Sommers Island: photo, internal structure. How to get there? Desert on the island of Sommers

In the history of the Great Patriotic War there were episodes, information about which for many years were kept in the depths of archives, inaccessible to the general public. Often these were evidences of mistakes made by the command in the course of hostilities, which cost the lives of many fighters. One of these operations - the landing on the island of Sommers, a photo of which can be seen at the beginning of the article, was only recently covered in the press.

The fire barrier at the outlet to the Baltic

In 1942, Soviet submarines intensified their activities in the Baltic Sea, causing considerable damage to the Germans on their main communications. But the passage of submarines from the Gulf of Finland into the waters of hostilities was hampered by the enemy garrison, the location of which was the small island of Sommers. How to get to the central part of the Baltic, bypassing this region, which is mortally threatening, that was the task that required immediate solution.

A year before that, the Soviet Coast Guard unit was based on the island , but, due to the short-sighted decision of the command, it was abandoned, than the Finns who fought on Hitler's side immediately took advantage of. They placed there their garrison, consisting of ninety-two well-armed fighters, delivered artillery pieces and built four strong points of defense, thus turning a small island into an impregnable fortress.

The demoted Admiral

The weather in the summer of 1942 was clear, which allowed the Finns to continuously monitor the surface of the bay and record the movements of Soviet submarines on time. The command of the Baltic Fleet decided to land the Sommers Island and seize it. The development of the landing plan was entrusted to the captain of the first rank GI Levchenko, formerly demoted from admirals for leaving Kerch.

To rehabilitate Levchenko, he needed a successful military operation under his leadership, so it was very important for him to organize a military expedition to the island of Sommers, and he hastily began to execute the order. But he hurried to hurry. While preparing for the capture of the island, many important factors were not taken into account, which later played a fatal role.

Garrison guarding the island

Relying on erroneous intelligence, which they did not deem it necessary to recheck, the developers proceeded from the fact that the garrison was only seventy men armed with two guns. As it turned out later, the island of Sommers in the Gulf of Finland was protected by ninety-two people.

At their disposal were twelve guns (two of which surpassed the caliber of the cannons of Soviet boats), two large mortars, two anti-aircraft guns, and light and heavy machine guns. The Soviet troops on the island of Sommers outnumbered the enemy - two hundred and fifty men, armed with ten machine-guns, participated in the landing, but were considerably inferior in firepower.

Factors not taken into account in the development of the plan

Intelligence did not cope with its task. The data transmitted by her did not give a complete idea of how the island of Sommers defended. The internal structure of the defenses erected on it was not presented during the development of the plan for disembarkation of paratroopers. This greatly complicated the position of the paratroopers. In addition, they did not take into account the natural features that the island of Sommers possessed.

Its internal geostructure is very complex. The broken shoreline is a pile of rocks protruding from the water, the depth around which reaches five meters. Landing boats could not come close to land, and many soldiers, under the weight of their equipment, were drowning, never reaching the shore. This led to a completely unjustified loss of human lives. The radio communication with the air force supporting airborne troops was not provided.

Exit to the sea of amphibious ships

The operation began late in the evening on July 7, 1942. The ships with the Marines left Lavensaari and headed for Sommers Island. The Gulf of Finland on the way to their destination was continuously monitored by a group of aircraft, whose duty was to warn seamen in the event of an enemy. At this time, Soviet bombers, accompanied by fighters, struck a blow for the impact on the island. They were replaced by ground attack planes, who were making attacks from low altitudes. In response, the Finns opened a powerful anti-aircraft fire.

In the unsteady light of the white night the boats approached the island, and the landing began. It turned out that it was impossible to get to the rocky shore, and the boats repeated the attempt several times under the enemy's fire. When unloading, they drowned the radio, thus remaining without radio communication. Not yet stepping on the island, the detachment suffered the first losses. Two boats were damaged by enemy fire.

Unsuccessful operation start

The landing force on the island of Sommers landed in several batches, as the ships approached. The white night, sung by the poets, served the sailors poorly. The surface of the bay was seen at a great distance, and each approaching boat was met by the fire of Finnish artillery. One of them, running away from enemy shells, ran into stones. With great difficulty, we managed to remove the crew and weapons from it.

Others had to carry out losses, landed fighters in places that were not foreseen by the earlier plan. The beginning of the operation did not bode her favorable outcome - of the two hundred and fifty-two participants in the operation, only one hundred sixty-four landed on the island of Sommers. The rest either died under the enemy's fire, or drowned in the Baltic waves.

The Finnish command, having received a report on the attack of Soviet sailors, immediately sent to the garrison of the island considerable reinforcement. Two gunboats and five patrol boats were sent to the combat zone. On the way to the island, they began a battle with Soviet torpedo boats, which, having received damage, failed to stop the enemy.

The capture of the Finns stronghold, and fighting in the air

By this time the paratroopers had managed to seize one of the strongholds by which the Finns fortified the island of Sommers. The bunker was captured, and as a result of a fierce battle of twenty-six of its defenders, only three remained alive. The rest were killed. According to the plan, at this stage, the commander of the operation, Levchenko had to send them a helping hand, but, for some unknown reason, he did not do this, than put the attackers in a difficult situation.

By the middle of the day, active hostilities were unfolding in the air. Soviet pilots inflicted massive strikes on the positions of the enemy and on his ships. The Finnish aviation tried to attack the boats coming up to the island, some of which received significant damage. As a result of the air strikes, the ships of both sides received significant damage.

The second day of storming the island

By the morning of the following day, combat activity slightly decreased. This is due to the fact that the Soviet boats had run out of fuel, and the Finnish sailors had by that time shot all their ammunition. But at that time the first of the German ships hurrying to help the Finns approached the island. It was a minesweeper M 18.

By nine o'clock in the morning the events began to unfold in a direction disadvantageous for the paratroopers. When approaching the island, a torpedo boat was hit and sank, trying to deliver ammunition, which by that time were running out. Finns managed to transport a company of reinforcements to the island of Sommers on the gunboat "Turunmaa" and additional boats, consisting of one hundred and nine people. Their appearance immediately changed the balance of power, providing the enemy with not only firepower, but also numerical superiority.

In the middle of the day the landing of the reserve that had come up to that time began, but it was conducted, according to military historians, so unprofessional and ill-considered that as a result of its outcome there were only new unjustified victims. On the island itself, the battle continued with the same force. There was an urgent need to suppress the enemy's mortar battery, but because of the lack of communication, the paratroopers could not contact either the aircraft or the crews of the boats in the vicinity.

In the ring of enemy ships

Meanwhile, the island of Sommers was surrounded more and more closely by Finnish and German ships that approached almost completely. Their massive fire hit both marines fighting on the shore and the ships that supported them. According to the data available to military historians, during the failed operation to seize this strategically important island, seven Soviet torpedo boats and one "small hunter" boat were sunk. In addition, the gunboat Kama, the basic minesweeper, and also many torpedo and other ships received serious damage. In the sky over the island, four planes were shot down.

Sad Operation Total

This mediocre prepared and planned landing of the landing ended tragically. The island remained in the hands of the Finns until 1944. The losses of our side, the information about which was published only in recent years, amounted to three hundred and fifty-nine people killed and about a hundred wounded. The Finnish side lost one hundred and twenty-nine people in this battle.

Despite the fact that the operation to seize the island was completely failed, this can not be blamed for its immediate participants. They have fulfilled their duty to the end. The fault lies with those who sent people to certain death without providing them with the necessary means of conducting combat, and without providing adequate support to the large ships of the Baltic Fleet.

Today, this island, which became a monument to all who died on its rocky shores, is visited by groups of tourists, whose trips are organized by Russian and Finnish travel companies.