Russian historian talks about the confrontation between the Red Banner Baltic Fleet and the "Narva patrol"

After the final lifting of the blockade of Leningrad, Soviet troops began to advance to the West. Meanwhile, the enemy, located in fortified positions, managed to stop the advance of the Red Army near the city of Narva.

In this situation, the most logical option for the Red Army was to overcome the existing "positional impasse" by landing an amphibious assault. Naturally, the command of the Wehrmacht also understood this.

As a result, in order to cover the flank of his army from a strike from the sea, the enemy updated and supplemented the minefields in the Narva Bay, and also engaged in strengthening the ship grouping, the so-called "Narva patrol".

However, if before that the strengthening of the Wehrmacht ship grouping was more of a declarative nature, then after the landing of the Soviet amphibious assault in the Mereküla area, the German troops thoroughly increased the power of the “Narva patrol”.

As a result, already on the first of March 1, the German consolidated flotilla in the Narva Bay it consisted of the 1st minesweeper flotilla and the 17th patrol ship flotilla, which were then joined by part of the 25th and 1st minesweeper flotillas, and even later by landing artillery barges.

Due to the presence of a minefield, the ships of the Red Banner Baltic Fleet of the Red Army did not have the opportunity to engage in battle with the "Narva patrol". As a result, the task of combating the aforementioned Wehrmacht flotillas was entrusted to Aviation.

The 12th Guards Dive Bomber Regiment, the 21st Fighter Regiment, and the 1st Guards Mine Torpedo Regiment joined the operation from time to time to fight the "Narva patrol".

Throughout March and early April 1944, there were local clashes between the Air Force of the Red Banner Baltic Fleet and the ships of the Narva Patrol. However, everything changed on April 10, when the KBF Air Force inflicted significant damage on the German fleet.

The Russian historian Andrey Latkin tells in detail about what happened that day:

Comments

[Silver99]

Today, little has changed, for the release of Russian nuclear submarines from the bases of the Northern Fleet into the world ocean, you need to go off the coast of Norway, crammed with tracking stations, some nuclear submarine commanders received Hero stars for covert exit and combat missions.

[tihonmarine]

after the landing of the Soviet amphibious assault in the Mereküla area, the German troops thoroughly increased the power of the "Narva patrol".

A tragic, ill-considered landing operation in Mereküla (Sea Village).
Landing at Merikul, or Narva landing (February 14 - 17, 1944), landed by the Baltic Fleet during the Leningrad-Novgorod offensive operation of the Great Patriotic War. The composition of the landing:
The landing detachment consisted of the 571st separate battalion of submachine gunners of the 260th Marine Brigade and a rifle company of the same brigade. Major S.P. Maslov commanded. The detachment was armed mainly with machine guns (about 70 fighters - rifles), three 50-mm mortars, 12 anti-tank rifles, 14 (according to other sources - 19) machine guns, of which 2 were easel.
The landing squad included 4 armored boats (BKA-101, BKA-102, MBKA-562, MBKA-563) and 8 BMO boats (BMO-176, BMO-177, BMO-180, BMO-181, BMO-501, BMO -505, BMO-508, BMO-509) and 1 boat MO-4 (MO-122) [2][3][4], minesweeper detachment - 10 minesweeper boats, artillery support detachment - 3 gunboats of the Amgun type "(" Moscow", "Volga", "Amgun") and 8 minesweepers.
Air cover for the transition was provided by 20 fighters from the 1st Guards Fighter Aviation Division of the Fleet. The operation was commanded by Rear Admiral G. V. Zhukov, Commander of the Island Naval Base of the Fleet (Landing Commander Captain 2nd Rank G. M. Gorbachev).
In total, 432 people with small arms were landed ashore. Two "BMO" boats were killed during the landing (BMO-176 from artillery fire, BMO-177 hit a mine [5]), another 1 "BMO" (BMO-505 [6]) and 1 armored boat (MBKA-562) received significant damage. While still on the ships, the landing party suffered losses - 9 people were killed and 35 people were wounded; 41 people of the boat could not land and were taken back to the base. Immediately after the landing, the ships of the landing detachment left the battlefield, and the artillery support ships approached with a big delay (by 3 hours) and did not open fire due to the lack of communication with the landing force.
Aviation, tanks and artillery were used against them. On February 16, the organized resistance of the last group ceased. The surviving fighters tried in small groups and one by one to cross the front line. Almost no one succeeded, since the area was saturated with German troops. 6 fighters crossed the front line, 8 more wounded paratroopers were captured. All the rest died in battle.
Eternal memory to the heroically dead fighters. They did their duty honestly.
(I learned some details from my navigation teacher Georgy Matveyevich Gorbachev, who led the landing and one fisherman, a resident of Merekul.)