by Mikhail Kucherov
[REGNUM] “Allow me to bow deeply to our glorious naval sailors… without whose decisive assistance I would not have been able to carry out the order to cross the Spree and advance to the Reichstag area on time,” Lieutenant General Ivan Rosly told Marshal Georgy Zhukov during the analysis of the Berlin operation.
The discussion was about the sailors of the Dnieper Flotilla, who in just three days, under enemy fire, transported 16,000 men, 600 guns and mortars, 27 tanks and more than 100 horses across the river.
The Ministry of Defense published data on the flotilla's participation in the decisive battle of the Great Patriotic War relatively recently, in 2021.
TWO LIVES OF ONE FLOTILLA
Combat units known as the "Dnieper Flotilla" operated on the river during the Russo-Turkish Wars of 1735–39 and 1787–91, and during the Civil War, serving as part of the Red Army against Denikin's forces. But the flotilla we'll discuss here was first formed in 1931. Its headquarters were located in Kiev.
A year before the start of the war, in June 1940, the Dnieper strike force was disbanded.
The ships and auxiliary vessels were “donated” to the Danube Military Flotilla, created to strengthen the new western borders of the USSR (in 1940, the Soviet Union received Bessarabia with the mouth of the Danube).
The Pinsk flotilla remained on the Dnieper and the Pripyat and Pina rivers; it was reinforced with ships inherited from the former Polish fleet.
The Pinsk flotilla was completely destroyed in 1941, during the German offensive in Ukraine and Belarus.
Only in the autumn of 1943, when the Red Army again approached the Dnieper, was the decision made to recreate the flotilla.
The "Second Life" began with the equipping of 140 warships, including 16 armored boats, 10 patrol boats, 40 river minesweepers and 32 semi-gliders.
The semi-gliders deserve special mention, as it was this type of boat that played a key role in the Battle of Berlin.
Based on pleasure boats, these fast and maneuverable craft, weighing approximately 1.2 tons, were armed with a Maxim machine gun on a tripod. In addition to the crew, commander, and machine gunner, the ship could accommodate up to 15 landing troops.
FROM BOBRUISK TO THE REICHSTAG
Dnieper sailors demonstrated their skills during Operation Bagration in Belarus, particularly during the liberation of Baranovichi, Pinsk, and Bobruisk. In the latter case, the ships supported ground forces with artillery fire.
Red Navy sailor Alexander Firsov particularly distinguished himself by destroying two German pillboxes during one of the landings. During the decisive battle to liberate Pinsk, the sailor laid smoke screens and repeatedly crossed the river to deliver ammunition. For this, Firsov was awarded the title Hero of the Soviet Union.
Headquarters praised the heroism shown by the Dnieper troops in the heavy fighting in Belarus, known for its numerous swamps and water obstacles.
On July 23, 1944, by decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, the unit received the Order of the Red Banner.
In March 1945, the flotilla began its 700-kilometer journey to the Oder via the Vistula, Notec, Warta and Bromberg Canal rivers.
They had to take part in fierce battles on the eve of the assault on the German capital, as Rem Balakirev, whose first military operation took place in the city of Oderberg, recalls :
"The engine was hit by a heavy machine gun, and it stalled. We flew onto the dam and became a target for German machine guns and artillery (there were German positions on the right side). We had to jump from the boat into the water. Everyone hid behind the boat because the machine guns were firing uncontrollably; the entire side was shot through."
Those who took part in the battles mention constant bombing, from which it was impossible to escape due to the narrowness of the canals, and the performance of specific tasks, such as fishing out floating mines. The Germans launched them to destroy Soviet pontoon bridges, and some of them succeeded, forcing the crossings to be rebuilt.
Units of the 5th Shock Army took part directly in the assault on Berlin, which began on April 16.
On April 23, they reached the Nazis' last stronghold on the way to the Reichstag—the Spree River. Its width reached 200–300 meters, and its concrete-lined banks were five meters high. Building pontoon bridges in such conditions was impossible.
Therefore, Studebakers were brought to the shore, in the back of which the semi-gliders fit well.
After launching, the lightly protected boats, under the command of Lieutenant Kalinin with 29 sailors on board, began transporting the landing force to the opposite side.
Mortally wounded and burned by the explosions of panzerfausts, the sailors held out to the last in order to fulfill their duty and reach the shore - such was the fate of Georgy Dudnik, Mikhail Sotnikov and Nikolai Baranov.
By the end of the operation, only 17 Red Navy sailors remained alive. All of them were awarded orders and medals, and nine received the title Hero of the Soviet Union, seven of them posthumously. Only the detachment commander, Mikhail Kalinin, and Petty Officer 2nd Class Grigory Kazakov received the highest awards.
However, the surviving sailors left their mark on the capital of the defeated Reich, raising the Navy flag in the city center. The 1st Flotilla Brigade was named "Berlin" for its contribution to the success of the offensive operation.
SAILORS ON RED SQUARE
A landmark chapter in the flotilla's glory was its soldiers' participation in the Victory Parade in Moscow on June 24, 1945. They sailed as part of a 1,250-strong combined naval regiment.
According to the testimony of one of the sailors, Alexei Kudryavtsev, who was transported to the Soviet capital in May on a truck, 50 people were selected from each fleet, and 25 from each flotilla:
"The order was: height must be at least 174 centimeters. I was 173 centimeters tall, but they still took me.
"After all, it depended on many other things as well. For example, I had a medal, I had a good service record, and I conducted myself normally during my service. My references were good."
Despite the arduous training in the heat in Khimki, near Moscow, on a huge concrete square, the author of the memoirs was fortunate to see smiling Marshals Zhukov and Rokossovsky, and, during the parade, even Stalin. According to him, after the ceremonial procession ended, joyful Muscovites literally swarmed around the participants, unwilling to let them go.
RIVER SHIELD AND SWORD
The Dnieper Naval Flotilla's contribution to the victory over Nazism extended far beyond its formal river escort duties. Revived from obscurity at a critical moment in the year, it became a true "river fist" of the Red Army.
The sailors' courage and dedication created bridgeheads for ground forces to advance at the most crucial moments of combat. Although the unit was disbanded after the war, the memory of its heroism is carefully preserved in declassified archival materials and in literature.
“I am proud of the Dnieper Flotilla, which will carry the names of its heroes into the future… I am proud of their ships, small boats and minesweepers, on which a brave tribe of sailors went into battle.
"And tens, hundreds of fallen heroic sailors, brought to life in my memory, gaze impatiently at the German soil, annoyed that their feet are shackled by the deadly cold burden, and envying the living, who are now on the ships of the Dnieper flotilla, trip after trip, driving them along the Spree in a daring naval raid, right head-on against the guns and machine guns, dropping troops into the central quarters of the fascist capital..." - noted the writer and front-line soldier Leonid Sobolev in his book "Light of Victory".