At 8:30 a.m. on November 10, to the music of the military band and the cheers of the base personnel, the submarine C-1 slowly entered the dock of the first detachment of submarines of the Baltic Fleet of the Red Navy through the waterway (the base of the second detachment is in Leningrad. Pen ~ Fun ~ Pavilion www.biquge.info).

Today, submarines do not need to enter the super-sturdy garage with a reinforced concrete roof in front of them, and first dock at the pier.

On the deck of the submarine were lined up with sailors, and on the bridge Marinesko was congratulated by his comrades at the base, which had been informed by telegram of the victory of the C-1 on this short voyage.

Marinesko saw that the detachment commander, Admiral Mahomit Gaidtsev, was on the pier, and several officers in the uniform of the Ministry of Internal Affairs were present, and it seemed that the men of the Ministry of Internal Affairs were ready to receive prisoners. An ambulance was also parked on the side, and several medical personnel were waiting on stretchers with the ship.

Early this morning, when Marinesko returned the German uniform to the two prisoners, Baron Wickers thanked him with a German military salute - that is, to be a prisoner, and the German lieutenant also hoped that he would wear his own uniform and maintain the dignity of a German officer.

The speed had been reduced to a minimum, and seeing that the distance was almost over, Marinesco ordered: "Double car stop!" ”

The fore and fore deck skimmers accurately skimmed the cable to the shore, and the comrades waiting above immediately pulled up the cable and tied it tightly to the bollard. The sailors of the base hung the gangway on the front deck of the submarine, and only then did Marinesko get off the bridge, and according to their rank and seniority, the crew who had landed in advance rushed through the gangway.

As soon as he stepped on the dock, Marinesko turned to the left and saluted the military flag on the stern pole, and only then turned to salute the detachment commander: "Hello, comrade detachment commander. The C-1 submarine returned triumphantly, captain Marinesco. ”

The officer on the side turned a little left and right to greet - Marinesko is the captain of the boat, and no one here has a higher rank than him, except for the head of the detachment, so that it is already okay in terms of etiquette: the status of the submarine captain is very high in the base, and sometimes these underwater warriors have a strange temper and are difficult to deal with, which is not strange in the Red Navy, and Marinesko is not bad.

"Hello, Comrade Marinesko, congratulations on your successful return with your crew."

After returning the salute, Gaidtsev introduced several faces of the Ministry of Internal Affairs around him, and Marinesko also politely introduced several of his officers and senior warrant officers.

"Marinesco, yesterday I saw the first telegram you sent back, and the comrades were a little incredulous! Everyone is still worried about you, and you can only rest assured when you receive a second telegram. ”

"Yesterday was mysterious enough, and luck almost became glorious." Marinesko did not brag much - the sinking of two anti-submarine ships and a cargo ship, it is needless to say how heroic the submarine fought, comrades can imagine.

The preliminary interrogation report was handed over to a captain named Vasyazin who had been led by the Ministry of Internal Affairs, and the captain expressed his gratitude. Both sides have confidentiality regulations, and they didn't open them to see them, and they didn't say anything about the content of the interrogation.

At this time, the attention of the people on the side was suddenly drawn to the submarine, and Marinesko turned around and said, "Come down." ”

The boatswain and several sailors escorted the two prisoners down the gangway, and the Germans were not handcuffed - Taran had already unloaded their handcuffs before exiting the submarine. This is the Red Navy base, and if you are handcuffed, you will look petty.

Someone from his own Ministry of Internal Affairs stepped forward to receive it, and then Marinesko said to Vasyazin: "That lieutenant officer is a lieutenant captain with the title of nobility, baron. ”

Vashazin was obviously interested, and his eyes seemed to light up: "Stubborn? ”

"It's okay to cooperate, no force was used, it's up to you below, there should still be some value."

Vasyazin nodded slightly, saluted the captain again, and then went to receive them, and loaded the two prisoners into two carts and sent them to his own land.

Sending off the people of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, Gadesev and Marinesko walked a few steps to the gangway: the ambulance crew had already boarded the boat with two stretchers, and the wounded were about to be sent down.

Submarines do not have a horizontal exit, and the transport of the wounded needs to be carried out through vertical hatches, and in the case of seriously wounded, they need to be transported on a military stretcher for insurance. Inside the boat, Galel and Myachev were already firmly tied to the ship's stretcher and carried to the command compartment. The medical staff slowly erected the stretcher, and the inside and outside of the boat cooperated up and down, pulled the stretcher out of the submarine, and then carried it ashore.

The detachment commander comforted the wounded on the dock and asked the comrades to recuperate with peace of mind and not have any worries.

"Detachment leader, captain, I'll take Galel and Myaschev to the hospital first." Captain Kalinovsky was to get into the ambulance with him.

"Go ahead."

The surgery was done by Kalinovsky, and if you can explain the original injury and the surgical process to the doctors at the hospital, it will be beneficial for the next step of treatment.

At the end of the welcome ceremony, the crew had to brief the maintenance personnel at the base today about the damage to the submarine, and most of them would be able to take a vacation tomorrow until the submarine was repaired and ready to sail again.

Marinesko took his military briefcase and went to the command with Gadesev to report in detail on the course of the battle.

"Commander Tributs will be waiting for you at the headquarters, I arrived the night before, I was supposed to return to Leningrad yesterday afternoon, and I am still waiting for you after I know your news."

The fact that the commander of the Baltic Fleet spent an extra day at the Tallinn base for the sake of a submarine was a great affirmation of the C-1's success. Since the beginning of the war, the Baltic Fleet has not achieved many results, and the results of its submarine forces are also average, not comparable to those of the Northern Fleet. The results of this voyage of the C-1 can inspire the morale of the military, not to mention the reimbursement of two anti-submarine ships, which are still deck guns!

The tonnage is not very large, but the process is absolutely exciting.

"According to the German lieutenant, the cargo ship was supposed to be carrying non-ferrous metal ore, and the Germans still had ships in the Finnish port of Oulu."

"We have telegraphed the C7 and C11 to cruise south of the South Kvarken Strait to block the trade lanes between Germany and Finland, and your next mission may be to replace the C-11."

"A few valves and high-pressure gas cylinders need to be replaced, and the battery pack needs to be repaired, and it is better to sail as soon as possible. If there are electric torpedoes, give us a few, and if there are electric torpedoes this time, it will not be so passive at first. "Marinesco wanted to get back to sea as soon as possible.

"The base will be repaired as quickly as possible, and your people may only be able to rest for a few days this time. A batch may arrive in a few days, so I'll give you a few when I have time. ”

There were also difficulties at the base, there was German bombing in the air, it was impossible to operate at sea, and the road transportation was not very smooth, because the railway department was already operating at full capacity. As a result of the war, everything was in short supply, and Gadesev, the head of the detachment, had done his best to ensure the normal functioning of the troops.

Diesel and lubricants for submarines are currently in relative straits, as the land battlefield is in heavy fighting and all military supplies are in short supply. The production of torpedoes was already more cumbersome, not as fast and simple as artillery shells: the base was originally equipped with a lot of thermodynamic torpedoes, but electric torpedoes were new products, and they were not prepared much, and the production of torpedoes in the production department was already small, and the original ones had long been distributed to each boat, and only two were guaranteed to be equipped with each boat.

Everyone knows the advantages of electric torpedoes, although they are not as fast as thermodynamic torpedoes, the track is almost invisible, the noise is small, and it is not easy to detect when attacking, and every captain wants to be equipped with several in case of emergency. But at present, there are more monks and less porridge, so there is no way.

It doesn't matter what torpedo is used at night, the probability of being detected is much smaller than during the day, but it is better to use electric torpedoes against the opponent's warship during the day - if it is a merchant ship, it doesn't matter what torpedo is used. If it is a warship, it is better to use a thermodynamic torpedo that is fast and difficult to avoid, but once it is discovered, it will be a big trouble, and it is better to use a slower electric torpedo.

This time, the C-1 needs to repair the battery pack and high-pressure gas cylinders, and then replenish six torpedoes, and the whole process is estimated to be completed in two or three days, and at most a week later it can sail again - the cycle of submarine sorties does not depend to a large extent on the submarine itself, otherwise a submarine that has been cruising for nearly two months (not surprisingly, this kind of time at sea was very common in World War II, otherwise there would be no phenomenon of "flags", and the time of submarines at sea is often far beyond the design self-sustainability. By today's standards, if everything were calculated on the basis of self-sustaining power, the World War II submariners would not have returned to port looking haggard, unshaven, dirty, and often battling lice and parasites. There is no need to rest for a month or two: replenishment and maintenance can be completed in a week at most, and the rest of the time is spent restoring the physical and mental strength of the crew.

Because of the particularity of submarines, submarines are different from other ships after they arrive at port, and the crews live in special dormitories at shore bases, which are better than the cabins on any warship, and do not need to live on board like the crews of other large and medium-sized warships. Most of the submarine repair is also the business of the base personnel, and only some submarine shift personnel need to cooperate: this is a bit like the air force -- the pilot does not care when he gets off the plane, and at most he explains the situation to the ground crew, and the repair and maintenance are the business of the ground crew. Of course, there are also differences with the Air Force, the supply of submarines still needs to be carried by the crews, and the base department can only pull them to the dock to hand them over, and the crew members themselves must come to load and place the submarines -- with the exception of torpedoes.

The "flags of all nations" must also be hung up at a certain level, and the crew of each boat has different habits, and generally they will not let the personnel of the base put them up -- to be honest, they will not be able to put them down, and if ordinary sailors are allowed to pile them up at will, it will be guaranteed that there will be no place to walk in the boat, and then the crew will do more after getting on the boat.

This voyage was only a few days, and the crew's physical strength and spirit were still very good, and there was no need to give the crew too much time to rest, and there was no problem with sailing in a week. Of course, the space for the two wounded needs to be topped up, and there are reserve boaters at the base for Marinesco to choose from.

Vladimir Filippovich Tributs, current commander of the Baltic Fleet of the Red Navy, Vice Admiral. , 41 years old, joined the Navy in 18, joined the Communist Party of the Soviet Union in 28, graduated from the Frunze Naval School (1926) and the Naval Academy (1932). ）。 During the Civil War, he served in the Astrakhan District Fleet and the Volga-Caspian District Fleet. From 1926 to 1929 and from 1932 to 1936, he served as commander of the "Paris Commune" and "Marat", and during this period, he also served as the captain of the destroyer "Sverdlov". He has served in the Red Banner Baltic Fleet Command since December 36 and has extensive experience in naval command.

Tributz went to Tallinn this time to inspect the situation of the Tallinn naval base, which in the Red Banner Baltic Fleet is second in importance to Leningrad and even ahead of Kronstadt.

After the outbreak of the Great Patriotic War, the Baltic Fleet was fully operational, but limited to the Baltic environment, the fleet could only be regarded as a subsidiary of the Red Army, and most of the elite forces were used to support land warfare. In the narrow Baltic Sea, the fleet's submarine forces had done their best, but they were dwarfed by the achievements of their German counterparts in the Atlantic.

This time, when Tributz heard of the C-1's unbelievable victory, he decided to stay one more day to meet the new captain of the ace submarine.

When he met the young captain, the commander of the fleet said: "I have already spoken on the phone with Comrade Smirnov and have decided to nominate you to the Central Committee for the title of Hero of the Soviet Union!" (Nikolai Konstantinovich Smirnov, then member of the Military Council of the Red Banner Baltic Fleet.) ）

、、、、、、

It would be far away in the Pavlov building in Minsk, where Vasily was chatting with Sergeant Pavlov, also about the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.

In less than a day and two nights, the Red Army defense line on the east side of Lenin Square, where the Pavlov building was located, had withstood 11 large and small German attacks, and the Germans were attacking as if they were completely mad - regardless of casualties and attrition!

In the distance, the positions on both sides of the Lenin Bridge had been occupied by the Germans, the defenders on the west bank of the river had lost their most important support route, and the building on the left flank of the bridge had even collapsed in its entirety - it had suffered an unknown number of large-caliber shells! The Red Army still controlled two pontoon bridges on the river, but one was no longer usable. The Red Army on the west bank of the river would not only have to deal with the artillery fire on the western front of the square, but also raise the flanks of the Germans who could outflank them at any time.

(Return to the main battlefield and ask for a ticket, hehe.) (To be continued.) )