He should have been born in the days of free pirates, when desperate wild men who did not recognize any laws or rules were held in high esteem at sea. Violent temper Alexandra Marinesko always prevented his undoubted talent from being fully realized. But there’s nothing you can do about it - the man-legend of the Soviet submarine fleet was a controversial personality.
In 1893, a sailor of the Romanian Royal Navy Ion Marinescu, a hot-tempered and temperamental man, beat the officer who offended him. The obstinate sailor was tied up and put in a punishment cell. According to Romanian laws, Marinescu faced the death penalty for this offense. The sailor did not want to lose his life, and therefore escaped from the punishment cell, swam across the Danube and ended up in the Russian Empire.
Here he settled in Odessa, where he married a rich Ukrainian girl, at the same time somewhat changing his surname - from “Marinescu” to “Marinesko”.
The father's sailor genes, as well as his temperament, were fully manifested in his son. After graduating from six classes of a labor school, at the age of 13 Sasha Marinesko became an apprentice sailor of the Black Sea Shipping Company. The teenager’s talents and abilities were appreciated and he was sent to the school of young boys. Alexander completed it brilliantly, and in 1930 he was admitted to the Odessa Naval College.
In May 1933, a graduate of the Marinesko College became an assistant captain on the merchant ship "Red Fleet". Those who served under Marinesko’s command claim that he himself dreamed of a career as a purely peaceful sea captain, but life decreed otherwise.
Sea talent without signs of discipline
In the fall of 1933, 20-year-old Alexander Marinesko was sent to serve in the Navy on a Komsomol ticket. A capable graduate of the nautical technical school was sent to the highest command courses of the RKKF, after which he became a navigator of the submarine Shch-306 of the Baltic Fleet.
Marinesko was a capable man, but at the same time harsh, always saying what he thought, regardless of what it threatened him with. From time immemorial, truth-tellers have not been very favored, and in the case of Marinesko, the matter was complicated by the fact that he himself was not alien to the joys of life. The young sailor, like his father, was liked by women and liked to drink. These two passions would later backfire on Marinesko.
His very first certification in 1935 said: “Insufficiently disciplined. He knows his specialty well. Can manage personnel under constant supervision. Conclusions: pay attention to increasing discipline.”
In 1936, ranks were introduced in the navy and Marinesko became a lieutenant. In the summer of 1938, he was awarded the rank of senior lieutenant, and he himself was appointed commander of the M-96 Malyutka submarine.
Captain Marinesko's relationship with discipline remained difficult, but he was forgiven a lot, since under his command in 1940 the M-96 became the best in the Baltic Fleet. The Marinesko submarine held the diving speed record - 19.5 seconds, with a standard of 35 seconds.
Captain Marinesko's relationship with discipline was difficult, but he was forgiven for a lot. Photo: www.russianlook.com
Marinesko could end up in the Caspian Sea
Incredibly, it could have turned out that Marinesko, who held the rank of lieutenant commander at the beginning of the war, would not have taken part in the hostilities at all. The command decided to transfer the M-96 along with its crew to the Caspian Sea by rail, and the implementation of this plan was prevented only by the rapid encirclement of Leningrad by fascist troops.
The boat was put into operation, and from July 1941 it began to make military campaigns. Captain Marinesko combined successful actions, for which he was awarded the Order of Lenin, with regular violations of discipline, due to which he was even expelled from the candidates for party membership.
Submarine "S-13". Stamp of Russia, 1996. Photo: Public Domain
However, Marinesko’s talent as a commander outweighed him, and after undergoing retraining, he was appointed to the position of commander of the medium submarine “S-13”, where he would serve until the end of the war.
In September 1944, Captain 3rd Rank Alexander Marinesko was nevertheless accepted as a member of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks), and in October, during a military campaign, he attacked the German transport Siegfried. Having failed to sink the ship with torpedoes, the crew of the S-13 shoots it on the surface with cannons. Marinesko reported that the transport began to quickly sink into the water, but German sources indicate that the Siegfried was towed to the port and restored there. Be that as it may, for this campaign Captain Marinesko was awarded the Order of the Red Banner.
Two vehicles to atone for the Swedish embrace
It would seem that the captain's career was going well. But that was not the case. Marinesko's boat was at a base in Hanko, Finland. The captain himself and his friend went to celebrate the New Year, 1945, in the city of Turku. As often happened with Marinesko, the fun got out of control. He spent the night with a charming Swede, the owner of a local hotel. And everything would have been fine if ... her fiancé had not come to the flighty lady in the morning. The offended man did not get into a fight, but complained to the authorities.
When all the details of Marinesko’s party became known to the command, SMERSH took over. The Swede was considered a German agent, and Marinesko himself was suspected of divulging military secrets. The case smelled like a tribunal, but the leadership stood up for the captain - he was given a chance to atone for his guilt in a military campaign.
It was this campaign of the captain - the “penalty officer” that became historical. On January 30, 1945, the S-13, on the approach to Danzig Bay, overtook the German transport Wilhelm Gustloff (length 208 m, width 23.5 m, displacement 25,484 tons). The ship was destroyed by three torpedoes.
The Wilhelm Gustloff turned out to be the largest displacement ship that the USSR Navy managed to destroy during the Great Patriotic War, so it is not surprising that this success was called the “attack of the century.”
“Wilhelm Gustloff” turned out to be the ship of the largest displacement that the USSR Navy managed to destroy during the Great Patriotic War. Photo: www.globallookpress.com
Later, disputes arose about who was on board the ship. West German historians, and after them many domestic “tearers of the veil”, agreed that Marinesco was a war criminal, because there were “thousands of refugees and many children” on the ship.
Nevertheless, the statements about “thousands of refugees” still raise serious doubts among many researchers. The same German historians admit that the Gustloff had all the attributes of a warship, and therefore was a legitimate military target.
It is known that this ship was a training base for German submariners, and at the time of the attack there were several dozen (!) crews on board for the newest German submarines. In addition to fighters from other military units, the ship also contained senior SS and Gestapo officials, Gauleiters of the Polish lands, heads of a number of concentration camps - in a word, it was a real fascist “Noah’s Ark” that destroyed the crew of Captain Marinesko.
Another legend is connected with this success: supposedly mourning was declared in Germany, and Hitler declared Marinesko a “personal enemy.” In fact, this did not happen - the thousand-year-old Reich was crumbling before our eyes, and its bosses had no time for “Wilhelm Gustloff.”
On February 10, 1945, in the area of the same Danzig Bay, “S-13” attacks and sinks the transport “General von Steuben” with a displacement of 14,660 tons. And again there are discrepancies - some historians say that we were talking about a ship, although it was a legitimate target, but was transporting the wounded, others insist that Soviet submariners destroyed a ship carrying 3,500 German tankers.
After the sinking of the Steuben, Alexander Marinesko became the record holder among Soviet submariners for the total tonnage of enemy ships sunk. Photo: www.globallookpress.com
Be that as it may, after the sinking of the Steuben, Alexander Marinesko became the record holder among Soviet submariners for the total tonnage of enemy ships sunk.
From the Navy to Prison
The S-13's return to base was triumphant. Marinesko was forgiven for all his sins and was even nominated for the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. True, such a high reward was not given to the “penalty officer”, limiting himself to the Order of the Red Banner. The boat did not, as was customary with such success, become a Guards boat, but only a Red Banner boat. The temperamental captain was offended: after all, when the submarine commander was awarded the Golden Star, the entire crew was awarded orders, but here it turned out that his subordinates were deprived of well-deserved awards.
The fame of Marinesko spread throughout the entire fleet, but his character did not change. He greeted the end of the war with such spree that even those commanders who had always protected him ran out of patience. It was proposed to remove Captain Marinesko from his post and send him to treatment for alcoholism. The resolution of the issue dragged on until the fall, but on September 14, 1945, by order of the People's Commissar of the Navy, “for neglect of official duties, systematic drunkenness and everyday promiscuity,” captain 3rd rank Alexander Marinesko was removed from the post of commander of “S-13” and demoted in rank to senior lieutenant . In November 1945, he was transferred from the Navy to the reserve.
The civil post-war life of Alexander Ivanovich was difficult. In 1948, he worked as deputy director of the Institute of Blood Transfusion and convicted his boss of embezzlement. However, the director, much more dexterous in chicanery than the straightforward Marinesko, turned things around in such a way that the submariner himself ended up in places not so remote. Having had a hard time in the “zone” in fights with former police officers and criminals, in October 1951 he was released early.
Marinesko lived in Leningrad, worked at various enterprises, but could not find his place in life after the navy. For some time he worked in the carpentry workshop of the Higher Naval School of Weapons Engineers, and the cadets whispered in the corners that this shabby-looking man was “the same Marinesko.”
Posthumous hero
Only in 1960, his former colleagues, war heroes, managed to ensure that the order to deprive Alexander Marinesko of the rank of captain of the 3rd rank was canceled. This allowed him to receive a personal military pension, which improved his financial situation.
Bronze bust by sculptor V. Prikhodko on the grave of Alexander Marinesko at the Bogoslovskoye cemetery in St. Petersburg. Photo: RIA Novosti / Alexey Varfolomeev
He was never able to overcome his craving for drink, so in the last years of his life he spent a lot of time in beer bars in Leningrad, where he was known as “Sashka the Submariner.”
They really remembered him too late, when he ended up in the hospital with a terrible diagnosis of cancer. Friends asked for help Commander of the Leningrad Naval Base Admiral Baykov. He was asked to give instructions to treat Marinesko in a military hospital. We must pay tribute to the admiral: he not only gave the appropriate instructions, but also allocated his car to transport the legend of the fleet.
But nothing could be changed in the fate of Captain Marinesko. He died on November 25, 1963, at the age of 50.
After numerous petitions from Navy veterans, by decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR dated May 5, 1990, Alexander Ivanovich Marinesko was posthumously awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.
Legendary Admiral Nikolai Kuznetsov, one of the founders of the Soviet Navy, the man who personally made the decision to demote Marinesko, and himself twice demoted by the highest government leadership, wrote in the Neva magazine in 1968: “In the complex and restless nature of the S-13 commander, there is a high heroism and desperate courage coexisted with many shortcomings and weaknesses. Today he could perform a heroic deed, and tomorrow he could be late for his ship preparing to leave for a combat mission, or in some other way grossly violate military discipline. As an admiral, I, as an admiral, have a completely negative attitude towards Marinesko’s numerous serious misconduct in the service and at home. But knowing his courage, determination and ability to achieve major military successes, I am ready to forgive him a lot and pay tribute for his services to the Motherland.”
In 1997, the newly created Museum of the History of Russian Submarine Forces received the name of Alexander Marinesko.
One of the most important events in the history of Russia in the 20th century for national identity is the Great Patriotic War - sacred for all Russians. Actions to destroy its generalized image and associated symbols are one of the information operations of the Cold War against the Soviet Union.
The USSR collapsed, but the West’s information war against Russia in this direction continues into the 21st century. These actions are aimed at belittling the greatness of the Soviet Union and its successor Russia as a victorious country and destroying the bonds within the victorious people.
VICTORY FORGERS
It is significant that back in August 1943, Jan Christian Smuts (Prime Minister of the Union of South Africa in 1939–1948 and Field Marshal of the British Army), one of Winston Churchill’s closest associates, discussing the course of the war, expressed his concerns to him regarding its conduct: “We can certainly fight better, and the comparison with Russia may become less unfavorable for us. It must seem to the average person that Russia is winning the war. If this impression continues, what will our position on the international stage be compared to Russia's? Our position on the international stage could change dramatically, and Russia could become the diplomatic master of the world. This is neither desirable nor necessary and would have very bad consequences for the British Commonwealth of Nations. If we do not come out of this war on equal terms, our position will be uncomfortable and dangerous..."
One of the latest evidence of the information war is the declaration of solidarity of the parliaments of Ukraine, Poland and Lithuania. On October 20, 2016, at the same time, the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine and the Sejm of Poland adopted a declaration regarding the events of the Second World War, which places responsibility for its beginning on Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union. And if so, then the events interpreting the history of the war following the Nuremberg Tribunal must be revised, and symbols and monuments reminiscent of the exploits of the Soviet people in the fight against Nazism must be destroyed.
Unfortunately, part of our opposition liberal intelligentsia has also become saturated with this poison, denying the exploits of 28 Panfilovites, Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya and other symbols of the selfless struggle against the German invaders. The famous Kyrgyz and Russian writer Chingiz Aitmatov in his book “Cassandra’s Brand” (1994) figuratively described the war: “two heads of a physiologically single monster grappled in a life-and-death confrontation.” For them, the USSR is “the era of Stalingitler or, conversely, HitlerStalin,” and this is “their internecine war.”
Meanwhile, the Russian scientist Sergei Kara-Murza in his book “Soviet Civilization” emphasizes that in a review of German literature about Stalingrad, the German historian Hettling writes: “In (German) historiography and in public opinion, a unity of views has been established on two points: firstly, on the part of the German Reich, the war was deliberately conceived and waged as a war of conquest for extermination on racial grounds; secondly, it was initiated not only by Hitler and the Nazi leadership - the top of the Wehrmacht and representatives of private business also played a significant role in starting the war.”
The German writer Heinrich Böll, a Nobel laureate in literature, expressed his view of the war best of all in his last work, essentially a testament, “Letter to My Sons”: “... I have not the slightest reason to complain about the Soviet Union. The fact that I was sick there several times and was wounded there is inherent in the “nature of things,” which in this case is called war, and I always understood: we were not invited there.”
FAMOUS BATTLE EPISODE
The destruction of the image of the Great Patriotic War, undoubtedly, cannot occur without discretizing its symbols. Under the guise of searching for the truth, both the events of the war and the exploits of its participants are interpreted in different ways. One of these heroic events, which is reflected in our and Western literature, is the sinking of the Wilhelm Gustloff liner on January 30, 1945 by the Soviet submarine S-13 under the command of Captain 3rd Rank Alexander Marinesko in Danzig Bay. We call this famous battle episode “the attack of the century,” but the Germans consider it the largest maritime disaster, perhaps even more terrible than the death of the Titanic. In Germany, Gustloff is a symbol of disaster, and in Russia it is a symbol of our military victories.
Alexander Marinesko is one of the figures of the Great Patriotic War period, which still causes ongoing controversy, since it is covered in many myths and legends. Undeservedly forgotten, and then returned from oblivion - May 5, 1990 A.I. Marinesko was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. Monuments to Marinesko and his crew were erected in Kaliningrad, Kronstadt, St. Petersburg and Odessa. His name is included in the Golden Book of St. Petersburg.
This is how he explained such an underestimation of A.I.’s actions. Marinesko, in his article “Attacking “S-13” (Neva magazine No. 7 for 1968), Admiral of the Fleet of the Soviet Union Nikolai Gerasimovich Kuznetsov, People's Commissar and Commander-in-Chief of the USSR Navy from 1939 to 1947: “History knows many cases when heroic deeds performed on the battlefield, remain in the shadows for a long time and only their descendants evaluate them according to their merits. It also happens that during the war, large-scale events are not given due importance, reports about them are questioned and lead people to surprise and admiration much later. Such a fate befell the Baltic ace, submariner A.I. Marinesko. Alexander Ivanovich is no longer alive. But his feat will forever remain in the memory of Soviet sailors.”
He further notes that “I personally learned about the sinking of a large German ship in Danzig Bay only a month after the Crimean Conference. Against the backdrop of everyday victories, this event apparently was not given much importance. But even then, when it became known that the Gustlav was sunk by the submarine S-13, the command did not dare to nominate A. Marinesko for the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. In the complex and restless nature of the S-13 commander, high heroism and desperate courage coexisted with many shortcomings and weaknesses. Today he could perform a heroic deed, and tomorrow he could be late for his ship preparing to leave for a combat mission, or in some other way violate military discipline.”
Without exaggeration, we can say that his name is widely known throughout the world. In the Museum of the Royal Submarine Force of Great Britain, immediately after the war, a bust of A.I. was installed. Marinesko.
As N.G. recalled Kuznetsov, a participant in the Potsdam and Yalta conferences, at the beginning of February 1945, the governments of the Allied powers gathered in Crimea to discuss measures to ensure the final defeat of Nazi Germany and outline the path for the post-war world.
“At the very first meeting in the Livadia Palace in Yalta, Churchill asked Stalin: when will Soviet troops capture Danzig, where a large number of German submarines under construction and ready are concentrated? He asked to speed up the capture of this port.
The British Prime Minister's concern was understandable. Great Britain's war effort and the supply of its population depended heavily on shipping. However, wolf packs continued to rampage along sea communications. Danzig was one of the main nests of fascist underwater pirates. There was also a German diving school here, for which the Wilhelm Gustlav liner served as a floating barracks.
BATTLE OF THE ATLANTIC
For the British, allies of the USSR in the battle with Nazi Germany, the Battle of the Atlantic was decisive for the entire course of the war. Winston Churchill in his book “The Second World War” gives the following assessment of the losses of ship personnel. In 1940, merchant ships with a total tonnage of 4 million tons were lost, and in 1941 - more than 4 million tons. In 1942, after the United States became allies of Great Britain, almost 8 million tons of ships were sunk out of the total increased tonnage of allied ships . Until the end of 1942, German submarines sank more ships than the Allies managed to build. By the end of 1943, the increase in tonnage finally exceeded total losses at sea, and in the second quarter, German submarine losses exceeded their construction for the first time. Subsequently, a moment came when the losses of enemy submarines in the Atlantic exceeded the losses in merchant ships. But this, Churchill emphasizes, came at the cost of a long and fierce struggle.
German submariners also destroyed caravans of Allied transports delivering military equipment and materials to Murmansk under Lend-Lease. The notorious PQ-17 caravan of 36 ships from attacks by submarines and aircraft lost 24 and along with them 430 tanks, 210 aircraft, 3,350 vehicles and 99,316 tons of cargo.
In World War II, Germany, instead of using raiders - ships of the surface fleet - switched to unrestricted submarine warfare (uneingeschränkter U-Boot-Krieg), when submarines began to sink civilian merchant ships without warning and without trying to save the crews of these ships. In fact, the pirate motto was adopted: “Sink them all.” At the same time, the commander of the German submarine fleet, Vice Admiral Karl Dennitz, developed the “wolf pack” tactics, when submarine attacks on ship convoys were carried out by a group of submarines simultaneously. Karl Doenitz also organized a supply system for submarines directly in the ocean, far from the bases.
To avoid pursuit of submarines by Allied anti-submarine forces, on September 17, 1942, Doenitz issued the Triton Zero or “Laconia-Befehl order”, which prohibited submarine commanders from making any attempt to rescue the crews and passengers of sunken ships and ships.
Until September 1942, after an attack, German submarines still somehow provided assistance to the sailors of sunken ships. In particular, on September 12, 1942, the submarine U-156 sank the British transport ship Laconia and assisted in the rescue of the crew and passengers. On September 16, four submarines (one Italian), carrying several hundred rescued people, were attacked by American planes, whose pilots knew that the Germans and Italians were rescuing the British.
Doenitz's "wolf packs" of submarines caused great damage to Allied convoys. At the beginning of the war, the German submarine fleet was the dominant force in the Atlantic. Great Britain defended its transport shipping, which was vital for the mother country, with great effort. In the first half of 1942, the losses of Allied transports from “wolf packs” of submarines reached a maximum number of 900 ships (with a displacement of 4 million tons). Over the entire year of 1942, 1,664 Allied ships (with a displacement of 7,790,697 tons) were sunk, of which 1,160 ships were sunk by submarines.
In 1943, a turning point came - for every Allied ship sunk, the German submarine fleet began to lose one submarine. In total, 1,155 submarines were built in Germany, of which 644 were lost in combat. (67%). Submarines of that time could not stay under water for long; on their way to the Atlantic, they were constantly attacked by planes and ships of the allied fleets. German submarines still managed to break through to the heavily guarded convoys. But it was already much more difficult for them to do this, despite the technical equipment of their own radars, reinforced anti-aircraft artillery weapons, and when attacking ships - homing acoustic torpedoes. However, in 1945, despite the agony of Hitler's regime, the submarine war was still ongoing.
In January 1945, the Soviet army was rapidly advancing to the West, in the direction of Königsberg and Danzig. Hundreds of thousands of Germans, fearing retribution for the atrocities of the Nazis, became refugees and moved towards the port city of Gdynia - the Germans called it Gotenhafen. On January 21, Grand Admiral Karl Doenitz gave the order: “All available German ships must save everything that can be saved from the Soviets.” The officers received orders to relocate submarine cadets and their military equipment, and to place refugees, and primarily women and children, in any free corner of their ships. Operation Hannibal was the largest evacuation of population in the history of navigation: over two million people were transported by sea vessels to the west.
Built in 1937, the Wilhelm Gustloff, named after Hitler's assassinated associate in Switzerland, was one of the finest German liners. The ten-deck liner with a displacement of 25,484 tons seemed to them, like the Titanic in its time, unsinkable. A magnificent cruise ship with a cinema and a swimming pool served as the pride of the Third Reich. It was intended to demonstrate to the world the achievements of Nazi Germany. Hitler himself participated in the launching of the ship, which contained his personal cabin. For Hitler’s cultural leisure organization “Strength through Joy,” the liner transported vacationers to Norway and Sweden for a year and a half, and with the outbreak of World War II it became a floating barracks for cadets of the 2nd Submarine Training Division.
On January 30, 1945, the Gustloff set off on its last voyage from Gotenhafen. German sources vary on how many refugees and military personnel were on board. As for refugees, until 1990 the figure was almost constant, since many survivors of that tragedy lived in the GDR. According to their testimony, the number of refugees grew to 10 thousand people. As for the military on this flight, the latest sources indicate a figure of around one and a half thousand people. The counting was carried out by passenger assistants, one of them was officer Heinz Schön, who after the war became the chronicler of the death of the Gustloff and the author of documentary books on this topic, including “The Gustloff Disaster” and “SOS - Wilhelm Gustloff.”
Shen describes in detail the story of the death of the liner. At the end of January, a snowstorm raged over Danzing Bay. Gotenhafen was in full swing with activity day and night. The advanced units of the Red Army, tirelessly advancing to the west, caused unprecedented panic; the Nazis hastily removed looted property and dismantled machines in factories. And the roar of Soviet guns kept getting closer.
"Wilhelm Gustloff", standing at the quay wall, receives an order to take on board 4 thousand people to transfer them to Kiel. And the liner is designed to carry 1,800 passengers. In the early morning of January 25, a stream of military and civilians poured onto the ship. People who have been waiting for transport for several days are storming to get places. Formally, everyone entering the ship must have a special pass, but in reality, Hitler’s dignitaries, saving their skins, officers of the navy, SS and police - all those whose earth is burning under their feet - are randomly loaded onto the ship.
January 29. In Gdynia, the roar of Soviet Katyushas can be heard more and more, but the Gustloff continues to stand near the shore. There are already about 6 thousand people on board, but hundreds of people continue to storm the ramp.
January 30, 1945... Despite all the efforts of the crew, the passages could not be cleared. Only one room is not occupied - Hitler's apartments. But when the 13-member family of the mayor of Gdynia appears, she too gets involved. At 10 o'clock the order comes to leave the port...
Midnight is approaching. The sky is covered with snow clouds. The moon is hiding behind them. Heinz Shen goes down to the cabin and pours a glass of cognac. Suddenly the entire hull of the ship shakes, three torpedoes hit the side...
The Wilhelm Gustloff slowly sinks into the water. To reassure them, they report from the bridge that the liner has run aground... The ship is gradually sinking to a depth of sixty meters. Finally the last command is heard: “Save yourself who can!” Few were lucky: only about a thousand people were saved by the approaching ships.
Nine ships took part in their rescue. People tried to escape on life rafts and boats, but most survived only a few minutes in the icy water. In total, according to Shen, 1239 people survived, half of them, 528 people, were German submarine personnel, 123 female auxiliary personnel of the Navy, 86 wounded, 83 crew members and only 419 refugees. Thus, about 50% of the submariners survived and only 5% of the remaining passengers. It should be recognized that most of the dead were women and children, the most vulnerable in any war. That is why in some German circles they are trying to classify Marinesko’s actions as “war crimes.”
In this regard, the story “The Trajectory of the Crab” by Danzing native and Nobel laureate Günther Grass, published in 2002 in Germany and almost immediately becoming a bestseller, is interesting, and is based on the death of “Wilhelm Gustloff”. The essay is written wittily, but it contains, interrupting all the others, one leitmotif: an attempt to bring the actions of Hitler's Europe and their winner - the Soviet Union - onto the same plane, based on the tragedy of the war. The author describes the brutal scene of the death of the passengers of the Gustloff - dead children, "floating upside down" due to the bulky life jackets they were wearing. The reader is led to believe that the submarine “S-13” under the command of A.I. Marinesko sank a liner with refugees on board, allegedly fleeing the atrocities and rapes of advancing Red Army soldiers seeking revenge. And Marinesko is one of the representatives of this approaching “horde of barbarians.” The author also draws attention to the fact that all four torpedoes prepared for the attack had the inscriptions “For the Motherland”, “For the Soviet people”, “For Leningrad” and “For Stalin”. By the way, the latter just couldn’t get out of the torpedo tube. The author describes Marinesko's entire biography in some detail. It is emphasized that before the campaign he was summoned for questioning by the NKVD for misdeeds, and only going to sea saved him from the tribunal. The persistently repeated characterization of Grass in his book as a person with weaknesses inspires the reader on an emotional level with the idea that the attack on Gustloff is very similar to a “war crime”; such a shadow is cast, although there is not the slightest reason for this. Yes, he drank not only narzan and loved to chase women - which man is not guilty of this?
What kind of ship did Marinesko sink to the bottom? The question here is much deeper - in the tragedy of war. Even the most just war is inhumane, because it primarily affects the civilian population. According to the inexorable laws of war, Marinesko sank a warship. "Wilhelm Gustloff" had the appropriate characteristics: anti-aircraft weapons and the flag of the German Navy, and was also subject to military discipline. According to the UN maritime convention, it falls under the definition of a warship. And it is not Marinesco’s fault that he sank the ship, on which, in addition to the military, there were also refugees. Huge blame for the tragedy lies with the German command, which was guided by military interests and did not think about civilians. At a meeting at Hitler’s headquarters on naval issues on January 31, 1945, the Commander-in-Chief of the German Navy stated that “from the very beginning it was clear that with such active transportation there would be losses. Losses are always very difficult, but, fortunately, they have not increased.”
We still use data, in contrast to Shen’s figures, that 3,700 submariners died on the Gustloff, which could have staffed 70 crews of medium-tonnage submarines. This figure, taken from a report in the Swedish newspaper Aftonbladet dated February 2, 1945, appeared on A.I.’s award list. Marinesko for the title of Hero of the Soviet Union in February 1945. But the VRID of the commander of the Red Banner Baltic Fleet submarine brigade, Captain 1st Rank L.A. Kurnikov reduced the level of the award to the Order of the Red Banner. The legend created in the 1960s with the light hand of the writer Sergei Sergeevich Smirnov, who made public the unknown pages of the war at that time, is also tenacious. But Marinesko was not a “personal enemy of Hitler,” and three days of mourning were not declared in Germany for the death of Gustloff. One argument is that thousands more people were awaiting evacuation by sea, and news of the disaster would have caused panic. Mourning was declared for Wilhelm Gustloff himself, the leader of the National Socialist Party in Switzerland, who was killed in 1936, and his killer, student David Frankfurter, a Jew by birth, was named the Fuhrer’s personal enemy.
ACTIONS OF SUBMARINES, WHICH ARE STILL DISPUTED
In 2015, on the 100th anniversary of the birth of A.I. Marinesko published a book by M.E. Morozova, A.G. Svisyuk, V.N. Ivashchenko “Submariner No. 1 Alexander Marinesko. Documentary portrait" from the series "On the front line. The truth about the war." We must pay tribute, the authors collected a large number of documents from that time and made a detailed analysis of this event of the Great Patriotic War.
At the same time, reading their analysis, you experience conflicting feelings. The authors seem to admit that “the awarding of the Golden Star to a commander with two major victories” in this campaign was “quite justified,” if not for one, but huge, but. “And the command of the Red Banner Baltic Fleet submarine brigade in 1945 was able to sort out this complex issue by making the right decision.” By “but” they mean precisely those weaknesses that are cited in the publication indicated and that Gunther Grass describes in his story.
Also, the authors, recognizing the high risk of actions and the activity of the S-13, question the heroic actions of the submarine crew, believing that “the general conditions of the then situation are perceived as quite simple, and the tactical situation at the time of the attack on the Gustlof was even unprecedentedly easy . That is, from the point of view of the demonstrated skill and dedication, this particular case is very difficult to classify as outstanding.”
The “Attack of the Century” has been analyzed in detail by experts. Speaking about the S-13 attack, it is worth noting first of all that almost the entire operation was carried out mainly on the surface and in the coastal area. This was a big risk, since the submarine was in this position for a long time, and if detected (and Danzing Bay is “home” for the Germans), it could most likely be destroyed. It is also worth mentioning here the losses of the KBF. In the Baltic, the most complex theater of naval warfare, for various reasons, 49 Soviet submarines out of 65 that were in the fleet at the beginning of the war were lost.
An interesting analysis was made at a meeting at Hitler’s headquarters on January 31, 1945. In particular, it was indicated that due to the lack of escort forces, the fleet had to limit itself to direct guarding of convoys. The only actual means of anti-submarine defense were aircraft with radar installations, the very weapons that made it possible to paralyze the combat operations of their submarines. The Air Force reported that it did not have enough fuel or sufficiently effective equipment for such operations. The Fuhrer ordered the Air Force command to address this issue.
The attack does not detract from the fact that the Gustloff left Gotenhafen without appropriate escort earlier than planned, without waiting for the escort ships, since it was necessary to urgently transfer German submariners from the already surrounded East Prussia. The only ship on guard was the destroyer Leve, which, moreover, at a 12-knot speed, began to lag behind due to strong waves and a side northwest wind. The fatal role was played by the navigation lights turned on on the Gustloff after a message was received about a detachment of German minesweepers moving towards it - it was by these lights that Marinesko discovered the transport. To launch an attack, it was decided to overtake the liner on a parallel course on the surface, take a position on the bow heading angles and fire torpedoes. A long hour-long overtaking of the Gustloff began. During the last half hour, the boat developed its almost maximum speed to 18 knots, which it hardly accomplished even during sea acceptance trials in 1941. After which the submarine laid down on a combat course, strictly perpendicular to the left side of the transport, and fired a three-torpedo salvo. About subsequent maneuvers, the combat report of the commander of the submarine “S-13”, Captain 3rd Rank Marinesko, wrote: “...Did an urgent dive... 2 SKR (patrol ships) and 1 TSCH (minesweeper) discovered the submarine and began to pursue it. During the pursuit, 12 depth charges were dropped. Got away from chasing ships. There was no damage from depth charge explosions.”
Domestic submarines, unfortunately, did not have modern electronic detection equipment at the beginning of the war. The periscope remained practically the main source of information about the surface situation of the submarine. The Mars-type noise direction finders in service made it possible to determine by ear the direction to the noise source with an accuracy of plus or minus 2 degrees. The operating range of the equipment with good hydrology did not exceed 40 kb. The commanders of German, British and American submarines had hydroacoustic stations at their disposal. German submariners, with good hydrology, detected a single transport in noise direction finding mode at a distance of up to 100 kb, and already from a distance of 20 kb they could obtain a range to it in the “Echo” mode. All this, of course, directly influenced the effectiveness of the use of domestic submarines and required great training from the personnel. At the same time, among submariners, like no other, one person objectively dominates the crew, a kind of God in a separate enclosed space. Thus, the personality of the commander and the fate of the submarine are something whole. During the war years in the active fleets of the USSR, out of 229 commanders who took part in military campaigns, 135 (59%) at least once launched a torpedo attack, but only 65 (28%) of them managed to hit targets with torpedoes.
The submarine "S-13" in one cruise sank the military transport "Wilhelm Gustloff" with a displacement of 25,484 tons with three torpedoes, and the military transport "General von Steuben", with a displacement of 14,660 tons, with two torpedoes. By Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR of April 20, 1945 The submarine "S-13" was awarded the Order of the Red Banner. With its heroic actions, S-13 brought the end of the war closer.
In May 1990, a government decree posthumously awarded one of the most famous Soviet submariners, Alexander Ivanovich Marinesko, whose brief biography formed the basis of this article. For many years his name was hushed up due to a number of circumstances that earned him scandalous fame and overshadowed his military exploits.
Young Black Sea sailor
The future legendary submariner was born on January 15, 1913 in one of the coastal cities. His father, Ion Marinesco, was a Romanian worker, and his mother, Tatyana Mikhailovna Koval, was a peasant woman from the Kherson province. Having completed 6 classes and barely reaching the age of 13, he got a job on one of the ships of the Black Sea Fleet as a sailor's apprentice. Since then, the biography of Alexander Ivanovich Marinesko has been inextricably linked with the sea. His diligence and patience were noticed, and soon the capable guy was assigned to cabin boy school, after which he was already listed in the ship’s crews not as a student, but as a full-fledged 1st class sailor.
Having continued his education at the Odessa Naval College and graduating in 1933, Alexander Ivanovich sailed for several years on the ships “Ilyich” and “Red Fleet” as a third and then second mate. Those who knew him subsequently said that in his youth Marinesko did not at all plan to become a military sailor, but gave preference to the merchant fleet. Perhaps his father played a role in this, who worked for several years as a sailor on various civilian ships, and, undoubtedly, told his son a lot about his travels.
Komsomol ticket to naval life
A sharp turn in the biography of Alexander Ivanovich Marinesko occurred in 1933, after he, along with a group of other young sailors, received a Komsomol ticket to a special course for naval command personnel. In those years, this was tantamount to an order, and to refuse meant to cross out your entire future career, no matter where you tried to arrange it. So, the local Komsomol committee made the choice of his future life path for him. However, such examples were by no means uncommon in the pre-war years.
After completing the course, Marinesko took up the position of navigator on a submarine called Haddock, and then, after undergoing additional training, was first promoted to assistant commander of the L-1 submarine, and then took a command position in the M-96 submarine. By the beginning of the war, the shoulders of the young submariner Alexander Ivanovich Marinesko were already adorned with the shoulder straps of a lieutenant commander.
Addiction
In the first days of the war, the submarine commanded by Marinesko was relocated to Tallinn, from where it went on combat duty in the waters. Despite the absence of any serious achievements in those days, Alexander Ivanovich performed his combat duty conscientiously, but he had a sin, not so rare in Rus' ─ he loved to drink, and when he was drunk, everything happened to him. And Alexander Ivanovich Marinesko hopelessly spoiled his biography with this addiction.
The troubles began in August 1941, after the fact of drunkenness and gambling among the officers of the division to which his submarine was assigned became public. Marinesko, one of the first to appear on the list of participants in the spree, was deprived of the title of candidate party member, and the division commander was court-martialed and sentenced to 10 years in the camps, but with a deferment of the sentence and immediate dispatch to the front.
Alexander Ivanovich managed to partially restore his reputation only the next year, when, after a successfully carried out military operation, he was awarded the Order of Lenin and reinstated as a candidate party member. At the same time, Marinescu opened the account of sunk enemy ships by attacking in mid-August 1942 a ship that was part of a large German transport convoy.
Commander of the submarine "S-13"
At the end of December, for his heroism and high combat results, Alexander Ivanovich Marinesko was awarded the rank of captain of the 3rd rank. However, the newly appointed division commander added a “fly in the ointment” to this “barrel of honey”, noting in his description that his subordinate was prone to frequent drinking. Nevertheless, the officer who distinguished himself and received a promotion was appointed commander of the submarine S-13, on which he was destined to serve until September 1945 and accomplish his main feat. Her photo is presented below.
Alexander Ivanovich Marinesko practically did not go to sea during 1943, as he performed a number of tasks related to the preparation of replenishment of personnel for the Baltic submarine fleet. However, life on the shore was fraught with many temptations, which he was unable to resist. Twice during this year, “drunk stories” ended in a guardhouse for him, followed by penalties along the party line.
At the end of October 1944, Marinesko again took part in combat operations, and in one of them he discovered and then pursued a German transport ship for a long time. It was not possible to sink it with torpedoes, but as a result of successful hits from the onboard guns, the ship suffered serious damage, and, towed to the port, stood for repairs until the end of the war. For this campaign, Alexander Ivanovich was awarded the Order of the Red Banner.
Unpleasant story
Marinesko met the victorious year of 1945 with another “adventure”, after which he managed to avoid the tribunal only with great difficulty. Shortly before this, the submarine he commanded was seriously damaged during an artillery duel with the German ship Siegfried and was undergoing repairs for a long time in the port of the Finnish city of Turku.
By the end of December, the commander went on another spree and disappeared from the submarine on a holiday night. The next day he did not return, after which he was put on the wanted list. As it turned out later, on the shore of Marinesko he met a Swedish woman who ran a restaurant in the city, and took advantage of the hospitality of the loving hostess.
Threat of being court-martialed
It should be noted that the commander’s personal life did not work out, and vodka was to blame. Shortly before the events described, the third marriage fell apart, and Alexander Ivanovich Marinesko, whose wife and daughter did not want to tolerate his drunken antics, clearly felt a shortage of female affection.
For unauthorized abandonment of a warship during wartime, he was threatened with a tribunal, but the high authorities decided to defer the punishment and give the offending submariner a chance to atone. Therefore, the military campaign that Marinesko set off on in early January essentially decided the fate of his future life. Only extraordinary success in a military operation could save him from inevitable punishment. Everyone understood this, and, of course, first of all, the commander of the submarine himself, Alexander Ivanovich Marinesko.
The attack of the century, which began with malfeasance
For almost three weeks, the Marinesko submarine was in its assigned water area, trying in vain to detect the enemy. Finally, he decided, contrary to the orders of the command, to change the course of the submarine and continue the “hunt” in a different square. It is difficult to say what made him commit such a blatant violation of the charter.
Whether this was a manifestation of intuition, passion, or whether the usual Russian “seven troubles ─ one answer” pushed him onto the path of malfeasance, no one can say with certainty. Most likely, the extreme need to rehabilitate oneself for previous sins, or, more simply put, to accomplish a feat played a role. Alexander Ivanovich Marinesko, as they say, went all-in.
Sinking of the giant ship
One way or another, but, having left the given square, the submariners soon discovered a large enemy transport ship, the Wilhelm Gustloff (its photo is presented below). It was a pre-war cruise liner with a displacement of 25 thousand tons, used for the needs of the army and was currently sailing almost without an escort. The difficult situation that developed towards the end of the war did not allow the Germans to provide adequate cover for their transport ships.
On board the Gustloff, as it later turned out, there were more than 10 thousand people, the vast majority of whom were refugees from the regions of East Prussia, that is, old people, women and children, which later gave certain circles grounds to accuse Marinesko of exterminating civilians. One can only object to them that, firstly, looking through the periscope, the submariners could not determine the composition of the ship’s passengers, and secondly, in addition to refugees, there were quite a large number of military personnel on board, redeployed for combat operations.
Having quietly approached the enemy ship, the submariners fired 3 torpedoes at it, each of which successfully hit the target. Subsequently, Soviet propaganda organs called this strike the “attack of the century.” The enemy transport was sent to the bottom, and with it almost half of those on board. According to data collected by military historians, as a result of that attack, 4,855 people died, of which 405 were submarine cadets, 89 were crew members, 249 were women serving in the navy and 4,112 were refugees and wounded (including about 3 thousand .children).
Continuation of the combat operation
During all the years of the war, the motor ship Wilhelm Gustloff was the largest ship of its type destroyed by Soviet sailors, and the second in the number of victims, second only to the transport ship Goya, sent to the bottom by the submarine L-3. More than 7,000 people died on it.
Having safely disappeared from the place where the German motor ship was plunging into the sea, falling to the stern, the crew of the S-13 continued the hunt. In the same square, 10 days later, submariners discovered and sank another enemy ship, the General Steuben, which was also very impressive in size and had a displacement of 15 thousand tons. Thus, the combat campaign undertaken by the S-13 crew from January to February 1945 became the most effective raid by Soviet submariners in the entire history of this type of military.
"Floating Penal Battalion"
In those days, the biography and photo of Alexander Ivanovich Marinesko appeared on the pages of many Soviet newspapers, but the fleet command was in no hurry to nominate either him or the rest of the team for awards. The commander gained too scandalous fame for his drunken antics. By the way, the crew of the submarine entrusted to him was composed mostly of those who had serious problems with the disciplinary regulations. So the S-13 submarine was jokingly called a “floating penal battalion.”
At the very end of the war, Marinesko undertook another ─ the last military campaign in his life, this time unsuccessful and ineffective. Those who communicated with him at that time said that Alexander Ivanovich began to have epileptic attacks, provoked by his increasing drunkenness. On this basis, the conflict with the authorities escalated significantly. As a result, in September 1945, an order was issued to remove him from his post and demote him to the rank of senior lieutenant.
The vicissitudes of fate
The post-war biography of Alexander Ivanovich Marinesko looks extremely sad and ridiculous. Having soon retired from military service, he went to sea for some time on various merchant ships, and in 1949, to the complete surprise of everyone, he took the position of director of the Leningrad Institute of Blood Transfusion. How the former sailor was brought into the purely medical sphere is unknown, but only very soon he was convicted of major thefts and sentenced to 3 years in prison. So fate brought the hero-submariner to Kolyma.
Having been released from prison and having neither home nor family, Alexander Ivanovich Marinesko worked for two years as a topographer as part of several geological expeditions, and then, returning to Leningrad in 1953, took a position as head of the supply department of the Mezon plant. He died on November 25, 1963 after a serious illness and was buried at the Bogoslovskoye cemetery.
Hero's memory
Already during the period of perestroika, the Izvestia newspaper initiated the process of rehabilitation of the hero-submariner, and on May 5, 1990, by personal decree of USSR President M.S. Gorbachev, he was posthumously awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. From that time on, his military journey began to be widely covered in the media, and 7 years later, not far from the cemetery where the hero was buried, at 47 Kondratyevsky Ave., the Museum of Russian Submarine Forces, named after Alexander Ivanovich Marinesko, was opened. Photos of the war years, models of submarines and original exhibits at the exhibition tell about the glorious military path of Soviet and Russian sailors.
Nowadays, monuments to the posthumously rehabilitated hero-submariner are erected in St. Petersburg, Kronstadt, Odessa and Kaliningrad. Several feature films and documentaries, as well as literary works, are dedicated to him. In particular, the feat of Alexander Ivanovich Marinesko is briefly described in the novel “The Trajectory of the Crab,” authored by the German writer, Nobel Prize laureate Gunter Grass. In addition, streets in many Russian cities are named after the hero.
January 15, 2013 is the Day of Remembrance of the legendary submariner of our Fatherland, a submariner whose name still causes a lot of controversy, a submariner on whose example thousands and thousands of conquerors of the depths of the seas and oceans were brought up...
Marinesko was born in Odessa, on the Black Sea coast - January 2 (15), 1913. His mother was Ukrainian, and his father was Romanian. Father Ion Marinescu served in the Romanian navy. During the Balkan Wars, he escaped from Constanta after being sentenced to death for participating in a rebellion.
The earliest memories of young Marinesko include one of the February days of 1920. On that day, a seven-year-old boy rushed to the seashore to see the flight of the “interventionists” and “whites” from Odessa.
During the Civil War that followed the October Revolution, the port changed several owners, and even British and French troops occupied it for a short time.
Before World War I, Odessa was not only one of the most beautiful cities in Tsarist Russia, but also an important port and large industrial center. Palaces of aristocrats overlooking the sea, wide boulevards lined with acacias, austere squares, an elegant university - all this made Odessa look like one of the French cities.
Marinesco's father, who changed his Romanian surname Marinescu, lived in a poor neighborhood surrounded by port facilities, piers and dry docks. His neighbors were Russians, Ukrainians, Armenians, Turks, Greeks, Bulgarians, Gypsies and Jews. They all called their city “Odessa-mama” and were proud to be Odessa residents.
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Marinesko family
The civil war and the Soviet regime put an end to the luxury and personal well-being of Odessa residents. The port occupied by the “interventionists” fell into disrepair. Its inhabitants are now port rats and hungry cats. There was almost nothing to eat, and the population of the city was reduced to one hundred thousand people, ready to seek their fortune with the Bolsheviks.
Marinesko, who grew up during these fateful years, spent time with the punks of the yard, fought for every piece of bread and hung out among thieves, swindlers and speculators. Instead of going to school, he worked as a watchman, driving away sparrows from garden plots along the coast. In calm waters near the port I caught mackerel and other small fish.
The first money he saw, and perhaps even stole, was “lemons,” a yellow Soviet banknote worth one million rubles. Inflation was so terrible after the flight of the White Army. Marinesko carried everything he could get his hands on, including newspapers and matches, and ransacked the Odessa Privoz, which became a refuge for thieves - a bunch of thieves.
As the unrest subsided and Odessa began to adjust to its new life under the communists, merchant and civilian ships reappeared under strange foreign flags and with colorful funnels. They headed to the port past the Vorontsov lighthouse. Marinesko found a new way to make money: he dived for coins that passengers on cruise ships threw into the sea.
But even the gray life under Soviet domination could not shake the glory of Odessa - a city where residents, with sparkling humor and carelessness, enjoyed life in all its manifestations. Marinesko grew up in an atmosphere of jokes, songs, stories and curses. His life credo was formed while importing goods, and he often repeated: “Whoever wants to eat must know how to sell the sleeves of a vest.”
In 1920-1926 he studied at labor school No. 36 (now school No. 105, 17 Pasteur St.), where he graduated from 6 classes, after which he became a sailor's apprentice.
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For diligence and patience, he was sent to school as a cabin boy, after which he sailed on the ships of the Black Sea Shipping Company as a 1st class sailor.
In 1930 he entered the Odessa Naval College and, after graduating in 1933, served as third and second mate on the ships “Ilyich” and “Red Fleet”.
Odessa Maritime College
bust of A.I. Marinesko at the technical school
steamship “Ilyich”
steamship “Red Fleet”
In November 1933, he was sent to special courses for command staff of the RKKF, after which he was appointed navigator on the submarine Shch-306 (“Haddock”) of the Baltic Fleet.
Marinesko was a born submariner. His childhood spent on the streets made him resourceful, and he could get out of any difficult situation without losing his cool. In addition, he discovered leadership talent. Marinesko quickly realized that only on a small ship would he have freedom of action and be able to prove himself in the navy. He chose submarine service at the most opportune moment: new submarines needed crews. The training was difficult and rigorous, but he enjoyed it. Marinesko became a Komsomol member, a member of the youth communist organization and a great admirer of Stalin. He also discovered a penchant for drinking and for women.
After nine months of training, he was appointed navigator on the submarine "Shch-306" ("Haddock"), which had entered service a year earlier. Six months later he was again put at his desk to complete the commander's training course, and in the summer of 1937 he finally became commander of the M-96 submarine.
That year saw the Stalinist purges, which also caused significant damage to the Soviet navy. Marinesko tried to keep a low profile and concentrated on making his boat the best in the fleet.
The M-96 submarine, which left the stocks shortly before his appointment as commander, was a modification of the obsolete M-type boats that operated exclusively in the coastal zone. The submarine's displacement was only 250 tons, and its length was 45 meters. On the surface of the water her speed did not exceed fourteen knots, and under water - three knots. Maximum diving depth is 80 meters. The crew consisted of eighteen people. The boat was cramped, had only one 45-mm gun and two torpedo tubes, but for the risky young officer it became an ideal command school.
In the Naval Archives in Gatchina, forty-eight kilometers south of St. Petersburg, there is a folder about the M-96, which records that for two years the boat was considered the best in the Baltic Fleet. It set a diving speed record of 19.5 seconds, while according to the standards it was supposed to be done in 28 seconds. In 1940, Marinesko and his crew received gold watches in recognition of their services. Marinesko was awarded the rank of captain-lieutenant. Now they were ready for war.
crew of the submarine “M-96”
In March 1936, in connection with the introduction of personal military ranks, Marinesko received the rank of lieutenant, and in November 1938 - senior lieutenant.
Submarine “M-96”
In the first days of the Great Patriotic War, the M-96 submarine under the command of Marinesko was relocated to Paldiski, then to Tallinn, and stood in a position in the Gulf of Riga. On February 14, 1942, the submarine was damaged by an artillery shell during shelling; repairs took six months. Only on August 12, 1942, the M-96 went out on another combat mission.
On August 14, 1942, the boat attacked the German heavy floating battery SAT-4 Helene.
In November 1942, M-96 entered the Narva Bay to land a group of reconnaissance officers for an operation to capture the Enigma encryption machine at the headquarters of a German regiment. But there was no encryption machine in it. Nevertheless, the commander’s actions at the position were highly appreciated; Marinesko was awarded the Order of Lenin. At the end of 1942, Marinesko was awarded the rank of captain of the 3rd rank.
In April 1943, Marinesko was appointed commander of the S-13 submarine, on which he served until September 1945.
Submarine “S-13”
Scheme "S-13"
The submarine under his command went on a campaign in October 1944. On October 9, Marinesko discovered and attacked the Siegfried transport. For this campaign, Marinesko received the Order of the Red Banner.
Floating Naval Barracks
“Wilhelm Gustloff”
TTX “Wilhelm Gustloff”
Parameters: Tonnage 25,484 GRT Length 208.5 m Width 23.5 m Height 56, m
Technical data
Powerplant Four 8-cylinder MAN diesel engines
Propellers 2 pairs of four-blade propellers
Power 9,500 l. With. Speed 15.5 knots (29 km/h) Crew 417 people
Passenger capacity 1,463 people
"Wilhelm Gustloff" (German: Wilhelm Gustloff) is a German passenger liner, owned by the German organization "Strength through Joy" (German: Kraft durch Freude - KdF), since 1940 a floating hospital. Since 1941 it has been a base for the training submarine fleet. Named after the murdered Nazi party leader Wilhelm Gustloff.
Having turned from a liner into a floating barracks for a submariner school, the Wilhelm Gustloff spent most of its short life in this capacity - almost four years. The submarine school trained personnel for the German submarine war at an accelerated pace, and the longer the war lasted, the more personnel passed through the school and the shorter the period of study and the younger the age of the cadets. "Wilhelm Gustloff" was far from the front line for a long time. As the end of the war approached, the situation began to change not in Germany's favor - many cities suffered from Allied air raids. October 9 1943 Gotenhafen was bombed, as a result of which another ship of the former KDF was sunk, and the Wilhelm Gustloff itself was damaged.
When the Wilhelm Gustloff, accompanied by two escort ships, finally left the Gotenhafen pier at 12:30, arguments arose on the captain's bridge between four senior officers. In addition to the commander of the ship, Captain Friedrich Petersen (German: Friedrich Petersen), called up from retirement, the commander of the 2nd training division of submariners and two captains of the merchant fleet were on board, and there was no agreement between them regarding which fairway to navigate the ship and what precautions to take accept relatively allied submarines and aircraft.
Friedrich Petersen
The outer fairway (German designation Zwangsweg 58) was chosen.
Contrary to recommendations to go in a zigzag to complicate the attack by submarines, it was decided to go straight at a speed of 12 knots, since the corridor in the minefields was not wide enough and the captains hoped to get out into safe waters faster this way; In addition, the ship lacked fuel. The liner could not reach full speed due to damage received during the bombing. In addition, the TF-19 torpedo boat returned to the port of Gotenhafen, having received damage to its hull in a collision with a stone, and only one destroyer, Löwe, remained in guard duty.
TTX “Lowe”
7/708 ("Lowe") or 632/719 (others) t; 72/74.3x7.8x2.1—2.8 m; 2 TZA, 3 PCs, 12,500 hp; 30 knots; 100 tons of oil; 3500 (15) miles. Ek. 86 - 88 people 2x1 (3x1 on "Lowe") - 100 mm/40, 1x1 - 40 mm/56, 1x2 (2x2 on "Lowe") - 533 mm TA, 24 mines.
At 18:00, a message was received about a convoy of minesweepers that was supposedly heading towards them, and when it was already dark, it was ordered to turn on the running lights to prevent a collision. In reality, there were no minesweepers, and the circumstances of the appearance of this radiogram have remained unclear to this day. According to other sources, a section of minesweepers was trawling towards the convoy, and appeared later than the time specified in the notification.
Sinking
When the commander of the Soviet submarine S-13, Alexander Marinesko, saw the Wilhelm Gustloff, brightly lit, contrary to all norms of military practice, he followed it on the surface for two hours, choosing a position for attack. Even here, fate failed the Gustloff, as submarines were usually unable to catch up with surface ships, but Captain Peterson was moving slower than design speed, given the significant overcrowding of passengers and uncertainty about the condition of the ship after years of inactivity and repairs after the bombing. At 19:30, without waiting for the minesweepers, Peterson gave the command to put out the lights, but it was already too late - Marinesko had developed an attack plan.
At about nine o'clock, S-13 came from the shore, where it was least expected, and from a distance of less than 1,000 m at 21:04 fired the first torpedo with the inscription “For the Motherland”, and then two more - “For the Soviet people” and "For Leningrad." The fourth, already cocked, “For Stalin” torpedo got stuck in the torpedo tube and almost exploded, but they managed to neutralize it, close the tube hatches and dive.
At 21:16, the first torpedo hit the bow of the ship, later the second blew up the empty pool where the crews of the naval auxiliary battalion were located, and the last hit the engine room. The passengers' first thought was that they had hit a mine, but Captain Peterson realized that it was a submarine, and his first words were: Das war's (That's all). Those passengers who did not die from the three explosions and did not drown in the cabins on the lower decks rushed to the lifeboats in panic. At that moment, it turned out that by ordering the watertight compartments in the lower decks to be closed, according to the instructions, the captain had accidentally blocked part of the team, which was supposed to lower the boats and evacuate passengers. Therefore, many of those who made it to the upper deck died in panic and crush. They could not lower the lifeboats because they did not know how to do this, besides, many of the davits were iced over, and the ship was already heavily listing. Through the joint efforts of the crew and passengers, some boats were able to be launched, but many people still found themselves in the icy water. Due to the strong roll of the ship, an anti-aircraft gun came off the deck and crushed one of the boats, already full of people. About an hour after the attack, the Wilhelm Gustloff completely sank.
Rescue of survivors
The destroyer "Lion" (a former ship of the Dutch Navy) was the first to arrive at the scene of the tragedy and began rescuing the surviving passengers. Since the temperature in January was already -18 °C, there were only a few minutes left before irreversible hypothermia set in. Despite this, the ship managed to rescue 472 passengers from the lifeboats and from the water. The guard ships of another convoy, the cruiser Admiral Hipper, which also, in addition to the crew, also had about 1,500 refugees on board, also came to the rescue. Due to fear of attack from submarines, he did not stop and continued to retire to safe waters.
Other ships (by “other ships” we mean the only destroyer T-38 - the sonar system did not work on the Lev, the Hipper left) managed to save another 179 people. A little more than an hour later, new ships that came to the rescue could only fish dead bodies from the icy water. Later, a small messenger ship that arrived at the scene of the tragedy unexpectedly found, seven hours after the sinking of the liner, among hundreds of dead bodies, an unnoticed boat and in it a living baby wrapped in blankets - the last rescued passenger of the Wilhelm Gustloff.
As a result, according to various estimates, from 1,200 to 2,500 people out of more than 10 thousand on board survived. Maximum estimates put the loss at 9,343 lives.
Consequences. Legal assessment of the sinking
In some German publications during the Cold War, the sinking of the Gustloff was called a crime against civilians, the same as the Allied bombing of Dresden. However, disaster researcher Heinz Schön concludes that the liner was a military target and its sinking was not a war crime, since: ships intended for transporting refugees, hospital ships had to be marked with the appropriate signs - a red cross, could not wear camouflage colors, could travel in the same convoy with military ships. They could not carry any military cargo, stationary or temporarily placed air defense guns, artillery pieces or other similar means on board.
The Wilhelm Gustloff was a warship on which six thousand evacuees were allowed to board. The entire responsibility for their lives, from the moment they boarded the warship, lay with the appropriate officials of the German navy. Thus, the Gustloff was a legitimate military target of Soviet submariners, due to the following facts:
The Wilhelm Gustloff was not an unarmed civilian ship: it had weapons on board that could be used to fight enemy ships and aircraft;
"Wilhelm Gustloff" was a training floating base for the German submarine fleet;
"Wilhelm Gustloff" was accompanied by a warship of the German fleet (destroyer "Lion");
Soviet transports with refugees and wounded during the war repeatedly became targets for German submarines and aircraft (in particular, the motor ship "Armenia", sunk in 1941 in the Black Sea, was carrying more than 5 thousand refugees and wounded on board. Only 8 people survived However, “Armenia”, like “Wilhelm Gustloff”, violated the status of a medical ship and was a legitimate military target).
On February 10, 1945, a new victory followed - on the approach to Danzig (Gdansk) Bay, S-13 sank the ambulance transport Steuben, on board which were 2,680 wounded military personnel, 100 soldiers, about 900 refugees, 270 military medical personnel and 285 crew members . Of these, 659 people were saved, of which about 350 were wounded.
Due to difficult conditions for a torpedo attack by A.I. Marinesko mistook the Steuben for the cruiser Emden.
cruiser "Emden"
"Steuben" ("General von Steuben", 14660 GRT, 168 m, 16.5 kt)
German passenger airliner. Launched in 1922 under the name Munich. In 1930, the liner burned down in the port of New York. After repairs in 1931, renamed "General Steuben", and in 1938 - "Steuben". During World War II, until 1944, the liner was used as a hotel for senior Kriegsmarine command staff in Kiel and Danzig; after 1944, the ship was converted into a hospital ship and participated in the evacuation of people and troops from East Prussia.
The S-13 commander was nominated for the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. However, the higher command replaced the Golden Star with the Order of the Red Banner.
The material was prepared by the press secretary of the Sumy Marine Assembly JLLC A. V. Vovk.
Consultant - veteran - submariner captain 1st rank Boyko V.N.
On January 30, 1945, the Soviet submarine S-13 under the command of Captain 3rd Rank Alexander Ivanovich Marinesko sank the German ship Wilhelm Gustloff. This event went down in history as the “Attack of the Century.” For a long time it was not customary to talk about him. Today, all bans have been lifted, many documents have been declassified, and the story of the attack has formed the basis of books and documentaries. For Sevastopol, the name Alexander Marinesko is not a stranger. The street and school No. 61 were named in his honor. Veteran submariners remember the name of the Hero during lessons in courage.
In 1937, 24-year-old Alexander Marinesko entered the Leningrad diving training squad to train as a submarine commander. Then he did not even suspect that in the same year the liner Wilhelm Gustloff, the largest ship of the German cruise fleet, which was proud of the entire Third Reich, was launched in Germany. Fate would bring the liner and the S-13 submarine under the command of Marinesko together only 8 years later, dashing Hitler’s hopes of making a turning point in the Second World War.
At the beginning of the Second World War, in 1940, the Wilhelm Gustloff liner was converted into a floating barracks and was used as a training vessel for submariners. It was this ship, as conceived by the commander-in-chief of the navy of Nazi Germany, Karl Doenitz, that was the main active force in the implementation of Operation Hannibal, the largest evacuation of the population by sea in history.
In the second half of 1944, Germany commissioned 98 new submarines that hunted caravans of American and British ships in the Atlantic and Baltic. German submarines could lead to the closure of the second front, and then the Wehrmacht divisions would be transferred to the east. In January 1945, German submarine officers trained for the new submarines were also to be evacuated from Gdynia on board the Wilhelm Gustloff. The total number of passengers on board the liner was more than 10 thousand people.
On January 12, 1945, the Vistula-Oder offensive operation began with the forces of the 1st Belorussian and 1st Ukrainian fronts. And a day earlier - January 11 - the submarine S-13 under the command of Alexander Marinesko set off on its fourth voyage. The captain went on this military campaign as a penalty prisoner, because the day before he had left the unit without permission.
On January 30, 1945, the commander of the Soviet submarine S-13, Alexander Marinesko, noticed the lights of the enemy ship Wilhelm Gustloff, but the target was too far away for successful torpedoing. For two hours, the submarine followed the liner, choosing the best position for attack. The submarine S-13 was moving along the coast at top speed. In the shallow waters of the Baltic Sea, it could be easily detected by enemy aircraft, but the night, weather and storm played their role, and in the evening at the beginning of the tenth C-13 bypassed the liner, the decision was made to attack.
At the Wilhelm Gustloff, the submariners fired three torpedoes with the inscriptions: “For the Motherland,” “For the Soviet people,” and “For Leningrad.” The night sky was lit up by three explosions, and the ship quickly sank. Of the 10,582 people on board, only 1,200 managed to escape. Sources vary. There is a legend that it was on the Gustloff that the Germans transported the Amber Room to Germany. Divers are still searching for her in the area where the ship crashed in the Baltic Sea.
After the successful attack, the Soviet submarine continued its quiet progress, because its combat mission did not end there. Ten days later, the submarine C-13 successfully attacked the transport ship General von Steuben, which was carrying more than three thousand German soldiers and officers.
After the S-13, under the command of Captain 3rd Rank Marinesko, as a result of a skillful maneuver and a well-aimed torpedo salvo, sent two ships and almost a division of enemy soldiers to the bottom of the Baltic in just one trip, the submarine commander fell out of favor. The author of the “Attack of the Century” - as, by the way, the events of January 30, 1945 were dubbed by the world media - received the Order of the Red Banner of Battle instead of the Golden Star of the Hero.
Soviet citizens learned about the submariner’s feat only in 1960, shortly before his death, when the first material about Marinesko’s military merits was published. He became a folk hero, an example for submariners. The title of Hero of the Soviet Union was awarded posthumously to Alexander Ivanovich in 1990.