All language subtitles for Soviet.Storm.WWII.in.the.East.Series.2.4of9.The.War.at.Sea.1080p.WEB-DL.h264.AC3.MVGroup.Forum_[eng]

From the Black Sea to the Arctic
Ocean, the Soviet Navy fought a
deadly

but largely forgotten war
that led to some of the greatest

maritime tragedies in history.

Originally produced
for Russian television in 2011,

this is the story
of Russia s Great Patriotic War

and the Red Army s long road
from defeat to victory.

On the deck of a German warship,

the crew rolled trolleys loaded
with huge metal spheres towards
the stern.

It was nearly midnight on 21st
June 1941 the eve of the
German invasion

of the Soviet Union and German
warships were busy mining the
Gulf of Finland.

There were just a few hours left
before the first German air
raids hit the Soviet Union,

and the German ambassador in
Moscow handed over a declaration
of war.

But here in the Baltic,
the war had already begun.

Unlike the army and air force,
the Soviet navy was expecting
war.

For three days it had been on
high alert. Its ships and
aircraft

mounted regular patrols to give
early warning of any incoming
attack.

Just before midnight on 21st
June, the navy was put on red
alert by its commander,

People s Commissar
Nikolai Kuznetsov.

But while Soviet airfields were
hammered on the first day of the
war,

the navy was hardly
in the firing line at all.

The main Baltic naval base
at Tallin wasn t even attacked.

But naval mobilization
still left plenty to be desired.

Submarine Commander Petr
Grishchenko was asleep when the
Germans attacked.

But it was not the submarine
base that was being attacked. It
was the airfield.

If the bombers
had targeted the Soviet fleet,

there was every chance they
would have pulled off a German
Pearl Harbor.

But the Germans planned instead
to blockade Soviet ships in
their ports with mines.

The Soviet Navy was divided
between four distinct
operational zones:

the Baltic Sea and Black Sea,
the Arctic, and the Far East.

The distances
involved were vast

it was a sea voyage of nearly
9,000 miles from Vladivostok to
Leningrad.

In 1941 the Soviet navy
possessed few large modern
warships.

Its expansion had focused
instead on submarines and light
ships

a strategy advocated by several
young Soviet naval theorists.

The argument ran: One submarine
can disable a battleship.

Several submarines can impede
the actions of several fleets.

The doctrine received
official approval.

People s Commissar of Defense,
Kliment Voroshilov, declared:

All we want is to protect our
coasts and borders. Our light
forces,

naval aviation, and submarines
will cripple an attacking
enemy.

The USSR began a massive
programme of
submarine-construction.

The navy conducted manoeuvres,
in which submarines practiced
working

with coastal batteries, aircraft
and light ships to repel an
enemy naval attack.

At the outbreak of war, the
Soviet Navy had 3 battleships, 7
light cruisers,

54 destroyers, 215 submarines,
22 guard ships,

290 torpedo boats,
and 62 sub-hunters.

All three battleships dated back
to the days of the Tsar.

The Baltic Fleet was strongest,
with 2 battleships,

2 modern light cruisers,
and 21 destroyers.

The Northern Fleet was weakest,
with just 8 destroyers.

The German navy, in contrast,
had 3 battleships, 8 cruisers,

34 destroyers, and
155 submarines.

At 6:30 am on 22nd June,

Baltic Fleet Headquarters
received orders from People s
Commissar Kuznetsov.

But such a course could have
little effect. As Admiral
Panteleyev pointed out:

The Nazi navy had no intention
of entering the Gulf of Finland.

On the contrary, it intended
to blockade us inside it.

A cruiser, covered
by a smokescreen,

manoeuvred slowly
through the harbor of Tallin.

Every few minutes,
its main guns roared out.

The Cruiser Kirov was firing at
German troops advancing on the
Estonian capital.

The enemy retaliated
with heavy artillery.

This was why the Kirov kept on
the move, hiding amongst the
smoke.

By late August 1941,

the Red Army had been forced to
yield most of its Baltic
conquests.

Only Tallin remained a last
Soviet bastion in Estonia.

The Germans and their
Finnish allies

were determined to prevent
the evacuation of Tallin by sea.

There were only two navigable
channels to the city, one along
the coast,

and one through the middle
of the Gulf of Finland.

The Germans and Finns filled
this central channel with 2,500
mines.

The sea mine was
a highly effective naval weapon,

responsible for one fifth of all
shipping losses during the war.

The German EM, or
moored contact mine,

consisted of a hollow sphere
with seven thin "horns".

Inside, in a watertight box, was
a 300 kilogram explosive charge.

Most of the sphere was empty,
so the mine would float.

The mine was rolled
overboard with its trolley,

to which it was
attached by a cable.

The trolley acted as the mine s
anchor and held it in place.

The cable length could be
adjusted, to set the depth of
the mine.

The metal "horns"
triggered the mine.

When a ship hit one, it broke an
acid container within the horn.

This turned it into a battery
and sent an electric charge to
the detonator.

The mine would then explode.

Having fought their
way to the coast,

the Germans opened fire
on the navigation channel.

But neither artillery,
nor the mines,

could prevent Soviet
transports reaching Tallinn.

Soviet mine-hunters led the way.

Because of their shallow draft
they passed safely over the
mines,

dragging a trawl that
cut their cables.

When a mine floated to the
surface it was destroyed with
gunfire,

creating safe lanes
through the minefield.

During August, a steady stream
of wounded Soviet soldiers and
refugees

were evacuated from
Tallinn by sea.

But it took a heavy toll on the
Soviet mine-hunters. Some hit
shallow mines.

Others were sunk by TMA
"influence" mines, triggered by
a ship s magnetic field.

On 26th August,
Stalin telegrammed Voroshilov,

authorizing a withdrawal from
Tallin and the evacuation of its
garrison by sea.

The operation called for an
armada of more than 200 Soviet
ships.

They would have to run a
gauntlet of German and Finnish
aircraft and torpedo boats,

and minefields that could not be
cleared because of bad weather.

The convoy departed Tallin
at noon on 28th August,

carrying 28,000
soldiers and refugees.

The ships sailed in
the central channel,

meaning German and Finnish
coastal batteries fired at
extreme range.

Luftwaffe divebombers
joined the attack,

as Soviet destroyers laid
smokescreens to protect the
convoy.

There were dozens of
mines in the channel.

They soon began to
claim their victims.

The cruisers and
destroyers forged ahead,

making for the heavily-defended
naval base at Kronstadt.

The slower transports
were left behind.

German aircraft fell upon
them like vultures.

Of the 75 transports that left
Tallinn, 12 were destroyed by
mines and 19 by aircraft.

If the warships had slowed down
to protect the convoy,

the losses might
have been fewer.

But the Fleet Commander
needed his warships back safely.

The Baltic Fleet could
not be sacrificed.

The cruiser Kirov reached
Kronstadt without serious
damage,

as did 11 of 13 submarines,
but only 5 out of 10 destroyers.

Of the 28,000 evacuees,
two-thirds arrived safely.

But more than 15,000 lives had
been lost on the 200 mile voyage
from Tallin.

Within days, the Germans began
their assault on Leningrad.

The warships, saved by the
brutal decision to abandon the
Tallin convoy,

would play a vital part
in the city s defence

Hitler s hopes of a rapid
victory against the Soviet Union
had been dashed.

As the war entered
its second year,

the Germans became increasingly
concerned about their own
shipping routes.

Vital supplies of Swedish
iron ore came across the Baltic

and along the Norwegian coast.

Chrome ore came across the
Black Sea from neutral Turkey.

The Germans turned
to their sophisticated sea mines

to protect all these
shipping lanes.

In 1942, they created huge
minefields along Norway s
northern coast,

watched over by aircraft
and coastal batteries.

It had an immediate and deadly
impact on Soviet submarine
patrols.

In April 1942, the Shch-421
hit a German mine and sank.

The same month Shch-401
went missing on patrol.

Three further submarines
were lost in quick succession.

Sinkings by Soviet Northern
Fleet submarines dropped off
rapidly

from 21 in the first half of
1942, to just 4 in the second
half of the year.

They came at a cost
of 9 submarines.

The sailors of the Baltic Fleet
suffered all the hardships of
their home base,

the besieged city of Leningrad.

Rations were so meager that many
of them suffered the effects of
malnutrition.

Meanwhile, German factories
were turning Swedish iron ore

into tanks, guns and shells.

Only the submarines of the
Baltic Fleet could disrupt this
supply.

On 2nd July 1942,
S7, under Commander Lisin,

slipped through the minefields
of the Gulf of Finland.

Sweden was neutral.
But while surfaced,

Lisin came under attack from
Swedish aircraft, and was lucky
to escape.

That night Lisin sank the
Swedish transport Margareta,
loaded with coal.

Two days later, he sank another
Swedish ship, Luleo, carrying
iron ore to Germany.

The Swedes claimed both ships
had been sunk within territorial
waters

a violation of their neutrality.
The Soviets denied this,

but felt it prudent to order S7
away from the Swedish coast.

On 30th July, Lisin sighted four
more ships. To overtake them,

he took a huge risk sailing on
the surface at full speed in
broad daylight.

He attacked from a
depth of just 20 feet.

If detected, he stood
little chance of escape.

But Lisin s audacity paid off
the German transport Kathe was
sunk.

S7 had no torpedoes left and was
heading home, when a Finnish
steamer was detected.

The main deck gun had jammed, so
the crew opened fire with their
anti-aircraft gun.

It took almost 400
shells to sink her.

From the wreckage, Lisin picked
up the Finnish captain and his
engineer

and brought them to Leningrad.

It was a very rare example
of a submarine taking prisoners.

Four crew members of
the S7 were decorated.

Lisin was recommended
for the highest award,

the title "Hero of
the Soviet Union".

In September 1942, S-12, under
Commander Turayev, left on
patrol.

But one day in, she was damaged
in an attack by Finnish
aircraft.

Her leaking oil tanks left a
greasy trail on the water s
surface.

Then the sonar operator picked
up the sound of propellers.

The submarine s batteries were
almost dead, and she was in
shallow water.

On the charts, Turayev spotted a
small 60 metre deep trench on
the sea floor.

The sea-bed all around
was 40 metres

this was where the Finns would
set their depth charges to
explode.

S-12 descended into the trench.

The submarine was rocked
by exploding depth charges,

and battered by debris
from the sea bed.

But she suffered
no serious damage.

After dark S-12 made her escape.

But Turayev had no intention
of cutting short his patrol.

He made a torpedo attack on the
ageing German battleship
Schlesien, but missed.

He was finally forced back
to base by autumn storms.

On 17th October 1942, Commander
Lisin took S-7 on a second
Baltic patrol.

But while recharging
batteries on the surface,

S-7 was attacked by a
Finnish submarine.

Four men of the upper watch,
including Commander Lisin, were
thrown clear.

The other 42 crew
members perished.

It was from inside
a Finnish prisoner-of-war camp

that Lisin heard he d been
made a Hero of the Soviet Union.

When Finland signed an armistice
in 1944, Lisin returned to
active service.

He fought against Japan in 1945,
and finally retired from the
service in 1970.

In 1942, Soviet submarines
had struck a small

but significant blow against
Germany s vital supply line
across the Baltic Sea.

But it came at a heavy price

In 1942, Soviet submarines sank
at least 21 ships,

and damaged a further 9.

But of 27 Baltic Fleet
submarines on patrols, 12 did
not return.

And was already a dangerous
environment for Soviet subs,

was about to become a deathtrap

By the end of 1941, it was clear

that Hitler faced a long
struggle against the Soviet
Union.

He assigned the German
air force and navy

the task of stopping Allied aid
convoys reaching Russia across
the Arctic Ocean.

These convoys brought
much-needed shipments of food,

supplies and vehicles to the
northern ports of Murmansk and
Archangelsk.

Cargo ships from North America
and Britain were assembled into
convoys,

and assigned a naval escort

for the dangerous Arctic
crossing to Northern Russia.

The proximity to German-occupied
Norway made the protection of
warships essential.

Convoys bound for the USSR were
codenamed PQ, and those
returning QP.

The first Allied convoy
of 7 merchant ships arrived

without loss at Arkhangelsk
on 31st August 1941.

The convoys passed within 200
miles of the Norwegian coast,

at speeds of no
more than 10 knots.

Conditions on the crossing could
be horrendous waves the size
of houses,

temperatures of minus 30 degrees
centigrade, and incessant Arctic
gales.

Destroyers of the Soviet
Northern Fleet joined the escort

for the final leg of
the journey to Russia,

and provided defence against
German air and submarine attack.

The early convoys to Russia
consisted of no more than a
dozen transport ships,

and the first 7 convoys
suffered no losses at all.

The first U-boat attack against
an Arctic convoy did not occur
until January 1942,

and resulted in the loss of one
transport from Convoy PQ-7A.

But as the convoys increased in
size, so too did their losses.

Convoy PQ-17 set sail
in June 1942 with 34 ships,

of which 23 were sunk
by German aircraft and U-boats.

This disaster led to the
suspension of Arctic Convoys for
3 months.

Hitler, in his determination to
choke off any aid to the Soviet
Union,

sent heavy reinforcements
to Norway,

including the mighty
new battleship, Tirpitz.

She was a sister-ship
to the Bismarck, and like her,

carried a fearsome battery
of eight 15 inch guns.

Soviet sub K-21, under Commander
Lunin, was also bound for
Norway.

On the afternoon
of 5th July 1942,

K-21 s sonar officer reported
the sound of heavy warships.

It was the Tirpitz,
leading a German squadron

to intercept the
Allied convoy PQ-17.

Lunin used his periscope
to observe the target

although he knew that
in clear weather,

there was a danger that its wake
could be spotted by a German
lookout.

The German ships were
moving at high speed,

leaving only a small window
for Lunin to make his attack.

As Lunin made his approach, the
warships suddenly changed
course.

He had to act quickly.

From inside the enemy formation,
K-21 attacked with its stern
torpedo tubes.

Lunin fired 4 torpedoes then
waited for the sound of
explosions.

The sonar officer
reported two explosions.

Lunin radioed the Fleet
Commander, claiming a hit on the
Tirpitz.

But they were wrong.
The torpedoes had missed.

Meanwhile, in the Black Sea,

Soviet submarines were also
active in hunting down the
enemy.

Lookouts on the Shch-205 studied
a freighter that carried no
national flag.

According to an
Anglo-Turkish agreement,

all chrome ore mined in neutral
Turkey was to be bought up by
Great Britain,

thus depriving Germany
of its main supply of chrome,

which it needed for alloys
used in the armaments industry.

But Turkey continued to sell
chrome ore to Germany as well,

in shipments sent to Bulgaria,
which Soviet submarines tried to
intercept.

The Turkish freighter "Duatepe"
spotted the submarine, and raced
for an inlet.

Captain Lieutenant Sukhomlinov
gave the order to open fire with
the deck gun.

A stream of shells soon reduced
the Duatepe to a blazing wreck.

The submarine s next victim was
the Turkish transport Shafac.

Two torpedoes tore
the small ship to pieces.

The Shch-205 s next mission
was to deliver ammunition

to the besieged naval
base of Sevastopol.

When the ammunition
was unloaded,

50 wounded soldiers were crammed
into the small submarine for
evacuation.

The Shch-205 s survived around
40 bomb and depth-charge
attacks,

before reaching the safety of
Novorossiysk on the Black Sea s
eastern shore.

The Black Sea was less dangerous
for Soviet subs than the narrow
straits of the Baltic.

But shallow coastal waters
posed their own risk

the sea was often no more
than 10 to 15 metres deep,

and could be heavily
mined by the Germans.

Soviet submarine commanders
had to be bold and aggressive.

In October 1942, Commander
Greshilov, in a small M class
submarine,

sank the 500 ton German
tanker "Le Progress",

as she sailed under escort
near the Danube Delta.

In August 1943 Greshilov,

now commanding a larger Pike
class submarine, struck again,

sinking the Turkish
transport Tisbe

under the noses of her escort of
two destroyers and two
sub-hunters.

She went to the bottom with
1,600 tons of chrome ore aboard
her.

In 1944 Greshilov was awarded
the USSR s highest honour,

the title "Hero of
the Soviet Union".

Back in the Baltic, the threat
posed by Soviet submarines

caused the Germans
to take drastic new measures.

Minefields alone were
clearly not working.

In the spring of 1943,

the Germans began erecting huge
steel nets across the Gulf of
Finland.

This double anti-submarine net,
codenamed Walrus,

stretched 25 miles
from Naissar Island,

off the coast of Estonia,
to the coast of Finland.

The net was too strong for even
the largest submarine to break
through.

For good measure, the Germans
and Finns laid another 9,000
mines

in the Gulf of Finland.

On Hogland Island, they built
an underwater listening station

to detect passing submarines.

When the winter ice melted,
the first Soviet submarines

attempted to break through this
formidable array of defences.

In May 1943, Shch-303, under
the command of Ivan Travkin,

left Kronstadt bound
for the Baltic.

Two days into the patrol,
sonar reported a rhythmic,

metallic rasping
against the hull.

Travkin made several attempts to
get through the net, but all
ended in failure.

With sonar also picking up
several enemy anti-submarine
patrols,

Travkin decided to report his
findings and head for home...

Shch-408 was less lucky. She was
detected and sunk by enemy
patrol craft.

Shch-406, under the command of
Hero of the Soviet Union Yevgeni
Osipov,

also never returned to base.

When Travkin returned, he and
his crew were greeted like men
back from the dead.

The Baltic Fleet command tried
bombing the nets from the air.

Submarines tried firing
torpedoes at it.

But neither had any effect.

Two more submarines, the S9 and
S12, were lost whilst
investigating the net.

After that, all attempts to
break through were suspended.

For the time being, the Germans
had succeeded in trapping and
neutralising

the entire Soviet
Baltic Fleet...

In the Black Sea,
it was the German Luftwaffe

that posed the greatest
threat to the Soviet navy.

In the first weeks of the war,
the Soviet Black Sea Fleet

conducted raids against Romanian
ports and later,

against the
German-occupied Crimea.

The first raid, just four
days into the war,

targeted oil storage facilities
at the Romanian port of
Konstanza.

But after a short bombardment,
the destroyer Moskva hit a mine
and sank rapidly,

leading to the withdrawal
of the raiding force.

Soviet marines also carried out
small-scale raids against
Romanian targets.

After the fall of the Crimea,
the Black Sea Fleet targeted
Axis forces

stationed on its coastline.
In October 1943,

three destroyers Kharkov,
Sposobny and Besposhchadny
left the east coast

to conduct a night-time
bombardment of German positions
at Yalta and Feodosia.

Then they sailed for home.

At dawn the destroyers were
attacked by 8 Stuka dive-bombers
with fighter escorts.

Kharkov was hit in a boiler-room
and taken in tow by Sposobny.

But the German air
attack was unrelenting.

The last raid consisted of 25
Stukas with a large fighter
escort.

Soviet fighters arrived,
but it was an uneven contest.

Anti-aircraft guns and fighters
managed to destroy 18 German
aircraft.

But all three Soviet
destroyers were sunk.

780 sailors of the Black Sea
Fleet were lost with them.

This disaster caused the Stavka
to prohibit any further surface
raids in the Black Sea.

From the conning tower of S-56,
men peered anxiously towards the
shore.

Finally, they saw the signal.

The submarine was there to land
a reconnaissance team behind
enemy lines.

It was a frequent mission for
Soviet submarines during the
war.

S-56, under Commander Shchedrin,

had travelled from Vladivostok
more than half way around the
world,

via the Panama Canal,
to reach the Arctic Ocean.

This 17,000 mile route

was the only way to avoid major
war zones and the winter ice.

Northern Fleet Submarines were
also tasked with attacking the
convoys

that brought supplies to Axis
forces in northern Russia.

On 17th May 1943,
near the northern tip of Norway,

S-56 sighted a convoy of one
tanker, 4 cargo ships and 8
escort vessels.

Shchedrin fired a
salvo of 4 torpedoes.

In one salvo, S-56
had sunk the tanker Eurostadt,

carrying 1,300 tons of fuel, and
damaged the steamer Wartheland.

The attack was followed
by a 6 hour chase,

in which more than 60 depth
charges were dropped... but none
found their mark.

As huge battles raged
at Stalingrad and Kursk,

in the North the front
remained static,

and the battle to defend
the Arctic convoys

with their vital cargoes
of military aid continued.

The Soviet Northern Fleet fought
a running battle against U-boats

and the Luftwaffe into 1944.

That year, a major
development finally allowed

the Soviet Baltic Fleet
to break free of its shackles.

In September 1944,
Finland signed an armistice,

allowing Soviet ships to bypass
the net and mine defences of the
Gulf of Finland,

and even operate
from Finnish ports.

In January 1945, the Red Army
launched an offensive into East
Prussia.

The Germans began a massive
operation to evacuate military
personnel

and equipment by sea. The ships
also carried thousands of
refugees.

Amongst them was the
Wilhelm Gustloff,

a cruise ship requisitioned
by the German navy.

On 30th January, she
set sail from Gdynia

amidst heavy snowfall
and temperatures of minus 10.

On board were 918 U-boat cadets,
500 other military personnel,

and according to some estimates,
as many as 9,000 refugees,

of whom nearly half
were children.

Fearing a collision
with other convoys,

the captain of the Wilhelm
Gustloff turned on her
navigation lights.

It was these lights that led
Commander Marinesko s S-13 to
her shortly after 9pm.

Marinesko stalked his quarry
for more than an hour.

Having got into a firing
position, he launched 4
torpedoes.

3 hit the liner,
with devastating consequences.

More than 9,000 lives were
lost on the Wilhelm Gustloff.

But the Soviet navy defended its
right to attack a ship under
escort,

carrying military personnel.

Two weeks later, the same
submarine sank the liner Von
Steuben,

with the loss of 4,000 lives
the majority of them,

in this case, wounded
German soldiers.

In the first months of 1945, the
Red Army was advancing rapidly,

crossing Poland to threaten
Berlin in the north,

and crossing Hungary
to reach Vienna in the south.

But there were still pockets of
German resistance along the
Baltic Coast,

in Pomerania and Latvia.

Destroying these groups
communications by sea

was the Baltic Fleet submarines
last mission of the war.

Searchlights swept across the
entrance to the Bay of Danzig.

For the commander of Soviet
submarine L3, it was a
discouraging sight.

Commander Konovalov had
orders to break into the bay,

but he considered
it a suicidal task.

L3 stood off at the
bay s entrance.

In early 1945 it was the scene
of intense air and sea battles,

particularly around the Hel
Peninsula, as the Germans
desperately tried

to evacuate the remnants of
their military forces, and
thousands of terrified refugees.

But they had to run the gauntlet
of Soviet submarines.

On 17th April 1945, L3 sighted
a convoy leaving the bay.

It was bound from
Hel to Swineünde.

After dark, Konovalov attacked
with 3 torpedoes.

His victim was the transport
ship Goya, carrying more than
6,000 passengers.

There were just 183 survivors.

In July 1945 Konovalov was
awarded the title Hero of the
Soviet Union.

His crew were also decorated.

On the very first
day of the war,

the submarine L3 had been at the
mercy of the German Luftwaffe.

It had only been spared, because
the Germans did not consider
Soviet submarines

to be a high enough priority.

But they had gone on to prove
themselves a truly deadly
adversary.

Today the conning tower
of L3 is on display

at the Moscow Museum
of the Great Patriotic War.

The Soviet people celebrated
Victory Day on 9th May 1945.

And on 22nd July, Soviet
ships hoisted their colours

to mark the first Navy Day
since the end of the war.

It was also marked by parades,
and, on this occasion,

an address from Josef Stalin
to all Soviet sailors.

It read: The navy has more than
fulfilled its duty to the Soviet
Motherland.