Possible place of sinking (sinking) of the motor ship “Armenia. The loss of the motor ship "Armenia Motor ship armenia in the Yalta port

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

Although almost all of these ships were built in Leningrad, on the Baltic shipyard(only the last two - in Kiel in Germany), the political leadership of the country decided to express the inviolable friendship of the young Soviet republics in the names of the ships, which was inscribed on the high sides of these handsome men, whom the Odessans dubbed in their own way, calling them "trotters" for their speed.

As for the “Armenia”, it had a cruising range of 4,600 miles, could carry 518 passengers, 125 seated and 317 deck passengers in class cabins, as well as up to 1,000 tons of cargo, while developing a maximum speed of 14.5 knots (about 27 km / h). All these ships began to serve the "express line" Odessa - Batumi - Odessa, regularly transporting thousands of passengers until 1941 ...

With the beginning of the Great Patriotic War the fate of the Black Sea "trotters" changed dramatically. “Armenia” was urgently converted into a sanitary-transport ship: restaurants of the 1st and 2nd class were turned into operating rooms and dressing rooms, the smoking salon - into a pharmacy, additional hanging bunks were installed in the cabins.

39-year-old Vladimir Yakovlevich Plaushevsky was appointed captain of "Armenia", Nikolai Fadeevich Znayunenko was appointed chief officer. The ship's crew consisted of 96 people, plus 9 doctors, 29 nurses and 75 orderlies. The chief physician of the Odessa railway hospital, whom many in the city knew well, Pyotr Andreevich Dmitrievsky was appointed head of the medical staff with the rank of military doctor of the 2nd rank ...

The laconic, self-possessed, always smart captain of "Armenia" Plaushevsky quickly gained authority, and all his orders and commands were carried out immediately.

Huge crosses were painted on the sides and on the deck in bright red paint, clearly visible from the air. A large white flag was raised on the mainmast, also with the image of the International Red Cross. Glancing at him, Plaushevsky quietly said to the chief executive:

I do not think that the Wehrmacht will strictly abide by the provisions of the Hague and Geneva Conventions. The Germans traditionally did not differ in special mercy in wars ...

His words were prophetic. From the first days of the war, Goering's aircraft raided hospital ships on the Black Sea. In July 1941, the Kotovsky and Anton Chekhov ambulances were damaged, and the Adjaristan (Adjara) attacked by dive bombers, enveloped in flames, ran aground near Dofinovka in full view of Odessa. In August, the same fate befell the ship "Kuban".

The Red Army, pressed by the enemy, suffered heavy losses in heavy battles. There were a lot of wounded ... Day and night in any bad weather on board the "Armenia" medical staff worked to exhaustion. Operations, operations and endless dressings. The wounded were everywhere. There were especially many seriously wounded. Loud groans were heard on all decks, people were tormented by thirst. Many women looked after the wounded.

Captain Plaushevsky slept in fits and starts, for many hours without leaving the captain's bridge. He managed to make fifteen incredibly difficult and dangerous flights with the wounded defenders of Odessa and transport about 16 thousand people, whom the crew members placed in their cabins with the tacit consent of the captain, his assistants and the boatswain himself. Thanks to them, many refugees were saved, who at that time were called "evacuees" ...

The pilot and writer Saint-Exupery, who died during the war, said: "War is something that can take so much meat from a person's face that he will forever be deprived of the opportunity to smile at people."

Yes, there are many mysteries in the circumstances of the death of “Armenia”. In addition to searching the archives, we had to interview witnesses of that terrible tragedy, of which, alas, there are very few left!

The book "Chronicle of the Great Patriotic War ..." says that "Armenia", as well as "Kuban" and the training ship "Dnepr", made their voyages from Odessa, accompanied by the destroyer "Merciless", which undoubtedly saved these ships from daring attacks by the German aviation.

The offensive of Manstein's 2nd Army on the Crimea was swift, to which the command of the Black Sea Fleet, including Vice Admiral F.S. Oktyabrsky were not ready. All the exercises of the fleet before the war were reduced to the "destruction" of large amphibious assault forces and military campaigns of the ships of the Black Sea Fleet. It never occurred to anyone that Sevastopol would have to be defended from the land side ...

In October and November 1941, confusion reigned everywhere. Everything that was necessary and not necessary was hastily evacuated from Sevastopol. Hospitals equipped in adits and in the city itself were packed with wounded, but someone gave the order to urgently evacuate all the medical staff. They even tried to evacuate the well-equipped and fortified command post of the fleet. Only the energetic intervention of the newly arrived Deputy for Ground Defense, Major General I.E. Petrova put an end to the terrible confusion. The legendary 30th battery of Georgy Alexander successfully began to operate, with huge shells piercing both sides of German tanks and stabbing the motorized infantry with shrapnel. On the outskirts of Sevastopol, fierce battles began ...

Thanks to the documents found and the testimony of eyewitnesses, it was possible to restore many events preceding the departure of the "Armenia" to the sea from the Sevastopol Bay on November 6, 1941.

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

In addition to "Armenia", another former "trotter" - the motor ship "Bialystok" was loaded in the Quarantine Bay, and equipment and people were loaded onto the transport "Crimea" at the berth of the Marine Plant. The loading went on continuously day and night.

Attention is drawn to the great variety of all kinds of orders given in the most categorical and frightening form, in which, in case of failure, there was a promise of severe punishment "up to execution." There were especially many such orders after the introduction of the state of siege in Sevastopol on October 29. Both Sevastopol and the German command knew very well that there were no Red Army units on the outskirts of the city. Therefore, Manstein gave the order to the 54th Army Corps and the motorized brigade to capture Sevastopol on the move. This did not happen only because the commander of the Primorsky Army, Major General I.E. Petrov (later his historians will call him "the second Georgy Zhukov") managed to make a difficult crossing over the mountains, reach Sevastopol, organize a strong defense and save the city. The mass display of heroism by the defenders of this "southern Kronstadt" was also important ...

But then, on the eve of his death, being on board the "Armenia" and receiving reports from the assistants on the loading progress, Captain Plaushevsky looked anxiously at the sky. He was ordered to leave Sevastopol on November 6 at 19 o'clock and follow in Tuapse. Only a small sea hunter with tail number"041" under the command of senior lieutenant P.A. Kulashova.

Colonel of the medical service M. Shapunov testifies:

“There was an order on November 5 for all naval medical organizations to fold up and evacuate. What caused this strict order? After all, the defense of Sevastopol has just begun (and will last 250 days) ... ”.

A participant in the defense of Sevastopol, Colonel of the Medical Service A.I. Vlasov:

“On November 5, the head of the department of the Main Base received an order ... to close hospitals and infirmaries. About 300 wounded were loaded on "Armenia", 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 were also here ... The 2nd Naval and Nikolaev base hospitals, sanitary warehouse # 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 ... ".

Captain Plaushevsky knew that in the absence of security, only a dark night could ensure the secrecy of the voyage and would prevent enemy aircraft from attacking the "Armenia". Imagine his surprise and annoyance when he was given the order of the Military Council of the Fleet to leave Sevastopol not in the evening twilight, but two hours earlier, that is, at 17 o'clock, in the daytime!

Such an order promised death, and some historians were inclined to believe that it came from the depths of the Abwehr, Admiral Canaris, from his special services, engaged in "disinformation".

Colonel I.M. Velichenko, a former secret communications specialist under the commander of the Black Sea Fleet:

“On that day, Rear Admiral N.M. Kulakov, that a large group of leading workers and party activists gathered in the city, who have nothing to evacuate ... the choice fell on "Armenia", and she went to her death ... ". However, “Armenia” managed to slip through to Yalta.

But here's a riddle. "Armenia", leaving Sevastopol at 17 o'clock, moored in Yalta only after 9 hours (?!), That is, about 2 o'clock in the morning. It turns out that on the way there was a new order to make an entry into Balaklava and pick up the NKVD workers, the wounded and medical personnel there, for the Germans continue to advance.

In fact, the situation was not so threatening, and people could be taken by other ships. Captain Plauszewski was well aware that such a precious night time was decreasing inexorably, and nevertheless he could not ignore the new "murderous" order!

The sea was stormy, in the sky ragged low clouds. “Armenia”, having moored, immediately set about loading people, which were gathered on the quay in great numbers.

There is confusion in Yalta itself. The police are absent. Massandra wines were released through pipes into the sea. Someone is robbing shops and warehouses. All streets and lanes overlooking the embankment are partitioned off by parapets made of bags of pebbles and sand, which is not at all in harmony with evergreen palm trees ...

Captain Plaushevsky was informed that a "party asset", NKVD workers and eleven more hospitals with wounded were awaiting loading in Yalta.

Volunteer E.S. Nikulin:

“Since the evening we did not know anything about the motor ship“ Armenia ”. 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 (that is, all such precious night time. - S. S.)... 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 ... ".

From the notes of Admiral F.S. Oktyabrsky: “When it became known to me that the transport“ Armenia ”was going to leave Yalta in the afternoon, I personally gave the order to the commander in no case 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. "

The lack of documents destroyed in 1949 and later casts a shadow on Admiral F.S. Oktyabrsky, because any historian can suspect that the admiral is looking for an excuse for himself retroactively, years after the terrible tragedy. However, it should be admitted that he, as the commander of the fleet, knew the operational situation at the theater, knew where "Armenia" was, knew the time when it rolled away from the berth crowded with people, he also knew that under the dominance of German aviation in the air "Armenia", devoid of security, is an ideal target for torpedo bombers and dive bombers. Therefore, it is very likely that the order, and even very strict, "to wait for the night", he really passed on to Captain Plaushevsky, but on the "Armenia" some ominous event took place, which forced the captain to violate Oktyabrsky's order. This is another secret of the loss of the ship ...

Let's investigate the events and go back. It is reliably known that the initial order to Captain Plaushevsky was clearly formulated: to pick up the wounded and medical personnel and follow from Sevastopol to Tuapse at night.

Then followed an urgent order, which arose under the powerful pressure of the NKVD (as evidenced by Colonel I.M. The departure time of the motor ship from Sevastopol has been changed by two hours.

The third order, given to Captain Plaushevsky, forced him, without entering the Balaklava Bay, to also pick up representatives of the local authorities and the wounded. People were loaded from fishing boats and boats (testimony of the same N.S. Malinovskaya).

The fourth order, given to the captain of "Armenia" early in the morning by F.S. Oktyabrsky on November 7, ordered to leave Yalta no earlier than 19 o'clock, was strangely violated, and the captain set off on a voyage without security to meet his death.

Let us turn to the certificate of a boatman from the sea hunter MO-04 MM. Yakovleva.

“On November 7, at about 10 am, in the area of ​​Cape Sarych, a German reconnaissance aircraft flew over us, and after a short time over the water, on a low level flight, almost touching the crests of the waves (the weather was stormy, and we were chattering thoroughly), we entered our area two enemy torpedo bombers. One of them began to make a U-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. ”

After torpedoing, the “Armenia” was afloat for four minutes. Only a few people were saved, including Sergeant Major Bocharov and serviceman I.A. Burmistrov. Saw the death of the ship and the commander of the sea hunter, senior lieutenant P.A. Kulashov.

An attempt, through inquiries and correspondence with Odessa, to find other witnesses to the tragedy was also unsuccessful. Ukraine shamelessly checks all letters, and they come with traces of opening and a dirty stamp: "The letter came with traces of glue on the envelope."

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: "The archive of the Luftwaffe has been taken out to the USSR."

The name of Captain Vladimir Yakovlevich Plaushevsky is engraved on the tablets of the Walk of Fame in Odessa, near the grave of the Unknown Sailor, as are the names of the captains of other "trotters" who have found eternal rest at the bottom of the Black Sea. Eternal glory to them!

Seventy years ago, the most deadly sea disaster in the history of our country took place in the Black Sea. On November 7, 1941, off the Crimean coast, Hitler's aircraft sent to the bottom the sanitary ship "Armenia", on which wounded, doctors and residents of the city were evacuated from the besieged Sevastopol to the Caucasus. How many people were on board - no one knows for sure. But according to experts - from 5 to 7 thousand people. 2-3 times more than on the infamous Titanic"! Only a few survived.

Official Soviet historiography did everything to conceal the details of the terrible tragedy. The ends are hidden in the water so that the attempts made in recent years, even with the help of American bathyscaphes and hydroacoustic equipment, to find one of the world's largest underwater mass graves, have led nowhere. The skeleton of the huge "Armenia" has not yet been discovered.

What, in fact, is known from official sources? In the evening of November 6, 41st ambulance transport in last time left Sevastopol. On board - the wounded, medical staff and evacuees. Arrived in Yalta to receive passengers there as well. The total number of people on the deck, in the cabins, corridors and holds of the "Armenia", according to official data, has reached 5500 people. Everything that happened next looks like the recklessness of the transport commander.

It is not known why in the morning, almost without cover, with the complete domination of Hitler's aviation in the air, the overcrowded motor ship left Yalta and, guarded, according to one source, and according to the other, two patrol boats headed towards the Caucasus. At 11:25 a.m. a tiny convoy attacked the German torpedo bomber "Heinkel-111" on the traverse of Gurzuf. He dropped two torpedoes, one of which hit the bow of the ship. Just four minutes later - at 11 hours 29 minutes - the ship sank to the bottom astern. Managed to save according to some sources, 8, according to others - 82 people.

And this is all that is contained in the memoirs of Soviet admirals on this score. Even in the "Combat Chronicle of the Soviet Navy in 1941-1942," published by the Ministry of Defense on the basis of the archives of the Main Staff of the USSR Navy. not a word about the largest naval tragedy of that war. Such blatant brevity requires explanation. I had to go to the archives.

The motor ship "Armenia" belonged to the first-born of the Soviet passenger shipbuilding - the so-called "Krymchaks", the construction of which began in 1926. They were named so because they were intended to transport people between the ports of the Crimea and the Caucasus. Twin-tube motor ships turned out to be successful. They were designed for almost a thousand passengers. With a length of 110 meters and a displacement of 5770 tons, the speed was quite decent - 14.5 knots. In case of misfortune, there were 16 lifeboats 48 seats each. Is it surprising that with the beginning of the Great Patriotic War, it was the "Krymchaks" who were the first to be handed over to the medical service of the Black Sea Fleet for the evacuation of the wounded?

"Armenia" and its brothers "Georgia", "Ukraine", "Adjara" and "Crimea" were turned into floating hospitals by the workers of the Odessa shipyard. Under the bombs of the German aviation, in a hurry, they broke the partitions of the first-class cabins 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. On August 10, 41, "Armenia" was prepared for war.

It was more difficult with the crew. Experienced captain Vladimir Plaushevsky dressed in a naval jacket and began to be called the commander of an ambulance transport. Pyotr Dmitrievsky, a 2nd rank military doctor, became the chief physician of the floating hospital mobilized from the Odessa railway hospital. Huge red crosses were applied to the upper deck and sides, testifying to the exclusively medical purpose of the vessel. But since no one had any illusions about the observance of the civilized rules of waging a war by the Nazis, anti-aircraft machine guns were installed on the ship, which was painted in a khaki color. Only civilian sailors had no time to learn how to accurately hit air targets with them. The enemy was already standing at the walls of Odessa, the wounded in its hospitals and medical battalions came in a stream. Therefore, the crew of the "Armenia" had to, without delay, start evacuating them to the Caucasian ports.

Before his death, ambulance transport managed to take out from Odessa and Sevastopol to The mainland 15 thousand people... His last campaign began in Tuapse in the early morning of November 4, 1941. Having taken on board the marching reinforcements for the Sevastopol garrison, "Armenia", guarded by the destroyer "Savvy", went to the city, the siege of which was just beginning. Moored at the Coal Wharf. And suddenly Plaushevsky received an order: on the way back together with the wounded take on board all medical facilities of the fleet without exception... What exactly - allow you to clarify the memories of a participant in the defense of Sevastopol Colonel of the medical service A.I. Vlasova... Here they are: “On November 5, the head of the department of the Main Base received an order ... to close hospitals and infirmaries. About 300 wounded were loaded on "Armenia", 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 staff), X-ray technicians were also 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.».

Just imagine: the enemy is at the gates, since October 29, Sevastopol has been declared a state of siege, battles are going on fifteen kilometers away, and all hospitals and almost all medical personnel are sent from the city to the rear! I think there can be only one explanation for this - the command of the Black Sea Fleet in those days did not expect that the main base of the Black Sea Fleet would hold out for at least a few days. I believe that this very conclusion, which does not fit with the official version of heroic defense, all the post-war years politicians and censors from history tried to bury under the archival stamps "Top secret". So they hid materials about the death of "Armenia".

I must say - there were enough facts for the pessimism of the Black Sea admirals. 11th German Army Colonel General Manstein in a matter of weeks gnawed at our liquid and ineptly built defense on the narrow Perekop isthmus and at the end of October an avalanche burst into steppe Crimea... Confused, Moscow did not decide who should defend Sevastopol. In the city itself, the garrison consisted of only two regiments of marines and a local infantry regiment. On October 30-31, the 8th Marine Brigade was hastily deployed to help from Novorossiysk. But even with it, the number of the defenders was only about 20 thousand people. How not to arrange them - you cannot fight off Manstein.

Sevastopol was saved, in fact, by chance and military leadership Commander of the Primorsky Army, General Ivan Petrov... After the Perekop defeat, his army in the Crimean steppes was left to fend for themselves. There was no connection either with Moscow, or with the commander of the Crimean troops, Admiral Gordey Levchenko, with his headquarters, which was retreating to Alushta. There were no liaison planes. There was not even an order where to retreat - to Kerch or to Sevastopol? In the small Tatar village of Ekibash, the commanders of the abandoned Primorsky army gathered for a council of war. AND decided on their own that they must save Sevastopol... This, in many respects, allowed the city to become a hero later. But the Primorye still had to reach it.

Eyewitnesses say that their columns in a forced march along parallel roads raced with dust in a race with the Nazis. Ours did not have time. The Germans managed to cut the road to Bakhchisarai. The Primorsky army had to turn on a round, long, but the only free way to the main base of the Black Sea Fleet - to the mountains of the southern coast of Crimea. And the main question was this: who will come out to Sevastopol first? Primorsky or Manstein? Manstein was much closer, and his aircraft in the air did what they wanted.

In such unenviable conditions Fleet Commander Admiral Philip Oktyabrsky had to decide what to do with the city? In any case, there is more than one evidence that, contrary to the official version, he did not prepare for a long defense. Moreover, in early November, when the first volleys rang out on the Sevastopol outskirts, the fleet commander considered it necessary to urgently go to the Caucasus - to check the bases of the squadron being transferred there. As if he had not seen these places before.

The commander returned to Sevastopol on the 10th. And before that, on November 7, a categorical directive from Headquarters came from Moscow, after which it became clear to Oktyabrsky that if he did not save Sevastopol, he would not save himself. Below is its full text.

DIRECTIVE OF THE VGK ​​RATE No. 004433 TO THE COMMANDER OF THE CRIMEA TROOPS, THE BLACK SEA FLEET ON MEASURES TO STRENGTHEN THE DEFENSE OF CRIMEA

In order to pin down the enemy's forces in Crimea and prevent him from entering the Caucasus through Taman Peninsula The headquarters of the Supreme Command orders:

2. Do not surrender Sevastopol in any case and defend it with all your might.

3. Keep all three old cruisers and old destroyers in Sevastopol. From this composition, form a mobile detachment for operations in the Feodosiya Gulf to support the troops occupying the Ak-Monai positions.

4. Detachment of the Azov flotilla to support the troops of the Ak-Monay position from the north.

5. Linkors, new cruisers to base in Novorossiysk, using them for operations against the coast occupied by the enemy, and strengthening the detachment of old ships. Destination of destroyers at your discretion.

6. Part of the ZA from the abandoned areas to use to strengthen the air defense of Novorossiysk.

7. To organize and ensure the transportation to Sevastopol and Kerch of troops retreating to Yalta, Alushta and Sudak.

8.Fighters, attack aircraft and part of ICBM aircraft should be left in Sevastopol and Kerch, the rest of the aviation should be used from the North Caucasian Military District airfields for night strikes on enemy airfields, bases and troops in Crimea.

9. To evacuate from Sevastopol and Kerch to the Caucasus everything valuable, but not necessary for defense.

10. The leadership of the defense of Sevastopol shall be entrusted to the commander of the Black Sea Fleet, Comrade Oktyabrsky, with subordination to you. The deputy commander of the Black Sea Fleet should have our fleet in Tuapse.

11. You are in Kerch.

12. To directly control the defense of the Kerch Peninsula, appoint Lieutenant General Batov.

I. STALIN B. SHAPOSHNIKOV N. KUZNETSOV

What was left for Oktyabrsky? To urgently return from the relatively safe Caucasus to the besieged Sevastopol. And Admiral Oktyabrsky hastened to lead the battle for his main base.

But even the short absence of the fleet commander in the city at the most critical moments gave rise to growing panic. Is it any wonder that the decision was made to urgently load all the medical personnel of the fleet to the "Armenia"? And many more, even artists of the Lunacharsky city theater. Despite the crush on narrow ramps, the “Armenia's” parking lot in Sevastopol was reduced by two hours: it was reported from Yalta that a large group of party and Soviet workers from Crimea was awaiting evacuation there, along with crowds of wounded and refugees. I had to go and get them.

Why was the crew of the "Armenia" entrusted with this reckless business? If it were not for the fatal stop, at its decent speed for a civilian ship, the transport could have safely reached Tuapse overnight: German planes did not fly in the dark. Those who were awaiting rescue at the Yalta berths could well have been taken out to Sevastopol, which is only a couple of hours away. There were plenty of ships and watercraft for this in the main base. In the end, on the very night when the “Armenia” was losing precious hours, docking in Yalta, the 7th Marine Brigade, which was leaving Perekop, was loaded onto the destroyers “Boykiy” and “Impeccable”. The ships took on board about 1800 soldiers and commanders, part of the military equipment, and at 3:40 they left Yalta. At dawn they moored in Sevastopol. However, the point, apparently, is that the evacuation to Sevastopol at that time seemed like salvation to a few of the influential leaders who panicked. If you pull claws from the Nazis, then only to the Caucasus!

The motor ship "Armenia" set off to meet the sinking at 17:00 in the evening. Almost immediately came after order of the headquarters of the fleet: make one more stop at the roadstead of Balaklava and take some cargo from the shore. Who, what - in the short radiogram was not reported. Having stopped the course at Balaklava, Plaushevsky immediately understood why. Boats with NKVD workers approached the board of the transport. Wooden crates were dragged from them onto the deck. According to some researchers, these were valuable exhibits from Crimean museums.

Be that as it may, a few more precious hours were lost. As a result transport entered Yalta only at 2 am on November 7... What was waiting for him at the pier? This is recalled by one of those who really wanted to get on the deck of the "Armenia", but did not manage to do it. As it turned out, to his happiness. Otherwise we would not have read this testimony. Word - E.S. Nikulin: “Since the evening we did not know anything about the motor ship“ Armenia ”. At night, at about 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. A fuel depot began to burn in the city, and huge black clouds of smoke were blown into the city by the wind.».

My family did not get to "Armenia" Vera Chistova, who at that time was 9 years old. She recalls: “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».

Subsequently, in his diaries, Admiral Oktyabrsky wrote that the commander of the "Armenia" violated his order to wait in Yalta on the night of November 8 in order to protect the ship from an air strike. But the experienced captain Plauszewski was not a suicide. Even without the commander, he knew perfectly well what the morning campaign threatened him with. However, panic reigned in Yalta, there was no power, the intelligence of the Nazis rolled unhindered to the city from Alushta, occupied on November 4.

In addition, to carry out the order of the commander of the Black Sea Fleet meant to stand all day in the port, which had never been air-defended. No one would have prevented the German aviation from bombing a huge stationary target right at the pier.

In a word, Plaushevsky decided not to wait until "Armenia" was drowned right in Yalta. And gave mooring lines at 8 a.m. November 7.

By that time, the Germans had not managed to establish any reconnaissance in the port, and the Heinkels were clearly not hunting for the “Armenia”. The Germans probably knew that the ships of the Black Sea Fleet were hastily transporting the troops of the retreating Primorsky Army from the southern coast of Crimea to Sevastopol. And from the morning of November 7, they were probably hunted for them. And then the almost defenseless "Armenia" turned up ... At 11:25 the ship was attacked by a single German torpedo bomber He-111, which belonged to the 1st squadron of the I / KG28 air group. The plane entered from the coast and dropped two torpedoes from a distance of 600 meters. One passed by, and the second hit the bow of the ship. In 4 minutes "Armenia" went to the bottom.

It happened exactly on the 24th anniversary of the October Revolution. A historic military parade has just ended on Red Square in Moscow. Only sounded Stalin's words:"The German invaders are straining their last strength. There is no doubt that Germany cannot withstand such tension for long. A few more months, another six months, maybe a year - and Hitlerite Germany should burst under the weight of its crimes. "

Then many chose to forget this mournful episode of the victorious war. It was more convenient that way. Amazingly, but in the Soviet years, no one tried to find a ship lying at the bottom. The first attempts were made already in independent Ukraine. In 2006, at the request of Kiev, joined the work Institute of Oceanography and Oceanology of the United States under the direction of Robert Ballard... The same Billard that found the Titanic, the battleship Bismar and the aircraft carrier Yorktown, who died in the oceans. The expedition, which cost the Americans $ 2.5 million, passed over the alleged point of death of the Soviet transport 27 times! Found at a depth of 300 meters, even a 20-centimeter length of shells from artillery shells. But no traces of “Armenia” were seen.

In 2009, the Ukrainian underwater robot Sophocles was involved in the search work. Just 270 meters from the point indicated on the map, "Sophocles" discovered an old sailing 30-meter ship. But not "Armenia"! However, the 110-meter ambulance is not a needle in a haystack, is it? Even if we imagine that those who believe that “Armenia” was covered with a thick layer of silt are right, such a mass of metal should have caused at least some magnetic disturbances?

What's the matter? In my opinion, there is only one reasonable explanation - not looking there... The place of the tragedy on the maps is not accurately recorded. Why not consider a different version? Vladimir Plaushevsky was too experienced a captain not to understand what the voyage threatened him throughout the entire daylight hours along the shores of the Crimea occupied by the Nazis. The most reasonable thing he could do was turn to Sevastopol, under the cover of anti-aircraft artillery and fighters of the main base of the fleet.

Of course, without the agreement with the headquarters of the fleet, it was, of course, impossible to do this. But who today would undertake to assert that there was no such agreement? And that there are no traces of such negotiations in the archival documents - after all, there are, for example, no traces of the order for Plaushevsky to follow to Balaklava. It is not even known who gave this fateful order.

In addition, we now know how thoroughly other leaders "cleaned" our archives from the truth that compromises them personally. If everything related to the last voyage of "Armenia" was decided to be carefully hidden all the post-war years, why not destroy some of the materials of the headquarters of the Black Sea Fleet for reliability?

If so, then after leaving the Yalta port, "Armenia" had to go on a course not to the Caucasus. The course was reversed! It turns out that now you need to look for it not at Gurzuf at all, but somewhere abeam of Cape Sarych. There seems to be some logic behind this.

"Armenia" is a passenger-cargo ship of the "Adjara" type. It was built at the Baltic Shipyard in Leningrad in 1928.

On the last voyage I departed from Sevastopol besieged by the Nazi troops, on board had a huge number of wounded soldiers from the hospital, civilians, the leadership of the Artek camp, part of the Crimean party leadership, personnel of the Main Military Hospital of the Black Sea Fleet, as well as an important secret cargo.

On November 7, 1941, he was sunk by a German torpedo bomber near the Crimean coast.
Sank in 4 minutes. Of all those on board, 8 people survived, independently swam to the coast.

According to various estimates, the death toll ranged from 5,000 to 7,000 people. It is possible that the number of victims could be about 10,000.
The coordinates of the place were possibly distorted on purpose. today the following are known: 44 ° 15'00 ″ s. sh. 34 ° 17'00 ″ in. d. / 44.25 ° N sh. 34.283333 ° E etc.
The current location on the map was chosen according to the latest research of the 2005 expedition (15 km from Yalta) and numerous references in various sources - at the intersection of the Gurzuf traverse and the Yalta-Tuapse sea route, and of course also very approximately.

In the magazine "Neptune XXI century" No. 1-6 / 2008, a sensational statement even sounded: "Armenia" was found by a unique search complex:

“In 1998, a group of Russian and Ukrainian scientists developed a special set of equipment for Earth sounding and remote contouring under the ground and under water of various objects and minerals to a depth of 5,000 meters.

South of Yalta ... the search area was limited to a water area of ​​100 sq. km (10x10 km) ...

The work on finding the hulls of sunken ships in this area, determining their coordinates and identifying the vessel "Armenia" was completed within two weeks. At the same time, new technologies were used for the integrated use of the results of special processing and decoding of a space photograph using highly sensitive equipment - a stationary geoholographic complex "Poisk" and active microwave equipment, automatically coordinated with an OR8-76 receiver. As a result, in the search area with an area of ​​100 km2, three sunken ships of various sizes were found, their sizes and coordinates were determined.

The identification of a vessel with dimensions similar in characteristics to the dimensions of the vessel “Armenia” has been carried out. The results of remote holographic identification prove that in this place, at a depth of 520 m, there is a vessel "Armenia" torpedoed into the bow. The vessel lies on the bottom under a layer of 6-7 m of bottom silt, its center is at a distance of 250 meters from the previously assumed point of its sinking (the accuracy of detecting the coordinates of the center of the vessel is ± (6-10) m).

On board (under the upper deck in the superstructure area), signs of finding a significant number of items made of precious metals (silver, gold, platinum) were remotely detected. A visual inspection with a manned underwater vehicle in June 2005 confirmed the presence of a plateau in the area, characterizing a vessel of appropriate dimensions lying on the port side, covered with a layer of silt.

Performing prospecting operations using traditional technologies in large areas of the water area is currently difficult due to the impossibility of attracting divers to search (too great depths), the limited capabilities of hydroacoustic, ultrasonic and television transmitting means for detecting metal objects located under a large layer of soil and at great depths, and also because of high cost underwater work.

The region is located in the Black Sea, 15 km from Yalta. Depths with distance from the coast - 350-1200 m.According to the available information from military archives, at the point of torpedoing of the vessel, the depths are about 380 m, but every 100 m they increase by 80-120 m. ... At the second exit to the sea, the place is flooding was surveyed using the autonomous manned underwater vehicle (PA) "Langust".

Aiming the device at exact location the sinking of the “Armenia” vessel was carried out according to the calculations of the operators of the “Poisk” complex installed on the support vessel. The PA crew, when diving to a depth of 500-520 meters, visually discovered a canyon up to 40 meters deep; on the right slope of the canyon (almost in the canyon itself), a smooth platform about 100 meters long with an inclination in depth of about 30 ° is visible, the depth of the site is 540 meters. When approaching the site, clouds of silt rise from it, and large volumes of silty soil begin to crumble from the slopes. Due to the danger of the PA blockage by silty soil, further exploration of the bottom was terminated.

The sanitary ship "Armenia" was identified by the following parameters:
∞ location of the sunken vessel with the bow to the southeast (coincidence with the general course of the vessel after leaving the port of Yalta);
∞ coincidence of the length of the sunken ship (about 100 meters), a fragment of the severed bow (about 10 meters) is located at a distance of about 40 meters from the ship's hull;
∞ coincidence of the resonant information-energy spectra of samples of copper electric cables and cables from a sunken ship, a sunken fragment of a severed bow of a ship and the same spectra in a photograph of a ship;
∞ reliable fixation of the resonance information and energy spectra of non-ferrous metal screws (2 screws);
∞ clear recording of the coincidences of the resonant information and energy spectra from brass letters on the stern of the ship (by frequencies and by the configuration of the letters);
∞ determination of the characteristic dimensions of the wooden superstructure of a given vessel (only from the navigating bridge to the pipes) and the resonant information and energy spectra of the superstructure tree varieties;
∞ coincidence of the characteristic protrusions on the deck of the flooded object with the location of the pipes on the upper deck of the vessel and the coincidence of the resonant frequencies of the information and energy spectrum from their material;
∞ coincidence of resonance spectra from the metal of the ship's hull;
∞ clear recording of characteristic resonance spectra from precious metals located in following places: platinum and diamonds - under the upper deck in the area of ​​the central part of the vessel (where special postal and luggage rooms are located); gold and silver - in many rooms of the superstructure, where the cabins are superior comfort;
∞ fixation a large number human remains (bones) throughout the ship according to the characteristic resonant information and energy spectrum (on two other sunken ships in this area there is no fixation of such a massive accumulation of human remains). "
www.blackseanews.net/read/28329

However, the veil of secrecy around the sunken "Armenia" has not yet been dispelled.
Historians have established that case No. 19, concerning this tragedy, was removed from the TsVMA and ... destroyed back in 1949. By whom, why - questions that still have no answer.

This disaster is one of the largest maritime disasters in history.

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

Once in the Crimea

At the end of September 1941, Nazi troops under the command of Erich von Manstein captured the Isthmus of Perekop and penetrated deep into the Crimea. The capture of the peninsula was of great importance for Adolf Hitler - it would deprive the Soviet army of air bases and would open the Germans unhindered access to the oil fields of the Caucasus. By the end of October, Nazi forces had consolidated their positions on the peninsula and forced the Soviet army to retreat to Sevastopol, the main Black Sea base. The siege of the city began in early November. 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", "Adjara", "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 outbreak of the war, the "Krymchaks", as they were popularly called, were converted into sanitary transport ships and given to the medical service of the Black Sea Fleet. They carried the wounded, children, women and medical personnel. The vessel "Armenia" was the largest among the converted motor ships. Its displacement was about 6 thousand tons, length - 112 meters, and capacity - about a thousand passengers. Under the leadership of the experienced captain Vladimir Plaushevsky, during August-September, "Armenia" transported about 15 thousand wounded soldiers from Odessa to the mainland. In early November, Manstein's troops fired at Sevastopol from land, air and water. There was a real threat of surrender of the city 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 "Armenia" ship.

Mysterious cargo in Balaklava

The evacuation began on November 6, as ordered by high command the day before. A participant in the defense of Sevastopol, Colonel of the Medical Service Alexander Vlasov recalled the first days of the evacuation:

“On November 5, the head of the department of the Main Base received an order ... to close hospitals and infirmaries. About 300 wounded, medical and economic personnel of the Sevastopol Naval Hospital (the largest in the fleet), headed by its chief physician, 1st rank military doctor S.M. Kagan, were loaded onto the "Armenia". Heads of departments (with medical personnel), X-ray technicians were also here ... The 2nd Naval and Nikolaev base hospitals, sanitary warehouse # 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 ... ".

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

"We never got to" Armenia "

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

“In the evening we did not know anything about the motor ship“ Armenia ”. At night, at about 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. "

Together with the wounded, the staff of the pioneer camp "Artek", the staff of the main hospital of the Black Sea Fleet on board were representatives of the party leadership of the Crimea. While waiting for the authorities to arrive at the landing site, the vessel stayed in the port for several hours longer than the scheduled time. Vera Chistova, who did not manage to get on “Armenia” that day, recalled:

“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” ”.

After everyone was on the crowded deck, the ship was ready to continue on the Sevastopol-Tuapse route. But Admiral Philip Oktyabrsky gave the order to set off after 19:00, at nightfall. During daylight hours, the ship could be subjected to air strikes. But the captain of the "Armenia" Plaushevsky dared not to obey the order, as he perfectly understood that being in an unprotected port from the air was mortally dangerous. At any moment, the Wehrmacht pilots could strike. According to another version, the pressure on the captain from the NKVD officers on board could also have caused such an early departure. Party leaders wanted to leave the peninsula as soon as possible in order to save themselves and not allow the Nazis to seize the secret precious cargo. On November 7 at 8 o'clock in the morning, accompanied by two armed boats and two I-153 "Chaika" fighters, the "Armenia" ship sailed from Yalta.

"Real Hell Begins"

In July 1941, the Wehrmacht air force bombed hospital ships on the Black Sea. Then the sanitary ships "Kotovsky" and "Anton Chekhov" were shelled, and later, in August, the ships "Adjara" and "Kuban" sank as a result of air raids. To prevent possible attacks from the air, a distinctive sign of a hospital ship - a huge red cross - was placed on board the "Armenia". Hospital ships depicting such a cross, according to international law, should not have been fired upon. But that did not stop the Nazis. To protect the vessel from possible raids, four 21-K anti-aircraft guns were placed on the deck of the “Armenia”, but they did not save it from death either. Three and a half hours after sailing, 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 "Armenia" from a height of 600 m. One got into the water, and the second hit right into the bow of the ship. A few minutes later the ship sank.

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

“On November 6, 1941, on the advice of my acquaintances, I decided to evacuate from Yalta. With great difficulty they took me on board, since the "Armenia" was already overcrowded with wounded and refugees. 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 remember how I ended up on the shore ”.

"The death toll is about 7000 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 place of death of “Armenia” and the number of those killed for a long time.

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

“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 11:25 a.m. 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. "

At the end of the above passage there is a footnote to file # 19, which is kept in the Central Naval Archives. Historians recently learned that in 1949 (according to other sources - in 1947) it was classified and destroyed. Little 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 were killed on the "Armenia", 8 people were saved.

Finally, in 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 having lost the stamp "top secret" only in 1989, information about the time and coordinates of the ship's location during the shelling is given. ... The only clue for a future search for the ship came in 1991. It was an extract from a document kept in the materials of the Museum of the Medical Service of the Black Sea Fleet. It dealt with 7 thousand people killed on the motor ship "Armenia", who were attacked from the air near the village of Gurzuf in the area of ​​Bear Mountain (Ayu-Dag).

A special investigation dedicated to the search for the site of the sinking of the vessel "Armenia" was carried out in the Soviet years by the captain of the 2nd rank, scientific secretary of the Military Scientific Society of Sevastopol Sergei Solovyov. He managed to get acquainted with partially preserved archival documents and with the testimonies of eyewitnesses, among which was the testimony of a boatman from the MO-04 sea hunter M. M. Yakovlev, who accompanied "Armenia":

“On November 7, at about 10 am, in the area of ​​Cape Sarych, a German reconnaissance aircraft flew over us, and after a short time, two enemy torpedo bomber. One of them began to make a U-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 everyone said at once that if the second torpedo bomber got to “Armenia”, then it would not be good for her. ”

It follows from this story that the ship “Armenia” on that very morning, November 7, may have been on the way from Yalta not to Tuapse, but back to Sevastopol, because the capes Sarych and Aya are located west of Yalta, in the direction of Sevastopol. Thus, the written evidence made it possible to determine several presumptive places of the ship's wreck, but one way or another, all of them are located in the Yalta coast area.

“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 region with the aim of locating the sunken ship "Armenia". In 2006, the famous American explorer Robert Ballard began the search, who in 1985 discovered the Titanic, and in 1989 - the wreckage of the German battleship Bismarck. Despite the expensive equipment and technology, he never managed to find "Armenia".

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

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

“The main reason why the vessel could not be found in 2005-2006 was the drop in depths. The Black Sea bottom has a very mountainous relief. 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 the bottom is scanned, shadow zones are formed where the vessel could theoretically be. But due to the available dump, the scanning process becomes more difficult. "

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

“We proceeded from the time when the“ Armenia ”left the port, adding to it three hours until the moment of its flooding. Then multiplied by the minimum, average and maximum travel speeds. Based on the data obtained, they drew the radius where the ship could go. The most logical thing is that “Armenia” left in the direction of Gurzuf (east of Yalta), the Ayu-Dag mountains along the coast. But we also scanned the bottom not only in this area, but also in central area 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 "Armenia" in the area of ​​Cape Sarych, confused it with another motor ship - "Lenin". He was blown up in this area by a mine in July 1941. According to Viktor Vakhoneev, the Sarych water area is well studied, and no traces of "Armenia" were found there.

According to one of the versions, the vessel may be under a layer of silt. The interlocutor of RT expressed doubt about this:

"It's impossible. The depth of the vessel was too high. Silt of such height, which would exceed the parameters of the vessel, simply does not exist. The only difficulty hindering the search for the vessel is the mountainous relief of the bottom ”.

In conclusion, Viktor Vakhoneev noted that the history of the sinking of the "Armenia" ship is covered with riddles and secrets. So, he expressed doubts about the testimony of the surviving 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 searches in the summer of 2016. It remains to be hoped that one day this story will also come to an end.

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".

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.

"Armenia" on the set of the film "Treasures lost ship"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 tonnage: 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.

"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 ».

"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) ".

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, 1st rank military doctor 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 ... ".

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. 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 ... ".

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 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.

Let us also note 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 ”.

"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 dangers of day travel, there were reasons 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 resume 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.

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.

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.

WITH 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. "

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 up and down 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 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, with eleven hospitals, Soviet and party activists from Big Yalta, doctors, and 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 pit, 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 ... ".

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, Nepomnyashchy 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 an SMS to Voronov on his phone. I write from another computer if you have questions, here is my email [email protected]