How 55 Marines freed Nikolaev from 700 fascists

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

In March 1944, 55 marines under the command of Senior Lieutenant Konstantin Olshansky for the sake of the liberation of Nikolaev entered the battle with 700 fascists, causing enemy fire on themselves. And they won.

Diversionary maneuver

In March 1944, the troops of the 3rd Ukrainian Front, as a result of the Bereznegovato-Snigirev operation, came close to Nikolaev.

Having received the task of liberating the city, the commander of the 28th Army, Lieutenant-General Aleksey Grechkin, ordered the landing of the Marine Corps in the Nikolaev port.

Its tasks included the diversion of enemy forces from the front.

To do this, the Marines had to engage in battle with superior enemy forces, destabilize the in-depth German defenses and prevent the destruction of port buildings and structures.

The task was assigned to the 384th Separate Marine Corps Battalion, which was part of the Odessa Naval Base. The airborne detachment of 55 volunteers was led by Senior Lieutenant Konstantin Olshansky.

Konstantin Olshansky

Olshansky's choice was not accidental. He was drafted into the Navy back in 1936, when he was 21 years old. The seaman graduated from the electromechanical school of the marine training unit of the Black Sea Fleet in Sevastopol, then taught there. In 1941 he took an accelerated course for junior lieutenants.

He fought at Sevastopol, defended Yeisk.

After receiving news of the death of almost the entire family in the occupied territory, Olshansky achieved a transfer to the Marine Corps battalion.

Even before Nikolaev, he had experience in amphibious operations. During the assault on Taganrog in August 1943, Olshansky was the chief of staff of the airborne detachment, a month later he led the first wave of the landing during the liberation of Mariupol. For this operation he was awarded the Order of Alexander Nevsky.

Pontoons and boats

On March 23, 1944, a battalion of marines was removed from the front line and withdrawn to the near rear for the preparation of a landing in the Nikolaev port. The Marines had to go by watercraft almost 15 kilometers along the Southern Bug. The last leg of the way had to be overcome along the coast. In no case could the enemy be allowed to reveal himself, which was not easy - half of the waterway went along the banks occupied by the enemy.

In the evening of March 24, Konstantin Olshansky led 170 fighters, who made up the first assault detachment, to the pier of the village of Bogoyavlensk.

Here the sailors had to wait for the floating craft for landing, but there were heavy and practically uncontrollable bridge pontoons near the coast.

Olshansky could not disobey the order and gave the command to load. Not leaving even ten meters from the shore, the first pontoon overturned. The rest also overturned. It became clear that the beginning of the operation would have to be postponed.

The next day, the sappers of the 28th Army drove 7 fragile fishing boats to Bogoyavlensk, which the local residents managed to hide from the retreating fascists and destroying everything in their path.

Only two boats were sailable. The rest of the sailors had to whip up the caulk. The local sailors could not ask for help: it was necessary to maintain the secrecy of the operation.

The Marines were assisted by only 14 sappers, led by a sergeant. They were supposed to deliver the first batch of troops and return for the second.

There is no turning back

In the evening of the same day, boats with 55 sailors set off. The boats could hardly bear the load. They even had to cut the stock of ammunition. When the boats departed, the sailors faced another problem - the waves. One of the boats collapsed the bottom, two more leaked.

By this time, no more than two out of fifteen kilometers had been covered.

Konstantin Olshansky made a decision. Having seated the sailors on six boats, he sent back the soldiers on the other, who, according to the original plan, were to return for the next batch of landing. There was no way back. There was no need to wait for reinforcements either.

After midnight, the battalion headquarters received the first short radiogram and made a laconic entry in the combat log: "Sword." I landed at 00 o'clock. 00 minutes I'm getting down to the task."

Having reached the position, the sailors took off the sentries and took up a perimeter defense in the area of the elevator, equipped firing points.

Fights at the elevator

The first fire contact with the enemy occurred in the early morning of March 26. At first, the Germans did not attach serious importance to the combat group: they went without reconnaissance by a frontal attack, believing that a small group of underground workers was operating at the elevator. Only when the losses among the Germans began to number in the tens, they realized that not everything is so simple.

But they could not even imagine that they were opposed by only one company armed with small arms and threw three battalions of infantry into the attack with the support of artillery, mortars, and tanks.

By the evening of March 26, half of the Marines had already fallen in an unequal battle.

Konstantin Olshansky on the radio called fire on himself, corrected the gunners: "Sword". The enemy attacks continuously. The situation is difficult. I ask for fire on me. Give quickly."

Then the artillery of the 28th Army began to work in the area of the elevator. Communication with Olshansky was cut off.

The Il-2 attack aircraft sent for aerial reconnaissance reported that the battle was still going on near the elevator. At the Germans who attacked the ruins of the building, the pilots fired rockets and fired at the entire ammunition of the aircraft cannons. …

By the morning of March 27, only 15 sailors survived. Olshansky died.

All officers were killed. The Germans began to use flamethrowers. Marine Valentin Khodyrev, who had already had one arm torn off in battle, met a Wehrmacht tank "in Sevastopol", with a bunch of hand grenades he blew up the "Panzer" along with him.

On the morning of March 28, a handful of Marines repelled the eighteenth attack. At this time, units of the Red Army broke into Nikolaev. From the north - parts of the 6th army, from the east - the 5th shock, from the south - the 28th army and the 2nd mechanized corps.

A group of scouts who arrived at the port saw broken German equipment and hundreds of bodies of fascists, which were strewn across the approaches to the smoking port buildings.

From the basement of what used to be called the office, the scouts carried ten wounded and shell-shocked paratroopers in their arms …

Nikolaev was released. 47 of 55 Marines were killed, but the combat mission was completed.

They took the fire on themselves and killed about 700 Germans.