Icebreaker vs cruiser
On the morning of August 24, the icebreaking ship “A. Sibiryakov "left the port in the village of Dikson on the island of the same name. It is in the northeastern part of the Yenisei Bay of the Kara Sea - where the Yenisei Bay enters the Arctic Ocean. "Sibiryakov" was supposed to deliver equipment, food, fuel, log cabins for two houses, a radio station kit, land four polar explorers at Cape Tin and change people at the station of Domashniy Island.
On the second day of the voyage, the icebreaker was located in the northwest of the Nordenskiöld archipelago (if you look at the detailed map of the Arctic or Northern Siberia, you will find it west of the famous Cape Chelyuskin, which crowns the northern tip of Taimyr). 25 August 1942 of the year, 11 hours 47 minutes. Kara Sea, Belukha Island area. Through a misty haze, observers from the icebreaker saw an unknown warship. A nose light blinked from it: “Who are you? Where to go? Come closer! ” And again the requirement: “Notify the state of the ice in the Vilkitsky Strait, where the caravan of transports and icebreakers is now.” Then from an unknown ship they ordered to stop the work of the ship’s radio and to lower the flag.
"Sibiryakov" did not obey the order. The radio operator Anatoly Sharshavin sent a clear message to Dickson about the appearance of the enemy - there was no doubt about that - of a warship of a large displacement. It was the German battleship "Admiral Scheer".
During the war, reports from its northernmost flank sounded infrequently. Meanwhile, the Arctic, the Arctic and the Northern Sea Route were of great importance then. Particular responsibility fell on the sailors of the North fleet, whose command even before the war, in August 1940 took 35-year-old Rear Admiral Arseny Golovko. But this fleet and its combat responsibility zone are special. Its length from east to west is about four thousand nautical miles. Severe conditions: difficult ice and hydrometeorological conditions, under the flashes of the northern lights - huge uninhabited spaces. Plus a six-month polar night ...
The fleet performed the most important tasks in disrupting the enemy’s sea lanes, assisting ground forces and protecting our sea and especially the Arctic routes. When, in the first year of the war, the ocean route of arms supplies under lend-lease began to operate, the strategic importance of the Northern Fleet and the theater of military operations in the Polar Region increased.
Wunderland without miracles
This could not but understand the Nazi command. In 1942, it developed a special operation with the aim of disrupting movement along a strategic ocean route and doing away with vital transportation for the front and the Soviet rear in the Arctic. “Wunderland” (“Wonderland”) - this is the code name received operation, scheduled for August 1942-th. The month was not chosen by chance: at this time the ice melted by the waters of the mighty Siberian rivers in the most part of the northern seas almost disappears.
The plan for Operation Wunderland envisaged that seven submarines, destroyers and aviation. However, their mission was more distracting in nature. The main, striking role in the “Wonderland” was assigned to two battleships - “Admiral Scheer” and “Lyuttsov”. Three of the seven boats were supposed to maintain direct contact with the battleships, conduct ice reconnaissance for them, and draw the forces of the Northern Fleet in the waters at the southern tip of Novaya Zemlya. Four other submarines were ordered to cover the Sheer and Lutts from the western direction.
Why from the west? The implication was a cover from Soviet warships in the event of their interception. And they would go from the Kola Peninsula, that is, from the west. The destroyers were assigned the modest role of protecting battleships when passing through the zone of vigorous activity of the ships of the Northern Fleet and the Anglo-American allies.
The Admiral Scheer, built in 1939, was part of a series of German ships known as pocket battleships. Where does this strange name come from? According to the Versailles Treaty (1919 year), which recorded the defeat of Germany in the First World War, it was imposed severe restrictions on the construction of new warships. In particular, it was forbidden to have in the Navy ships with a displacement of more than ten thousand tons and with guns of a caliber larger than 280 millimeters. But the German designers were able to circumvent the restrictions by developing projects that had artillery weapons more powerful than the cruiser, and speed, like the battleships. Hence the name. In fact, the "Admiral Scheer" (as well as the same-type "Lutz") is a heavy cruiser. Germany planned to use them as raiders (naval term from the English raid - raid), that is, ships that can conduct independent military operations against merchant ships on long-distance communications. Scheer had a full displacement of 13 700 tons. Crew - 926 man. Speed - 26 nodes. Armor thickness - from 76 to 178 millimeters. Armament: six 280 caliber guns, 8 – 150 millimeters, six 105-mm anti-aircraft guns, eight 47-mm and eight torpedo tubes.
"Admiral Scheer" at that time was commanded by a sea wolf, a former submariner, a World War I participant 45, a summer captain-zur-ze (1 rank) Wilhelm Meendsen-Bolken. He took the cruiser under its start in June 1941, when Germany attacked the USSR. But earlier, with the start of the Second World War, Scheer was already "famous for" attacks on merchant ships. For 161 day of sea hunting - from the Arctic to the Antarctic, he passed 46 thousands of nautical miles, sinking 19 vessels with a total displacement of 137 thousand tons. Hitler favored the predecessor Meendsen-Bolken on the bridge of Theodore Crank. He conferred an admiral rank and appointed him a representative of the commander-in-chief of the Navy in his headquarters.
Operation "Wunderland" "Scheer" began alone - "Lutz" was damaged and put in for repair. 6 August 1942, the cruiser secretly left the naval base in Skomenfjord (Northern Norway). The operation was being prepared in deep secrecy. Only 16 of August read the order of Meendsen-Bolken to the team: “Our task is to attack the ships of the enemy in the Kara Sea, the main target of the attack are convoys, especially those coming from the east. The commander will decide on the firing of ground points on the spot. ”
Slowly moving east along the edge of the ice, the 20 August 1942, the cruiser met with the German submarine U-251. But its commander could not say anything definite about the movement of the Soviet convoys. Meendsen-Bolken decides to go south. An Arado seaplane Ar 196 was raised from the deck of the ship for reconnaissance. In the air, he was launched with the help of a catapult, and sat on the water.
Gloomy daylight hours were already ending, when the pilots reported: a convoy of nine ships was found. The battleship went to intercept the convoy and took a comfortable position for the attack. All 28 guns and 8 torpedo tubes "Admiral Scheer" on the first signal were ready to open fire. After all, at that time not one of our combat units in the region could resist such deadly firepower: the Soviet Northern Fleet did not have such a class of ships. The caravan seemed doomed. But time passed, but the ships were not visible. Although the data of the radio interception said that they were somewhere nearby.
The next morning the seaplane departed again for reconnaissance. But ... the caravan has sunk into the water. The fact is that the chain of ships did not move to the west, but to the east. That is, it did not approach the German cruiser, but left it.
On August 22, a message was received from the Norwegian command about another convoy from the 19 ships and four icebreakers heading west. And on August 23, the Arado onboard reconnaissance aircraft Ar 196 discovered 10 ships anchored.
But Captain Zur-Zee Meendsen-Bolken was afraid that the wind would change and the cruiser would be locked up with ice. In addition, there was a threat of shelling by the Soviet courts, since each transport is at the very least, but it was armed with two cannons and machine guns. Meendsen-Bolken every now and then gave the command to change course. The movement of ice began, and 25 August crashed a reconnaissance plane, leaving the cruiser "without sight". The fact is that according to the state there should have been two such planes on board, and for some reason they took one on a hike. This served as a reason to head south into the waters free of ice.
The flag is not lowered
At the command of the icebreaker captain, Senior Lieutenant Anatoly Kacharava, the crew prepared for battle. The commander addressed the subordinates with a brief speech: “Comrades! The ship raised the fascist flag. Now the battle will begin. Let us show what the valor of the Soviet people means. We'll die, but we won't give up! ” An unequal battle began. Unequal - not even that word. How could two sorokapyatki, two 76-mm guns and several anti-aircraft machine guns "Sibiryakova" to resist the powerful weapons of a heavy cruiser? And the speed was only eight and a half knots, and there was no armor protection at all.
Shells from the icebreaker that reached "Scheer" could not penetrate his armor. But when the Sibiryakov set up a smoke screen and opened fire on the German cruiser, through shreds of smoke, the sailors saw that the enemy deck was instantly empty. And from where only the Germans, who hitherto with smirks photographed their next victim, undertook such agility!
The stunned captain-zur-ze Meendsen-Bolken ordered not to delay the destruction of the Russian icebreaker. How dare this "vessel" stand up to one of the best ships of the crigsmarine! The first projectile from the "Scheer" cut off the mast "Sibiryakova." Glavstarshina Mikhail Sarayev, under heavy fire, connected parts of a broken antenna and thus made it possible to operate the main transmitter. The second volley from the "Sheer" fell on the stern of the ship and brought down both stern guns. Gunners partially died or were seriously wounded.
All who were on board showed courage in an unparalleled fight with the enemy. Selflessly helped the wounded doctor Valentina Chernous. When a Soviet flag was torn down by a missile projectile, the sailor Alexander Novikov raised it over the burning icebreaker again. Until the last crushing blow, the radio operator Anatoly Sharshavin remained at his post in the radio room. From the dying “Sibiryakov” he sent the last radiogram on the air: “Pompolyt ordered to leave the ship. We burn, goodbye. It was 25 August in 14 hours 5 minutes. The icebreaker lost speed, the guns of the German cruiser ruthlessly and methodically finished it. It is amazing: "Sibiryakov" was already on the verge of death, but one of the guns continued to fire! By order of the captain, cryptographer Mikhail Kuznetsov destroyed all secret documents, depriving the Germans of the chance to get the information they need about the ice situation in the Kara Sea.
The senior mechanic Nikolai Bochurko executed the last order of the captain - he opened the Kingston. Anatoly Kacharava himself was seriously wounded. The command was taken over by his political assistant Zelik Elimelah, the commissar, as they called him. He ordered everyone on board to leave the ship at that time. Like the legendary "Varyag" "Sibiryakov" the flag in front of the enemy did not lower. Around 15.00, the sea swallowed the ship. And the commissioner remained at the flagpole ...
Today, all ships sailing along the Northern Sea Route near Belukha Island, in memory of this feat of the northern Varyag and its crew, in an unequal battle, give a long beep and lower the flag.
Robinson with the Nakhimov Medal
We can not say about the fate of the sailors of the icebreaker. A significant part of the crew and passengers died from shells and burns before the icebreaker disappeared into the depths of the sea. Those who fought one by one for their lives in icy water and refused to climb a boat launched from the German cruiser were shot by “supermen” from the “Sheer”. The stoker Nikolai Matveyev, while capturing his comrades, threw an ax at a German sailor. In response, an automatic burst.
The boat with 18 wounded and burned the boat towed to board the "Sheer". Long interrogations did not give the Germans anything. The surviving sailors from the Sibiryakov were thrown behind the barbed wire.
Of the 104 people who were aboard the icebreaker on his last voyage, only 14 survived Victory. The fate of the driver Pavel Vavilov is amazing. He managed to avoid death and captivity. In the icy water, he grabbed the side of the half-broken boat and with great difficulty reached the uninhabited rocky island of Belukha. For more than a month, his forced wintering on the island continued. Ate Vavilov bran, a small stock of which was on the boat. She and the wreckage ejected from the sunken ship ashore went into the fire ... Into the fire saving in every sense: the famous polar pilot Hero of the Soviet Union Ivan Cherevichny saw his uneven flame from the air. He brought Vavilov to the mainland. For courage and perseverance, the sailor from Sibiryakov was awarded a rather rare award — the Nakhimov Medal. And in August, 1960, as part of a large group of employees of the Ministry of the Navy, Pavel Ivanovich Vavilov was again awarded. And how! He became the Hero of Socialist Labor.
Help "MIC"
During the war years, the fleet ships conducted 1548 convoys that included 2951 transport along the internal sea routes. In the northern ports of the USSR and in the opposite direction as part of the 76 allied convoys followed over 1400 British, American and Soviet transports. The enemy managed to sink all our ships 16. Severomorsk destroyed 413 transports with a total deadweight of over a million tons, a lot of warships and enemy support ships.
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