Shumshu (jap. syumusyu-to), the northernmost of the Kuril Islands,was a military fortress of the Japanese militarists, an "unsinkable aircraft carrier." In Shumshu in 1945, most of the 80,000-strong Japanese group stationed in the Kuriles was based.
The garrison had the most modern weapons, tanks and aircraft at that time. Shumshu is considered a hollow island, but not by nature. Under the ground, the Japanese had rifle division, a tank regiment, an air defense regiment, two airfields with runways going up.
The capture of Shumshu was a decisive event in the course of the entire Kuril operation.
The Kuril landing operation was carried out from August 18 to September 2, 1945. Direct military operations were carried out in the northern part of Shumshu Island from August 18 to August 23, the rest of the islands of the Kuril chain were liberated without a fight. Very little time was allotted for the preparation of the operation, which was paid for by the huge sacrifices of our landing.
So, during the landing of the first group, 900 people from one and a half thousand paratroopers drowned, and only because the ships were afraid to approach the coast closer than 200 meters, although the depths allowed them to approach 2-3 meters. The place for the landing was chosen unsuccessfully: after the landing, the paratroopers had to walk more than five kilometers along the bare tundra without a single bush under artillery and machine-gun fire. Shumshu Island 20x13 km with a developed road system (up to 120 km).
Paramushir, Atlasov, Shumshu.
The Japanese garrison of Shumshu consisted of 14,000 people, 60 tanks, 27 artillery pillboxes, 310 machine-gun pillboxes, and about 200 pillboxes. There is no place on the island that would be shot through by machine-gun artillery fire from less than three points. There were three airfields with over 60 aircraft based. During the operation, there were cases of mass heroism of Soviet soldiers, for most of whom it was the first battle. Major Kurbatov with 6 sappers twice in broad daylight passed through 5 lines of Japanese trenches, carrying with him first 80, and then 110 kg of explosives to destroy the Japanese artillery pillbox, which prevented the ships of the second landing line from approaching the coast.
Major Kurbatov was awarded the Order of the Red Banner. The foreman of the second article, Vilkov, and the sailor Pyotr Ilyichev, closed the embrasures of enemy bunkers with their bodies, the foreman of the boat Sigov, bleeding twice, landed paratroopers. All of them were subsequently awarded the title of Heroes of the Soviet Union.
landing on Island Shumshu in August 1945.
There were more than 200 guns of various calibers on Shumshu, our landing forces numbered 12,000 people, including the crews of ships and vessels. There were no tanks or artillery. In fact, the landing was doomed to destruction, because. Japanese intelligence at the time of loading the landing force in Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky reported the time and date of its landing. But despite Japanese opposition in the first three days Japanese operation a 10x10 km bridgehead was captured, which actually amounted to half of the island of Shumshu. The Japanese command offered negotiations, and by August 23 the garrison had laid down their arms.
Until now, traces of the events of 1945 are visible on the island. Many fortifications: pillboxes, bunkers, trenches, anti-tank ditches, storage facilities left by the Japanese. The remains of tanks and various aircraft are scattered around the island, aviation bombs, shells and cartridges, the whole island is pitted with bombing craters.
Japanese medium tank "Chi-ha" weight 11 tons, 1 cannon 57 mm, 2 machine guns of 7.7 caliber, maximum armor thickness 25-30 mm, manufactured by Mitsubishi, the tank is located on a slope of height 165 on which a monument to fallen Soviet soldiers during Kuril landing operation in August 1945. Died in this tank national hero Japan Lieutenant Colonel Ikeda. In 1995, his remains and elements of the uniform were found (according to which it was established who the remains belonged to), in the same year the remains were transferred to the son and granddaughter of the deceased lieutenant colonel.
The surrender of Japanese troops. Shumshu Island.
There is an abandoned former Japanese airfield near Baikovo (in 1946, the Russians renamed the Japanese village of Kataoka to Baikovo). The airfield, with excellent runways and many aircraft hangars, served the Russians for a long time, being the airport of the city of Severo-Kurilsk, until aviation began to "bend" in Kamchatka. And when, in the mid-1990s, an L-410 plane crashed while landing in Baikovo and one of the passengers died, flights here were banned altogether. Now only Americans fly to Severo-Kurilsk, and even get there by sea, because it is 3 times cheaper (the price of a plane ticket is 3,850 rubles).The concrete runway of the airfield is 1300 meters long. An unpaved strip 1500 meters long adjoins it at an angle of 45 degrees. From here, Japanese planes took off, leaving on missions. From the runway you can clearly see the airfield on the neighboring island of Paramushir, which was no less, or even more than this. Aroundmany concrete hangars in which Japanese planes were hiding.
Shumshu Island.
Today there are no residential settlements on Shumshu, including Baikovo, which was badly damaged back in November 1952 from devastating tsunami. In the middle of the former village, the pitiful remains of the once majestic monument to the Pacific sailors who died during the storming of Shumshu in 1945 are visible. There are only two lighthouses and a border outpost in the northern part of the island.Behind the Nikolaevka River, on the slope of a hill, a Japanese monument is a monument over a Japanese burial structure where the dead were cremated. On the stele of the monument there is a hieroglyphic inscription, which translates something like this: “May those who have rested in peace forever northern lands". To the south of Baikovo, on a steep sea cliff behind a tall rusty container, you can see the Japanese cemetery. If you go towards the airfield, north of Baikovo, you can find the entrance to an underground Japanese structure. The entrance has collapsed, but if it is cleared, it will not be difficult to get inside. Presumably, there was a point of contact here. The diagram shows which big size this is a dungeon that had several exits, which are now filled up.Not far from the airfield are the remains of the first American aircraft"King Cobra". The Soviet army received many such aircraft under lend-lease, they were based here after the war, but when the army received jet fighters, these motorized fighters were simply abandoned at their parking lots, or derailed from taxiways. So the broken wings and fuselages lie among the alder thickets of 17 aircraft.
Authors and sources of information:
www.geocaching.su, poluostrov.kamchatka.ru
Photo www.geocaching.su, poluostrov.kamchatka.ru
The last battle of the war. Shumshu Island.
Distribution. Place of service - the Kuril ridge. Destinations - Baltiysk - Leningrad - Chelyabinsk - Vladivostok - Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky - Shumshu Island of the North Kuril Ridge. The first "own" housing and northern rations. The first position held was "Head of the observation section of the North Kuril ridge" Departmental section - southern tip Kamchatka, islands - Shumshu - Paramushir - Onekotan - Shiashkotan - Matua - Rasshua (plus small islands). The length of the section is 900 km. Defender - Lieutenant Yavorsky, 23 years old. Birth eldest daughter. Earthquakes, tsunamis and other things from life in the Kuriles in this series of memoirs.
Kuril landing operation(August 18 - September 1) - landing operation armed forces The USSR against the Japanese troops during the Second World War with the aim of capturing the Kuril Islands. It is part of the Soviet-Japanese War. The result of the operation was the occupation by Soviet troops of 56 islands of the Kuril ridge, with total area 10.5 thousand km², which later, in 1946, were included in the USSR.
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balance of power
the USSR
- Kamchatsky defensive area (as part of the 2nd Far Eastern Front)
- 128th mixed aviation division (78 aircraft)
- howitzer artillery regiment
- battalion marines
- Petropavlovsk naval base
- 60 ships and vessels
- 2nd Separate Naval Aviation Bomber Regiment
- coastal artillery batteries
Japan
- part of the forces of the 5th front
- part of the forces of the 27th Army
- 91st Infantry Division (on the island of Shumshu, Paramushir, Onekotan)
- 89th Infantry Division (on Iturup Island, Kunashir, Malaya Kuril Ridge)
- 129th Separate Infantry Brigade (on Urup Island)
- units of the 11th Tank Regiment (Shumshu, Paramushir)
- 31st Air Defense Regiment (Shumshu)
- 41st separate mixed regiment (on the island of Matua)
- part of the forces of the 27th Army
Operation plan
By the beginning of the Soviet-Japanese war, there were more than 80,000 Japanese troops, more than 200 guns, and 60 tanks on the Kuril Islands. The airfields were designed to accommodate 600 aircraft, but almost all of them were withdrawn to the Japanese islands to fight American troops. The garrisons of the islands north of Onekotan were subordinate to Lieutenant General Fusaki Tsutsumi, commander of the troops in the Northern Kuriles, and south of Onekotan, to the commander of the 5th Front, Lieutenant General Kiichiro Higuchi (headquarters on the island of Hokkaido).
The most fortified was the northernmost island of the Shumshu archipelago, located just 6.5 miles (about 12 kilometers) from south coast Kamchatka. The 73rd Infantry Brigade of the 91st Infantry Division, the 31st Air Defense Regiment, the Fortress Artillery Regiment, the 11th Tank Regiment (without one company), the garrison of the Kataoka naval base, the airfield team, and separate units were stationed there. The depth of the engineering structures of the antiamphibious defense was 3-4 km, on the island there were 34 concrete artillery pillboxes and 24 bunkers, 310 closed machine-gun points, numerous underground shelters for troops and military equipment up to 50 meters deep. Most of the defensive structures were connected by underground passages into a single defensive system. The Shushmu garrison consisted of 8500 people, over 100 guns of all systems, 60 tanks. All military installations were carefully camouflaged, there were a large number of false fortifications. A significant part of these fortifications was not known to the Soviet command. The Shumshu garrison could be reinforced by troops from the neighboring and also heavily fortified island of Paramushir (over 13,000 troops were stationed there).
The decision to conduct the Kuril operation: landing on the night of August 18 in the northern part of Shumshu, between capes Kokutan and Kotomari; in the absence of enemy opposition to the first echelon of landing on Shumshu, the second echelon should be landed on Paramushir, at the Kasiva naval base. The landing was preceded by artillery preparation by a 130-mm coastal battery from Cape Lopatka (the southern tip of Kamchatka) and air strikes; the direct support of the landing is entrusted to the naval artillery of the artillery support detachment and aviation. The decision to land troops on an unequipped coast, where the Japanese had weaker antiamphibious defenses, and not on the heavily fortified naval base of Kataoka, was fully justified, although this made it difficult to unload military equipment.
The landing forces as a whole were formed from the 101st rifle division of the Kamchatka defensive region, which was part of the 2nd Far Eastern Front: two reinforced rifle regiments, an artillery regiment, an anti-tank battalion, a marine battalion, and the 60th Marine Border Detachment. In total - 8363 people, 95 guns, 123 mortars, 120 heavy and 372 light machine guns. The landing force was reduced to the forward detachment and two echelons of the main forces.
Landing on Shumshu Island
Ship advancement
Fighting 20 August
A detachment of Soviet ships headed to the Kataoka naval base on Shumshu to accept the surrender of the Japanese garrison, but came under artillery fire from the Shumshu and Paramushir islands. Several 75-mm shells were hit by the Okhotsk mine layer (3 killed and 12 wounded), the Kirov patrol ship (2 crew members wounded). The ships returned fire and withdrew to the sea. The commander of the operation, in response, ordered the resumption of the offensive against Shumshu and bombing Paramushir. After massive artillery preparation, the landing force advanced 5-6 kilometers, after which a new Japanese delegation hastily arrived with consent to surrender.
Fighting 21 - 22 August
The Japanese command in every possible way dragged out the negotiations and the surrender of the garrison to Shumshu. The Headquarters of the Supreme High Command ordered to transfer 2 rifle regiments to Shumsha from Kamchatka, to occupy Shumsha by the morning of August 23 and start landing on Paramushir. One Soviet plane made a demonstrative bombardment of Japanese batteries on the island.
The surrender of Japanese troops and the occupation of the northern Kuril Islands
Total for northern islands In the Kuril ridge, 30,442 Japanese were disarmed and captured, including four generals and 1,280 officers. 20,108 rifles, 923 machine guns, 202 guns, 101 mortars and other military property were taken as trophies.
Occupation of the southern Kuril Islands
August 22, 1945 Commander-in-Chief Soviet troops on the Far East Marshal of the Soviet Union A. M. Vasilevsky ordered the command Pacific Fleet forces of the Northern Pacific Flotilla (commanded by Vice Admiral V. A. Andreev), together with the command of the 2nd Far Eastern Front, to occupy the southern Kuril Islands. For this operation, the 355th Rifle Division (commander Colonel S.G. Abbakumov) was allocated from the 87th Rifle Corps of the 16th Army, the 113th rifle brigade and an artillery regiment. The main landing points are Iturup and Kunashir, then the islands of the Lesser Kuril Ridge. Detachments of ships with landing troops were supposed to leave the port of Otomari (now Korsakov) on Sakhalin. Captain I.S. Leonov was appointed commander of the landing operation to occupy the southern Kuril Islands.
On September 1, several detachments of ships with landing troops arrived on the island of Kunashir (jap. Kunashiri): first, 1 minesweeper with a rifle company on board (147 people), then 2 landing ships and 1 patrol ship with 402 paratroopers and 2 guns on board, 2 transports, 2 minesweepers and a patrol ship with 2479 paratroopers and 27 guns, 3 transports and a minesweeper with 1300 soldiers and 14 guns. The Japanese garrison of 1250 capitulated. Such large forces were allocated to Kunashir, since it was planned to create a naval base there and landing forces were supposed to operate from it to occupy the neighboring islands.
Also on September 1, the island of Shikotan (Japanese, Shikotan) was occupied. The Gizhiga minelayer and two minesweepers delivered rifle battalion(830 men, two guns). Japanese garrison - 4th infantry brigade and field artillery battalion, numbering 4800 soldiers and officers under the command of Major General Sadashiti Doi (in some sources Jio Doi) capitulated.
Already at the beginning of September Soviet sailors the rest of the islands of the Lesser Kuril Ridge (jap. Habomai) were occupied by amphibious assaults: September 2 - the garrison of Akiyuri Island (now Anuchina) (10 soldiers), September 3 - the garrisons of the Yuri Islands (now Yury) (41 soldiers, 1 officer ), Shibotsu (now o. Green) (420 soldiers and officers) and Taraku (now o. Polonsky) (92 soldiers and officers), September 4 - the garrison of the Todo Islands (now o-va Lisya) (over 100 people).
In total, about 20,000 capitulated to the Soviet troops in the southern Kuriles. Japanese soldiers and officers. There were no hostilities. There were several minor incidents with violations of the terms of surrender (the evacuation of Japanese troops to Japan, the flight of the civilian Japanese population on ships, the destruction by the Japanese of their weapons and other property). After the battles at Shumshu, the Pacific Fleet suffered no combat losses in the Kuril Islands.
Infantry landing on sea vessels. Kuril landing operation. August 1945
KURIL LANDING OPERATION 1945 - operation of the 2nd Far Eastern Front (Army General M.A. Purkaev) and the forces of the Pacific Fleet (Admiral I.S. Yumashev), carried out on August 18 - September 2 during the Soviet-Japanese War of 1945 with the goal of mastering the Kuril Islands.
The defeat of Japanese troops in Manchuria as a result of the Manchurian strategic operation and on about. Sakhalin during the Yuzhno-Sakhalin offensive operation created favorable conditions for the liberation of the Kuril Islands.
Soviet armor-piercers on the island of Shumshu during the Kuril landing operation. August 1945
The idea of the operation was to suddenly land an amphibious assault in the north-west of Shumshu Island (the main stronghold of the Kuril Islands), to inflict main blow in the direction of the naval base of Kataoka, take possession of the island and, using it as a springboard, clear the islands of Paramushir, Onekotan and others from the enemy. The 73rd Japanese Infantry Brigade of the 91st Infantry Division, units of the 11th Tank Regiment (60 tanks), the Air Defense Regiment, the Kuril Fortress Artillery Regiment, as well as special enemy units and subunits were located on Shumshu Island. Part of the troops of the 91st Infantry Division was stationed on Paramushir Island in readiness to reinforce the Shumshu garrison; on the island of Matua was the 41st separate mixed regiment, on the island of Urup - the 129th separate mixed brigade. On the islands of Iturup, Kunashir and the Lesser Kuril Ridge - the 89th Infantry Division. In total, the Japanese concentrated more than 80 thousand soldiers and officers on the Kuril Islands, equipped 9 airfields and landing sites total capacity up to 600 aircraft.
Kuril landing operation August 19 - September 2, 1945 Scheme.
The landing forces included: two rifle regiments of the 101st rifle division, a marine battalion, a howitzer artillery regiment and other units - a total of 8824 people, 205 guns and mortars, 60 ships and vessels. The landing force was commanded by the commander of the 101st Infantry Division, Major General P.I. Dyakov. The landing force, led by the commander of the Petropavlovsk Naval Base (Navy), Captain 1st Rank D.G. Ponomarev consisted of 4 detachments: transports and landing craft, security, trawling and artillery support ships. Air support for the landing was assigned to the 128th mixed air division (78 aircraft, Lieutenant Colonel M.A. Eremin) and the 2nd separate bomber regiment of naval aviation. General leadership the landing operation was carried out by Admiral I.S. Yumashev, and directly - the commander of the Kamchatka Marine Defense Region, Major General A.R. Gnechko.
Landing of amphibious assault on the island of Shumshu. Artist G.A. Sotskov.
On August 18, the landing of troops on the island of Shumshu began, the battles for which were fierce: Soviet troops lost 416 killed, 123 missing (mostly drowned during the landing), 1028 wounded, in total - 1567 people. The Japanese lost 1018 people killed and wounded, of which over 300 were killed. On August 23, the island was completely liberated. More than 12 thousand Japanese soldiers were taken prisoner.
By the end of August, the forces of the Kamchatka defensive region and the Petropavlovsk naval base occupied the entire northern ridge of the islands, including Urup Island, and the forces of the North Pacific military flotilla(Vice Admiral V.A. Andreev) by September 2 - the rest of the islands located south of Urup Island. On September 4-5, the surrender of Japanese troops was accepted on the small islands of the Lesser Kuril Ridge (in Japanese - Habomai Islands) - Tanfilyev, Polonsky, Anuchin, etc., located south of about. Shikotan. The Japanese garrisons of these islands offered no resistance. In total, up to 60 thousand soldiers and officers were taken prisoner, over 300 guns and mortars, 60 tanks, and about 1000 machine guns were captured.
The operation is instructive in that it was prepared within a limited time frame, the direction of the main attack was skillfully chosen, and interaction was well organized. ground forces, aviation and navy.
Landing on the Kuril Islands. Artist A.I. Plotnov. 1948
The formations and units that distinguished themselves in the operation were given the honorary title of Kuril. Orders were also awarded to a number of military units: 101st Rifle Division, 138th rifle regiment, 373rd Infantry Regiment, 302nd Infantry Regiment, 428th artillery regiments, 888th fighter aviation regiment, 903rd Bomber Aviation Regiment, patrol ships "Dzerzhinsky" and "Kirov".
More than 3,000 people from among the participants in the landing on Shumshu were awarded orders and medals. Nine people were awarded the title of Heroes of the Soviet Union: the commander of the Kamchatka defensive region, Major General A.R. Gnechko, commander of the Petropavlovsk naval base, captain 1st rank D.G. Ponomarev, Marine Battalion Commander Major T.A. Pochtarev, Senior Instructor of the Political Department of the 101st Infantry Division - Senior Lieutenant V.A. Kot, boatswain of the mother ship "North" foreman of the 1st article N.A. Vilkov (posthumously) and others.
In memory of the Soviet soldiers who died during the operation, monuments were erected in the cities of Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky and Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk.
Vladimir Zhumatiy, Senior Research Fellow
Research Institute of Military History
Military Academy of the General Staff of the Armed Forces
Russian Federation, doctor historical sciences, Professor
The most fortified of the islands of the Kuril chain was the northernmost island - Shumshu, separated from Kamchatka by the First Kuril Strait. This small (20 by 13 km) island, unlike the others, is low-lying. In its southwestern part, on the coast of the Second Kuril Strait, there was a well-equipped naval base Kataoka, and 5 - 6 km from it, on Paramushir Island, the naval base Kashiwabara. Before the war, mainly light forces were based here. Japanese fleet. These bases were heavily fortified.
Two airfields operated on Shumshu, designed to base up to two air regiments. Lake Bettobu, located in the southwest, was adapted for use as a hydro-aviation base.
The main thoroughfare of the island is the highway connecting the port of Kataoka with Cape Kokutan. From the highway to the coast depart dirt roads. The total length of communications - 120 km - is significant for such a small island. This favored the maneuver of forces and means.
Engineering structures on Shumshu were created and improved over many years. By 1945, they were a complex of powerful fortifications. The entire coast available for landing was covered by pillboxes and bunkers connected by underground passages and trenches. In total, there were 34 pillboxes and many pillboxes (738) on the island.
The main line of defense passed in the northeastern part of the island, in the region of heights 171 and 165. Its separate strongholds communicated with each other, and if the coast was captured by landing, the Japanese could retreat into the depths of the island.
Underground passages were entire galleries and served not only for maneuvering forces and means. They were equipped with warehouses, hospitals, electrical and telephone stations, as well as other facilities. Their depth, reaching 50 m, ensured invulnerability from artillery shells and aerial bombs.
The enemy grouping on Shumshu Island consisted of the 73rd brigade of the 91st infantry division, the 31st air defense regiment, the Kuril fortress artillery regiment and units of the 11th tank regiment (60 tanks). If necessary, it could be reinforced by the transfer of troops from the island of Paramushir. The 74th brigade (without two companies) of the 91st infantry division, the 18th and 19th mortar divisions and a unit of the 11th tank regiment (17 tanks) were stationed in the northeastern part of Paramushir Island. This arrangement of troops allowed the Japanese to short term to concentrate on the island of Shumshu up to 23 thousand people.
The troops of the Kamchatka defensive region, which were tasked with defeating this strong grouping, which relied on powerful engineering structures, were significantly inferior to the enemy. In addition, when a favorable situation developed for the transition to an offensive in this operational direction (the decision of the Soviet command to launch the Kuril landing operation was made on August 15), they were scattered over a wide front. It was extremely difficult to concentrate them in a short time at the landing sites. I had to limit myself only to those units that were in Petropavlovsk by the end of August 15, but as a further delay in the start of the operation threatened that the Japanese command would remove all material assets from the Kuril Islands (equipment of bases, ports, industrial enterprises).
It was planned to involve two reinforced regiments of the 101st Rifle Division, the 279th Artillery Regiment, the 169th Separate Anti-Tank Fighter Battalion and a marine battalion to participate in the landing operation. These forces were consolidated into a forward detachment, a demonstrative landing detachment and two echelons of the main forces.
For the landing of troops, detachments of transports and landing craft, security, trawling and an artillery support detachment (60 ships and vessels, including 16 landing ships) were formed (739). Covering troops and ships from the air was assigned to the 128th mixed air division (78 aircraft) and the 2nd separate bomber regiment of naval aviation.
General A.R. Gnechko, Commander of the Kamchatka Defensive Region, was appointed Commander of the Forces in the operation, Captain 1st Rank D.G. Ponomarev, commander of the landing force, Commander of the 101st Rifle Division, General P.I. I. Dyakov.
The idea of the operation was to seize the island of Shumshu by a sudden landing of amphibious assault forces and, using it as a bridgehead, occupy the islands located to the south. The capture of Shumshu predetermined the success of the liberation of the remaining islands of the Kuril chain.
The most convenient landing site was the northeastern part of Shumshu Island, where the landing force could be supported by coastal battery fire from Cape Lopatka. The main landing force was scheduled to land at dawn on August 18 on a three-kilometer section of Cape Kokutan, Cape Kotomari. From here it was necessary to deliver the main blow in the direction of the Kataoka naval base.
The time for planning and preparing for hostilities was a little more than a day. Nevertheless, the headquarters of the Kamchatka defensive region and the Petropavlovsk naval base managed not only to ensure the regrouping and concentration of troops scattered along the coast, but also to develop, reproduce and bring to the attention of the executors the most important combat documents: combat and organizational orders, planning table interaction, orders for the passage of ships with landing by sea, and others. The plan indicated the time of the beginning of all stages of the operation (landing, passage by sea, landing battle, actions on the coast) and the order in which they were carried out.
The troops and ships did not experience a shortage of material and technical means, the stocks of which significantly exceeded the needs of military operations. More difficult, given the lack of time and transport, was the delivery of military equipment, ammunition and food to the places of concentration of forces and means of landing.
However, thanks to the well-coordinated and selfless work of the rear services, this difficulty was overcome. Great assistance in the timely delivery of goods was provided by party and public organizations Petropavlovsk, who mobilized all urban transport for military transportation.
In conditions of extremely limited time for preparing for an operation, the organization of command and control of forces, the coordination of the actions of troops, ships and aircraft, as well as their support, acquired paramount importance. In this regard, the creation of an operational headquarters for the operation from representatives of the headquarters of the Kamchatka defensive region was very useful. Petropavlovsk naval base and the 128th aviation division. He helped the commander of the forces in the operation purposefully and quickly resolve all issues related to the preparation and conduct of hostilities.
In less than two days, all the main units of the landing force, as well as the forces for its support, were formed. The battalion of marines created in a day included 783 people, most which were communists and Komsomol members.
Considerable attention was paid to the navigation, hydrographic and engineering support of the operation. The hydrographic groups included in the forward detachment received the necessary funds to ensure the safe approach of ships to the planned landing sites. Engineering units were preparing to unload military equipment from ships to an unequipped coast.
In total, 8821 people were taken on ships and vessels, 205 guns and mortars were loaded, as well as another Combat vehicles and equipment (740) . The landing and crossing by sea took place without opposition from the enemy, but in difficult meteorological conditions. All the way from Petropavlovsk to the island of Shumshu the ships followed in the fog. This favored the achievement of surprise actions, but introduced difficulties in organizing the passage of a large number of courts. Nevertheless, the detachment of ships successfully completed the day's passage and arrived at the designated landing area, demonstrating the high seamanship of the crews and navigational training.
At five o'clock in the morning on August 18, the ships opened fire along the coast and began landing the first amphibious assault. Due to overload and heavy draft, landing craft stopped 100 - 150 m from the coast at a depth of up to 2 m, so the soldiers got to the enemy coast by swimming (741) . Shortly before the start of the landing, the coastal battery at Cape Lopatka made two fire raids on the island of Shumshu, but this did not alert the enemy, since the battery had periodically fired such fire before. The Japanese command considered it impossible to land in the coming days Soviet landings to the Kuril Islands, because they knew (as it turned out later from a survey of prisoners) that there were not enough forces in Kamchatka to solve such a difficult task. Therefore, it did not organize reconnaissance on the way to Shumshu Island.
Stunned by the appearance of paratroopers on the shore, the Japanese opened indiscriminate rifle and machine-gun fire, but it did not prevent the landing. By 5 o'clock the forward detachment of the landing force was landed on the shore completely and without losses. Its main forces began to move inland, bypassing the coastal fortifications. One company of marines was sent to the area of Cape Kotomari in order to destroy enemy artillery batteries located there.
However, the favorable conditions for the landing did not last long. Half an hour later, when ships with the first echelon of landing troops began to approach the shore, Japanese pillboxes and bunkers opened heavy fire. Particularly active were the batteries installed at Capes Kokutan and Kotomari, as well as on the tanker "Mariupol" (742). The artillery support ships and the coastal battery at Cape Lopatka focused their fire on them. From the very first volleys, it was possible to destroy the battery at the Mariupol, but firing without adjustment at two others, hidden in deep, low-vulnerability and invisible from the sea caponiers, did not give a result.
The Japanese unleashed a flurry of artillery fire on the landing site. Several landing craft soon caught fire. The rate of landing of the first echelon of troops was very slow. The landing of the 138th regiment lasted two and a half hours. In addition, on the shore, the fighters carried only small arms, since field artillery remained on the transports.
The landing of the second troop echelon, which began at 0900, also took place with strong enemy artillery opposition. The firing of artillery support ships remained ineffective. As a result of the landing battle, the landing force lost four ships and a patrol boat; eight landing craft were badly damaged.
Meanwhile, enemy resistance on the shore was growing. A company of marines sent to artillery positions on Cape Kotomari was soon forced to lay low, and the advance detachment, although it reached heights 165 and 171, where the main line of defense passed, also stopped due to lack of forces.
The situation worsened sharply. The landing units, armed with machine guns and grenades, were opposed by the main forces of the enemy, who relied on powerful pillboxes and bunkers. Artillery support from the sea had not yet been established. Due to flying weather, there was no air support either. Attempts by paratroopers to suppress enemy firing points with bundles of hand grenades did not give results. Blocking groups of sappers created during the battle were more successful: they managed to blow up several firing points, but this could not decide the outcome of the battle for the heights.
The Japanese command, making sure that the forces of the landing force and ashore are small, launched a counterattack with an infantry battalion, which was supported by 20 tanks. The unequal fight lasted for about two hours. A heroic feat in this battle was accomplished by the communist foreman of the 1st article N. A. Vilkov, who closed the embrasure of the enemy pillbox with his body. It is to him, Nikolai Vilkov, a glorious Soviet patriot, that the wonderful words said before boarding the ships belong: “The Motherland and the command have entrusted us with an honorable task. We are going into battle to finish off the fascist beast in the east. Every person has a feeling of fear, but everyone is able to overcome it, because above all human feelings is military duty, love for the motherland, the desire for military success. In the name of victory over the enemy, we will give our lives without hesitation” (743) .
So did the Red Navy sailor P. I. Ilyichev. In a difficult moment of battle, he also rushed to the embrasure of the Japanese bunker. Both sailors were posthumously awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.
The enemy managed to push the forward detachment, but, having lost up to 15 tanks and up to 100 soldiers, he stopped the counterattack and returned to his original line.
At ten o'clock in the morning, the forward detachment, having established contact with the ships, resumed the offensive. Encouraged by the support of naval artillery and batteries at Cape Lopatka, the paratroopers acted quickly and decisively. Within ten minutes both heights were taken. However, it was not possible to hold them back: another Japanese counterattack threw the attackers back to the foot of the heights. From that time on, the enemy launched one counterattack after another, and the onslaught of the enemy was held back only by the heroic efforts of the forward detachment, until the main forces of the landing approached him.
The build-up of landing forces in the battle area was slow, but the Japanese command could not take advantage of this. When at 14 o'clock it launched another counterattack with two infantry battalions, the main landing forces were already in the battle area. The counterattack was repulsed with heavy losses for the Japanese. 17 of the 18 tanks that participated in it were hit.
In stubborn battles with the enemy, the entire landing force acted heroically. An example of courage and courage was given by the communists. Major T. A. Pochtarev, being wounded, remained in the ranks and commanded a battalion of marines. Major P.I. Shutov, the commander of the forward detachment of the landing, whose name one of the settlements of the island of Shumshu now bears, left the battlefield only after a heavy, third, wound. For heroism and skillful leadership of the battle, Pochtarev and Shutov were awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.
Until noon, non-flying weather did not allow aviation to provide assistance to the landing force. In the afternoon, when visibility improved somewhat, groups of 8-16 aircraft launched several assault strikes on Kataoka and Kashiwabara in order to prevent the transfer of enemy troops from Paramushir Island.
The Japanese also used aircraft based at the Kataoka airfield. for attacks on Soviet ships. However, after the minesweeper "TShch-525" shot down four combat vehicles with anti-aircraft fire, they began to act only against unarmed ships and watercraft.
Until the end of the day, the landing force more than once rose to storm the enemy heights, but did not reach the goal. main reason failures was. that there was no artillery in the combat formations of the paratroopers: out of 218 guns and mortars, only four 45-mm guns (744) were unloaded ashore during the day (744). It turned out to be impossible to unload artillery on the unequipped coast in the face of strong enemy opposition.
The enemy batteries at Capes Kokutan and Kotomari were destroyed by assault groups only by the morning of August 19, after which the guns were unloaded. full swing. However, the enemy was not idle. By this time, he had transferred part of his forces to Shumshu from Paramushir Island, concentrating more than 5 infantry battalions, about 60 tanks, 70 guns in the area of heights 165 and 171, and was preparing for a stubborn battle. But the fight did not resume. In connection with the order for the surrender of Japanese troops announced by radio, negotiations began. The Japanese obviously dragged them out under various pretexts and only in the evening signed the act of unconditional surrender of the 91st Infantry Division, which defended the islands of Shumshu, Paramushir and Onekotan.
Based on this document, the Soviet command developed a plan for capturing the Japanese garrisons. The 128th Aviation Division received the task on the morning of August 20 to relocate one regiment to the Kataoka airfield, and the Petropavlovsk naval base was to transfer part of the ships to Kataoka Bay (745).
On the morning of August 20, a detachment of Soviet ships consisting of the Okhotsk mine layer, the Kirov and Dzerzhinsky patrol ships, the TShch-525 minesweeper, the Pugachev military transport and the Polyarny hydrographic vessel, in agreement with the Japanese command, entered the Second Kuril Strait. However, there, without any warning, he was fired from guns from the islands of Shumshu and Paramushir. The ships returned fire, but the enemy fire was so dense that they had to leave the strait under the cover of smoke screens.
Meanwhile, the landing force remained at the occupied defensive line, awaiting the surrender of the Japanese garrison. When it became known about the insidious violation of the agreement, the paratroopers went on the offensive. The fighting impulse of the Pacific Ocean was so great that, having overcome powerful defensive structures, they threw the enemy 5-6 km into the interior of the island. At the same time, the fleet's aircraft attacked Kashiwabara and Kataoka. All this had a sobering effect on the Japanese command, which hastened to assure the Soviet command of its readiness for immediate surrender.
By the end of August 23, over 12,000 Japanese soldiers and officers were captured at Shumshu. Following them, the garrisons of the other islands laid down their arms. The northern islands of the Great Kuril Ridge, up to and including Urup, were occupied by the troops of the Kamchatka defensive region, and all the islands to the south of it were occupied by troops transferred by ships from South Sakhalin.
The Kuril operation was completed by the landing, landed on the morning of September 1 on the island of Kunashir. For the Japanese command, such quick actions of the Soviet fleet were unexpected. All his plans for the evacuation of garrisons and material assets were violated. In total, up to 60 thousand Japanese soldiers and officers were disarmed and captured on the Kuril Islands (746).
The fighting to liberate the naval bases and ports of North Korea took place in close contact between the troops of the 1st Far Eastern Front and the forces of the Pacific Fleet. They began after the success of the 25th Army in the coastal direction was determined. The ships and units of the Pacific Fleet contributed to the rapid advance of the Soviet troops, as a result of which the Japanese group was completely pinned down.
The actions of the Soviet troops on Sakhalin were a combined operation of ground and naval forces with the support of aviation. Here, the ground troops overcame a powerful fortified area, equipped in a mountainous-wooded and wooded-swampy area. Air strikes and landings deprived the enemy of the ability to maneuver reserves.
The Kuril landing operation, although it was not deployed in the main direction, was one of the most important and most difficult in the Far East.
Ships and the Air Force of the Pacific Fleet played a significant role in joint operations. In addition to fulfilling the tasks of defending the sea coast, ships of the fleet during the Far East campaign conducted 29 convoys, and aviation made 5419 sorties (747) .
Tall morale, heroism, decisive actions of soldiers, sailors and officers contributed to the success of the troops of the 1st and 2nd Far Eastern Fronts and the Pacific Fleet in North Korea, in South Sakhalin and the Kuril Islands.
The Soviet troops and the forces of the Pacific Fleet completed operations in the coastal areas in a short time. They made a major contribution to the liberation mission of the Soviet Armed Forces, which gave freedom to the peoples of North Korea and returned the original Russian lands to the Motherland - South Sakhalin and the Kuril Islands.
With the aim of mastering the Kuril Islands. It is part of the Soviet-Japanese War. The result of the operation was the occupation by Soviet troops of 56 islands of the Kuril ridge, with a total area of 10.5 thousand km², which later, in 1946, were included in the USSR.
balance of power
the USSR
- Kamchatka defensive area (as part of the 2nd Far Eastern Front)
- 128th mixed aviation division (78 aircraft)
- howitzer artillery regiment
- marine battalion
- 60 ships and vessels
- 2nd Separate Naval Aviation Bomber Regiment
- coastal artillery batteries
Japan
- part of the forces of the 5th front
- part of the forces of the 27th army
- 91st Infantry Division (on the island of Shumshu, Paramushir, Onekotan)
- 89th Infantry Division (on Iturup Island, Kunashir, Malaya Kuril Ridge)
- 129th Separate Infantry Brigade (on Urup Island)
- units of the 11th Tank Regiment (Shumshu, Paramushir)
- 31st Air Defense Regiment (Shumshu)
- 41st separate mixed regiment (on the island of Matua)
- part of the forces of the 27th army
Operation plan
By the beginning of the Soviet-Japanese war, there were more than 80,000 Japanese troops on the Kuril Islands, over 200 guns, 60 tanks. The airfields were designed to accommodate 600 aircraft, but almost all of them were withdrawn to the Japanese islands to fight American troops. The garrisons of the islands north of Onekotan were subordinate to Lieutenant General Fusaki Tsutsumi, commander of the troops in the Northern Kuriles, and south of Onekotan, to the commander of the 5th Front, Lieutenant General Kiichiro Higuchi (headquarters on the island of Hokkaido).
The most fortified was the northernmost island of the Shumshu archipelago, located just 6.5 miles (about 12 kilometers) from the southern coast of Kamchatka. The 73rd Infantry Brigade of the 91st Infantry Division, the 31st Air Defense Regiment, the Fortress Artillery Regiment, the 11th Tank Regiment (without one company), the garrison of the Kataoka naval base, the airfield team, and separate units were stationed there. The depth of the engineering structures of the antiamphibious defense was 3-4 km, on the island there were 34 concrete artillery pillboxes and 24 bunkers, 310 closed machine-gun points, numerous underground shelters for troops and military equipment up to 50 meters deep. Most of the defensive structures were connected by underground passages into a single defensive system. The Shushmu garrison consisted of 8500 people, over 100 guns of all systems, 60 tanks. All military facilities were carefully camouflaged, there were a large number of false fortifications. A significant part of these fortifications was not known to the Soviet command. The Shumshu garrison could be reinforced by troops from the neighboring and also heavily fortified island of Paramushir (over 13,000 troops were stationed there).
The decision to conduct the Kuril operation: landing on the night of August 18 in the northern part of Shumshu, between capes Kokutan and Kotomari; in the absence of enemy opposition to the first echelon of landing on Shumshu, the second echelon should be landed on Paramushir, at the Kasiva naval base. The landing was preceded by artillery preparation by a 130-mm coastal battery from Cape Lopatka (the southern tip of Kamchatka) and air strikes; the direct support of the landing is entrusted to the naval artillery of the artillery support detachment and aviation. The decision to land troops on an unequipped coast, where the Japanese had weaker antiamphibious defenses, and not on the heavily fortified naval base of Kataoka, was fully justified, although this made it difficult to unload military equipment.
The landing force as a whole was formed from the 101st rifle division of the Kamchatka defensive region, which was part of the 2nd Far Eastern Front: two reinforced rifle regiments, an artillery regiment, an anti-tank battalion, a marine battalion, and the 60th Marine Border Detachment. In total - 8363 people, 95 guns, 123 mortars, 120 heavy and 372 light machine guns. The landing force was reduced to the forward detachment and two echelons of the main forces.
Landing on Shumshu Island
Ship advancement
Fighting 20 August
A detachment of Soviet ships headed to the Kataoka naval base on Shumshu to accept the surrender of the Japanese garrison, but came under artillery fire from the Shumshu and Paramushir islands. Several 75-mm shells were hit by the Okhotsk mine layer (3 killed and 12 wounded), the Kirov patrol ship (2 crew members wounded). The ships returned fire and withdrew to the sea. The commander of the operation, in response, ordered the resumption of the offensive against Shumshu and bombing Paramushir. After massive artillery preparation, the landing force advanced 5-6 kilometers, after which a new Japanese delegation hastily arrived with consent to surrender.
Fighting 21 - 22 August
The Japanese command in every possible way dragged out the negotiations and the surrender of the garrison to Shumshu. The Headquarters of the Supreme High Command ordered 2 rifle regiments to be transferred to Shumsha from Kamchatka, by the morning of August 23 to occupy Shumsha and begin landing on Paramushir. One Soviet plane made a demonstrative bombardment of Japanese batteries on the island.
The surrender of Japanese troops and the occupation of the northern Kuril Islands
The battle for Shumshu came the only operation Soviet-Japanese War, in which Soviet side suffered more losses in killed and wounded than the enemy: Soviet troops lost 416 killed, 123 missing (mostly drowned during the landing), 1028 wounded, in total - 1567 people. Including the losses of the Pacific Fleet amounted to 290 killed and missing, 384 - wounded (including the crews of ships - 134 killed and missing, 213 wounded, a marine battalion in the battle for Shumshu - 156 killed and missing, 171 wounded). The Japanese lost 1,018 killed and wounded, of which 369 were killed.
In total, 30,442 Japanese were disarmed and captured on the northern islands of the Kuril chain, including four generals and 1,280 officers. 20,108 rifles, 923 machine guns, 202 guns, 101 mortars and other military property were taken as trophies.
Occupation of the southern Kuril Islands
On August 22, 1945, the Commander-in-Chief of the Soviet Forces in the Far East, Marshal of the Soviet Union A.M. Vasilevsky ordered the command of the Pacific Fleet by the forces of the Northern Pacific Flotilla (commander Vice Admiral V.A. Andreev), together with the command of the 2nd Far Eastern Front, to occupy the southern Kuril Islands. For this operation, the 355th Rifle Division (commander Colonel S. G. Abbakumov) from the 87th Rifle Corps of the 16th Army, the 113th Rifle Brigade and an artillery regiment were allocated. The main landing points are Iturup and Kunashir, then the islands of the Lesser Kuril Ridge. Detachments of ships with landing troops were supposed to leave the port of Otomari (now Korsakov) on Sakhalin. Captain 1st rank I.S. Leonov was appointed commander of the landing operation to occupy the southern Kuril Islands.
On September 1, several detachments of ships with landing troops arrived on the island of Kunashir (jap. Kunasiri): first, 1 minesweeper with a rifle company on board (147 people), then 2 landing ships and 1 patrol ship with 402 paratroopers and 2 guns on board, 2 transports, 2 minesweepers and a patrol ship with 2479 paratroopers and 27 guns, 3 transports and a minesweeper with 1300 soldiers and 14 guns. The Japanese garrison of 1250 capitulated. Such large forces were allocated to Kunashir, since it was planned to create a naval base there and landing forces were supposed to operate from it to occupy the neighboring islands.
Awards
More than 3,000 people from among the participants in the landing on Shumshu were awarded orders and medals. Nine people were awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union: commander of the Kamchatka defensive region, Major General Gnechko Alexei Romanovich, commander of the Petropavlovsk naval base, captain 1st rank Ponomarev Dmitry Georgievich, chief of staff of the 302nd Infantry Regiment, Major Shutov Petr Ivanovich, commander of the marine battalion, Major Pochtarev Timofey Alekseevich, senior instructor of the political department of the 101st rifle division - political officer of the forward detachment of the landing, senior lieutenant Kot Vasily Andreevich, commander of the rifle company, senior lieutenant Savushkin Stepan Averyanovich (posthumously), boatswain of the floating base "Sever" foreman of the 1st article Vilkov Nikolai Alexandrovich (posthumously) , foreman-mechanic of the landing barge, foreman of the 1st article Sigov Vasily Ivanovich, steering boat MO-253, Red Navy sailor Ilyichev Pyotr Ivanovich (posthumously).
A number of military units were also awarded. So the 101st Rifle Division, 138th Rifle Regiment, 373rd Rifle Regiment, 302nd Rifle Regiment, 279th and 428th Artillery Regiments, 888th Fighter Aviation Regiment, 903rd Bomber Aviation Regiment, guard ships "Dzerzhinsky" and "Kirov". Mine layer "Okhotsk" received the rank of guards.
In memory of the Soviet soldiers who died during the operation, monuments were erected in the cities of Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky and Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk.
Images
Wikitrip to MAI museum 2016-02-02 010.JPG
Offensive map, photo of a Japanese tank brought to Moscow from Shumshu, photo of a landing party
Wikitrip to MAI museum 2016-02-02 012.JPG
memorial plaque
Wikitrip to MAI museum 2016-02-02 014.JPG
Manga about the Kuril landing
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Notes
Links
Sources
- Kuril operation 1945 // / ed. M. M. Kozlova. - M .: Soviet Encyclopedia, 1985. - S. 391. - 500,000 copies.
- Red Banner Pacific Fleet. - M .: Military Publishing House, 1973.
- Akshinsky V.S.
- Alexandrov A. A. Great victory in the Far East. August 1945: from Transbaikalia to Korea. - M.: Veche, 2004.
- Bagrov V. N. Victory on the islands. Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk, 1985.
- Smirnov I.
- Strelbitsky K. B. August 1945. Soviet-Japanese War at sea - the price of victory. - M., 1996.
- Slavinsky B.N. Soviet occupation of the Kuril Islands (Aug.-Sept. 1945): Dokum. research - M., 1993.
- Slavinsky A. B. August 1945. // Tankmaster magazine, 2005.- No. 7.
- Shirokorad A. B. Far East final. - M.: AST; Transitbook, 2005.
- Khristoforov A. Zh. Marine Kuril landing / / "Local history notes". - Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, 1995. - issue 9. - P. 23-48.
- An article about the operation in the journal "Sea Collection", 1975.- No. 9.
- The Great Patriotic War. Day after day. // "Marine collection", 1995.- No. 8.
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An excerpt characterizing the Kuril landing operation
“But it’s time for you and me, brother, to give up these courtesies,” Dolokhov continued, as if he found particular pleasure in talking about this subject that irritated Denisov. “Well, why did you take this with you?” he said, shaking his head. "Then why do you feel sorry for him?" After all, we know these receipts of yours. You send a hundred of them, and thirty will come. They will die of hunger or be beaten. So isn't it all the same to not take them?Esaul, narrowing his bright eyes, nodded his head approvingly.
- It's all g "Absolutely, there's nothing to argue about. I don't want to take it on my soul. You talk" ish - help "ut". Just not from me.
Dolokhov laughed.
“Who didn’t tell them to catch me twenty times?” But they will catch me and you, with your chivalry, all the same on an aspen. He paused. “However, the work must be done. Send my Cossack with a pack! I have two French uniforms. Well, are you coming with me? he asked Petya.
- I? Yes, yes, certainly, - Petya, blushing almost to tears, cried out, looking at Denisov.
Again, while Dolokhov was arguing with Denisov about what should be done with the prisoners, Petya felt awkward and hasty; but again he did not have time to understand well what they were talking about. “If big, well-known think like that, then it’s necessary, so it’s good,” he thought. - And most importantly, it is necessary that Denisov does not dare to think that I will obey him, that he can command me. I will definitely go with Dolokhov to french camp. He can, and I can."
To all Denisov's persuasion not to travel, Petya replied that he, too, was accustomed to doing everything carefully, and not Lazarus at random, and that he never thought of danger to himself.
“Because,” you yourself will agree, “if you don’t know exactly how many there are, life depends on it, maybe hundreds, and here we are alone, and then I really want this, and I will certainly, certainly go, you won’t keep me.” “It will only get worse,” he said.
Dressed in French overcoats and shakos, Petya and Dolokhov went to the clearing from which Denisov looked at the camp, and, leaving the forest in complete darkness, went down into the hollow. Having moved down, Dolokhov ordered the Cossacks accompanying him to wait here and rode at a large trot along the road to the bridge. Petya, trembling with excitement, rode beside him.
“If we get caught, I won’t give myself up alive, I have a gun,” Petya whispered.
“Don’t speak Russian,” Dolokhov said in a quick whisper, and at the same moment a hail was heard in the darkness: “Qui vive?” [Who's coming?] and the sound of a gun.
Blood rushed into Petya's face, and he grabbed the pistol.
- Lanciers du sixieme, [Lancers of the sixth regiment.] - Dolokhov said, without shortening or adding speed to the horse. The black figure of a sentry stood on the bridge.
- Mot d "ordre? [Review?] - Dolokhov held his horse back and rode at a pace.
– Dites donc, le colonel Gerard est ici? [Tell me, is Colonel Gerard here?] he said.
- Mot d "ordre! - Without answering, the sentry said, blocking the road.
- Quand un officier fait sa ronde, les sentinelles ne demandent pas le mot d "ordre ... - Dolokhov shouted, suddenly flushing, running over the sentry with his horse. - Je vous demande si le colonel est ici? [When an officer goes around the chain, sentries do not ask recall… I ask if the Colonel is here?]
And, without waiting for an answer from the guard who stood aside, Dolokhov rode uphill at a pace.
Noticing the black shadow of a man crossing the road, Dolokhov stopped this man and asked where the commander and officers were? This man, with a bag on his shoulder, a soldier, stopped, went close to Dolokhov's horse, touching it with his hand, and simply and amiably told that the commander and officers were higher on the mountain, with right side, in the farm yard (as he called the master's estate).
Having passed along the road, on both sides of which the French dialect sounded from the fires, Dolokhov turned into the courtyard of the master's house. Having passed through the gate, he got off his horse and went up to a large blazing fire, around which several people were sitting talking loudly. Something was brewing in a cauldron on the edge, and a soldier in a cap and a blue overcoat, kneeling, brightly lit by fire, interfered with it with a ramrod.
- Oh, c "est un dur a cuire, [You can't cope with this devil.] - said one of the officers sitting in the shade with opposite side campfire.
“Il les fera marcher les lapins… [He will go through them…],” another said with a laugh. Both fell silent, peering into the darkness at the sound of the steps of Dolokhov and Petya, approaching the fire with their horses.
Bonjour, messieurs! [Hello, gentlemen!] - Dolokhov said loudly, clearly.
The officers stirred in the shadow of the fire, and one high officer with a long neck, bypassing the fire, went up to Dolokhov.
- C "est vous, Clement? - he said. - D" ou, diable ... [Is that you, Clement? Where the hell...] - but he did not finish, having learned his mistake, and, frowning slightly, as if he were a stranger, greeted Dolokhov, asking him what he could serve. Dolokhov said that he and his comrade were catching up with his regiment, and asked, addressing everyone in general, if the officers knew anything about the sixth regiment. Nobody knew anything; and it seemed to Petya that the officers began to examine him and Dolokhov with hostility and suspicion. For a few seconds everyone was silent.
- Si vous comptez sur la soupe du soir, vous venez trop tard, [If you are counting on dinner, then you are late.] - said a voice from behind the fire with a restrained laugh.
Dolokhov replied that they were full and that they had to go further into the night.
He handed over the horses to the soldier who stirred in the bowler hat and squatted by the fire next to the officer with the long neck. This officer, without taking his eyes off, looked at Dolokhov and asked him again: what regiment was he? Dolokhov did not answer, as if he did not hear the question, and, lighting a short French pipe, which he took out of his pocket, asked the officers how safe the road was from the Cossacks ahead of them.
- Les brigands sont partout, [These robbers are everywhere.] - answered the officer from behind the fire.
Dolokhov said that the Cossacks were terrible only for such backward people as he and his comrade, but that the Cossacks probably did not dare to attack large detachments, he added inquiringly. Nobody answered.
“Well, now he will leave,” Petya thought every minute, standing in front of the fire and listening to his conversation.
But Dolokhov began a conversation that had stopped again and directly began to ask how many people they had in the battalion, how many battalions, how many prisoners. Asking about the captured Russians who were with their detachment, Dolokhov said:
– La vilaine affaire de trainer ces cadavres apres soi. Vaudrait mieux fusiller cette canaille, [It's a bad business to carry these corpses around. It would be better to shoot this bastard.] - and laughed loudly with such a strange laugh that it seemed to Petya that the French would now recognize the deception, and he involuntarily took a step back from the fire. No one answered Dolokhov's words and laughter, and the French officer, who was not visible (he was lying wrapped in his greatcoat), got up and whispered something to his comrade. Dolokhov got up and called to the soldier with the horses.
“Will they give horses or not?” thought Petya, involuntarily approaching Dolokhov.
The horses were given.
- Bonjour, messieurs, [Here: goodbye, gentlemen.] - said Dolokhov.
Petya wanted to say bonsoir [ Good evening] and could not finish the words. The officers whispered something to each other. Dolokhov sat for a long time on a horse that did not stand; then walked out of the gate. Petya rode beside him, wanting and not daring to look back to see whether the French were running or not running after them.
Leaving on the road, Dolokhov did not go back to the field, but along the village. At one point he stopped, listening.
- Do you hear? - he said.
Petya recognized the sounds of Russian voices, saw the dark figures of Russian prisoners by the fires. Going down to the bridge, Petya and Dolokhov passed the sentry, who, without saying a word, walked gloomily along the bridge, and drove out into a hollow where the Cossacks were waiting.
- Well, goodbye now. Tell Denisov that at dawn, at the first shot, - said Dolokhov and wanted to go, but Petya grabbed his hand.
- Not! he yelled, “you are such a hero. Ah, how good! How excellent! How I love you.
“Good, good,” said Dolokhov, but Petya did not let him go, and in the darkness Dolokhov saw that Petya was leaning towards him. He wanted to kiss. Dolokhov kissed him, laughed and, turning his horse, disappeared into the darkness.
X
Returning to the guardhouse, Petya found Denisov in the entryway. Denisov, in agitation, anxiety and annoyance at himself for letting Petya go, was waiting for him.
- God bless! he shouted. - Well, thank God! he repeated, listening to Petya's enthusiastic story. “And why don’t you take me, because of you I didn’t sleep!” Denisov said. “Well, thank God, now go to bed.” Still vzdg "let's eat to utg" a.
“Yes… No,” said Petya. “I don’t feel like sleeping yet. Yes, I know myself, if I fall asleep, it's over. And then I got used to not sleeping before the battle.
Petya sat for some time in the hut, joyfully recalling the details of his trip and vividly imagining what would happen tomorrow. Then, noticing that Denisov had fallen asleep, he got up and went into the yard.
It was still quite dark outside. The rain had passed, but the drops were still falling from the trees. Near the guardroom one could see the black figures of Cossack huts and horses tied together. Behind the hut, two wagons with horses stood black, and a burning fire burned red in the ravine. The Cossacks and hussars were not all asleep: in some places, along with the sound of falling drops and the close sound of horses chewing, soft, as if whispering voices were heard.
Petya came out of the passage, looked around in the darkness, and went up to the wagons. Someone was snoring under the wagons, and saddled horses stood around them, chewing oats. In the darkness, Petya recognized his horse, which he called Karabakh, although it was a Little Russian horse, and went up to her.
“Well, Karabakh, we’ll serve tomorrow,” he said, sniffing her nostrils and kissing her.
- What, sir, do not sleep? - said the Cossack, who was sitting under the wagon.
- Not; and ... Likhachev, it seems to be your name? After all, I just arrived. We went to the French. - And Petya told the Cossack in detail not only his trip, but also why he went and why he thinks that it is better to risk his life than to make Lazarus at random.
“Well, they would have slept,” said the Cossack.
“No, I’m used to it,” Petya answered. - And what, the flints in your pistols are not upholstered? I brought with me. Isn't it necessary? You take it.
The Cossack leaned out from under the truck to take a closer look at Petya.
“Because I’m used to doing everything carefully,” said Petya. - Others, somehow, do not get ready, then they regret it. I don't like that.
“That’s right,” said the Cossack.
“And one more thing, please, my dear, sharpen my saber; blunt ... (but Petya was afraid to lie) she had never been honed. Can it be done?
- Why, maybe.
Likhachev got up and rummaged through his packs, and Petya soon heard the warlike sound of steel on a bar. He climbed onto the wagon and sat on its edge. The Cossack sharpened his saber under the wagon.
- And what, the good fellows sleep? Petya said.
- Who is sleeping, and who is like this.
- Well, what about the boy?
- Is it spring? He was there, in the hallways, collapsed. Sleeping with fear. It was glad.
For a long time after that Petya was silent, listening to the sounds. Footsteps were heard in the darkness and a black figure appeared.
- What are you sharpening? the man asked, approaching the wagon.
- But the master sharpen his saber.
“It’s a good thing,” said the man, who seemed to be a hussar to Petya. - Do you have a cup left?
“At the wheel.
The hussar took the cup.
“It’s probably light soon,” he said, yawning, and went somewhere.
Petya should have known that he was in the forest, in the party of Denisov, a verst from the road, that he was sitting on a wagon recaptured from the French, near which horses were tied, that the Cossack Likhachev was sitting under him and sharpening his saber, which is great black spot to the right - a guardhouse, and a bright red spot below to the left - a dying fire, that the man who came for a cup was a hussar who wanted to drink; but he knew nothing and did not want to know it. He was in a magical realm, in which there was nothing like reality. A big black spot, maybe it was definitely a guardhouse, or maybe there was a cave that led into the very depths of the earth. The red spot may have been fire, or perhaps the eye of a huge monster. Maybe he's definitely sitting on the wagon now, but it's very possible that he's not sitting on the wagon, but on a scary high tower, from which if you fall, then you would fly to the ground all day, a whole month - everything will fly and you will never reach it. It may be that just the Cossack Likhachev is sitting under the wagon, or it may very well be that this is the kindest, bravest, most wonderful, most excellent person in the world, whom no one knows. Perhaps it was the hussar who was exactly passing for water and went into the hollow, or perhaps he had just disappeared from sight and completely disappeared, and he was not there.
Whatever Petya saw now, nothing would surprise him. He was in a magical realm where anything was possible.
He looked up at the sky. And the sky was as magical as the earth. The sky was clearing, and over the tops of the trees clouds quickly ran, as if revealing the stars. Sometimes it seemed that the sky was clearing and showed a black, clear sky. Sometimes it seemed that these black spots were clouds. Sometimes it seemed that the sky was high, high above the head; sometimes the sky descended completely, so that you could reach it with your hand.
Petya began to close his eyes and sway.
Drops dripped. There was a quiet conversation. The horses neighed and fought. Someone snored.
“Fire, burn, burn, burn…” whistled the saber being sharpened. And suddenly Petya heard a harmonious chorus of music playing some unknown, solemnly sweet hymn. Petya was musical, just like Natasha, and more than Nikolai, but he never studied music, did not think about music, and therefore the motives that suddenly came to his mind were especially new and attractive to him. The music played louder and louder. The tune grew, passed from one instrument to another. There was what is called a fugue, although Petya had no idea what a fugue was. Each instrument, now resembling a violin, now like trumpets - but better and cleaner than violins and trumpets - each instrument played its own and, without finishing the motive, merged with another, which began almost the same, and with the third, and with the fourth , and they all merged into one and again scattered, and again merged first into a solemn church, then into a brightly shining and victorious one.
“Oh, yes, it’s me in a dream,” Petya said to himself, swaying forward. - It's in my ears. Or maybe it's my music. Well, again. Go ahead my music! Well!.."
He closed his eyes. And from different sides, as if from afar, sounds trembled, began to converge, scatter, merge, and again everything united into the same sweet and solemn hymn. “Ah, what a delight it is! As much as I want and how I want,” Petya said to himself. He tried to lead this huge chorus of instruments.
“Well, hush, hush, freeze now. And the sounds obeyed him. - Well, now it's fuller, more fun. More, even happier. - And from an unknown depth rose increasing, solemn sounds. “Well, voices, pester!” Petya ordered. And first, men's voices were heard from afar, then women's. The voices grew, grew in a steady solemn effort. Petya was terrified and joyful to listen to their extraordinary beauty.
With solemn victorious march the song merged, and drops dripped, and fire, fire, fire ... a saber whistled, and again the horses fought and neighed, not breaking the chorus, but entering it.
Petya did not know how long this went on: he enjoyed himself, was constantly surprised at his own pleasure and regretted that there was no one to tell him. Likhachev's gentle voice woke him up.
- Done, your honor, spread the guard in two.
Petya woke up.
- It's getting light, really, it's getting light! he cried.
Previously invisible horses became visible up to their tails, and a watery light was visible through the bare branches. Petya shook himself, jumped up, took out a ruble bill from his pocket and gave it to Likhachev, waved it, tried the saber and put it in its sheath. The Cossacks untie the horses and tighten the girths.
“Here is the commander,” said Likhachev. Denisov came out of the guardroom and, calling to Petya, ordered to get ready.
Quickly in the semi-darkness, they dismantled the horses, tightened the girths and sorted out the teams. Denisov stood at the guardhouse, giving his last orders. The infantry of the party, slapping a hundred feet, advanced along the road and quickly disappeared between the trees in the predawn fog. Esaul ordered something to the Cossacks. Petya kept his horse in line, impatiently waiting for the order to mount. Washed with cold water, his face, especially his eyes, burned with fire, chills ran down his back, and something in his whole body trembled quickly and evenly.
- Well, are you all ready? Denisov said. - Come on horses.
The horses were given. Denisov was angry with the Cossack because the girths were weak, and, having scolded him, sat down. Petya took up the stirrup. The horse, out of habit, wanted to bite his leg, but Petya, not feeling his weight, quickly jumped into the saddle and, looking back at the hussars moving behind in the darkness, rode up to Denisov.
- Vasily Fyodorovich, will you entrust me with something? Please… for God's sake…” he said. Denisov seemed to have forgotten about the existence of Petya. He looked back at him.
“I’ll tell you about one thing,” he said sternly, “obey me and not meddle anywhere.
During the entire journey, Denisov did not say a word to Petya and rode in silence. When we arrived at the edge of the forest, the field was noticeably brighter. Denisov said something in a whisper to the esaul, and the Cossacks began to drive past Petya and Denisov. When they had all passed, Denisov touched his horse and rode downhill. Sitting on their haunches and gliding, the horses descended with their riders into the hollow. Petya rode next to Denisov. The trembling in his whole body grew stronger. It was getting lighter and lighter, only the fog hid distant objects. Driving down and looking back, Denisov nodded his head to the Cossack who was standing beside him.
- Signal! he said.
The Cossack raised his hand, a shot rang out. And at the same moment there was heard the clatter of galloping horses in front, shouts from different directions, and more shots.
At the same moment as the first sounds of trampling and screaming were heard, Petya, kicking his horse and releasing the reins, not listening to Denisov, who shouted at him, galloped forward. It seemed to Petya that it suddenly dawned brightly, like the middle of the day, at the moment a shot was heard. He jumped to the bridge. Cossacks galloped ahead along the road. On the bridge, he ran into a straggler Cossack and galloped on. There were some people in front—they must have been Frenchmen—running from the right side of the road to the left. One fell into the mud under the feet of Petya's horse.
Cossacks crowded around one hut, doing something. A terrible cry was heard from the middle of the crowd. Petya galloped up to this crowd, and the first thing he saw was pale, with a trembling lower jaw the face of a Frenchman holding on to the shaft of a pike pointed at him.
“Hurrah!.. Guys…ours…” Petya shouted and, giving the reins to the excited horse, galloped forward down the street.
Shots were heard ahead. Cossacks, hussars, and ragged Russian prisoners, who fled from both sides of the road, all shouted something loudly and incoherently. A young man, without a hat, with a red frown on his face, a Frenchman in a blue greatcoat fought off the hussars with a bayonet. When Petya jumped up, the Frenchman had already fallen. Late again, Petya flashed through his head, and he galloped to where frequent shots were heard. Shots were heard in the courtyard of the manor house where he had been last night with Dolokhov. The French sat there behind the wattle fence in a dense garden overgrown with bushes and fired at the Cossacks crowded at the gate. Approaching the gate, Petya, in the powder smoke, saw Dolokhov with a pale, greenish face, shouting something to people. "On the detour! Wait for the infantry!” he shouted as Petya rode up to him.
“Wait?.. Hurrah!” Petya shouted and, without a single minute's hesitation, galloped to the place where the shots were heard and where the powder smoke was thicker. A volley was heard, empty and slapped bullets screeched. The Cossacks and Dolokhov jumped after Petya through the gates of the house. The French, in the swaying thick smoke, some threw down their weapons and ran out of the bushes towards the Cossacks, others ran downhill to the pond. Petya galloped along the manor's yard on his horse and, instead of holding the reins, waved both hands strangely and quickly, and kept falling further and further from the saddle to one side. The horse, having run into a fire smoldering in the morning light, rested, and Petya fell heavily to the wet ground. The Cossacks saw how quickly his arms and legs twitched, despite the fact that his head did not move. The bullet pierced his head.
After talking with a senior French officer, who came out from behind the house with a handkerchief on a sword and announced that they were surrendering, Dolokhov got off his horse and went up to Petya, motionless, with his arms outstretched.
“Ready,” he said, frowning, and went through the gate to meet Denisov, who was coming towards him.
- Killed?! exclaimed Denisov, seeing from a distance that familiar to him, undoubtedly lifeless position, in which Petya's body lay.
“Ready,” repeated Dolokhov, as if pronouncing this word gave him pleasure, and quickly went to the prisoners, who were surrounded by dismounted Cossacks. - We won't take it! he shouted to Denisov.
Denisov did not answer; he rode up to Petya, dismounted from his horse, and with trembling hands turned towards him Petya's already pale face, stained with blood and mud.
“I'm used to anything sweet. Excellent raisins, take them all,” he remembered. And the Cossacks looked back with surprise at the sounds, similar to the barking of a dog, with which Denisov quickly turned away, went up to the wattle fence and grabbed it.
Among the Russian prisoners recaptured by Denisov and Dolokhov was Pierre Bezukhov.
About the party of prisoners in which Pierre was, during his entire movement from Moscow, there was no new order from the French authorities. On October 22, this party was no longer with the troops and convoys with which it left Moscow. Half of the convoy with breadcrumbs, which followed them for the first transitions, was beaten off by the Cossacks, the other half went ahead; the foot cavalrymen who went ahead, there was not one more; they all disappeared. The artillery, which the first crossings could be seen ahead of, was now replaced by the huge convoy of Marshal Junot, escorted by the Westphalians. Behind the prisoners was a convoy of cavalry things.
From Vyazma French troops who had previously marched in three columns now marched in one heap. Those signs of disorder that Pierre noticed on the first halt from Moscow have now reached the last degree.
The road they were on was paved on both sides with dead horses; ragged people, retarded different teams, constantly changing, then joined, then again lagged behind the marching column.
Several times during the campaign there were false alarms, and the soldiers of the convoy raised their guns, fired and ran headlong, crushing each other, but then again gathered and scolded each other for vain fear.
These three gatherings, marching together - the cavalry depot, the depot of prisoners and Junot's convoy - still constituted something separate and integral, although both, and the other, and the third quickly melted away.
In the depot, which had at first been one hundred and twenty wagons, now there were no more than sixty; the rest were repulsed or abandoned. Junot's convoy was also abandoned and several wagons were recaptured. Three wagons were plundered by backward soldiers from Davout's corps who came running. From the conversations of the Germans, Pierre heard that more guards were placed on this convoy than on prisoners, and that one of their comrades, a German soldier, was shot on the orders of the marshal himself because a silver spoon that belonged to the marshal was found on the soldier.
Most of these three gatherings melted the depot of prisoners. Of the three hundred and thirty people who left Moscow, now there were less than a hundred. The prisoners, even more than the saddles of the cavalry depot and than Junot's convoy, burdened the escorting soldiers. Junot's saddles and spoons, they understood that they could be useful for something, but why were the hungry and cold soldiers of the convoy standing guard and guarding the same cold and hungry Russians, who were dying and lagging behind the road, whom they were ordered to shoot - it was not only incomprehensible, but also disgusting. And the escorts, as if afraid in the sad situation in which they themselves were, not to give in to the feeling of pity for the prisoners that was in them and thereby worsen their situation, treated them especially gloomily and strictly.
