The story of the flight on April 13, 2016 by Russian aircraft of the American destroyer Donald Cook caused a very violent reaction. Angry comments in the States were noted by the White House, the Secretary of State, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and even presidential candidate Donald Trump, who proposed simply and without any fuss next time to shoot down insolent Ivanov. True, if Trump knew history better, he would not be so categorical.
Kamchatka incident
Clashes between the Soviet aviation and the American fleet (and sometimes the American aviation and the Soviet fleet) began during the Second World War. So, on June 7, 1942, a group of American planes fired at the Soviet cargo steamer "Jurma" in the Pacific Ocean near Dutch Harbor. The vessel received holes in the surface of the side, the oil tank caught fire, a fire broke out on the boat deck, as a result of which 13 crew members were injured. And on October 14, 1944, in the First Kuril Strait, a single American aircraft attacked the Emba tanker, which, as a result of a bomb explosion, received a hole below the waterline. Two people were wounded.
On August 6, 1945, a real battle broke out in Kamchatka between Soviet sailors and American pilots. Border patrol boats PK-7 and PK-10, which left Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky for Ust-Bolsheretsk, skirted Cape Lopatka - the southern end of Kamchatka, when they suddenly received a radiogram: anti-aircraft gunners from the cape noticed two aircraft, identified them as American and did not open fire … Twelve minutes later, two heavy four-engined vehicles were also spotted on the boats.
The commander of the sea hunters, Captain 3rd Rank Boyko, just in case, ordered a combat alert, because the Japanese island of Shumshu was very close. The fears were justified: the first bomber went on a combat course and opened fire - shells and bullets pierced the superstructure of the wooden boat like butter. The Soviet sailors returned fire from machine guns, preventing the second bomber from aiming accurately: three bombs fell in the distance, and only the fourth hit the top ten with shrapnel.
Time after time bombers entered the boats, shredding them with machine-gun and cannon fire. Due to numerous holes below the waterline, the vessels lost their speed and settled in the water. Both radio stations were destroyed, a fire broke out on PK-7. Only the heroic actions of the Soviet sailors (Midshipman Zolotov, descending into the fire-engulfed hold, closed the bulkhead door and the deck hatch, leaving the fire without air, and the Red Navy sailor Dubrovny and the boatswain Chebunin repaired the holes below the waterline) left the boat afloat.
PK-10 had a more difficult time: while they were extinguishing the burning cabin, the water flooded the forward engine compartment. A shrapnel interrupted the gaff on which the naval flag was held, but the Red Navy Bessonov, risking his life, raised the pennant on the stern flagpole …
Promotional video:
On the last, sixth call of the Americans, the artillerymen of the PK-7 stern gun succeeded in the impossible - from an ordinary 45-mm cannon with a single loading to get into one of the planes! Smoke, he turned around and left with another bomber.
The results of the 27-minute battle turned out to be heavy: four people were seriously wounded on PK-7, seven people were lightly wounded, including the boat commander Ovsyannikov. On PK-10, seven people were killed (including the battalion commander Boyko), two people were seriously wounded, including the boat commander, Senior Lieutenant Morelovtsev, and one person was slightly wounded. Only thanks to the skill and courage of the crews, the boats, which in fact did not have the means to fight aviation, survived this meeting with the "allies".
It was later revealed that the strike was carried out by two US naval aircraft PB4Y-2 - converted B-24 heavy bombers. According to the post-flight report, the pilots "missed" by 50 kilometers past the target, found two ships, took them for Japanese and attacked on the move.
In the sky of Vietnam
The next aggravation of relations took place in the 1960s - for example, on July 15, 1964, the Soviet Tu-16R reconnaissance aircraft, which flew out to reconnoitre the area in the Sea of Japan where the American aircraft carrier Enter-Prize was, did not return. And on June 2, 1967, a real detective story took place in the North Vietnamese port of Kamfa: the Soviet motor ship "Turkestan" was suddenly attacked by four planes that appeared out of nowhere. Having dropped a bomb that fell into the sea, they fired at the residential superstructures and were like that. As a result, seven Soviet sailors were injured, one of them died a few hours later without regaining consciousness. The incident caused a violent reaction from the USSR.
According to the Americans, the leader of one of the two pairs of F-105 fighter-bombers, returning from a mission, decided to suppress the long-standing North Korean anti-aircraft point. Coming to the target, he saw tracers reaching towards his plane from a ship stationed in the port, and opened fire on it from an airborne cannon.
In fact, for the shelling of an unidentified vessel (which turned out to be Soviet) and anti-aircraft gunners (who were in Camphus, and it was forbidden to bomb targets in it), the pilot of the plane, Major Tolman, was threatened with a tribunal - all the more so as it provoked an international scandal. However, his commander, whom Tolman had saved his life shortly before, on the flight, repaid for the good and also went to malpractice: he lit up the film of a film gun, which turns on automatically when the cannon fires. It would seem that the trick is in the bag, but the Soviet side soon gave the American one … An unexploded air cannon shell found on the Turkestan. As a result, three - Major Tolman, his wingman Ferguson and their commander Broughton nevertheless appeared before the tribunal.
It is curious that, in addition to the American and Soviet versions of what happened, there is another, also … Soviet, which presents the case in a completely different light. We are talking about intercepted by the Soviet small reconnaissance ship GS-34, which was then in the area, radio communications between the American aircraft carrier Kitty Hawk and … attacking the ship by its deck attack aircraft. This is confirmed by radio interception from the Soviet intelligence ship "Barograf".
After the incident with the Turkestan, the Americans vowed that they would be much more careful, but on June 29, 1967, two US Navy planes damaged the Soviet ship Mikhail Frunze, which was stationed in the port of Haiphong, and on January 10, 1968, on the Pereslavl-Zalessky motor ship was the bomb was dropped. Finally, on May 10, 1972, during a raid on Kampha, the motor ship "Grisha Hakobyan" completely burned down, as a result of which boatswain Yuri Zotov died.
Is it still ahead?
After the Vietnam War, air-sea incidents between the two superpowers began to subside, but still there were tragedies. So, on August 28, 1978, another Soviet reconnaissance plane Tu-16R flew to reconnaissance of a NATO ship formation in the Barents Sea and disappeared. On July 26, 1980, another Tu-16R, during an overflight of an American aircraft carrier in the Sea of Japan, touched the water with its wing and collapsed, the entire crew died.
The last tragic incident dates back to October 16, 1996, when during tests in the Baltic of the Russian nuclear-powered cruiser Peter the Great, one of the Swedish reconnaissance aircraft accompanying him lost control and fell into the water. However, given Trump's rhetoric, will this be the last?
Magazine: Secret Archives # 4, Yuri Danilov
