Above the Arctic Circle (WWII)
After the war, when many secret Nazi documents ceased to be secret, it turned out that the
Barbarossa plan did not provide for the action of large land or sea forces in areas that its
authors considered secondary. The fascist generals wanted to prejudge the outcome of the
war with lightning strikes on Moscow, Leningrad, Dombass. They believed that Arkhangelsk
and Murmansk would fall into their hands effortlessly as trophies after victory on the main
directions. Arrogantly counting on the success of the "blitzkrieg" plans, the German high
command wanted to save their naval forces for further struggle with Britain, and possibly
the United States. However, the blitzkrieg plans failed. The war became protracted. Instead
of armored fists, with the help of which the Nazis and their satellites intended to quickly
achieve victory, they had to fight, "spreading their fingers", on a huge front from Odessa to
Murmansk. And yet, when the communications of the Soviet Union with the United States
and Great Britain in northern waters acquired strategic importance, the Hitlerite command
transferred large formations of its fleet here, deciding to act actively. The Northern Fleet,
the most right-flank and youngest of all our fleets and fronts, took part in the fight against
German ships.
In the first days of the war, the situation on our northern borders was not entirely clear.
Under the pretext of defending the Polar Region, German troops, which had previously
participated in the capture of Narvik, were brought up to the Finnish-Norwegian border. On
June 22, it was comparatively calm on our land border with Finland. However, German
aviation already that day bombed ships and airfields of the Northern Fleet. On June 25, the
commander of the Northern Fleet, Rear Admiral A.G. Golovko, reported that the 19th
German Mountain Rifle Corps was moving towards our border. Now there is no doubt that
the enemy will soon go over to the offensive from the Finnish border. It happened on June
29th. From that day on, the war covered vast areas of the North.
The originality of the Northern Maritime Theater is not limited to the harsh natural
conditions. Thanks to the warm Atlantic current from the southwestern part of the Barents
Sea, ice does not interfere with the combat operations of the fleet throughout the year. But
in the northern and eastern regions of the Barents and White Seas, as well as in the Kara Sea
in winter, because of ice, ships cannot sail - 2. The operations of the fleet were seriously
hampered by the polar day and the polar night. On the polar night, the visual search became
more complicated, but in the conditions of the polar day, the secrecy of actions was almost
excluded.
The geographical features of the coast of Northern Norway - an abundance of fiords, steep
high banks, great depths near them - gave the fascist fleet the opportunity to base their
ships in a maneuverable and dispersed manner. Preparing for an attack on the Soviet Union,
the German command kept at the ready in Northern Norway and Northern Finland one
Finnish and two German corps, brought together in the "Norway" group. The plan of the
operation was to capture Murmansk and the main base of the Northern Fleet - Polyarny,
capture the Kirov railway and thereby isolate the Kola Peninsula from the central regions of
the country, occupy Soviet Karelia and capture the entire White Sea basin up to
Arkhangelsk. The fascist German command hoped to carry out their plans in the North at
lightning speed, using mainly ground forces and aviation. The bombers were to launch
massive strikes on Polyarny and Murmansk and destroy the locks of the White Sea-Baltic
Canal in order to cut off the Northern Sea Theater from the Baltic. German naval forces in
the North were insignificant at the beginning of the war. They were based at the ports and
bases of the Varanger fiord, in particular at Petsamo (Pechenga) and Kirkenes.
The length of our Northern Front exceeded three hundred kilometers. The enemy was
opposed by the 14th Army (of the Leningrad Front) under the command of Lieutenant
General V.A.Frolov. Two of its divisions (out of five) operated in the Murmansk direction.
The first wing of the army, defending the Murmansk direction, was supported by the
Northern Fleet. A relatively young of the fleets of our country, he had relatively few ships at
the beginning of the war. There were only eight destroyers and fifteen submarines. There
was also a shortage of well-equipped bases. For anchorage of ships, it was necessary to use
the harbors of Murmansk and the bays of the Kola and Motovsky bays.
The air force of the Northern Fleet was also small in only one hundred and sixteen aircraft,
mostly of outdated types, and only three airfields, tk. alternate airfields and landing sites
were just under construction. There was essentially no attack aviation.
At the beginning of the war, the enemy in the North had superiority in ground forces and
aviation and was inferior to the Northern Fleet only in terms of the number of submarines.
In surface ships there was a relative equality of forces.
The war in the Northern Theater took place in comparatively calmer conditions than in the
Black Sea or the Baltic. There, the tension reached the limit, the fleets were forced to leave
their best bases. s, and this made it extremely difficult to conduct all operations at sea.
Fortunately, we did not have to experience anything like this in the North. In the first week
of the war in the Arctic, hostilities were limited to mutual air raids. The Nazis went on the
offensive there only in the last days of June, and this allowed the 14th Army and the
Northern Fleet to better prepare for a meeting with the enemy.
On the Kandalaksha direction, the Nazis managed to advance somewhat into the depths of
our territory with heavy battles, but they could not reach the Kirov railway.
In the Murmansk direction, despite the superiority of forces, especially in aviation, they
advanced no more than 30 kilometers. Already in August 1941, the Germans fizzled out and
lost the ability to attack.
Our troops left them at the line of the Zapadnaya Litsa River. Even earlier, on July 15, the
fascist regiments, which were rushing to the Sredny Peninsula, went over to the defensive.
In early September, the enemy resumed the offensive in the Murmansk direction and seized
a bridgehead on the eastern bank of the Bolshaya Zapadnaya Litsa River, from which he
continued to threaten the main base of the Northern Fleet - Polyarny.
As early as July 1, the Military Council of the Fleet reported with alarm that in the event of a
further withdrawal of the 14th Army, "the basing of the fleet in the Kola Bay is under
threat." The transportation of goods from the USA and England was to come, and the
Germans could not but understand the significance of Murmansk, judging at least by the
experience of the First World War. Then tsarist Russia forced the construction of a railway
to Murmansk in order to use this ice-free port.
When the struggle in this sector of the front reached particular tension, the question arose
of help from the British. During the negotiations with the British, the situation near
Murmansk improved and the question of sending an English squadron to the North fell
away. British ships and aircraft appeared there later, when the front in the Arctic was
stabilized. Soon, convoys from England and the USA began to move to our shores.
We must pay tribute to the assistance provided to the Northern Fleet by the allies and the
bravery of the British sailors of the military and transport fleet. For example, on July 30 the
aviation of the British fleet delivered a series of powerful strikes on Petsamo and Kirkines,
the real help was the bold actions of the British submarines Tigris and Trident, they sank
several German transports with reinforcements to the troops of General Dietl, who were
trying to break through to Murmansk and Polyarny.
They managed to stop the enemy in the Murmansk direction, and this is the great merit of
the Northern Fleet. He supported the 14th Army with artillery and aviation, landing troops
were disembarked from ships, troops, military equipment, ammunition and food were
transported by sea. From the first days of the war, marines began to form in the Northern
Fleet. Already in early July, detachments of volunteer sailors fought heroically in the ranks of
the 14th Army. They were often used in landings as first throw units and assault groups. The
landing of troops on the flanks and behind enemy lines effectively helped our troops. The
landing sailors fought heroically. The names of such paratroopers as senior sergeant V.P.
Kislyakov, sailor Ivan Sivkov, the first North Sea men - Heroes of the Soviet Union, covered
themselves with unfading glory.
Speaking about the participation of the Northern Fleet in the defense of Murmansk and the
Rybachy and Sredny peninsulas, it should be noted that the plans of the German command
envisaged the capture of Murmansk at any cost and that the Nazis could not capture it. The
German command clearly overestimated the capabilities of its ground forces. The West
German historian W. Hess emphasizes that only Murmansk was the goal of the Norwegian
mining corps. About the Soviet forces on Rybachye, V. Hess writes that the German
command "was inclined to believe that it would be enough to cut off these forces ... they by
themselves will soon lose their significance." The Nazis expected to capture Murmansk by
mid-July.
The German fleet did not provide the coastal flank of its army, advancing on Murmansk, and
she really needed it. The command of our Northern Fleet, already in July, landed several
assault forces in the area of the Bolshaya Zapadnaya Litsa Bay.
V. Hess was also forced to admit that "thanks to the landing of assault forces, the initiative
was retained for a long time in the rivers of the Soviet troops."
The largest of these landings - over six thousand people - was landed on April 28, 1942 in
the area of Cape Pikshuev, which thwarted the Norwegian corps' offensive to Murmansk.
In 1942, the war in the Arctic became a trench war. At the end of July, the Northern Defense
Region was created, which favorably affected the organization of interaction between the
fleet and the troops of the 14th Army.
In the off-road conditions of Northern Norway, the combat effectiveness of German troops
in the Arctic was completely dependent on sea transport. For Nazi Germany, the sea routes
in the North were also important because valuable strategic raw materials were transported
along them: nickel ore from Petsamo, molybdenum, cellulose and iron ore from Kirkenes.
The Northern Fleet not only defended its sea communications, but also sought to prevent
the enemy from using routes along the coast of Norway. Since the end of July 1941 the
enemy had to introduce the convoy of their ships.
Submarines, brought together in a brigade commanded by Captain 1st Rank N.I. Vinogradov,
were the main striking force of the Northern Fleet during the war years. Four divisions of
the brigade were headed by renowned submariners, captains of the 2nd rank M.I.Gadzhiev
and I.A.Kolyshkin, captains of the 3rd rank N.I. Morozov and M.F. Khomyakov. Usually there
were about 20 submarines in service: the boats transferred from the Baltic and received
from the shipbuilders could hardly compensate for the losses. By the end of 1942, the
number of submarines in the North between us and the enemy was approximately equal.
The command of the fleet tried to cover as much of the route of the German convoys along
the northern coast of Norway with the actions of submarines, and our boats also began to
look for the enemy in the depths of the fjords and bays. So, already on the second day of
the war, the submarine "Shch-401" under the command of Senior Lieutenant A. Ye.
Moiseyev entered the Vorda raid and torpedoed the transport standing at the pier. Another
submarine "Shch-402" under the command of Senior Lieutenant N. G. Stolbov, on July 14,
1941, penetrated the Honningsvag raid and attacked the transport at anchor.