Hold on, Chief! An incredible story of a feat

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

The amazing story of luck and heroism, described by its time in a short story by Leonid Sobolev, seems to many to be an artistic fiction. However, based on the events that actually happened on the M-32 submarine in June 1942, you can easily make a film that will be at least as good as a Hollywood thriller.

Report by the People's Commissar of the USSR Navy Kuznetsov about what happened on the M-32:

Sov. secret.

copy 37 No. 1099 ss

July 1942

Comrade Malenkov G. M.

I am sending you a copy of the report on the Black Sea Fleet submarine M-32, commander - Lieutenant-Commander Koltypin, which delivered ammunition and fuel to the troops in Sevastopol during the siege.

NARKOM of the USSR Navy, Admiral Kuznetsov

Sov. Secret

COPY OF REPORTING ABOUT SUBMARINE M-32 OF THE BLACK SEA FLEET.

06.21. in the morning we arrived in Novorossiysk. They loaded mines and rifle cartridges of 8 tons and took 6 tons of gasoline. At 15 o'clock we went on a flight to Sevastopol. 22.06. came to Streletskaya Bay. Arriving at Streletskaya, they unloaded the ammunition and pumped out gasoline with their pump through their fire main. (Then gasoline was found in the most unexpected places throughout the boat).

23.06. in the morning, when diving for trimming and filling the ballast tank No. 4, gasoline vapors from this tank went out into the boat, since this tank has no external ventilation. At the end of the trimming, an explosion occurred in the central post (the boat was under water, the compartments were battened down), the force of the explosion opened the bulkhead from the central post into the second compartment and threw the hold Khinevich there. The commander ordered: "Blow out the middle one!" This command was executed by the commander of the BC-5 Lieutenant Commander Dyakonov, who was already badly burned and his clothes were all on fire. There was no explosion in the other compartments, as they were battened down. The explosion injured 5 people. All the victims had burned face and hands, as they were all dressed. From damage: the radio room was broken, the station was out of order. The operational duty officer of the headquarters, according to the commander's report, suggested that the victims be sent ashore to the hospital, and the boat should choose a suitable place and lie on the ground for the day until evening, and with darkness emerge and go to Novorossiysk. It was early in the morning. This means that it was necessary to lie on the ground under water all day, from 5 am to 9 pm, with gasoline spreading in the holds of the boat and its evaporation in the compartments. But there was no other way out and the commander, finding 35 meters depth at the exit from the Streletskaya Bay, lay down on the ground.

The victims of the explosion asked the commander not to leave them in Sevastopol and the commander decided to take them with him. In addition, even before the departure for trimming, 8 people from civilian and military personnel were taken on the boat. After landing on the ground (the mechanic lay burnt, the commander lay down on the ground with the help of the foreman of the Pustovoitenk group of minders), the commander ordered: "Everyone should lie down and rest, do not make unnecessary movements." Until 10 o'clock the commander did not sleep, checked the compartments, talked with people. Then the sailors persuaded him to lie down to rest. The air in the boat was heavily saturated with gasoline vapors, people began to become intoxicated, to lose consciousness.

At 12 o'clock the commander was woken up by the sailor Sidorov, the secretary of the party organization of the boat, and said: "It's hard in the boat, something must be done." The commander got up and already felt the heavy effect of the atmosphere poisoned by gasoline. Checking the condition of the people in the compartments, the commander saw that, in a normal state, only a few remained. Most were already drunk. The acoustician Kantemirov was lying on the floor and crying, pronouncing incomprehensible words. The motorist Babich shouted and danced. Electrician Kizhaev walked slowly through the compartments and shouted: "What does this all mean!"Most lay in deep fainting sleep and did not understand anything. They did not answer the questions, or they mumbled incomprehensible things. The women tried to persuade them to surface, and when they were told that this could not be done, it seemed to them that the crew of the boat for some reason decided to collectively die and asked to be shot. Already at 12 o'clock in the afternoon, only three people retained the ability to think and act: the commander of the boat (already starting to weaken), the secretary of the party organization Sidorov and the most powerful of all the foreman of the Pustovoitenko group.

Until 17 o'clock the commander walked, slept, at times lost consciousness. When he felt that he could no longer stand, Pustovoitenko ordered not to sleep at all costs, to hold out until 21 o'clock and then wake up the commander, consider this a combat mission and all the time think that if he falls asleep, then everyone will die. From time to time the commander woke up and demanded from Pustovoitenko not to sleep. Pustovoitenko held out until 21:00 and began to wake the commander, but the commander could no longer get up. At this time, the boat was already completely unimaginable. Some sang, who shouted, who danced. Most were unconscious. Taken from the shore, instead of the burnt Dyakonov, mechanic Medvedev several times went to the first and sixth compartments and tried to open the hatches, Sidorov followed him methodically and calmly and dragged him from the hatches by his feet (both in an abnormal state).

Medvedev still managed to unnoticed the hatch of the 6th compartment, but 35 meter pressure did not allow the hatch to open (the hatch remained detached and later made itself felt). Pustovoitenko tried to wake up the sleeping mechanic, carried him in his arms to the central post in order to blow the boat with him and float up. Although at times Medvedev had glimpses of consciousness, Pustovoitenko could not use it to emerge.

Then he decided to drag the commander to the central post, purge the ballast himself and when the boat floats up, pull the commander up, hoping that he will wake up in the fresh air. Having blown out the middle one (the boat surfaced under the wheelhouse) Pustovoitenko opened the hatch, but from the blow of fresh air he also lost consciousness and feeling that he was losing consciousness, he managed to close the hatch again and fell down. The half-floated boat remained battened down for two hours. From the previously unnoticed hatch of the 6th compartment, water seeped into the boat, filled the hold of the 6th compartment and flooded the main electric motor. The boat was carried by the current to the rocky shore near the Kherson lighthouse. When Pustovoitenko came to his senses, he opened the conning tower hatch and pulled the commander upstairs. The commander woke up, but for a long time he could not understand anything and begin to control the boat. While the commander on the bridge came to his senses, Pustovoitenko did the following: 1. Turned on the ship's ventilation. 2. Zadrail hatch of the 6th compartment and pumped out the hold of the 6th compartment. 3. Blown away all the main ballast (the boat surfaced completely).

To give the boat a run, I pulled the electrician Kizhaev upstairs, brought him to his senses and again carried him down and put him on watch to the power plant. The boat stood with its bow to the shore, the commander gave a course backward, and Kizhaev below instead of "back" gave "forward", the commander went down, asked Kizhaev why he wasn’t moving backward, Kizhaev replied: “Our boat must only go forward, we cannot go back, there are fascists. " The commander ordered Pustovoitenko to stand at the station and ensure the correct execution of the orders by the Kizhaevs, whose consciousness had not quite cleared up yet. The time was 01:00 am, the boat was on the rocks, a strong wind with rain and lightning, a wave of up to 5 points. The steering wheel was broken from hitting the stones, which was moved only to the left, but not to the right, the battery was discharged, they could not get off the stones. Then the commander himself said that at that moment he did not know what to do (naturally, since he was not yet fully and clearly conscious). At this difficult moment for the boat, the helmsman Guziy said: "And what about the comrade commander if we jerk with a diesel engine?" The commander immediately accepted this simple and correct advice and ordered the diesel engine to be prepared for launch.

Pustovoitenko and the minder Shchelkunov (taken out and sober-minded by Pustovoitenko) prepared a diesel engine and gave 600 rpm from the spot, the boat went over the stones and went out into clear water. With a broken rudder, we somehow managed to keep the boat on course, rounded the Kherson lighthouse, got out of the minefield and went to Novorossiysk. Knowing what lay ahead on the way to the dive, it was necessary to turn on the battery for charging from the diesel engine, but there was no one to do this serious operation, since the chief petty officer, electrician Fedorov, although he had been taken upstairs a long time ago, did not regain consciousness in any way. But the job had to be done, the commander ordered the squad leader to turn on the battery for charging. Petty Officer 2 of Article Ermakov, together with Pustovoitenko, completed this task and the battery began to charge. It became already easy in the boat (there is strong ventilation from the diesel engine in the boat), people began to gradually return to their normal state. Already at the exit from the minefield, navigator Ivanov went upstairs and began to help the commander in determining the course and keeping watch. On the way, we sank from planes several times.

25.06 in the morning we arrived in Novorossiysk, handed over the wounded and their patients, passengers and women. For a long time they could not believe that they were really in Novorossiysk and safe, endlessly thanking the commander and the Red Navy men.

Award list

M-32 commander Koltypin and petty officer Pustovoitenko