June 7th, 1943
Gulf of Riga - On the Oktjabrskaja Revolucija, Feldman is more and more worried.
Of course, the dreadnought can count on an abundant anti-aircraft artillery: four 76.2 mm guns, fourteen 37 mm guns, ten 13 mm machine guns and eighty-nine 7.62 mm guns. We can add the flak of the five Novik class destroyers (10 x 45 mm, 10 x 37 mm and 10 x 13 mm), the five ASW BO-class escort ships (10 x 37 mm and 20 x 12,7 mm) as well as the six small minesweepers remaining with the battleship (6 x 45 mm and 6 x 37 mm). But if it is numerous, this artillery is not adapted to the modern air threat.
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These concerns are not those of the few German troopers who try to control the advance of the Soviet marine riflemen, without being able to oppose it. For the Landsers, the intervention of the battleship represents a formidable threat. Of course, the 120 mm shells do not impress them more than that: most of them are veterans who have already suffered 122 mm barrage from the Soviet artillery, administered by dozens of pieces. But the impact of 305 mm shells is not only more destructive but even more frightening
destructive but even more frightening: there are no survivors where they fall. Two or three veterans of the French Campaign think they are back three years, on June 18th, 1940, when, south of Carentan, the Courbet had saluted in its own way the progress of the Phantom Division towards Cherbourg. Like the French battleship at the time, the Oktjabrskaja Revolucija fires slowly, three shells at a time.
Complaints - cries for help, rather - are coming from the German fighting units to the command. At first, they are met with incredulity, because the staffs in charge of the defense of the peninsula believed that the Red Fleet was no longer a danger: in Berlin, the Kriegsmarine was quick to announce the elimination of the Soviet cruisers. But it was not to be. The Luftwaffe is then called upon to muzzle the troublesome battleship.
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To finish off the Lützow, the VVS-VMF command believes that torpedoes are the most effective weapon. To offer the Il-4 the easiest target to hit, the Pe-2 will attack first the destroyers which try to tow the Panzerschiff (indeed, the tugs requested in Memel have not yet arrived). Bombers and torpedo bombers have to attack "without worrying about the possible opposition of the fascist fighters and even less of the flak", say the orders.
Fortunately, the German fighters are composed, at the time of the arrival of the Soviet raid, of a dozen Bf 110. It is true that the Bf 109s are engaged on the ground front, that the Irbe Strait is far from their bases and (perhaps especially) that the request for fighter cover took a long time to be passed on from the Kriegsmarine to the Luftwaffe...
The Yak-9s and the La-5s chase without too much difficulty the German twin-engines and the Pe-2s dive on the destroyers which are pulling the trailers. The Z-30 is shaken by several near-misses and breaks its trailer. As a result, the Z-23 does the same.
When the Il-4s appear, in groups of three, the target is perfect and the Lützow's flak was badly damaged the night before by the Kirov's shells. In spite of their inexperience, the Soviet crews will obtain there the greatest success in the history of the VVS-VMF. Out of thirty torpedoes, five hit. We imagine how many torpedoes Japanese planes would have hit the target in the same conditions, but these five will suffice - especially since they are all on the port side: with their target immobilized, the Il-4s are all able to attack from the same side.
At 11h18, the Lützow capsizes and sinks.
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Curiously, another naval drama is played out at about the same time, on the other side of Courland.
Hauptmann Steentz leads eighteen Stukas of the 1./StG 2, covered by ten Bf 109 F.
Around 11:15, the German aircraft arrive in the area. The Soviet fighters in cover - at this moment, six Yak-9 - try to oppose the attackers, but the Bf 109s of the escort repel them, shooting down three of them in exchange for one of their own. The Stukas are able to attack in two waves, the first led by Steentz himself, the second led by the already famous Hans-Ulrich Rudel (promoted to Hauptmann two months earlier).
As the enemy aircraft approach, Commander Feldman sets a course to the northeast to move away from the coast and maneuver, since his only means of defense are now his flak and evasive maneuvers. Without a fighter control officer on board, like on the large ships of the Western navies, it cannot call other fighters for help. The Oktjabrskaja Revlolucija starts a series of laces to derail the aim of the Stuka pilots.
The first bomb, that of the Hauptmann Steenz, pierces the bridge at the foot of the command tower, between this one and the B turret. It finishes its course in the front boiler room where its explosion causes the boilers to explode, killing all the members of the personnel. With the dreadnought at battle stations, the forward boiler room feeds the forward turbine group while the aft boiler room feeds the aft group.
In the front engine room, the mechanical engineer in charge notices that his turbines are no longer supplied with steam. He orders the mechanics to isolate the steam manifold to the front and opens the valves to receive the steam from the rear boiler room. The operation only takes a few minutes, but during this time, if the second and third Stukas miss their target, the bomb of the fourth hits the starboard deck above the same boiler room and, by exploding, opens a 2 m2 breach in the plating, below the waterline. The important water entry causes the ship to list on this side. Sensing that the injury could be fatal, Commander Feldman has the battleship lowered to port and beached on the coast, which is still close. This unexpected maneuver disorients the last five Stukas of the group, whose remaining bombs fall into the sea; only a few shards injure some of the gunners. Even better for the crew's morale, the battleship's riposte shoots down one of the attackers.
Although desperate, the maneuver succeeds and the Oktjabrskaja Revolucija manages to throw itself to the coast. But the ship, although severely damaged, is not out of action,
as shown by the relentless, albeit ineffective, fire from its flak. Rudel dives in turn, ordering his eight crewmen to space out their dives. His bomb pierces the front deck just in front of the triple 305 mm turret. It explodes in the cargo bay, blowing up the ammunition in a burst of flame and black smoke. When the cloud of smoke dissipates, the foredeck is separated from the rest of the ship, while the A turret and the command tower have simply disappeared - and with them, Captain Feldman and three hundred and twenty-nine crew members.
Faced with the state of the battleship, the last eight Stukas turn away from the wreckage and go bomb the Soviet destroyers. But hitting small targets zigzagging at twenty-five knots is not an easy job for novice pilots. Only the Volodarskij is shaken by a bomb that falls nearby, breaking part of its hull but without opening a breach. The other destroyers are unharmed. One of the attackers is hit in the left landing gear leg; when landing, it will break and the plane will fall apart, killing pilot and gunner.
On board the rear of the battleship, which still floats (only the bow is stranded), the surviving officers notice that the rear part of the B turret is structurally intact. The shock wave has defused the supply pumps and extinguished the boilers, depriving the ship of all power. Other auxiliaries stop and the electrical breakers trip. Lieutenant Petr Borisovich Grishin, who is the second in command of the artillery (he is the oldest surviving officer!) gives the order to four minesweepers to push on the hull in order to place it
so as to arrange it parallel to the shore. Then, by voluntarily filling in some double bottoms, the mechanical engineer Maksim Petrovitch Belaev completes to beach the battleship with a slight list of 2° on port side.
All afternoon, by the light of the emergency lighting, part of the crew isolates all the pipes and electrical circuits broken in the explosion. Another part of the crew sponges up the watertight bulkhead that separates the forward boiler room from the forward engine room. On the deck, the flak teams are keeping watch while the VVS-VMFs from Baltic Command have reinforced their their cover - it is true that now the hunt over the landing zone can cover both the Marine infantry and the Oktjabrskaja Revolucija.
The night does not interrupt the frenetic activity of Soviet sailors.
