May 22, 2006 May 22, 2006
In the Sungari campaign of the ships of the Awarded by an Order of Red Banner Amur Flotilla in the August of 1945 the combat nearly Khunkhedaothe was the most remarkable if to speak about the basis of sea tactics.
In the region of that settlement the ships of the Patrol-Recon Detachment consisting of the monitor "Sun Yat-Sen" and a group of armored boats have overtaken the retreating Japanese "Division of the Southern Seas" in the morning on August, 17th, have done large damage to the enemy and have not let to the enemy to strengthen the garrison of the city of Sansin, on the approaches to which the Japanese Command supposed to organize a General Battle against advancing Soviet troops...
On August, 16th the Patrol-Recon Detachment was ready to follow to its destination. At 14.10 the detachment have got the signal "To weigh anchor", and it has began to move upwards across the Sungari. The armored boats have increased a speed and left our ship behind.
The stream of the logs floated on the river increased with each kilometer of our movement. From time to time there were whole rafts. It very much complicated and strongly slowed down our movement.
(The commander of the group of armored boats V.N. Doroshenko recalls: "The Campaign to Harbin was very difficult. To that moment the river Sungari has over flown its banks and has spread on many kilometers and it was impossible to define the necessary a ship's course. The additional trouble was that on some thousands logs flew on all the extent of the Sungari. At any moment they could damage not only our screw propellers but also the hulls of the ships, especially it was related to the armored boats. There was an opinion that these logs were washed off by the flood of the river, another opinion was that Japanese have dropped them in the river as an obstacle to our ships. Anyhow, but the amount of the logs was so much that at times they covered all the surface of the river".)
On the approach to the settlement of Aotsi (about 30 km above Tsiamusy) the detachment has been fired with rifle-machine-gun and mortar fire from a bank. For the liquidation of that resistance point a group of our men has been landed from the monitor. Support with the fire from our ships the landing group promptly attacked the Samurais who dug in inside of the settlement of Aotsi and has forced the enemy to surrender after a short combat. We had captured more than 300 Japanese including 37 officers from whom one was a general and one was a colonel. The detachment was delayed on one and a half hours at the settlement of. At 19.00 the armored boats got an order to continue the movement to their destination. It was 19.20 when monitor "Sun Yat-Sen" has finished the loading of the trophy equipment and ammunition, has departed from a bank and had began to move to Sunsin. We hurried up as according the words of the captured general (which together with aide-de-camp and the colonel have been taken aboard the monitor) the "Division of the Southern Seas" has proceeded through Aotsi two hours prior to our occurrence. The enemy was somewhere nearly us, and it was necessary to catch up with him before darkness!
After Aotsi the stream of logs floating on the river has increased; and it became more difficult to move ahead. On top of it all the monitor has collided with a whole raft when it became dark so it was compelled to anchor to be released from that "a wood captivity". The armored boats had immediately been transmitted the order "To anchor".
Due the efforts of emergency and boatswain teams we have released the ship from logs to two o'clock in the morning. We decided to weigh anchor at five o'clock and it was transmitted to the armored boats. But unforeseeable consequence happened. In four o'clock in the morning the river had been covered by a dense fog , and visibility was reduced up to zero. It was impossible even to think about any movement on the river in such conditions.
Only at 8 o'clock some openings have started to appear in the fog and it became possible to see the clean blue sky and a slice of coastal feature on short time intervals. Both anchors were weighed; and the ship began to move ahead upwards on the river, moving like to the touch at first...
At 8.32 the sounds of an artillery cannonade have reached my ears. In spite of the fact that the fog still has not dissipated completely, I have given an order with telegraph to give a full speed. Ten minutes later we had received a report from the commander of the group of armored boats in which he informed that on the approaches to Khunkhedao the armored boats have been shelled by massed artillery fire from the right bank of the Sungari.
It became clear for me that the Patrol-Recon Detachment has came into a contact with the Japanese "Division of the Southern Seas". It was necessary to move to help to "our junior brothers" [it is about the armored boats - remark of Andrey] as soon as possible. The telegraph was moved in the position of "full speed". The hull of the ship starts to shudder evenly. Here a water shaft lifts over the stern, throws on a deck and fills all the foredeck of the ship. The monitor is especially beautiful with its mighty force and with its irrepressible squall forward in such minutes...
At 10.30 the monitor was already in three kilometers from Khunkhedao, and I have seen all the picture of the combat. All the right bank of the river from the settlement of Hunhedao and on 6-7 kilometers above with stream is was wrapped up with a dense shroud of a smoke. The flashes of cannon shots are seen through the smoke. The armored boats, been strewed with shells, are maneuvering on the river which width did not exceed 400-500 meters in this place. They make a direct laying fire on visible fire points and enemy infantry. The monitor is ready to open fire. All its eight main caliber guns are loaded by high explosive shells. The basic enemy fire points have been defined and the main caliber turrets have directed in their direction. When the distance to Khunkhedao has decreased till 10-12 cables, the enemy has let alone the armored boats and transferred all the artillery fire on the monitor. I immediately have reacted: "We are on a battle course! Fire on Samurais!" At the same minute the monitor has shuddered from the first onboard salvo. Here where the excellent training level of all artillery crews and the skill of the commanders of the turrets to control the direct laying fire of their turrets against the visible targets were useful and showed its worth in full measure. Salvoes followed one another with an interval of 8-10 seconds. While the distance to the enemy fire points was reducing the torrent of shells with which he strewed the monitor increased but the efficiency of that fire against an armored ship was rather insignificant. To the eighth minute of the combat our ship had got 3 direct hits by shells of caliber up to 85 mm but no one of those shells has penetrate our armor and hit any vital parts of the ship. At the same time our 120-mm high explosive shells caused appreciable casualties to the enemy as its personnel and equipment were placed in open place without any cover by engineer means.
On the 15th minute of the combat the ship a battery of 105-mm howitzers has suddenly opened fire against our ship. The monitor has been covered right by the first volley. Two shells have exploded with a short, and the third one has hit a breakwater's fender for storage of food stocks which was ahead of the 1st turret. That hit, apparently, has caused some triumph between the enemies and has brought to me some disturbing seconds. The matter is that the fender hit by the shell contained three bags of flour. All the flour was lifted in air by the force of the explosion and covered the forward part of the ship with a white shroud. At first it seemed to me that there was an explosion inside of the 1st turret. I have immediately ordered to request the turret and its powder-magazine what has happened there. It was answered from there that everything was all right.
In that time the monitor, following at the most full speed, already has had time to slip "the flour cloud"; and it looked like the ship was covered by a white cerement. My assumption about some triumph between the enemies after that hits is based on the fact that when we have arrived in Harbin three days later we read in a local newspaper of White Russian emigrants an article about the combat nearly Khunkhedao. It was written in that article that Japanese gunners have destroyed one large ship and three boats of a Soviet Flotilla . Being in large joy the Japanese signalers have hurried with that information and have sent us on a next world ahead of time...
The Japanese battery, achieved the hit in the ship, has had time to make one more volley, but then it was covered with some shells of the first turret and was forced to silence. By the way, the second volley of the battery has already laid down with flight and has not caused any damage to the ship. Showered by bullets, mortar and artillery shells, the monitor was quickly rising upwards on the river. During the movement forward the fire of the main caliber guns, antiaircraft guns and automatic guns was transferred on new fire points of the enemy and on accumulations of its soldiers.
In the full fling of the combat two enemy shells hit the bridge. One shell had put out of action the left antiaircraft automatic gun and wounded three its crewmen. The second shell has hit into a box containing 37-mm cartridges for antiaircraft automatic guns. The bright flame of burning gunpowder was pulled out outside. In any second an explosion could happen. Not losing time, Andrei Gundobin and Georgii Zhaleiko have rushed to the burning box: burning their hands and faces and straining all their forces, they have started to throw overboard the burning cartridges. When the danger of an explosion has disappeared, in the spite of numerous burns they again have risen to their weapon to destroy with neat fire the Samurais dug un along the bank.
Some minutes later a stray bullet has penetrated inside of the 2nd turret and has gone right through the breast of the commander of a turret Dubrovin. The falling heavily wounded commander was picked up on hands by the comrades who stood nearly and he was laid on a deck. Gunner Bachurin has replaced the commander and shouted: "Let's take revenge for our commander! Death to Samurais! Fire!" And the turret continued to shoot a shell behind a shell with the same accuracy.
An example of courage, firmness, heroism and utter devotion to a duty was shown by sailors-gunners Artikov and Antonov. Both they were in one combat post and were the crewmen of 20-mm automatic gun "Erlicon". Both were almost simultaneously wounded in legs but no one abandoned their post. Bandaged themselves their wounds they continued neat fire on the enemy and went in medical aid post only after a command "Cease fire!".
When the disordered battle orders of the Japanese division have remained behind, we have stopped to shoot on a bank.
The first part of the task of Patrol-Recon Detachment has been solved. It has overtaken the Japanese "Division of the Southern Seas" and has caused to it serious casualties. Now it was necessary to not let the further movement of that division in the direction Sunsin - Harbin. For that purpose it was necessary to choose and occupy a favorable artillery position, to adjust some reference points on the right bank of the river of Sungari and to compel with an artillery fire the enemy to turn back in the case of an attempt of the enemy to use the coastal road Tsziamusy - Sunsin.
Such position has been found in four kilometers above the place of the combat. An abrupt winding of the river hided the ship from the supervision from the direction of Khunkhedao. At the same time the coastal road was superb looked through from the ship, it was not difficult to zero in. We had zeroed in spending only two shells. In that place the monitor has anchored.
(The commander of a group of armored boats S.S.Glushkov recalls: "The armored boats shelled the road to Sunsin for about two hours, till the moment of the approach of the monitor "Sun Yat-Sen". Together with it they have suppressed the enemy fire points and have transferred the fire on enemy retreating troops. Then they shelled the road for seven hours scattering and eliminating the arriving units of the Japanese "Division of the Southern Seas".)
I have gone down in the wardroom where a medical aid post was deployed and have inquired about the wounded men. Their number was nine, all of them were already there, and all of them already had got the necessary medical aid. The doctor's assistant has reported to me the character of the wounds of everyone. According his estimation, the most dangerous was the wound of Dubrovin. Samurai's bullet has gone through his breast very closely to his heart and could injure large blood vessels.
All the wounded men have returned in the ranks for a month. And it was strangely enough but the first one who had returned was Dubrovin.
It is difficult to me to mark out somebody the best from the ship's crew. Everyone tried to be the best; everyone aspired there where it was most dangerous.
The Motherland has adequately appreciated the feat of the staff of the monitor "Sun Yat-Sen". Having started the campaign under a usual naval flag, we have returned to the native base under Guards one. All the sailors and officers were awarded by orders and medals, and I got the rank of the Hero of Soviet Union.
Remark of Andrey - The described combat and the monitor "Sun Yat-Sen" were mentioned in the Soviet official 12-volumes History of the Second World War.
