The deep blue sea, the signals of the radar, our submariners listening intently to the sounds of floating German ships - a picture familiar to many from films about the war. Even in the movies, it's scary to watch. Grigory Ivanovich Shchedrin, a hero of the Soviet Union, has been to such situations more than once. He is one of the most famous Soviet submariners. He has counted many military campaigns, long hours of scuba diving and sudden torpedo attacks.
early years
In the Black Sea province in the city of Tuapse on December 1, 1912, Shchedrin Grigory Ivanovich was born into the family of a simple worker. He went to school at the age of 7. They did not live well, so from the age of 12 he began to earn extra money on logging. In 1926 (at the age of 14) he managed to get a young man on the schooner "Dioscuria". A year later, Gregory joins the Komsomol.
For the next three years, while continuing to study at school, he swims as a sailor on the ships of the Black Sea Shipping Company. He manages to engage in Komsomol work. After completing the seven-year plan, he is sent to study at the Kherson Maritime College. By this time, he fell in love with the sea, deciding to connect life with the profession of a sailor. In 1932, Gregory graduated from college, having received the specialty of a navigator.
Before the war
After graduation, he was sent to the Council of Miners tanker, and then sailed on other Sovtanker ships. At first he was a navigator, then a senior assistant to the captain of the ship. He had a chance to swim in many seas, to visit different ports of Russia, Europe and South Africa.
In 1934, in the biography of Grigory Ivanovich Shchedrin, the military stage begins, he was called up to serve in the Navy. He completed an internship in the famous submarine "Pike" (-301), in 1937 he studied at the command courses of the Scuba Diving Training Unit. Further, with the rank of lieutenant, he served as senior assistant on boats of the same series.
In 1938, he was appointed commander of the small submarine Malyutka, then commanded the Pike at number 110. In 1939, the team of the submarine Grigory Ivanovich Shchedrin became the best in combat and political training in the Pacific Fleet and became such twice more. In November 1940, he was appointed commander of the S-56 submarine under construction, which was being assembled at the Vladivostok Dalzavod.
Across three oceans
The underwater submarine went into operation at the end of October 1941, was received by its commander Grigory Ivanovich Shchedrin, who later wrote in his book “On board the S-56” that the tests passed perfectly. In the fall of 1942, six submarines left the Pacific Fleet on their own for the Northern Fleet. The path lay through three oceans and nine seas, took three months, more than thirty thousand kilometers were covered. Five boats sailed to Murmansk, the Japanese sank one.
Due to the imperfect design of the submarine, most of the trip sailed in a cruising surface position. Even in the Sea of Japan, superstructures were damaged by a storm, and engines failed. First, they sailed to the Aleutian Islands, then past San Francisco, then through the Panama Canal to Halifax. After repairs in the Canadian port, they went to Murmansk. The crew practically did not rest, Grigory Ivanovich Shchedrin was cold and ill. During the campaign, they were attacked twice by unknown submarines, once the Allied ships nearly shot a Soviet submarine.
First victories
The first combat exit, S-56 went at the end of March 1943. Coming to the control area, the boat began to search for targets. Having met a convoy of ten ships, the commander decides to attack with two stern torpedoes, since he no longer had time to turn around. They managed to hit the largest German transport. The depth-bomb guards tried to sink the submarine, but after a few maneuvers, they returned to base.
We sailed for several days, continuing the campaign, until again we heard the noise of the propellers of German ships. The enemy convoy, six guard warships and three vehicles, discovered a Soviet submarine. An excellent submariner, Grigory Ivanovich Shchedrin, decides to pass under the transport, thus, breaking away from the guard ships, the boat fired a salvo and sank another enemy ship.
Feats of arms
In one of the campaigns in mid-May 1943, the crew of Grigory Ivanovich Shchedrin set a record for the Soviet submarine fleet in terms of performance in one attack. They hit two German ships with one launch from four torpedoes.
Until the end of the war, the submarine Grigory Ivanovich Shchedrin made only eight military campaigns. 3 vehicles, 2 tankers and 3 enemy warships were destroyed. Several thousand depth charges were dropped on the boat. Many times (according to some estimates, more than seventeen times), the German command announced the death of the Soviet submarine.
In 1944, the submarine was awarded the Order of the Red Banner, and the next year became the Guards. Shchedrin received many military awards, and on November 5, 1944 he was awarded the title Hero of the Soviet Union.
Post-war service
After the war, Grigory Ivanovich Shchedrin was sent to the Baltic Fleet, in 1954 he graduated from the Naval Department of the Academy of the General Staff. In the same year he became commander of the Kamchatka flotilla, which he commanded until September 1959. In addition to combat training, housing for sailors, a museum of military glory, and a military hospital were built under his leadership. In 1955, he received the rank of vice admiral. Due to health problems in 1961, he was transferred to the post of head of the state acceptance department. Later, he became chairman of the state commission, which took ships into operation. In 1969, he was appointed editor-in-chief of the journal Marine Collection. In 1973, retires. Grigory Ivanovich Shchedrin died in Moscow on January 7, 1995.