/ world today news/ On July 30, Russia celebrates Navy Day, honoring both our sailors and their warships. Behind the scenes, however, there is sometimes a branch of the forces that is often one of the main striking instruments of sea battles – aviation. Naval aviation of the USSR Navy began to reveal its potential during the Great Patriotic War – and the exploits of the torpedo bombers of the Northern Fleet became a vivid embodiment of this.
Probably, if it were not for “Torpedo Bombers” – a dramatic Soviet film about mine-torpedo aircraft (MTS), the naval pilots of the Great Patriotic War would not be remembered at all today. However, they were a very serious threat to the enemy. And an example of this is the actions of the Northern Fleet, which is fighting in the theater of operations, where the enemy has concentrated a powerful group of ships and fighters.
Small but bold
At the beginning of the Great Patriotic War, among the fleets in action, only the Northern Fleet did not have MTS as part of its Air Force. Against this background, it is surprising that his pilots were the first to launch a torpedo attack and even opened a combat account before fellow torpedo bombers from other navies.
The Air Force of the Northern Fleet did not acquire its own torpedo bombers until September 1941, when a flight of Il-4s (they were called TB-3Fs at the time) of Senior Lieutenant Ivan Garbuz flew from the Baltic to the north. This unit becomes the nucleus for the MTS of SF. The first purposeful use of torpedo bombers occurred on January 18, 1942, when Senior Lieutenant Khorev’s Il-4 dropped a torpedo on Liinahamari harbor, watching it explode on the pier. Alas, the damage from it was small. German documents testify that he destroyed local communication and lighting lines. A torpedo attack on Kirkins Harbor the next day also did little damage to the enemy.
On February 13, 1942, the People’s Commissar of the Navy Admiral Kuznetsov criticized the actions of the fleets for the fact that the sailors used mine-torpedo planes as a conventional bomber. In other words, the MTS does not conduct torpedo attacks on sea targets and does not lay mines, which leads to a weakening of the impact on enemy sea lanes. Unlike conventional bombers, which at the time were not accurate enough to drop their bombs, torpedo bombers were capable of delivering precise, lethal strikes against ships with torpedoes. Torpedo bombers are intended to be an important strike force for the Navy, along with submarines and surface ships. For carrying out such strikes on naval targets, aviation has a number of advantages over ships – much higher speed, efficiency of use and the ability to quickly reload.
Kuznetsov points to the need for the planes to carry out torpedo attacks and lay mines. The headquarters of the Northern Fleet received an order to strengthen the actions of the MTS along the enemy’s sea lanes, for which it was allocated several more “Il”.
So the Northern Fleet gets its own MTA squadron. But it suffered losses before achieving success when its first plane was shot down on March 28. The first attack on the convoy at sea by torpedo boats was made on 17 June, but was unsuccessful.
In June 1942, the Air Force of the Northern Fleet was reinforced with torpedo bombers from the 35th Air Regiment, which opened the combat account of the MTA Northern Fleet, but not with torpedoes, but with bombs. On the evening of July 14, his “Ilyushins” destroyed a self-propelled barge MFP243 with a load of ammunition in the port of Honningsvag. Alas, the successes of the 35th VP were overshadowed by heavy losses: in the first month it lost seven vehicles.
However, the skill of North Sea pilots is growing – and new success is not long in coming. On August 9, air reconnaissance discovered an enemy convoy of four transports in the sea, towards which the couple Ivan Garbuz and Gavriil Tkachev took off. They managed to fool the enemy fighters, torpedo a ship and quietly retreat.
Curiously, the attacked convoy turned out to be four German guard ships making the transition between the bases. One of them, B6113, was torpedoed, but the Germans managed to get it to port. Although this ship did not sink, it does not overshadow the first victory of the SF torpedo bombers, which at the same time became the first for the Soviet MTS in the war!
Garbuz and Tkachenko were awarded orders of the Red Banner. Alas, fate is not kind to these pilots in the future. On October 12, Tkachev died in a battle with a German convoy. And Garbuz’s death is ridiculous. In 1942, the British transferred their Hampden torpedo bombers to Vaenga, which they handed over to the Soviet side. These machines are difficult to pilot and Soviet pilots even have a joke: “Are you my friend or Hampden?”. He accurately characterizes what happened to Garbuz. He was killed during a training flight in such a machine when his Hampden suddenly crashed to the ground. The plane crash takes the life of one of SF’s most experienced MTS pilots, who, alas, is now in oblivion.
In 1942, SF torpedo planes achieved little, destroying three ships with bombs, damaging a torpedo barge, which was paid for with a dozen aircraft killed in action. The beginning of their activity is a time of trial and error.
A time of failures and victories
Since the beginning of 1943, the MTS of SF has been gaining muscle. The formed 24th Air Regiment consisted of about twenty Ilyushins and Hampdens with trained crews that flew “free hunting” or worked in groups according to intelligence. On March 29, they participated in the operation together with submarines, attacking a large German convoy. Alas, the pilots do not succeed, but the submariners excel when the S-101 sinks the ship “Ajax”.
The torpedo bombers were successful a month later when a large convoy was discovered in the Kongsfjord area on 29 April. Five Hampdens take off to attack him, accompanied by six Pe-3s. According to Soviet data, they sank two transport vessels and two guard ships. But in reality everything is different. The leader of the group, Captain Vasiliy Kiselov, managed to put a torpedo in “Collie Les”, sending it to the bottom. His Hampden was then shot down and the crew killed. Posthumously, Kiselov and his navigator Mikhail Pokalo were awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.
Alas, Kiselov’s success was the only victory of SF torpedo bombers in 1943. The reasons for this were various, including the fact that the Germans recognized their actions as a serious threat. The enemy strengthens the combat cover of the convoys, temporarily suspends their movement at sea in case of a threat of attack. When SF squadrons took off to intercept the convoy, they either did not detect it or were met by German fighters.
Also in 1943, three important events occurred that affected the actions of the Northern Fleet Air Force. First, on February 25, the Headquarters of the Supreme Command transferred 59 aircraft of various types, including American “Boston” heavy aircraft. They were first used as horizontal bombers when a German convoy was attacked on 10 May. It was later recognized that the Bostons were better suited to the role of maneuverable torpedo bombers than the Ilyushin or Hampden, but their arrival was slow.
Second, on July 20, the Air Force of the Northern Fleet received its own (5th) Mine-Torpedo Air Division, formed on the basis of the 5th Bombardment Air Brigade. In addition to the 24th Airborne Regiment, it included two bomber regiments and one fighter aviation regiment. It was this that became the progenitor of the then famous 5th Naval Air Missile Division, formed on its base after the war.
Third, improving the air cover of their convoys, the Germans in the second half of 1943 built several airfields that allowed Luftwaffe fighters to operate more quickly. In addition, they put several radars that warn not only of the approach of torpedo bombers, but even of their flight on a mission immediately after takeoff. These innovations greatly complicated the work of the Soviet MTS, especially the interaction with their fighters. When the torpedo bombers went on the attack, the fighters covering them were swept away from the battle, losing their compartments, which allowed the enemy to press the Soviet cover with one group and burn the torpedo bombers with another.
From the spring of 1944, the situation changed for the better. Soviet aviation began to dominate the air, receiving more and more fighters. The latter were even used as attack aircraft or dive bombers. Luftwaffe numbers in Norway are declining. Within a few months, the MTS achieved a good result, sinking two guard ships, two transports and damaging another.
Torpedo bombers flew on free hunts or participated in joint operations against convoys with other fleet forces. Yevgeny Frantsev stands out among the hunters, who was credited with several destroyed targets. In reality, only the Norwegian ship “Andenes” damaged by it while sailing on April 2 near Hammerfest is confirmed. Curiously, the Germans attributed this success to British aircraft, as Soviet torpedo bombers had not previously operated in the area. Alas, the career of this outstanding pilot was cut short by his death in September 1944.
Operations against convoys turned into real battles, as can be seen in the example of the convoy RP 120 Ki, attacked by attack aircraft, torpedo bombers and fighters of the SF on 25-26 May. As a result of a two-day battle, one transport was sunk by torpedoes and another was damaged by bombs. But the Air Force of the Northern Fleet paid for this success with a dozen of its own downed aircraft.
The activity of the MTS was exhausted at the end of 1944, after the Red Army, during the Petsamo-Kirkenes operation, deprived the German fleet of bases in Northern Norway. But by this time, the Air Force of the Northern Fleet managed to add to its account four more sunken and one damaged ship. This brings the total score of the Northern Fleet’s torpedo bombers to 12 targets hit, accounting for almost half of the naval victories of the Northern Fleet Air Force during the war.
The MTA paid for these successes with the loss of more than sixty planes and the same number of pilots. 19 people from the crews of torpedo bombers were awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union, but half of them posthumously. So the pilots of the 5th Airborne Division have heroic antecedents.
There is much to be proud of
After the end of the war, the Headquarters of the Soviet Navy estimated the success of the forces of the Northern Fleet at 254 warships destroyed and 356 transports sunk. The torpedo bombers are believed to have contributed greatly to this, as 172 of the 381 torpedoes they launched hit their targets. True, these figures, in the opinion of the headquarters, require clarification. Alas, it is not possible to check the successes due to lack of enemy documents. As a result, over the years, the opinion prevailed that the declared and real indicators of the MTS of the SF, as well as the other forces of the fleet, are the same.
Now that there is such an opportunity, you can see the real numbers. The documents testify that during the years of the war, the Air Force of the Northern Fleet destroyed 16 transports and 10 battleships, of which 10 targets were hit by torpedo boats.
This result may seem disappointing. However, it would be a mistake to perceive it in this way. From a sober point of view, everything should be so, taking into account the strong opponent and one’s own shortcomings (tactics, equipment, intelligence, etc.). It should be remembered that the MTS of SF were born during the war. They must develop and operate in the harsh conditions of wartime, when any mistakes lead to failures and losses.
But the greatest compliment to the crews of Soviet torpedo boats is the attitude of the enemy towards them. The Germans immediately recognized the threat of the Soviet MTS and took serious measures to reduce their effectiveness. But to their credit, even in such conditions, the pilots of the North Sea managed to achieve success without sparing their lives. And the movie “Torpedo Carriers” quite accurately showed how it was.
Translation: V. Sergeev
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