Tankman's Day

By the end of 1968, the already mentioned 8th Special Purpose Squadron of the Black Sea Fleet was reorganized into the 8th Operational Squadron Pacific Fleet and begins military service in Indian Ocean. With the increase in the proportion of political tasks solved by combat service forces, their composition began to include landing ships with marine units and military equipment on board.

Combat service - a set of activities and actions carried out by fleet forces in Peaceful time according to a single concept and plan in order to prevent a surprise attack by the aggressor, to weaken or disrupt the attacks of his naval forces as much as possible, to maintain the high combat readiness of associations, formations, ships and units to solve the tasks facing them.

Combat service involves a long stay of a certain number of surface ships and submarines in various areas of the oceans (seas), as well as the presence of part of the forces on combat duty at bases (at airfields) in the established readiness for departure (departure). Combat service is carried out in strict accordance with the norms of international maritime law.

The first combat service in the Indian Ocean in the Pacific Fleet was entrusted to the 390th Marine Regiment. You should know that combat service was the highest form of operational use of naval forces in peacetime.

From August 7, 1969 to February 13, 1970, on a long-distance sea voyage on board the BDK-66 (from February 13, 1975 - the large landing ship of Project 1171 "Sergey Lazo"), the task was carried out by a reinforced company of marines. The landing commander is the commander of the 1st infantry fighting vehicle, Lieutenant Colonel Nikolay Ilyich Nikolaenko.

The ship with a landing party on board went to Port Said (Egypt), Lagos (Nigeria), circled Africa and in early December 1969 entered Mogadishu (the capital of Somalia). The entry was carried out on instructions from the Soviet government in order to support the new Somali leadership from the danger of overthrow. (On the night of October 21, 1969, progressive officers of the Somali army, under the leadership of the army commander, Major General Mohammed Siad Barre, carried out a revolutionary coup and took power in the country into their own hands. The ministers of the previous government were arrested, the parliament, political parties, as well as public organizations- dissolved). According to the testimony of the former platoon commander, Lieutenant Mikhail Andreevich Popov, the marines were even involved in the protection of important facilities in the capital of the state.

Then there were calls to South Yemen, Ethiopia and the Indian port of Bombay.

The rating for combat service is “excellent.”

The Marine Corps in combat service solved the following tasks:

1. Assisting the crews of landing ships in repelling attacks from surface ships and aircraft of a potential enemy using MANPADS, mortars, tank weapons, armored personnel carriers and small arms.

2. Assisting the crews of landing ships in the fight for survivability.

3. Participation in identifying intelligence signs, photographing and describing ships and aircraft foreign states.

4. Direct protection of Soviet/Russian civilian ships from piracy.

5. Protection of diplomatic missions, PMTO Pacific Fleet, communications centers and other facilities. Ensuring their evacuation in case of sharp exacerbations of the military-political situation.

6. Maintaining the established level of combat readiness for amphibious landings and operations on the shore, including as part of international groupings of forces.

7. Ensuring the planned replacement of troops of friendly states on combat duty in hard-to-reach areas.

Issues of training and performing combat service were closely linked to the activities of such formations of the Pacific Fleet amphibious forces as the 100th and 14th brigades of landing ships, and later the 22nd division of the amphibious assault forces.

It should be noted the great contribution to the training of units and units of the Marine Corps of the First Deputy Commander of the Pacific Fleet, Vice Admiral Yasakov N. Ya., rear admirals Tulin K. A. and Kochergin N. F., captains 1st rank Prisyazhnyuk, Chebanov, Volkov, Simonov A. IN.

Ochergin Nikolai Fedorovich, who became the commander of the 22nd infantry fighting force and rear admiral, is second from the right. First on the left is A. V. Simonov, still a senior lieutenant; then - chief of staff of the 22nd infantry fighting force.

			Division, part		Commander
		08/07/1969 - 02/13/1970	BMP 390 PMP		Nikolaenko N. I.
			BMP 390 PMP		Gavrilov A. I.
			BMP 106 PMP		Berezkin L.K.
			rmp 390 pmp		Mr. Zhilyaev V. A.
			rmp 106 pmp		Mr. Boykov V. N.
			BMP 390 PMP		Zaborshchikov V. P.
			BMP 165 PMP		Mr. Mochalov I.V.
	1972 - 1973		mustache rmp 390 pmp		Borisenko B. I.
			BMP 106 PMP		Osipenko V. D.
	1974 - 1975	08.74 - 05.75	BMP 390 PMP	“50 years of Komsomol patronage”	Bronnikov N.V.
					Arkhireev A. I.	Elected delegate to the XXV Congress of the CPSU
					Mr. Rukosuev G. N.
			BMP 106 PMP		Dzherikhov V. B.
			BMP 390 PMP		Mr. Ivanov V.V.
			rmp 106 pmp		Mr. Gulyaev
			BMP 390 PMP		Mr. Ushkov V.K.	Awarded the Order of the Red Banner, ZKCH - Art. Lt Boyko - Order of the Red Star
					Romanenko N. I.
			rmp 106 pmp	BDK "50 years of Komsomol patronage"	Naumov N. N.
		05/12/78 - 01/29/79	mustache tr 165 pmp	BDK "N. Vilkov"	Seledtsov A. A.
	1979 - 1980	06/26/97 - 04/27/80	mustache rmp 390 pmp		Mr. Ivanov V.V.
				BDK "N. Vilkov"	Mr. Makeev B. A.
			BMP 390 PMP	BDK "I. Rogov"	Mr. Shilov P.S.
	1980 - 1981	10/17/80 - 03/8/81	mustache tr 165 pmp	BDK "Tomsky Komsomolets"	Seledtsov A. A.
			rmp 165 pmp	BDK "I. Rogov"	Mr. Abramov E. N.	With participation in the Zapad-81 exercise. Awarded the Order "For Service to the Motherland in the Armed Forces" III class.
	1981 - 1982	1.07.81 - 04/20/82	BMP 165 PMP	BDK "S. Lazo"	Chernomurov V. M.
			BMP 390 PMP	BDK "50 years of Komsomol patronage"	Mr. Orfani V.I.
			rmp 390 pmp		Berezhnoy A.I.
	1982 - 1983	10/15/82 - 07/6/83	BMP 165 PMP	BDK "A. Tortsev"	Ufimtsev V. A.
			BMP 390 PMP	BDK "N. Vilkov"	Verkhozin E. M.
			rmp 390 pmp	BDK pr. 775	Mr. Gudkov V.V.
	1983 - 1984	10/21/83 - 04/28/84	BMP 390 PMP	"A. Nikolaev"	Mr. Bardin A.N.
	1983 - 1984	11.11.83 - 11.07.84	mustache rmp 165 pmp		Mr. Kireev V.I.
			BMP 165 PMP	BDK "A. Tortsev"	Radashevsky A. A.
	1984 - 1985	4.10.84 - 4.06.85	BMP 390 PMP	BDK "N. Vilkov"	Bernavsky V. P.
	1985 - 1986	4.04.85 - 7.01.86	rmp 165 pmp		Mr. Hunter IN AND.
	1985 - 1986	10/5/85 - 06/25/86	rmp 390 pmp		Tikhonchuk V.V.	Awarded the Order "For Service to the Motherland in the Armed Forces" III class.
			BMP 390 PMP	BDK "A. Nikolaev"	Martynenko E. V.
	1986 - 1987	12/20/86 - 06/23/87	BMP 390 PMP	BDK "I. Rogov"	Mr. Oseledets E. G.
			BMP 390 PMP	BDK "A. Tortsev"	Kaftanov M. V.
			rmp 165 pmp		Rytikov A.V.
			rmp 390 pmp		K-n Novikov V.V.
		09/20/88 - 06/15/89	2 BMP 165 PMP		P/p-c Malyshev V.M.	Oleinich I.A., Mukovozov D. were awarded medals “For Military Merit”.
			rmp 165 pmp		Mr. Sushinsky I..	Zaremba A., Semykin A., Sushinsky I. were awarded medals “For Military Merit”.
			rmp 390 pmp		Mr. Zhevako V.I.	Awarded the Order of the Red Star
	1990 - 1991	09/17/90 - 04/20/91	rmp 165 pmp		Filonyuk A. B.
			dshr 165 pmp	BOD "Marshal Shaposhnikov"	Mr. Nadezhin S.V.	Awarded the Ushakov medal

During combat service, Marine Corps units developed such tactics and methods of using weapons as:

Firing at a surface target with 120-mm mortars from the upper deck of a landing ship using data from the ship's fire control system;

Firing at surface targets from medium (T-55) and amphibious (PT-76) tanks from tank decks through the open stern of a landing ship;

Firing at a surface target from armored personnel carriers installed on the upper deck of a landing ship;

Shooting at low-flying air targets from small arms as part of a squad and platoon;

Covering a landing ship on a solo voyage from enemy air attacks by squads of Marine anti-aircraft gunners;

Keeping a watch to combat sabotage forces and means with practical grenade throwing.

At any opportunity, practical training was conducted (with landing on the shore) in shooting, driving (including afloat), and restoring physical endurance (mainly accelerated movement and cross-country races).

Maintenance of landing equipment (1 infantry fighting vehicle) on the territory of 933 PMTO with unloading from the large landing craft "Nikolai Vilkov"

When the Pacific Fleet received new landing ships built by the Kaliningrad Yantar plant or built in Poland, the following practice existed: marine units were transferred from Vladivostok by plane, received armored vehicles from the Baltic Fleet, and the inter-theater transition of the ship was combined with the solution of combat service tasks as part of 8 squadrons.

So, in May 1972, the 1st Marine Company, reinforced by a platoon of amphibious tanks of the 150th Tank Regiment of the 55th Marine Division and other units, with small arms, but without equipment, was transferred by military transport aircraft from the Khorol Pacific Fleet air base to the city of Kaliningrad. In the city of Baltiysk, a company landing group (landing commander - Major Borisenko B.I., Chief of Staff - Captain Kanishchev N.I., Marine Company Commander - Senior Lieutenant Popov M.A.) received armored personnel carriers and amphibious tanks. In the city of Liepaja, the landing party boarded the large landing ship of Project 1171 “Alexander Tortsev” that had not been built and left for military service. Business port calls were made Equatorial Guinea, Somalia, People's Democratic Republic of Yemen and Iraq. On February 16, 1973, the ship with the landing force arrived at the main naval base of the Pacific Fleet Vladivostok.

At the same time, there was a precedent when in 1983 the reinforced company of captain

Gudkova V.V. from the 3rd Marine Battalion, having left Baltiysk on the Project 775 landing craft, received equipment for combat service from the battalion landing group

1st Marine Battalion Captain E.M. Verkhozin The transshipment site was logistics point 933 on the Ethiopian island of Nokra in the Dahlak archipelago in the Red Sea.

In fact, the basis of an airborne unit was either a company or a battalion.

Officially, such an amphibious unit was called a “reinforced marine company” or “reinforced tank company,” and unofficially it was called a “company landing group (RDG).”

Such an airborne unit was officially called a “marine battalion” or “tank battalion”, and unofficially - a “battalion landing group (BDG)”. In a number of cases, one of the Marine companies was replaced by a tank company and the Marine battalion adopted a strange organization of two Marine companies and a tank company, which more closely fit the definition of a “battalion landing group (BDG).”

On landing ship Project 1174 could already freely accommodate a reinforced marine battalion or a reinforced tank battalion.

There were no precedents in the Pacific Fleet when one battalion was deployed on two or more landing ships for combat service.

The regiment has rich history performing military service. The Marines had the opportunity to give armed resistance to the presumptuous enemy, and to participate in joint tactical exercises in foreign territories, and to help in the redeployment of combat service forces of friendly armies. A number of episodes of military service are associated with a demonstration of the strength of the Soviet fleet, depending on the developing military-political situation.

In 1969, company 1 Marine battalion

Lieutenant Colonel Nikolaenko N.I. the taking under protection of a number of important objects in the capital of Somalia ensured the stability of the revolutionary government.

In November 1977, during the evacuation of personnel of Soviet diplomatic services and military institutions from Mogadishu, units of the 2nd Marine Battalion

Major Vyacheslav Konstantinovich Ushkov was thwarted by the offensive violent actions of the Somali military by direct landing on the port piers; those, remembering the rapid landing in the presence of the Minister of Defense of Somalia, General Samantar M.A., the breakthrough of the Somali anti-landing defense and the 80-kilometer march through the desert from the port of Bulyahar to the port of Berbera in 1972 of the battalion of Major Izosim Vasilyevich Mochalov from the 165th Marine Regiment, quickly calmed down and allowed the evacuation to be completed.

Here's how it happened: the 390th Marine Regiment opened post-revolutionary Somalia for us and it also put an end to Soviet-Somali relations XX century.

Damaged equipment at the battle site in Ethiopia

In 1978, the soldiers of Major Ushkov V.K. already provided effective assistance to Ethiopia by ensuring the transfer of part of their military equipment to Ethiopian units, its correct combat use, evacuation, restoration of damaged equipment and its commissioning.

In addition, under the direct control of Major V.K. Ushkov. and the officer of the special department of the squadron, Sergei Vladimirovich Ossetsky, secret documents of great importance were captured from the enemy headquarters. “...we were interested in any opportunity that would allow us to organize the receipt of documentary materials about the plans, actions of the parties, about the reconnaissance conducted by both government troops and the separatists... And then the shelling began. Heavy fire was carried out by grenade launchers, Grads and machine guns with tracer bullets. The group crawls along the asphalt making its way to the headquarters. We were two steps away from him, but suddenly, before our eyes, the headquarters building collapsed with a roar from a direct hit. But we are running to the burning headquarters. There is such a word as “must”. ... In a building engulfed in fire and smoke, we found all the intelligence reports regarding our ships, Soviet citizens, our group, command and squadron. In fact, these were entire dossiers. We collected a lot of documents. But such an operation was very risky. No prisoners were taken in that war. And the political resonance could be very negative. So they had no right to “puncture”. ... The documents turned out to be useful for both counterintelligence and intelligence. The summarized data was sent to the Center, and, judging by the contents of the response telegrams from Moscow, our results were highly appreciated.”

Suffice it to say that Major Ushkov V.K. was awarded the Order of the Red Banner of Battle, his deputy for technical affairs, Senior Lieutenant Boyko, was awarded the Order

Red Star, more than ten sailors and sergeants - medals “For Military Merit” and Ushakov medals.

In 1974, the 1st battalion of the 390th Marine Regiment, unloading its military equipment from the twin-decks of the BDK “50 years of patronage of the Komsomol” onto the territory of the Yemeni naval base in the port of Aden, provided loading and transportation on several flights in the vacated tweendecks of equipment and supplies of the Yemeni infantry brigade. The brigade was transported to the combat duty area on the border of the People's Democratic Republic of Yemen with Saudi Arabia. The ship's crew and landing force significantly exceeded the deadlines established by the USSR Government; on this occasion, an official reception was given by the Deputy Minister of Defense of the PDRY.

In 1983, the large landing craft "Nikolai Vilkov" with the 1st Marine Battalion of the regiment (commander - Captain E.M. Verkhozin) entered the port of Maputo in the Republic of Mozambique, demonstrated the naval flag of the USSR and military equipment of the landing force to the Ambassador of the Soviet Union and the highest military leadership of the republic. support in the elections at the IV Congress of the FRELIMO party.

BDK "Nikolai Vilkov"

From left to right:

Deputy commander of the ship for political affairs, captain 3rd rank Kuznetsov

Operational brigade commander captain II rank Kochergin N.F.

Captain of the ship II rank Zhukov A.G.

Landing commander (commander of the 1st infantry fighting vehicle 390th infantry fighting vehicle) captain Verkhozin E.M.

Meeting of the Ministry of Defense and the National General Staff of the Republic of Mozambique.

The head of the honor guard is Captain V.A. Tashlykov.

In the year, on the basis of Soviet-Ethiopian intergovernmental agreements, the 933rd logistics support point (LMTS) of the Navy was created on the island of Nokra in the Dahlak archipelago.

The living conditions there were harsh. Eyewitnesses say: “... There were enough “inconveniences” - heat reaching +40C and above, 100% humidity, gastrointestinal diseases. However, the main danger on the island was snakes, especially two species: ephas and mambas. Old-timers of Nokra said that in the early years, during drill training, sailors pressed one efa every 50 meters. By the way, already on the first day we learned that the night before in the barracks, Efa attacked a sailor. The doctors had the serum, and everything worked out. The mambas were much scarier. There is no antidote for its venom, and if bitten, a person dies within 30 minutes. On the island, these creatures were less common than ephs, but they also existed.

... At the beginning of 1980, a threat to the activities of the PMTO arose from Somalia and Eritrean separatists from the Eritrean People's Liberation Front (EPLF). It was necessary to take protective measures.

Since 1980, from the airborne unit

Major Ivanov Viktor Vasilyevich 390 infantry infantry infantry regiment and the landing force of Major Makeev B.A. 165 infantry fighting vehicles began to deploy a security platoon and an air defense platoon (ZSU-23-4 “Shilka” and MANPADS “Strela”) on Nokra Island.

In February 1990, the Eritrean People's Liberation Front (EPLF) separatists captured main base Ethiopian fleet - the port of Massawa. The equipment of the coastal artillery brigade was also captured, including the 130-mm SM-4-1 gun with a firing range of 28 kilometers, which made it possible to unhindered shelling of the islands of the archipelago. At first it was still aimless, but gradually the fire began to be adjusted by reconnaissance and sabotage groups landed on uninhabited islands and local agents. The shells increasingly began to hit targets - the PMTO area, firing positions and locations of Ethiopian units, neighboring islands.

Ethiopian Navy ships and remains of broken ones military units were relocated to the port of Assab and (with the consent of the Soviet government) to the island of Nokra, which immediately transferred the fighting to the Dahlak archipelago. The pilots of the Soviet air group from Asmara were also urgently evacuated there, leaving behind equipment, property and supplies. Their IL-38 anti-submarine aircraft, An-26 transport aircraft and Mi-8 helicopters were destroyed as a result of an attack by saboteurs. The war has come close to the base.

On February 12, Nokra Island and the archipelago began to be systematically shelled by long-range artillery from the Buri Peninsula.”

Units in combat service under the command of Major V.V. Tikhonchuk (in 1985-1986) and Major Zhevako V.N. (in 1990) in order to protect 933 logistics points located on the Nokra island of the Dahlak archipelago in the Red Sea, they repeatedly entered into fire confrontation with anti-government forces. At the same time, the Marines very successfully used the capabilities of shipborne radar stations stationed in the adjacent water area.

BDK project 1174 "Ivan Rogov"

In 1987, the 6th Marine Company from the landing unit of Captain Evgeniy Georgievich Oseledets carried out the security and defense service for the PMTO.

2nd battalion captain Oseledets E.G. in 1986, he left the 390th infantry station for the city of Baltiysk, where he loaded onto the Project 1174 landing ship “Ivan Rogov”. In 1987, the battalion arrived on Nokra Island through the Suez Canal. In June of the same year, he completed his military service. Captain Oseledets E.G. during the period of military service he was awarded the military rank of “major”

... In December 1990, the marines of Lieutenant Colonel V.N. Zhevako with the BDK-14 were replaced by the BDK-101 with a landing group under the command of Lieutenant Colonel Filonyuk, which evacuated the base. Zhevako Valery Nikolaevich recalled:

Major Tikhonchuk V.V. was awarded the Order “For Service to the Motherland in the Armed Forces”, III degree, and majors Zhevako V.N. and Oseledets E.G. - Order of the Red Star. Why does A. Rozin call Zhevako V.N. lieutenant colonel - I don't know.

After the entry of Soviet troops into Afghanistan, in 1980, amphibious assault forces of the US Navy became significantly more active.

In May 1980, a joint Soviet-Yemeni tactical exercise took place to land an amphibious assault force of the Pacific Fleet on the island of Socotra - the territory of the People's Republic of Democratic Republic Yemen.

The purpose of the exercises is to demonstrate the introduction of a limited military contingent of the USSR Armed Forces into Afghanistan in December 1979 and to neutralize the activities of American landing forces in the Indian Ocean by demonstrating the increased capabilities of the Soviet Marine Corps.

The participants included: a reinforced company of the 165th infantry infantry regiment on board the large landing ship "Nikolai Vilkov" of project 1171, which entered combat service on February 2, 1980 (landing commander - Major B.A. Makeev);

reinforced battalion 390 infantry fighting infantry regiment (landing commander - deputy regiment commander, Major P.S. Shilov) on board the Project 1174 landing ship “Ivan Rogov”, which entered combat service in March 1980; Project 1206 Kalmar landing craft and Ka-25/Ka-27 helicopters, which were part of the Ivan Rogov landing craft; a company of marines of the People's Democratic Republic of Yemen on board the Soviet BDK project 775.

The landing force included a control ship, submarines and surface ships, and integrated supply ships for the operational squadron.

The leader of the exercise: the commander of the 8th operational squadron of ships in the Indian Ocean, Rear Admiral Mikhail Nikolaevich Khronopulo.

The “enemy” was imitated by the Yemeni militia, subordinate to the governor of the island of Socotra.

Ka-29 - a transport and landing helicopter, created on the basis of the search and rescue Ka-27PS

The exercise was preceded by a headquarters training and a training landing on the Yemeni island of Abd al-Kuri with a terrain similar to that of the island of Socotra.

The landing was carried out in the morning at three landing points on a five-kilometer front in the following order: barrier and cover groups at the Kalmar stabilization station from a distance of five kilometers, tactical airborne assault from seven helicopters

Ka-25/Ka-27, main forces with afloat landing; reserve - a platoon of medium tanks with equipment for underwater driving and a Yemeni company landed "at point-blank range".

Having seized a bridgehead and taken up defense at commanding heights in the depths of the island, the naval landing force completed its task; Yemeni militias, imitating the enemy, simply fled.

The effect was dramatic; and what’s surprising is that the entire horizon was simply lined with tankers and merchant ships of foreign countries that had appeared from nowhere, as if according to pre-purchased tickets!

The high level of training of the Marines was appreciated by representatives of the USSR Ministry of Defense and the Chief of the General Staff of the Yemeni Armed Forces present at the exercise.

DKaVP project 1206 "Squid"

Before loading back after exercise

The advantage of the exercises over the American ones was that the Soviet-Yemeni landing covered the entire content of naval landing operations on real terrain and real distances along the front and in depth.

The Americans carried out their exercise in a simplified manner, marking the proposed coastline with buoys; their marines, disembarking from landing ships on floating armored personnel carriers, reached the buoys in landing waves and loaded back onto the ships.

In 1985, on the island of Nokra there was a large landing ship of project 1171 "Nikolai Vilkov" with

3 Marine Battalion 390 infantry infantry regiment under the command

captain Vladimir Petrovich Bernavsky on board (during the period of his military service, captain V.P. Bernavsky was awarded the military rank of “major”). Around the same period of time, from January 6 to April 1985, the reinforced 882 separate marine infantry battalion of the 810 infantry infantry regiment of the Black Sea Fleet under the command of Lieutenant Colonel A.A. Lisovsky was in combat service in the Indian Ocean.

By decision of the Main Inspectorate of the USSR Ministry of Defense, during bilateral exercises, the readiness to carry out tasks for the intended purpose of two marine battalions in combat service was tested. According to the training situation, in the defense of 933 PMTO there was a battalion of 390 PMP, and the battalion 810 ABMR solved the problem of capturing the PMTO by actions in an amphibious assault with landing afloat.

By the decision of those checking the actions of the 882nd separate marine battalion, Lieutenant Colonel A.A. Lisovsky. were found to be more effective than actions

3 Marine battalions 390 infantry infantry infantry regiment of Major V.P. Bernavsky, and he deservedly received an “excellent” rating.

In December 1974, on board the large landing ship “50 years of Komsomol patronage” with the personnel of the airborne unit

Captain Bronnikov N.V. from 390 infantry infantry infantry units met the Commander-in-Chief of the USSR Navy, Hero of the Soviet Union, Admiral of the Fleet of the Soviet Union S.G. Gorshkov, who arrived in Somalia on a working visit.

In July 1980, Commander-in-Chief of the USSR Navy, Hero of the Soviet Union, Admiral of the Fleet of the Soviet Union S.G. Gorshkov. At the head of a military delegation, he visited Ethiopia to determine the scope of cooperation within the Navy.

In the 933rd PMTO on board the Project 1174 large landing ship “Ivan Rogov” he was met by soldiers of the 390th infantry infantry regiment under the command of Major P.S. Shilov.

The Marines froze in formation in clearly unsuitable black uniforms in temperatures over 40 degrees.

Having greeted the sailors, Sergei Georgievich looked at some of the coastal premises and was dissatisfied with the general situation at the point... He immediately uttered on the record orders to the chief of logistics of the Navy about retrofitting the PMTO, an urgent study and report on the issue of lightweight clothing for the marines and a number of instructions for other performers.

On board the large landing ship “50 years of Komsomol patronage”

Landing - 1bmp 390 infantry fighting vehicles; commander - captain Bronnikov Nikolai Vasilievich

In addition to the units performing combat service tasks, the regimental orchestra also took part in the long sea voyage.

Project 1886 submarine floating base

In 1973, in response to the 1972 official friendly visit of the Chilean military training sailing ship"Esmeralda", a detachment of ships of the Pacific Fleet as part of the Project 1886 submarine floating base "Ivan Kucherenko" and the tanker "Vishera" made the first and only visit in the history of the Pacific Fleet:

The third year of the Pacific Higher Naval School named after Admiral Makarov, whose start of the next academic year was shifted by one month, was allocated for the visit. In addition to the cadets, the orchestra of the 390th Marine Regiment took part in the campaign.

The marching headquarters was headed by the head of the TOVVMU, Vice Admiral Potekhin Boris Nikolaevich.

But everything turned out to be more complicated than planned. At the time when the detachment of ships passed Hawaii and headed for South America, the marching headquarters received notification of a military coup that had taken place in Chile and the assassination of the country's President, Salvador Allende, by the military junta. On September 23, 1973, the “Statement of the Soviet Government” was published, which condemned the military coup and announced a break diplomatic relations between our countries. On September 26, representatives of the Soviet embassy left Santiago.

After consultations between the USSR Ministry of Defense and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, it was decided to proceed to Peru after all, reducing the level of the visit to a regular business call; the program for Ecuador has not changed.

The participants of the visit visited the Peruvian port of Callao, the capital of this exotic country Lima, as well as in the Ecuadorian port of Guayaquil and the capital of Ecuador, Quito. Everywhere the Pacific Islanders were very warmly greeted by the naval sailors of these countries South America, and their inhabitants. Tens of thousands of Peruvians and Ecuadorians visited the floating base “Ivan Kucherenko” and everywhere they spoke very flatteringly and with admiration about our sailors and the USSR.

In 1975, the military conductor of the regiment, senior lieutenant Viktor Grigorievich Glebov, led a concert group providing an official visit for cadets of Soviet naval higher educational institutions to the countries of South America. The group included conscripts of the orchestra of the 390th Marine Regiment Nikolai Ivanovich Murashev and Nikolai Nikolaevich Bichukin, musicians of the orchestra of the control cruiser "Admiral Senyavin" and individual soloists of the Pacific Fleet song and dance ensemble. In early October, leaving the port of Vladivostok, the oceanographic research vessel Leonid Sobolev made calls to the ports of Callao (Peru) and Guayaquil (Ecuador). During the visit, meetings were held with cadets of the Peruvian Naval Academy and local residents(including in the capital of Peru, Lima), excursions and concert group performances. We returned to Vladivostok in November 1975.

In the center - senior lieutenant Glebov V.G.;

behind him - Murashev N.I.

During the sea crossing, the Leonid Sobolev OIS monitored the maneuvers of the ships of the American aircraft carrier group for some time.

Photo by N. Yu. Prokhorov BDK pr. 1171 (Orsk), July 2003

BDK pr. 1171 (code "Tapir") was developed in the early 60s at TsKB-50 under the leadership of chief designer I.I. Kuzmin, and in 1963 was transferred to TsKB-17 (since 1967 - Nevskoye G1KB). The ship is intended for transportation by sea and landing on an unequipped coast of a military unit (up to a battalion in size) with mobile armored and automotive equipment. It can also be used as a transport of ammunition, including for the transportation of ballistic missiles in containers or other large-sized military equipment.

BDK pr. 1171 is designed on the basis of a multi-purpose dry cargo vessel. The ship is two-deck, with a forecastle, poop, aft-located engine room and a five-tier superstructure. With four holds, one of which is located aft of the engine room. Hatch covers do not clutter the upper and cargo decks. The hull is divided into seven compartments by waterproof bulkheads. Large-sized cutouts in the main transverse bulkheads on the cargo deck for loading and unloading mobile equipment have mechanized bulkhead closures (lamps) with remote control. The ship is equipped with a bow landing device with main and additional folding gangways and remote control of all its components. In addition, there is a stern gate-gangway, which ensures the reception and unloading of mobile equipment onto the pier or wall. The transported equipment can be moved along the entire cargo deck, with its exit along the inter-deck gangway for placement on the upper deck. Project 1171 ships are capable of vertical loading of various cargoes using their own means. For this purpose, they are equipped with four (Project 1171 mod. I and Project 1171 mod. IT) or two (Project 1171 mod. III and Project 1171 mod. IV) deck cargo hatches, a crane with a lifting capacity of 7.5 tons In addition, the ships of the first modification had two cranes with a lifting capacity of 5 tons.

BDK pr. 1171 mod. I

Longitudinal section of BDK pr. 1171 mod. I:

1 - installation of MANPADS; 2 - K326TD cargo cranes with a lifting capacity of 5 tons; 3 - winch of the stern anchor device; 4 - team quarters; 5 - cabins for officers and midshipmen; 6 - MO chimney; 7 - AP radar "Don"; 8 - navigation bridge; 9 - wheelhouse; 10 - cellar of 57 mm rounds; 11 - 57 mm AU Zif-31 B; 12 - bow cargo holds; 13 - cargo crane KE29 with a lifting capacity of 7.5 tons; 14 - foremast; 15 - separation of capstan machines and mechanisms of the bow landing device; 16 - lapport of the nasal landing device; 17 - additional folding gangway; 18 - main folding gangway; 19 - hold compartments; 20 - bow ballast tank; 21 - fuel tanks; 22 - landing ammunition cellars and food pantries; 23 - DG compartment; 24 - interpubular gangway; 25 - MO; 26 - auxiliary boiler room; 27 - tanks fresh water; 28 - aft ballast tank; 29 - aft cargo hold; 30 - tiller compartment; 31 - aft closure-gantry; 32 - stern anchor device.

The BDK has a special stern anchor device that holds it in place when receiving (unloading) equipment from an unequipped shore, and also pulls it off the shoal when moving away from the shore. For marine personnel, sleeping quarters are equipped in the hull, and the crew is accommodated in the superstructure. It was possible to increase the landing capacity to 400 marines in the last two modifications of the project due to the installation of an additional cockpit in hold No. 1.

The ship has (despite the presence of a bow landing device) good seaworthiness, a long cruising range at full speed, good landing capacity, and the possibility of its wide use for transporting general cargo with a total weight of up to 3,750 tons in holds and tween-decks. Two recovery boilers are located on the gas exhaust devices of the main engines steam production of 700 kg/hour. Experts consider the disadvantages of the BDK Project 1171 to be insufficient full speed, weak artillery armament and insufficient unsinkability for a warship, since it was designed in compliance with the standards of the USSR register.

In 1966–1975 At the Yantar Shipyard in Kaliningrad, 14 BDK Project 1171 were built in four modifications, differing in landing capacity, autonomy in terms of provisions and armament. By the time the USSR collapsed, they were all part of the fleet. Currently (as of August 2007), five ships continue to be in service, one of them being part of the Navy.

Voronezh Komsomolets(plant No. 291, project 1171 mod. I, BDK-10, from 03/18/1992 - BDK-65, from 2003 - Saratov). Shipyard "Yantar": 02/5/1964; July 1, 1964; 08/18/1966 After entering service, the ship was part of the Northern Fleet, and since 1985 - part of the Black Sea Fleet. In July 1999, as part of the UN peacekeeping operation in Yugoslavia, the ship participated in the transfer of troops from Tuapse to the Greek port of Thessaloniki. Together with other ships of the landing group, he delivered 260 units to their destination. equipment, 1,700 soldiers and officers with full equipment. The ship was removed from the fleet lists in the first half of 2007.

Crimean Komsomolets(plant No. 292, project 1171 mod. I, BDK-6). Shipyard "Yantar": 02/5/1964; July 1, 1964; 08/18/1966 Part of the Black Sea Fleet. In 1993, the ship was removed from the lists of the fleet and handed over to ARVI for disposal.

Tomsk Komsomolets(plant No. 293, project 1171 mod. I, BDK-13). Shipyard "Yantar": 02/18/1965; 03/26/1966; 09/30/1967 Part of the Pacific Fleet. In 1992, the ship was removed from the lists of the fleet and handed over to ARVI for disposal.

Komsomolets of Karelia(plant No. 294, project 1171 mod. I, BDK-62). Shipyard "Yantar": 08/05/1966; 03/1/1967; 12/29/1967 Part of the Northern Fleet. In 1997, the ship was removed from the lists of the fleet and handed over to ARVI for disposal.

Sergey Lazo(plant No. 295, project 1171 mod. II, BDK-66,). Shipyard "Yantar": 03/07/1967; 08/28/1967; 09/27/1968 Part of the Pacific Fleet. In 1994, the ship was removed from the lists of the fleet and handed over to ARVI for disposal.

BDK-69(plant No. 296, project 1171 mod. II, since 2003 - Orsk). Shipyard "Yantar": 08/30/1967; 02/29/1968; 12/31/1968 After entering service, it was part of the Pacific Fleet, and since 1994 - part of the Black Sea Fleet. In July 1999, as part of the UN peacekeeping operation in Yugoslavia, the ship participated in the transfer of troops from Tuapse to the Greek port of Thessaloniki. Together with other ships of the landing group, he delivered 260 units to their destination. equipment, 1,700 soldiers and officers with full equipment. Orsk is planned to be excluded from the fleet lists in the first half of 2008.

5. Chronicle of BS in 1975

At the beginning of 1975, the first detachment of ships of the 8th operational squadron of the Navy continued its combat service, which took over in May 1974, almost in the same composition (2 SKR Project 159 “SKR-18”, “SKR-36”, 2 MTSH pr.264A “Timofey Ulyantsev”, “Vasily Gromov”, 1 BDK pr.1171 “50 years of Komsomol patronage” and 1 DPL pr.641 “B-85”), with the exception of the destroyer “Influential” which December 1974 returned to Vladivostok. And the cruiser pr. 68bis “Dmitry Pozharsky”, nuclear submarine pr.659T “K-59” and MRZK “Deflector” arrived at the BS in November 1974.

Research vessels and space fleet ships continued to work in the Indian Ocean. So the R/V Borovichi, based on January 5, .K ergelen took part in Soviet-French research. The R/V Nevel paid a visit to Port Louis (Mauritius) on January 6-8. Operating in the Indian Ocean since June 1974, the EOS pr.596P “Absheron” completed its campaign and on January 20 set off back to the Black Sea around Africa. And another EOS pr.596P "Sevan" after docking in Singapore on January 28, went back to the Indian Ocean.

Since December 30, 1974, the nuclear submarine Project 659T “K-59” was on vacation in the port of Berbera. In addition to it, there was the floating base "Ivan Kucherenko", a diesel submarine of project 641, a patrol ship, a sea minesweeper, a floating barracks, a floating dock for docking ships with a displacement of up to 5000 tons and several boats for servicing ships. He was then the second commander on the "K-59" "retired captain 1st rank Viktor Vasilyevich Korotkikh recalled: " After the New Year celebrations of 1975, they began scheduled preventative repairs of those mechanisms whose operation had received comments at sea. The work was carried out by submariners. The planned work was completed in time for the commissioning of the reactor units. We didn’t forget about rest; after lunch, we always went by bus to the beach in two combat shifts, where we played volleyball, football, swam in the sea and sunbathed. The water temperature in the sea is +34˚С, swimming brought little pleasure, I wanted to swim in Russian seas, where the temperature is much lower. On January 18, the installations of both sides were introduced, the air conditioning system started working, but remained for a long time heat in the compartments until + 22˚-+ 28˚С has reached.

On January 19, 1975, we took off the mooring lines, lay down on the lines to leave the port of Berbera, the mood was joyful, after all, we were going back, closer to home, although combat missions still lay ahead. At the exit from the port of Berbera we received a radiogram from the General Headquarters of the Navy with permission to dive and proceed to an area 100 miles east of the island of Socotra, measuring 300x200 miles. »

From January 12 to February 21, 1975, the American AUG operated in the Indian Ocean, consisting of: the nuclear aircraft carrier Enterprise CVAN-65, the missile cruiser Long Beach CGN-9, the missile destroyer B. Stoddert DDG-22, frigate Rathburne DE-1057 and support vessels Camden AOE-2 and Passumpsic TAO-107. During their stay there they made 3 visits: to the port of Mombasa (Kenya) on February 5-8, Seychelles and to Port Louis (Mauritius) on February 12-15.

In connection with the appearance on January 11 of the American AUG led by the aircraft carrier ENTERPRISE in the Indian Ocean, in mid-January five Soviet ships from the Gulf of Aden moved to the central part of the Arabian Sea to observe the AUG. These ships were: BDK “50 years of Komsomol patronage” (onboard 397, commander of the k-3r. Zaputryaev A.F.), PBPL "Ivan Kucherenko" (onboard 970), reconnaissance vessel "Deflector" and tankers "Alatyr" and "Gorky".

In addition to surface vessels, the nuclear-powered icebreaker Project 659T “K-59”, which left the port of Berbera, was sent to track the aircraft carrier. Retired captain 1st rank Viktor Vasilievich Korotkikh, who was then the second commander of the K-59, recalled: “ The search and tracking area for the Enterprise was determined to be the same off the west coast of India, as if the Naval Headquarters had information that the aircraft carrier was heading towards Persian Gulf within the reach of carrier-based aircraft within the territory of the USSR. Everything was the same as when tracking the Constellation, but the difference was that for 8 days we sailed at a speed of 8 to 32 knots, we were pretty exhausted! The aircraft carrier Enterprise did not reach 50 miles from the entrance to the Persian Gulf and turned south. After the Enterprise passed abeam Socotra Island, we were ordered to return to the previously designated search and tracking area (east of Socotra Island). Calm sailing began. »

From the Arabian Sea, the AUG headed to the Kenyan port of Mombasa on a visit, where it stayed on February 5-8. Then there was a hurricane that caused damage to the island of Mauritius. By the time our ships arrived, the AUG had left the island, heading for the exit from the Indian Ocean; on February 22, it had already arrived in Singapore.

On January 20, 1975, at the entrance to the Strait of Hormuz, the MTSH "Timofey Ulyantsev" began patrolling (airborne 304, commander of the k-3r. G.G.Galyuk).

On January 23, 1975, the floating workshop “PM-129” (kl.SurovikovViktor Egorovich). She headed to the Gulf of Aden.

Our sailors in the aftermath of the hurricane on the island of Mauritius.

On February 6-7, 1975, a strong tropical hurricane Gervaise raged over the island of Mauritius for two days and three nights. Wind speeds sometimes reached 174 miles per hour, causing enormous damage to the country. Dozens of people died, many were injured, hundreds of houses and dozens of ships were completely destroyed, sea ​​berths. 10 thousand people were left homeless, hundreds of kilometers of roads and power lines were destroyed and littered with uprooted trees. The water supply and telephone communications were out of order. The island was in ruins, life on it almost stopped. Eight foreign diplomatic missions were working in Mauritius at that time, and the USSR, France and the USA offered their assistance in eliminating the consequences of the hurricane. This was apparently one of the first joint humanitarian operations of the navies of the opposing blocs, although they acted separately.

American and French ships were in the Madagascar region during the cyclone and from there headed to the island. February 9, 1975 American high-speed universal supply transport "Camden" AOE-2 Arriving first in Port Louis proceeded to provide assistance to disaster victims. On February 10, the French aircraft carrier Clemenceau arrived on the island. Nuclear attack aircraft carrier Enterprise CVAN-65, nuclear-powered missile cruiser Long Beach CGN-9 and squadron supply transport Mars AFS-1 joined rescue operations the next day - February 11. Ship personnel spent more than 10,000 man-hours working to restore water, electricity, telephone communication, clearing roads and ruins. Helicopters were assigned to deliver medical equipment, food, including 10,000 pounds of milk powder, 60,000 gallons drinking water, to the affected areas. The amount of assistance the Americans provided amounted to more than $300,000. In addition, the United States donated $25,000 to help victims of the cyclone.

The arrival of a detachment of American warships was regarded by the Mauritian government as a show of force. Following the policy of the countries of the Indian Ocean, striving to transform this zone into a peaceful and nuclear-free zone, the government of Mauritius invited the American detachment to leave the country's territorial waters. Enterprise departed on February 16, and on February 17 the French aircraft carrier Clemenceau also left.

The USSR also did not remain aloof from assistance. A detachment of Soviet ships from the 8th operational squadron, commanded by Rear Admiral Nikolai Yakovlevich Yasakov, who was at that time in the northern part of the Indian Ocean, hastened to help the victims, although they were 2,400 miles from the island. On February 11, the cruiser "Dmitry Pozharsky" weighed anchor and headed for the island of Mauritius. During the passage, a general ship party meeting was held, at which they talked about how to ensure trouble-free sailing before anchoring in Port Louis, to form a repair and restoration detachment from the best specialists, to prepare personnel to fulfill international duty in an unfamiliar country. The repair and restoration detachment had five platoons of 35 people each. The party stratum in it was 25%. The platoon was divided into fives, with an officer or a well-trained sergeant at the head. The commander approved the proposal - to arrive at the destination a day earlier. This task could be achieved subject to the development of the maximum possible speed and strict conservation of fuel reserves: the refueling ship did not have time to reach the rendezvous point.

On the evening of February 15, the cruiser “Dmitry Pozharsky” (board number 837, captain 2nd rank F.N. Gromov) stood in the roadstead near the island; on February 16, the sailors already started work. By the way, many references to the participation of Soviet sailors in assistance say that they came to the island on February 11, this error comes from the publication in G. Ammon’s book “Maritime Memorable Dates.” M. 1987, p. 370.

On February 18, the EOS pr.596P “Sevan” and the tanker “Polyarnik” arrived (in a number of publications it is mistakenly called “Polar”). And on February 26, EOS pr. pr. 596P “Yamal” and the tanker “Roslav” arrived. There were no other Soviet ships there at that moment. The ships left Mauritius on 1 March.

The rescue team managed to do a lot in 12 days. The ship's electricians rewinded over 200 kilometers of broken wires, replacing them with new ones. 106 kilometers of power lines (of which 62 kilometers were high-voltage) and 126 kilometers of telephone network lines were restored. Our sailors cleared 12 kilometers of road from rubble, strengthened the dam on the Little Riviere River, cleared a large number of houses from rubble, 423 of them were connected to power. Two were completely restored settlements, put into operation a refrigerator of the Ministry of Fisheries and a transformer substation. The civil hospital was completely restored by the hands of our guys. The cruiser organized the free transfer of 32 liters of blood donated by 130 Soviet sailors to the health authorities of Mauritius. As a one-time aid, the island received a gift from our country of 25 tons of fish and a large batch of medicines.

Other ships of the squadron were busy with their tasks.

On February 3 - 5, the Gorky tanker paid a visit to the port of Karachi. This was the first visit of a Soviet "naval vessel" to Pakistan since June 1970.

From February 12 to March 1, 1975, the minesweeper “Timofey Ulyantsev” (onboard 304) and the large landing craft “50 years of patronage of the Komsomol” (onboard 397) were in the port of Umm Qasr (Iraq).

On February 18, having completed Soviet-French research on .K ergelen left the R/V Borovichi.

In mid-February 1975, a partial change of ships on the BS took place. The nuclear submarine Project 659T “K-59” and PBPL Project 1886 “Ivan Kucherenko”, which have been operating in the Indian Ocean since last year, completed their BS and on February 17, through the Strait of Malacca, left the Indian Ocean heading to Vladivostok.

In turn, from there on February 23, the DBK pr.57 “Gnevny” arrived in the Indian Ocean (airborne 998, commander k-3r. Vodoleeva P.P.) and marine refrigerated transport pr.502R “Ulma”.

On February 21, 1975, naval vessels of the USSR and the USA were involved in an incident. The American frigate "JOSEPH HEWES" FF-1078 (Commander Buell) was patrolling near the island of Socotra, where Soviet naval vessels were constantly located with the task of monitoring their activities. At that moment, the patrol ship Project 159A (NATO - Petya) “SKR-18” onboard 801, commander K-3R, was there. Teslenko and the tanker from which the TFR received fuel. There was a helicopter taking off from the frigate in the sky. The helicopter was instructed to photograph the Soviet vessels and head east from the anchorage to attempt to locate any submarine that may have been present there. An American frigate equipped with a new type of sonar also decided to approach Soviet ships in order to collect additional data about them. When the American frigate approached the Soviet ship to within 3.5 miles they heard it There was a roar and almost immediately they noticed the shell falling into the water a mile from the ship. The helicopter pilots also recorded the fall of the projectile, although they did not observe the flash of the shot. Immediately after the incident, the American frigate left the area and reported this to management. The commander of the American warship said his ship was operating in accordance with legal regulations at the time of the incident. Statements were exchanged in which Moscow denied firing from its ship at the American vessel. JOSEPH HEWES was instructed to continue surveillance operations off Socotra, but not to take any action that might be viewed by the Soviet ships as harassing, threatening, or provocative.

Despite the order, the commander of the American ship continued to behave unceremoniously and it is not surprising that he ran into a symmetrical response from the Soviet sailors. According to the recollections of the American sailor Chuck Mitchell who was there, Captain Buell: “...returned back and slowly approached the frigate again. He decided to lower the sonar buoy into the water and let it float around the frigate and collect information. That's exactly what we did. We lowered the buoy, and the water flow carried it towards the frigate. While collecting information we noticed that the buoy was floating quite close to the Russian one, and Captain Buell was glad that we would get such good data. Suddenly, out of sight of the frigate, a small motor boat arrived, and they hooked up our top secret new buoy and brought it to their ship. Captain Buell was furious. »

On February 24-27, 1975, USSR Defense Ministry Marshal A.A. Grechko visited India, he was accompanied by the Commander-in-Chief of the Navy, Admiral S. Gorshkov, and the Air Force Commander, Marshal Kutakov.

On February 27, the American exercise ARYAN-75 began in the Gulf of Oman, which was observed by the Soviet MRZK “Deflector,” which had been there since February 25.

On March 5, 1975, the USSR had 1 submarine, 7 surface combatants, 1 reconnaissance vessel and 6 auxiliary vessels in the Indian Ocean.

In March-April, another detachment of ships arrived at the BS: 2 SKR pr. Vinogradov" (commander cl.A.V. Onishchenko) and “MT-5” (since 1976 “SKR-137”, commander of the 3rd r. A.G. Zozul).

In April 1975, the second MRZK pr.502 “Kursograph” arrived at the BS in the Indian Ocean, commander Lieutenant Commander A. Gornitsky, commander of the Alentyev reconnaissance group. In April-May, two reconnaissance ships, Deflector and Kursograph, operated in the region at once, until Deflector returned to Vladivostok in May. The chief of staff of the 38th OSNAZ brigade, captain 2nd rank E.P. Lopatin, switched from “Kursograph” to “Deflector”.

Also at the end of March, the BDK pr.1171 (NATO - Alligator) “Nikolai Vilkov” (onboard 554, commander of the K-3r) began BS in the Indian Ocean.Zagoruiko Alexey Ilyich). He carried out an inter-naval transition from the Baltic Fleet from Baltiysk to the Pacific Fleet around Africa, carrying BS in the Indian Ocean from March to November, arriving in Vladivostok in December 1975.

On the SKR-18 in 1975, an emergency occurred involving an attempt by a sailor to escape from the ship. The patrol boat, together with the SKR-36, was stationed in Berbera, the sailor Kozlov, for religious and political reasons, secretly left the ship and made his way onto one of the Arab ships in the port, intending go abroad with it. But since the ship I was waiting for the customs officers to hand over the fugitive Somali police, after which he was returned to the ship. Later, as Andrei Zuev, an eyewitness to these events, wrote: “was returned to the ship and locked in the midshipman's cabin. Then he was transferred to the Soviet Union. Where, according to rumors, he was declared insane and placed in a mental hospital. » .

From April 3 to April 21, 1975, the ships of the squadron took part in the Ocean-75 naval exercises. 23 Soviet ships of various types operated in the Indian Ocean. Initially, everyone in the Indian Ocean was divided into three groups. The first in the Gulf of Aden was a Petya class TFR (Project 159A) and a minesweeper, the second was a minesweeper and 2 Alligator class large landing ships (Project 1171) in the Arabian Sea. The Gnevny DBK and 2 Foxtrot class submarines (Project 641) B-8, B-833 ​​were also heading there. The third group consisting of the Sverdlov class cruiser (project 68bis) "Dmitry Pozharsky", 2 escort ships and 2 tankers in the southern part of the Arabian Sea. In subsequent stages of the exercise, these groups combined to operate in the southern Arabian Sea. According to Western data, anti-submarine aircraft Il-38 (NATO - MAY) were used for the first time in the maneuvers from airfields in Somalia, where they flew for this purpose. In addition, on April 19, a reconnaissance flight over the exercise area in the Indian Ocean was carried out by 2 Tu-95RTs (NATO - BEAR DELTA) bombers, which took off from bases in the USSR and passed through a corridor in Iranian airspace.

The Americans could not ignore maneuvers of this magnitude and used their existing forces for observation. So frigate "Trippe» DE -1075 has been monitoring the ships participating in the exercises since April 16. After completing the exercises, he visited Bandar Abbas (Iran) on April 30.

At the end of the exercises on May 3, the cruiser “Dmitry Pozharsky” and “SKR-36” (onboard 804), under the flag of the squadron commander, Rear Admiral N.Ya. Yasakova arrived on a visit to the Indian port of Madras.

After the end of the visit, the cruiser “Dmitry Pozharsky” and “SKR-36” went home. Also, with the completion of the exercises, “SKR-18”, MTSH “Timofey Ulyantsev” and “Vasily Gromov”, BDK “50 years of Komsomol patronage”, MRZK “Deflector” returned to the base.

At the MTSh "Timofey Ulyantsev" from Berbera to Vladivostok, from the PMTO and ships based there, they carried a dozen demobilizations whose service life ended in December 1974, that is, the guys served not 3 but 3.5 years. The minesweeper's long-term emergency was not without bitter losses; in the Gulf of Aden, sailor Nikolai Polovaikin, a motorman who died from electric shock while performing welding work in an oil tank, was buried; a sailor from the warhead-5, standing in the ranks on the quarterdeck of the ship, was shot in the stomach by a bullet wound. and a watch in Berbera. The shot occurred due to careless handling of a Makarov pistol by a midshipman from a nearby floating workshop, who was disassembling the pistol in the cabin and the bullet flew out through the open porthole and hit the sailor; he was lucky that it did not hit any vital organs. During the voyage, 13 appendices were cut out from the sailors of the ship, and this despite the fact that there was no surgeon on the ship and for operations they had to go to the nearest Soviet ship or to Berber.

After the departure of the cruiser "Dmitry Pozharsky", from May 25 the DBK "Gnevny" became the flagship of the squadron.

In May, it began its BS in the Indian Ocean TFR pr.1135 “Reasonable” (onboard 201, k-3r.Kulik V.V.). In March 1975, he left Baltiysk on an inter-naval passage around Africa to Vladivostok, taking part in the Ocean-75 maneuvers in the Atlantic in April. At the end of May 1975, we approached the island of Mauritius and stayed for a couple of days at the Port Louis roadstead, but the visit was canceled and the patrol went on to Somalia.

Also in May, BDK pr.1171 (NATO - Alligator) “Nikolai Vilkov” began BS in the Indian Ocean.

During the first week of June 1975, the Soviet presence in the Indian Ocean consisted of two large surface ships (DBK and SKR pr. pr. 1135 "Razumny") equipped with missiles, two patrol ships, a torpedo submarine, two minesweepers, a landing craft, five auxiliary vessels, a space fleet ship, two oceanographic vessels and two tankers.

Thanks to the activities of the Navy of various countries, including the USSR in 1974-1975. demining of the Suez Canal and approaches to it in Red and Mediterranean seas, and also the lifting of sunken ships in the canal was carried out.

Before the official opening of the canal in November 1974, small Egyptian ships passed through it, and in March 1975, two Egyptian destroyers.

June 5, 1975 The Suez Canal was reopened for shipping. At the opening ceremony there were only two naval officers from the USSR Navy, including the commander of the trawling detachment, Captain 1st Rank Alexander Nikolaevich Apollonov, who was the personal guest of Egyptian President Anwar Sadat. Under the glare of photo flashes, he shook hands with Apollonov and said in Russian: “Thank you.” However, at the opening of the ceremony, Sadat shook hands with all the heads of the naval contingents participating in the opening of the canal, including American admirals - the commander of the 6th American Fleet, Vice Admiral Stansfield Turner (Stansfield M. Turner) and the commander of Task Force 65, Rear Admiral Kent J. Carroll). The first convoy, consisting of the Egyptian destroyer October 6 with President Sadat on board, the presidential yacht MAHROUSA, the American cruiser LITTLE ROCK and two Egyptian motor vessels, completed a six-hour voyage from Port Said to Ismailia. The presence of an American cruiser in the convoy was unexpected and naturally upset the Soviet representatives, since they were clearly relegated to the background. The first to proceed through the canal were three Egyptian ships, the Star of Aswan, Syria and Egypt.

The opening of the canal opened up new opportunities to support the activities of the 8th squadron in the Indian Ocean. The distance between the Black Sea bases and the Gulf of Aden when moving through the Suez Canal was 2,500 miles, as opposed to 11,500 miles when traveling around Africa. Or from 7700 miles from Vladivostok. Assuming average speed at 15 knots, then the transit time from Sevastopol to the port of Berbera (Somalia) is 8 days, and to the American base on Diego Garcia 13 days. The pre-opening supply route from Vladivostok is 17 days to Berbera and 14 days to Diego Garcia. However, the USSR was in no hurry to use the channel; on July 10, 1975, the American newspaper “ Washington Post" reported that only six weeks after the opening of the Suez Canal, the first Soviet warship passed through it; by this time, a number of US Navy warships had transited the canal (the first to pass from the Indian Canal in June was a frigate “ Joseph Hewes FF-1078), Great Britain, France, Iran and even Oman.

In July, the ships of the squadron mainly conducted surveillance in the Gulf of Aden and the Strait of Hormuz. The headquarters ship "Taman" was located near Diego Garcia for some time, observing the American base.

On July 17, a detachment of American ships arrived in the Indian Ocean through the Strait of Malacca, consisting of the missile cruiser "Reeves" CG-24, 2 frigates "Badger" FF-1071, "Harold E. Holt" FF-1074 and the tanker "Mispillion" AO-105. It operated in the Indian Ocean for approximately 50 days, during which time their ships visited the ports of Singapore, Penang (Malaysia), Port Louis (Mauritius), Victoria (Seychelles), Mombasa (Kenya), Karachi (Pakistan) and Colombo (Sri -Lanka). Not counting the permanent detachment of 1 headquarters ship and 2 destroyers operating in the Persian Gulf, this is the second deployment of American ships to the Indian Ocean within a year.

On July 12-16, the DBK "Gnevny", SKR-class Petya (Project 159A) and the tanker "Vladimir Kolechitsky" visited the port of Mogadishu (Somalia). The visit came after exercises in the Seychelles area, which also involved a Foxtrot-class submarine (Project 641). In general, it was an ordinary visit, but what’s interesting is that the DBK “Gnevny” carried tail number 561, and this despite the fact that at the beginning of the BS onboard it had 998. Moreover, foreign diplomats noted the fact that in place of the last digit another one was visible, which they mistook it for the letter B or V. This, as far as I know, is the second case when the side number of a ship was changed during the BS period, the first was the “BDK-66” during its BS period as part of the experimental 1st mixed brigade of the Pacific Fleet in the Indian Ocean on April 28. 1973 to June 11, 1974

In the 20th of July, Soviet warships for the first time after the opening passed the Suez Canal in the northern and south direction.

On July 23, the first Soviet combat ship of the SKR class Petya (Project 159A) sailed north from Krasnogi to the Mediterranean Sea through the canal, it was towed by a civilian tug. The same tug brought it from Vladivostok to Cape Gvardafui on July 6; it was intended for transfer to the Syrian Navy; it was brought to Tartus on July 27.

On July 24, the first Soviet Alligator-class BDK warship (Project 1171) with onboard 412 sailed south from the Mediterranean to the Red Sea, heading from the Black Sea to the port of Berbera. On board the BDK there was a set of PMT-100 pipelines and 50 tons of gasoline in metal barrels. To provide guidance for the loading of PMT-100 and gasoline, placement and escort of cargo on the ship, as well as for the laying and operation of the pipeline in Somalia, a group of military specialists from the Black Sea Fleet fuel service, consisting of 5 officers and 30 sailors, was formed. The leadership of the group was entrusted to the deputy Head of the fuel service, Colonel Oleg Alekseevich Bogovich. The ship loaded in Sevastopol and at 17.00 on July 17, 1975, set out on a cruise. Transportation was not easy. As the ship moved south, the temperature in the hold began to rise. When approaching the Red Sea, the observed indicators reached the following values: air in the hold +33°, near the surface of the barrels +36°, sea water +26°C. After the ship crossed the northern Tropic of Cancer and entered the tropical zone at 16.00 on July 27, these indicators reached: air in the hold + 42 °, barrels + 46 °, water + 29 ", and at 20.00 the hold heated up to + 48 °, barrels up to + 53 ° , sea water was+29-30°. Some barrels swelled, the plug gaskets swelled, and gasoline began to leak out at the top ends. To prevent gasoline vapors from igniting, it was necessary to turn on the seawater irrigation system. Irrigation continued until the landing ship was moored at the Berbera port berth. The ship arrived at the port of Berbera on July 29, but only on July 30 at 3.00 and after incomprehensible delays was berthed. On the morning of July 30, the unloading of barrels of gasoline began and their transfer to the rear point of the Black Sea Fleet in Berbera. On August 1 of the war, pipeline workers along the highway conducted reconnaissance along the planned pipeline route Berbera-Hargeisa. But by this time it became clear that the need to lay the pipeline had disappeared. So the pipeline workers on the same landing ship set off back on August 7. On August 13, the BDK passed the Suez Canal in a northern direction and arrived in Sevastopol on August 17.

At the end of July most of The squadron's units were concentrated in the Gulf of Aden, in the area of ​​Cape Guardafui and off the island of Socotra.

In August, the squadron's auxiliary fleet tried a new method of supplying the squadron's ships with fuel. On August 7, the sea tanker "Pevek" passed through the Suez Canal in a northerly direction, in the Mediterranean Sea north of the Gulf of Salloum it refueled from two tankers and returned through the canal to the Indian Ocean on August 16. Thus, the tanker's voyage was reduced by 2/3.

In May-August 1975, Soviet ships regularly carried out patrol duty in the Strait of Hormuz. This task was partially performed by the Kursograph reconnaissance ship, and partially by a minesweeper.

In September, the Kursograph MRZK completed its BS in the Indian Ocean. The scout, before his return to Vladivostok, was spotted at O.D. Iego Garcia. This marked the end of the first deployment of the MRZK in the region since the end of the India-Pakistan war in December 1971. With its departure, there were no other reconnaissance vessels left in the region. Their function will probably be performed by PSK Taman.

On September 20, 1975, for the second time this year, two Soviet Il-38 anti-submarine aircraft (NATO - MAY) flew to the airfield near the port of Berbera. They flew back on September 29. The first time these planes arrived was in April to participate in the Ocean-75 exercises.

In September MTShch "MT-5" (k-3r.A.G. Zozul) made a business call to the port of Umm Qasr (Iraq).

In October, through the Suez Canal, the squadron arrived carrying out an inter-fleet transition from the Baltic SKR pr.1135 (NATO - Krivak) "Striking" and 2 BDK pr.775 (NATO - Ropucha) "BDK-48" (onboard 507, k-3 r . Vavilov V.M.) and "BDK-63" (airborne 514,k-3 r. Gorokhovsky).BDK arrived in Vladivostok in January, and TFR in April. The transition of the BDK was led by the commander of the landing ship division, Boris Vasilievich Kozin.

In October 1975, the floating base Project 1886 (NATO - Ugra) “Ivan Vakhrameev” (onboard 968) and the SSGN Project 675 (NATO - Echo II) “K-189” came from the Pacific Fleet to the Indian Ocean.

On October 27, the third detachment of American ships of the year arrived through the Strait of Malacca into the Indian Ocean, consisting of the aircraft carrier Midway CV-41, the missile cruiser Worden CG-18, the destroyer Turner Joy DD-951, the frigate Fanning FF-1076 , the support vessel "Sacramento" AOE-1 and the tanker "Mispillion" AO-105.AUG after calling at Karachi (Pakistan) in the Arabian Sea from November 15-29 will take part in the MIDLINK 75 naval exercises together with the British and Iranian Navy and Pakistan.

In October 1975, the Razumny TFR, operating in the Indian Ocean since May, went to Vladivostok together with a tanker. But south of Sri Lanka, his route home was interrupted and he was sent to intercept an American detachment of ships entering the Indian Ocean.

From the opening of the Suez Canal to October 1, 1975, 10 Soviet naval ships and 348 merchant ships passed through it. And on November 1, 11 Soviet naval vessels passed through the canal. In the southern direction, 5 ships passed from warships: 1 TFR project 1135 (NATO - Krivak) “Striking”, 3 landing ships (Alligator class BDK (project 1171) of the Black Sea Fleet with onboard 412 - July 24, "BDK-48" and "BDK-63") and 1 OSA-II class missile boat (Project 205), which was towed to Somalia. In the northern direction, 2 warships passed: 1 Petya class TFR (Project 159A) on July 23, going under tow to Syria and 1 Alligator class BDK (Project 1171) with onboard 412, on August 13 in the opposite direction. The remaining transits were carried out by auxiliary ships and tankers of the Navy.

In November 1975, the first and only Soviet warship transferred to this country was delivered to Sri Lanka. The large torpedo boat pr.205ET (NATO - MOL) “T-233” (factory 451, commissioned in 1974) from the Black Sea Fleet was towed by a civilian tug and left the Black Sea on October 28, and was carried through the Suez Canal on November 3. In November, it was brought to Sri Lanka, it does not have missile or torpedo weapons, it has only deck artillery, it will fight smuggling between India and Sri Lanka, complementing 5 Chinese patrol boats of the type Shanghai . Transferred to the Sri Lanka Navy on December 31, 1975 and named "Samudra Devi" R 3250. In January 1976, after training in the USSR, 7 Sri Lankan sailors arrived on it; the Soviet crew remained on the ship until approximately mid-1976. It was decommissioned in 1983.

In November, a total of 8 ships of the squadron monitored the progress of the MIDLINK 75 naval exercise within the CENTO block, in which the navies of the United States, Great Britain, Iran and Pakistan participated. Among them was the SSGN pr.675 (NATO - Echo II) “K-189” and 2 ships equipped with missiles. Among the ships was the minesweeper pr. 264 (NATO - T-58) “MT-5” (since 1976 “SKR-137”, k-3r. Zozul A.G.). Retired captain 1st rank Zozul Alexander Grigorievich recalled: “The ship took an active part in tracking and reconnaissance of US Navy exercises together with the fleets of Iran and Pakistan on the approaches to the Strait of Hormuz, codenamed Midlig-75. We were so carried away by the surveillance that we almost entered the terrorist waters of Pakistan, clarifying the location of the US Navy aircraft carrier. And when a Pakistani Navy boat (like our Yaroslavets) began to approach us with a fairly large number of personnel on the upper deck with the clear intention of approaching our side, I, out of harm’s way, played a drill with an exercise to combat the PDSS. The artillery units moved in, the machine gunners took their places according to the schedule. Only after this did the Pakistanis abandon their intention to approach our board. »

In addition, on November 17, two Tu-95RTs long-range bombers (NATO - BEAR DELTA), taking off from bases in the USSR and passing through a corridor in Iranian airspace, searched the American aircraft carrier Midway in the Indian Ocean.

There were some incidents. An American sailor who served on the destroyer Turner Joy DD-951 described how “a Soviet cruiser almost rammed us for harassing one of its submarines trying to penetrate the flotilla " The Turner Joy acoustics discovered a Soviet submarine in the south and chased it for two hours until a Soviet ship approached with missiles, which it aimed at the American destroyer. The Americans, in turn, aimed their 5-inch guns at the Soviet ship, and after a signal for help, the aircraft carrier Midway sent two F-4s in support. After this, the Soviet ship left.

On November 25, on the aircraft carrier Midway, during landing maneuvers, the plane touched the bridge and crashed into another plane, two crew members were injured.

After a month and a half patrol in the Strait of Hormuz, which coincided with the American exercises "Midlig-75", the MTSH "MT-5" made a business call to the port of Umm Qasr. Some time after the MT-5, the minesweeper Pavel Khokhryakov entered the port of Umm Qasr.

November 22-27, 1975 A detachment of ships under the command of Captain 1st Rank V.Kh. Konovalov, consisting of the Gnevny DBK, 1 SKR-141 TFR and a tanker, came to Bombay (India) on an official visit. After the visit, the DBK "Gnevny" went home to Vladivostok; it has been the flagship of the squadron since May 25.

On December 15, 1975, a new detachment of ships entered the Indian Ocean through the Strait of Malacca - 2 SKR pr.159A (NATO - Petya) "SKR-43" (onboard 831, commander V.M. Kazurov) and SKR with onboard 826, 2 minesweepers pr. 264 (NATO - T-58) "Pavel Khokhryakov" (airborne 853, commander of the K-3r.S.N. Kozlov), “Fedor Mitrofanov” (airborne 854, commander of the sq. Yu.K. Mursalimov), 1 BDK pr.1171 (NATO - Alligator) “Sergey Lazo” (airborne 356, commander of the 2nd r. Pozdnyakov V.A.) on board the BDG under the command of Major V.B. Dzherikhov, 1 tanker "Akhtuba" and 1 auxiliary tugboat. On board the BDK were the commander of the 8th OPEC, Rear Admiral Nikolai Yakovlevich Yasakov, and a group of officers from the newly appointed headquarters of the 8th OPEC, who were heading to the Indian Ocean zone to their duty station. At the 98th meridian we met with ships returning home. We celebrated the New Year at the transition to o .From okotr.

In December, after the arrival of the shift, 2 SKR pr.159A “SKR-21” (airborne 811, commander Derenkov) and “SKR-141” (airborne 812, commander Feskov), 2 MTShch pr. pr. 264 completed their BS in the Indian Ocean Pavlin Vinogradov" (commander cl.A.V. Onishchenko), "MT-5" (since 1976 "SKR-137", commander of the 3rd r. A.G. Zozul) and DPL pr.641 (NATO - Foxtrot ) "B-833" (formerly "B-133", commander of the 2nd regiment V.I. Shestakov). The submarine was being towed. During the BS on the SKR-141, the foreman of the electricians team, midshipman Melnikov, died from electric shock and was buried at sea.

In December 1975, Soviet ships visited the port of Colombo four times, compared to only 2 space fleet ships (PSK) during the rest of the year. In December, at the beginning and end of the month, Colombo visited the Dixon PSK twice; on December 14-16, a fleet tanker visited there, and on December 16-30, the BDK-63 (onboard 514) carried out a diplomatic mission, delivering the Soviet ambassador to the Maldives.

IN last days December 1975, the destroyer Project 56 (NATO - Kotlin) “Inspirational” (onboard 400, commander k-2r.) arrived in the Indian Ocean through the Strait of Malacca at the BS.Litvinov) and diesel submarine pr.641 (NATO - Foxtrot ) “B-8” (on board the 332nd reserve crew, commander of the k-2r. Yu.P. Dotsenko, senior - ZKB k-1r. V.A. Senkin) which he brought in tow to save engine life.

Rozin Alexander.

On the Google map you can see everything that the USSR built for them in Berbera.

During the Soviet era, many feudal African princelings tried to extract economic assistance and weapons by declaring a “course towards socialism.” Such a prince in Somalia was Siad Barre.
In 1970, he declared “socialism,” which, by the way, also involved Sharia law.
And help came:
We built 4 modern airfields, two naval bases (one for our base - Berbera, a second smaller one - for the Somali fleet, to which the USSR donated this fleet - a dozen missile, patrol and torpedo boats, KFOR and trained crews), almost a hundred aircraft (fighters and bombers ), and, of course, tanks, armored personnel carriers and air defense systems.
Our leaders suggested that this princeling unite with the Ethiopians. But he decided, on the sly of his neighbors, to chop off an entire province. By that time, Ethiopia had also become socialist. A country with its Eritrean separatists. In general, it is larger than Somalia, and the population is Christian, without Sharia laws. Also princeling Haile Mariam, but he quickly became friends with Fidel Castro.
In general, the strategic picture was developing successfully - the Red Sea was tightly squeezed from NATO on both sides. Despite the loss of Egypt in 1974, the transport arteries of the Red Sea were squeezed by Yemen, Ethiopia, and the Persian Gulf could also be controlled. The fleet had a bunch of parking lots and technical equipment. It was then that the President of Egypt, Saddath, advised the “Sharia builder of socialism” to blackmail the USSR, and to turn to the Americans at the same time. And it couldn’t have happened without the Saudis either.
Further events developed uncontrollably:
"After Cuba and the USSR took the side of the latter during the outbreak of aggression by the Somali army against Ethiopia, relations that had lasted for many years between our countries were severed. On November 13, 1977, Somali President Siad Bare announced the termination of the Soviet-Somali Treaty of July 11, 1974.
Two thousand Soviet specialists and members of their families had to leave the country by November 20.
On November 15, 1977, TASS published a statement “On the issue of Soviet-Somali relations”: “The government of the Somali Democratic Republic stated that it does not consider it necessary for the continued presence of Soviet specialists in the SDR, and also terminates the Soviet-Somali Treaty of Friendship and Cooperation of July 11, 1974. The Somali government took its action unilaterally and in the context of an actual war that it unleashed against neighboring Ethiopia. Essentially, behind this action is dissatisfaction with the fact that the Soviet Union did not support Somalia’s territorial claims to a neighboring state and refused to help incite a fratricidal war in the Horn of Africa.""

In general, it was precisely those 2 thousand of our citizens who found themselves hostage to the situation:
From the memoirs of Igor Georgievich Penkov, at that time political adviser to the head of the political department of the Somali Navy:
“The first sign of an impending storm was associated with Fidel Castro’s visit to Somalia. Portraits of the guest were posted all over Mogadishu. By the way, Cuban military advisers also worked in Somalia, and they had the same problem as us, good relations with Ethiopia. When Castro spoke, he was applauded, but at the moment when in his speech he advised the Somalis to adopt the experience of Ethiopia in creating communes, something unimaginable began: there was shouting and whistling, stones were thrown at the Cuban leader, people rushed to tear his portraits from the walls. Siad Barre gave the order to all Cubans to leave the country within 48 hours. The Cubans obviously did not have time, and we sheltered them, since our colony of military specialists with their families was not in Mogadishu itself, but somewhat on the outskirts.

But it was our turn. And that’s what amazed me - how instantly a friend can become an enemy. We were really friends with our Somali colleagues. They used to say: “You and I have a lot in common in the most important things. We had a revolution in October, and you have an October revolution. Your country is called the USSR, and ours in Russian is called the USSR - the Union of Somali Socialist Republics." I asked which republics are part of the Somali Union? It turned out that President Siad Barre considered states such as Kenya, Ethiopia, Djibouti to be an integral part of Somalia...

On the morning of November 13, my Somali colleagues and I greeted each other and smiled at each other. In the afternoon the President announced the denunciation of treaties with Soviet Union and actually told us to get out. In the evening we were already surrounded by enemies. For Moscow, lulled by tales of unbreakable friendship, this was an unpleasant surprise. But for us it’s a real nightmare. Electricity and water were cut off in the houses where Soviet families lived. The village was cordoned off by commandos to protect us from the angry crowds. They gathered around, shouted threats and insults, and threw stones. Difficulties began with food - the stores did not sell anything to the Soviets. We managed to shoot several wild pigs, the meat of which is considered inedible in Somalia.

Unlike the Cubans, we were graciously given a whole week to leave the country. The Soviet colony found itself in the position of hostages. In addition, there was a lot of Soviet property there. How can I get all this out in a week? The Somalis solved the problem simply, they took and confiscated everything. But how can thousands of Soviet specialists and their families be taken out in a week? I appealed to the commander of the Somali fleet with a request to allow our landing ships to enter the port from the Gulf of Aden to evacuate our property. But Siad Barre forbade: “there is nothing to evacuate from Somalia.”

Our group began to move to the airport, which turned out to be a trap. They simply mocked us there. They sent special flights for us - passenger ILs, which were flown by experienced military pilots in civilian clothes. When planes landed at night, electricity was completely cut off on the runways. Only miracles and skill of our pilots saved us from disasters.

The line for customs inspection became endlessly long. Women and children slept on the floor and began to get sick. And the customs officers slowly, around the clock, replacing each other, gutted suitcases and bags. I don’t know whether it’s true or not, but they said that the Cuban ambassador was subjected to special bullying. He was stripped almost naked. However, ours got it too - God forbid. They took almost everything, including used children's things. The customs officer shakes out the suitcase and simply robs it. He laughs and puts aside the things he likes, saying: “This is mine.” And on the mezzanine above, BBC and Xinhua correspondents were on duty with film cameras. The ambassador strictly ordered them not to give them any “compromising evidence.”

And yet those correspondents waited for the sensation. It was the turn of one of our specialists. When the customs officer began to mock his family, throwing children's things on the floor, he, a huge man, hit him hard. And then we all, unarmed, armed ourselves with full bottles of Pepsi-Cola and stood like a wall, ready to fight. They realized that any mess with shooting at unarmed people would end badly for them. They got cold feet. Just then our naval landing arrived in time. Things immediately went faster. I was the last one to fly on the AN-12. Customs didn’t inspect me at all. Well, when we arrived home, they took a non-disclosure agreement from us...”

From the memoirs of Admiral Mikhail Nikolaevich Khronopulo, at that time captain 1st rank, chief of staff of the 8th OPZSK: “At that time I was on the large landing ship “50 Years of Komsomol Patronage.”
We were then based in northern Somalia in the port of Berbera in the Gulf of Aden. On November 13, 1977, Somali President Siad Barre announced that all Soviet citizens must leave the country by November 20. In addition, the Somali leadership stated that all Soviet property located on the territory of the republic would be confiscated. I immediately informed the center of the need to urgently organize an evacuation. The center scolded me for being alarmist and suggested drawing up a plan for a gradual evacuation before the new year. I drew up such a plan and submitted it to the center. On November 14, an order came to redo the plan. Another day passed in this red tape. Only on November 16, an order was received to urgently go to Mogadishu.

Since the Somali authorities behaved towards us, to put it mildly, dishonestly, I did not consider it necessary to request permission to enter Mogadishu harbor. Our transport ship was still standing there, which was not allowed to approach the pier to load Soviet property. They say there is nothing to load, everything has now become the property of Somalia. Naturally, we did not recognize this illegal action. The Marines were put ashore. As soon as our paratroopers appeared on the shore, the situation instantly changed. The abuse of our people stopped, and no one dared to interfere with the loading of Soviet property onto the transport ship.”

A participant in the combat campaign on the large landing ship “50 years of patronage of the Komsomol” in the Indian Ocean zone as part of the Pacific Fleet Marine Corps battalion from June 1977 to May 1978, Sergeant Yudin Sergei Mikhailovich recalled:
“... in 1977, the situation on the Arabian Peninsula and in Africa sharply worsened, as the political officer simply explained to us, “Somali separatists rolled a barrel at the socialist Ethiopians,” they also laid claim to Yemeni territories. So our trip began from the port of Berbera (apparently a mistake, in fact - Mogadishu), but the Somalis did not let us into the port. Then the escort ship Chapaev approached, made a turn in the harbor, and the port was open for us. The families of diplomats and specialists took other ships, and our ship (BDK “50 Years of Komsomol Patronage”) was loaded with airfield equipment and aircraft tankers. On the high seas, we transferred all this to dry cargo ships. The task was not easy, but it was carried out carefully; only one KrAZ truck had a broken frame.

And after that we went to Socotra to explain to the Somalis whose island it was. By that time, Yemen had already sent troops there, we transferred their tank brigade (T-34), specialists, and food to the island.”

The command of the Somali army knew firsthand what Soviet marines were capable of. Back in September-October 1972, during joint exercises in the area of ​​the port of Buljahar (west of Berbera), the Soviet marines of the Pacific Fleet immediately broke through the prepared anti-landing defense of the Somali troops after landing and, having completed an 80-kilometer march in desert conditions, reached the port of Berbera. The Somali Defense Minister, General M.A. Samantar, was also present at the exercises. Therefore, in November 1977, after landing troops in Mogadishu with one PT-76 amphibious tank and two BTR-60 armored personnel carriers, the Somalis did not try to counteract the actions of our sailors and did not interfere in anything. Moreover, this was fraught with danger for the Somalis themselves, because what appeared before the eyes of our Marines greatly outraged them. This is what one of the landing participants recalled: “On the shore there were stacks of boxes with the very property that the Somali leadership decided to appropriate for itself. Behind these stacks on the high-rise were armed people. And in front of the stacks, on a narrow strip along the pier, there were Soviet specialists with their families, or rather, some of them. The rest were at Mogadishu airport. On this narrow strip of land they spent either two or three days under the scorching sun. It was scary to leave there because they were shooting at the stacks from time to time. People were desperate. When landing boats came to their rescue, the women cried, and one of them could not stand it and jumped into the water from a high pier with her child. The sailors immediately picked her up, and then fired several bursts over that barricade of boxes. The situation returned to normal, everything went like clockwork.”

When our ships from the Gulf of Aden approached Berbera, it was already known that the Somalis had announced the confiscation of all Soviet property and provocations from the Somalis were possible, including the seizure of ships in the port. The Soviet colony was surrounded by internal troops, searches are underway, and nothing is allowed to be taken or carried outside the Soviet colony. The sailors heard rumors that atrocities were being committed against our people at the airports. The leadership of Somalia issued a decree prohibiting our ships from approaching Somali ports. There was no time to wait for detailed instructions from the center to the command of the 8th operational squadron of the Navy: it was urgent to save their compatriots. So they had to resort to a little psychic demonstration. The ships' guns and missiles were brought into combat mode, and the paratroopers openly prepared for landing. Our amphibious assault with tanks and artillery looked so impressive that the detachments of the Somali internal troops did not dare to interfere in anything. People were evacuated, then our sailors dismantled all Soviet property and loaded it onto ships. Everything went without shots or incidents, and was done in the shortest possible time.

The following CONCLUSION can be drawn: 1. The leadership of the USSR wanted to know only what it liked. Objectivity was not taken into account in the Kremlin.
The appointment in September 1974 played a negative role in determining Soviet policy with the Somali leader. Ambassador to Somalia G.E. Samsonov. He replaced A.S. Pasyutin, who maintained reasonable restraint in his assessment of Siad Barre, which, apparently, did not escape the latter’s attention and prompted him during a visit to Mogadishu in July 1974. N.V. Podgorny to ask the distinguished guest to appoint as ambassador another adviser-envoy of our embassy that he liked. This is what was done and only worsened our uncritical attitude towards the politics of Siad Barre. Moreover, Siad Barre, during meetings with our delegations and in messages to the Soviet leadership, invariably made soothing statements about the peacefulness of Somalia. In Moscow they believed him. With the active assistance of the then ambassador to Mogadishu G.E. Samsonov, a lively personal correspondence was carried out between Siad Barre and L.I. Brezhnev, and the ambassador clearly corrected the “reputation” of the Somali leader with his own calculations, references to the fact that “Comrade Siad assured,” “ Comrade Siad asked to hand it over personally to Comrade Brezhnev,” etc.

Again from the memoirs of Igor Georgievich Penkov :

Speaking at the 25th Congress of the CPSU, the Somali leader Siad Barre told how he was building socialism, and our leadership willingly believed him, because they wanted to believe. We, those who worked in Somalia, were convinced that our leadership had little knowledge of the situation in this country.

There was a ceremonial visit by N.V. Podgorny, which in Moscow was considered very successful. And in Mogadishu they were unhappy with the visit, because they believed that the Soviet leader should have brought them large cash gifts or loans. They needed to get as much as possible from us; feudal order, fanaticism and the cult of personality of the president reigned in the country.

I tried to inform Moscow about the true state of affairs, but my letters did not reach there, sometimes they were destroyed before my eyes, because they contradicted the optimistic reports of the leadership of the Soviet colony. The phenomenon is generally widespread... As a result, management stopped sharing objective information with me. I and our entire colony of military advisers were forced to follow the progress of the Somali-Ethiopian war by “voices”.

2. The story of the landing, covered with a bunch of legends for 35 years, is in fact mainly indicative of the fact that the sailors and commanders skillfully acted independently to protect their native citizens, without waiting for instructions from the center, which, as always, would be late. And it is indicative of the fear that the unruly Somali warriors experienced in front of the Soviet force of arms.
Of course, before it was necessary to demonstrate strength. Maybe there would have been no outcome...

By the way: there was no shooting, except for bursts of machine gun fire into the air as a warning, from the landing party.
Almost everything that could be taken was taken away, including watercraft.

COMBAT SERVICE Help. BDK “50 years of Komsomol patronage” Large landing ship of Project 1171. The chief designer of the ship of this project was I.I. Kuzmin, chief observer from the Navy - captain 2nd rank A.N. Belinsky. Laid down at the Yantar Shipyard in Kaliningrad on March 12, 1968 (serial number 297, group 3). Launched on August 31, 1969. It entered service on September 30, 1969 and became part of the Pacific Fleet. Until October 12, 1972 it was called “BDK-77”. In honor of the 50th anniversary of the patronage of the Leninist Komsomol over the Navy, the ship was given the name “50 years of patronage of the Komsomol” for high performance in combat and political training. Historically, patronage of the reviving Workers' and Peasants' Red Fleet, on the advice of Vladimir Ilyich Lenin, was accepted by the V All-Russian Congress of the RKSM on October 16, 1922. A special order of the Revolutionary Military Council of October 19 declared: “In accordance with the resolution of the V All-Russian Congress of the RKSM, the Russian Communist Youth Union is considered the chief of the Workers' and Peasants' Red Fleet.” In honor of the 30th anniversary of the Victory of the Soviet people over Nazi Germany, for success in socialist competition and military-patriotic education of youth, the Komsomol organization of the ship in 1975 was awarded the pennant of the Central Committee of the Komsomol, which visited space on the Soyuz-9 ship. Board numbers: 564, 363, 343 (1972), 355 (1974), 397 (1975), 386 (1977), 083 (1978), 079 (1981), 092 (1986), 062 (1989), 099 (1989) ). Total displacement - 4650 tons. Dimensions: length - 113.1 m width - 15.6 m stern draft - 4.5 m. Speed: 16.5 knots Cruising range at 16 knots - 4800 miles Power plant: two 58A-3 diesel engines of 4500 hp each; two screws Armament: 1 x 2 - 57 mm ZIF-51B; two launchers of the Strela-3 air defense system Crew: 69 people Landing capacity: 20 medium tanks and 440 people, or 47 armored personnel carriers and 440 people, or 52 trucks and 440 people, or 1000 tons of cargo. 18 SOVIET MARINE

KTOF MARINE CORPS IN THE SOMALIA-ETHIOPIAN CONFLICT Combat service was to be carried out on a large landing ship of Project 1171 “50 years of Komsomol patronage.” The ship's commander is captain 3rd rank Anatoly Semenovich Markin, his deputy for political affairs is captain-lieutenant V.V. Leontyev. On September 29, 1977, having received landings on the Klerka Peninsula and replenished supplies in Vladivostok, the BDK “50 Years of Komsomol Patronage” entered combat service. During the sea crossing, tank company commander A.N. Kuznetsov was operated on for removal of appendicitis. The ship entered the operational zone of the 8th operational squadron of the USSR Navy in the Indian Ocean on October 18, 1977. Immediately after this, the headquarters of the squadron headed by Rear Admiral Nikolai Yakovlevich Yasakov moved to the BDK. The crew was informed that the ship was heading to the port of Victoria, Seychelles, for its first official visit. The entry was planned for November holidays. Before the visit, the BDK stood at sea for five days, cleaned, painted, put on a “maraffe”, and got ready. And at the same time, Rear Admiral Yasakov N.Ya. awarded the rank of vice admiral, so that in the Seychelles he was already a vice admiral. To meet the President of the Republic Seychelles France-Albert Rene from the landing party was equipped with a guard of honor, which included lieutenants Bernavsky V.P., Tashlykov V.A., Fedotov S.V. and Tsypylov S.I. Since there were no experts in the ritual of presidential meetings (another omission in the preparation of landings), the guard acted according to an independently developed scenario. A piquant detail - since, according to the protocol, the head of the honor guard was supposed to be a senior officer (and Major V.K. Ushkov did not want to act in this role), then Lieutenant V.P. Bernavsky had the opportunity to wear the major's shoulder straps, as the most suitable in build. President Rene, surrounded by a personal guard consisting only of girls, was pleased with the respectful attitude towards himself. The region of military service carried out by the landing force of Major V.K. Ushkova Then a reception of the diplomatic corps “a la a buffet” took place on the ship. The cultural program was provided by the Black Sea Fleet orchestra, located on the BDK simultaneously with the officers of the 8th Special Operations Squad. Two days of “open doors” were organized for city residents with a display of the ship and landing equipment. The President of the Republic of Seychelles, Rene, gave a return reception in honor of the Soviet sailors in the capital, the city of Victoria. The host party, in turn, provided a number of cultural events and excursions. The zoo amazed with the display of the world's largest turtles. USSR MARINE CORPS DURING THE COLD WAR 19