In the 14th chapter of his book Icebreaker, entitled “All the way to Berlin,” Viktor Suvorov (in the world Vladimir Bogdanovich Rezun) tries to use the Danube military flotilla as a criterion for strengthening the offensive power of the Red Army, proposing to see whether it was defensive.
Let's try to do the same thing, and also use the Danube Military Flotilla (DVF) as a criterion - a criterion for the reliability of V. Suvorov's own statements.
Let's start in order, that is, from the very beginning.
And Vladimir Bogdanovich begins with the statement that
« Danube military flotilla included about seventy combat river ships and boats.”
V. Suvorov greatly exaggerates the number of warships in the flotilla.
In the “Note on the action plan of the troops of the Odessa Military District to cover the state border,” according to the directive people's commissar Defense No. 503874 dated May 6, 1941, the composition of the flotilla warships is given in 33 units, of which 5 are monitors, 22 armored boats, 5 boat minesweepers and 1 minelayer.
Other warships located on the Danube, and operationally subordinate to the flotilla to varying degrees - a division of gliders and the 4th Black Sea detachment of border vessels transferred to the flotilla at the beginning of the war, which included up to 30 different small-tonnage vessels, were not considered by the cover plan due to the impossibility of their use as a tactical forces in combat operations (they were used only for security purposes and as auxiliary vessels). But Vladimir Bogdanovich examines them and calculates them, from which his conclusions naturally diverge from the conclusions of the cover plan, which directly states that the Far Eastern Fleet is inferior to the Romanian flotilla opposing it “both in quantity and especially inqualitatively" and therefore cannot be used as an offensive weapon in any way. What kind of offensive is there when the enemy has quantitative and qualitative superiority? But Vladimir Bogdanovich is eager to go on the offensive and therefore, to begin with, ensures himself a numerical superiority.
Let's continue:
“In the event of a defensive war, the entire Danube flotilla from the first moment of the war fell into a trap: there was nowhere to retreat from the Danube Delta - the Black Sea was behind.”
At the same time, Vladimir Bogdanovich simply simply forgets about how the Danube Flotilla actually ended up on the Danube... And it got there by making a voyage in 1940. transition from the Dnieper to the Danube by the same Black Sea. And in 1941, after the withdrawal of units 14 rifle corps from the Danube the flotilla moved to Odessa, also by the Black Sea, naturally..
Wherein necessary preparation to the sea passage of river ships that were not initially adapted to sailing by sea in 1940. was carried out as planned within a month, and in 1941. and even within two days.
“In a defensive war, the Danube military flotilla not only could not, due to the nature of its deployment, solve defensive tasks, but defensive tasks could not have arisen here!”
Here it is best to refer to the documents that determine the nature of the tasks Danube flotilla.
In the Note on the action plan of the troops of the Odessa Military District to cover the state border in accordance with the directive of the People's Commissar of Defense No. 503874 of May 6, 1941. The task of the Far Eastern Fleet, included according to the plan in cover area No. 6, is:
“together with units of the 14th SK -9th CD, 25th and 51st SD and 25th and 79th border detachments.
1)
in cooperation with the ground forces of RP No. 6, prohibit the free navigation of any enemy vessels along the river. Danube;
2) prevent the forcing of the river. Danube at the mouth of the river. Prut, mouth of the Kiliya branch;
3) when the avenue penetrates to the north. river bank Danube to assist the ground forces in destroying the breached pr-ka.”
This means that the flotilla, in the opinion of the OdVO command, still had defensive tasks...
Let's go through the text:
“The Danube Delta is hundreds of lakes, impenetrable swamps and hundreds of reeds square kilometers. The enemy will not attack the Soviet Union through the Danube Delta!”
attack hinterland Soviet Union Of course, the enemy was not going to leave the Danube bridgehead.
But on the Danube there was a strategically important large river port of Izmail, through which before the war there was active trade with all the Danube states. The entire Soviet coast Danube. The Izmail port, which was its main base, was successfully held by the Far Eastern Fleet until its departure Soviet troops from the Danube.
“there was only one option for the Danube flotilla - during the general offensive of the Red Army troops fighting upstream of the river."
The Danube Flotilla did not have such an option.
In preparing the above-mentioned cover plan for OdVOflagart of the Danube flotilla N.K. Podkolzin prepared andcalculations for a battle between flotilla monitors and monitors of a potential enemy.And these calculations were disappointing. Existed only purely theoretical possibility penetrate the armor of Romanian monitors with our 100-mm shells - “when firing from a very short distance and when the shell meets the armor at a right angle.”
The Far Eastern Fleet had no time for offensive actions. 5 monitors, which were the main striking force of the flotilla, were unable to withstand a battle with seven Romanian monitors.
During the fighting on the Danube, when such a situation arose on June 27 and July 14, 1941. When Romanian monitors entered the Soviet sections of the Danube, the battle was fought with them from long distances with the help of coastal artillery and aviation. But the Soviet monitors were kept in closed positions and their introduction into battle was envisaged only as a last resort, if all other methods of preventing the enemy’s breakthrough were exhausted.
“In a defensive war, the Danube flotilla is of no use to anyone and is doomed to immediate destruction in its open camps near the shore, which is under fire from the enemy.”
The falsity of these statements by V. Suvorov was proven by the war itself.
Vladimir Bogdanovich was mistaken about open parking lots. The only place open to shelling from the Romanian coast was the permanent base of the flotilla - the Izmail port.
Even before the war started, P about the end of large detachment exercises of the Black Sea Fleet, which, due to the tension of the situation, were carried out in 41. unusually early The flotilla was ordered to remain in operational readiness No. 2, which provided, in particular, for the dispersal of ships according to the operational deployment plan.
Three monitors, some armored boats and minesweepers went up to the mouth of the Prut, in the Reni area. The Reni group of ships was considered by the command as the vanguard of the flotilla - it would immediately come into contact with the river enemy if it appeared from the direction of Galati.
Two other monitors, including the flagship “Udarny”, with the main part of the armored boats and minesweepers were hidden in the Kislitskaya Channel, and the command of this group was taken directly by the commander of the flotilla. The remaining armored boats went to the Danube mouth, in the area of Chilia Nou and Vilkova. In Izmail, that is, in open parking lots, not a single ship remained by June 21.
The closed parking lots in the channels were so reliable that they were used until the very end of hostilities.
Vladimir Bogdanovich complains that
« m There is nowhere to maneuver the flotilla.”
Almost a month while the fighting was going on on the Danube, until July 19, 1941. The flotilla continued to maneuver, as did the Romanian river division opposing it. The ships changed their anchorages in the channels every 5-6 hours and sometimes more often, sometimes in very short areas. So the Reni group successfully maneuvered for 16 days and on a completely unsuitable 2-kilometer section of the Prut.
Ships also went directly to the Danube - for landings, mine laying and daily patrols. Moreover, the Romanians, who had numerical superiority, did the same on their own - this was explained by the specifics of the fighting in the Danube theater, where long-range artillery was actively used on both sides.
"But in offensive war The Danube flotilla was mortally dangerous for Germany: as soon as it rose 130 km upstream, the strategic bridge at Cernovada would be under fire from its cannons, which meant that the supply of oil from Ploiesti to the port of Constanta was disrupted. Another two hundred kilometers upstream - and the entire German military machine will stop simply because German tanks, planes, warships will no longer receive fuel..."
The mortal danger of the Danube flotilla, not only for Germany, but even for Romania, could only have arisen in the imagination of Vladimir Bogdanovich, who was superficially familiar with the peculiarities of the use of the Danube flotillas of both formations.
The fact is that the river flotilla, even including 7 such powerful and well-armored monitors (of Austrian origin and inherited by the Romanians from the former Austro-Hungarian Empire) as the Romanian one, was not able to conduct isolated offensive actions in isolation from the ground forces supporting it troops..
The ships of the Far Eastern Fleet could not withstand battles with Romanian field and even anti-tank artillery, as happened during the raid on Periprava and during the breakthrough of the Reni group of ships under the command of Lieutenant Commander Krinov.
The ships could not even theoretically break through 130 km upwards, going against the current, and without even engaging in battle with coastal batteries and successfully dodging their fire.
With the most optimistic forecasts, monitors that are not capable of developing a speed higher than 7 knots against the current (with a maximum of 9) would take at least 10 hours to cover this distance. During this time, the Romanians would have long ago managed to set up a minefield of any required density (as they did repeatedly during the battles on the DanubeSoviet armored boats that served as improvised minelayers).
And the boat minesweepers at the flotilla’s disposal simply would not be able to clear the minefield while being in sight of the enemy-controlled coast, since not only they, but also armored boats and monitors, as war experience showed, were easily destroyed by Romanian and German field artillery if the ships did not have the opportunity to slip past the enemy positions. Thus, 08/11/41. The “Pearl” monitor was disabled, which, having broken through the enemy’s barrage, returned and entered into battle with his field artillery.
Well, another 200 km. upstream is already from the realm of pure fantasy. And we don’t even consider the possibility of strikes attack aircraft, from which 2 more DWF monitors were lost. Practice shows that Soviet monitors were easily vulnerable even to 37 mm shells. During the flotilla's breakthrough from the Danube to the Black Sea on July 19, 1941, the left vehicle of the Rostovtsev monitor was disabled by three 37-mm shells. With armored boats the situation was even worse. Only during the fighting on the Danube, Romanian anti-tank artillery fire destroyed 3 and damaged 2 more armored boats, although they rarely took part in battles.
“An interesting detail: the Danube military flotilla included several mobile coastal batteries armed with cannons of 130 and 152 mm caliber. If Soviet command and really decided that someone would attack the USSR through the Danube Delta, then it was necessary to immediately dig coastal batteries into the ground, and at the first opportunity build reinforced concrete caponiers for them. But no one built caponiers; the guns were mobile and remained mobile.”
Yes, no one dug batteries into the ground and no one built caponiers. Because these batteries were not coastal. Vladimir Bogdanovich, as always, did not bother to study in detail the subject he was writing about. As a result, he simply confuses mobile batteries with coastal batteries with mechanized traction. The Danube flotilla had both.
In total, she had 4 mobile batteries at her disposal, but... 2 of them were armed with 45-mm guns and were anti-boat. Another 2 were armed with ordinary 3-inch guns, which was somewhat weak for aggression.
Large-caliber coastal batteries - 724th, 725th, as well as the 726th created already during the war, had fur. traction, but they were not mobile and had caponiers and gun yards.
“There was only one opportunity to use their mobility and only one direction in which they could move: in offensive operations, mobile batteries accompany the flotilla, moving along the shore and supporting the warships with fire.”
Large-caliber batteries that did not have fortified positions and were intended solely to accompany the advancing ships with fire existed solely in the imagination of Vladimir Bogdanovich. But the mobility of the guns of stationary batteries could be used for purposes other than uncontrolled forward movement.
Mech traction, in addition to simple transportation of guns, was also used in cases of the need to quickly leave a position spotted by the enemy (as was done by the 724th battery) and for the tactics of nomadic guns), that is, firing several shots followed by a change of position (used to simulate the presence of non-existent firing positions.
“The word “war” for Soviet commanders meant not defense, but offensive. Having received a message about the beginning of the war, Soviet commanders They are completing the final preparations for the landing operation.”
Yes, they were preparing for a landing on the Romanian coast even before the war, but we will leave the word “offensive” entirely on the conscience of Vladimir Bogdanovich. The landing on enemy territory pursued, paradoxically as it may sound, purely defensive purposes.
The fact is that the Romanian cape Satul-nou was only half a kilometer from Izmail. In good weather, without binoculars one could see the building of the Romanian border commandant's office. The Romanians easily recorded everything that happened in the Izmail port, the main base of the Danube flotilla. In case of war, such a convenient observation sector turned into an equally convenient firing sector. The Izmail port was accessible to fire not only from guns and mortars, but even from small arms.
In the event of the outbreak of hostilities, in order to preserve the base of the flotilla, it became necessary to land troops on the right bank and occupy a fairly large bridgehead there, necessarily including the area opposite Izmail. Then the Izmail port and the city itself would have been spared at least from close-range shelling. And the flotilla could launch further military operations.
Therefore, immediately after the relocation to the Danube, the flotilla command, having made the appropriate headquarters calculations, turned to the command of the 14th Rifle Corps, under whose operational subordination it was, with a proposal to organize, in the event of the outbreak of hostilities, a landing force in order to prevent the shelling of Izmail from the opposite bank, proposing for this include the corresponding item in the plan of priority actions in case of war, which was being prepared for submission to the district headquarters.
Preliminary calculations showed that few troops would be required to capture the bridgehead. On the adjacent section of the right bank, behind a ridge of hills, flood plains began that stretched to the Sulina branch, capable of serving as a natural defense of the bridgehead, and several battalions could be enough to occupy the minimum necessary positions.
Now such actions would be called a peace enforcement operation, but Vladimir Bogdanovich prefers to see in them signs of impending aggression. However, let’s see how the flotilla’s proposals were assessed by the very notorious Soviet command, for which the word war, according to Rezun, meant not defense but offensive...
Here is the decision on this issue by the commander of the 14th Investigative Committee, Major General Egorov:
“I can understand how important this is for the flotilla. But where will you order these battalions to be taken, where will they be removed from? In addition, the defense task assigned to the corps Soviet territory does not provide for actions outside of it.”
AHere are the opinions of higher authorities:
Chief of Staff of the District, Major General M.V. Zakharov:
“Everything is correct, but this is out of the question for now.”
Commander of the Odvo Colonel General Ya.T. Cherevichenko agreed with the opinion of his chief of staff, adding that “..if, with the outbreak of war, the flotilla is in a position to take such actions on our own, obviously no one will object.”
This is how the command of the Odessa Military District prepared for “offensive” actions on enemy territory.
However, the position taken by the OdVO command may be of interest to anyone, but not Vladimr Bogdanovich, who has now turned to the facts regarding the preparation of the operation:
first created in 1771, during the Russian tour. war of 1768-74, participated in all subsequent Russian tours. wars. Ships D. c. f. supported the troops of A.V. Suvorov near Kinburn (1787), participated under command. Major General O. M. de Ribas stormed the fortresses of Ochakov (1788) and Izmail (1790), blocked enemy ports, and transported troops across the Danube. After finishing the Russian tour. war of 1877-78, part of the ships became part of Cherno in 1879 navy, part was transferred to Bulgaria.
D.v. f. Soviet Navy created in 1940. To the beginning. Vel. Fatherland wars as part of the D. century. f. (commander - Rear Adm. N. O. Abramov) there were 5 monitors, 22 armored boats, 37 minesweepers and patrol boats, approx. 10 ships of other types, dept. anti-aircraft artillery division, 6 coastal artillery batteries, fighter squadron, gunner. and machine gun companies. From the beginning military actions in June 1941 D. v. f. planted tactical landings on the enemy shore and stubbornly defended the Sov until July 19. bases on the Danube, and then in connection with the withdrawal of the Sov. troops broke through from the Danube to the Black Sea, assisted the troops of the South. front to the South. Bug and Dnieper. In Oct. made the transition by sea to Kerch and ensured the passage of the 51st Army and the population from Kerch to the Taman Peninsula. In con. Nov. 1941 disbanded. The ships were transferred to the Azov military. flotilla and Kerch naval. bases.
In April 1944 in connection with the release of Sov. Armies in the river basin Danube D. v. f. was recreated. Rear Adm. was appointed commander. S. G. Gorshkov (from late 1944 - Rear Adm. G. N. Kholostyakov). The ships of the flotilla were transported from the Azov metro station to the Odessa region along the railway. d.d.v. f. participated in the Iasi-Kishinev, Belgrade, Budapest and Vienna operations, as well as in the battles for the liberation of Czechoslovakia. In 1944-45 D. century. f. landed 20 troops (over 27 hours), its ships were transported and transported across the Danube approx. 900 thousand Soviet soldiers and officers. and Bulgarian armies and People's Liberation. army of Yugoslavia. Minesweepers D. v. f. destroyed approx. 600 min. Behind military merits D.v. f. awarded the Orders of the Red Banner, Nakhimov and Ushakov.
Lit.: Vyunenko N.P., Mordvinov R.N., Military flotillas in the Great Patriotic War, M., 1957; Loktionov I. I., Danube flotilla in the Great Patriotic War (1941-1945), M., 1962.
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"DANUBE MILITARY FLOTILLIA" in books
The Danube Flotilla as a criterion for the reliability of Viktor Suvorov
From the book Landings of 1941 author Yunovidov Anatoly SergeevichThe Danube Flotilla as a criterion for the reliability of Viktor Suvorov In the 14th chapter of his book “Icebreaker,” entitled “All the way to Berlin,” Viktor Suvorov (in the world Vladimir Bogdanovich Rezun) tries to use the Danube military flotilla as a criterion for strengthening offensive power
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From the book Great Soviet Encyclopedia (VO) by the author TSBSECTION I. EIGHTH RUSSIAN DANUBE FLOTILLA. 1940-1941 PROLOGUE The night of June 22 turned out to be bright and warm. There was silence on both banks of the border river. Alas, she was deceiving. At 4:45 p.m. from the Satu Nou Peninsula, Romanian artillery opened hurricane fire on the port and
In the 18th and 19th centuries. repeatedly created and participated in wars with Turkey. It existed in 1917-18 and in June 1940-November 1941, participated in the battles on the Danube, on the Black and Azov seas. Recreated in April 1944 from the ships of the Azov flotilla, participated in ... ...
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For guard Soviet borders on the Danube in 1940, immediately after the liberation of Bessarabia, the formation of the Danube military flotilla began. It included part of the ships and vessels of the Dnieper Flotilla and the Black Sea Fleet.
So on July 6, the 46th anti-aircraft division arrived in Izmail (3 4-gun 76-mm anti-aircraft batteries on mechanical traction were formed separate company communications, rifle and separate 17th machine gun company, a naval hospital with 50 beds was being developed.
On August 3, 1940, the monitor division (“Martynov”, “Zhemchuzhin”, “Rostovtsev” “Zheleznyakov” and “Udarny”) as well as the mine barge “Kolkhoznik” from the Dnieper flotilla were relocated to Izmail. The skerry flotilla of the Red Banner Baltic Fleet left for the Danube: a detachment of six armored boats and a link of four MO-IV boats. In addition, 4 river minesweepers were completed at the Kostroma plant.
The Black Sea Fleet allocated a fighter squadron from the 8th Air Regiment (based in Izmail), an MBR-2 squadron from the 119th Air Regiment (temporarily based in Gadzhibey), and a squadron of high-speed bombers from the 40th Air Regiment (based in Bessarabia).
Near the Dniester estuary, in the Zhebryany area, 2 3-gun 130-mm coastal batteries were installed and tested by fire (A total of 3 3-gun 130-mm coastal batteries No. 717, No. 718 and No. 719)
In Kilia, near the Tsaregrad branch, 2 4-gun 45-mm batteries (No. 65 and No. 66) were installed, and 1 4-gun 75-mm battery operated in the Vilkovo area. One of two 152-mm mobile batteries arrived in Izmail.
On August 8, 1940, the gunboat “Red Abkhazia” (3 130 mm guns, 1 76 mm and 1 45 mm anti-aircraft gun) arrived in Izmail.
In addition, the regular composition of the flotilla included: a separate 3-gun 122-mm mobile battery No. 38, two 4-gun 152-mm mechanically driven batteries and a separate 4-gun 45-mm anti-boat battery.
However, the newly formed Danube Flotilla was significantly inferior in its ship composition to the Romanian division, which included 7 monitors with powerful artillery weapons and shell-proof armor, as well as 4 gunboats, an armored boat, three floating 152-mm batteries and coastal defense batteries with stationary guns. The artillery armament of the Romanian division was more than twice that of our Danube flotilla; in addition, the Romanian ships had greater speed.
In August 1940, the Defense Committee under the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR decided to transfer to the Danube Military Flotilla three monitors of the SB-57 project, built in Kyiv, and intended for the Amur Flotilla. The lead ship was planned to be delivered at the end of 1941, and the other two at the beginning of 1942. For the Amur, 3 similar ships were planned to be laid down in 1941, and to be delivered in 1943-1944
Thus, the Danube River Military Flotilla of the Soviet Union included a division of monitors, a division of armored boats, a division of minesweepers, a detachment of gliders and a group of auxiliary vessels. It also included a fighter squadron, an anti-aircraft artillery battalion, a rifle company (later a battalion Marine Corps), a machine gun company, mobile and stationary coastal artillery batteries. With the outbreak of hostilities on the Danube, a division of maritime border guard boats also became part of it. The commander of the Danube military flotilla was Rear Admiral Nikolai Osipovich Abramov.
An analysis of the tactical elements of the ship's composition suggests that the flotilla was created in a hurry. So 6 river monitors of the “Active” type, which were built as a counterbalance to the ships of the Polish Pinsk flotilla, had rather weak artillery armament, and their armor was bulletproof and, partially, anti-fragmentation. These ships could not fight the Romanian monitors, which had significantly more powerful artillery weapons and shell-proof armor.
Military- river forces on the Danube it was clearly not in our favor. The enemy had a significant numerical superiority in monitors and coastal artillery. The weight of a salvo of the Romanian flotilla was twice that of Soviet ships.
The operational zone of the Danube Flotilla extended more than 120 kilometers up from the mouth of the river to the port of Reni. Moreover, the flotilla actually had no rear bases. The ports of the left bank of the Danube - Izmail, Reni, Chilia, Vilkov - were separated from the Romanian right bank only by the Chilia arm, which was about 1000 meters wide in some places. The Kislitskaya channel, the most distant from the Romanian coast, was only 3-4 kilometers away from it. All flotilla bases were visible from the opposite bank of the river. Therefore, the Danube Flotilla could not provide the necessary depth of defense and was deprived of the opportunity to secretly regroup its forces.
The fighting on the Danube began on the morning of June 22, 1941. Enemy artillery suddenly launched a massive fire attack on the port facilities of Izmail and the flotilla ships stationed there.
In the first days of the war, the flotilla strengthened its positions on the Danube and in the Chilia Arm, trying to prevent the enemy from invading Southern Bessarabia.
IN defensive battles Soviet Army in the south in 1941. The Danube military flotilla honorably fulfilled the combat missions assigned to it, providing constant assistance to the troops on the Danube, Southern Bug, Dnieper, in the Tendra area, and then in Kerch Strait. The enemy suffered losses in manpower and equipment. Additional forces were allocated to fight the flotilla, which weakened the enemy groups operating in the main directions. All this had great importance in the first period of the war and had a certain influence on the course of hostilities in the coastal regions of the south.
After the evacuation of Kerch, on November 14, 1941, the Danube Flotilla was disbanded. Her ships were included in Azov flotilla, in which they continued to operate until 1944.
During the first half of 1944 Soviet army defeated German troop groups on the right bank of the Dnieper, liberated Crimea and inflicted crushing defeat Hitler's armies in the south of Ukraine. These successes created the preconditions for the implementation of even larger strategic offensive operations in the second half of 1944.
In August 1944, a favorable situation was created in the south for the development of the offensive of the Soviet Army with the support of the Black Sea Fleet. The purpose of this offensive is to expel the Germans from Western Ukraine, the Moldavian SSR and transfer the fighting to the territory of Romania.
The liberation of Crimea and Odessa made it possible to relocate the forces of the Black Sea Fleet there. Favorable conditions appeared for the deployment of fleet operations on the enemy’s coastal communications and against his bases in the western part of the Black Sea and for active assistance to the troops of the left, Black Sea flank of the 3rd Ukrainian Front.
In April 1944, in connection with the transfer of hostilities to the Danube River basin, the decision of Headquarters Supreme High Command The Danube flotilla was recreated. The place of formation and initial basing of the ships of the flotilla was the Dnieper-Bug estuary, and then the city of Odessa.
Rear Admiral Georgy Nikitich Kholostyakov (commander of the Danube Flotilla since December 1944) off the coast of Tsemes Bay
Back to top Iasi-Kishinev operation The situation in the south of the Soviet-German front was characterized by the fact that the enemy was strengthening the defensive lines it occupied and creating new ones, trying at all costs to prevent Soviet troops from reaching the Danube and the Balkans. For the defense of the Iasi-Chisinau bridgehead and the Romanian Black Sea coast German command created a special army group "Southern Ukraine" consisting of the 6th and 8th German and 3rd and 4th Romanian armies. In total, about 50 divisions were concentrated in this area, more than 20 of them German.
The right flank and rear of the enemy group in the lower Danube area was provided by the Romanian river division.
At the end of August 1944, the Danube military flotilla included the Kerch brigade of armored boats, the 4th brigade of river ships, the coastal defense sector of the flotilla, a floating battery, the 369th Kerch separate battalion Marine Corps, an anti-aircraft artillery battalion, an aviation communications detachment and several auxiliary units.
The defeat of the coastal group of enemy forces and the rapid advance of the left wing of the 3rd Ukrainian Front deep into Romania and along the Black Sea coast (in the direction of Izmail - Galati) created the opportunity for the Danube Flotilla to capture enemy bases and ports in the lower reaches of the Danube.
The flotilla, in cooperation with the Black Sea Fleet and the troops of the 3rd Ukrainian Front, had to deliver a series of attacks on enemy strongholds and bases in the Danube Delta, destroy enemy river ships and, by disrupting the crossings, prevent its withdrawal to the western bank of the river.
On August 24, the main forces of the Danube Flotilla, with the support of ships and aircraft of the Black Sea Fleet, fought into the Kiliya arm of the Danube and reached Vilkovo. In this battle, our ships, together with aircraft, sank two Romanian monitors.
Overcoming fire resistance from the ships of the Romanian river division and forcing minefields (placed shortly before our offensive by American-British aviation), on August 24 and 25, the Danube military flotilla landed troops in the ports of Staraya Kiliya and New Kiliya.
On August 25, Soviet armored boats broke through to Izmail and, without stopping there, headed to the Galati area. Several armored boats, having entered the Tulchinsky Canal, blocked the Sulino arm.
The capture by the Danube flotilla of the mouth of the Danube and ports in its lower reaches and on the Black Sea coast allowed the front forces to stop the possibility of withdrawal of most of the German troops and destroy them on the northern bank of the Danube.
The defeat of the German-Romanian army near Iasi and Chisinau finally undermined the pro-fascist Antonescu regime in Romania. On August 24, the Romanian government announced its withdrawal from the war and accepted the Soviet terms of surrender.
The German command, trying to delay the advance of the Soviet Army into the internal regions of Romania, tried to gather scattered units that were retreating under the attacks of Soviet troops and organize defense at the line of the Sulina Arm. The command of the Black Sea Fleet decided to capture Sulina. For this purpose, marine units were concentrated in the area of the city of Vilkovo.
On the morning of August 26, the 384th separate Nikolaev Marine Battalion crossed the Kiliya Arm in armored boats. The armored boats of the flotilla, along a shallow canal connecting the Kiliya and Sulina canals, bypassed Tulcha and approached Sulina. Overcoming resistance, the sailors, supported by fire from armored boats, broke into the northern outskirts of the city. By the evening of August 27, the port was completely occupied. The garrison, numbering 1,400 people, laid down their arms and surrendered. Developing the offensive, marine units, supported by the fire of our flotilla, also captured the city of Tulcea. The landing on Kislitsky Island, landed from two armored boats, disarmed 300 German soldiers and officers preparing to cross to the left bank of the Danube River. Soon ships and units of the flotilla occupied the important port of Galati.
The surviving ships of the Romanian Danube Division had to capitulate. August, 26th Soviet sailors the monitor “Ion C. Bratianu” surrendered. The next day - “Bessarabia” and “Bukovina”. August 28 - "Ardeal" and 29 - "Alexander Lakhovari".
On August 29, the sailors of the Danube Flotilla were noted twice in the orders of the Headquarters of the Supreme High Command.
Mastery strongholds and enemy bases on the lower Danube greatly facilitated the advance of our ground forces and the Black Sea Fleet to Constanta, Varna and Burgas. The Danube military flotilla received the task: actively assisting the Soviet troops, continue its movement up the Danube.
The crossing of the mouth of the Danube and the capture of ports in its lower reaches deprived the defeated German-Romanian troops of escape routes across the Danube. The actions of the flotilla helped to cut off the retreating enemy troops at the Danube line, and then destroy or capture them on the territory of Romania. The Danube Flotilla secured control of the Danube all the way to Budapest.
Developing a successful offensive, the Soviet Army continued to relentlessly pursue the defeated Nazi troops, who were retreating in battle to Yugoslavia and Hungary.
After the surrender of the Romanian river division, there were still German ships on the Danube, as well as a Hungarian river flotilla, consisting of 47 ships of various classes. Among them were 4 gunboats (from the German Iron Gate flotilla), 2 submarine hunters, 7 landing barges, 3 minelayers (former Yugoslav), 9 river minesweepers, 4 former Dutch minesweepers, 3 sea hunters and 10 auxiliary ships.
Thus there was real threat attacks by enemy river forces on our Danube flotilla.
However, despite all the difficulties, the Danube sailors continued to persistently move up the river.
By the end of September 1944, the offensive of the Soviet troops stopped at the Tirgu - Mures - Campulung - Turnu - Severin line. Armies of three Ukrainian fronts began preparing new operations in order to liberate Transcarpathian Ukraine, withdraw Hungary from the war, and help the peoples of Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia who fought against fascist occupation. In connection with the regrouping of troops to solve new tasks, the Danube Flotilla received the task of short time throw a large number of troops and equipment along the Danube.
In conditions of great mine danger, the sailors of the Danube Flotilla successfully completed an important task. The ships and auxiliary vessels of the flotilla transported hundreds of thousands of soldiers and officers, a lot of military equipment, and thousands of tons of military equipment to different points on the Danube.
The capitulated Romanian ships were first brought together into a brigade of monitors with their former national crews retained, but on September 2, the commander and chief of staff of the former Romanian division, as well as the commanders and crews of the ships, were arrested and sent to an NKVD concentration camp. Romanian sailors were replaced by Soviet ones, and from November 10, 1944, captured river monitors became part of the Danube military flotilla under the names: "Azov" ("Ion K. Bratianu"), "Mariupol" ("Alexander Lakhovary"), "Berdyansk" (" Ardeal"), "Izmail" ("Bukovina") and "Kerch" ("Bessarabia").
During the winter repairs of 1945, Azov and Mariupol underwent minor modernization, which consisted of the installation of 37-mm 70-K universal guns and 20-mm Oerlikon assault rifles. The main caliber artillery remained unchanged. But the technical condition of the ships turned out to be mediocre, and in the 1945 campaign only Azov was able to take part in hostilities.
At the same time, 5 37 mm 70-K universal cannons, 2 20 mm Oerlikon machine guns and 4 12.7 mm DShK machine guns were installed on the Kerch and Izmail monitors. The main caliber artillery remained unchanged.
After modernization, the ships acquired the following tactical and technical characteristics: monitor “Kerch” - normal displacement 720 tons, total displacement 770 tons, maximum length 62.0 m, maximum width 10.45 m, normal draft 1.6 m and maximum draft 1.8 m, 2 vertical triple expansion steam engines with a total power of 1800 hp. With. worked on 2 propellers and provided the ship with a maximum speed of 12.2 knots, and an economic speed of 8 knots, 2 steam boilers of the “Yarrow” system were heated with fuel oil, the largest reserve of which was 60 tons, which ensured an economic cruising range of 600 miles; monitor "Izmail" - total displacement 550 tons, maximum length 62.15 m, maximum width 10.5 m, maximum draft 1.68 m, 2 vertical triple expansion steam engines with a total power of 1600 hp. With. worked on 2 propellers and provided the highest speed of 11.8 knots. Two steam boilers of the Yarrow system were heated with fuel oil, the largest supply of which was 61.6 tons.
The Kerch monitor took part in the fighting of the Great Patriotic War (Vienna offensive March 16 - April 15, 1945).
For two more years after the end of the war, the ships carried out military service on the Danube. On February 28, 1948, they were mothballed and put into storage in Kislitsy. On January 12, 1949, the ships were officially classified as river monitors, and on June 3, 1951, they were expelled from the fleet due to the return of Romania.