"Kerch Brest". Heroic defense of Adzhimushkaysky quarries (part 2)
The first defense period of the Adzhimushkay quarry was short and ended with the first gas attacks of the Germans. Their consequences for the garrison of the Central quarries were very heavy. At the end of May 1942, the second period of the quarries defense began. - active defense, the fighters carried out attacks, conducted reconnaissance, made attempts to establish contact with the “Big Land” and the underground in Kerch. Unfortunately, we have very little data on the military activity of the garrison. Although there are external evidence of their struggle. Intelligence reports and reports arrived at the headquarters of the 47 Army, and reconnaissance and observers on the Taman shore recorded fierce battles in the territory of the Adzhimushkay village. The first such report from 21 of May 1942 of the year reports that a detachment of approximately 5 thousand people resists in the Adzhimushkaya area.
The commanders carefully planned and prepared the sorties that the underground garrison of the Central quarries conducted. Previously conducted surveillance through secret observation posts, which were equipped in several places, and conducted reconnaissance to clarify the forces of the Germans in different directions. In some cases, up to several thousand people could participate in raids. Usually two battalions went to the sortie, the third was in reserve. Trying to provide some surprise, the garrison command conducted attacks at significant intervals or every day.
In addition to the problem of water, a serious issue was a terrible shortage of weapons and ammunition (besides, in the dungeons, cartridges were quickly dampened, constantly misfired). This problem was tried to be solved by creating “trophy teams” that were supposed to collect German weapon during the attacks and the organization of the repair of weapons in the garrison. First of all, they tried to repair automatic weapons, for example, from 2-3 non-working machine guns collected one.
In June, observers on the Tamansky shore almost every day recorded violent exchanges of fire and explosions in the area of the quarries and the name of them. Voikova, where small groups of Red Army continued to resist. The German command was concerned about this resistance, since the units suffered significant losses, and there was a threat that the stone quarry garrison would establish contact with the “Great Land”. And this will allow to establish combat interaction at the right time, for example, during the possible landing of the Soviet landing force in the Kerch area. Understood this and the command of the underground garrison, it made repeated attempts to redeploy reconnaissance groups with reports across the strait.
The garrison continued to fight in complete isolation in both June and July 1942. The heavy moral blow for the garrison was the news of the fall of Sevastopol on July 9. While holding Sevastopol, there was hope that they would not be forgotten, the Crimea would soon be liberated. At the same time, the Germans exerted strong information pressure, trying to undermine the morale of the defenders of the dungeon, who fought in the most difficult conditions. The Germans reported the fall of Sevastopol and offered to lay down their arms, promising to save life and good circulation. But the command of the garrison could keep the situation under control, support the fighting spirit of the fighters. Another strong psychological blow was the death of the heroic garrison commander Pavel Yagunov. He died during a raid on the night of July 8-9. But it did not break the defenders, they continued to fight. It is clear that one of the factors of the highest stability of the garrison quarries was skillful party political work. Among the garrison there were many commanders and political workers, even a high mortality rate during attacks allowed the commanders to replace commanders and political workers. Their ability to self-sacrifice, high morale, firmness and confidence of the commanders allowed the garrison to survive for so long, believing in the Victory. Until September, the garrison held practically daily classes in tactics, combat training, politics, and lectures. Before the fighters brought information Sovinformbureau, who took the radio. In the early days of the defense, they even released the “Battle Sheet”. The clear organization of the garrison was also of great importance in the defense. All the fighters and commanders had their business, the defense sector. Discipline and order provided the most stringent methods, mercilessly suppressing attempts at desertion, violation of the Charter, crimes, etc. As a result, the garrison was efficient for a long period of time.
In July, the garrison of the Central quarries under the command of Lieutenant Colonel Burmin, who replaced the deceased Yagunov, led almost continuous battles, trying to break through to the strait. The soldiers of the underground garrison even managed several times to force the German troops to leave the settlement. The 47 Army reconnaissance reports of heavy shooting in the area of the quarries and 10, 20, 23 and 29 settlements in July. 20 July recorded the fire of German artillery on the village.
Only in August, the military activity of the garrison fell sharply - only a few hundred people remained from it. Sharply increased mortality from disease, exhaustion. The garrison lived from hand to mouth. According to the Germans, the bread ran out since July, by September the daily ration included 150 grams of sugar (there was a significant supply of sugar in the dungeon, and its delivery rate even increased when the rest of the products ran out) and 20 grams of stew. "Soup" was cooked from bones, skins, hoofs of horses, slaughtered in May. Cut and cooked leather belts. Small groups came out of the dungeons and tried to collect grass, roots, barley spikelets. They caught and ate dogs, cats, rats. People are mentally and physically weak, there was no longer any strength to bury the dead. But even in these conditions, the garrison fought: staffs, political departments worked, documents were drawn up, sorties were made, reconnaissance was carried out. September 2, when the Germans landed troops on the Taman Peninsula, the last hope for the arrival of our troops was gone. The command gave the order to those who still had the strength to go for a breakthrough, to leave small groups from the dungeons. On September 9, the Germans conducted a series of powerful explosions at the entrances, after which the organized resistance practically ceased. Under the ground in different places there were no more than a hundred emaciated people. The last completely exhausted defenders were captured at the very end of October 20.
In Small quarries, the decision to exit and attempt a breakthrough was made in mid-July. In mid-August, fighters from the SAArmakova group left the quarry. There is information that Lieutenant Colonel S.A. Ermakov died on the shores of the strait, and the battalion commissar B.M. Semenov was captured. A small group of fighters led by senior lieutenant MG The important ones, who were hiding in the most distant dead-end galleries, by virtue of their small number were already incapable of decisive military operations.
German actions
Such a long defense of the Adzhimushkay quarries cannot be explained by the passivity of the German and Romanian units. For at least three months in the area of the quarries were fierce battles and fights. The German command applied several methods to eliminate such a fierce focus of resistance.
Until May 19, the German command did not attach much importance to the Yagunov group and other detachments in the quarry area. There were several similar resistance nodes and "boilers". The Germans paid more attention to attempts to destroy the troops of the defeated Crimean Front exported from the Kerch Peninsula. The first dungeon assaults were launched on May 19 and 20. Apparently, in a number of places, German troops even broke into the quarries. So, in 1996, traces of a fierce underground battle were discovered in the northern part of the Central quarries. Similar attacks were undertaken later. However, the garrison repelled all attempts to break into the depths of the quarries. The shelling of entrances with the help of artillery and tanks.
As a result, convinced of the low effectiveness of direct attack and shelling of the quarries, the Germans moved to the siege. All exits from the quarries were blocked, nearby sources of water on the surface were destroyed. But this did not break the garrison, the water problem could be solved, the attacks continued, often assuming the nature of fierce battles, the Germans suffered losses.
The information war did not produce any results either - the garrison was offered daily to lay down its arms, because of the futility of the resistance. Then the German command decided to use the gases that were already used on the Kerch Peninsula in the 1941 year against the partisans. 24 May was followed by the first gas attack. She was very effective, even panic began. The command of the garrison did not attach the danger of chemical attack of great importance. Apparently due to the fact that such events in the 1941 year turned out to be practically fruitless - the Germans used gases against the partisans in the Minor quarries in November-December 1941 of the year. The losses were enormous, only 824 corpses were counted on the territory of one of the battalions. The description of this terrible attack is preserved in the diary of Sarikov-Trofimenko, found in the dungeons in the 1944 year and in the memories of survivors. A significant number of Red Armymen, fleeing gas, went outside and surrendered to the Germans. They were then partly shot in front of the entrances to the quarries. After this attack, about 3 thousand people remained in the garrison (data for June 3). For almost a week the garrison buried the dead and sought funds from gas attacks. Since May 25, they are building “gas shelters”, fencing off dead-end branches with thick walls. The shelters proved to be a fairly reliable means of further gas attacks. The fact that the Germans used poisonous substances against the Soviet garrison was proven by studies of the Military Academy of Chemical Protection in 1973 and the Crimean Medical Institute in 1984.
Great damage to the garrison brought engineering, subversive work of the enemy, which the Germans actively carried out throughout the entire period of defense Adzhimushkay quarries. The explosions were made by air bombs, which were laid in specially prepared on the surface pits. The explosions led to collapses, caused contusions and even cases of insanity. Often there were living people under the rubble, there was no opportunity to dismantle the multi-ton collapses, and the groans of dying people had a demoralizing effect on the fighters. On May 1, 29, during one of these explosions, was overwhelmed by the entire command and political staff of the 3 Battalion, which the combatant had assembled for a meeting. All died. A little later, almost the entire personnel of the 3 Battalion was killed under the rubble. Under the rubble, one of the hospitals in the Central quarries also died.
The stone quarry has learned to minimize losses from such a danger. Special teams of "hearers" were created, who went around the dungeons in pairs and tried to determine by ear, where the Germans were preparing a new hole for laying a bomb. Upon detection of such a place, the command evacuated the entire personnel of the dangerous sector. But the German sappers also tricked - they made a long interval between the laying of the mines and the explosion itself, laying holes in a checkerboard pattern. These explosions have become the most effective method of dealing with the underground garrison. In addition, the Germans were well informed about the location of the main objects of the underground garrison. Apparently, the factor of betrayal played a role. This method was used by the Germans almost to the very end of the defense. In 20 September, a series of powerful explosions divided the Central quarries into two parts. Almost all entrances to the dungeon were blocked. In mid-October, an attempt to "clean up" dungeons failed. Apparently, the last fighters resisted. Therefore, from 18 to 31 of October, the last series of explosions was carried out, which was accompanied by an operation to eliminate the remnants of the last resistance groups. It was in the last days of October that the last defenders of the dungeon were captured.
The defense of the Adzhimushkay quarry showed that a rather large, armed and well-organized group of fighters and commanders could put up stubborn resistance to the enemy in underground structures for a considerable time. Almost all the methods used by the Germans proved to be ineffective, and the garrison could not be broken by force of arms. The Nazis could not defeat the underground garrison in open battle or force them to capitulate. People fought in the most severe conditions and until recently hoped for their arrival and the victory of the Motherland. It is necessary to emphasize the role of the commanders of the garrison, he acted at a very high level. The struggle of the isolated underground garrisons in the Adzhimushkaya area once again showed the highest combat, moral qualities, greatness of mind, resilience and courage of the soldiers and commanders of the Red Army. They were real warriors, steel people ... Glory to them!
Unfortunately, neither the Soviet nor the Russian directors paid any attention to this bloody, but heroic page of ours. Stories. There are no films about the feat of the Adzhimushkay quarrystone garrison. These titans are worthy of our memory. In their deed it is necessary to raise children. Only we are able to defend our homeland in this way.
Adzhimushkay
Who sobs here? Man's Tear
Here it may sound blasphemy.
Stand up!
The country tells us to honor the honors
The Great Dead Aji Mushkaya.
Wake up, into a dead sleep.
Underground garrison stronghold!
There was a military hospital here. Here
The infantrymen descended in two rows,
Covering the movement of the army from the Crimea.
In the caves of these, they expected their decay.
One step, one move past
And before you unknown: captivity!
But, remembering with my whole breath,
The fighters went to the quarries as if to battle.
And here they lie in all corners,
Where the darkness hung heavily and gloomily,
No, not skeletons, but rather a sculpture,
With mixed breed in half.
They are white, like a plaster cast. Deaf arches
They were liberally showered in the weather
Powders of its limestone.
I will rinse this dampness,
And, finally, like a hammer and a chisel,
On them passed the drafting of a draft.
In the dark corridors of the dungeons
These statues of war are white.
There, like a gate, rose boulders,
Behind them somebody's small cell
Here on a neat automaton
The sentry was showered with bones.
And in the back of the bed. Straw bunch.
A rat ran out from under the straw.
Half-open regimental chest.
Where a hundred rubbles yellow ogryzya,
And soot of candles at the ceiling
Column numbers written down,
And the regiment host monument
Petrified guard their homeland.
Comrade! Who are you? Maybe with you
We sat in the front of the dining room?
From the dugout, without saying a word,
Perhaps, together observed the battle?
Wandered on the South Coast,
About Mayakovsky arguing before sunrise,
And I'm from that sad trek
Your handshake shore?
Here he lived. Recorded losses.
And buried a little further - at the churchyard.
From there to this stone door
Craniums were looking in,
And, breaking away from current affairs,
Sadly he looked into their eye sockets
And he recognized Alyosha or Kostya.
And his business was water.
There was no water in the caves. In the arch
Drops accumulated, disdainful, like mica,
And he collectively collected this water.
Hours on ten (falling without forces)
He sucked a stone, watered with moisture,
And at midnight he was dying
Three quarters of this flat flask,
That's how he lived six months. What did he live?
Hope? Yes. Of course, and hope.
But the draft at the heart of the tedious
Some kind of letter. And the smell is gentle
Smelled at us with the breath of heat:
Here the blob of the sun was shed.
And that's not why it really is
The edges of the paper fly over the ashes?
"Papusenka! - babbling little letter.
Why do you write so little to us?
Write to me, my dear, great. Do you hear?
And then I'll take offense - that's all!
Natasha's father writes as much from Sochi.
Well, good-bye. Good night".
"My own, this handwriting of a sparrow
Do you seem to be a stranger? That's something
(For this year that there was not you,
A lot of work has been done).
The child is right. I would also ask
Write more. Well, at least sometimes ...
You would have forgiven the Motherland.
I'd somehow forgive ... Yes, yes! "
And he does not hear these voices.
He will not remember Saratov or Nizhny,
Among the slapping bushes
Left in the stone. White. Fixed.
And yet the brown hordes
Did not overcome his staunchness.
How powerful shoulders, raised proudly!
What a gesture in this gesture!
Not for nothing, noticeable hardly
Amid an eerie inventory of provisions,
On the stone scrawled words
Weak fingers of the giant:
"Today I was talking at the fire
About the future fall of Berlin ".
Yes! Your fighter at the deathbed
Was not a single discipline.
But here to you in the underground dwelling
Already live voices are floating,
And they comprehend all your greatness
Metal eyes blazing.
They are filled with sacred agitation,
In you a legend seeing before you,
The generals pass generations,
Going from the dungeon - into battle!
And you teach us the valor of the military.
Love to the Soviet homeland
So revealing, so inspired,
With such an immortal force of passion,
That, leaving the calcareous arch
And performing cavalry lava,
We seem to hear a great slogan:
"In the name of revolution - go ahead!
Ilya Selvinsky
Aji-Mushkay quarries
1 - 12 November 1943
application
Inscriptions of Soviet soldiers on the walls and entries in diaries found in Adzhimushkay quarries. May - July 1942 of the year
Death, but not captivity! Long live the Red Army! Let us stand, comrades! Better death than captivity.
22 — VI — 42. Exactly 1 year of war ... German fascists attacked our homeland.
Damn the fascists!
Farewell!
At the time of the first gas attack, Yagunov ordered to broadcast a radiogram: “To all the peoples of the Soviet Union! We, the defenders of the defense of the city of Kerch, suffocate from gas, die, but do not surrender to captivity. ”
FROM THE DIARY OF YOUNG LIEUTENANT
A. I. TROFIMENKO
16 ME. The Germans surrounded our catacombs from all sides. In the church, firing point, machine guns, machine guns. Most of the houses in Adzhimushka are captured by the Germans, and almost in each there are machine gunners. It becomes difficult to move in the yard. It is difficult to get water.
However, life goes on. The morning was really good, the eastern breeze barely swayed the air, but the cannonade did not subside. The air is filled with solid smoke ...
17 ME. To attack everything was already prepared. Last time I go through, check my eagles. Morale is good. Checking ammunition. Everything is. One hundred people ordered the command to lead the attack. One hundred eagles pay attention to who will lead them to fight for their homeland. Last time I think over the plan. Split into groups of twenty people. Highlight older groups. The task is clear to all, waiting for the general signal.
Met with Verkhutin, which will give a signal for a general attack. Get out on the surface, I consider. It turned out - meters in a hundred, near the sweet well, there are two tanks.
I order the anti-tank calculation to destroy. Five or six shots, and the tank caught fire, and the other turned to flight. The path is clear.
I hear a signal.
- Fight!
I squeeze a stronger machine, I get up to their full height.
- Follow me, comrades, for the Motherland! Forward!
Shots rang out. Smoke closed the sky. Forward! The enemy trembled, began to retreat in disarray.
I see, because of the monument, two gunmen standing fire on ours. I fall to the ground. I give two turns. Good, by golly, good! One fell aside, the other remained in its place. Nicely shoots a machine gun - a formidable Russian weapon.
And the guys from the right flank have long made their way forward, with a shout of "Hurray!" They are smashing the enemy ...
20 May. As for water, the matter has deteriorated completely. The civilian population is not far from us. We are separated by a newly made wall, but I still inspect them and often take interest in the mood. That's bad.
Here are waters of at least a hundred grams, you could still live, but the children, the poor, cry, do not give rest. We cannot do it ourselves either: our mouth is dry, you cannot cook food without water. Who than could, and so shared. Children watered from the flasks to the throat, gave their rations of crackers ...
24 ME. My chest squeezed something so that there's absolutely nothing to breathe. I hear a cry, a noise ... I quickly grabbed it, but it was too late.
Mankind of the entire globe, people of all nationalities! Have you seen such a brutal massacre, which own the German fascists. Not...
I declare responsibly: the story never tells us about these monsters. They have gone to extremes! They began to crush people with gases!
The catacombs are full of poisonous smoke. The poor kids shouted, called for help from their mothers. But, alas, they lay dead on the ground with their shirts torn open on their breasts; blood was flowing from the mouth.
Around screams:
- Help!
- Save!
- Show where the exit is! We are dying!
But behind the smoke, nothing could be dismantled.
Kolya and I, too, were without gas masks. We pulled the four guys to the exit, but in vain. They died on our hands.
I feel that I'm already suffocating, losing consciousness, falling to the ground. Someone picked up and dragged towards the exit. He came to himself. I was given a gas mask. Now quickly to the point, to rescue the wounded that were in hospitals.
Oh, no, not able to describe this picture. Let the thick stone walls of the catacombs tell you, they were witnesses of this terrible scene ...
Screams, rending groans. Who can, goes, who can not - crawling. Who fell out of bed and only groans: “Help /”, “Dear friends, die, save!”
A blond woman of years 24's lay upside down on the floor. I raised it, but to no avail. Five minutes later she passed away. This is a hospital doctor. Until her last breath, she saved the sick, and now she, this dear person, has been strangled.
Earthly world! Motherland!
We will not forget the atrocities, cannibalism. Let us live - we will avenge the lives of gas strangled!
It takes water to wet the gauze and breathe through the volga, but there is not a drop of water. There is no sense in dragging people to the hole, because everywhere they throw checkers and grenades. So, one way out - to die on the spot in a gas mask. She may be there, but now it is too late to look for her.
Reptiles, stranglers. Others will avenge us!
Several people pulled closer to the exit, but here the same thing, and sometimes even more gas ...
Kohl lost, I do not know where Volodya. I did not find him in the hospital, at least for the last time to look at them. Making my way to the central exit. I think that there is less gas, but this is only an assumption. Now I believe that the drowning man is clutching at a straw. On the contrary, there is more hole here, and therefore more gas has been fired here.
Almost every hole 10 — 20 Germans, who continuously release toxic fumes of smoke.
Eight hours passed, and they all stifled and stifled. Now gas masks are already let in smoke, for some reason chlorine does not detain.
I will not describe what was done in the hospital at the central. The same picture as ours. The horrors were on all the moves, many corpses lay around, on which the still half-dead were rushing one way or the other. All this, of course, hopeless. Death threatened everyone, and she was so close that everyone felt her.
Chu! The song "Internationale" is heard. I hurried there. Four young lieutenants stood in front of my eyes. Embracing, they sang the proletarian anthem for the last time.
- For the Motherland! Shot.
- For our favorite party of Lenin!
Shot.
- For our victory!
Shot.
Another shot sounded, four corpses lying motionless. Some half-mad grabbed the maxim's handle and started shooting at random. This is a deathbed cramp.
Everyone tried to save his life, but alas! Works are in vain ... They died hundreds of people for their homeland.
Fiend, Hitler's scum, look at the dying kids, mothers, fighters and commanders! They do not ask for your mercy, they will not kneel before the bandits who mocked peaceful people. Proudly die for their beloved sacred homeland ...
3 July. The whole day of July 2 walked like a shadow. Sometimes I had the desire to at least finish this agony with death, but I thought about home, I want to see my beloved wife again, hug and kiss my favorite babes babes, and after that live with them.
The disease is increasing. Forces are falling. Temperature up to 40 °. But the next day brought great joy: in the evening a military equipment engineer of the first rank comrade came to our headquarters. Trubilin. He spoke with the captain for a long time, after which I heard that he said:
- Yes, by God, there will be water.
Sense I did not understand what kind of water and from where. It turns out that this Trubilin took up the day to dig an underground passage to the outer well and get water. Although it cost a lot of hard work, the young energetic comrade took on the Bolshevik work. Pickaxes pounded again, shovels earned. But to believe that there will already be water, nobody believed.
What happened with the well? Fritz his first threw boards, wheels from wagons, and on top of large stones and sand. In the depths he was free and it was possible to take water. Trubilin confidently reached the well by an underground tunnel during 36 hours of his hard work, punched a hole in the well, discovered that water could be taken, quietly collected a bucket of water, and for the first time drank himself with his workers, and then quietly brought to our battalion headquarters.
Water, water. Knock circles. Drink. I go there too. The captain handed me a full cup of cold clean water, said in a whisper:
- Drink, this is our water.
I do not know how I drank it, but it seems to me that it was as if it hadn’t been there. By morning, the water was already in the hospital, where they gave 200 on. How much joy - water, water! 15 days without water, but now although it is not enough, but there is water.
They knocked, the boilers rang. Porridge! Porridge! Soup! ABOUT! Today - porridge! So we will live.
Today we already have in stock 130 buckets of water. This is the value that life weighs up to 3000 people. She, water, decided the fate of life or death. The Fritzes thought that the well was clogged, and they removed their posts from there, so they took water with great noise. But you need to make a reservation, it was very difficult to take water by an underground passage, you can only walk on all fours ...
Searchers: Underground Garrison Archive
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