within the range of an RPG shot. This tactic gave the result - the fire from the RPG decreased. To reduce the likelihood of being hit, the APCs did not stop maneuvering for a minute, moving from one natural shelter to another. At critical moments, when the threat of destruction of armored personnel carriers increased, Yanshin deployed the paratroopers in a chain. They, together with the crew of the armored personnel carrier, inflicted fire damage on the enemy. After that, the paratroopers sat on the armored personnel carrier and followed to the next shelter. The armored personnel carriers, in which the ammunition was running out, left the battle, moved to the Soviet bank of the Ussuri, where an ammunition supply point was organized. Having replenished the stock, the combat vehicles again left for Damansky. Every minute the enemy increased the density of mortar fire. The border guards, however, from the "heavy" weapons were only heavy-duty grenade launchers SPG-9 and large-caliber machine guns KPVS."
In total, in that battle, the Chinese managed to knock out and completely disable three armored personnel carriers of the border guards, but all the vehicles directly participating in the battle had greater or lesser damage. The main firepower used against armored personnel carriers was the RPG-2 hand-held anti-tank grenade launcher. Mao's army commanders threw up to a dozen single grenade launchers against each armored personnel carrier. As Musapov notes, “in spite of the fact that the Chinese grenade launchers, which, like the rest of the Chinese weapons, were manufactured according to Soviet technologies, were inferior to Soviet models, they turned out to be a very formidable weapon. Later, this was convincingly proved in the course of the Arab-Israeli conflicts."
Later, on the same day, T-62 tanks were used against the Chinese. However, the Chinese were ready to meet them. On the way of the movement of the tank group, they camouflaged several anti-tank guns. There were also many grenade launchers in ambush. The lead vehicle was hit immediately, the crew trying to leave it was destroyed by small arms fire. The head of the border detachment, Colonel Democrat Leonov, who was in this T-62, was killed by a sniper's bullet in the heart. The rest of the tanks were forced to retreat. (see more details about the T-62 tank wrecked on Damansky Island)
The outcome of the case, in the end, was decided by the firing debut of the BM-21 Grad multiple launch rocket battalion, which struck the Chinese 20 km deep into their territory. At that time, the super-secret, "Grad" for 10 (according to other sources 30) minutes fired several volleys of high-explosive fragmentation ammunition. The defeat was impressive - almost all of the enemy's reserves, warehouses and points of ammunition were destroyed. The Chinese fired disturbing fire across the island for another half an hour, until they finally calmed down.
Zhalanashkol
The events in the area of Lake Zhalanashkol in August 1969 (in the literature they are also described in some detail) from the point of view of the use of weapons and military equipment here were distinguished by the more verified tactics of the Chinese military personnel. By that time, they already had not only the bloody experience of Damansky, but also the lessons of bloodless military provocations in the area of the village of Dulaty (Kazakhstan) on May 2-18 and in the area of the Tasty River on June 10 (also Kazakhstan).
Participants of the battles on the Kamennaya hill (Zhalanashkol, August 1969)
Trophy Chinese pistol "model 51". Caliber 7.62 mm, weight 0.85 kg, magazine capacity 8 cartridges.
Colonel Yuri Zavatsky, Candidate of Military Sciences, Colonel Yuri Zavatsky, describes those events in the Veteran of the Border magazine (No. 3/1999) near Dulaty, the Chinese began demonstratively to dig in on the hills located on Soviet territory. The Soviet military command also demonstratively brought Grady here. And for two weeks, both sides, improving their positions and conducting reconnaissance, waged a psychological confrontation. The Chinese soon realized that "you can't trample on the Grad" and after negotiations they got out of the so-called contested area. In the area of the Tasty river, as Musalov describes that skirmish, fire was opened. Here the border guards expelled the shepherd, who demonstratively drove a flock of sheep across the border. The first to distort the gates were the Chinese armed cavalrymen, who ensure the actions of the shepherd, they were helped from two more directions, including from the dominant height in Chinese territory. But the calculation of the machine gun of privates Viktor Shchugarev and Mikhail Boldyrev with well-aimed fire suppressed all firing points at this height. And then both stopped by fire and the sortie of an armed group of Maoists. It is not known whether the Chinese collected the bodies from themselves, but the Soviet "green caps" repulsed this provocation without loss.
And in August, events broke out near Zhalanashkol. Here, the tactics of the struggle of the Chinese against armored personnel carriers were further developed. The Maoists managed to dig in at night on three hills on the Soviet side, which they considered "primordially Chinese." And in the morning they began to transfer reinforcements to the occupied positions. In order to prevent the movement of the enemy's armed forces, the chief of staff of the detachment in charge of this area, Lieutenant Colonel Nikitenko, moved forward to intercept in three armored personnel carriers. To the demands of the head of the Zhalanashkol outpost, Lieutenant Yevgeny Govor, to leave the territory, the Chinese immediately responded with fire from machine guns and carbines. While the situation was reported to the "top" (and there, as in the cases at Damanskoye, they kicked her from boss to boss), the enemy continued to dig in. And then Nikitenko decided to attack him in armored personnel carriers with the support of the assault groups.
On one of them, number 217, which moved to the flank of the enemy positions, the PLA soldiers concentrated the most dense fire. The armored personnel carrier turned out to be very tenacious. All external equipment was demolished by bullets and shrapnel, the wheels were riddled, armor was punctured in several places, and the turret was jammed by a grenade burst. Sitting at the machine gun, the platoon commander of the maneuvering group, Junior Lieutenant Vladimir Puchkov, was wounded in the thigh, but, having bandaged the wound, continued to fire. Three more wheeled armored vehicles rushed to the rescue of the 217th. It was then that the Chinese grenade launchers showed themselves most actively: Damansky's experience was not in vain. (By the way, after the battle, among the corpses of the Chinese, one was discovered, who during his lifetime was awarded a sign with a portrait of Mao Zedong. The Chinese called in their own way - and are still calling it now - Damansky Island, which had gone to them, according to the agreements with Russia in the 1990s.
One of the grenade launchers, who approached a dangerous distance to the armored personnel carrier, was killed by the gunner junior sergeant Vladimir Zavoronitsyn, who struck the enemy from onboard machine guns. Border armored personnel carriers constantly maneuvered back and forth, not allowing the Maoist grenade launchers to conduct targeted fire. At the same time, the drivers tried to stick to the enemy with the thickest frontal armor. Only half an hour after the start of the battle, the 217th was finally incapacitated.
The battle at Lake Zhalanashkol is also notable for that. that in the last minutes both sides used hand grenades here against each other. From the ridge of the height they occupied, the Chinese threw black grenades with thick wooden handles, which for some reason unmasked white, at the attacking border guards. In response, Private Viktor Ryazanov was able to throw grenades at the enemies who lay down, This was the "victory point" in that fierce battle. True, Ryazanov himself was mortally wounded and died in a helicopter on the way to the hospital.
Loss ratio
The losses of Soviet border guards and military personnel of the border troops of China and the PLA in the battles of 1969 are as follows. On the island of Damansky on March 2, 31 border guards were killed and 20 were wounded. The provocateurs lost at least 248 people killed (so many of their corpses were found directly on the island after the end of the battle). Vitaly Bubenin recalled how on March 3, the first deputy chairman of the USSR KGB chairman, Colonel-General Zakharov, arrived at Damansky, who personally used the entire island, studied all the circumstances of an unequal fire fight. After that, Zakharov told Lieutenant Bubenin: “Son, I went through the Civil War, the Great Patriotic War, the fight against the OUN in Ukraine. I saw everything. But I have not seen this! " By the way, Bubenin and Babansky themselves are still "being modest." In a conversation with me, none of them "claimed" the number of Chinese casualties more than officially recognized, although it is clear that dozens of corpses remained on Chinese territory, and the Maoists' losses may well be 350-400 people.
On March 15, 21 border guards and seven motorized riflemen were killed. There were more wounded - 42 people. The Chinese have lost over 700 people. The number of wounded from the Chinese side amounted to several hundred people. In addition, 50 Chinese soldiers and officers were shot for cowardice.
Near Lake Zhalanashkol, two border guards were killed and about 20 people were wounded and shell-shocked. A dozen and a half of the killed Chinese were buried in Soviet territory alone.
All this suggests that it is not enough to have a good weapon (let us remind you again: both the Soviet border guards and the Maoists had about the same), you also need to own them excellently.
