In the hero city of Odessa there is a place loved by all the townspeople and numerous guests, memorable to our grandfathers, who won freedom for themselves and their children in terrible battles. Almost on the coast, in the middle of a beautiful green park, there is an open-air museum, a tribute to the battles for the beloved city - the Memorial of the 411th battery of Odessa. In the city, every boy from early childhood climbed all the military structures of those times. Admission is free for everyone, you can view, touch, twist all exhibits. Allowed to inspect everything, no one will make a comment. But visitors also understand the historical importance of military equipment.
Start of construction
After the start of Germany’s aggressive policy under the command of Adolf Hitler, the government decided that a defense strategy should be launched to protect its borders, realizing the real possibility of an attack on the Soviet Union.
To protect the southern borders on the coast of the Odessa Gulf, from 1934 to 1936, a large construction of a defense structure for 411 batteries in Odessa began. Its purpose was to repel enemy attacks from the sea, from warships, they also had to support ground forces during a ground invasion of the Nazis.
Building construction
All reinforced concrete structures were built by prisoners, consisting of 2,000 people, under the strict supervision of the NKVD and with the participation of the Civil Engineering Directorate of the Navy. An officer of the internal affairs squad stood over each concrete mixer and made sure that the right components were correctly added to the solution. They looked strictly, as the fortifications had to be very strong. Used concrete grade 600 and pebbles from Odessa beaches. General D. M. Karbyshev applied advanced technologies of that time in the construction of military installations.
Each bunker had a double layer of 3 cm of armored steel, and reinforced concrete buildings had a thickness of up to 1 m 75 cm. Huge ditches for power and gun installations were digging. An underground passage connecting artillery positions with a command post located at a distance of 750 meters on the shore of the bay was dug at a depth of 18 m. An armored plate strengthened it from above. 11.6 tons of gold were spent on construction.
Battery Dungeons
They housed the conning tower of the main commander of the 411 battery in Odessa and a center for monitoring the actions of the enemy. The VK-10 optical device magnified an object by 20 times. Information about the purpose of the shot was fed directly to the guidance post of large 180 mm guns. Rows of cables and other electrical equipment ran along the underground passage. Since the dungeon was at an angle, and water could flood the guns, they dug a special drain and a large reservoir, from where water was pumped to the surface with powerful pumps.
Also in the dungeons were additional services: boiler room, a compartment for diesel equipment serving gun engines, and an electric generator. Under the ground were also dug storage rooms for fuels and lubricants, several storage tanks, up to 1000 cubic meters. m of water each. If the enemy blocked access to water supplies to the citizens of 411, the Odessa battery could provide them with water for a long period. Tanks from artesian wells were replenished from a depth of more than 30 m.
A sophisticated ventilation system provided huge underground areas with fresh air. And boilers and pipe systems heated the room. The entire vital life support structure was underground. Above the surface were only guns of huge size, capable of firing at a distance of 40 km.
Artillery guns
For three cannon coastal guns weighing 160 tons, along with a rotary device, 3 underground courtyards were dug. Shells weighing 97.5 kg went up to the guns through underground elevators. On a special cart, 2 artillerymen drove him to the cannon. The courtyards were protected from chemical attack. The shells that fell out after each shot rolled into a special underground tank lined with copper sheets.
Emergency emergency exits for the military led from the courtyards. During the shot, all hatches between the rooms were blocked. In case of fire, there was a complex system of automatic water fire extinguishing of all rooms. Maintenance of Odessa's 411 batteries consisted of 365 personnel.
Around these three main guns at some distance were three 45-mm anti-aircraft installations with a platoon serving them. Also, three quadruple anti-aircraft guns “Maxim” stood guard over the battery, which provided air defense for the positions. Already during the construction of the defense complex, artillerymen mastered sophisticated equipment and conducted training sessions under the supervision of experienced specialists.
Concealment of buildings
During the shooting, gun patios were covered with camouflage nets and tree branches. After the combat mission, the building was closed with huge casement doors, on which there was a small village house, several trees and grape bushes. To deceive the enemy, not far from the current location of the battery, approximately 700 meters, a false battery was located.
Towers were built from plywood, gun trunks were made from former lampposts. Outbuildings built. At that time, when the real battery was carrying out a combat mission, on false decorative positions the soldiers lit smoke bombs, which completely imitated the smoke from firing from guns.
German bombers more than once spotted a false battery and fired a wooden props from the air. After the battle, the soldiers each time completely restored the defeated props, which saved their lives more than once.
Heroic defense of Odessa
In August 5, at 9 a.m. on August 5, the first time a volley from a 180 mm gun was thundered. The Romanian army settled in the Akkerman fortress, and the battery commander Ivan Nikolayevich Nikitenko gave the first order to destroy large enemy forces. After high-explosive shells flying to a height of 18 km, reached enemy locations, the Romanians were seized by horror. They thought they were being fired from aircraft. Opened into empty skies artillery return fire. Continuing the shelling, our military inflicted irreparable damage to enemy forces.
Captain I.N. Nikitenko received a thank-you note from the commander of the 25th Chapaev Division, Major General Ivan Petrov, who was on guard of the Southern Defense District of the city. The enemy felt the full power of the defensive positions of the Soviet army. More than 200 tons of death-bearing metal fell on the enemy’s position.
Shooting was carried out non-stop day and night. Even huge steel guns could not withstand the heat of battle. Worn grooves in the channels of the trunks. Military masters managed in one night to change interchangeable threaded liners in the trunks of multi-ton guns. During the repair, other guns did not stop firing at enemy positions. What is noteworthy, during the entire defense, not a single soldier of the underground fortress was even wounded.
City surrender order
3 days before the city was surrendered to the enemy, explosives were brought into the battery. The soldiers read out the order of October 1 to surrender the city and the retreat of the army. They reacted extremely negatively to him, and did not want to hand over the city, but the order is the order, and there was nothing left to do but obey. With a heavy heart, gunners were preparing battery positions to undermine. Most of the fighters went to the Typhoon, Krasin and Odessa-1 fishing seiners; only 40 people remained in positions.
October 16, 1941 at night the heroic battery covered the withdrawal of the Primorsky Army of Odessa to help in the defense of Sevastopol, having fired 230 shots at the enemies. After that, by order of the military authorities, at 4 in the morning the position of the heroic battery was blown up, and the personnel through the trading port on ships was sent to defend Sevastopol.
Tribute to the heroes
Grateful residents of Odessa could not help but commemorate the heroes and leave the remnants of the battery without proper attention. Therefore, the decision of the regional council of July 28, 1971, it was decided to create a memorial 411 battery in Odessa. It is located at its location. On the former courtyards of the blown up huge guns, ditches are dotted with trees. Only one gun, as an exhibit of the memorial, was brought from a similar structure in the Soviet harbor of the Far East.
They delivered it on four large railway platforms using a 250-ton crane. Especially for her, the second gun courtyard was restored. The first and third were irretrievably scattered by explosives. Photos of those times and historical documents were used to create a memorial 411 batteries of Odessa.
The opening of the memorial
The grand opening of the memorial complex at the celebration of the 30th anniversary of the Great Victory, on May 9, 1975, took place. At the festival, a famous poet, a former participant in the hostilities, who suggested the location of the battery during the war, Konstantin Simonov, spoke. He read poetry on military subjects. Representatives of the authorities and military experts spoke.
A variety of military equipment of those times was collected: the Baby submarine, aircraft, anti-aircraft mounts, an armored train, shells, torpedoes, underwater bombs, a mine trawler, and even a tram that during the war cruised along the Zastava 2 - front route and transported the wounded .
Museum 411 batteries of Odessa
There is a historical museum of memory to defenders of 411 batteries of Odessa at the address: 150 Dacha Kovalevskogo Street. It works all days except Friday, from 10.00 to 17.00. Tours, both group and individual, can be ordered by phone of the museum administration.
The museum has collected exhibits belonging to the fighters of 411 batteries in Odessa, photos of those times, photos of commanders and ordinary gunners, their personal belongings, documents and other historical values. Interesting educational excursions are conducted, during which visitors will learn many facts from the life of Odessa's 411 batteries , the history of its creation and the real version of rescuing fighters, not known to a wide circle of ordinary people.
How to get to the memorial?
You can get to the complex by tram number 19 from the 16th station of the Big Fountain. The final stop is Odessa's 411 battery. How to get by minibus to the memorial? Simple too. There are several of them. No. 175 and No. 185 depart from the city center from Sobornaya Square. A direct minibus No. 191 goes from Peresypsky Bridge. No. 197 will take you from the Krivobalkovsky Cemetery. You can also walk from the final stop of trolleybuses No. 12, No. 7, No. 11 on Arkhitektorskaya Street.
Any Odessa citizen will gladly show tourists and all comers the shortest way to the main attractions of the hero city of Odessa.