On November 7, 1941, in the Yalta region, the Germans sunk the motor ship "Armenia". “Armenia” is called by different names: military transport, ambulance transport and an ambulance ship, cargo-passenger motor ship. The goods and passenger ship with this name was built at the Baltic Shipyard in Leningrad in 1930.The vessel had a length of 107.72 meters, a width of 15.5, a side height of 7.7 m, a minimum draft of 5.96 m, a gross registered capacity of 4727 tons with a displacement of 5805 tons. Crew - 96 people. There were five such ships in total. They ply the Crimean-Caucasian line and all died during the war.
The captain of the "Armenia" was Vladimir Yakovlevich Plaushevsky, who died during this disaster. In terms of the number of deaths, it was the largest disaster not only of the Second World War, but almost of the entire history of navigation!
If on the "Titanic" (April 14, 1912) 1503 people were killed, then on the "Armenia" - about 6000 people. The fact is that there is no exact number of those killed on the "Armenia".
There are no such figures either in the Black Sea Fleet Museum, or in the Museum of the Heroic Defense and Liberation of Sevastopol, where I applied. In the museum of the Black Sea Fleet, it says: "Sanitary transport of the Black Sea Fleet" Armenia ". Date and place of death - 11/7/1941 south of Yalta, 44 ° 17 ′ n. latitude, 34 ° 10 ′ east (These data are also included in the reference book “Vessels of the Ministry of the Navy, Killed during the Great Patriotic War in 1941-1945. Moscow). Went from Yalta to Tuapse with the wounded and cargo. Sunk by enemy aircraft. The death toll is unknown. 8 people were saved. (TsVMA, f. 10, d. 9096, l. 8) ".
On the ship were the wounded, the personnel of the Sevastopol Naval Hospital, the sanitary and epidemiological laboratory of the Black Sea Fleet, the 5th medical detachment of the Black Sea Fleet, the 280th honey warehouse. property, medical staff of the Nikolaev naval infirmary, a branch of the Sevastopol hospital in Yalta.
Researchers of this tragedy, including the Sevastopol historian, writer Yevgeny Venikeev, scientific secretary of the military-scientific society of the Black Sea Fleet, retired captain II rank Sergei Soloviev (unfortunately, both are already deceased), cite the figure from 5,000 to 7,000 people. S. Solovyov believes that in terms of the number of victims, “only the German liner Wilhelm Gustloff, sunk in January 1945 in the Baltic by the S-13 submarine under the command of AI Marinesko, is ahead. There were 6,535 people on the liner. 988 people were rescued. The death toll was 5,547.
According to Sergei Solovyov, there could have been more deaths on "Armenia". Thus, this is one of the largest sea tragedies. There are many insinuations associated with it. Soloviev debunks one of them, which wandered through the pages of newspapers, as if "Armenia" was bombed by 40 planes. At 11:25 a.m. on November 7, 1941, the transport, guarded by two patrol boats from Yalta to Tuapse with wounded and passengers, was attacked by an enemy torpedo plane. One of the dropped torpedoes hit the bow of the ship, and at 11:29 a.m. it sank.
There was no sign of the Red Cross on the "Armenia", as she, along with other transports, except for sea evacuation, was engaged in the delivery of weapons, ammunition, and manpower from the rear areas to the battle sites. "Armenia" was painted in military color with ball paint and even had machine guns. All this deprived the transport of the right of immunity.
However, there is another point of view. One of the organizers of the defense of Sevastopol, Lieutenant-General of Artillery P.A.
“On November 6, an ambulance transport departed from Sevastopol - the motor ship“ Armenia ”with wounded soldiers, employees of the main hospital and evacuated citizens. He went to Yalta, where he also took some of the evacuees from Simferopol, and on the morning of November 7 set out on a course for the Caucasus. At 11 o'clock. 25 minutes not far from Yalta, the transport, although it had the distinctive marks of a medical vessel, was torpedoed by a fascist plane and sank four minutes later. Many residents, doctors and wounded were killed. " “In this place of the text,” wrote in his research “The death of“ Armenia ”: the death toll is unknown” Yevgeny Venikeev, “there is a footnote:“ Department of the Central Naval Archives (TsVMA), fund 10, file 19, sheet 221 ”.
There is a certain secret of the death of "Armenia", because case No. 19, concerning this tragedy, was destroyed in 1949. This was announced by the head of the department of the Central Naval Archives L. Kirsanov. "Who did it interfere with, why was it destroyed?" - the researcher E. Venikeev asked questions. There are a number of other mysterious moments connected with the death of “Armenia”. According to one version, the ship was sunk not by a torpedo bomber, but by bombers that dropped bombs.
Much would have been revealed if “Armenia” had been discovered. Almost 64 years have passed since that terrible tragedy, but only recently they began to seriously search for the lost ship. The initiative here belongs to the head of the expedition, the head of the underwater heritage department of the Institute of Archeology of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, Sergei Voronov. It was supported by the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine.
Specialists of the research center "State Oceanarium of the Armed Forces of Ukraine" are directly involved in the search, the team of which has been headed for many years by Captain I Rank Valeriy Kulagin. By the way, Valery Vladimirovich personally took part in the expeditionary search for "Armenia" and, together with the hydronauts, the crew commander Igor Avrashov and Gennady Belnikov, dived on the Langust universal multipurpose manned underwater vehicle.
Captain I rank Igor Rodin, head of the department of underwater technical works, captain I rank Vasily Kuts, other officers and specialists of the aquarium took part in the development and conduct of the search operation.
- The impetus for this expedition was the anniversary date - the 60th anniversary of the Great Victory, - says Igor Rodin. - And the initiator was the Institute of Archeology of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine and, in particular, Sergey Alexandrovich Voronov. The government of the country set the task to determine the exact coordinates of the death of "Armenia". The fact is that various sources indicate several places where the ship was wrecked. With the examination of one of them, the most probable, the work began ...
“We made our first dive on the Langust on May 26, 2006,” says the captain of the crew of the manned vehicle Igor Avrashov. - "Langoust" was towed to the specified area, and there we went down under the water. We worked at depths from 465 to 540 meters, and we examined a very difficult relief in the area of the Yalta fault. The depth isobaths are close to each other and resemble a kind of five. The distance between the underwater canyons is from 20 to 40 meters wide, and the height of the steep walls reaches 35 meters. In such underwater ravine mountains, it is very difficult to search, even if not a small object. Due to the difficult terrain, the hydroacoustic search was ineffective, and we did not find the ship.
Time will tell how the expedition will end. We are obliged to fulfill our filial duty to the older generation - to perpetuate the memory of those killed on "Armenia".
2011 marked the 70th anniversary of one of the largest maritime disasters - the sinking of the "Armenia" motor ship.
All possible points of coordinates of the place of death of the ambulance transport were examined. Alas, even with the most up-to-date search equipment of the Americans, it was not possible to find "Armenia" at that time. In 2006-2008, using the most advanced German and American technology, we climbed that square up and down. This point was crossed 27 times! They even found 20-centimeter shells from artillery shells.
There are only two squares left, where we have not yet looked: the chances are growing. One of them is behind the territorial waters opposite Ay-Todor. The second one is abeam Ayudag. Search depths: from 470 to 1500 meters. Most of all I am afraid that in those places the ship slid down the slope to great depths. There will definitely be an expedition! This is our duty to those who perished 70 years ago, ”summed up Sergei Voronov.
On November 7, 1941, the Soviet motor ship "Armenia", on board of which there were several thousand people, perished in the Black Sea. The tragedy of “Armenia” to this day remains one of the “white spots” of the Great Patriotic War, since many questions in this story have not been answered yet.
Motor ship "Armenia". ©
The motor ship "Armenia" was launched in Leningrad in 1928 and is designed to carry 980 passengers and 1000 tons of cargo. He was one of the six best passenger ships on the Black Sea. These beautiful high-speed vessels were called "trotters". They served the Odessa-Batumi-Odessa line and regularly transported thousands of passengers until 1941. On the last flight "Armenia" was carried by captain Vladimir Yakovlevich Plaushevsky.
Paradoxical in this tragedy is that “Armenia” had every opportunity to make this transition at night and with a 100% guarantee to arrive in Tuapse safe and sound. In 1941, not one of our ships on the Black Sea was attacked by enemy surface ships or submarines, and the German aviation did not then have radar sights for inflicting night strikes on ships at sea. However, due to completely incomprehensible and inexplicable orders from the command of the Black Sea Fleet, the ship went to sea on the morning of November 7.
There were several thousand wounded soldiers and evacuated citizens on the ship. The personnel of the main hospital of the Black Sea Fleet and a number of other military and civilian hospitals (23 hospitals in total), as well as the leadership and staff of the Artek pioneer camp, members of their families and part of the Crimean party leadership were also loaded onto the ship. The evacuees were being loaded in a hurry, their exact number is unknown. 
The port of Yalta, unlike Sevastopol, did not have a powerful air defense system, which means that ships here became an excellent target for aviation.
Immediately after leaving Sevastopol, a new order followed - to go to Balaklava. There, several boats approached the "Armenia", and the NKVD officers loaded wooden boxes onto the ship. There is an assumption that the boxes contained gold and valuables from Crimean museums.
At 11:25 am, the ship was attacked by a single German torpedo bomber "Heinkel He-111" belonging to the 1st squadron of the air group I / KG28 ( commander Oberst Ernst-August Roth). The plane entered from the coast and dropped two torpedoes from a distance of 600 m. One of them hit the bow of the ship.
It should be noted that this catastrophe could not be remembered or talked about.
Later, according to official data, in Soviet times it was recognized that about 5 thousand people died. At the beginning of the XXI century, the estimates were increased to 7-10 thousand people, since a large number of "unaccounted" refugees were taken on board. Only eight people were saved.
The catastrophe of "Armenia" in terms of the number of victims is one of the largest in world history.
For over half a century, documents related to the sinking of the "Armenia" were kept under the heading "Top secret". No attempts were made to lift the ship or its cargo during the Soviet era. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, the Department of Maritime Heritage of Ukraine carried out prospecting work in the area of the sinking of "Armenia".
"Armenia" sank in just four minutes.
Only eight people on board were saved. The bottom of the Black Sea became a grave for thousands.
The transport had the distinctive marks of a medical vessel, however, according to some military historians, “Armenia” violated this status, as it was armed with four 21-K anti-aircraft guns. In addition to the wounded and refugees, there were soldiers and NKVD officers on board.
45-mm semi-automatic universal gun 21-K
The ship was accompanied by two armed boats and two I-153 fighters. In this regard, "Armenia" was a "legitimate" military target from the point of view of international law.
The captain's decision was justified, since Yalta did not have any means of air defense, moreover, at any moment it could be captured by the advancing German units; in this case, "Armenia" would simply be shot by German field artillery. At sea, the ship had the ability to evade attacks by maneuvering. However, the congestion of the transport with refugees and the lack of combat experience of the team did not allow the enemy to be detected in time. And since the alleged attack by dive bombers was considered the main danger, the fighters patrolled at an altitude of about three thousand meters and did not notice the low-going torpedo bomber.
Patrol boats kept ahead of the transport and also "missed" the attack.
The sinking of the passenger liner Titanic, which in April 1912 claimed the lives of about 1,500 people, became a symbol of large-scale disasters at sea.
In fact, "Titanic" is not even included in the thirty sea disasters with the highest number of victims. The most terrible tragedies of this kind occurred during the Second World War, when transports with thousands of people, not only military personnel, but also women, old people and children, went to the bottom.
On November 7, 1941, the Soviet motor ship "Armenia", on board of which there were several thousand people, perished in the Black Sea. The tragedy of “Armenia” to this day remains one of the “white spots” of the Great Patriotic War, since many questions in this story have not been answered yet.
In the mid-1920s, when the country recovered from the shock of the Civil War, the government began to think about the development of civil shipbuilding. In 1927, the construction of the Adjara motor ship, the lead ship of the series of the first Soviet passenger liners, was completed at the Baltic Shipyard in Leningrad. In 1928, at the same Baltic Shipyard, work was completed on five more ships of this project: "Crimea", "Georgia", "Abkhazia", "Ukraine" and "Armenia".
“Armenia” was a vessel 107.7 meters long, 15.5 meters wide, with a side depth of 7.84 meters and a displacement of 5770 tons. The ship was serviced by a crew of 96 people. The motor ship could simultaneously take on board up to 950 passengers.
"Armenia", like other vessels of the project, was intended for transportation between the ports of the Crimea and the Caucasus. The ships coped with their task perfectly, having a very decent speed of 14.5 knots for their dimensions.
Floating hospital
With the beginning of the Great Patriotic War, “Armenia” was “drafted” into military service. At the Odessa shipyard, it was urgently converted into a floating hospital, designed to transport and provide emergency care to 400 wounded.
On August 10, 1941, "Armenia" began to fulfill its new duties. The captain of the ship was Vladimir Plaushevsky, the chief physician of the floating hospital was appointed 2nd rank military doctor Pyotr Dmitrievsky. The head physician was recently a civilian and worked in one of the hospitals in Odessa.
The situation at the front was depressing. Five days before the "Armenia" officially became a sanitary ship, the enemy came close to Odessa. The ship had to deal with the evacuation of not only the wounded, but also civilian refugees from the besieged city. Then "Armenia" began to remove the wounded from Sevastopol. By the beginning of October, the ship had transported about 15 thousand people to the mainland.
By the end of October 1941, a catastrophic situation had developed in Crimea. Manstein's Eleventh Army, sweeping away the Soviet lines of defense, occupied one city after another. The threat of the fall of Sevastopol for several days was more than real.
Under these conditions, on November 4, 1941, "Armenia" left the port of Tuapse in the direction of Sevastopol. On board there was a replenishment for the garrison of the main base of the fleet. “Armenia” reached Sevastopol safely. On November 5, Captain Plaushevsky received an order: to take on board not only the wounded, but also the personnel of all hospitals and medical institutions of the Black Sea Fleet, as well as part of the medical personnel of the Primorsky Army.
Thousands of refugees and a secret cargo
Taking into account the fact that at this moment the battles for Sevastopol were just unfolding, the order looked somewhat strange. Who will save the lives of the wounded?
Historians who have studied this issue believe that the commander of the Black Sea Fleet, Admiral Philip Oktyabrsky, considered the fate of the city a foregone conclusion and decided to begin the evacuation.
But on November 7, 1941, Oktyabrsky received a directive from the Headquarters, which said: "Sevastopol should not be surrendered in any case and should be defended with all our might."
However, until November 7, there were no orders from Moscow, therefore, "Armenia" took on board the evacuated doctors and not only them. Actors from the local theater named after Lunacharsky, the leadership and staff of the Artek pioneer camp and many others went on board.
There were no exact lists of those who boarded the "Armenia". Captain Plaushevsky received another order: after loading in Sevastopol, go to Yalta, where to take on board refugees and local party activists. After leaving Sevastopol, an additional order came: to go to Balaklava and pick up a special cargo. The boxes were delivered on board accompanied by NKVD officers. Perhaps it was gold or valuables from Crimean museums.
"The brave climbed on board the ship"
Here crowds of refugees were waiting for the ship. Here is what Vera Chistova, who was 9 years old in 1941, recalled about this: “Dad bought tickets, and my grandmother and I had to leave Yalta on the motor ship“ Armenia ”. On the night of November 6, the pier was full of people. First, the wounded were loaded, then the civilians were allowed in. Nobody checked the tickets, and a crush began on the gangplank. The brave ones climbed on board the ship. In the hustle and bustle, suitcases and things were thrown off the board. By dawn, the loading was completed. But we never got to “Armenia”. Hundreds of people stayed on the pier. My grandmother and I went to my father's workshop on the embankment. I fell asleep there. "
At that moment those who remained on board the "Armenia" seemed lucky. In fact, everything was exactly the opposite.
How many people ended up on "Armenia" by that time? According to the most conservative estimates, about 3000 people. The upper limit is 10,000 people. Most likely, the truth is somewhere in between, and there were from 5,500 to 7,000 people on board. And this despite the fact that even in its "passenger" version, the ship was designed for only 950 people.
In fact, “Armenia” could successfully evacuate a similar number of people if it left Yalta in the dark. But the loading was completed at about 7 o'clock in the morning.
Going out to sea during the day with virtually no cover was tantamount to suicide. Admiral Oktyabrsky later wrote that the captain of the "Armenia" received a strict order to remain in the port until the evening, but violated it.
But Captain Plaushevsky, in fact, had no choice. The port of Yalta, unlike Sevastopol, did not have a powerful air defense system, which means that ships here became an excellent target for aviation. In addition, German motorized units were already on their way to the city and took it just a few hours later.
The motor ship sank in 4 minutes
Before talking about what happened next, it should be noted that historians have not yet decided whether "Armenia" can be considered a legitimate military target.
According to the laws of war, an ambulance vessel bearing the appropriate identification marks is not one of those. Some argue that "Armenia" was marked with a red cross, which means that the attack on the ship is another crime of the Nazis. Others object: “Armenia” violated its status by the presence on board of four 45-mm anti-aircraft guns. Still others are absolutely sure that the ship, which was engaged not only in transporting the wounded and refugees, but also in military cargo, did not have the signs of a medical vessel.
As a cover, "Armenia" was accompanied by two patrol boats, and two Soviet I-153 fighters were in the sky.
The circumstances of the fatal attack on the ship are also contradictory. For a long time it was believed that "Armenia" was the victim of an attack by several dozen bombers. One of the surviving passengers, a resident of Yalta, Anastasia Popova, spoke about this: “After going out to sea, the ship was attacked by enemy aircraft. A living hell has begun. Bomb explosions, panic, people's screams - everything mixed up in an indescribable nightmare. People rushed about 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 even remember how I ended up on the shore ”.
However, today the version that there was only one plane seems to be more reliable: the German torpedo bomber He-111, which belonged to the first squadron of the I / KG28 air group. This was not a deliberate attack on "Armenia": the torpedo bomber was looking for any of the Soviet transport ships on the "Crimea - Caucasus" line.
Entering from the coast, He-111 dropped two torpedoes. One passed by, and the second, at 11:25 am, hit the bow of the ship.
"Armenia" sank in just four minutes. Only eight people on board were saved. The bottom of the Black Sea became a grave for thousands.
Couldn't find
The riddles of "Armenia" do not end there. 75 years after the tragedy, the exact place of the sinking of the ship has not been found.
The official report on the death of “Armenia” reads: “At 1125 hours (November 7, 1941) TR“ Armenia ”, which was guarded by two patrol boats from Yalta to Tuapse with wounded and passengers, was attacked by an enemy torpedo plane. One of the two dropped torpedoes hit the bow of the ship and at 1129 hours it sank at w = 44 degrees 15 minutes. 5 sec., D = 34 g. 17 min. Eight people were rescued, about 5,000 people died. "
The alleged place of death of the ship was studied several times. In 2006, Robert Ballard joined the search by finding the Titanic at the bottom of the Atlantic. In Ukraine it was reported that “Armenia” was about to be found, but this did not happen. No traces of the lost vessel were found.
There is an assumption that the real place of death of "Armenia" is not where it is indicated in the documents. According to this version, Captain Plaushevsky sent the ship not to Tuapse, but to Sevastopol, under the protection of the air defense of the fleet base, but was attacked by a torpedo bomber on the way.
This, however, is only an assumption, like many other things in the history of the death of “Armenia”.
It will be possible to reveal all the secrets only when the last resting place of the ship is found.
WORLD'S BIGGEST MARITIME TRAGEDY: JAVAD STAYED WITH THEM
When you look at old documents and photographs from the 1941-1945 war period, you always want to know more about the people with whom they are associated. You start looking for relevant information - and the glorious and tragic pages of our history literally come to life before our eyes.
The young man in the photo is Muratkhanov Javad Feyzulla oglu.
He was born in 1914. in Salyan. The Muratkhanov family was famous in this city - Javad's grandfather was a local bailiff. Soon the family moved to Baku and Javad grew up in Icheri Sheher, on the famous Malaya Krepostnaya street. He was fascinated by medicine and after school he graduated from the pharmaceutical faculty of the Azerbaijan State Medical Institute. Then he worked in one of the Baku pharmacies on Bailovo. Only did not have time to start a family. The war came and Javad went to defend the Motherland. The family knew that Javad, as a military assistant-pharmacist, was in the ranks of the 8th separate medical and sanitary battalion of the Black Sea Fleet. His letter home has also survived, where the young man asks not to worry about him and not to send him money.
An ordinary letter mentioning all the people close to his heart.
And in January 1942. Through the Voroshilov district military enlistment office in Baku, Javad's father received a "funeral" for his son, signed by the military commissar of the medical and sanitary department of the Black Sea Fleet - "In the fight against German fascism, he died at sea on November 7, 1941".
And that's all - nothing was known about any circumstances of the death of military assistant Muratkhanov. These documents were kindly provided to us by Javad Muratkhanov's niece - Gulnara-khanum Radjabova - the daughter of Javad's sister Lumi-khanum Muratkhanova-Amrakhova. This is the same little sister Lumi that Javad recalls in his letter.
Thanks to information from the electronic database "Memorial", we managed to find out where, how and under what circumstances Javad's life ended on that day.
He died in a sea disaster equal to the crash of five (!) "Titanics", when on November 7, 1941. the ambulance transport "Armenia", on board which was the military assistant Muratkhanov, was sunk as a result of a torpedo attack by German aircraft at the exit from Yalta.
Javad Muratkhanov's registration card kept in the Central AMO of the USSR
It was a little-known and perhaps the most tragic episode of that war at sea. Transport "Armenia" evacuated the wounded and refugees from Yalta, when German troops were already approaching the city and was attacked by a fascist torpedo bomber on the traverse of Gurzuf in the area of Ayu-dag mountain. As a result of a direct torpedo hit, the ship broke and sank. Almost all 7,000 people on board were killed.
"Armenia" on the slipway of the shipyard.
Official information about the death of "Armenia" is very scarce. More interesting information is provided by the "Final report on the combat activities of the Black Sea Fleet in WWII 1941 - 1945". The third volume of this closed document of the operational department of the headquarters of the Black Sea Fleet reports that “on November 7, 1941, the“ Armenia ”ambulance transport was completely destroyed: the“ Sevastopol Marine Hospital ”with 700 beds, the Black Sea Fleet naval hospital and its property, the 5th medical sanitary detachment, base hospital and so on ... the death toll is about 7000 people, 8 people were saved. After the death of "Armenia", the Black Sea Fleet was left without medical support, and it was necessary to create the main hospital of the Black Sea Fleet No. 40, base hospitals, calling on doctors from the reserve. Loading the entire staff of several medical and sanitary institutions onto one sanitary vehicle has become a grave mistake "...
The ship's commander was Lieutenant-Commander V.Ya. Plaushevsky. The nominal evacuation capacity of the vessel is 400 people, there was one operating room and 4 dressing rooms for 11 tables. The ship's medical staff: 9 doctors, 29 nurses and 75 orderlies.
Among the members of the medical staff, besides Javad Muratkhanov, there were several more of our fellow countrymen:
Akhundov D.A. military doctor of the 3rd rank - doctor-surgeon;
Mamedova A.Kh. - pharmacist
Akhundova Sharifa - dentist
In total, until the moment of its death, “Armenia” managed to make 15 evacuations (mainly from Odessa and Sevastopol) and delivered more than 15,000 people to the Caucasus (on average, 1,000 people per flight).
The vessel was not so large (with a displacement of 6,700 tons), and was designed to carry 980 people. But that day people on "Armenia" were packed literally like herring in a barrel. Eyewitnesses recall that the passengers stood on the deck, huddled closely to each other. savash-az.
Perhaps military assistant Javad Muratkhanov could have escaped, but as a medic, soldier and just a man, he chose not to abandon the wounded. Probably, I also thought - what will I say to our guys from the Small Fortress? ...
Chapel in Yalta dedicated to those killed on the ship
The sinking of the Armenia transport on November 7, 1941 is one of the most tragic cases of the sinking of passenger ships.
BlackSeaNews
The motor ship "Armenia" belonged to the series of postal-goods-passenger ships of the "Abkhazia" type, which were the most comfortable and fast Soviet-built cargo-passenger ships of the 30s.
These ships were among the first to be designed by the Central Bureau of Marine Shipbuilding in Leningrad. The motor ships were intended for the Crimean-Caucasian line and were designed under the guidance of a shipbuilding engineer Ya.A. Koperzhinsky with the participation of the captains and mechanics who worked on this route. By the name of the route, the ships were nicknamed "Krymchaks".
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Construction of "Armenia"
Photo from the archive of Igor Alekseev, "Neptune" magazine
The project envisioned a two-deck architecture with an extended middle superstructure of 81.7 m. The riveted hull was subdivided into nine main compartments. There were six holds and two twin decks to accommodate the cargo.
The vessel could accommodate 60 passengers of the first class, 190 - the second, 266 - the third, and 426 people were accommodated on the deck. In total - 942 passengers.
The safety of numerous passengers for such a spaciousness was ensured by the presence of 16 lifeboats with 48 seats each. The two-shaft power plant included two engines from the Russian Diesel plant.
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"Armenia" on the set of the film "Treasures of the Lost Ship" by Vladimir Brown, 1935. Photo from the site sirjones.livejournal.com
Help sea.infoflot.ru:
Length: 112 m. Width: 15.55 m. Depth: 7.84. Draft when loaded; 5.95 m. Displacement in full load: 5770 tons. Deadweight: 1480. Registered capacity: gross - 4727 tons, net - 2566 tons. Passenger capacity: cabin - 518 people; deck - 462 people; Power plant type: diesel. Power of the power plant: 2 x 1472; Propeller type: fixed pitch propeller. Type of stabilizers; side keels. Load speed: 12.6 knots. Bulk capacity: 2820 m3
"Armenia" (like "Abkhazia", "Adjara" and "Ukraine") belonged to the first series and was built at the Baltic Shipyard in 1928. The ships of the second series ("Georgia" and "Crimea") were built at the Krupp shipyard in Kiel. There were differences between the two series. For example, an additional superstructure on the ships of the Baltic Shipyard increased the center of gravity, and 120 tons of ballast had to be loaded into the hold.
During the Second World War, the "Krymchaks" were almost the only ships on the Black Sea that could be effectively used as high-speed military and medical transports. Five motor ships out of six died in 1941-1942 , and m / v "Crimea" was damaged and disabled.
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"Armenia" on the set of the film "Treasures of the Lost Ship" by Vladimir Brown, 1935. Photo from the site sirjones.livejournal.com
At the beginning of the war, "Armenia" and its brothers were modernized by the workers of the Odessa shipyard. The partitions of the cabins were broken - to expand the operating room and 4 dressing rooms with 11 tables each. It was believed that a maximum of 400 wounded would have to be taken on board. The crew now consisted of 96 people plus medical personnel: 9 doctors, 29 nurses and 75 orderlies.
In less than five months of the war, "Armenia", the captain of which was Vladimir Plaushevsky, managed to make 15 flights to Odessa and back and transport about 16 thousand people during this time.
It is assumed that "Armenia" was marked with red crosses ... This is stated in the book "Heroic Sevastopol" in 1979, one of the organizers of the defense of Sevastopol, Lieutenant General of Artillery P. A. Morgunov, who was at that time the commandant of the coastal defense of the Crimea and the main base of the Black Sea Fleet:
"... although it had the distinctive marks of a medical vessel, it was torpedoed by a fascist plane ...".
"In this place in the text," the Sevastopol historian wrote in his research "The death of" Armenia ": the death toll is unknown" Evgeny Venikeev, - there is a footnote: "Department of the Central Naval Archives (TsVMA), fund 10, file 19, sheet 221".
It is worth noting that, according to researchers who made a request to the Central Naval Archives, this is the case # 19 was destroyed in 1949 ... Moreover. Through the German veterans, they tried to find the crew of the torpedo bomber who attacked the "Armenia" in order to clarify the details and coordinates of the loss of the ship, since the German archives are famous for the great preservation of documents. The answer came unexpected: “ Luftwaffe archive taken out to the USSR ».
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"Armenia" on the set of the film "Treasures of the Lost Ship" by Vladimir Brown, 1935. Photo from the site sirjones.livejournal.com
At the same time, the scientific secretary of the military-scientific society of the Black Sea Fleet, captain II rank, retired Sergey Soloviev(unfortunately already deceased) believes that there was no Red Cross sign on "Armenia" , since she, along with other transports, in addition to sea evacuation, was engaged in the delivery of weapons, ammunition, and manpower from the rear areas to the battle sites. "Armenia" was painted in military color with ball paint and even had machine guns. All this deprived the transport of the right of immunity.
E. Nikitin(Hospital Courts, St. Petersburg 1992) claims that after the stories with "Chekhov" and "Kotovsky", from the end of July 1941, all distinctive signs of the Red Cross were canceled and all sanitary TRs were painted with a ball, armed and transferred to the VTR position. So it is unlikely that "Armenia" was under the flag of the Red Cross.
Be that as it may, this is just one of the many mysteries associated with the last flight of "Armenia".
In the Museum of the Black Sea Fleet, it appears:
"Sanitary transport of the PF" Armenia ". Date and place of death - 11/7/1941 south of Yalta, 44 ° 17 ′ n. sh., 34 ° 10 ′ (depth 250 m - ed.) e. Went from Yalta to Tuapse with the wounded and cargo. Sunk by enemy aircraft. The death toll is unknown. 8 people were saved. (TsVMA, f. 10, d. 9096, l. 8) ".
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Point 44 ° 17 ′ N lat., 34 ° 10 ′
In the reference book "Vessels of the Ministry of the Navy, which died during the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945", published in Moscow in 1989, the following entry:
"Armenia", cargo-passenger motor ship, 4727 tons, captain V. Ya.Plaushevsky(died). Date and place of the loss of the ship - 11/07/1941 south of Yalta. Went from Yalta to Tuapse with wounded and cargo, sunk by enemy aircraft. The death toll is unknown, 8 people were saved. "
Not much. Since 1989, according to the few surviving documents, memoirs of the military and the recollections of surviving civilians, a general picture of the tragedy has developed.
The motor ship "Armenia" on November 6, 1941 stood on the inner roadstead of Sevastopol and quickly took on board the wounded and evacuated citizens.
A participant in the defense of Sevastopol, a colonel of the medical service testifies A. I. Vlasov:
“On November 5, the head of the department of the Main Base received an order ... to shut down hospitals and infirmaries. About 300 wounded were loaded onto "Armenia", the 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. Heads of departments (with medical personnel), X-ray technicians also found themselves here ... The 2nd naval and Nikolaev base hospitals, sanitary warehouse No. 280, sanitary-epidemiological laboratory, 5th medical-sanitary detachment, a hospital from the Yalta sanatorium were also located here. ... A part of the medical staff of the Primorsk and 51st armies, as well as the evacuated residents of Sevastopol, were accepted on the ship ... ".
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Evacuation from Sevastopol. 1942 year. Photo from the site pliew.narod.ru
They did not leave Sevastopol completely without medical staff:
ORDER TO THE TROOPS OF THE SEVASTOPOL DEFENSE REGION No. 003
To provide sanitary support to the units of the Sevastopol defense region in each sector, create one medical and sanitary battalion and a hospital base for 2000 beds at the rate of: a marine hospital with 900 beds and 1300 beds on the basis of BCPs # 76 and # 268.
The staffing should be carried out at the expense of the medical personnel of the Primorsk and 51st armies, as well as the Sevastopol Moorskaya base. Evacuate all excess personnel. Leave the sanctuary in the amount of 4 people. To replenish the 39th separate autosanrota at the expense of the personnel and materiel of the 105th autosanrota and the 51st army. Transfer the entire redundant staff to the staffing and personnel department.
Commander of the Sevastopol Defense Region Major General Petrov
Member of the Military Council Brigadier Commissioner Kuznetsov
Chief of staff Colonel Krylov
Captain of "Armenia" Vladimir Plaushevsky got the order to leave Sevastopol on November 6 at 19 o'clock and follow in Tuapse ... For escort by the fleet, only one small sea hunter # 041 was assigned under the command of a senior lieutenant Kulashova.
It is curious that even in the secret "Chronicle of the Great Patriotic War of the Soviet Union at the Black Sea Theater" it is impossible to find out exactly when the ship set off, although the time of departure and entry to the port of even the smallest ships is indicated there with an accuracy of the minute. The exact time was established according to eyewitness accounts.
But, despite the fact that in the absence of security only night can ensure the secrecy of the voyage and will not give the enemy the opportunity to attack the transport, the captain of the "Armenia" receives an order from the Military Council of the Black Sea Fleet leave Sevastopol not in the evening twilight, but 2 hours earlier , that is, at 17 o'clock, in the daytime.
However, "Armenia" went not to Tuapse, but to Yalta ... Colonel testifies I. M. Velichenko, formerly a secret communications specialist under the commander of the Black Sea Fleet:
“On that day, on the unsatisfactory working wire communication from Yalta, Rear Admiral was informed N. M. Kulakov that a large group of leading officials and party activists gathered in the city, who have nothing to evacuate ... the choice fell on "Armenia", and she went to her death ... ".
Photo from the site world-archaeology-news.blogspot.com
Already at sea, the "Armenia" was ordered to approach Balaklava, where NKVD boats moored at the coast, from which wooden boxes were overloaded. The escorts also boarded.
“Judging by the documents found in the archives, the NKVD was carrying some very valuable cargo,” says the head of the Department of Maritime Heritage of Ukraine at the Institute of Archeology of the National Academy of Sciences Sergey Voronov... - The day before, on November 6, Stalin signed an order for the urgent evacuation from the Crimean peninsula of everything most valuable to the Caucasus. But what exactly they were loading is unknown. "
Another mystery of "Armenia". The boxes could also contain documents. And in the plot “The death of“ Armenia ”. Ordered to Forget "from the Seekers series, made the assumption that the boxes contained exhibits of the traveling exhibition" The Main Stages of the Development of Russian Painting "from the Russian State Museum, which the war found in Alupka. Although it is believed that most of the paintings were exported to Germany. Out of 183 exhibits, 60 works have returned to permanent storage in the funds of the State Russian Museum. One work was added to the exposition of the Museum of V.A.Tropinin and Moscow artists of his time. The search continues.
Meanwhile, by two o'clock in the morning "Armenia" moored in Yalta ... Volunteer testifies E. S. Nikulin:
“In the evening we did not know anything about the motor ship“ Armenia ”yet. At night, at two o'clock we were awakened and led almost in formation down the middle of the street to the port. There was a huge motor ship in the port.
The entire pier and pier are filled with people. We joined this crowd. Boarding the ship proceeded slowly; 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 fighters with rifles stood across the pier and only women with children were allowed to pass. Sometimes men broke through the cordon. The weather was inclement, it often rained. The full moon was visible in the breaks of black, fast-moving clouds. Waves rolled over the pier. A fuel depot began to burn in the city, and huge black clouds of smoke were blown into the city by the wind. Dawn was coming ... ".
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Yalta. Photo from the site poltora-bobra.livejournal.com
Vera Chistova, who was then 9 years old:
“Dad bought tickets, and my grandmother and I had to leave Yalta on the motor ship“ Armenia ”. On the night of November 6, the pier was full of people. First, the wounded were loaded, then the civilians were allowed in. Nobody checked the tickets, and a crush began on the gangplank. The brave ones climbed on board the ship. In the hustle and bustle, suitcases and things were thrown off the board. By dawn, the loading was completed. But we never got to “Armenia”. Hundreds of people stayed on the pier. My grandmother and I went to my father's workshop on the embankment. I fell asleep there. "
How many people were on board when the "Armenia" left Yalta is unknown. Media report 5-7 thousand people ... Some even aim at 13 thousand .
In the "Chronicle of the Naval War 1939-1945" authorship Jürgen Rohwer and Gerhard Hümmelchen(Publisher - Library of Modern History. Stuttgart, 2007) there is a mention of the number of people taken away. But how reliable the data are, and what sources the authors rely on, we do not know:
"..." Armenia "takes from besieged Sevastopol about 4000 wounded and medical personnel with equipment from 11 hospitals and sent to Yalta, where he recruited 800 more people according to official data, in order to evacuate to Novorossiysk ... "
Historian Vitaly Prudnikov in the program “Death of“ Armenia ”. Ordered to Forget "suggests that the ship had no more than 4,500 people- otherwise, given its size, it would have rolled over.
| Vessel | The country | Tonnage | Year | The number of victims | Cause of death |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Goya | 5 230 | 1945
, April, 4 |
~ 7000 | Attack submarine L-3 | |
| Junyo Maru | 1944
, September 18 |
5620 | Submarine attack HMS Tradewind | ||
| Toyama maru | 1944
, June 29 |
5600 | Submarine attack USS Sturgeon | ||
| Cap Arcona | 27 561 | 1945, May 3 | 5594 | Air attack | |
| Wilhelm Gustloff | 25 484 | 1945
, January 30 |
~ 5300 | Submarine attack S-13 | |
| Armenia | the USSR | 5 770 | 1941, 7 november |
~ 5000 | Air attack |
| Ryusei Maru | 1944
, 25 February |
4998 | Submarine attack USS Rasher | ||
| Dona Paz | 2602 | 1987 | ~ 4375 | Collision with a tanker and fire | |
| Lancastria | 16 243 | 1940 | ~4000 | Air attack | |
| General Steuben | 14 660 | 1945 | 3608 | Submarine attack S-13 | |
| Tilbeck | 2815 | 1945
, May 3 |
~ 2800 | Air attack | |
| Salzburg | 1759 | 1942 | ~ 2000 | Attack submarine M-118 | |
| Titanic | 52 310 | 1912 | 1503 | Iceberg collision | |
| Hood, battle cruiser | 41 125 | 1941
, May 24 |
1415 | battle with german ships | |
| Lusitania | 31 550 | 1915 | 1198 | Submarine attack U-20 |
Note, also, that on November 7, 1941, the order of the Headquarters of the Supreme High Command was issued "Not to surrender Sevastopol in any case and to defend it with all our might."
Anatoly Ivanovich Burmistrov, son of a captain of the first rank and senior naval commander of Feodosia, Hero of the Soviet Union Ivan Alekseevich Burmistrov, who broke through to Yalta, preserved his father's memories of these tragic events in his book "Flagship":
“Yalta was also doomed,” says A. Burmistrov. - Father arrived there on November 3. As he said, the city was shrouded in smoke, explosions were heard, there was a firefight. On November 6, practically at night, the motor ship "Armenia" entered the port.
The morning of November 7 came. Father was next to the captain of the "Armenia" Lieutenant Commander Vladimir Yakovlevich Plaushevsky... I advised him to hold out for the day in the port and go out in the dark: it is dangerous during the day.
“I can’t,” he replied, “I received a radiogram from the headquarters: to moor immediately after the completion of loading. I have already booted up. And besides, you yourself know very well that the Germans are about to be in the city. So let's go out. We are designated as a sanitary ship. "
What could one say to this who knew very well about fascism from the Spanish events! But he had no right to order. Sighing, he blessed the captain for good luck. Saying goodbye, he got over to one of the boats that accompanied the ship.
The morning was stormy. This gave hope that everything would be okay. Not without ... Two hours later, after the "Armenia" moved away from the quay wall, fascist torpedo aircraft spotted it. The deadly shells dropped from them hit right on target. "Armenia" stayed afloat for no more than four minutes.
I. Burmistrov managed to pick up only a few people on his boat ... V. Plaushevsky also shared the fate of the ship ”.
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"Armenia" on the set of the film "Treasures of the Lost Ship" by Vladimir Brown, 1935. Photo from the site sirjones.livejournal.com
At the same time, from the notes of the admiral F.S. Oktyabrsky:
“When it became known to me that the“ Armenia ”transport was going to leave Yalta in the afternoon (at 8 am - ed.), I myself personally gave the order to the commander not to leave Yalta before 19:00, that is, until dark... We did not have the means to provide good cover for transport from the air and sea. Communication worked reliably, the commander received the order and, despite this, left Yalta. At 11:00, he was attacked by torpedo aircraft and sunk. After being hit by a torpedo, "Armenia" was afloat for four minutes. "
Was getting Plaushevsky order or not - at 8:00 "Armenia" left the Yalta port ... Despite the danger of day travel, there was a reason for this decision. An air defense battery and a 17th antiboater, which at the same time covered port , filmed exactly the same night. The port was defenseless.
From "Never Fade" Krylova N.I.(Moscow: Military Publishing, 1984):
“... The rest of the troops in Livadia had to be limited to a few hours. At about noon on November 7, they were alerted to continue the march. By this time, two regiments of our 421st division, which for three days together with the border guards held back the enemy near Alushta, took up defensive positions near Yalta itself, and the Germans were in Gurzuf ... "
November 7, 1941. It was stormy in the Black Sea, low clouds in the sky, 2 escort boats are already underway in the protection of the "Armenia" ambulance, 2 cover fighters I-153 "Chaika" appeared in the sky, which patrol at an altitude of 500 m.
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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 scout flew over us , and after a short time above the water, on low level flight, almost touching the crests of the waves (the weather was stormy, and we were chattering thoroughly), 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 roll of the boat reached 45 degrees. The torpedo bomber dropped two torpedoes, but missed, and they exploded in the coastal rocks of Cape Aya. We were struck by the force of the explosion - we hadn’t seen a more powerful one before, and almost all of them said at once that if the second torpedo bomber reached Armenia, it wouldn’t be good for her ... And so it happened. ”
The German torpedo bomber He-111 entered unexpectedly from the coast and dropped 2 torpedoes on low level flight from a distance of 600 m, after which it went into the clouds and disappeared. Cover fighters did not even have time to react to what was happening.
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The death of "Armenia". Artist Andrey Lubyanov. From the documentary film by N. Braiko "Photo from the family album (motor ship" Armenia ")"
At 11:25 am, one of the dropped torpedoes hit the bow of the ship. After torpedoing, the ship was afloat for only 4 minutes. At 11 hours 29 minutes, he sank. Only 8 people were saved.
But there is more evidence - in the "Chronicles of the regiment of Gerasim Rubtsov" Lezinsky M.L. Remembers the former commander of a platoon of machine gunners of the Consolidated Regiment of the NKVD troops, lieutenant N.P. Malyavkin:
“Our defensive detachment of the 184th rifle division of the border troops of the NKVD, performing a combat mission to cover the Primorsky army retreating from Ishun positions, was itself surrounded in the Yalta region.
From mountain heights - Yalta at a glance. We saw 6November("Armenia" left Yalta on November 7 - ed.), in the afternoon, the motor ship departed from the pier of the Yalta port"Armenia" with the wounded. The motor ship had not yet managed to go out into the open sea, when a group of enemy aircraft flew in and, despite the fact that medical crosses were clearly visible on the sides of the ship, they began aimed bombing at the floating hospital ... We heard not only the explosions of bombs, but also the voices of people. I can still hear these screams, if I just close my eyes and remember the terrible days of retreat. I still feel guilty, and my comrades feel that they could not help them in any way. Could not. But we avenged their death - the Nazis pressed on us and we unleashed all the rage on them. "
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View of Yalta from mountain heights ... Photo from the site story.travel.mail.ru;
From the diary Deshkin Nikolai Andreevich, who lived in Yalta during the occupation. Published by his great-grandson:
“5 / XI ... The ship is standing and loading in the port. People are rushing about, and it is not known whether he will leave. Then at night on 6 / XI he, they say, went out, but many people say that he was sunk. Houses at 4 1/2 h.
6 / XI ... Captain Evseev and some other major nervously walk back and forth at the railing of the embankment opposite the street. Litkens. They look all the time through binoculars and so on in the direction of Gurzuf. It can be seen that they are nervous. ... About 10 o'clock. or earlier ... I ran to Kalinin Square. The seaport is on fire, the ship is large at the pier, things are burning on the pier ... I went even later: the flame at the seaport and the ship was intensifying. The wind is not strong from the mountains to the sea.
7 / XI I slept for several hours. Again he ran into the square. The station is dusty in all places. The ship burns brightly, as if even the sea is ablaze all around ...
8 / XI ... The ship that was burning in the port finally sank ... "
On the forum sevastopol.ws where is the great-grandson Deshkina under the nickname gavreluk publishes excerpts from his great-grandfather's diary, he even suggested:
“In general, having delved into this topic, it seems to me that not only“ Armenia ”perished near the shores of Yalta (by the way, its described death and the contradictory evidence suggests that people saw different ships damaged by the bombing, and only later agreed that it was "Armenia"), but also some other vessels (1 or 2).
Vergasov Ilya Zakharovich, "Crimean notebooks":
“The road goes steeply into the mountains, behind Yalta,“ Armenia ”is still on the dock ... The forest suddenly ended, in front of us is the bare Nikitskaya yayla ... We all saw“ Armenia ”at the same time. The motor ship was heading east, leaving behind a diverging foam trail. Two tiny patrol boats accompanied the ship. This is the last transport from the abandoned city, on it there are eleven hospitals, Soviet and party activists of Big Yalta, doctors, many partisan families. There Boris Ivanovich and his family ... And suddenly Zakhar Amelinov shouted: "They're coming !!!"
They, bastards, walked with a crash, howl, swept over our heads in two or three hundred meters. We saw the faces of the pilots. The bombers instantly appeared over the ship, lined up, and an unpunished merry-go-round began. Anti-aircraft machine guns hit from the patrol guards, but can you beat the butt with a whip? The Nazis dived as if in an exercise.
The motor ship broke in half and literally in a matter of seconds disappeared, leaving behind a black hole, which immediately closed under the pressure of thousand-ton waves. The watchmen plow the water forlornly, but apparently there is no one to pick up ...
1966 year. Autumn ... At the top of the Gurzuf saddle, above the village itself, there is a white arbor. "Rose of the Winds" - this is what tourists call it. I am standing in the gazebo. Nearby are two schoolgirl daughters. The sea is below us. I am looking for the place where "Armenia" died. But how to find it! Only one surface of water ... ".
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Gazebo "Rose of the Winds" (right). Photo from the site multisport.kh.ua
And already mentioned above "Chronicle of the naval war 1939-1945":
“When the fighting approaches Yalta, the ship leaves the port without sufficient escort. Before Gurzuf , a few nautical miles behind Yalta, the ship - despite the clearly visible Red Cross (Vitaly Kostrichenko), attacked He 111 DT KG.28 (KTB SKL, part, volume 27, p.139). The ship sinks in minutes, only 8 people are saved. "
So where did the transport sink?
Why, instead of going to the Caucasus, "Armenia" is sent to Yalta?
Why are all the hospitals of Sevastopol being closed down before a long siege?
What does “Armenia” take in Balaaklava?
How many people are on board when leaving Yalta?
What order did Plaushevsky receive on the morning of November 7?
Where did “Armenia” go from Yalta?
How was the Armenia sunk?
Why did they destroy case # 19, who needed it? ...
There are many questions and only one way to find answers is to find "Armenia".
To be continued...
Film "Treasures of the Wrecked Ship" by Vladimir Brown with the participation of "Armenia", 1935. Part 1
Documentary films dedicated to "Armenia":
Materials used: sevastopol.ws/Forums, stapravda.ru, militera.lib.ru, Nepomniachtchi N. N. - Military disasters at sea, 2001, telegrafua.com, tsushima4.borda.ru, sea.infoflot.ru, reibert.info, lostart.ru, svpressa.ru, nvo.ng.ru, sobytiya.com.ua, pantikapei.ru, kp.crimea.ua, ru.wikipedia.org
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Vladimir 20:53 01/29/2015
Voronov knows where Armenia is found, I took part in this search in 2005. Only Yushchenko made money on this. Two halves of the ship lie at a depth of 182 meters opposite Ayu-Dag's head in a hole, and these two parts of the ship rolled down the silt, to Bismork. Latitude and the longitude of this object, I personally recorded and later sent a text message to Voronov on his phone. I write from another computer if you have any questions, here is my email [email protected]
"Armenia" is a motor ship, the death of which was hidden for a long time by the authorities. About a thousand people died on board during the German offensive on Sevastopol. On November 7, 1941, the day of the parade on Red Square, this terrible tragedy occurred. At the southern coast of Crimea, the "Armenia" - a motor ship, which was considered one of the best ships of the Black Sea Fleet, sank to the bottom. It was forbidden to report anything about this disaster. Only in 1989 was the "top secret" stamp removed from a book published by the USSR People's Commissariat of the Navy, which spoke of this tragedy. There were no details in it - only the coordinates and time of the death of warships and ships, including the vessel of interest to us, were sparingly reported.
Characteristics of the motor ship "Armenia"
The motor ship was designed by engineers under the guidance of Y. Koperzhinsky, chief designer. In November 1928 it was launched. This vessel was one of the six best passenger ships that cruised the Black Sea. The cruising range of the "Armenia" was 4600 miles. "Armenia" is a motor ship that could carry 518 passengers in class cabins, 317 deck passengers and 125 "seated" passengers, as well as cargo weighing up to 1,000 tons. At the same time, the ship could reach speeds of up to 27 km / h. The six best ships (except for "Armenia", it included "Abkhazia", "Ukraine", "Adjara", "Georgia" and "Crimea") began to serve the line Odessa - Batumi - Odessa. These ships carried thousands of passengers until 1941.
The motor ship becomes a sanitary transport ship
With the beginning of the war, "Armenia" was hastily converted into a sanitary-transport ship. The smoking salon was converted into a pharmacy, restaurants were converted into dressing rooms and operating rooms, additional hanging bunks were made in the cabins. Plaushevsky Vladimir Yakovlevich, who at that time was 39 years old, was appointed captain. Nikolai Fadeevich Znayunenko became the first assistant. The crew of the "Armenia" consisted of 96 people, as well as 75 orderlies, 29 nurses and 9 doctors. Dmitrievsky Petr Andreevich, the chief physician of the Odessa railway hospital, who was well known to many in this city, became the head of the medical staff. Bright red crosses appeared on the deck and on the sides, clearly visible from the air. A large white flag bearing the image of the Red Cross was raised on the mainmast.
However, these measures did not save the hospital ships. From the very first days of the war, Goering's aviation carried out raids on them. The sanitary transports "Anton Chekhov" and "Kotovsky" were damaged in July 1941. And the "Adjara", attacked by dive bombers and engulfed in flames, ran aground in front of all of Odessa. The same fate befell the “Kuban” in August.
Merits of "Armenia"
The Red Army, pressed by the enemy, suffered heavy losses in heavy battles. There were many wounded. The medical staff worked on board the "Armenia" in any weather day and night. The vessel made 15 incredibly dangerous and difficult voyages with wounded. "Armenia" transported about 16 thousand soldiers, not counting the elderly, children and women, who were accommodated in the cabins of the crew members.
This is, in brief, the history of the "Armenia" motor ship.
Ship protection
Until now, much remains mysterious in the circumstances of the death of this ship. The "Chronicle of the Great Patriotic War ...", declassified in 1989, says that the motor ship "Armenia" (photo is shown above), "Kuban", as well as the training ship "Dnepr" operated from Odessa together with the destroyer "Merciless". saved ships from attacks by German aircraft.
Manstein with the 2nd Army was rapidly advancing on the Crimea. The Black Sea Fleet command was not ready for this attack. Before the war, the exercises of the fleet were limited only to military campaigns and the "destruction" of amphibious assault forces. No one would have thought that Sevastopol would have to be defended from land.
Transportation of the wounded and evacuation of residents
The Germans quickly took control of all overland routes. The civilians of the peninsula (about 1 million people) were trapped. Hitler's trained troops were opposed by scattered units of the Red Army. They didn't give the Russians a big chance of winning. Inhabitants of the Crimean peninsula by the beginning of November 1941 began to leave it en masse. In the cities, with the approach of fascist troops, panic began. People were fighting a real fight to get on any transport.
On the streets of Sevastopol in October and November 1941, confusion reigned. Everything that could be evacuated from the city. The hospitals equipped in Sevastopol itself and in the adits were full of wounded, but someone ordered the immediate evacuation of all the medical staff. Already today, approaching the city, from the window of a bus or carriage in the Inkerman area, you can see boulders and huge piles of stones. These are blown up hospitals located in adits. Only the slightly wounded were evacuated from there to ships on Stalin's orders. E. Nikolaeva, a nurse of this hospital, testifies that the adit, along with the "non-transportable" ones, was blown up so that the wounded would not get to the enemy. A representative of SMERSH supervised the blasting operations. Two doctors refused to evacuate. They died along with the wounded.
FS Oktyabrsky, vice-admiral of the Black Sea Fleet, constantly kept the "Boyky" destroyer with him. He shied away from solving problems related to the protection of hospital and passenger ships and the formation of convoys during the passage by sea. Oktyabrsky believed that these issues should be resolved by the leaders of the civilian fleet. This was one of the reasons why many of the best passenger ships, along with the people who were there, ended up on the bottom of the Black Sea.
Circumstances preceding the tragedy
According to the testimony of eyewitnesses and the documents found, it was possible to restore the events that preceded the departure to the sea of the motor ship "Armenia" on November 6, 1941. The vessel was in the inner roadstead. "Armenia" hastily received many evacuated and wounded citizens. The situation on the ship was very nervous. The German air raid could begin at any minute. The main part of the Black Sea Fleet's warships went to sea on the orders of Oktyabrsky, including the cruiser Molotov, where the only radar ship station Redut-K was located in the fleet.
In Karantinnaya Bay, besides the "Armenia", the motor ship "Bialystok" was loaded. "Crimea" received people and equipment at the pier of the Marine Plant. Loading on these ships was carried out continuously. Plaushevsky, the captain of the "Armenia", was ordered to sail from Sevastopol at 19:00 on November 6. The ship was supposed to go to Tuapse. Only a small sea hunter under the command of P.A.Kulashov, senior lieutenant, was assigned to escort.
Departure of the "Armenia"
Captain Plaushevsky understood that with such an escort, only a dark night could ensure the stealth of the ship and protect it from enemy attacks. Imagine the captain's annoyance and surprise when he was ordered to leave the city not in the evening twilight, but at 17 o'clock, when it was still light. After all, the death of the sanitary motor ship "Armenia" in this case was inevitable.
Leaving Sevastopol at 17 o'clock, the motor ship moored in Yalta only 9 hours later, that is, at about 2 o'clock in the morning. Historians found out that a new order was received on the way: to go to Balaklava and pick up NKVD workers, medical personnel and wounded from there, as the Germans continue to advance.
Exit from Yalta and death of "Armenia"
Plaushevsky was informed that NKVD workers, party activists and 11 hospitals with the wounded were awaiting loading in Yalta. When Admiral F.S. Oktyabrsky learned that the "Armenia" should leave Yalta in the afternoon, he gave the commander the order not to sail until 19:00, that is, until dark. At least that's what the admiral's notes say. Oktyabrsky noted that there were no funds to provide cover for the ship from the sea and the air. The commander received the order, but nevertheless left Yalta. German torpedo aircraft attacked him at 11 o'clock. "Armenia" was sunk. After being hit by a torpedo, she was afloat for 4 minutes.
Did Oktyabrsky really give the order to sail no earlier than 19 o'clock
The lack of documents that were destroyed in 1949 or later casts a shadow on him. Historians cannot but suspect that Oktyabrsky was trying to find an excuse for himself years after this tragedy. But it must be admitted that as the commander of the fleet, the admiral knew the situation in the theater of operations. He knew where the motor ship "Armenia" was and the time when she sailed from the coast. Oktyabrsky also knew that this ship, deprived of security, with the air supremacy of German aviation, was an ideal target for dive bombers and torpedo bombers. The sinking of the motor ship "Armenia" in 1941 in case of sailing during the day was easy to foresee. Therefore, it is very likely that he nevertheless passed the order to wait for the night to Plaushevsky. However, some ominous event happened on the ship, which forced the captain to disobey this order. This is another secret of the sinking of the "Armenia" motor ship.
Who obeyed Plaushevsky
Let's go back to investigate the events. It is known for certain that the initial order given to Captain Plaushevsky was clearly formulated: it is necessary to pick up the medical personnel and the wounded and follow from Sevastopol to Tuapse at night. Then an urgent order was received that in order to save the wounded and the party activists, one must follow to Yalta. The time of departure of "Armenia" from Sevastopol was changed - it was to set off 2 hours earlier, at 17:00. The third order, which was passed on to the captain, forced him to also pick up the wounded and representatives of the local authorities, without going into the Fourth order, which Plaushevsky received early in the morning of November 7 from FS. Oktyabrsky, ordered to sail from Yalta in the evening, not earlier than 19 hours. In a strange way, it was violated. The captain sent the motor ship "Armenia" to the open sea, the death of which became one of the greatest tragedies of the Great Patriotic War.
Plaushevsky undoubtedly ignored this order only because he had to submit to another authority that was on board. She was the employees of SMERSH and the NKVD, who were taken on board. The people who remained on the dock saw how Plaushevsky, before giving the order to return the mooring lines, was furious. He swore loudly and looked like a hunted animal. And this is Plauszewski, whom his colleagues spoke of as an exceptionally self-possessed and cold-blooded person. Of course, the captain was threatened by those who were in a hurry to leave Yalta. They promised him reprisals for refusing to obey.
Survivors
"Armenia", which left Yalta early in the morning, accompanied by a naval guard, was immediately attacked by two torpedo bombers. She did not manage to go even 30 miles. After torpedoing, the ship was afloat for 4 minutes, and then the motor ship "Armenia" sank (1941, November 7). Only eight on board managed to escape. Among them was the serviceman Burmistrov I.A. and the sergeant major Bocharov. I saw the death of "Armenia" and PA Kulashov, senior lieutenant and commander of the sea hunter. When he returned to Sevastopol, he was interrogated by the NKVD for a whole month, and then released.
Search for "Armenia"
It so happened that the maps did not indicate exactly where the "Armenia" motor ship sank. The place of his death can be determined only approximately. American and Ukrainian search engines undertook joint attempts to find the remains of the ship, including with the help of Billard, who found the Titanic. Many possible floodplains have been surveyed. The most modern search engine was used in 2008. The specified square was examined 27 times up and down! The cost of the expedition is estimated at $ 2 million. As a result, a sunken longboat, an old sailing ship, shell casings were found. However, it was not possible to find the skeleton of "Armenia", the length of which was 110 meters.
It cannot be ruled out that the vessel could slide down the slope to great depths, where it is very difficult to find it. Perhaps, somewhere there is the motor ship "Armenia" at the bottom. Photos of this site showed that the nature of its relief does not exclude such a possibility. However, it is also possible that specialists are simply not looking there. The captain, realizing the hopelessness of the situation, could at the last moment decide to move back to Sevastopol, under the protection of aviation and anti-aircraft artillery of the main base of the fleet. However, it is most likely that the Plaushevsky directive, signed at 2 am by Stalin himself, received an order to return the hospital personnel back. The first point in this document stated that Sevastopol should not be given to the Germans in any case. This means that we must look for a ship not near Gurzuf. It is likely that it is located abeam Cape Sarych, west of the place where they were looking for it. This site has not yet been explored.
Let's hope that the "Armenia" motor ship will be found soon. 1941 will forever remain one of the most tragic years in the history of Sevastopol. The events of the Great Patriotic War should be studied in more detail, and "Armenia" was raised from the bottom. The search for the "Armenia" motor ship continues.
