When in 1941 German troops invaded the territory of Crimea and approached Sevastopol, they were truly waiting for a “warm welcome”. The city’s defenders held the defense for more than 250 days and nights, and only in July 1942 was it captured by the invaders, who lost about 300 thousand of their soldiers and officers here. But the most tragic events took place in the area of Cape Khersones, where there was a 35 battery, Sevastopol. A satellite photo shows the location of the coast batteries No. 30 and 35 and the range of their guns.
Construction
The reason why it was decided to build well-fortified coastal batteries near Sevastopol was the failure of the defense of Port Arthur during the Russo-Japanese War. The decision to build fortifications was made by Emperor Nicholas II on May 21, 1911, for which an amount of 8 million rubles was allocated. According to the plan, two powerful batteries with an extra-large caliber from the northern and southern flanks were to be placed here.
The construction of fortifications began in 1912. It is inextricably linked with the name of the engineer C. A. Cui, who was also a well-known composer. In the beginning, impressive pits were dug under the towers, barracks and other utility rooms were built, but construction work was interrupted due to the outbreak of the revolution and the ensuing civil war.
Construction was resumed only in 1925. Now it was led by two Soviet military engineers - B.K. Sokolov and V.V. Vystavkin. By the autumn of 1929, 35 coastal batteries were finally commissioned. Sevastopol was visited by a delegation consisting of members of the Soviet government, headed by I.V. Stalin himself. This visit entailed a significant improvement in the domestic and social security of the personnel of the entire base of the Black Sea Fleet.
Description of shore battery No. 35
On the battery territory there were four 305-mm guns located in pairs in two gun towers. They were controlled from two equipped command posts - the main and the reserve. They were at a distance of 300 and 450 m from the artillery blocks themselves.
Each of these points consisted of an armored conning tower, a rangefinder courtyard, as well as an autonomous power station and a communications center located at a depth of three floors underground. Even deeper were the rooms where the devices were installed, with which direct fire control was conducted.
The construction, where the emergency command post was located, had a lateral branch that went directly to the seashore. It served not only as a backup outlet, but also for the withdrawal of drainage and sewer systems. Approximately the same system was used to equip battery No. 30, which went into operation in 1933.
The location of the firing points was chosen perfectly. In full view, the entire Sevastopol was viewed from here (35 batteries on the map - in the photo above). Such an arrangement made it possible to fire from guns in the circular sector, i.e., to hit the target not only at sea, but also on land. That is why the coastal 35th battery became the main force in the heroic defense of the city. Sevastopol and the area around it were fired from guns in the north up to Bakhchisarai, and in the south - to the Baydarsky Gate and Simeiz.
In addition, 5 reinforced concrete pillboxes were equipped at the approaches to the battery. Each of them was equipped with three easel machine guns.
Unforeseen obstacle
By the beginning of World War II, the defense of the city of Sevastopol consisted of two 12-inch armored four-gun batteries No. 30 and 35, several dozen well-equipped defensive structures and gun positions. It remains a mystery today why on German military maps and in documents they were referred to as Fort Maxim Gorky.
In the early days of the war, the Soviet military leadership realized that one of the main goals of the German command would be Sevastopol. The offensive of enemy troops already inexorably reached the shores of the Black Sea, and on October 30, 1941, the first enemy assault of the city by the 11th Army under the leadership of General Manstein took place.
Despite the fact that the 30th battery was at a considerable distance, its observers found a whole convoy of German technology, consisting of a large number of tanks and vehicles, rapidly moving to the city. It so happened that the scattered units of the Soviet troops defending the Crimean peninsula were left behind, and Sevastopol was completely open to the enemy.
On November 1, when the Germans had to make their last spurt, not reaching just a few tens of kilometers to the target, their columns of armored vehicles were suddenly fired upon, and the strike was unusually powerful. The surprise was also that, according to German intelligence, in this area there were practically no Red Army troops.
The first assault on Sevastopol was reflected by the battery number 30 under the command of G.A. Alexander and the soldiers of the Primorsky Army. Despite the heavy losses, the Germans nevertheless occupied the approaches to the city.
Second assault
The second assault attempted by the Nazi forces on December 17. It began with a powerful artillery bombardment, and then 5 enemy divisions were immediately thrown into the attack. But all efforts were in vain. They were met with fierce resistance by the defenders of the fort "Maxim Gorky" - 30 and 35 batteries. Sevastopol and this time survived.
Third assault
On June 7, 1942, at 5 a.m., enemy mortars and artillery, with the support of bombers from the air, began to deliver stunning attacks on the city. So Manstein launched an offensive on the entire front.
Enormous self-propelled mortars “Karl” were brought here to support infantry and armored vehicles, as well as an unprecedented stationary howitzer, which was called the female name “Dora”. But, despite this, the Soviet troops offered fierce resistance to the enemy and repulsed attack after attack. Over the next 4 days alone, the German army lost about 20 thousand of its troops here.
The turning point in the battle took place on June 17, after the 30th battery was surrounded. Having shot all the ammunition, the defenders were forced to retreat to the array of the tower. The battle has moved to the interior. The defenders had neither food nor water, and the Germans began to use poison gas. June 20-21, both towers were blown up. Many defenders died a terrible death, and the survivors, including the 30th battery commander Alexander, were captured and perished in fascist camps.
The last stage of the operation
The defense of Sevastopol came to an end. On June 24, the remnants of the Red Army and the surviving residents of the city began to leave on the cape in the direction of battery number 35. With their extraordinary courage and courage, the sailors of the Black Sea Fleet instilled horror and panic into the hearts of their enemies. The Germans tightened their grip on the encirclement and began to push the city’s defenders to the sea. The time has come when there was nowhere to retreat.
Manstein’s army suffered huge losses, but still it continued the offensive. Despite attacks from air and land, the battery number 35 conducted a constant bombardment of enemy positions. But on June 23, one of the battery towers was destroyed by a direct bomb. After the shells ended, the fighters continued to load the cannonballs with cannonball and buckshot.
Evacuation
On the night of June 29, the Military Council and the Coast Defense Command relocated to Battery No. 35 for a reserve post. The next day, a report was sent to the People's Commissar of the Navy about the surrender of Sevastopol and with a request to evacuate the entire headquarters. On July 1, arriving planes take on their command personnel, which actually shamefully escaped, leaving more than 80 thousand people dead!
On the same day the city was commissioned. By order of General Novikov, towers and a cellar with ammunition were blown up. But I must say that for more than 10 days the exhausted defenders conducted defensive actions. Flamethrowers, grenades and poison gas were used against them. The battles continued not only on the surface, but also in the battery casemates.
As a result, the legendary coastal battery 35 pulled over and held for a long time one of the best armies of the Wehrmacht, which entailed a significant weakening of the position of the Nazi troops near Stalingrad.
Grand German guns
The story about the defense of Sevastopol would not be complete without mentioning that the Nazis used the grand guns “Karl” and “Dora” designed and manufactured at the factories of the German company “Krupp” to destroy the 30th and 35th batteries. Initially, they planned to use them in France to storm the Maginot line, but, as you know, the country was captured at lightning speed, and the need for an attack disappeared by itself.
Particularly striking in its size was the Dora gun, which had a cannon of 800 mm caliber. This colossus weighed 1350 tons, and the projectile for it - 7088 kg. It was delivered to Sevastopol by rail in unassembled form on platforms specially designed for these purposes. It took about three days to assemble the gun. In order to bring it into working condition, a section of 5 km was required, consisting of a double railway track with a distance between tracks of 6 m. In order to transport the gun, a total of 5 trains consisting of 106 wagons were needed.
Under the command of a major general who commanded a giant gun, there were up to one and a half thousand people, and two artillery divisions were used to cover the guns.
The Germans had high hopes for this miraculous weapon, but it did not justify a small fraction of all expectations. Of the 48 shots, only one turned out to be effective - an underground warehouse with ammunition was destroyed.
“Dora” was, of course, a miracle of military technology, but, as one of the top officers of Nazi Germany Franz Halder said about it, “This is a real work of art, but it turned out to be completely useless.”
Museum
After the end of World War II, in the 40-60s, the coastal battery No. 723 was operating, which was located in the former casemates, which previously housed the 35th battery. Sevastopol always remembered and honored the memory of the soldiers who died here.
In the last decades of the 20th century, interest in those long-standing heroic events has sharply increased. In these places, meetings of veterans began to be held, as well as various search squads. Some previously unknown pages of the city’s defense and the role played by the 35th battery in it became public. Sevastopol, whose history has more than two centuries, is rich in heroic deeds. And on April 26, 2006, the city council finally decided to create a historical and memorial complex on the territory of the legendary coastal battery, erected in honor of the defenders of the hero city.
In 2007, the 35 Battery Museum began to be created. Sevastopol allocated land for the organization of the Memorial complex, but it was not state structures that took over the design, construction, development and maintenance of it, but private enterprises of the Tavrida Electric group with the participation of caring Sevastopol residents.
Tours are conducted through the Pantheon of memory and the battery casemates at a depth of about 25-30 meters. All of them are absolutely free.
How to get there
The location of the museum is the coast of Cossack Bay, 35th battery, Sevastopol. How to get there The 35 Coastal Battery Memorial Complex can be reached by both personal and public transport. Numerous fixed-route taxis, buses and trolleybuses go here. In addition, every resident will happily tell you the way.
Defensive installations 35 battery, Sevastopol - one of the most significant Soviet artillery fortifications. Now tens of thousands of tourists from different countries come here to the memorial complex to honor the blessed memory of the heroes who died in an unequal battle with the Nazi invaders.