Revealed the secrets of the Leningrad blockade
Today we will once again celebrate the Day of the complete liberation of Leningrad from the fascist blockade. Recently, for the sake of interest in Yandex, I typed the words “Blockade of Leningrad” and received the following answer: “After breaking the blockade, the siege of Leningrad by enemy troops and fleet lasted until September 1944. "Do you understand anything? Why, it's not something that a tenth-grader, not even a university graduate can figure it out. How did it happen that in the 73 of the year several hundred books and thousands of articles on the siege of Leningrad were published in the 1941 – 1944 years, but so many white spots and omissions remained? Anyway, how could 872 of the day hold besieged Leningrad? After all, there was no such siege in stories of humanity!
In the first months of the Great Patriotic War, German troops defeated units of the Red Army in the Baltic States, Belarus and Ukraine, rapidly captured the Crimea and ... stood up rooted in the outskirts of Leningrad. What happened? Perhaps, the Soviet pilots, tankers and infantry fought less courageously near Minsk, Kiev and Uman? But after all, in a few days, much larger Soviet groups were completely destroyed and captured than at Leningrad.
In the Khrushchev-Brezhnev times, we were assured that the "Leningrad Bolsheviks" stopped the enemy. It still led me to seditious thoughts at school, that, they say, communists were second-rate in Kiev, and in Minsk, surrendered on the sixth day of the war, in general, it was not standard. And now the liberals claim that the Germans were stopped by the “Petersburg intelligentsia”. She de refined in a special way. They say that the Germans Shostakovich and Olga Bergholz listened and immediately stopped.
Not. The Germans were stopped by the Russian god of war — the heavy artillery of forts, railway installations and ships. And competent actions of the Supreme High Command helped to keep, thanks to which, despite the blockade, Leningrad was not only supplied with food, but the military power of the Leningrad Front and the Baltic Fleet was maintained at a high level.
GIVE UP NO ONE GOING TO GO
Since 1991, the liberals have blamed for the deaths of people in the blockade on ... Bet. Well, the “Rain” TV channel has come to the survey: “Did Leningrad have to be surrendered in order to save hundreds of thousands of lives?” Supposedly 53% answered “yes”, and 47% - “no”. A similar survey - and blasphemy, and complete idiocy. With equal success, you can ask, wasn’t it better for the inhabitants of Leningrad to fly to Mars?
To begin with, the Soviet troops never gave up. In 1904, General Stoessel surrendered Port Arthur to the Japanese, and in May 1905, Admiral Nebogatov in the Tsushima Strait, a squadron of four battleships. In the 1942 year, the British surrendered the most powerful Singapore fortress, and even earlier, in May-June 1940, the Dutch, Belgian and French armies surrendered to the Germans. In our 1941 – 1945 years not a single regiment, not a single combat ship surrendered. Just surrender to the enemy in the statute of the Red Army was not provided.
By the time of the capture of Xlumselburg 6 in September 1941, over half a million soldiers and officers were in the troops of the Leningrad Front. And this is without the Baltic Fleet. Neither the front nor the fleet from Leningrad has nowhere to go. It remained to fight or capitulate. And if someone from the command gave the order to surrender, he would immediately be shot by officers or even soldiers. Even Stalin, having given the order to surrender the Leningrad Front and the Baltic Fleet without a fight, would have signed the death warrant to himself.
Hitler did not intend to accept the capitulation of Leningrad. He ordered to level the city with the land. Even if a miracle happened and the Fuhrer enrolled in humanists, the Germans could not supply the city, since all highways and railways in the occupied territories worked at the limit of their capabilities and still could not fully supply the Wehrmacht with either fuel, or food, or ammunition.
Cities, even occupied by the Germans on the move, without long battles, such as Minsk and Kiev, lost during the occupation from 70 to 90% of the population.
By the way, according to the rules of the war, since the 16th century it was supposed to leave all military equipment and property intact when the city or fortress was surrendered. Otherwise, the other side will consider the garrison a violator of military laws and deal with it accordingly.
In September, 1941, in Leningrad, there were more submarines than in the whole kriegsmarine. No wonder Churchill tearfully begged Stalin in the case of the capture of Leningrad by the Germans to blow up the ships. With proper use of the ships of the Baltic Fleet by the Germans, they could disrupt the supply of England and "win" the battle for the Atlantic.
There were more heavy guns at the forts of Leningrad, at the NIMAP (training ground on Rzhevka) and in parts of the Leningrad front than on all our other fronts and in the rear. Stalin sarcastically wrote to Zhdanov: “You have heavy tanks (KV) more than on all other fronts. ”
And all this had to be given to the Germans? And pay for the surrender of Leningrad millions of lives?
In the case of the surrender of Leningrad, Murmansk, Arkhangelsk and the Northern Fleet would be lost, communications with the allies in the North would be interrupted. Well, then ... Then let the fans add fantasy.
ALMOST AROUND EVACUATION
And now a few words about what the authorities and residents did before the blockade. Why, even before the outbreak of war, hundreds of thousands of dependents (unemployed women, children, retirees) did not go on vacation from the city? Didn’t they read the Soviet press? As a student, I studied the filings of the newspaper Pravda for the years 1939-1940. It described in detail and objectively the massive bombing of British and German cities in Italy. aviation and accordingly the Luftwaffe - English cities. Did it never occur to anyone that Leningrad would be bombed in the very first days of the war? Fortunately, from the north, even with the new border, the flight time to the city was less than 10 minutes.
At the beginning of 1941, the population of Leningrad was about 3 million people, of which over 2,5 million were people who arrived there several years or even months ago. Judge for yourself: in 1920, 722 thousand people lived in Leningrad. Of these, at least thousands of 200 were expelled or planted in the 1930s (there were special city purges from nobles, former officials and intellectuals, declassed elements, etc.).
Family ties 80 years ago were much closer, and go to the village to the second cousin uncle for permanent residence was not considered shameful. Well, the state for free or for 30% gave vouchers to holiday homes, motels, pioneer camps, etc.
Alas, very few people left Leningrad to rest on 22 June, despite widespread talk of war.
A week after the start of the war, 30 June, the city evacuation center was opened at the address Griboyedov Canal, d. 6. A few days later, district evacuation centers opened. On 12-th (!) Day of War, the Lensovet adopted a resolution on the evacuation of thousands of children from the city of 400. Alas, according to this resolution, only 311,4 thousand children were taken out before the blockade began.
July – August 1941. Widespread retreat of our troops. In the north, the cannon fire rumbles - the Finns are coming. The Germans bombed Leningrad. And hundreds of thousands of stubborn ladies categorically refuse to evacuate. The instructors of the regional committee began to threaten obstinamians with the deprivation of ration cards. In response: "And we will live without them." It is not hard to guess that the main motive was also before 22 June, and in the first 8 weeks after it was - “What if my Petya is on a spree?”
However, evacuation points (and there were other escape routes) were sent before 6 September 1941 of the person 706 283. In October – November, 1941 was evacuated on ships of the Ladoga Flotilla by 33 479.
On the Ladoga ice 539 was taken by thousands of people. And finally, with the opening of 1942 navigation of the year from May to November, 448 699 people sailed on ships through Ladoga. 1 November 1942, the evacuation from Leningrad was officially completed. Further departure from the city was made only by special passes.
CITY SUPPLY
The headquarters did everything possible for the organization of the air bridge Leningrad - Big Land.
20 September 1941 The State Defense Committee (GKO) adopted a decree “On the organization of air transport links between Moscow and Leningrad”, according to which it was supposed to deliver 100 tons of cargo to the city daily and evacuate 1000 people.
For transportation, the Special Northern Aviation Group of the Civil Fleet based in Leningrad and the Special Baltic Aviation Squad included in its structure began to be used. There were also three squadrons of the Moscow Special Purpose Air Group (MAGON) as part of the 30 Li-2 aircraft that made the first flight to Leningrad on September 16. Later, the number of units involved in aviation supply was increased. Also used for transportation heavy bombers TB-3.
21 November 1941 delivered the maximum amount of cargo per day to Leningrad - 214 tons. From September to December, more than 5 thousand tons of food was delivered by air to Leningrad and 50 thousand people were transported.
The laying of the communication cable along the bottom of Ladoga on the mainland began on August 10, and as early as October 1941, telephone and telegraph communication over this cable operated smoothly.
At the end of 1941, when the Germans approached the Volkhovskaya HPP, part of the electrical equipment was dismantled and evacuated. In the spring of 1942, the Volkhovstroy earned again. On the bottom of Lake Ladoga on the orders of Stalin five power cables were laid. The first cable was laid for 47 days, and already 23 September 1942, the electricity went to Leningrad.
In December 1942, electricity consumption in Leningrad increased 4 times as compared with August.
25 June 1942 of the year issued a decree on the establishment of a GKO on the Ladoga pipeline with a length of 30 km, of which more than 20 km is along the bottom of the lake. There were no similar structures for 1942 in the world, and then we had to run a pipeline under the enemy's bombs and shelling.
Construction of the pipeline began on May 5, and 19 ended on June 1942 of the year, that is, the pipeline was built in just 46 days. Those interested can compare these dates with the construction time of cables and pipelines across the Kerch Strait in 2014 – 2016 years.
20 May 1942, gasoline and oil went to besieged Leningrad (successively several types of petroleum products). Work on the construction of the pipeline were so secretive that the Germans did not know about them until the end of the blockade.
From 24 May to 3 December 1942, the Ladoga Flotilla ships carried 55 thousand tons of fuel, and 32,6 thousand tons arrived through the pipeline.
There were other, sometimes even exotic ways of supplying Leningrad.
Thus, in March 1942, the best deer 300 were selected at the Loukhskoye reindeer husbandry farm. Reindeer and two cars of frozen fish were taken by rail to Tikhvin. There, the reindeer were divided into two groups: one went across the ice of Ladoga in teams with a fish loaded on sleds, and the other was sent by the herd. As a result, not a single car was required up to Leningrad itself.
300 deer heads are about 15 tons of meat - and 25 tons of fish in Leningrad received in March beyond what the motor transport could bring to the city on an ice road. And this is more than two months of the official norm for 10 thousand people.
NOT NOTED HEROES
Hundreds of books have been written about the defenders of Leningrad since 1945, but, alas, almost all the authors have focused on the heroism of the personnel, the role of the Communist Party and individual commanders, the actions of aviation, tank and infantry units. The god of war somehow remained in the shadows. And here it’s not only the authors ’subjectivity, but also the secrecy of the materials about the actions of our and German artillery. The fact is that forts, command posts and other underground structures of Leningrad were restored after the war and served the army and navy for many decades. Many of them were used to deploy missile units, communication centers, warehouses, etc.
Extremely explosive is the theme of the action of Soviet long-range artillery on the palaces captured by the Germans and other buildings in the vicinity of Leningrad - in Petergof, Strelna, Gatchina, Pavlovsk, etc.
With the transfer of the main fleet forces from Tallinn to Kronstadt 30 August 1941, all the arriving ships, except for the leader “Minsk”, which required emergency repairs, were included in the defense system of the city. Thus, by the beginning of the hostilities to repel the German troops that had broken through to Leningrad in the artillery defense system were: the battleships Marat and the October Revolution, the cruisers Kirov, Maxim Gorky and Petropavlovsk, 1 and 2- Battalions of destroyers in the 10 pennants and 8 gunboats.
From the side of the Gulf of Finland, Leningrad was covered by the Kronstadt fortress, the construction of which began under Peter the Great. The strongest fort of Kronstadt was the fort "Krasnaya Gorka", advancing on the southern coast of the Gulf of Finland on 20 km west of the tip of Kotlin Island.
By the time the Germans approached Leningrad, the following batteries were in service with the Fort Krasnaya Gorka.
Battery No. 311 - two two-gun turrets with 305 / 52-mm cannons. These guns were almost identical to the guns of the Petropavlovsk type battleships. Shooting from 305-mm coastal guns was carried out both by sea shells and military shells, and the latter were extremely few.
Battery No. 312 - Four open 305 / 52-mm units.Battery No. 313 - three 120 / 50-mm guns installed in the southern part of the land defense of the front.
Battery number 322 - introduced in July 1941, had three 152 / 45-mm cane guns.
There were two coastal batteries in the “Gray Horse” fort - No. 331 with three Xane guns / 152-mm cannons and No. 45 with four 332 / 120-mm guns. In 50, the 1943-mm guns were replaced with 332 / 120-mm B-130 on the 50-th battery.
In addition, the fortress consisted of five island batteries on the South (main) fairway near the island of Coltin and seven - on the Northern fairway. The northern forts were located approximately on the line of the current dam.
Finally, dozens of 100 – 254 mm guns were on Kotlin Island, both in the old forts and openly installed during the war.
A large role in the defense of Leningrad was played by the scientific test artillery naval test site (NIMAP), located on the eastern outskirts of Leningrad, near the Rzhevka railway station. Tests of small and medium-caliber sea guns, up to 130-mm inclusive, were carried out on NIMAP from “native” machines, and guns of 152-406 mm caliber - from special polygon machines. Since the beginning of the war, the landfill machines were adapted for circular shelling.
From the number of guns that were at the site, was formed six batteries and one anti-aircraft group. The armament of these batteries consisted of one 406-mm, one 356-mm, two 305-mm, five 180-mm guns, and 12 guns of 100-152 mm.
DUEL OF GODS OF WAR
I am afraid that I tired the reader with a list of coastal batteries and their places of installation. But, alas, without this it is impossible to understand the grandiose artillery battle for Leningrad, which lasted 900 days in the territory over 150 km from west to east and over 100 km from north to south. Ships and coastal batteries were set up in such a way that the Germans and Finns positions along the entire perimeter of the defense were fired at least 20 kilometers with our guns.
In total, Leningrad was protected by 360 naval and coastal long-range guns of caliber from 406 to 100 mm. These our guns entered into a duel unprecedented in the history of artillery with approximately 250 heavy guns of the Germans.
Happy 4 September 1941, the German artillery first opened fire on Leningrad. The Vitebsk sorting station, the Salolin, the Red Oilman and the Bolshevik plants were subjected to artillery fire. The Germans fired from the Tosno area.
Soviet military leader, a participant in the battles for Leningrad, Colonel-General Artillery, Candidate of Military Sciences Nikolai Nikolayevich Zhdanov wrote in his book The Flame Arrest of Leningrad: “The shelling of the city had nothing to do with the armed struggle of the opposing armies. These were barbaric shelling, as a result of which the civilian population suffered, cultural institutions were destroyed, many of them were unique, hospitals, hospitals, schools, and various children's institutions. ”
Only in September 1941, the Germans fired a 5364 projectile in Leningrad.
On September 17, the Germans managed to break through to the southern coast of the Gulf of Finland in the area of New Peterhof, Strelna, Uritsk and get an opportunity to conduct aimed fire from short distances (30 – 40 cable - about 5,5 – 7,5 km) at Soviet ships that fired from open firing positions outside raids of the Neva Bay and the Sea Canal. Our ships were limited in fire maneuvering and were subjected to enemy aviation and artillery strikes.
In October, the enemy launched 1941 7950 shells in Leningrad, in November - 11 230 shells. In all, from September to December 1941, inclusive, the city fell 30 154 projectile.
With a pencil, I studied the daily reports on the shooting of our artillery for all the 872 blockade days and I can assure you that no shelling of the enemy was left unanswered by our artillery.
From Soviet times, we saw plenty of movies, like dozens of "Tigers" and "Panthers" are beating out of anti-tank rifles like ducks from Moscow and Stalingrad. Therefore, I am afraid that the reader will doubtfully treat my assertions that our heavy artillery near Leningrad acted not only effectively, but also with minimal losses. So, all (!) Guns survived on NIAP. The same can be said about the "Red Hill", "Reef" and other forts.
During the entire siege of Leningrad in the 1941 – 1944 years, not a single large and medium caliber railway installation was lost. And at the same time, with their help, hundreds of enemy guns were smashed or suppressed and thousands of enemy soldiers were destroyed.
THE ARTISTS OF THE ARTILERS
The exit position, quick and accurate hit and instant withdrawal. In this case, the complete disguise before the strike, during the strike and after the strike.
Railway installations near Leningrad were not similar to artillery transporters in reference books or museums. They rather resembled thickets of bushes - a bunch of branches and camouflage nets. The plant produces a 356 – 180 caliber projectile mm and leaves in half a minute. “Yes in what half a minute? - the historian will be indignant. “After all, according to the instruction to move the ZhDAU from the combat to the marching position, 30 (!) Minutes is laid.”
Well, who cares about instruction, and who cares about life. Commanders and fighters simply ignored all instructions. So, the sites were not cleaned, the mount was mounted at the exit from the firing positions, the longitudinal bars were tipped off to the side, and the supporting cushions were left in place. Departure from a position at a distance of 400 – 500 m was accomplished under its own power and at low speeds, with loose supporting legs. Subsequently, the supporting legs ceased to throw on the carts, but only lifted on the 20 – 30 cm from the rail head.
Of course, the spread “legs” of the ZhDAU could have demolished the dacha apron, would have caused a train wreck on an oncoming lane. But all the buildings have long been demolished, oncoming trains could not be physically.
Most often used such a method. Gun No. 1 fired and began to withdraw to a new position at a distance of 100 – 200 meters. Then shot the gun number 2 and also began to withdraw. Well, when, after the shot, the gun number 3, lifting a few centimeters above the ground "legs", began to withdraw, fired gun number 1, which has already taken a new position.
So that the sound stations and optical equipment of the enemy could not detect the shooting of railway transporters, the 122-mm A-19 cannons and the 152-mm ML-20 cannon guns opened fire with them. Sometimes railway installations of caliber 130 – 100 mm were also involved. In addition, explosives, imitating heavy guns, were actively used.
AND HELP OF PLANTS
So, no ZhDAU perished from the impact of the enemy. But from frequent, almost daily fire, trunks were wearing out, wheel chocks, bolts, lifting mechanisms, etc. failed. But then Leningrad plants Bolshevik, Kirovsky, Arsenal (the Frunze plant) came to the rescue.
Thus, according to reports of the Bolshevik plant, during the blockade, over 3 thousand (!) Bodies of naval guns and 20 thousand medium-size and large-caliber shells were manufactured. Well, let's say, the liners were also included in the reports along with the trunks. But the difference is in cost, not in vitality.
The Germans knew about the activities of the Bolshevik and, at the beginning of 1942, installed 10 long-range stationary batteries in the Fedorovskoye-Antropshino area specifically for the destruction of the Bolshevik workshops. In addition, on the Novo-Liseno – Pavlovsk line, German rail installations regularly operated, which also shelled the plant. And they, in turn, were suppressed by our ZhDAU along with stationary marine batteries and the guns of ships stationed on the Neva. An ideal example of mutual assistance of the rear and front.
Finns turned out worse than Nazis
In recent years, media reports have appeared that Leningrad was saved by ... Marshal Mannerheim. This is what the current Minister of Culture says. Mannerheim de ordered his troops to stop at the 1939 border of the year, forbade shelling and bombing Leningrad with guns, etc.
In fact, the Finns did not stop at the old border, but on the line of the Karelian UR - the impregnable line of the Soviet fortifications, which had been built since the 1920s.
The Finns didn’t really fire Nevsky Prospect and Kirovsky Plant, since the Germans ’batteries were very close. But Finnish shells almost daily covered the north-western districts of Leningrad: Lysii Nos, Olgino, Kronstadt district, etc. Finnish shells reached the area of the Finnish station.
Recently my book “Who saved Leningrad in 1941 year?” Was published. The book was created on the basis of previously secret and secret Soviet documents, as well as materials recently published in Germany and Finland. The book describes in detail what kind of artillery batteries of Germans and Finns and from where they fired at Leningrad, and how our gunners suppressed the fire of these batteries. How much was spent at the same time shells, etc., etc.
Finnish aircraft did not really appear over Leningrad until February 1944. But this was done not by order of Mannerheim, but at the suggestion of the Reichsmarschall Goering, in order to avoid clashes with the Luftwaffe. The Finnish pilots flew mainly on British and Soviet captured cars, and it was very difficult for the Germans to distinguish them from the Soviet and Lend-Lease planes. But on the ships of the Ladoga flotilla transporting people and food for Leningrad, Finnish aviation worked much more efficiently than the German one.
The principal difference between the Germans and the Finns is that the Germans killed and sent commissars, communists, partisans, etc. to concentration camps. And the Finns did it only because the person was an ethnic Russian.
According to the census 1939 of the year, 469 thousand people lived in Karelia. Of these, 63,2% Russians, 23,2% Karelians and 1,8% Finns. Even before 22 June 1941, Marshal Mannerheim ordered that all ethnic Russians be captured in concentration camps after the capture of Soviet Karelia. After all, back in 1922, the Academic Karelian Society of Finland developed a theory of national superiority. According to this theory, the Finns were at the highest stage of development, then the Finno-Ugric peoples, and the Slavs and Jews at the lowest level. And two weeks after the Finns seized Karelia, 14 concentration camps for ethnic Russians functioned there. They were mostly old men, women and children. For prisoners of war there were other camps.
Thus, in the Olovoinen concentration camp No. 8 of 3000 prisoners, about 1500 people survived for the day of liberation. In the 1942 year, out of the free population of Petrozavodsk, 201 people died, and in concentration camps - 2493 people.
CELEBRATION IS TO BE MARKED BY NATIONAL FORUM
Should 27 January be marked as the day of the final blockade? Certainly necessary. But not as the final elimination of the siege ring, but only as the defeat of the German troops near Leningrad.
In the course of the Leningrad-Novgorod offensive operation - the First Stalin Strike is now called - our troops from 4 January to 1 in March 1944 rejected parts of the Wehrmacht to 120 – 180 km from the initial positions near Leningrad. Nevertheless, the counter battery attack of the ships of the Baltic Fleet, the forts of Kronstadt and the railway artillery did not subside for a single day from the beginning of March to June 1944 of the year in Leningrad. Moreover, the intensity of these shooting is not inferior to 1941 – 1942 years. For whom did they shoot? According to the Germans, entrenched under Narva?
Alas, the northern sector of the blockade ring remained intact, and heavy shells flew from there to Kronstadt, Olgino, Lisiy Nos and other areas of Leningrad. And then our gunners received an order ...
Only 9 June 1944 of the year began the final lifting of the blockade of Leningrad. Hundreds of heavy cannon batteries of the Leningrad Front, the Baltic Fleet, including ships, forts, railway installations and 406 – 180-mm installations of a research and development test site were hit on Finnish troops. The 31 division, 6 brigades and 4 fortified areas went on the offensive.
And 17 June 1944, 180-mm rail installations have already smashed Vyborg. The Finns really hoped for the British, and here on June 20 heavy Churchill tanks broke into Vyborg. But, to the great disappointment of the Finns, they had red stars.
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