Tonina Olga Igorevna The sinking of the ship "Armenia"
Seventy years ago, the most deadly maritime disaster in the history of our country occurred in the Black Sea. November 7, 1941 Crimean coast Hitler's aviation sent the sanitary ship "Armenia" to the bottom, on which the wounded, doctors and residents of the city were evacuated from the besieged Sevastopol to the Caucasus. How many people were on board - no one knows for sure. But according to experts - from 5 to 7 thousand people. 2-3 times more than on the infamous Titanic"! Only a few survived.
The official Soviet historiography did everything to hide the details of the terrible tragedy. The ends in the water are hidden in such a way that attempts made in recent years, even with the help of American bathyscaphes and hydroacoustic equipment, to find one of the largest underwater mass graves in the world have come to nothing. The skeleton of the huge "Armenia" has not yet been discovered.
What, in fact, is known from official sources? On the evening of November 6, the 41st ambulance in last time left Sevastopol. On board are the wounded, medical staff and evacuees. Arrived in Yalta to receive passengers there as well. The total number of people on deck, in the cabins, corridors and holds of the "Armenia", according to official figures, has reached 5,500 people. Everything that happened next is similar to the recklessness of the transport commander.
It is not known why in the morning, almost without cover, with the complete air supremacy of Nazi aircraft, the overcrowded ship left Yalta and, according to one source, guarded by one, and according to others, by two patrol boats, headed towards the Caucasus. At 11:25 a.m. abeam Gurzuf, a tiny convoy was attacked by the German Heinkel-111 torpedo bomber. Dropped two torpedoes, one of which hit the bow of the ship. Just four minutes later - at 11 hours 29 minutes - the ship sank to the bottom astern. It was possible to save according to one data, 8, according to others - 82 people.
And this is all that is contained in the memoirs of Soviet admirals on this subject. Even in the Combat Chronicle of the Soviet Navy in 1941-1942 published in 1983 by the Ministry of Defense on the basis of the archives of the General Staff of the USSR Navy. not a word about the biggest maritime tragedy of that war. Such blatant brevity requires explanation. I had to go to the archives.
Motor ship "Armenia" belonged to the first-born of the Soviet passenger shipbuilding - the so-called "Krymchaks", the construction of which began in 1926. They were named so because they were intended to transport people between the ports of the Crimea and the Caucasus. Twin-pipe motor ships turned out to be successful. They were designed for almost a thousand passengers. With a length of 110 meters and a displacement of 5770 tons, the speed was quite decent - 14.5 knots. In case of misfortune, there were 16 lifeboats 48 seats each. Is it any wonder that with the beginning of the Great Patriotic War, it was the “Krymchaks” who were the first to be transferred to the medical service Black Sea Fleet to evacuate the wounded?
"Armenia" and its brothers "Georgia", "Ukraine", "Adzharia" and "Crimea" were turned into floating hospitals by the workers of the Odessa shipyard. Under the bombs of German aviation, the partitions of first-class cabins were hurriedly broken in order to deploy an operating room and 4 dressing rooms for 11 tables each. It was believed that a maximum of 400 wounded would have to be taken on board. On August 10, 1941, "Armenia" was prepared for war.
It was more difficult with the crew. Experienced Captain Vladimir Plaushevsky dressed in a naval tunic and began to be called the commander of an ambulance transport. Military doctor of the 2nd rank Pyotr Dmitrievsky became the chief doctor of the floating hospital, mobilized from the railway hospital of Odessa. On the upper deck and the sides inflicted huge red crosses, testifying to the exclusively medical purpose of the vessel. But since no one had any illusions about the observance by the Nazis of the civilized rules of warfare, anti-aircraft machine guns were installed on the ship, which was painted in a protective color. Only civilian sailors had no time to learn how to accurately hit air targets from them. The enemy was already standing at the walls of Odessa, the wounded in her hospitals and medical battalions came in a stream. Therefore, the crew of "Armenia" had to, without delay, proceed to their evacuation to the Caucasian ports.
Until its death, ambulance transport managed to take out from Odessa and Sevastopol to mainland 15 thousand people. His last hike began in Tuapse in the early morning of November 4, 1941. Having taken on board marching reinforcements for the garrison of Sevastopol, "Armenia", guarding the destroyer "Savvy", went to the city, the siege of which was just beginning. Moored at Coal Wharf. And suddenly Plaushevsky received an order: on the way back together with the wounded take on board all without exception medical institutions fleet. What exactly - allow you to clarify the memories of a participant in the defense of Sevastopol colonel of the medical service A.I. Vlasov. Here they are: “On November 5, the head of the Main Base department received an order ... to close hospitals and infirmaries. About 300 wounded were loaded onto the "Armenia", the medical and economic personnel of the Sevastopol naval hospital (the largest in the fleet), led by its chief physician, military doctor of the 1st rank S.M. Kagan. Here were the heads of departments (with medical staff), X-ray technicians ... The 2nd naval and Nikolaev base hospitals, sanitary warehouse No. 280, the sanitary and epidemiological laboratory, the 5th medical detachment, the hospital from the Yalta sanatorium were also located here. Part of the medical staff of the Primorsky and 51st armies, as well as evacuated residents of Sevastopol, were taken on board the ship».
Just imagine: the enemy is at the gates, Sevastopol has been declared under a state of siege since October 29, fighting is going on a dozen and a half kilometers, and all hospitals and almost all medical personnel are sent from the city to the rear! I believe that there can be only one explanation for this - the command of the Black Sea Fleet in those days did not expect that the main base of the Black Sea Fleet would last at least a few days. I believe that it is precisely this conclusion, which does not fit with the official version of the heroic defense, that all the post-war years politicians and censors from history tried to bury under the archival headings “Top Secret”. So they hid materials about the death of "Armenia".
It must be said that there were enough facts for the pessimism of the Black Sea admirals. 11th German Army Colonel General Manstein in a matter of weeks it gnawed through our thin and clumsily built defenses on the narrow Perekop Isthmus and at the end of October burst into the steppe Crimea like an avalanche. Confused, Moscow did not decide who should defend Sevastopol. In the city itself, the garrison consisted of only two regiments of marines and a local rifle regiment. On October 30-31, the 8th Marine Brigade was hastily transferred from Novorossiysk to help. But even with it, the number of defenders was only about 20 thousand people. No matter how you arrange them, you can’t fight off Manstein.
Sevastopol saved, in essence, chance and military talent Commander of the Primorsky Army, General Ivan Petrov. After the defeat of Perekop, his army in the Crimean steppes was left to the mercy of fate. There was no connection either with Moscow or with the commander of the Crimean troops, Admiral Gordey Levchenko, with his headquarters, retreating to Alushta. There were no liaison aircraft. There was not even an order where to retreat - to Kerch or to Sevastopol? In the small Tatar village of Ekibash, the commanders of the abandoned Primorsky Army gathered for a military council. And according to their own understanding, they decided that they should save Sevastopol. This largely allowed the city to become a hero later on. But the seasiders still had to reach him.
Eyewitnesses say that their columns in a forced march along parallel roads were gathering dust in a race with the Nazis. Ours didn't make it. The Germans managed to cut the road to Bakhchisaray. The coastal army had to turn on a long, but the only free way to the main base of the Black Sea Fleet - to the mountains South Shore Crimea. And the main question was this: who will go to Sevastopol first? Primortsy or Manstein? Manstein was much closer, and his aviation in the air did what it wanted.
Here in such unenviable conditions Fleet Commander Admiral Philip Oktyabrsky had to decide what to do with the city? There is, in any case, more than one piece of evidence that, contrary to official version he did not prepare for a long defense. Moreover, in early November, when the first volleys rumbled on the outskirts of Sevastopol, the commander of the fleet found it necessary to urgently go to the Caucasus - to check the bases of the squadron being transferred there. As if he had never seen these places before.
The commander returned to Sevastopol on the 10th. And before that, it was on November 7 that a categorical directive from the Headquarters came from Moscow, after which it became clear to Oktyabrsky that if he did not save Sevastopol, he would not save himself either. Below is its full text.
STAFF DIRECTIVE No. 004433 TO THE COMMANDER OF THE CRIMEA TROOPS, THE BLACK SEA FLEET ON MEASURES TO STRENGTHEN THE DEFENSE OF THE CRIMEA
In order to pin down the enemy forces in the Crimea and prevent him from entering the Caucasus through Taman Peninsula The Headquarters of the Supreme High Command orders:
2. Do not surrender Sevastopol in any case and defend it with all your might.
3. Keep all three old cruisers and old destroyers in Sevastopol. From this composition, form a mobile detachment for operations in the Feodosiya Gulf in support of the troops occupying the Ak-Monai positions.
4. Detachment of the Azov flotilla to support the troops of the Ak-Monai position from the north.
5. Battleships, new cruisers based in Novorossiysk, using for operations against the coast occupied by the enemy, and strengthening the detachment of old ships. Destroyer basing at your discretion.
6. Part of the FOR from the abandoned areas to use to strengthen the air defense of Novorossiysk.
7. Organize and ensure the transportation to Sevastopol and Kerch of troops retreating to Yalta, Alushta and Sudak.
8. Fighters, attack aircraft and part of the ICBM aircraft should be left in Sevastopol and Kerch, the rest of the aircraft should be used from airfields of the North Caucasus Military District for night strikes on airfields, bases and enemy troops in the Crimea.
9. Evacuate everything valuable, but not necessary for defense, from Sevastopol and Kerch to the Caucasus.
10. Lead the defense of Sevastopol to the commander of the Black Sea Fleet, Comrade Oktyabrsky, with subordination to you. The deputy commander of the Black Sea Fleet should have a naval fleet in Tuapse.
11. You are in Kerch.
12. For the direct leadership of the defense of the Kerch Peninsula, appoint Lieutenant General Batov.
J. STALIN B. SHAPOSHNIKOV N. KUZNETSOV
What was left for October? It is urgent to return from the relatively safe Caucasus to the besieged Sevastopol. And Admiral Oktyabrsky hastened to lead the battle for his main base.
But even the short absence of the fleet commander in the city at the most critical moments gave rise to growing panic. Is it any wonder that it was decided to urgently ship all the medical staff of the fleet to the "Armenia"? And many more, even artists of the Lunacharsky City Theater. Despite the crush on the narrow ladders, the parking lot of “Armenia” in Sevastopol was reduced by two hours: it was reported from Yalta that a large group of party and Soviet workers of the Crimea were awaiting evacuation there, along with crowds of wounded and refugees. I had to go after them.
Why was it the crew of the "Armenia" who was entrusted with this reckless business? If not for the fatal stop, at its decent speed for a civilian ship, the transport could have reached Tuapse safely overnight: German planes did not fly in the dark. Those who were waiting for rescue on the Yalta berths could well have been taken out to Sevastopol for a start, which is only a couple of hours away. There were plenty of ships and watercraft for this in the main base. In the end, on the very night when "Armenia" was losing precious hours, mooring in Yalta, the loading of the 7th Marine Brigade departing from Perekop onto the destroyers "Boikiy" and "Imperfect" took place there quite safely. The ships took on board about 1,800 fighters and commanders, part of the military equipment, and left Yalta at 03:40. At dawn, they moored in Sevastopol. However, the point, apparently, is that the evacuation to Sevastopol at that time seemed like salvation to a few of the panicked influential leaders. If you tear your claws from the Nazis, then only to the Caucasus!
Towards the death of the ship "Armenia" set off at 17 pm. Almost immediately came after order of the fleet headquarters: make one more stop on the roadstead of Balaklava and take some cargo from the shore. Who, what - in a short radiogram was not reported. Having stopped the move at Balaklava, Plaushevsky immediately understood why. Boats with NKVD workers approached the transport board. Wooden boxes were dragged from them to the deck. According to some researchers, these were valuable exhibits of Crimean museums.
Whatever it was, a few more precious hours were lost. As a result transport entered Yalta only at 2 am on November 7. What was waiting for him at the pier? This is recalled by one of those who really wanted to get on the deck of the "Armenia", but did not manage to do it. As it turned out - to his happiness. Otherwise, we would not have read this testimony. Word - E.S. Nikulin: “Since the evening, we still did not know anything about the ship “Armenia”. At night, about two o'clock, they woke us up and led us almost in formation along the middle of the street to the port. There was a huge ship in the port. The whole marina and pier are filled with people. We joined this crowd. Boarding the ship was slow; in two hours we moved from the pier to the pier. The pressure is incredible! Loading went from about two o'clock until seven in the morning. Across the pier stood NKVD soldiers with rifles and let only women with children through. Sometimes men broke through the cordon. The weather was inclement, it often rained. A fuel depot began to burn in the city, and huge black clouds of smoke were carried by the wind towards the city.».
Did not get to "Armenia" and the family Faith Chistova who was 9 years old at the time. She recalls: “Dad bought tickets, and my grandmother and I had to leave Yalta on the ship Armenia. On the night of November 6, the pier was full of people. First, the wounded were loaded, then the civilians were let in. Nobody checked the tickets, and a stampede began on the gangway. The brave climbed onto the ship along the shrouds. In the bustle, suitcases and things were thrown off the board. By dawn, the loading was completed. But we never got to Armenia. Hundreds of people remained on the pier. My grandmother and I went to my father's workshop on the embankment. There I fell asleep».
Subsequently, in his diaries, Admiral Oktyabrsky wrote that the commander of the "Armenia" violated his order to wait in Yalta for the night of November 8 in order to protect the ship from air strike. But the experienced captain Plaushevsky was not suicidal. Even without a commander, he knew perfectly well what the morning campaign threatened him with. However, panic reigned in Yalta, there was no power, the intelligence of the Nazis rolled freely to the city from Alushta, occupied on November 4th.
In addition, following the order of the commander of the Black Sea Fleet meant standing all day in the port, which had never had air defense. No one would have prevented the German aviation from bombing a huge stationary target right at the pier.
In a word, Plaushevsky decided not to wait until "Armenia" was drowned right in Yalta. And gave moorings at 8 am on November 7.
By that time, the Germans had not managed to establish any reconnaissance in the port, and the Heinkels were clearly not hunting for Armenia. The Germans probably knew that the Black Sea ships were hastily transporting the troops of the retreating Primorsky Army from the southern coast of Crimea to Sevastopol. And since the morning of November 7, they were probably hunting for them. And then the almost defenseless "Armenia" turned up ... At 11 hours and 25 minutes, the ship was attacked by a single German torpedo bomber He-111, which belonged to the 1st squadron of the I / KG28 air group. The aircraft approached from the shore and dropped two torpedoes from a distance of 600 meters. One passed by, and the second hit the bow of the ship. After 4 minutes, "Armenia" went to the bottom.
It happened exactly on the 24th anniversary of the October Revolution. In Moscow, a historic military parade has just ended on Red Square. Just resounded Stalin's words:"The German invaders are straining their last strength. There is no doubt that Germany cannot bear such tension for long. A few more months, another six months, maybe a year, and Hitler's Germany must burst under the weight of its crimes.
Later, many preferred to forget this mournful episode of the victorious war. It was more convenient that way. Amazing, but in the Soviet years, no one tried to find the ship lying at the bottom. The first attempts were made already in independent Ukraine. In 2006, at the request of Kyiv, joined the work United States Institute of Oceanography and Oceanology under the direction of Robert Ballard. The same Billard who found the Titanic, the Bismar battleship and the Yorktown aircraft carrier that died in the oceans. The expedition, which cost the Americans 2.5 million dollars, passed over the supposed point of death of Soviet transport 27 times! Found at a depth of 300 meters, even 20-centimeter-long shells from artillery shells. But no traces of "Armenia" were seen.
In 2009, the Ukrainian underwater robot Sophocles was involved in the search work. Just 270 meters from the point indicated on the map, Sophocles discovered an old sailing 30-meter ship. But not "Armenia"! However, a 110-meter ambulance is not a needle in a haystack, is it? Even if we imagine that those who believe that “Armenia” was covered with a thick layer of silt are right, would such a mass of metal have to give at least some magnetic disturbances?
What's the matter? In my opinion, there is only one reasonable explanation - not looking there. The place of the tragedy on the maps is fixed inaccurately. Why not consider another version? Vladimir Plaushevsky was too experienced a captain not to understand what threatens him to sail throughout daylight hours along the coast of the Nazi-occupied Crimea. The most reasonable thing he could do was to turn to Sevastopol, under the cover of anti-aircraft artillery and fighters of the main base of the fleet.
Of course, it was, of course, impossible to do this without coordination with the headquarters of the fleet. But who today will undertake to assert that there was no such agreement? And that there are no traces of such negotiations in archival documents - after all, there are no traces, for example, of an order for Plaushevsky to follow to Balaklava. It is not even known who gave this fatal order.
In addition, we now know, after all, with what care other leaders "cleaned" our archives from the truth that compromised them personally. If everything related to the last voyage of the "Armenia" was decided to be carefully hidden all the post-war years, why not destroy some materials of the Black Sea Fleet headquarters for reliability?
If so, then after leaving the Yalta port, "Armenia" was supposed to head not to the Caucasus. The course was reversed! It turns out that now you need to look for her not at all at Gurzuf, but somewhere abeam Cape Sarych. It seems to have its own logic.
YEREVAN, Nov 7 - Sputnik, David Galstyan. Exactly 77 years ago, one of the biggest maritime tragedies of the Second World War occurred - the Germans sank the Soviet sanitary ship "Armenia".
"Armenia" was designed by marine engineers of the Leningrad Central Bureau of Marine Shipbuilding under the leadership of the chief designer Y. Koperzhinsky and launched in November 1928. The ship entered the top six passenger ships Black Sea, consisting of "Abkhazia", "Adzharia", "Ukraine", "Crimea", "Georgia" and, accordingly, "Armenia".
The ship had a cruising range of 4,600 miles, could carry 518 passengers in cabins, as well as up to 1,000 tons of cargo, while developing a maximum speed of 14.5 knots (about 27 km / h). All these ships began to serve the "express line" Odessa - Batumi - Odessa, regularly carrying thousands of passengers until 1941.
With the outbreak of World War II, the ship was redirected to military service. At the Odessa Shipyard, she was converted into a floating hospital, designed to transport and provide emergency care to 400 wounded. A large white flag bearing the image of the International Red Cross was hoisted on the mainmast.
By the end of October 1941, a catastrophic situation had developed in the Crimea. On the ship, not only the wounded were evacuated, but also the civilian population. Manstein's eleventh army, sweeping away the Soviet lines of defense, occupied one city after another. The threat of the fall of Sevastopol for several days was more than real.
AT last flight"Armenia" set off with huge amount wounded soldiers, as well as civilians. On board, in addition, were the party leadership of the Crimea, the staff of the Main Military Hospital of the Black Sea Fleet, as well as an important secret cargo (accompanied by the NKVD).
Captain Plaushevsky knew that only a dark night could ensure stealth navigation and prevent enemy aircraft from attacking "Armenia".
However, the ship went to sea not at night, but during the day. It is not known whether the captain made the decision himself, or whether he was given an order "from above". Such an order promised doom, and some historians tend to believe that the captain was misinformed by the secret services of the German Abwehr. Other sources say that NKVD officers put pressure on him.
In his notes, the commander of the Black Sea Fleet, Admiral Philip Oktyabrsky, writes: “When it became known to me that the transport “Armenia” was going to leave Yalta in the afternoon, I personally gave the order to the commander not to leave until 19.00, that is, before dark. it was not possible to provide cover for transport from the air and sea. Communication worked reliably, the commander received the order and, despite this, left Yalta. At 11.00 he was attacked by torpedo bombers and sunk. After being hit by a torpedo, "Armenia" was afloat for four minutes ".
According to official figures, 5 thousand people died, and only eight were saved. It raises many questions about the fact that the documents on the tragic incident were destroyed in 1949.
According to some reports, they tried to find the crew of the torpedo bomber that attacked the "Armenia" through German veterans in order to clarify the details and coordinates of the death of the ship, since the German archives are famous for the high safety of documents. The answer came unexpectedly: "the archive of the Luftwaffe was taken to the USSR."
The tragedy of "Armenia" still remains one of the "blank spots" of the Great Patriotic War, since many questions in this story have not been answered.
The death of the passenger liner Titanic, which in April 1912 claimed the lives of about 1,500 people, became a symbol of large-scale disasters at sea.
In fact, the Titanic is not even among the top thirty maritime disasters with the highest number of victims. The most terrible tragedies of this kind occur during the Second World War, when transports with thousands of people went to the bottom, not only military personnel, but also women, the elderly and children.
November 7, 1941 died in the Black Sea soviet ship“Armenia”, on board of which there were several thousand people. The tragedy of "Armenia" to this day remains one of the "blank spots" of the Great Patriotic War, since many questions in this story have not been answered.
In the mid-1920s, when the country had somewhat recovered from the shock civil war, the government thought about the development of civil shipbuilding. In 1927, at the Baltic Shipyard in Leningrad, the construction of the Adzharia motor ship, the lead ship of the series of the first Soviet ships, was completed. passenger liners. In 1928, at the same Baltic Shipyard, work was completed on five more ships of this project: Crimea, Georgia, Abkhazia, Ukraine and Armenia.
"Armenia" was a vessel 107.7 meters long, 15.5 meters wide, with a side height of 7.84 meters and a displacement of 5770 tons. The ship was served by a crew of 96 people. The ship could simultaneously take on board up to 950 passengers.
"Armenia", like other vessels of the project, was intended for transportation between the ports of the Crimea and the Caucasus. The ships coped with their task perfectly, having a very decent speed of 14.5 knots for their dimensions.
floating hospital
With the beginning of the Great Patriotic War, "Armenia" was "called up" for military service. At the Odessa Shipyard, she was urgently converted into a floating hospital, designed to transport and provide emergency care to 400 wounded.
On August 10, 1941, "Armenia" began to fulfill its new duties. The captain of the vessel was Vladimir Plaushevsky, the chief doctor of the floating hospital was appointed military doctor of the 2nd rank, Peter Dmitrievsky. Until recently, the head physician was a civilian and worked in one of the hospitals in Odessa.
The situation at the front was depressing. Five days before the "Armenia" officially became a medical ship, the enemy came close to Odessa. The ship had to evacuate from the besieged city not only the wounded, but also civilian refugees. Then "Armenia" began to take out the wounded from Sevastopol. By the beginning of October, the ship had transported about 15,000 people to the mainland.
By the end of October 1941, a catastrophic situation had developed in the Crimea. Manstein's eleventh army, sweeping away the Soviet lines of defense, occupied one city after another. The threat of the fall of Sevastopol for several days was more than real.
Under these conditions, on November 4, 1941, "Armenia" left the port of Tuapse in the direction of Sevastopol. On board was a replenishment for the garrison of the main base of the fleet. “Armenia” reached Sevastopol safely. On November 5, Captain Plaushevsky receives an order: to take on board not only the wounded, but also the personnel of all hospitals and medical institutions of the Black Sea Fleet, as well as part of the medical staff of the Primorsky Army.
Thousands of refugees and secret cargo
Taking into account the fact that at that moment the battles for Sevastopol were just unfolding, the order looked somewhat strange. Who will save the lives of the wounded?
Historians who have studied this issue believe that the commander of the Black Sea Fleet, Admiral Philip Oktyabrsky, considered the fate of the city a foregone conclusion and decided to begin the evacuation.
But on November 7, 1941, Oktyabrsky received a directive from the Headquarters, which said: "Do not surrender Sevastopol in any case and defend it with all your might."
However, until November 7, there were no orders from Moscow yet, because "Armenia" took on board the evacuated doctors and not only them. The actors of the local theater named after Lunacharsky, the leadership and staff of the pioneer camp "Artek" and many others got on board.
There were no exact lists of those who boarded the "Armenia". Captain Plaushevsky received another order: after loading in Sevastopol, go to Yalta, where to take on board refugees and local party activists. Already after the departure from Sevastopol, an additional order came: to go to Balaklava and pick up a special cargo. The boxes were brought on board accompanied by NKVD officers. Perhaps it was gold or valuables from the Crimean museums.
"The brave climbed onto the ship along the shrouds"
Here the ship was waiting for crowds of refugees. Here is what Vera Chistova, who was 9 years old in 1941, recalled about this: “Dad bought tickets, and my grandmother and I had to leave Yalta on the ship Armenia. On the night of November 6, the pier was full of people. First, the wounded were loaded, then the civilians were let in. Nobody checked the tickets, and a stampede began on the gangway. The brave climbed onto the ship along the shrouds. In the bustle, suitcases and things were thrown off the board. By dawn, the loading was completed. But we never got to Armenia. Hundreds of people remained on the pier. My grandmother and I went to my father's workshop on the embankment. I fell asleep there."
At that moment, those who remained on board the "Armenia" seemed lucky. In fact, everything was exactly the opposite.
How many people by that time were on "Armenia"? According to the most conservative estimates, about 3,000 people. The upper limit is 10,000 people. Most likely, the truth is somewhere in between, and there were between 5,500 and 7,000 people on board. And this despite the fact that even in its "passenger" version, the ship was designed for only 950 people.
In fact, "Armenia" could have successfully evacuated a similar number of people if it had departed from Yalta at night. But the loading was completed around 7 o'clock in the morning.
Going out to sea during the day with virtually no cover was tantamount to suicide. Admiral Oktyabrsky later wrote that the captain of the "Armenia" received a strict order to stay in the port until the evening, but violated it.
But Captain Plaushevsky, in fact, had no choice. The port of Yalta, unlike Sevastopol, did not have a powerful air defense system, which means that ships here became an excellent target for aviation. In addition, German motorized units were already on their way to the city and occupied it in just a few hours.
The ship sank in 4 minutes
Before talking about what happened next, it should be noted that historians have not yet decided whether "Armenia" can be considered a legitimate military target.
According to the laws of war, a medical ship bearing the appropriate identification marks does not apply to those. Some argue that "Armenia" was marked with a red cross, which means that the attack on the ship is another crime of the Nazis. Others object: “Armenia” violated its status by the presence of four 45-mm anti-aircraft guns on board. Still others are completely sure that the ship, which was engaged not only in transporting the wounded and refugees, but also military cargo, did not have signs of a sanitary ship.
As a cover, "Armenia" was accompanied by two patrol boats, and two Soviet I-153 fighters were in the sky.
The circumstances of the fatal attack on the ship are also contradictory. For a long time it was believed that "Armenia" was the victim of an attack by several dozen bombers. One of the surviving passengers, a resident of Yalta, Anastasia Popova, spoke about this: “Going out to sea, the ship was attacked by enemy aircraft. A living hell has begun. Bomb explosions, panic, screams of people - everything was mixed up in an indescribable nightmare. People rushed about the deck, not knowing where to hide from the fire. I jumped into the sea and swam to the shore, losing consciousness. I don't even remember how I ended up on the beach.
However, today the version that there was only one aircraft seems more reliable: the German He-111 torpedo bomber, which belonged to the first squadron of the I / KG28 air group. It was not a targeted attack on "Armenia": the torpedo bomber was looking for any of the vehicles Soviet courts on the line "Crimea - Caucasus".
Entering from the coast, Non-111 dropped two torpedoes. One passed by, and the second at 11 hours and 25 minutes hit the bow of the ship.
"Armenia" sank in just four minutes. Only eight of those on board were saved. The bottom of the Black Sea became the grave for thousands.
Could not be found
The riddles of "Armenia" do not end there. 75 years after the tragedy, the exact place of the death of the ship has not been found.
The official report on the death of “Armenia” reads: “At 11.25 am (November 7, 1941) TR“ Armenia ”, which was guarding two patrol boats from Yalta to Tuapse with wounded and passengers, was attacked by an enemy torpedo bomber. One of the two torpedoes dropped hit the bow of the ship and at 1129 hours she sank at w = 44 degrees 15 minutes. 5 sec., d = 34 gr. 17 min. Eight people were saved, about 5,000 people died.
The alleged place of the death of the ship was studied repeatedly. In 2006, Robert Ballard, who found the Titanic at the bottom of the Atlantic, joined the search. In Ukraine, it was reported that "Armenia" was about to be found, but this did not happen. No traces of the wrecked ship were found.
There is an assumption that the real place of the death of "Armenia" is not where indicated in the documents. According to this version, Captain Plaushevsky sent the ship not to Tuapse, but to Sevastopol, under the protection of the air defense of the fleet base, but was attacked by a torpedo bomber along the way.
This, however, is only an assumption, like much else in the history of the death of "Armenia".
It will be possible to reveal all the secrets only when the last refuge of the ship is nevertheless found.
THE BIGGEST MARINE TRAGEDY OF THE SECOND WORLD: JAVAD STAYED WITH THEM
When you look at old documents and photographs from the 1941-1945 war period, you always want to know more about the people with whom they are associated. You start looking for relevant information - and the glorious and tragic pages of our history literally come to life before your eyes.
The young man in the photo is Muratkhanov Javad Feyzulla oglu.
He was born in 1914. in Salyan. The Muratkhanov family was famous in this city - Javad's grandfather was a local bailiff. Soon the family moved to Baku and Javad grew up in Icheri Sheher, on the famous Malaya Krepostnaya street. He was fascinated by medicine and after school he graduated from the pharmaceutical faculty of the Azerbaijan State Medical Institute. Then he worked in one of the Baku pharmacies in Bayilovo. I just didn't have time to start a family. The war came and Javad left to defend the Motherland. The family knew that Javad, as a military paramedic-pharmacist, was in the ranks of the 8th separate medical and sanitary battalion of the Black Sea Fleet. His letter home has also been preserved, where the young man asks not to worry about him and not to send him money.
An ordinary letter mentioning all the people close to his heart.
And in January 1942. through the Voroshilov district military commissariat in Baku, Javad's father received a "funeral" for his son signed by the military commissar of the medical and sanitary department of the Black Sea Fleet - "He died at sea on November 7, 1941 in the fight against German fascism."
And that's all - nothing was known about any circumstances of the death of military assistant Muratkhanov. These documents were kindly provided to us by Javad Muratkhanov's niece, Gulnara-khanum Radjabova, daughter of Javad's sister Lumi-khanum Muratkhanova-Amrakhova. This is the same sister Lumi, whom Javad recalls in a letter.
Thanks to information from electronic base We were able to find out where, how and under what circumstances Javad's life was cut short that day using Memorial's data.
He died in a maritime disaster equal to the disaster of five (!) "Titanics", when on November 7, 1941. Ambulance transport "Armenia", on board of which was military assistant Muratkhanov, was sunk as a result of a torpedo attack by German aircraft at the exit from Yalta.
Registration card of Dzhavad Muratkhanov, stored in TsAMO of the USSR
It was a little-known and, perhaps, the most tragic episode of that war at sea. Transport "Armenia" evacuated the wounded and refugees from Yalta, when German troops were already approaching the city and was attacked by a fascist torpedo bomber abeam Gurzuf in the area of Mount Ayu-Dag. As a result of a direct hit by a torpedo, the ship broke and sank. Almost all 7,000 people on board were killed.
"Armenia" on the slipway of the shipyard.
Official information about the death of "Armenia" is very scarce. More interesting information is given by the “Final Report on the Combat Activities of the Black Sea Fleet in the Second World War of 1941-1945”. The third volume of this closed document of the operational department of the Black Sea Fleet headquarters reports that “on November 7, 1941, the Sevastopol Marine Hospital” for 700 beds, the naval hospital of the Black Sea Fleet and its property, the 5th medical a sanitary detachment, a base infirmary, and so on ... the death toll is about 7,000 people, 8 people were saved. After the death of "Armenia", the Black Sea Fleet was left without medical support, and it was necessary to create the main hospital of the Black Sea Fleet No. 40, base hospitals, calling on doctors from the reserve. Loading on one sanitary transport the entire staff of several medical and sanitary institutions was a serious mistake "...
The commander of the vessel was Captain-Lieutenant V.Ya. Plaushevsky. The nominal evacuation capacity of the vessel was 400 people, there was one operating room and 4 dressing rooms for 11 tables. Vessel medical staff: 9 doctors, 29 nurses and 75 orderlies.
Among the members of the medical staff, in addition to Javad Muratkhanov, there were several more of our countrymen:
Akhundov D.A. military doctor of the 3rd rank - surgeon;
Mamedova A.Kh. - pharmacist
Akhundova Sharifa - dentist
In total, before the moment of death, “Armenia” managed to make 15 evacuation flights (mainly from Odessa and Sevastopol) and delivered more than 15,000 people to the Caucasus (an average of 1,000 people per flight).
The vessel was not so large (with a displacement of 6700 tons), and was designed to carry 980 people. But on that day, “Armenia” was packed with people literally like herring in a barrel. Eyewitnesses recall that the passengers stood on the deck, tightly pressed against each other. savash-az.
Perhaps military paramedic Javad Muratkhanov could have escaped, but as a doctor, soldier and just a man, he preferred not to leave the wounded. Probably, he also thought - what will I say to our guys from Malaya Krepostnaya? ...
Chapel in Yalta, dedicated to those who died on the ship
The death of the transport "Armenia" on November 7, 1941 is one of the most tragic cases of the death of passenger ships.
"Armenia" was designed by marine engineers of the Leningrad Central Bureau of Marine Shipbuilding under the leadership of chief designer Y. Koperzhinsky, launched in November 1928 and entered the top six passenger ships of the Black Sea, consisting of "Abkhazia", "Adzharia", "Ukraine" , "Armenia", "Crimea" and "Georgia".
Although almost all of these ships were built in Leningrad, on the Baltic shipyard(only the last two - in Kiel in Germany), the political leadership of the country decided to express the indestructible friendship of the young Soviet republics in the names of the ships, which was inscribed on the high sides of these beauties, whom the inhabitants of Odessa dubbed in their own way, calling them "trotters" for their speed.
As for the "Armenia", it had a cruising range of 4600 miles, could carry 518 passengers, 125 "seated" and 317 deck passengers in class cabins, as well as up to 1000 tons of cargo, while developing a maximum speed of 14.5 knots (about 27 km/h). All these ships began to serve the "express line" Odessa - Batumi - Odessa, regularly carrying thousands of passengers until 1941 ...
They were drowned firstWith the beginning of the Great Patriotic War, the fate of the Black Sea "trotters" changed dramatically. "Armenia" was urgently converted into a medical transport ship: restaurants of the 1st and 2nd class were turned into operating rooms and dressing rooms, a smoking room into a pharmacy, additional hanging beds were installed in the cabins.
39-year-old Vladimir Yakovlevich Plaushevsky was appointed the captain of "Armenia", Nikolai Fadeevich Znayunenko was appointed the first mate. The crew of the ship consisted of 96 people, plus 9 doctors, 29 nurses and 75 orderlies. The chief physician of the Odessa railway hospital, whom many in the city knew well, Petr Andreevich Dmitrievsky, was appointed head of the medical staff with the rank of military doctor of the 2nd rank ...
The laconic, restrained, always taut captain of "Armenia" Plaushevsky quickly gained authority, and all his orders and commands were carried out immediately.
On the sides and on the deck, huge crosses were painted in bright red paint, clearly visible from the air. A large white flag was hoisted on the main mast, also bearing the image of the International Red Cross. Glancing at him, Plaushevsky quietly said to the first mate:
I do not think that the Wehrmacht will strictly comply with the provisions of the Hague and Geneva Conventions. The Germans traditionally did not differ in special mercy in wars ...
His words turned out to be prophetic. From the first days of the war, Goering's aircraft carried out raids on hospital ships in the Black Sea. In July 1941, the Kotovsky and Anton Chekhov ambulance transports were damaged, and the Adjaristan (Adzharia), attacked by dive bombers, was completely engulfed in flames and, in full view of the whole of Odessa, ran aground near Dofinovka. In August, the same fate befell the ship "Kuban".
Pressed by the enemy, the Red Army suffered heavy losses in heavy battles. There were a lot of wounded ... Day and night, in any bad weather, the medical staff worked to exhaustion on board the "Armenia". Operations, operations and endless dressings. The wounded were everywhere. There were especially many seriously wounded. Loud groans were heard on all decks, people were tormented by thirst. Many women cared for the wounded.
Captain Plaushevsky slept fitfully, for many hours without leaving the captain's bridge. He managed to make fifteen incredibly difficult and dangerous flights with the wounded defenders of Odessa and transport about 16 thousand people, whom the crew members placed in their cabins with the tacit consent of the captain, his assistants and the boatswain himself. Thanks to them, many refugees were saved, who at that time were called "evacuees" ...
* * *Pilot and writer Saint-Exupery, who died during the war, said: “War is something that can take so much meat from a person’s face that he will forever be deprived of the opportunity to smile at people.”
Yes, there is a lot of mystery in the circumstances of the death of “Armenia”. In addition to searching in the archives, we also had to interview witnesses of that terrible tragedy, of which, alas, there are very few left!
The book “Chronicle of the Great Patriotic War…” says that “Armenia”, as well as “Kuban” and the training ship “Dnepr”, made their flights from Odessa, accompanied by the destroyer “Merciless”, which, undoubtedly, saved these ships from the daring attacks of the German aviation.
The offensive of the 2nd Army of Manstein to the Crimea was swift, to which the command of the Black Sea Fleet, including Vice Admiral F.S. October were not ready. All the exercises of the fleet before the war were reduced to the "destruction" of large amphibious assault forces and military campaigns of the ships of the Black Sea Fleet. It never occurred to anyone that Sevastopol would have to be defended from the side of the land ...
* * *In October and November 1941, confusion reigned everywhere. Everything that was needed and not needed was hastily evacuated from Sevastopol. The hospitals, equipped in the adits and the city itself, were packed with the wounded, but someone gave the order to urgently evacuate the entire medical staff. They even tried to evacuate the well-equipped and fortified command post of the fleet. Only the energetic intervention of the newly arrived deputy for land defense, Major General I.E. Petrov put an end to the terrible confusion. The legendary 30th battery of Georgy Alexander successfully began to operate, piercing both sides of German tanks with huge shells and smashing the motorized infantry with shrapnel. Fierce battles ensued on the outskirts of Sevastopol ...
Tragedy on landThanks to the documents found and the testimonies of eyewitnesses, it was possible to restore many of the events preceding the release of "Armenia" into the sea from the Sevastopol Bay on November 6, 1941.
The ship stood on the inner roads and hastily took on board numerous wounded and evacuated citizens. The situation was extremely nervous. At any moment, an enemy air raid could begin. The bulk of the warships of the fleet, on the orders of Oktyabrsky, went to sea, including the cruiser Molotov, which had the only Redut-K ship radar station in the fleet.
In addition to the "Armenia", another former "trotter" was loaded in the Quarantine Bay - the motor ship "Bialystok", and at the pier of the Morzavod, equipment and people were loaded onto the transport "Crimea". Loading went on continuously day and night.
Attention is drawn to the great variety of all kinds of orders given in the most categorical and frightening form, in which, in case of non-fulfillment, there was a promise of severe punishment "up to execution." There were especially many such orders after the state of siege was introduced in Sevastopol on October 29. Both Sevastopol residents and the German command knew well that there were no units of the Red Army on the outskirts of the city. Therefore, Manstein ordered the 54th Army Corps and the motorized brigade to take Sevastopol on the move. This did not happen only because the commander of the Primorsky Army, Major General I.E. Petrov (later historians will call him “the second Georgy Zhukov”) managed to make a difficult transition through the mountains, reach Sevastopol, organize a strong defense and save the city. The mass manifestation of heroism by the defenders of this “southern Kronstadt” was also important ...
But then, on the eve of death, being on board the "Armenia" and receiving reports from assistants on the progress of loading, Captain Plaushevsky looked anxiously at the sky. He was ordered to leave Sevastopol on November 6 at 19:00 and proceed to Tuapse. Only a small sea hunter with tail number "041" under the command of Senior Lieutenant P.A. was allocated for escort. Kulashov.
Colonel of the medical service M. Shapunov testifies:
“There was an order on November 5 for all naval medical organizations to roll up and evacuate. What was the reason for this strict order? After all, the defense of Sevastopol was just beginning (and will last 250 days) ... ".
A member of the defense of Sevastopol, colonel of the medical service A.I. Vlasov:
“On November 5, the head of the Main Base department received an order ... to close hospitals and infirmaries. About 300 wounded were loaded onto the "Armenia", the medical and economic personnel of the Sevastopol naval hospital (the largest in the fleet), led by its chief physician, military doctor of the 1st rank S.M. Kagan. Here were the heads of departments (with medical staff), X-ray technicians ... The 2nd naval and Nikolaev base hospitals, sanitary warehouse No. 280, the sanitary and epidemiological laboratory, the 5th medical detachment, the hospital from the Yalta sanatorium were also located here. Part of the medical staff of the Primorsky and 51st armies, as well as evacuated residents of Sevastopol, were taken on board the ship ... ".
Captain Plaushevsky knew that in the absence of security, only a dark night could ensure stealth navigation and prevent enemy aircraft from attacking Armenia. What was his surprise and annoyance when he was given the order of the Military Council of the Fleet to leave Sevastopol not at evening twilight, but two hours earlier, that is, at 17 o'clock, during daylight hours!
Such an order promised doom, and some historians were inclined to believe that it came from the depths of the Abwehr Admiral Canaris, from his special services engaged in "disinformation".
Colonel I.M. testifies. Velichenko, who was a secret communications specialist under the commander of the Black Sea Fleet:
“On that day, Rear Admiral N.M. Kulakov that a large group of leading workers and party activists gathered in the city, who had nothing to evacuate ... the choice fell on "Armenia", and she went to her death ... ". However, "Armenia" managed to slip into Yalta.
But here's the mystery. “Armenia”, leaving Sevastopol at 17:00, moored in Yalta only after 9:00 (?!), that is, about 2:00 in the morning. It turns out that a new order followed on the way to make a call to Balaklava and pick up the NKVD workers, the wounded and the medical staff there, because the Germans continue to advance.
In fact, the situation was not so threatening, and people could be taken by other ships. Captain Plaushevsky was well aware that such a precious night time was shrinking inexorably, and yet he could not ignore the new "murderous" order!
The sea was stormy, the sky was ragged low clouds. “Armenia”, having moored, immediately set about loading people, who gathered on the pier in great numbers.
There is confusion in Yalta itself. The police are absent. Massandra wines were released into the sea through pipes. Someone is robbing stores and warehouses. All the streets and alleys overlooking the embankment are blocked off by parapets made of pebble and sand bags, which is not at all in harmony with the evergreen palm trees…
Captain Plaushevsky was informed that in Yalta, a party activist, NKVD workers and eleven more hospitals with the wounded were waiting to be loaded.
Volunteer E.S. testifies. Nikulin:
“Since the evening, we still did not know anything about the ship “Armenia”. At night, about two o'clock we were awakened and led almost in formation along the middle of the street to the port. There was a huge ship in the port.
The whole marina and pier are filled with people. We joined this crowd. Boarding the ship was slow; in two hours we moved from the pier to the pier. The pressure is incredible! Loading went from about two o'clock until seven in the morning (that is, all such precious night time. - S. S.). Across the pier stood NKVD soldiers with rifles and let only women with children through. Sometimes men broke through the cordon. The weather was inclement, it often rained. Full moon peeped through the gaps in the black, rapidly rushing clouds. Waves rolled over the pier. A fuel depot began to burn in the city, and huge black clouds of smoke were carried by the wind towards the city. Dawn is coming…”
Tragedy at seaFrom the notes of Admiral F.S. Oktyabrsky: “When it became known to me that the “Armenia” transport was going to leave Yalta during the day, I myself personally gave the order to the commander not to leave Yalta in any case until 19.00, that is, until dark. We did not have the means to provide good air and sea cover for transport.
Communication worked reliably, the commander received the order and, despite this, left Yalta. At 1100 she was attacked by torpedo bombers and sunk. After being hit by a torpedo, "Armenia" was afloat for four minutes.
The absence of documents destroyed in 1949 and later casts a shadow on Admiral F.S. Oktyabrsky, because any historian can suspect that the admiral is looking for an excuse for himself in hindsight, years after the terrible tragedy. However, it must be admitted that he, as the commander of the fleet, knew the operational situation in the theater, knew where the "Armenia" was located, he also knew the time when she rolled away from the pier, crowded with people, he also knew that with the dominance of German aviation in the air "Armenia", deprived of protection, is an ideal target for torpedo bombers and dive bombers. Therefore, it is very likely that he really conveyed the order, and even a very strict one, “to wait for the night” to Captain Plaushevsky, but some ominous event occurred on the “Armenia” that forced the captain to violate the order of Oktyabrsky. This is another mystery of the death of the ship ...
We investigate the events and return back. It is authentically known that the initial order to Captain Plaushevsky was clearly formulated: to pick up the wounded and the medical staff and proceed from Sevastopol to Tuapse at night.
This was followed by an urgent order that arose under the mighty pressure of the NKVD (as Colonel I.M. Velichenko and N.S. Malinovskaya, a former employee of the Yalta department of the NKVD, a deputy of the City Council, testify): to go to Yalta to save the party activists and the wounded. The departure time of the ship from Sevastopol has been changed to two hours.
The third order, transmitted to Captain Plaushevsky, forced him, without entering Balaklava Bay, to also pick up representatives of local authorities and the wounded. People were loaded from fishing launches and boats (testimony of the same N.S. Malinovskaya).
The fourth order, handed over to the captain of the "Armenia" early in the morning, F.S. Oktyabrsky on November 7, ordered to leave Yalta no earlier than 19 hours, turned out to be strangely violated, and the captain set sail without security to meet his death.
* * *Let us turn to the testimony of a boat boat from a sea hunter MO-04 M.M. Yakovlev.
“On November 7, at about 10 o’clock in the morning, in the area of \u200b\u200bCape Sarych, a German reconnaissance aircraft flew over us, and after a short time over the water, at low level flight, almost touching the crests of the waves (the weather was stormy, and we were chatting thoroughly), they entered our area two enemy torpedo bombers. One of them began to make a U-turn for a torpedo attack, and the second went towards Yalta. We could not open fire, as the roll of the boat reached 45 degrees. The torpedo bomber dropped two torpedoes, but missed, and they exploded in the coastal rocks of Cape Aya. We were struck by the force of the explosion - we had not seen a more powerful one before, and almost everyone said at once that if the second torpedo bomber got the "Armenia", then she would be unhappy ... And so it happened.
* * *After the torpedoing "Armenia" was afloat for four minutes. Only a few people survived, including foreman Bocharov and serviceman I.A. Burmistrov. I saw the death of the ship and the commander of the sea hunter, Senior Lieutenant P.A. Kulashov.
An attempt to find other witnesses to the tragedy through inquiries and correspondence with Odessa was also unsuccessful. Ukraine shamelessly examines all letters, and they come with traces of opening and a dirty stamp: "The letter arrived with traces of glue on the envelope."
Through German veterans, they tried to find the crew of the torpedo bomber that attacked the "Armenia" in order to clarify the details and coordinates of the death of the ship, since the German archives are famous for the high safety of documents. The answer came unexpectedly: "The archive of the Luftwaffe was taken to the USSR."
The name of Captain Vladimir Yakovlevich Plaushevsky is engraved on the tablets of the Alley of Glory in Odessa, near the grave of the Unknown Sailor, as are the names of the captains of other "trotters" who have found eternal rest at the bottom of the Black Sea. Eternal glory to them!
At the end of September 1941, Nazi troops under the command of Erich von Manstein captured the Perekop Isthmus and penetrated deep into the Crimea. The capture of the peninsula was of great importance to Adolf Hitler - this would have allowed the Soviet army to be deprived of air bases and would have opened the Germans unhindered access to the oil fields of the Caucasus. By the end of October, Nazi troops had strengthened their positions on the peninsula and forced the Soviet army to retreat to Sevastopol, the main Black Sea base. In early November, the siege of the city began. The Soviet command decided to evacuate the civilian population by sea along the Sevastopol-Tuapse route.
Until 1941, recreational and tourist "Crimean-Caucasian" motor ships sailed the Black Sea. The first ships - "Abkhazia", "Georgia", "Ukraine", "Adzharia", "Crimea" and "Armenia" - appeared in the mid-1920s. Some of them were built in Germany, and some - in Leningrad at the Baltic Shipyard. After the outbreak of the war, the "Krymchaks", as they were called by the people, were converted into sanitary transport ships and given to the medical service of the Black Sea Fleet. They carried the wounded, children, women and medical personnel. The ship "Armenia" was the largest among the converted ships. Its displacement was about 6 thousand tons, length - 112 meters, and capacity - about a thousand passengers. Under the leadership of an experienced captain Vladimir Plaushevsky, during August-September, "Armenia" transported about 15 thousand wounded soldiers from Odessa to the mainland. In early November, Manstein's troops shelled Sevastopol from land, air and water. There was a real threat of surrendering the city to the enemy. The leaders of the defense of Sevastopol decided to evacuate hospitals, infirmaries and part of the civilian population in Tuapse on the ship "Armenia".
Mysterious cargo in Balaclava
The evacuation began on November 6 in accordance with the order received from the high command the day before. Member of the defense of Sevastopol, colonel of the medical service Alexander Vlasov recalled the first days of the evacuation:
“On November 5, the head of the Main Base department received an order ... to close hospitals and infirmaries. About 300 wounded were loaded onto the "Armenia", the medical and economic personnel of the Sevastopol naval hospital (the largest in the fleet), headed by its chief physician, military doctor of the 1st rank S.M. Kagan. The heads of departments (with medical staff), X-ray technicians were also here ... The 2nd naval and Nikolaev base hospitals, sanitary warehouse No. 280, the sanitary and epidemiological laboratory, the 5th medical detachment, the hospital from the Yalta sanatorium were also located here . Part of the medical staff of the Primorsky and 51st armies, as well as evacuated residents of Sevastopol, were taken on board the ship.
As soon as it became known that the ship was preparing to depart for Tuapse, panic began in the city. Everyone wanted to escape, to get out from under the endless shelling, but the small capacity of the ship did not allow to take everyone on board. According to various estimates, from 4.5 thousand to 7 thousand people ended up on the "Armenia", which significantly exceeded the allowable number of passengers. On the Sevastopol-Tuapse route, one planned stop was supposed to be in Yalta, but immediately after sailing, at 17:00, the captain of the "Armenia" Vladimir Plaushevsky received an order to stop at Balaklava on the way. There, the boats of the NKVD were waiting for the ship to load secret boxes, which, according to one version, contained gold and valuables from Crimean museums, in particular, paintings by famous Russian artists.
“We never got to Armenia”
November 7 at 2 am "Armenia" arrived in Yalta. Nazi troops continuously attacked the city. E.S. Nikulin, a man who did not get on the ship, recalled his arrival:
“Since the evening, we still did not know anything about the ship “Armenia”. At night, about two o'clock, they woke us up and led us almost in formation along the middle of the street to the port. There was a huge ship in the port. The whole marina and pier are filled with people. We joined this crowd. Boarding the ship was slow; in two hours we moved from the pier to the pier. The pressure is incredible! Loading went from about two o'clock until seven in the morning. NKVD soldiers with rifles stood across the pier and only women with children were let through. Sometimes men broke through the cordon».
Together with the wounded, employees of the pioneer camp "Artek", the staff of the main hospital of the Black Sea Fleet, representatives of the party leadership of the Crimea were on board. While waiting for the authorities to arrive at the landing site, the ship stood in the port for several hours longer than planned. Vera Chistova, who did not manage to get on “Armenia” that day, recalled:
“Dad bought tickets, and my grandmother and I had to leave Yalta on the ship “Armenia”. On the night of November 6, the pier was full of people. First, the wounded were loaded, then the civilians were let in. Nobody checked the tickets, and a stampede began on the gangway. The brave climbed onto the ship along the shrouds. In the bustle, suitcases and things were thrown off the board. By dawn, the loading was completed. But we didn’t get to “Armenia”.
After everyone was on a crowded deck, the ship was ready to continue on the route Sevastopol - Tuapse. But Admiral Philip Oktyabrsky gave the order to leave after 19:00, with the onset of darkness. During daylight hours, the ship could be subjected to air strikes. However, the captain of the "Armenia" Plaushevsky dared not follow the order, as he perfectly understood that being in a port unprotected from the air was mortally dangerous. At any moment, the Wehrmacht pilots could strike. According to another version, pressure on the captain from the NKVD officers on board could also have caused an earlier departure. Party leaders wanted to leave the peninsula as soon as possible in order to save themselves and not allow the Nazis to seize the secret precious cargo. On November 7, at 8 o'clock in the morning, accompanied by two armed boats and two I-153 fighters, "The Seagull" "Armenia" sailed from Yalta.
"Hell has begun"
In July 1941, Wehrmacht air forces bombed hospital ships in the Black Sea. Then the “Kotovsky” and “Anton Chekhov” were fired upon, and later, in August, “Adzharia” and “Kuban” sank as a result of air raids. In the hope of preventing possible attacks from the air, the distinctive sign of a hospital ship, a huge red cross, was placed on board the Armenia. Ships that depict such a cross, according to international law, should not have been fired upon. But this did not stop the Nazis. To protect against possible raids, four 21-K anti-aircraft guns were placed on the deck of the "Armenia", but they did not save her from death. Three and a half hours after sailing at 11:25 am, a few kilometers from Yalta, the ship was overtaken by the Nazi Heinkel He-111 torpedo bomber, which dropped two torpedoes on Armenia from a height of 600 meters. One hit the water, and the second landed right in the bow of the ship. A few minutes later the ship sank.
According to another version, "Armenia" was bombed by eight Nazi Junkers Ju 87 at once. Of all those on board (remember, this is about 4.5-7 thousand people), only eight managed to survive. Among them was Anastasia Popova. Despite the terrible cold, she, pregnant, independently swam to the shore. Anastasia recalled the terrible minutes of the tragedy as follows:
“On November 6, 1941, on the advice of friends, I decided to evacuate from Yalta. It was with great difficulty that I was taken on board, since the "Armenia" was already overcrowded with wounded and refugees. Having gone out to sea, the ship was attacked by enemy aircraft. A living hell has begun. Bomb explosions, panic, screams of people - everything was mixed up in an indescribable nightmare. People rushed about the deck, not knowing where to hide from the fire. I jumped into the sea and swam to the shore, losing consciousness. I don't remember how I ended up on the beach.
“The death toll is about 7,000 people”
On the day of the tragedy, November 7, a parade was held on Red Square in Moscow in honor of the celebration of the 24th anniversary of the October Socialist Revolution. During the war and after it, the fact of the tragedy was hushed up, so there was no reliable information about the place of death of "Armenia" and the number of dead for a long time.
Pyotr Morgunov - one of the organizers of the defense of Sevastopol - in the 1970s in his memoirs "Heroic Sevastopol" mentioned the tragedy in passing:
« On November 6, an ambulance transport left Sevastopol - the ship "Armenia" with wounded soldiers, employees of the main hospital and evacuated citizens. He went to Yalta, where he also took away part of the evacuees from Simferopol, and on the morning of November 7 he headed for the Caucasus. At 11:25, not far from Yalta, the transport, although it had the hallmarks of a sanitary vessel, was torpedoed by a fascist aircraft and sank four minutes later. Many residents, doctors and wounded died.”
At the end of the above passage there is a footnote to case No. 19, stored in the Central Naval Archive. Recently, historians became aware that in 1949 (according to other sources — in 1947) it was classified and destroyed. Some information about the tragedy is contained in the third volume of the "Final Report on the Combat Activities of the Black Sea Fleet during the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945", published in 1956. The essay reported that on November 7, 1941, 7 thousand people died on the "Armenia", only eight people were saved.
Finally, in the book "Chronicle of the Great Patriotic War of the Soviet Union on the Black Sea", published by the historical department of the People's Commissariat of the Navy of the USSR back in 1946, but deprived of the stamp "top secret" only in 1989, information is provided on the time and coordinates of the vessel during the shelling . The only clue for future searches appeared in 1991. It was an extract from a document stored in the materials of the Museum of the Medical Service of the Black Sea Fleet. It dealt with 7,000 dead on the ship "Armenia" who were attacked from the air near the village of Gurzuf in the Bear Mountain (Ayu-Daga) area.
A special investigation dedicated to the search for the place of death of "Armenia" was conducted in the Soviet years by the captain of the II rank, the scientific secretary of the Military Scientific Society of Sevastopol Sergey Solovyov. He managed to get acquainted with partially preserved archival documents and with the testimony of eyewitnesses, among which was the testimony of M.M. Yakovlev, who accompanied the ship:
“November 7, at about 10 a.m., in the area of Cape Sarych, a German reconnaissance aircraft flew over us, and after a short time over the water at low level, almost touching the crests of the waves (the weather was stormy and we chatted thoroughly), two enemy torpedo bomber. One of them began to make a U-turn for a torpedo attack, and the second went towards Yalta. We could not open fire, as the roll of the boat reached 45 degrees. The torpedo bomber dropped two torpedoes, but missed, and they exploded in the coastal rocks of Cape Aya. We were struck by the force of the explosion - we had not seen a more powerful one before, and almost everyone said at once that if the second torpedo bomber got "Armenia", then she would not do well.
It follows from this story that the ship "Armenia" on that very morning, November 7, may have been on its way from Yalta not to Tuapse, but back to Sevastopol, because Capes Sarych and Aya are located west of Yalta, towards Sevastopol. Thus, written evidence made it possible to determine several alleged places of the ship's death, but one way or another they are all located in the area of the Yalta coast.
“Perhaps, on one of the expeditions, we passed by “Armenia”
In 2005, a group of Ukrainian archaeologists led by Sergei Voronov began underwater research in the Yalta area in order to find a sunken ship. In 2006, the famous American explorer Robert Ballard began the search, who in 1985 discovered the Titanic, and in 1989 — the wreckage of the German battleship Bismarck. Despite the availability of expensive equipment and technology, he failed to find "Armenia".
According to media reports, the last attempt to search for the vessel was made at the end of July 2016 by specialists from the Main Directorate for Deep Sea Research of the Russian Defense Ministry. Search results are still unknown.
For details about the search for "Armenia", RT turned to Viktor Vakhoneev, head of the underwater archeology department of the Black Sea Center for Underwater Research. He himself was a participant in the very first searches for the ship, which have been carried out since 2005 by Ukrainian, Russian and American specialists. In an interview with RT, Vakhoneev noted that the work was carried out at different depths:
“The main reason why the vessel could not be found in 2005-2006 is the collapse of the depths. The Black Sea bottom has a very mountainous relief. It is possible that on one of the expeditions we passed by "Armenia", but it is extremely difficult to identify it among the underwater rocks. When scanning the bottom, shadow zones are formed, where the ship can theoretically be. But because of the existing stall, the scanning process becomes more complicated.”
Viktor Vakhoneev explained that the expeditions did not have accurate data on the location of the vessel. This is due to the fact that the case of the death of "Armenia" in 1947 was withdrawn from the archives and now it is classified as "top secret" in the archives of the FSB. The specialist noted:
“We proceeded from the time when “Armenia” left the port, adding three hours to it before the moment of its flooding. Then multiplied by the minimum, average and maximum travel speed. Based on the data obtained, they drew a radius where the ship could go. It is most logical that "Armenia" went towards Gurzuf (east of Yalta), the Ayu-Dag mountain along the coast. But we also scanned the bottom not only in this area, but also in central area Yalta".
Regarding the version that the ship was heading from Yalta back to Sevastopol, Vakhoneev explained that confusion had crept into it. Katernik, testifying that he saw "Armenia" in the area of Cape Sarych, confused it with another ship - "Lenin". He was blown up in this area by a mine in July 1941. According to Viktor Vakhoneev, the waters of Sarych are well studied and no traces of "Armenia" were found there.
According to one version, the ship may be under a layer of silt. The interlocutor of RT expressed doubt:
"It's impossible. The ship's height was too high. Silt of such a height that would exceed the parameters of the vessel simply does not exist. The only difficulty preventing the search for the ship is the mountainous bottom relief.
In conclusion, Viktor Vakhoneev noted that the history of the death of "Armenia" is full of mysteries. So, he expressed doubts about the evidence of Anastasia Popova, who managed to swim to the shore in cold water.
It is still not known whether the wreckage of the "Armenia" was found during the last searches in the summer of 2016. It remains to be hoped that one day this story will come to an end.
Edward Epstein
