Motor ship "Armenia", the search continues. The death of the motor ship "Armenia" How the motor ship Armenia was sunk

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” motor ships sailed along the Black Sea. The first motor ships - "Abkhazia", ​​"Georgia", "Ukraine", "Adzharia", "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 Cherno medical service navy. 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, its length was 112 meters, and its capacity was 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 Balaklava

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 were loaded onto the "Armenia", medical and economic personnel of the Sevastopol Naval Hospital (the largest in the fleet), led by its chief physician, military doctor 1st rank S.M. Kagan. 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 route Sevastopol - Tuapse 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, 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. "Armenia" arrived in Yalta. Nazi troops continuously attacked the city. E.S. Nikulin, a man who did not get on the ship, recalled its arrival:

“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 route Sevastopol - Tuapse. 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. However, 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 have caused an earlier 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 a.m., accompanied by two armed boats and two I-153 Chaika fighters, the Armenia sailed from Yalta.

"All hell has broken loose"

In July 1941, the Wehrmacht air force bombed hospital ships in the Black Sea. Then the Kotovsky and Anton Chekhov came under fire, and later, in August, the Adzharia and Kuban sank as a result of air raids. In the hope of preventing possible air attacks, the distinctive sign of a hospital ship - a huge red cross - was placed on board the Armenia. Ships on which such a cross is depicted, according to international law, should not have been subject to fire. But this did not stop the Nazis. To protect against possible raids, four 21-K anti-aircraft guns were placed on the deck of the Armenia, but they did not save her from death. 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 meters. One hit the water, and the second landed right in the bow of the 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 4.5-7 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 screaming - 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 Archives. 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”, only eight 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 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 death of “Armenia” was conducted in the Soviet years by captain II rank, scientific secretary of the Military Scientific Society of Sevastopol Sergei Solovyov. He managed to get acquainted with partially preserved archival documents and with the testimony of eyewitnesses, among which was the testimony of the boat from the sea hunter “MO-04” M.M. Yakovlev, who accompanied the ship:

“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 in a low-level flight, almost touching the crests of the waves (the weather was stormy and we were thoroughly chattered), two enemy fighters came into our area 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 gets to “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 discovering a sunken ship. In 2006, the famous American explorer Robert Ballard began his search, who discovered the Titanic in 1985, and in 1989 — wreck of the German battleship Bismarck. Despite the presence of expensive equipment and machinery, he was unable 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 search for “Armenia,” RT turned to Viktor Vakhoneev, head of the underwater archeology department of the Black Sea Center underwater research. He himself was a participant in the very first searches for the vessel, which were carried out since 2005 by Ukrainian, Russian and American specialists. In an interview with RT, 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. The specialist 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 progress. 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 central region 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” have been found there.

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

"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 ship is mountainous terrain bottom."

In conclusion, Viktor Vakhoneev noted that the history of the death of “Armenia” is full of mysteries. Thus, he expressed doubt about the evidence of 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.

Eduard Epstein

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 dropped torpedoes hit the bow ship and at 11:29 am it sank in w = 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 map diagram 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 - " famous personin world marine archaeology, director of the Massachusetts Institute of Oceanography, 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?..." " famous personOnly at 08:00 November 7, 1941" the medical ship was able to leave and head for Tuapse, " at 8 a.m " 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 morningnear Cape Sarych A German reconnaissance aircraft flew over us,and after a short time over the water, at low level flight, almost touching the crests of the waves (the weather was stormy, and we were shaken thoroughly 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 the memoirs of M.M. Yakovlev (or its retelling?): 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 http://militera.lib.ru/research/nepomniaschy_nn/01.html . 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.
And 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 myself personally conveyed the order to the commander, under no circumstances leave Yalta until 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 following 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 “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 the Kerch Peninsula with all its forces. 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. 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 are three famous beach 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..."). How can we explain the quick time of sinking of the ship - 4 minutes? Its design. A large number of 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 are often did not hold 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 control. survivability. Should we continue to look for “Armenia” or the exact location of its death should still remain unknown? This is a question of politics rather than ethics. If we still want to turn into ruminant cattle, eating popcorn and contemplating the next “Superman” in tights. blue tights - there is no point in looking for the lost ship. But if our history is important to us and we value it, "Armenia" must be found. Materials used:

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 by the battleship Rostislav - “...near Sevastopol, on the range of the Inkerman lighthouses... ”, as it is written on a marble plaque installed in St. Nicholas Naval Cathedral in 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 of 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 entered Yalta, where the wounded, Soviet and party activists of Greater Yalta, and the civilian population of the city were taken on board.

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 of 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 myself personally conveyed the order to the commander, under no circumstances leave Yalta until 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 while awaiting 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 the Russian Geographical Society three times 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 security. 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 is it that 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.

A symbol of large-scale disasters at sea was the death of the passenger liner Titanic, which in April 1912 claimed the lives of about 1,500 people.

In fact, the Titanic is not even among the top thirty maritime disasters with the largest number 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, sank to the bottom.

On November 7, 1941 he died in the Black Sea Soviet motor ship"Armenia", which had several thousand people on board. The tragedy of “Armenia” remains to this day one of the “blank spots” of the Great Patriotic War, since many questions in this story have not been answered.

In the mid-1920s, when the country had recovered a little from the shock Civil War, the government began to think about the development of civil shipbuilding. In 1927, at the Baltic Shipyard in Leningrad, the construction of the motor ship "Adzharia", the lead ship of the series of the first Soviet passenger airliners. In 1928, at the same Baltic plant, 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 height of 7.84 meters and a displacement of 5,770 tons. The ship was served by a crew of 96 people. The 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 Crimea and the Caucasus. The ships coped with their task perfectly, having a very decent speed of 14.5 knots for their size.

floating hospital

With the beginning of the Great Patriotic War, “Armenia” was “called up” for 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, and military doctor 2nd rank Pyotr Dmitrievsky was appointed chief physician of the floating hospital. Until recently, the head doctor was 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 medical ship, the enemy came close to Odessa. The ship had to evacuate not only the wounded from the besieged city, but also civilian refugees. Then “Armenia” began transporting the wounded from Sevastopol. By the beginning of October, the ship 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 Soviet defense lines, occupied one city after another. The threat of the fall of Sevastopol within a few 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 were reinforcements for the garrison of the main fleet base. "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 staff of the Primorsky Army.

Thousands of refugees and secret cargo

Considering that at that 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 Headquarters, which said: “Do not surrender Sevastopol under any circumstances and defend it with all your might.”

However, before November 7, there were no orders from Moscow, so “Armenia” took on board evacuated doctors and others. Actors of the local theater named after Lunacharsky, management and staff of the Artek pioneer camp and many others climbed 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 refugees and local party activists on board. After leaving Sevastopol, an additional order came: to go to Balaklava and pick up a special cargo. The boxes were brought on board accompanied by NKVD officers. Perhaps it was gold or valuables from Crimean museums.

“The brave ones climbed onto the ship using the shrouds”

Here crowds of refugees were waiting for the ship. This 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 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”. Hundreds of people remained on the pier. My grandmother and I went to my father’s workshop on the embankment. I fell asleep there."

At that moment, those remaining on board the “Armenia” seemed lucky. In fact, everything was exactly the opposite.

How many people were on “Armenia” by that time? According to the most conservative estimates, about 3,000 people. The upper limit is 10,000 people. Most likely, the truth is somewhere in the middle, and there were between 5,500 and 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 have successfully evacuated a similar number of people if it had departed from Yalta in the dark. But the loading was completed around 7 am.

Going to sea during the day without virtually any 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 approaching the city and occupied it in just a few hours.

The ship sank in 4 minutes

Before talking about what happened next, it should be noted that historians still have not decided whether “Armenia” can be considered a legitimate military target.

According to the laws of war, a medical ship bearing the appropriate identification marks is not one of them. Some argue that “Armenia” was marked with a red cross, which means that the attack on the ship was another crime of the Nazis. Others object: “Armenia” violated its status by having four 45-mm anti-aircraft guns on board. Still others are completely sure that the ship, which was engaged not only in transporting the wounded and refugees, but also military cargo, did not have the marks of a medical ship.

As 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, Yalta resident Anastasia Popova, spoke about this: “Having gone out to sea, the ship was attacked by enemy aircraft. All hell broke loose. Bomb explosions, panic, people screaming - 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 even remember how I ended up on the shore.”

However, today the version that there was only one plane seems more reliable: the German torpedo bomber He-111, which belonged to the first squadron of air group I/KG28. This was not a targeted attack on “Armenia”: the torpedo bomber was looking for any of the Soviet transport ships on the Crimea-Caucasus line.

Entering from the shore, the Non-111 dropped two torpedoes. One passed by, and the second hit the bow of the ship at 11:25 a.m.

"Armenia" sank in just four minutes. Only eight people on board were saved. The bottom of the Black Sea became the grave for thousands.

Could not find

The mysteries of “Armenia” do not end there. 75 years after the tragedy, the exact location of the sinking of the ship has not been discovered.

The official report on the death of “Armenia” reads: “At 11:25 a.m. (November 7, 1941), the 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 dropped torpedoes hit the bow of the ship and at 11:29 am it sank at w = 44 deg. 15 min. 5 sec., d = 34 deg. 17 min. Eight people were saved, about 5,000 people died."

The supposed site of the ship's sinking has been studied several times. In 2006, Robert Ballard, who found the Titanic at the bottom of the Atlantic, joined the search. In Ukraine it was reported that “Armenia” was about to be found, but this did not happen. No traces of the lost ship were found.

There is an assumption that the real place of death of “Armenia” is not where 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 along the way he was attacked by a torpedo bomber.

This, however, is only an assumption, like much else in the history of the death of “Armenia”.

It will be possible to reveal all the secrets only when the ship’s final refuge is found.

THE BIGGEST MARINE TRAGEDY OF THE SECOND WORLD: JAVAD STAYED WITH THEM

When you look at old documents and photographs from the war period of 1941-1945, 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 your 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 Fortress street. He was fascinated by medicine and after school he graduated from the Faculty of Pharmacy of the Azerbaijan State Medical Institute. Then he worked in one of the Baku pharmacies on Bailovo. I just didn’t have time to start a family. The war came and Javad left to defend his homeland. The family knew that Javad, as a military paramedic-pharmacist, was in the ranks of the 8th separate medical battalion of the Black Sea Fleet. His letter home has also been preserved, where the young man asks not to worry about him and not to send him money.

A regular letter mentioning all the people close to his heart.

And in January 1942 Through the Voroshilovsky District Military Commissariat of Baku, Javad's father received a “funeral certificate” 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 surrounding the death of military paramedic Muratkhanov. These documents were kindly provided to us by Javad Muratkhanova’s niece, Gulnara-khanum Radzhabova, the daughter of Javad’s sister Lumi-khanum Muratkhanova-Amrakhova. This is the same sister Lumi that Javad recalls in his letter.

Thanks to information from the Memorial electronic database, we were able to find out where, how and under what circumstances Javad’s life ended that day.

He died in a sea disaster equal to the disaster of five (!) Titanics, when on November 7, 1941. The ambulance transport "Armenia", on board which was military paramedic Muratkhanov, was sunk as a result of a torpedo attack German aviation at the exit from Yalta.

Registration card of Javad Muratkhanov, stored in TsAMO USSR

This 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 abeam Gurzuf in the area of ​​Mount Ayu-Dag. As a result of a direct hit by a torpedo, the ship broke and sank. Almost all 7,000 people on board were killed.

"Armenia" on the slipway of a shipyard.

Official information about the death of “Armenia” is very scarce. More interesting information gives a “Final report on the combat activities of the Black Sea Fleet in the Second World War of 1941 - 1945.” The third volume of this closed document of the operational department of the Black Sea Fleet headquarters reports that “on November 7, 1941, on the ambulance transport “Armenia” the following were completely lost: “Sevastopol Naval Hospital” with 700 beds, the Black Sea Fleet naval hospital and its property, the 5th medical sanitary detachment, base hospital, and so on... the number of dead was about 7,000 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, basic hospitals, calling in doctors from the reserve. Loading the entire staff of several medical and sanitary institutions onto one medical transport was a grave mistake.”...

The commander of the ship was Lieutenant Commander V.Ya. Plaushevsky. The ship's standard evacuation capacity was 400 people; there was one operating room and 4 dressing rooms with 11 tables. The ship's medical staff: 9 doctors, 29 nurses and 75 orderlies.

Among the members of the medical staff, in addition to Javad Muratkhanov, there were several more of our fellow countrymen:

Akhundov D.A. 3rd rank military doctor - surgeon;
Mamedova A.Kh. - pharmacist
Akhundova Sharifa - dentist

In total, before its death, the Armenia managed to make 15 evacuation flights (mostly from Odessa and Sevastopol) and delivered more than 15,000 people to the Caucasus (an average of 1,000 people per flight).

The ship was not so large (with a displacement of 6,700 tons), and was designed to transport 980 people. But that day, people literally packed into “Armenia” like sardines in a barrel. Eyewitnesses recall that the passengers stood on the deck, huddled closely together. savash-az.

Perhaps military paramedic Javad Muratkhanov could have been saved, but as a medic, soldier and just a man, he chose not to abandon the wounded. He probably also thought - what will I tell our guys from Malaya Krepostnaya?...

Chapel in Yalta dedicated to those who died on the ship

The death of the transport "Armenia" on November 7, 1941 is one of the most tragic cases of death. passenger ships.

November 7, 1941. There is a parade of Soviet troops on Red Square, which attracts the attention of the whole world. At the same time, German troops are fighting their way to Moscow and Leningrad.

And nowhere on this day, in the world media, did the message that was found in the top secret “Chronicle of the Great Patriotic War at the Black Sea Theater”, which was top secret during the Soviet years, pass through. This document states that at the same moments that a parade was taking place on Red Square in Moscow, near Yalta, as a result of a German air attack,

The civilian steamer Armenia sank.

About 7,000 people died on board.

Even today we know almost nothing about one of the largest and most tragic disasters at sea! This disaster claimed 4 times more lives than the tragic death of the Titanic.

The “Seekers” conducted their own investigation to answer the questions: under what circumstances did this tragedy occur, and why the Soviet government hid the very fact of the disaster and its scale throughout all the years of its existence. To do this, we will go to Crimea and study all the circumstances of the tragedy on the spot.

And let's remember... Those who have not forgotten.

The ship "Armenia" was one of the six best passenger ships in the Black Sea. These beautiful high-speed motor ships were popularly called “trotters”. They served the Odessa - Batumi - Odessa line and regularly transported thousands of passengers until 1941.

With the beginning of the Great Patriotic War, the Armenia was urgently converted into a medical transport ship. Luxurious salons and restaurants were converted into operating rooms and dressing rooms. Huge crosses were painted on the sides and deck in bright red paint, and the flag of the International Red Cross was raised on the mast.

The Red Army defended Odessa in stubborn and bloody battles, and the main front retreated to the east, to the Crimea. There were a lot of wounded. Day and night, in any weather, on board the "Armenia" there was a struggle for the life and health of our soldiers and officers. Captain Plaushevsky managed to make fifteen incredibly difficult and dangerous flights from Odessa to the ports of the Caucasian coast, evacuating about 16 thousand wounded and civilians.

The offensive of Manstein's 2nd Army to the Crimea was rapid. Under powerful blows from superior enemy forces on October 26-27 Soviet troops began a disorderly retreat from Perekop. Only on the approaches to Sevastopol, units of the Red Army that had suffered heavy losses were able to organize a defense and put up serious resistance to the enemy. Two days later, on October 29, a state of siege was introduced in the city.

On the morning of November 6, boarding began on the motor ship "Armenia" in Sevastopol. It took place spontaneously, and no one even knew the number of people taken on board. As early as November 5, all naval medical organizations were ordered to evacuate, although a difficult and bloody defense of the city lay ahead. Several naval hospitals, along with the wounded, medical personnel and equipment, ended up on the Armenia.

Suddenly, a message came to fleet headquarters that a large group of senior officials and party members had gathered in Yalta and had to be evacuated. There were enough small ships in Sevastopol that could well have completed this task, but they decided to send the Armenia, although there was no need to risk such a valuable ship. To accomplish this task, the ship was ordered to set sail at 17:00, i.e. two hours before dark. Leaving Sevastopol during daylight hours was already at that time associated with great risk, since the ship could well have been sunk during the transition to Yalta.

Immediately after leaving Sevastopol, a new order followed - to go to Balaklava. There, several boats approached the Armenia, and NKVD officers loaded wooden boxes onto the ship. The day before, November 6, Stalin signed an order for the urgent evacuation of the most valuable property from Crimea. In this regard, it is assumed that the boxes contained gold and valuables from Crimean museums. After this, the ship again headed for Yalta and arrived there only at about 2 am. The loading of evacuees, wounded and hospital personnel began again. Thus, on one ambulance it turned out 23 hospitals - almost the entire medical staff of the Black Sea Fleet.

The motor ship was accompanied by two patrol boats and two I-153 Chaika fighters. The weather deteriorated, a storm began, the sky was covered with low, ragged clouds. At 11:25 a.m. the ship was attacked by a single German torpedo bomber He-111. The plane came in from the shore and dropped two torpedoes from a distance of 600 m. One of them hit the bow of the ship. After 4 minutes, "Armenia" sank. According to official data, about 5 thousand people died. Eyewitnesses claim that there were one and a half or two times more passengers on the ship, since from the lower premises to the captain's bridge people stood in a solid mass. Only 8 people were saved by the boat. According to Ukrainian scientists, 3 more people swam to the shore.

The motor ship was accompanied by two patrol boats and two I-153 Chaika fighters. The weather deteriorated, a storm began, the sky was covered with low, ragged clouds. At 11:25 a.m. the ship was attacked by a single German torpedo bomber He-111. The plane came in from the shore and dropped two torpedoes from a distance of 600 m. One of them hit the bow of the ship. After 4 minutes, "Armenia" sank. According to official data, about 5 thousand people died. Eyewitnesses claim that there were one and a half or two times more passengers on the ship, since from the lower premises to the captain's bridge people stood in a solid mass. Only 8 people were saved by the boat. According to Ukrainian scientists, 5 more people swam to the shore.

It will probably be difficult to find a person who has not heard about the death ocean liner"Titanic". Articles and books are devoted to this story of what happened in 1912, documentaries and feature films have been made, and expeditions have been organized to the wreck of the ship. Of course - a huge maritime disaster, more than 1,500 dead. That's true, but in the maritime history of mankind there are much more terrible examples.

One of the worst maritime disasters (according to some sources, the worst) happened not somewhere in the North Atlantic, but here on the Black Sea, with our ship, and not so long ago. How much do we know about her? But it was precisely during these autumn days, November 7, 1941, the ambulance transport “Armenia” went to sea...

This tragedy has received disproportionately little attention; there are no books, no films, no modest paragraph in a school textbook. Even in the official directory “Ships of the Ministry of the Navy that perished during the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945,” which can be found here, meager lines are dedicated to it:

"ARMENIA"
cargo-pass. m/v, 4727 GRT, ChGMP (Black Sea Fleet). Captain - V. Ya. Plaushevsky (died).
Date and place of death - 07.11.41, south of Yalta, 44°17"N, 34°10"E.
He walked from Yalta to Tuapse with the wounded and cargo; sunk by enemy aircraft. The number of deaths is unknown. 8 people were saved*
CVMA, f. 10, no. 9096, l. 45; d. 32780, l. 8; MF Museum.

Does everyone remember the global disaster with the Titanic? Certainly…. But why do we remember and know so many details about this shipwreck, and do not know about more terrifying and global disasters that occurred on the waters of the world's oceans?

We are left with memory.

Museum of Water Disasters, Lighthouse Temple of St. Nicholas, Archbishop of Myra

In memory of this tragedy, every year on May 9, Yalta port workers go to sea to the site of the sinking of the motor ship "Armenia" to honor the memory of those killed in the tragedy and lay wreaths.

which claimed the lives of our compatriots among other victims of the monstrous Great Patriotic War.

Remember, Lord, the souls of the dead, forgive them all their sins, voluntary and involuntary, and grant them the Kingdom of Heaven.