Marinesko Alexander Ivanovich, born on January 15, 1913 in Odessa, died of cancer at the age of 50 on November 25, 1963 in St. Petersburg. Commander of the submarine "S-13" of the Baltic Fleet, who in one campaign won the two largest victories of the entire submarine fleet of the USSR during its entire existence.

The feat of Alexander Marinesko.

Commander of the submarine "S-13" of the Baltic Fleet, captain of the 3rd rank, known for the "attack of the century", when on January 30, 1945 he sank the liner Wilhelm Gustloff (25.4 thousand gross tons), and on February 10, 1945 - a large transport "Steuben" (14.6 thousand tons). These were the two most high-profile victories of the entire submarine fleet of the USSR during the Second World War, achieved in one campaign. But instead of the well-deserved glory, Marinesko was demoted 3 months later to the rank of senior lieutenant and transferred with demotion to the commander of a minesweeper, and in November 1945 he was dishonorably discharged from the ranks of the Navy, and the well-deserved title of Hero Soviet Union Alexander Marinesko was assigned only... in 1990, a year before the death of the Soviet Union.

To truly appreciate the feat of Alexander Marinesko and understand the level of injustice towards the hero, compare the figures of the enemy tonnage sunk by him (the main criterion for the work of a submariner) with other submarine commanders who became Heroes of the Soviet Union before May 9, 1945. They are amazing: Marinesko sank the tonnage , approximately equal to the rest... 22 Heroes of the Soviet Union according to Deol.ru and Wikipedia. After World War II, the German archives that fell into the hands of the NKVD, which preserved reports from German flotillas on the number of ships damaged and sunk by Soviet submarines, planted a “pig” on the Soviet submarine heroes. It turned out that the level of postscripts among the commanders of Soviet submarines (and the commissars and heads of special departments assigned to monitor them) was simply off the charts. So, the Hero of the Soviet Union

Iosseliani Yaroslav Konstantinovich, out of 16 “sunk ships” with a tonnage of 14 thousand gross tons, only two were confirmed... and one barge;

Ivan Vasilyevich Travkin, who became a Hero “for the destruction of 2 ships and 12 enemy transports,” did not have a single victory confirmed in the archives;

Kucherenko Ivan Fomich, commander of the S-51 submarine, had no victories. He was awarded the title of Hero as commander of a submarine brigade of the Northern Fleet.

Alexander Marinesko managed to carry out the “attack of the century” and destroy the fascist “Noah’s Ark”.

On January 30, 1945, the submarine "S-13" under the command of Marinesko, on the approach to Danzig Bay, overtook the German transport "Wilhelm Gustloff", whose length was 208 meters, width - 23.5 meters, displacement - 25,484 tons. The ship was destroyed by three torpedoes from the S-13 submarine.

This attack was later called the “attack of the century” in the USSR, since the Wilhelm Gustloff turned out to be the ship of the largest displacement that the USSR Navy managed to destroy during the Great Patriotic War. Patriotic War.

On February 10, 1945, in the area of ​​the same Danzig Bay, the S-13 attacks and sinks the General von Steuben transport with a displacement of 14,660 tons. The target was a ship carrying 3,500 German tank crews.

Claims against Alexander Marinesko from Western historians and the media.

In the USSR, a legend was passed down from mouth to mouth, which began with the publication in the magazine "Marine" (1975, No. 2-5, 7-11, Germany), that 1,300 German submariners died with the ship "Wilhelm Gustloff", including there were fully formed submarine crews and their commanders. So Marinesko in January 1945 left the new German submarines without their crews.

According to the Russian historian Morozov, everything turned out to be more prosaic and terrible: Marinesko sank a ship with 406 sailors and officers of the 2nd training division of the submarine force, 90 members of its own crew, 250 women soldiers of the German fleet and 4,600 refugees and wounded (of which almost 3 thousand were children). (M. Morozov. The death of “Wilhelm Gustlov”: truth and speculation. / In the collection: Myths of the Great Patriotic War. - M.: Yauza; Eksmo, 2008)

Despite the death of 3 thousand children, submariners and lawyers claim that there can be no claims against Marinesko, since the Wilhelm Gustloff was legal military purpose Soviet submariners due to the following facts:

  1. The Wilhelm Gustloff was not an unarmed civilian ship: it had weapons on board that could be used to fight enemy ships and aircraft.
  2. "Wilhelm Gustloff" was a training floating base for the German submarine fleet.
  3. "Wilhelm Gustloff" was accompanied by warship protection of the German fleet (destroyer "Lewe").

Marinesko was a capable man, but at the same time harsh, always saying what he thought, regardless of what it threatened him with;

- "... is not disciplined enough. He knows his specialty well. Lead personnel maybe under constant guidance. Conclusions: pay attention to increasing discipline,” stated Marinesko’s first certification in 1933;

Alexander Marinesko really had problems with discipline and drinking. Nevertheless, this did not stop him from accomplishing a real feat. The legendary admiral Nikolai Kuznetsov, one of the creators of the Soviet navy, a man who personally made the decision to demote Marinesko and was himself twice demoted by the highest government leadership, wrote in the Neva magazine in 1968: “In the complex and restless nature of the S-13 commander, high heroism and desperate courage coexisted with many shortcomings and weaknesses Today he could perform a heroic feat, and tomorrow he could be late for his ship preparing to go on a combat mission, or in some other way grossly violate military discipline. I, as an admiral, regard Marinesko’s numerous serious offenses in service and at home. absolutely definitely - negatively. But knowing his courage, determination and ability to achieve major military successes, I am ready to forgive him a lot and pay tribute for his services to the Motherland";

When Alexander Marinesko needed help after being diagnosed with cancer, his former command and colleagues rushed to help. But, unfortunately, it was already too late. Friends turned to the commander of the Leningrad naval base, Admiral Baikov, for help. He was asked to give instructions to treat Marinesko in a military hospital. And he not only gave the appropriate instructions, but also allocated his car to transport the legend of the fleet.

Awards for Alexander Marinesko.

1990 - Hero of the Soviet Union with the presentation of the Order of Lenin and the Gold Star medal (posthumously);

1942, 1990 - two Orders of Lenin;

Two Orders of the Red Banner;

Lots of medals.

Alexander Marinesko and social networks.

Biography of Alexander Marinesko.

1920-1926 - studied at a labor school, where he graduated from 6 classes, after which he became a sailor's student, was sent to a cabin school, after which he went on ships of the Black Sea Shipping Company as a 1st class sailor;

1930 - entered the Odessa Naval College;

1933 - served as third and second mate on the ships "Ilyich" and "Red Fleet";

November 1933 - sent to special courses for command staff of the RKKF, after which he was appointed navigator on the submarine "Shch-306";

March 1936 - lieutenant;

November 1938 - senior lieutenant;

Since August 1941 - participant of the Second World War. Commanded the submarine "M-96";

April 1943 - appointed commander of the submarine "S-13";

1946-1949 - senior mate on ships of the Baltic State Trading Shipping Company;

1949 - Deputy Director of the Leningrad Research Institute of Blood Transfusion;

1951-1953 - topographer of the Onega-Ladoga expedition;

1953 - head of the supply department at the Leningrad Mezon plant;

On November 25, 1963, Alexander Ivanovich Marinesko died as a result of a long illness.

Alexander Marinesko was buried at the Bogoslovskoye cemetery in St. Petersburg.

May 5, 1990 - The title of Hero of the Soviet Union was awarded posthumously to Alexander Ivanovich Marinesko.

Perpetuating the memory of Alexander Marinesko.

Monuments to Alexander Marinesko were erected:

In St. Petersburg (two monuments);

In Kaliningrad;

In Odessa;

In Kronstadt;

In Kronstadt, on house No. 2 on Kommunisticheskaya Street, in which Marinesko lived, a memorial plaque was installed;

The films “Forget About Returning” and “First After God” are dedicated to Alexander Marinesko;

An embankment in Kaliningrad and a street in Sevastopol are named after Marinesko;

1990 - Stroiteley Street in Leningrad, where Marinesko also lived, was renamed Marinesko Street;

In St. Petersburg there is the Museum of Russian Submarine Forces named after. A. I. Marinesko;

2008 - postage stamp and envelope with an image of Marinesko;

Electric train ER9M-537 named after Alexander Marinesko, Odessa Railway.

How often do Yandex users from Ukraine look for information about Alexander Marinesko in the search engine?

As can be seen from the photo, users search engine In October 2015, Yandex was interested in the query “Alexander Marinesko” 159 times.

And according to this graph, you can see how Yandex users’ interest in the query “Alexander Marinesko” has changed over the past two years:

The highest interest for this request was recorded in May-June 2013 (about 185 requests);

How do Ukrainians evaluate the merits of Alexander Marinesko?

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Captain 3rd rank, known for the "Attack of the Century". Hero of the Soviet Union (1990).

Biography

Childhood and youth

Alexander Ivanovich was born in Odessa. From 1920 to 1926 he studied at a labor school. From 1930 to 1933, Marinesko studied at the Odessa Naval College.

Alexander Ivanovich himself never wanted to be a military man, but dreamed exclusively of serving in merchant fleet. In March 1936, in connection with the introduction of personal military ranks, Marinesko received the rank of lieutenant, and in November 1938 - senior lieutenant.

After completing retraining courses, he served as assistant commander on the L-1, then as commander of the M-96 submarine, whose crew, based on the results of combat and political training in 1940, took first place, and the commander was awarded a gold watch and promoted to the rank of lieutenant commander.

Wartime

In the first days of the Great Patriotic War, M-96, under the command of Alexander Ivanovich, was relocated to Paldiski, then to Tallinn, stood in a position in the Gulf of Riga, and had no clashes with the enemy. In August 1941, they planned to transfer the submarine to the Caspian Sea as a training submarine, but then this idea was abandoned.

On August 12, 1942, the M-96 went out on another combat mission. On August 14, 1942, the boat attacked a German convoy. According to Marinesko's report, he fired two torpedoes at German transport. According to German sources, the attack was unsuccessful - the convoy ships observed the trail of one torpedo, which they successfully dodged. Returning from Marinesko’s position, he did not warn the Soviet patrols, and upon surfacing he did not raise naval ensign, as a result of which the boat was almost sunk by its own boats.

At the end of 1942, Marinesko was awarded the rank of captain of the 3rd rank. In April 1943, Marinesko was appointed commander of the submarine S-13. The submarine under his command went on a campaign only in October 1944. On the very first day of the campaign, October 9, Marinesko discovered and attacked the Siegfried transport. The attack with four torpedoes from a short distance failed; the transport had to be subjected to artillery fire from the submarine's 45-mm and 100-mm guns.

From January 9 to February 15, 1945, Marinesko was on his fifth military campaign, during which two large enemy transports, the Wilhelm Gustloff and the Steuben, were sunk. Before this campaign, the commander of the Baltic Fleet V.F. Tributs decided to put Marinesko on trial before a military tribunal for unauthorized abandonment of the ship in a combat situation, but delayed the execution of this decision, giving the commander and crew the opportunity to atone for their guilt in a military campaign.

Sinking of the Wilhelm Gustloff

On January 30, 1945, the S-13 attacked and sent to the bottom the Wilhelm Gustloff liner, which carried 10,582 people:

  • 918 cadets junior groups 2nd Submarine Training Division
  • 173 crew members
  • 373 women from the auxiliary naval corps
  • 162 seriously wounded military personnel
  • 8,956 refugees, mostly old people, women and children

The transport, the former ocean liner Wilhelm Gustloff, was traveling without an escort. Due to a lack of fuel, the liner followed a straight course, without performing an anti-submarine zigzag, and damage to the hull received earlier during bombing did not allow it to develop high speed. It was previously believed that the German Navy had suffered serious damage. Thus, according to the Marine magazine, 1,300 submariners died with the ship, among whom were fully formed submarine crews and their commanders. According to the division commander, Captain 1st Rank A. Orel, the dead German submariners would have been enough to man 70 medium-tonnage submarines. Subsequently, the Soviet press called the sinking of the Wilhelm Gustloff “the attack of the century”, and Marinesko - “submariner No. 1”.

End of the war

February 10, 1945 followed new victory- on the approach to the Bay of Danzig, S-13 sank the ambulance transport Steuben, on board which were 2,680 wounded military personnel, 100 soldiers, about 900 refugees, 270 military medical personnel and 285 crew members. Of these, 659 people were saved, of whom about 350 were wounded. It must be taken into account that the ship was armed with anti-aircraft machine guns and guns, was in military escort and was transporting, among other things, healthy soldiers. In this regard, strictly speaking, it could not be classified as a hospital ship. It should also be noted that Marinesco identified the attacked ship as the light cruiser Emden. The commander of S-13 was not only forgiven for his previous sins, but also nominated for the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. However, the higher command Gold Star replaced by the Order of the Red Banner. The sixth military campaign from April 20 to May 13, 1945 was considered unsatisfactory. Then, according to the commander of the submarine brigade, Captain 1st Rank Kournikov, Marinesko:

On May 31, the commander of the submarine division submitted a report to the higher command, in which he indicated that the submarine commander drinks all the time, does not engage in official duties, and his further stay in this position is inappropriate. On September 14, 1945, Order No. 01979 was issued by the People's Commissar of the Navy N.G. Kuznetsov, which said:

From October 18, 1945 to November 20, 1945, Marinesko was the commander of the T-34 minesweeper of the 2nd minesweeper division of the 1st Red Banner trawling brigade of the Red Banner Baltic Fleet. November 20, 1945, by order of the People's Commissar of the Navy No. 02521, senior lieutenant Marinesko A.I. was transferred to the reserve. Submarines under the command of Alexander Marinesko made six military campaigns during the Great Patriotic War. Two transports were sunk, one was damaged. The M-96 attack in 1942 ended in failure. Alexander Marinesko is the record holder among Soviet submariners for the total tonnage of enemy ships sunk: 42,557 gross register tons.

Post-war time

After the war, in 1946-1949, Marinesko worked as a senior mate on ships of the Baltic State Trading Shipping Company, and in 1949 - deputy director of the Leningrad Research Institute of Blood Transfusion. In 1949, he was sentenced to three years in prison on charges of squandering socialist property; he served his sentence in 1949-1951 in Vanino. In 1951-1953 he worked as a topographer for the Onega-Ladoga expedition, and from 1953 he led a group in the supply department at the Leningrad Mezon plant. Marinesko died in Leningrad after a serious and long illness on November 25, 1963. He was buried at the Bogoslovskoye Cemetery in St. Petersburg. Nearby is the Museum of Russian Submarine Forces named after. A.I. Marinesko. The title of Hero of the Soviet Union was awarded posthumously to Alexander Ivanovich Marinesko on May 5, 1990.

Memory

  • Monuments to A.I. Marinesko are installed in Kaliningrad, Kronstadt, St. Petersburg and Odessa.
  • In Kronstadt, on house No. 2 on Kommunisticheskaya Street, in which Marinesko lived, a memorial plaque was installed.
  • Marinesco dedicated feature films“Forget about returning” and “First after God.”
  • The sinking of the Wilhelm Gustloff is described in the novel Nobel laureate Günter Grass "The Trajectory of the Crab".
  • In the name of A.I. An embankment in Kaliningrad and a street in Sevastopol were named Marinesko.
  • Stroiteley Street in Leningrad, where Marinesko also lived, was renamed in 1990 to Marinesko Street. There is a memorial plaque on it.
  • In the Central Museum Armed Forces The flag of the submarine "C-13" is on display.
  • In St. Petersburg there is the Museum of Russian Submarine Forces named after. A.I. Marinesko.
  • A stone block with a memorial plaque was installed in Vanino.
  • In Odessa:
    • On the Odessa building nautical school, on Sofievskaya Street, in house No. 11, where Marinesko lived as a child, a memorial plaque was installed.
    • Name A.I. Marinesko wears the Odessa Naval School.
    • Also, a memorial plaque is installed on the building of the labor school where he studied.
    • In 1983, a museum named after A.I. was created by students of Odessa school No. 105. Marinesko.

Hero of the Soviet Union, Alexander Ivanovich Marinesko was born on January 15, 1913 in Odessa into a working-class family. Growing up near the sea, Alexander dreamed of becoming a sailor since childhood. After six years of labor school, he manages to become a sailor's apprentice. Having managed to prove himself well, young Marinesko receives a referral to a cabin school, after which he continues his studies at the Odessa Naval College. At the age of twenty, his dream of working in the navy comes true, and Alexander Marinesko, as a third and then second mate, makes voyages on steamships.

In 1933, Marinesko was sent to special navigator classes. command staff Red Fleet. After graduation, he becomes the head of the navigational combat unit on the Shch-306 submarine in the Baltic Fleet. In 1936 he was awarded the rank of lieutenant. In 1938, like a bolt from the blue, Marinesko’s dismissal followed with a ban on holding positions even in the merchant navy. The reason was the origin of Alexander Ivanovich (his father is a Romanian, who fled to Odessa from Romania from arrest in 1893) and the presence of relatives abroad. Marinesko, being a proud and proud man, did not write requests for restoration, despite the fact that his whole life and dreams were connected with the sea. Fortunately, for a still unknown reason, within a month Lieutenant Marinesko was reinstated and after another two months he became a senior lieutenant.

After completing his studies in the diving detachment, Alexander Ivanovich Marinesko served as assistant commander, then commander of the M-96 submarine. Under his leadership, the submarine's crew in 1940 became the best in combat and political training. The commander himself receives a promotion - he becomes a lieutenant commander, and is awarded a personalized gold watch.

With the beginning of the Great Patriotic War, Marinesko, together with the crew of his submarine, were transported to the Gulf of Riga and did not take part in combat operations for a long time. Forced idleness affected the discipline of the sailors. At the end of 1941, Alexander Ivanovich was even deprived of his candidate status as a party member for drunkenness and gambling at cards. Finally, in August 1942, the M-96 submarine under the command of Marinesko took on a German floating battery. Information about whether the release of two torpedoes succeeded in damaging enemy ships varies. Despite the fact that not all the actions of the commander in this campaign corresponded to the need (the submarine left its position and did not raise the flag in time, which is why it was almost sunk by its own), nevertheless, Marinesko was awarded the Order of Lenin. By the end of the same year, he was reinstated as a candidate for the CPSU (b) and a few months later became a party member and captain of the 3rd rank.

In 1942 and early 1943, while continuing to serve on the M-96, the crew led by Marinesko made three more combat missions, but were not noted for victories. From April 1943 to September 1945, the fate of Alexander Ivanovich Marinesko was connected with another submarine “S-13”. As a commander, Marinesko made three S-13 combat missions. October 1944 was marked by an attack on the German trawler Siegfried, which caused significant damage to the vessel. Marinesko received the Order of the Red Banner.

Underwater "Attack of the Century" by Alexander Marinesko

At the end of 1944, the commander had another problem with discipline: he left the ship without permission for two days in a Finnish port, being drunk. The commander of the Baltic Fleet was even going to hand over Marinesko to a military tribunal. Having given a chance to justify himself in a combat situation, Admiral V.F. At the beginning of 1945, Tributs sent the S-13 submarine on a combat mission. During this fifth military campaign, Marinesko becomes submariner No. 1 for everyone Soviet people, having sunk two large enemy ships at once.



On January 30, 1945, after an attack led by A.I. Marinesko, the Wilhelm Gustlow, a huge liner carrying more than 2 thousand German military personnel, sank, including 406 submarine specialists, many Gauleiters and Nazi leaders, Gestapo and SS officers and several thousand civilians. In essence, this once former tourist liner became a training base for German submariners. Military experts called the operation the naval attack of the century.

Ten days after this feat, the S-13 crew performs the second. The German ship "General von Steuben" carried more than 3 thousand German officers and soldiers trying to evacuate through the Bay of Danzig were sunk by an attack by a Soviet submarine that broke through the outpost. For this campaign, Marinesko was nominated for the title of Hero of the Soviet Union, however, perhaps due to past sins, instead of the Golden Star he was given the Order of the Red Banner.

The military campaign of April-May 1945 did not add any glory to Marinesko. Complaints began to be received about his neglect of official duties and drunkenness. After the end of the war, there were attempts to demote him from rank. He was repeatedly subject to disciplinary action.

Having worked in the merchant fleet until 1949, Marinesko was written off for health reasons. While working as deputy director of the Blood Transfusion Research Institute in Leningrad, he received a 3-year sentence for theft and absenteeism. In 1953, the conviction was cleared through an amnesty. He continued to work in Leningrad at the Mezon plant as the head of a supply group. Marinesko died in 1963 from a serious cancer. His name was erased for a long time Soviet history, but justice triumphed - in 1990, posthumously, Alexander Ivanovich Marinesko, the leader among USSR submariners in terms of the total tonnage of enemy ships sunk, was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.


On November 25, 1963, the legendary commander of the S-13 submarine, Alexander Ivanovich Marinesko, died in Leningrad after a serious and long illness. He was dying painfully - esophageal cancer - but still did not lose his presence of mind. And only his third, last beloved wife Valya was always nearby. She inherited from the entire 50-year life of the great submariner - a year of cloudless happiness and two years of serious illness...


Attitudes towards Marinesko have never been unambiguous. The official authorities, represented by the commanders of the Twice Red Banner Baltic Fleet, didn’t exactly dislike him, but were rather envious of his glory. The commander of the submarine division, Alexander Orel (later the commander of the DKBF), nominated Marinesko to the Gold Star of the Hero of the Soviet Union for the destruction of two German ships, Wilhelm Gustloff and General Steuben, but the award was downgraded to the Order of the Red Banner of Battle. They explained that the Hero must be a textbook: a staunch Leninist, not have any disciplinary sanctions, and be a role model for others.

Inconvenient commander

Yes, Marinesko had a rough character, he always cut the truth in the eyes, he was principled and inconvenient when someone wanted to talk. But alone little known fact: after an incident in the Finnish city of Turku, in January 1945, they wanted to remove Marinesko from command of the S-13 submarine and generally send the boat on a combat mission with a different crew. But the crew of the submarine “revolted”, refused to go to sea with another commander, and the command was forced to give in: by that time only the S-13 was combat-ready in the Baltic Fleet. Marinesko went on a campaign, with an additional “special officer” assigned to him.


Submarine S-13

Alexander Ivanovich Marinesko was born on January 15, 1913 in Odessa. His father, the son of the blacksmith Ion Marinescu, a Romanian by nationality, was a sailor on a battle cruiser, but one day he could not stand the bullying of an officer and bloodied the offender’s nose with a mighty blow. Jonah was sentenced to death, but it turned out that the punishment cell that night (the execution was to be carried out at dawn) was guarded by Jonah’s fellow countryman, with whom he grew up in the same village. So the fellow countryman opened the cell, took Marinescu out into the common corridor and pushed him to the window. The restless Danube seethed below; in order to survive it, it was necessary to swim across it, which was not given to everyone. But this was the only way not to bring trouble to the guard’s head. Like, they didn’t shoot him, he drowned...

Jonah floated out, but left Romania forever, hiding first in Bessarabia, then moved to Odessa, where it was easier to disappear into the crowded crowd. They looked for him for some time, but then they stopped, thinking that he had actually drowned.

From the age of 13 at sea...

Marinesko Jr. grew up very restless, it was very difficult to keep him at home, he was always with the boys, either at sea or in the port. But Jonah secretly hoped that his son would follow in his footsteps and connect his life with the sea. And so it happened. Already from the age of 13 he studied at the school of a cabin boy, then in the naval school. Sailed on civilian ships, as one of the captain's mates. Once, in stormy weather, he showed courage, great skill and saved a cargo ship from certain death. He was awarded a valuable gift, which Jonah Marinesko was very proud of (he, after all, transferred the Romanian ending of the surname with “u” to the Ukrainian “o”).

The decision to connect his life with the army did not come to Alexander Ivanovich right away. And even at the command courses, not everything went well for him, but Marinesko “came to his senses in time” and avoided expulsion...

He started the war on the “baby”, as small submarines were called. The M-96 was also slow-moving; it was very difficult to attack large surface targets with it. Firstly, it was not possible to catch up with something fast, and secondly, after an attack it was not always possible to escape from the enemy. But Marinesko was a very risky person. Alexander Ivanovich “sank” his first ship, a heavy floating battery, in August 1942, at least, he reported to his superiors. But four years later, when the Germans transferred the surviving ships to the Baltic Fleet, this mother ship was among the trophies, which was towed in 1942 and then repaired.

But Marinesko earned his first order - the Order of Lenin - in November 1942, when he landed scouts to capture a German encryption machine. And even though there was no encryption machine (the Germans changed the route at the last moment), the submarine commander himself acted impeccably...

In October 1944 (by that time Marinesko commanded the S-13 boat), the Siegfried transport was seriously damaged during a military campaign; as it later turned out, the “sunk” transport, as in the first case, never sank to the bottom. And Alexander Ivanovich was awarded the Order of the Red Banner of Battle.

Three components of the “attack of the century”

Now directly about the events of January 30, 1945. The “Attack of the Century” might not have taken place for three reasons. Firstly, if Marinesko had not changed the “hunting area”. German intelligence worked very well, and, obviously, Admiral Doenitz’s subordinates knew where the sea hunter in the person of the S-13 boat was waiting for them. How else can one explain the fact that the transports diligently avoided the traps? All this seemed suspicious to Marinesko and he changed the area without informing the command about it.


The transport ship "Wilhelm Gustloff", sunk by the submarine "S-13"

Secondly, if so much persistence and patience had not been shown. The speed of the "Wilhelm Gustloff" was greater than that of the "S-13" and our submarine worked to the limit for several minutes, to the point of wear and tear. If the pursuit had continued for another five minutes, the boat would simply have broken down.

Thirdly, few people know that Marinesko committed another act that can hardly be called disciplined. Knowing that the “special officer” was unlikely to allow him to attack as he pleased, the submarine commander locked him in the hold. And it was not “old sins” that were the reason that Alexander Ivanovich was not given a Hero. He clashed with powerful “authorities”, who ensured that in the same victorious year of 1945, Marinesko was demoted in military rank from captain of the third rank to senior lieutenant. Reverse example: Yuri Gagarin was assigned military rank"major" after space flight, also bypassing the rank of “captain”.

There is another little-known fact: one of the torpedoes that was fired at the Wilhelm Gustloff got stuck in the same way as it did 55 years later, on the Kursk submarine. But S-13 was luckier. It was possible to extract her torpedo, it did not explode... Marinesko left the German hunters in shallow water, along the shore. The Germans dropped between 150 and 200 depth charges. Some of them exploded in the immediate vicinity of the submarine. But the strong hull plating withstood...

Hitler and Marinesko

There is a beautiful myth that Hitler personally declared Marinesko his enemy No. 1, and throughout Germany there was three days of mourning on the occasion of the death of the Wilhelm Gustloff (on board, according to various sources, there were from 5 to 7 thousand not only military personnel, but also civilians). In fact, all this did not happen: it is unlikely that reporting this would have raised the morale of the Germans, who were suffering one defeat after another. And although this myth is beautiful, it is still a myth...

Every year on January 30, submariners gather at the Museum of the World Ocean. Roasted pig is a must on the table (after every victory at the submarine base they greet you this way). We remember Alexander Ivanovich and his military service. Heroes don't die...

The board of the EI-DJR aircraft, named in honor of Alexander Marinesko

Name: Alexander Marinesko

Age: 50 years

Place of birth: Odessa

Place of death: Leningrad

Activity: Submarine commander

Marital status: was not married

Biography

In the early 1960s, in Leningrad pubs you could see an elderly man with the Order of Lenin on his jacket. Visitors knew him as Sasha the Submariner and did not even suspect that they were drinking ruff with Hitler’s personal enemy.

Wine, desperate fights and women - this is the lot of a real pirate. This is what captain III rank Alexander Marinesko was like. Only he commanded not a pirate frigate, but a submarine of the Soviet fleet.

Alexander can be called a hereditary sailor. His father, a sailor in the Romanian navy, fled to Odessa from a sentence to be hanged for beating an officer. On Odessa soil, Ion settled down, settled down, and by the age of forty he married a peasant girl, Tatyana Koval. On January 15, 1913, a boy was born into the family, who was named Sasha.

Already at the age of 13, Sasha was accepted as a sailor apprentice at the Black Sea Shipping Company, and from there he was sent to cabin boy school. He graduated with honors, having received the qualification of a 1st class sailor, which gave him the right to sail on merchant ships.

Alexander wanted more - to become a captain. At the age of 17, the young man entered the Odessa Marine College, and after graduating, he was accepted as an assistant captain of the merchant ship “Red Fleet”. But the governing bodies, noticing the guy, sent him to the Red Fleet command courses. Soon, Marinesko was already listed as a navigator of the submarine Shch-306 (“Haddock”) of the Baltic Fleet.

He performed his duty regularly, but even then his superiors began to notice what an “inconvenient” specialist they got. Marinesko said what he thought, and besides, he was partial to alcohol and women.

His first character reference from 1935 stated: “Insufficiently disciplined. He knows his specialty well. Can manage personnel under constant supervision. Conclusions: pay attention to increasing discipline.”

After entering the ranks in the navy in 1936, Alexander received the shoulder straps of a lieutenant, and 2 years later, a senior lieutenant and the post of commander of the M-96 “Malyutka” submarine. Despite the fact that Marinesko gained fame as a drinker and troublemaker, his M-96 broke the Baltic Fleet record, diving in 19.5 seconds against the standard of 35 seconds. Therefore, the authorities turned a blind eye to the captain’s shortcomings.

The war found Marinesko at the naval base in Paldiski, from where he was sent to Tallinn to guard the Gulf of Riga. However, in naval battles Marinesko did not participate in those days. In August 1941, news arrived that the Malyutka was being sent by rail to the Caspian Sea, where it was to become a training boat. But when the Germans closed the ring around Leningrad, these plans had to be abandoned. In agonizing anticipation, and also because of the depressing reports, Marinesko began to drink again. He was expelled from the party candidates and penalties were regularly announced, but these measures were also powerless.

Marinesko went on his first military campaign in August 1942. His “Malyutka” attacked 3 German transport ships, but the results of the attack remained unknown. Returning to the base, Marinesko forgot to warn his superiors. The patrol boats, seeing the submarine floating up without a flag, mistook it for a German submarine and began shelling. Marinesko gave the command to dive and surfaced for the second time clearly between the boats. So much so that they could not shoot at the boat without damaging each other. Finally, the captain’s face appeared from the hatch, and his colorful Odessa speech made it clear whose ship it was.

In November of the same year, for the successful landing of the troops, Marinesko was awarded the Order of Lenin, and in December he was awarded the rank of captain of the 3rd rank and again enrolled as a candidate for the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks). True, in his description the division commander wrote: “On the shore he is prone to frequent drinking.” The following spring, Marinesko received a new submarine, the S-13. However, entering it into fighting was postponed due to the captain's old "illness" - drunkenness.

Thus, a captain once refused to go to sea because he could not find his hat. It turned out that the sailor threw the greasy item into the trash. The hat was found, but for disrupting the exit, Marinesko went to the punishment cell. The captain who made a mistake could have ended up in the Gulag, so he gladly accepted the order to go on a campaign in October 1944. On the very first day Marinesko met huge ship"Siegfried". The torpedo salvo was unsuccessful. Then the submarine surfaced and fired at the enemy from its gun mounts. In his report, the submariner indicated that the ship sank. In reality, the Germans towed the battered ship to Danzig and put it back into service by the spring of 1945.

When Marinesko returned to base, he saw that, contrary to tradition, he was greeted without an orchestra. Stung by this, he ordered the crew to batten down the hatches and celebrate their return home with alcohol. Only a day later the team left the boat. However, for this campaign Marinesko received not a punishment, but the Order of the Red Banner.

On the night of January 1, 1945 in Helsinki, Marinesko and his deputy, contrary to the regulations, left the boat and went to meet New Year to the owner of a local hotel. After many toasts, the captain took the Finnish woman to bed, where he indulged in pleasures with her all night. And in the morning her fiance came to the hotel. Getting into a fight with Russian sailors was fraught unpleasant consequences, so the Finn complained to the Soviet commandant’s office. The headquarters immediately realized who it could be, and Marinesko himself did not deny the fact of abandoning the ship. The commander of the Baltic Fleet ordered the officers to be put on trial, but, having cooled down, decided to give them the opportunity to make amends in battle. And on its fifth voyage, the submarine Marinesko left in the status of a floating penal battalion - the only one in the Soviet fleet.

But it was this campaign that immortalized the name of Marinesko. On January 30, off the Bay of Danzig, submariners spotted the ship Wilhelm Gustloff. The ship carried 70 crews of German submariners, a women's division, a thousand wounded and 9 thousand civilians - women and children. Three torpedo salvoes turned the Gustloff into its biggest casualty. Soviet Navy. Historians estimate the death toll to be 9,000, including 5,000 children. It was rumored that Hitler even declared Marinesko a personal enemy. But attempts to present the captain as an executioner turned out to be untenable, because the Gustloff had weapons and military markings.

After 2 weeks, the Marinesco submarine sent the General Steubelen ship to the bottom along with 3,700 people on board. After this, the captain was awarded the star of the Hero of the Soviet Union. However, because of the tribunal, he received only the second Order of the Red Banner.

With the end of the war, Marinesko, accustomed to making amends in battles, was deprived of this opportunity. In September he was demoted to senior lieutenant and transferred to the commander of a minesweeper, and in November he was written off to the reserve. After working for 3 years at the Baltic Shipping Company, he was fired for drunkenness, and in 1949 he was sentenced to 3 years for squandering social property.

Returning to Leningrad, Marinesko got a job as a supplier at a plant, and in 1962 he was diagnosed with cancer. Friends got Alexander Ivanovich to return his previous rank, which gave him the right to a good pension, and also admitted him to a clinic Military Medical Academy. But it was no longer possible to defeat the disease, and on November 25, 1963, Marinesko died. The Hero's Star found him only posthumously.