How Grigory Shchedrin "rose from the dead" 17 times

2024 Author: Seth Attwood | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 15:55

There is such a sign: if by mistake a person is suddenly declared dead or dead, and in the meantime he is in good health, then he will live happily for many years …

17 times the Nazis solemnly announced that the Soviet submarine S-56, its commander Grigory Ivanovich Shchedrin and the entire crew no longer existed, that the ship had been sunk. But the boat again and again went out to sea to beat the Nazis …

From the point of view of any naval sailor, Grigory Ivanovich Shchedrin lived a really happy life. Maybe not all of his dreams came true (in any case, we may simply not know about many of them), but nevertheless, professionally, he was, one might say, lucky and lucky. Judge for yourself.

Vice-admiral, Hero of the Soviet Union, commander of the S-56 submarine glorified during the Great Patriotic War, commander of the Kamchatka military flotilla, editor of the Marine Collection, writer, author of several books …

The heroic submarine S-56, which he commanded for many years, the first submarine-museum in our country, a monument to the courage of submariners, installed in Vladivostok. Grigory Shchedrin is an honorary citizen of the cities of Tuapse and Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, in Moscow at the address of Leningradskoe shosse, 15, where he lived, a memorial plaque was installed. He is well remembered in the navy, because before his departure and life in 1995 at the age of 82, he was perhaps one of the most active popularizers of naval traditions, fostering patriotism among the younger generation.

Grigory Shchedrin was born in the Black Sea town of Tuapse on December 1, 1912. Childhood was spent by the sea, and it is easy to guess that this predetermined the choice of a profession. At the age of seven, he went to study, and at the age of 12 he was already forced to work in logging in order to help his family. But in 1926 the craving for the sea took its toll: he joined the two-masted schooner "Dioscuria" as a cabin boy. They sailed as a sailor on the ships of the Black Sea Shipping Company and at the same time studied, despite all the difficulties. After graduating from the Kherson Naval College, Grigory Shchedrin became a navigator in 1932, and in 1934 Grigory Ivanovich was drafted into the Navy. Here his fate was determined - he became a submariner. The future Hero of the Soviet Union trained on the Sch-301 submarine, was appointed senior assistant to the commander of the Sch-114 submarine of the Pacific Fleet, and then a year later - the commander of the Sch-110. As the historical chronicles say, its crew won six naval prizes, and in 1939 came out on top in the Pacific Fleet and held it for two years.

In 1941, just on the eve of the Great Patriotic War, the young Lieutenant-Commander Shchedrin was appointed commander of the S-56 submarine under construction, which later became under his command of the Guards. In September 1942, the boat was redeployed from the "quiet" Pacific Fleet to the fighting Northern Fleet. This is forever inscribed in the annals of the Soviet submarine fleet: the submarine under the command of Shchedrin, as part of a special detachment of other submarines, made an unprecedented passage across nine seas and three oceans, leaving over 17 thousand miles astern. In the Northern Fleet, a brand new S-56 with a superbly trained crew under the command of Grigory Ivanovich Shchedrin made eight military campaigns, sank 10 and damaged four enemy ships with a total displacement of about 85 thousand tons. The boat was on a special account with the Hitlerite warriors: when, according to intelligence information (alas, there were spies in the Soviet polar bases too), they received information that a boat under the command of Shchedrin had gone out to sea, all the fascist ships and ships in the sea were sent by radio special instructions: be extremely careful. But, despite this, Shchedrin kept sinking and sinking enemy transports and warships …

Several times, after terrible attacks of depth charges, he had to go for a trick: oiled rags, cans of diesel fuel, even items of sailors' uniforms were loaded into torpedo tubes - and all this was fired into the sea by air. From the "remains" that surfaced to the surface, the Nazis concluded that the S-56 was sunk and happily reported this to the command. The attacks with depth charges naturally stopped. But the C-56 after a while came out to the enemy ships from a completely different side and attacked again!

In the 70s of the last century, a retired German submariner, navigator of one of the Kriegsmarine submarines, Helmut Crank, wrote in his memoirs that this Soviet boat was considered a kind of ghost: it always appeared exactly where it was least expected. Fascist patrolmen, submarines, and floating batteries hunted for it, but everything was useless. When Krank once reported to his commander that the Soviet submarine was "once again" sunk, but she appeared in position again and on a completely different side, until the very end of the war he was demoted to the rank of lieutenant …

And the Soviet ship continued to fight, emerging victorious in the seemingly most desperate situations. On March 31, 1944, the boat was awarded the Order of the Red Banner, and on February 23, 1945, she was awarded the title of the Guards. Well, Grigory Shchedrin, who had become a captain of the II rank by that time, was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. After the war, he did not leave the submarine fleet, and continued to serve successfully. In 1954, Grigory Ivanovich graduated from the Military Academy of the General Staff, was the commander of the Kamchatka flotilla. The decree of the Council of Ministers of the USSR provided for the base of 270 pennants in the main base of the Kamchatka military flotilla in Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky by 1957. These are patrol ships, destroyers, minesweepers, large and medium-sized submarines, torpedo boats, amphibious assault ships.

And for all of them it was necessary to urgently build berths, piers, infrastructure, residential barracks for personnel and apartments for officers! All this work fell on the shoulders of the new commander of the flotilla. And here Shchedrin showed himself not only as a talented military leader, but also as a "strong business executive." Shchedrin undertook to build an economic, or, as he himself called, "hap-method" 90 residential four-apartment houses for sailors. The promised building materials from the fleet never arrived. But Grigory Ivanovich found a way out. True, I had to rely only on my own strength: one brigade of sailors and soldiers was building a house, and the second at the construction sites of the city earned construction materials from “civil” builders. Thus, many residential houses and buildings in the city were built with the participation of the sailors of the Kamchatka military flotilla. There are fewer problems with housing for the sailors, but the commander is well "flew" for arbitrariness …

In a short time, a three-story hospital for military sailors was built, replacing the erroneously designed, as Shchedrin believed, two floors. It began to treat not only the military, but also the civilian population of the city. The commander was again punished for his willfulness. But he did not “pacify” his tough, but fair character! After the Kamchatka earthquake in 1959, he again sent several brigades of naval sailors to restore the destroyed city facilities. It was then that he received not a reprimand, but gratitude that he was inviting, "from the very top"!

Soon a new appointment will follow - for many years Shchedrin will head the specialized naval magazine "Marine collection."

Andrey Mikhailov