The motor ship "Armenia" was ordered to be forgotten. Motor ship "Armenia" - undiscovered mass grave off the coast of Yalta (1) Armenia motor ship 1928

I read the message of the respected blogger Adam dated 07/01/2018 “Epronovets 17” - “In the wake of the disaster” that on 05/06/2018 the site of the sinking of the submarine “Kambala”, which sank on May 30, 1909, was found and localized, about the planned study of the place of its death with with the help of underwater robots, and the presentation of the book by V. Boyko “Submarine “Flounder”
It is gratifying that they finally found this submarine, which tragically died during a night training attack by a squadron of the Black Sea Fleet, when the boat was on the course of the attacked ships of the squadron and was cut in half battleship“Rostislav” - “...near Sevastopol, on the site of the Inkerman lighthouses...”, as it is written on a marble plaque installed in the St. Nicholas Naval Cathedral of St. Petersburg.

In my article “About the Black Sea submariners of the First World War, and how they towed the Turkish ships they captured in tow to Sevastopol,” posted on the blog on August 27, 2016, I talked a little about the fate of this submarine, its crew, and provided photographs of the monument erected on 29 May 1912 at the burial site of sailors at the Quarantine Cemetery in Sevastopol.
Then, above their grave in the form of a monument, on a stone plinth, they installed an authentic cabin of the “Flounder”, in which they hung an image with an unquenchable lamp glowing in front of it.
The cabin of the "Flounder" was crowned with a figure of the Mourning Mother made of white marble. During the War of 1941-1945, the monument was seriously damaged, and the marble figure of the Mourner was lost.

It should be noted that this monument is now the only monument in Russia to the submariners of the Imperial Russian Navy, except for the marble plaque installed in St. Nicholas Naval Cathedral. St. Petersburg.
I would like to wish good luck to the further search engines of “Kambala”.

Today I would like to raise the topic of the tragic death of the motor ship “Armenia”.

Over the entire history of navigation in the Black Sea, according to various estimates, more than 50,000 various ships, vessels, and other watercraft perished or sank, of which more than 10,000 were sailing ships.
During the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945. The Black Sea Fleet lost 1,151 warships and auxiliary vessels.

The largest naval tragedy in the Black Sea Fleet during the war occurred on November 7, 1941. , when the German torpedo bomber Heinkel-111 at 11:29 a.m. sunk the ambulance transport motor ship Armenia, which only left Yalta at eight in the morning on November 7, guarded by only one patrol boat SKA-041 (according to some sources, two boats) .

Motor ship "Armenia"

This was one of the largest maritime disasters not only the Great Patriotic War, but also in maritime history in general, but which, according to the traditions of Soviet times, was hushed up for many years.

On November 6, 1941, in Sevastopol, about 300 wounded were loaded onto the "Armenia", medical and economic personnel of the Sevastopol naval hospital, the 2nd naval and Nikolaev base hospitals, medical warehouse No. 280, sanitary-epidemiological laboratory, 5- th medical and sanitary detachment, part of the medical personnel of the Primorsky and 51st armies, as well as evacuated residents of Sevastopol, were accepted onto the ship.

(After the death of “Armenia”, the Black Sea Fleet was practically left without medical support; it was necessary to create a new hospital, base hospitals, etc.
At the end of December 1941 - beginning of January 1942, a decision was made to restore the previous organization of the medical service. Two naval hospitals were again transferred to Sevastopol, a group of surgeons and the restoration of the medical service of the Sevastopol defensive region continued until May 1942.
Why all the fleet's medical personnel were evacuated from Sevastopol, the defense of which had just begun, is a separate question for the Black Sea Fleet Commander.
Sevastopol heroically defended itself for another eight months).

At 19.00 on November 6, the motor ship "Armenia" left Sevastopol for Tuapse. On the way, an order was received to go to Balaklava and pick up the wounded and medical personnel there. Then the ship went to Yalta, where the wounded, Soviet and party activists were taken on board Big Yalta, the city's civilian population.

In Yalta, several dozen boxes were also loaded onto the ship. There is an assumption that some of them contained valuables from Crimean museums, in particular part of the exhibits of a traveling exhibition from the Russian State Museum, which the war found in Alupka.
I decided to test this assumption, and in 2015 I contacted Russian state museum in St. Petersburg, received an official response:
“...The State Russian Museum sent in 1941 to the Alupka Palace Museum a traveling exhibition “The main stages in the development of Russian painting of the 18th-19th centuries.” By the beginning of the Great Patriotic War, the exhibition had not been removed from Alupka...
Subsequently, it was established that some of the works were stolen, some were returned from Germany and returned to the Russian Museum.
All the works in the exhibition never returned to the Russian Museum.”
As we can see, the assumption turned out to be correct, there was an exhibition and quite a part of it could have been evacuated on the “Armenia”.
In total, there were, according to various estimates, from 4,500 to 7,000 people on board the Armenia. Only 8 people were saved!

Admiral F.S. Oktyabrsky recalled:
“When I learned that the transport was going to leave Yalta during the day, I personally conveyed the order to the commander, under no circumstances should you leave Yalta before 19.00, that is, until dark. We did not have the means to provide good air and sea cover for the transport. The communication worked reliably, the commander received the order and, despite this, left Yalta at 08.00.
At 11.00, she was attacked by torpedo planes and sunk. After the torpedo hit, "Armenia" was afloat for four minutes."

Why the captain of the "Armenia" (Plaushevsky) violated the order and went out to sea early in the morning is another mystery of the death of the ship.

But let us take into account that the Yalta port was by this time completely defenseless against aviation.
In Yalta, two destroyers “Boikiy” and “Impeccable” were moored to the piers, and “Armenia” was forced to anchor in anticipation of loading. The destroyers were loaded with guns of the 17th anti-boat battery and all the anti-aircraft guns covering Yalta.

Staying in the port was tantamount to suicide. There were already German troops on the approaches to the port (the first German units entered Yalta in the evening of the same day.)

In addition, there are a number of assumptions: the captain was pressured by high ranks of the NKVD and party officials who found themselves on board the ship in Yalta and even threatened with violence.

The death of the "Armenia" was a sealed secret for a long time, and documents about the death of the ship, located in the Central Naval Archive, were destroyed in 1949.

It should be noted that during the period when Crimea was part of Ukraine, attempts were made to find the motor ship "Armenia".

The American side, led by Robert Ballard, director of the Massachusetts Institute of Oceanography, who found the Titanic, the battleship Bismarck and the aircraft carrier Yorktown, also took part in this search in 2006.
The American scientist entered into an agreement with the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine. The Endever research vessel has arrived, equipped with modern sonars and remote-controlled robots.
A huge area of ​​the sea, approximately 20 by 20 miles, was surveyed, more than 400 objects were found, but the sunken ship was not discovered.
The coordinates available in the Museum of the Black Sea Fleet for the place of death of the “Armenia” (44 ° 17 “N, 34 ° 10” E) are apparently very approximate.

As a memory of this ship, there are stills from the 1935 film “Treasure of the Sunken Ship” in which it was filmed.

In turn, during 2015-2016. I officially contacted Russkoye three times Geographical Society with a proposal to organize a search for the motor ship “Armenia” within the framework of the “Underwater Research” project.
I received kind replies that my proposal had been sent to the Underwater Research Center of the Russian Geographical Society for consideration and response.
But no response was received from this Center.

I understand that this is a very costly operation that requires appropriate organizational and financial support. But I think she's worth it.
After all, the disaster of the “Armenia” is the largest maritime tragedy during the war, and in maritime history in general, which, according to various estimates, claimed about 7,000 human lives
Why, one wonders, Ukraine was able to find the means to organize and ensure these searches in 2006 (unfortunately without results), but Russia cannot do this?!!!

I believe that this is our duty to the memory of the fallen, and we must find the site of the death of "Armenia" - this mass grave of several thousand people, and in order to perpetuate the memory, declare this place a naval military burial ground.
I appeal to the Editorial Board of “Epronovets” with a convincing request to support this proposal.

November 7, 1941, on the day of the traditional parade on Red Square, south coast A new terrible tragedy has unfolded in Crimea. It was strictly forbidden to report anything about the “Armenia” disaster. It is difficult for the current generation to comprehend the meaning of hiding the truth of the war from the people, which undoubtedly played into the hands of the enemy, but such were the “laws” of those years.

The book “Chronicle of the Great Patriotic War of the Soviet Union on the Black Sea,” published by the historical department of the People’s Commissariat of the USSR Navy back in 1946, was removed as “top secret” only in 1989. It sparingly, in just a few lines, reported the time of death and the coordinates of warships and vessels that ended up at the bottom of the sea, including the motor ship "Armenia". We bring to the attention of readers an investigation of the disaster at sea, conducted by Captain 2nd Rank Sergei Alekseevich Solovyov, scientific secretary of the Military Scientific Society of Sevastopol, who was one of the first to study in detail the documents and testimony of eyewitnesses of that terrible event.

"Armenia" was designed by marine engineers of the Leningrad Central Bureau of Marine Shipbuilding under the leadership of chief designer J. Koperzhinsky, launched in November 1928 and entered the top six passenger ships of the Black Sea, consisting of "Abkhazia", ​​"Adjara", "Ukraine" , “Armenia”, “Crimea” and “Georgia”.

As for the "Armenia", it had a cruising range of 4600 miles, could carry 518 passengers in class cabins, 125 "seated" and 317 deck passengers, as well as up to 1000 tons of cargo, while developing maximum speed- 14.5 knots (about 27 kilometers per hour). All these ships began to serve the “express line” Odessa - Batumi - Odessa, regularly transporting thousands of passengers until 1941.

With the beginning of the war, the Armenia was urgently converted into a medical transport ship: the 1st and 2nd class restaurants were turned into operating rooms and dressing rooms, the smoking lounge into a pharmacy, and additional hanging bunks were installed in the cabins. 39-year-old Vladimir Yakovlevich Plaushevsky was appointed captain of “Armenia”, and Nikolai Fadeevich Znayunenko as first mate. The ship's crew consisted of 96 people, plus 9 doctors, 29 nurses and 75 orderlies. The head physician of the Odessa railway hospital, whom many in the city knew well, Pyotr Andreevich Dmitrievsky, was appointed head of the medical staff with the rank of military doctor of the 2nd rank. Huge crosses, clearly visible from the air, were painted on the sides and deck in bright red paint. A large white flag also with the image of the International Red Cross was raised on the mainmast.

But this did not save the hospital ships. From the first days of the war, Goering aircraft carried out raids on them. In July 1941, the ambulance transports “Kotovsky” and “Anton Chekhov” were damaged, and the “Adzharia”, attacked by dive bombers, completely engulfed in flames, ran aground near Dofinovka in full view of Odessa. In August, the same fate befell the Kuban ship.

Pressed by the enemy, the Red Army suffered heavy losses in heavy battles. There were a lot of wounded. Day and night, in any bad weather, the medical staff worked until exhaustion on board the Armenia. The ship made fifteen incredibly difficult and dangerous voyages with the wounded defenders of Odessa and transported about 16 thousand people, not counting women, children and the elderly, whom the crew members accommodated in their cabins.

There is a lot of mystery in the circumstances of the death of “Armenia”. The already mentioned “Chronicle of the Great Patriotic War...” states that the “Armenia”, as well as the “Kuban” and the training ship “Dnepr” made their voyages from Odessa accompanied by the destroyer “Besposhchadny”, which undoubtedly saved these ships from the daring attacks of the German aviation.

The offensive of Manstein’s 2nd Army on the Crimea was rapid, for which the command of the Black Sea Fleet, including Vice Admiral F.S. Oktyabrsky, was not prepared. All fleet exercises before the war boiled down to the “destruction” of large amphibious assault forces and military campaigns of ships of the Black Sea Fleet. It never occurred to anyone that Sevastopol would have to be defended from the land side.

In October and November 1941, confusion reigned everywhere. Everything that was needed and not needed was hastily evacuated from Sevastopol. The hospitals equipped in the adits and the city itself were filled with wounded, but someone gave the order to urgently evacuate all medical staff. And now, already in our time, approaching Sevastopol, from the window of a carriage or bus in the Inkerman area you can see huge blocks and heaps of stones from blown up hospitals located in adits. By order of Stalin, only the lightly wounded were evacuated from there to ships. As the nurse of this hospital, E. Nikolaeva, testifies, “so that the wounded would not fall to the enemy,” the adit was blown up along with the “non-transportable” ones. The blasting work was supervised by a representative of SMERSH. Two doctors refused to leave the wounded and died along with everyone else.

Vice Admiral F. S. Oktyabrsky himself constantly kept the high-speed destroyer “Boikiy” with him and almost always “shied away” from the tasks of forming convoys and from guarding passenger and hospital ships during sea passage, believing that this should be done by the leaders of the civilian fleet. Oktyabrsky’s self-removal from such an important and responsible task was one of the reasons that so many of the best passenger ships with people were sent to the bottom of the Black Sea.

According to the documents found and the testimony of eyewitnesses, it was possible to reconstruct many of the events preceding the exit of the “Armenia” to the sea from Sevastopol Bay on November 6, 1941.

The ship was stationed in the internal roadstead and hastily took on board numerous wounded and evacuated citizens. The situation was extremely nervous. An enemy air raid could begin at any moment. The bulk of the fleet's warships, on Oktyabrsky's orders, went to sea, including the cruiser Molotov, which had the only shipborne radar station in the fleet, Redut-K.

In addition to the “Armenia”, another former “trotter”, the motor ship “Bialystok”, was loading in Quarantine Bay, and equipment and people were loaded onto the transport “Crimea” at the Morzavod pier. Loading went on continuously. Captain Plaushevsky received orders to leave Sevastopol on November 6 at 19:00 and proceed to Tuapse. For escort, only a small sea hunter with tail number 041 was allocated under the command of Senior Lieutenant P. A. Kulashov.

“On November 5, the head of the Main Base department received orders... to close hospitals and infirmaries. About 300 wounded, medical and economic personnel of the Sevastopol Naval Hospital (the largest in the fleet), headed by its chief physician, military doctor of the 1st rank S. M. Kagan, were loaded onto the “Armenia”. The heads of departments (with medical staff), X-ray technicians were also located here... The 2nd naval and Nikolaev base hospitals, sanitary warehouse No. 280, sanitary-epidemiological laboratory, 5th medical detachment, hospital from the Yalta sanatorium were also located here . Some of the medical personnel of the Primorsky and 51st armies, as well as evacuated residents of Sevastopol, were accepted onto the ship...”

Captain Plaushevsky knew that in the absence of security, only a dark night could ensure secrecy of navigation and would not allow enemy aircraft to attack the Armenia. Imagine his surprise and annoyance when he was given an order from the Military Council of the Fleet to leave Sevastopol not in the evening twilight, but two hours earlier, that is, at 5 p.m., during daylight hours. Such an order promised death, and some historians were inclined to believe that it came from the depths of the Abwehr of Admiral Canaris, from his special services involved in “misinformation.”

"Armenia", leaving Sevastopol at 17 o'clock, moored in Yalta only 9 hours later, that is, about 2 o'clock in the morning. It turns out that a new order followed on the way: to make a stop at Balaklava and there to pick up NKVD workers, the wounded and medical personnel, because the Germans continued to advance.

Captain Plaushevsky was informed that “party activists”, NKVD workers and eleven more hospitals with the wounded were awaiting loading in Yalta.

From the notes of Admiral F.S. Oktyabrsky: “When I learned that the transport “Armenia” was going to leave Yalta during the day, I myself personally conveyed the order to the commander in no case to leave Yalta until 19.00, that is, until dark. We did not have the means to provide good transport cover from the air and sea. The communication worked reliably, the commander received the order and, despite this, left Yalta. At 11.00 she was attacked by torpedo bombers and sunk. After the torpedo hit, “Armenia” was afloat for four minutes.”

The lack of documents destroyed in 1949 and later casts a shadow on Admiral F. S. Oktyabrsky, because any historian might suspect that the admiral was looking for an excuse in hindsight, years after the terrible tragedy. However, it must be admitted that he, as the commander of the fleet, knew the operational situation in the theater, knew where the "Armenia" was located, knew the time when she left the pier, crowded with people, he also knew that with the dominance of German aviation in the air "Armenia", deprived of security, is an ideal target for torpedo bombers and dive bombers. Therefore, it is very likely that he actually conveyed the order and even the very strict “wait for night” to Captain Plaushevsky, but some ominous event occurred on the “Armenia” that forced the captain to violate Oktyabrsky’s order. This is another mystery of the ship's death.

Let's explore the events and come back. It is reliably known that the initial order to Captain Plaushevsky was clearly formulated: pick up the wounded and medical personnel and proceed from Sevastopol to Tuapse at night. Then came an urgent order: to go to Yalta to save the party activists and the wounded. The departure time of the ship from Sevastopol was changed to two hours. The third order, transmitted to Captain Plaushevsky, forced him, without entering Balaklava Bay, to also pick up representatives of local authorities and the wounded. The fourth order, transmitted to the captain of the "Armenia" early in the morning by F.S. Oktyabrsky on November 7, ordered to leave Yalta no earlier than 19 o'clock, turned out to be strangely violated, and the captain set sail without security to meet his death.

There is no doubt that Captain Plaushevsky did not obey the order of the fleet commander only because he was forced to submit to another authority that was on board, which were the NKVD and SMERSH officers who were accepted on board the Armenia. The people remaining on the pier saw how the captain, before giving the command to release the mooring lines, was furious, like a hunted animal, and loudly swore at the top of his lungs. And this was Captain Plaushevsky, whom all his colleagues described as an exceptionally cold-blooded and self-possessed person. Undoubtedly, he was threatened by those who were in a hurry to leave Yalta, and for refusal to comply they were threatened with death.

The “Armenia”, which left Yalta early in the morning, accompanied by a sea hunter, had not covered even thirty miles when it was attacked by two torpedo bombers.

Let us turn to the following testimony from the boat from the sea hunter MO-04 M. M. Yakovlev: “November 7, at about 10 o’clock in the morning, in the area of ​​​​Cape Sarych, a German reconnaissance aircraft flew over us, and after a short time over the water, at low level flight, almost touching wave crests (the weather was stormy and we were being tossed around a lot), two enemy torpedo bombers came into our area. One of them began to make a turn for a torpedo attack, and the second went towards Yalta. We could not open fire, since the boat's roll reached 45 degrees. The torpedo bomber dropped two torpedoes, but missed and they exploded in the coastal rocks of Cape Aya. We were amazed by the force of the explosion - we had never seen a more powerful one before, and almost everyone said at once that if the second torpedo bomber hits Armenia, then it will be in trouble.”

After the torpedoing, "Armenia" was afloat for four minutes. Only a few people survived, including foreman Bocharov and serviceman I.A. Burmistrov. The commander of the sea hunter, Senior Lieutenant P. A. Kulashov, also saw the death of the ship, and upon his return to Sevastopol a whole month interrogated by the NKVD and then released.

Through German veterans, they tried to find the crew of the torpedo bomber that attacked the “Armenia” in order to clarify the details and coordinates of the death of the ship, since German archives are famous for the high safety of documents. The answer came unexpected: “the Luftwaffe archive was taken to the USSR.”

75 years ago, on November 7, 1941, Nazi pilots dropped two torpedoes on the motor ship Armenia. As a result, according to some sources, up to 7 thousand people died. Read about how the "Armenia"'s journey began, what happened during the voyage and why the ship has not yet been found.

Once upon a time in Crimea

At the end of September 1941, Nazi troops under the command of Erich von Manstein captured the Perekop Isthmus and penetrated deep into Crimea. The capture of the peninsula was of great importance for Adolf Hitler - it would deprive the Soviet army of air bases and would give the Germans unhindered access to the oil fields of the Caucasus. By the end of October, Nazi troops had strengthened their positions on the peninsula and forced the Soviet army to retreat to Sevastopol, the main Black Sea base. In early November, the siege of the city began. The Soviet command decided to evacuate the civilian population by sea along the Sevastopol-Tuapse route.

Until 1941, pleasure and tourist Crimean-Caucasian ships sailed along the Black Sea. The first motor ships - "Abkhazia", ​​"Georgia", "Ukraine", "Adjaria", "Crimea" and "Armenia" - appeared in the mid-1920s. Some of them were built in Germany, and some in Leningrad at the Baltic Shipyard. After the start of the war, the “Krymchaks,” as they were popularly called, were converted into ambulance transport ships and given to the medical service of the Black Sea Fleet. They carried the wounded, children, women and medical personnel. The ship "Armenia" was the largest among the converted ships. Its displacement was about 6 thousand tons, length - 112 meters, and capacity - about a thousand passengers. Under the leadership of experienced captain Vladimir Plaushevsky, during August-September, “Armenia” transported about 15 thousand wounded soldiers from Odessa to Mainland. In early November, Manstein's troops shelled Sevastopol from land, air and water. There was a real threat of the city surrendering to the enemy. The leaders of the defense of Sevastopol decided to evacuate hospitals, infirmaries and part of the civilian population in Tuapse on the ship "Armenia".

Mysterious cargo in Balaclava

The evacuation began on November 6, according to orders received from high command the day before. A participant in the defense of Sevastopol, Colonel of the medical service Alexander Vlasov, recalled the first days of evacuation:

“On November 5, the head of the Main Base department received orders ... to close hospitals and infirmaries. About 300 wounded, medical and economic personnel of the Sevastopol Naval Hospital (the largest in the fleet), headed by its chief physician, military doctor 1st rank S. M. Kagan, were loaded onto the "Armenia". The heads of departments (with medical staff), X-ray technicians were also located here... The 2nd naval and Nikolaev base hospitals, sanitary warehouse No. 280, sanitary-epidemiological laboratory, 5th medical-sanitary detachment, hospital from the Yalta sanatorium were also located here. Some of the medical personnel of the Primorsky and 51st armies, as well as evacuated residents of Sevastopol, were accepted onto the ship...”

As soon as it became known that the ship was preparing to depart for Tuapse, panic began in the city. Everyone wanted to escape, to get out from under the endless shelling, but the small capacity of the ship did not allow everyone to be taken on board. According to various estimates, from 4.5 thousand to 7 thousand people ended up on the Armenia, which significantly exceeded the permissible number of passengers. On the Sevastopol-Tuapse route there was supposed to be one planned stop in Yalta, but immediately after departure, at 17:00, the captain of the “Armenia” Vladimir Plaushevsky received an order to stop in Balaklava along the way. There, NKVD boats were waiting for the ship to load secret boxes onto it, which, according to one version, contained gold and valuables from Crimean museums, in particular, paintings by famous Russian artists.

“We never got to “Armenia””

On November 7 at 2 a.m. the ship "Armenia" arrived in Yalta. Nazi troops continuously attacked the city. E. S. Nikulin, a man who did not get on the ship, recalled the arrival of the “Armenia” in Yalta:

“Since the evening, we still didn’t know anything about the motor ship “Armenia”. At night, at about two o'clock, they woke us up and led us almost in formation down the middle of the street to the port. There was a huge ship in the port. The entire pier and pier are filled with people. We joined this crowd. Boarding the ship was slow; In two hours we moved from the pier to the pier. The crush is incredible! Loading lasted from about two o'clock until seven in the morning. NKVD soldiers with rifles stood across the pier and only women and children were allowed through. Sometimes men broke through the cordon.”

Along with the wounded, employees of the Artek pioneer camp, and staff of the main hospital of the Black Sea Fleet, representatives of the party leadership of Crimea were on board. While waiting for the authorities to arrive at the landing site, the ship remained in the port for several hours longer than planned. Vera Chistova, who was unable to get to “Armenia” that day, recalled:

“Dad bought tickets, and my grandmother and I had to leave Yalta on the ship “Armenia”. On the night of November 6, the pier was full of people. First they loaded the wounded, then they let in the civilians. No one checked the tickets, and a stampede began on the ramp. The brave ones climbed onto the ship using the shrouds. In the bustle, suitcases and things were thrown off the board. By dawn the loading was completed. But we never got to “Armenia.”

After everyone was on the crowded deck, the ship was ready to continue its journey along the Sevastopol-Tuapse route. But Admiral Philip Oktyabrsky gave the order to leave after 19:00, with the onset of darkness. During daylight hours, the ship could have been subject to air strikes. But the captain of the “Armenia” Plaushevsky dared not to carry out the order, since he perfectly understood that being in a port unprotected from the air was mortally dangerous. At any moment, the Wehrmacht pilots could strike. According to another version, pressure on the captain from the NKVD officers on board could also be the reason for such an early departure. Party leaders wanted to quickly leave the peninsula in order to save themselves and not allow the Nazis to seize the secret precious cargo. On November 7 at 8 o’clock in the morning, accompanied by two armed boats and two I-153 “Chaika” fighters, the ship “Armenia” sailed from Yalta.

"All hell has broken loose"

In July 1941 air force The Wehrmacht bombed hospital ships on the Black Sea. Then the ambulance ships “Kotovsky” and “Anton Chekhov” came under fire, and later, in August, as a result of air raids, the ships “Adzharia” and “Kuban” sank. To prevent possible attacks from the air, the hospital ship's distinctive sign - a huge red cross - was placed on board the Armenia. Hospital ships on which such a cross is depicted, according to international law, should not have been subjected to fire. But this did not stop the Nazis. To protect the ship from possible raids, four 21-K anti-aircraft guns were placed on the deck of the Armenia, but they did not save it from destruction. Three and a half hours after departure, at 11:25 am, a few kilometers from Yalta, the ship was overtaken by the Nazi torpedo bomber Heinkel He-111, which dropped two torpedoes on the Armenia from a height of 600 m. One fell into the water, and the second landed directly in bow motor ship. A few minutes later the ship sank.

According to another version, “Armenia” was bombed by eight Nazi Junkers Ju 87s at once. Of all those on board (remember, this is about 4.5 thousand - 7 thousand people), only eight managed to survive. Among them was Anastasia Popova. Despite the terrible cold, she, pregnant, swam to the shore on her own. Anastasia recalled the terrible minutes of the tragedy this way:

“On November 6, 1941, on the advice of friends, I decided to evacuate from Yalta. With great difficulty they took me on board, since the Armenia was already overcrowded with wounded and refugees. Having set out to sea, the ship was attacked by enemy aircraft. All hell broke loose. Bomb explosions, panic, people's screams - everything mixed up in an indescribable nightmare. People rushed around the deck, not knowing where to hide from the fire. I jumped into the sea and swam to the shore, losing consciousness. I don’t remember how I ended up on the shore.”

“The death toll is about 7,000 people”

On the day of the tragedy, November 7, a parade was held in Moscow on Red Square in honor of the 24th anniversary of the October Socialist Revolution. During the war and after its end, the fact of the tragedy was hushed up, so there was no reliable information about the location of the death of “Armenia” and the number of victims for a long time.

Pyotr Morgunov, one of the organizers of the defense of Sevastopol, mentioned the tragedy in passing in the 1970s in his memoirs “Heroic Sevastopol”:

“On November 6, an ambulance transport left Sevastopol - the motor ship "Armenia" with wounded soldiers, employees of the main hospital and evacuated citizens. He went to Yalta, where he also picked up some of the evacuees from Simferopol, and on the morning of November 7 he headed for the Caucasus. At 11:25 am, not far from Yalta, the transport, although it had the distinctive signs of a medical ship, was torpedoed by a fascist plane and sank four minutes later. Many residents, doctors and wounded were killed.”

At the end of the above passage there is a footnote to case No. 19, stored in the Central Naval Archive. Recently, historians learned that in 1949 (according to other sources - in 1947) it was classified and destroyed. Some information about the tragedy is contained in the third volume of the “Final Report on the Combat Activities of the Black Sea Fleet during the Great Patriotic War of 1941–1945,” published in 1956. The essay reported that on November 7, 1941, 7 thousand people died on the “Armenia”, 8 people were saved.

Finally, the book “Chronicle of the Great Patriotic War of the Soviet Union on the Black Sea,” published by the historical department of the People’s Commissariat of the USSR Navy back in 1946, but declassified as “top secret” only in 1989, provides information about the time and coordinates of the vessel’s location during the shelling . The only clue for future searches for the vessel appeared in 1991. It was an extract from a document stored in the materials of the Museum of the Medical Service of the Black Sea Fleet. It talked about 7 thousand people who died on the ship “Armenia”, who were attacked from the air near the village of Gurzuf in the area of ​​Bear Mountain (Ayu-Daga).

A special investigation dedicated to the search for the site of the sinking of the ship “Armenia” was conducted in the Soviet years by captain 2nd rank, scientific secretary of the Military Scientific Society of Sevastopol Sergei Solovyov. He managed to get acquainted with partially preserved archival documents and with eyewitness testimony, among which was the testimony of the boat from the sea hunter “MO-04” M. M. Yakovlev, who accompanied the “Armenia”:

“On November 7, at about 10 o’clock in the morning, in the area of ​​​​Cape Sarych, a German reconnaissance aircraft flew over us, and after a short time, over the water, at low level, almost touching the crests of the waves (the weather was stormy and we were thoroughly chattered), two enemy torpedo bomber. One of them began to make a turn for a torpedo attack, and the second went towards Yalta. We could not open fire, since the boat's roll reached 45 degrees. The torpedo bomber dropped two torpedoes, but missed, and they exploded in the coastal rocks of Cape Aya. We were amazed by the force of the explosion - we had never seen a more powerful one before, and almost everyone said at once that if the second torpedo bomber hits “Armenia”, then it will be in trouble.”

From this story it follows that the ship "Armenia" on that very morning, November 7, may have been on its way from Yalta not to Tuapse, but back to Sevastopol, because Capes Sarych and Aya are located west of Yalta, towards Sevastopol. Thus, written evidence made it possible to identify several possible places where the ship was lost, but one way or another they are all located in the area of ​​​​the Yalta coast.

“Perhaps on one of the expeditions we passed by “Armenia”

In 2005, a group of Ukrainian archaeologists led by Sergei Voronov began underwater research in the Yalta area with the aim of locating the sunken ship "Armenia". In 2006, the famous American explorer Robert Ballard began searching, who discovered the Titanic in 1985, and the wreckage of the German battleship Bismarck in 1989. Despite expensive equipment and machinery, he was never able to detect “Armenia”.

According to media reports, the last attempt to search for the vessel was made at the end of July 2016 by specialists from the Main Directorate of Deep-Sea Research of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation. The search results are still unknown.

For details about the underwater search for the vessel, RT turned to Viktor Vakhoneev, head of the underwater archeology department of the Black Sea Center for Underwater Research. He himself was a participant in the very first search for the vessel, which was carried out since 2005 by Ukrainian, Russian and American specialists. In an interview with RT, Viktor Vakhoneev noted that the work was carried out at different depths:

“The main reason why the ship could not be found in 2005-2006 was the collapse of the depths. The Black Sea bottom has a very mountainous terrain. It is quite possible that on one of the expeditions we passed by “Armenia”, but it is extremely difficult to identify it among the underwater rocks. When scanning the bottom, shadow zones are formed where a ship could theoretically be located. But due to the existing stall, the scanning process becomes more complicated.”

Viktor Vakhoneev explained that the expeditions do not have accurate data on the location of the vessel. This is due to the fact that the case of the death of “Armenia” in 1947 was removed from the archives, and now it is classified as “top secret” in the archives of the FSB. Vakhoneev noted:

“We proceeded from the time when the Armenia left the port, adding three hours to it until the moment of its sinking. Then multiplied by the minimum, average and maximum speed. Based on the data obtained, a radius was drawn where the ship could go. It is most logical that “Armenia” went towards Gurzuf (east of Yalta), the Ayu-Dag mountain along the coast. But we also scanned the bottom not only in this area, but also in the central region of Yalta.”

Regarding the version that the ship was heading from Yalta back to Sevastopol, Vakhoneev explained that confusion had crept into it. Katernik, testifying that he saw the "Armenia" in the area of ​​​​Cape Sarych, confused it with another ship - the "Lenin". He was blown up by a mine in this area in July 1941. According to Viktor Vakhoneev, the waters of Sarych have been well studied, and no traces of “Armenia” were found there.

According to one version, the ship may be under a layer of silt. RT's interlocutor expressed doubts about this:

"This is impossible. The height of the ship's side was too high. Silt of such a height that would exceed the parameters of the vessel simply does not exist. The only difficulty preventing the search for the vessel is the mountainous topography of the bottom.”

In conclusion, Viktor Vakhoneev noted that the history of the sinking of the ship “Armenia” is covered in riddles and secrets. Thus, he expressed doubt about the testimony of survivor Anastasia Popova, who managed to swim to the shore in cold water.

It is still not known whether the wreckage of the Armenia was found during the last search in the summer of 2016. We can only hope that one day this story will come to an end.

On September 12, 1941, the advanced units of the 11th German Army approached Perekop, the northern border of Crimea. From that moment on, it became possible to escape from the peninsula only by sea.

All land routes were quickly taken under control by German troops. About a million civilians were trapped. German trained troops were opposed by scattered troops of the Red Army, which did not give much chance of victory.

By the beginning of November 1941, residents fled Crimean peninsula has become widespread. With the approach of fascist troops, panic began in the cities. There was a real struggle to board any transport. The evacuation of the civilian population was carried out according to a single scheme from Sevastopol and Yalta to Tuapse in the Caucasus.

Motor ship « Armenia" moored at the beginning of November 1941 in the port of Sevastopol, it could not have been better suited for this purpose.

Motor ship « Armenia"was built at the Baltic Shipyard in Leningrad in November 1928 and belonged to the type of passenger ships" Abkhazia " A total of four ships of the same type were built: “ Abkhazia», « Georgia», « Crimea" And " Armenia» for the Black Sea Shipping Company. Motor ship « Armenia"successfully made flights to the Caucasus, transporting more than 10,000 people a year.

motor ship "Armenia" photo

construction of the motor ship "Armenia"

motor ship "Abkhazia"

motor ship "Georgia"

8 August 1941 double deck cargo-passenger ship during the period of hostilities it was converted into. Passenger cabins became medical wards, and special symbols appeared on the sides - the Red Cross.

On the morning of November 6, 1941, landing began on motor ship « Armenia" At first vessel was not moored to the pier, in order to avoid a crush and a possible assault, passengers were brought on board in boats. Suddenly an order was received from the headquarters of the Sevastopol defensive region to evacuate all medical personnel of the Black Sea Fleet from the city. As a result, the best doctors in Crimea ended up on the same ship. To carry out the order, Captain Vladimir Yakovlevich Plaushevsky had to motor ship « Armenia» moored to the Korabelnaya Bay pier and huge crowds of city residents immediately poured in looking for salvation. Everyone wanted to get on the ship. In panic, passengers began to make their way into the technical rooms on the lowest decks. The ship with evacuated people was overfilled. People stood tightly pressed against each other, but this was the only chance for salvation.

Crowded with frightened people at 17:00 on November 6, 1941, the motor ship "Armenia" unmoored from the quay wall and soon disappeared over the horizon and disappeared not only from the sight of those seeing off, but also from Soviet history.

The mourners of Sevastopol began to feel despair for not using their chance. But this would become a reality if it took a course on the established Caucasian route.
From Sevastopol motor ship « Armenia"carried away medical personnel of the Black Sea Fleet, hundreds of seriously wounded soldiers and thousands of civilians. The war at sea had not yet begun, so every minute was precious. The Caucasus was free and nothing stood in the way of saving people. But Captain Plaushevsky received an order from the main command of the Black Sea Fleet to go to Yalta and pick up several more passengers.

At 02:00 November 7 motor ship « Armenia"arrived at the port of Yalta. During this passage, the medical ship was delayed for 3 hours, waiting at the Balaklava roadstead for a transport with some cargo to be delivered on board. Loading several tightly sealed black boxes into the ship " Armenia» weighed anchor and continued its voyage. The accompanying NKVD agents remained on board to ensure the protection of the cargo.

Yalta is overcrowded motor ship « Armenia“Hundreds more frightened people dived in. Only at 08:00 on November 7, 1941, the medical ship was able to leave and head for Tuapse, losing invaluable time. Meanwhile, the commander of the Black Sea Fleet, Admiral Oktyabrsky, gave the order not to leave the port until dark, i.e. 19:00, but Captain Plaushevsky violated it. Just 10 km from Yalta in Gurzuf, Hitler’s troops were already rampaging. The captain made the most important decision in his life, and he gave the order to save the doctors entrusted to him, but it was too late.

Having moved to a distance of about 25 miles from the Crimean Peninsula " Armenia"was attacked by two torpedoes from a German He-111H bomber, which ignored its markings. At 11:29, the ship, carrying 7,000 medical personnel and civilians, sank in the Black Sea at a depth of 472 meters. In a terrible tragedy, only 8 passengers on the boat managed to escape.

This huge number of deaths on one ship seems incredible, but even more surprising is the fact that in our time no one knows about one of the most terrible maritime disasters in the history of the Second World War. After all, on board motor ship « Armenia"More people died than on the legendary liners "" and "".

Information about this tragedy was kept in the strictest confidence. Recently, Ukrainian historians managed to discover these details. The cause of the death of the ship was two unplanned stops, which led to loss of time. The command of the Black Sea Fleet gave an order that made a number of mistakes, but the doctors lost ship could have saved thousands of lives of soldiers and officers who fought against Nazi Germany.

And only one person, Vladimir Yakovlevich Plaushevsky, took responsibility for the unacceptable mistakes of his leadership. Having violated the order, he took the last opportunity to save people, which was no longer possible to prevent.

On May 9, 2010, several veterans of the Great Patriotic War will lay wreaths in the area where the tragedy allegedly occurred.

Technical data passenger ship"Armenia":
Length - 112.1 m;
Width - 15.5 m;
Side height - 7.7 m;
Displacement - 5770 tons;
Power plant - two diesel engines with a capacity of 4000 hp. With.;
Speed ​​- 14.5 knots;
Number of passengers - up to 980 people;
Crew - 96 people;

Olga Tonina The sinking of the motor ship "Armenia". Technical data of the passenger ship "Armenia":
Length - 112.1 m;
Width - 15.5 m;
Side height - 7.7 m;
Displacement - 5770 tons;
Power plant - two diesel engines with a capacity of 4000 hp. With.;
Speed ​​- 14.5 knots (about 27 km/h);
Number of passengers - up to 980 people;
Crew - 96 people; The official information about the sinking of the motor ship "Armenia" is as follows: "At 11:25 am (November 7, 1941) TR "Armenia", guarding two patrol boats from Yalta to Tuapse with the wounded and passengers, was attacked by an enemy torpedo plane. One of the two torpedoes dropped hit the bow ship and at 11:29 am it sank inw = 44 g. 15 min. 5 sec., d = 34 deg. 17 min. Eight people were saved, about 5,000 people died." There is also an approximate schematic map in accordance with the indicated coordinates:
In 2006, at the request of the Ukrainian side, the US Institute of Oceanography and Oceanology, led by Robert Ballard, joined the work. The Americans found many interesting objects in the supposed area of ​​the ship's sinking, but the Armenia was never found. Robert Ballard is a well-known figure in world marine archeology, director of the Institute of Oceanography of the State of Massachusetts, USA. The man who found the Titanic, the battleship Bismarck, and the aircraft carrier Yorktown. Having received information about "Armenia", he suspended the search for Atlantis on the island of Santorini and went to the Black Sea on his research vessel "Endever", equipped with modern sonars and remote-controlled robots. The expedition cost the American side $2.5 million. So, “Armenia” was not found. Were you looking there? What do we know? " Onlyat 08:00 November 7, 1941 the medical ship was able to leave and head for Tuapse,..." " Onlyat 8 o'clock in the morning The ship stopped loading and the commander of the "Armenia", captain 3rd rank V.Ya. Plaushevsky, ordered the mooring lines to be given up." That is, the “Armenia” went to sea at 08:00 on November 7, 1941 from Yalta. What's next? What do eyewitnesses say? http://militera.lib.ru/research/nepomniaschy_nn/01.html " Let us turn to the testimony of the boat from the sea hunter MO-04 M.M. Yakovleva. " November 7, around 10 o'clock in the morning , near Cape Sarych A German reconnaissance aircraft flew over us,and after a short time over the water, at low level, almost touching the crests of the waves (the weather was stormy, and we were thoroughly shaken), two enemy torpedo bombers entered our area. One of them began to make a turn for a torpedo attack, and the second went towards Yalta. We could not open fire, since the boat's roll reached 45 degrees. The torpedo bomber dropped two torpedoes, but missed, and they exploded in the coastal rocks of Cape Aya. We were amazed by the force of the explosion - we had never seen a more powerful one before, and almost everyone said at once that if the second torpedo bomber hits "Armenia", then it will be in trouble...That's how it happened" . On the Tsushima forum there is a slightly different quote from M.M. Yakovlev’s memoirs (or a retelling of it?): http://wap.tsushima4.borda.ru/?1-9-0-00000001-000-0-0 " Next are the memories of the boatman with MO-04 M. M. Yakovlev:" November 7 at 10 am on the way to Tuapse the ship was attacked by two Heinkel-111s near Cape Sarych . The MO could not fire, the sea was very fresh, the list reached 45 degrees. We went to" Armenia " from two sides: one He-111 from the side of Yalta, and the other from the sea. The first torpedo bomber missed. The second one hit . In about four minutes the ship sank under water." Only 8 people survived." In both versions Cape Sarych appears. Cape Sarych is located about 40 kilometers from Yalta - if you measure the distance by land, and about 50-55 kilometers if you go by sea. In two hours at full speed (2 hours x 27 km/h = 54 km), “Armenia” could well have reached Cape Sarych. Only Cape Sarych is located WEST of Yalta! And “Armenia should have gone EAST - to Tuapse or Novorossiysk. Or should it not? Following Cape Sarych, M.M. Yakovlev mentions Cape Aya, which is located EVEN WEST of Yalta! It was on its rocks that the torpedoes of the first torpedo bomber exploded. On the torpedo bombers type "He-111" torpedoes of the "F 5w" type with a caliber of 450 mm were used. Their warhead included 170 kilograms of explosives. The range was 3000 meters. In order for such a torpedo to hit the rocks at Cape Aya, "Armenia" had to. be between the torpedo release point and Cape Aya. In this case, the torpedo release point should not be further than 3000 meters from the cape, otherwise the torpedo will sink before reaching it. That is, "Armenia" should be approximately 2500-2000 meters from Cape Aya.
What's next? If you believe the quote from the Tsushima forum, then the second torpedo bomber attacked almost immediately after the first, or simultaneously with it. If this is so, then "Armenia" sank in the Laspi area. About 2-3 kilometers from the coast.
What if not? Commander of the Black Sea Fleet, Admiral F.S. Oktyabrsky: “When I learned that the transport was going to leave Yalta during the day, I personally conveyed the order to the commander, under no circumstances should you leave Yalta before 19.00, that is, until dark. We did not have the means to provide good air and sea cover for the transport. The communication worked reliably, the commander received the order and, despite this, left Yalta at 08.00. At 11.00, she was attacked by torpedo planes and sunk. After being hit by a torpedo, "Armenia" was afloat for four minutes ". At 11-00, if we assume that after 10-00 "Armenia" was moving from Yalta at the same speed of 14 knots, it should have been in the area of ​​Cape Fiolent, or somewhat to the north-west. And finally, 11-25. At the same speed of 14 knots, we get the place of death of the “Armenia” approximately in the area of ​​​​Cape Chersonesus (to the north, west or south). Thus, we have three possible places for the death of “Armenia”. All of them are located WEST OF YALTA AND CAPE SARYCH. That is, absolutely not where Robert Ballard was looking. Why did "Armenia" end up on its way to Sevastopol, and not to Tuapse? Most likely, its captain received an order from the series “smoke up, roll out dumplings” - to return the staff of Sevastopol hospitals back. Most likely in compliance with the following directive: " DIRECTIVE OF THE Supreme Command Headquarters N 004433 TO THE COMMANDER OF THE CRIMEA TROOPS, THE BLACK SEA FLEET ON MEASURES TO STRENGTHEN THE DEFENSE OF THE CRIMEA Copy: to the People's Commissar of the Navy. November 7, 1941 02 h 00 min In order to pin down enemy forces in Crimea and prevent them from entering the Caucasus through Taman Peninsula The Headquarters of the Supreme High Command orders: 1. The main task of the Black Sea Fleet is the active defense of Sevastopol and Kerch Peninsula with all our might. 2. Do not surrender Sevastopol under any circumstances and defend it with all your might. 3. Keep all three old cruisers and old destroyers in Sevastopol. From this composition, form a maneuverable detachment for operations in the Gulf of Feodosia to support the troops occupying the Ak-Monai positions. 4.A detachment of the Azov flotilla to support the troops of the Ak-Monai position from the north. 5.Battleships and new cruisers will be based in Novorossiysk, used for operations against the coast occupied by the enemy, and to strengthen a detachment of old ships. Deployment of destroyers at your discretion. 6. Part of the ZA from the abandoned areas will be used to strengthen the air defense of Novorossiysk. 7. Organize and ensure transportation to Sevastopol and Kerch of troops leaving for Yalta, Alushta and Sudak. 8. Leave fighters, attack aircraft and some ICBM aircraft in Sevastopol and Kerch, and use the rest of the aircraft from the airfields of the North Caucasus Military District for night strikes on enemy airfields, bases and troops in Crimea. 9.Evacuate from Sevastopol and Kerch to the Caucasus everything valuable, but not needed for defense. 10. Entrust the leadership of the defense of Sevastopol to the commander of the Black Sea Fleet, Comrade Oktyabrsky, subordinating to you. The deputy commander of the Black Sea Fleet will have a naval staff in Tuapse. 11.You are in Kerch. 12. To directly lead the defense of the Kerch Peninsula, appoint Lieutenant General Batov. I. STALIN B. SHAPOSHNIKOV N. KUZNETSOV" There are no other logical explanations for the return of “Armenia”. All sorts of versions about “gold in bullion”, “NKVD employees” - for the orphaned and wretched, who were undertreated with haloperidol, or were released from “House-2” for exemplary idiotic behavior. Since “Armenia” did not reach Sevastopol, the order was “healed.” Or maybe it wasn’t in written form. Quite often, oral orders are given, and in the event of the death of the person receiving the oral order, the one who gave the order may not admit that such an order was given. Especially if there are people who persistently ask questions. One way or another, Laspi, Fiolent, and Kazachka - three famous beaches of Crimea - can, in fact, be the outskirts of a mass grave for several thousand people. However, both Kazachka and Fiolent are already such - if you remember last days defense of Sevastopol in July 1942. In this regard, much more ethical, although less safe in sanitary terms, are the city beaches located inside the Sevastopol Bay. But the topic of beaches is not the topic of this article; it just so happens that the place of death of the “Armenia” is most likely located not far from the coast. How can we explain the small number of those saved? Wind from the coast towards the sea and minefields, cold water (November 7) and heavy seas (“... The boat's roll reached 45 degrees..."). How to explain the rapid time of destruction of the ship - 4 minutes? Its design. Large quantity passenger cabins along the entire side of the ship, provides for the presence of long corridors along the entire ship. Taking into account the rough seas, as well as the fact that German torpedoes often did not maintain depth and jumped to the surface, the hole from the torpedo could be at or above the waterline, which contributed not only to the flooding of the bow holds, but to the rapid spread of water throughout the ship. The overload of passengers several times higher than normal certainly created difficulties for the crew when fighting for survivability. Should we continue to search for "Armenia" or should the exact location of her death continue to remain unknown? This is more a matter of politics than ethics. If we still want to turn into ruminant rednecks, eating popcorn and contemplating the next “Superman” in tight blue tights, there is no point in looking for the lost ship. If our history is important to us and we value it, “Armenia” must be found. Materials used: