Struggle in Soviet Russia - Chapter 629

At the same time that Victor walked into Comrade Stalin’s office building, thousands of kilometers away in the Far East, in the waters off the Gavryushkin Islands and reefs off the Kamchatka Peninsula, there was a ship marked with “PK-10” on the side. The submarine hunter, at full speed, is galloping towards Cape Lopatka, the southernmost tip of the peninsula.

The submarine hunter belongs to the 60th Coastal Defense Detachment of Primorsky Krai. It departed from the port of Petropavlovsk on the peninsula half an hour ago and was about to go to Ust-Bolsheretsk. The normalized cruise operation, according to the routine, should be a submarine hunter and a border patrol boat to perform the task together. However, before the cruise mission started, the border patrol ship that cooperated with the submarine hunter failed. , had to enter temporary maintenance, so PK-10 left the Petropavlovsk port alone to perform this cruise mission alone.

The ship commander of the PK-10 is Lieutenant Colonel Nikifor Ignatievich Boykoden, an experienced submarine hunting commander who, during the war against Japan, had It has won the “Hero of the Soviet Union” medal. Of course, the 60th Coastal Defense Detachment of Primorsky Krai, to which PK-10 belongs, is itself a naval guard unit. Its full name is “The 60th Coastal Defense Detachment of Kamchatka, awarded the Order of Lenin” .

After the war against Japan, Major Boykoden was transferred from the Pacific Fleet to the 60th Coastal Defense Detachment as commander of PK-10, and from the port of Petropavlovsk to Ust-Bolishere Tsk’s cruising mission, he has performed no less than fifty times, an average of once every three days, to use an exaggerated statement, he can walk down this route with his eyes closed.

Recently, the situation in the Far East has been relatively tense. The confrontation between the Soviet Union and the United States on the Korean Peninsula has never subsided. Instead, the two sides have continued to increase their troops inside the Korean Peninsula. This tense atmosphere has now permeated the entire Korean peninsula. In the Far East, even the domestic civil war situation in China has been significantly affected, while in Kamchatka, this tension is not so serious.

As a Navy major, Major Boykoden’s news is relatively well-informed. He knows that the talks between the Soviet Union and the United States on the Korean peninsula are not smooth. The two sides have negotiated twice, and only reached a slightly more important agreement. , that is, the US military does not set up a military base in Hokkaido, Japan. This is also the only concession that the US military stationed in Japan has made to the alliance. In exchange, their request is that the alliance cannot be deployed in Kamchatka, the Kuril Islands and other regions. Rocket Force.

However, the entry into force of this agreement is subject to preconditions. The requirements of the alliance are that the US military must give up the southern area of ​​Korea. Only then can the alliance give up military control of Hokkaido. In other words, even such a simple agreement The content, the Soviet Union and the United States also failed to finalize the agreement.

Major Boykoden is a naval commander. He lacked sufficient understanding of what the “Rocket Army” was. Before that, he only heard that the Alliance has currently formed two battalion-scale Rocket Force units, one of which is the Rocket Army. It is planned to be deployed to the Far East, but its final deployment location has not yet been determined.

It is reported that the alliance is still promoting the improvement of rocket technology. Moscow hopes that the next generation of rockets can hit targets within a range of 3,000 kilometers. In that case, the alliance only needs to deploy one rocket in the port of Petropavlovsk. military forces, it can pose the most direct threat to Japanese mainland targets, including Tokyo. For now, if the alliance deploys this rocket force to the Kuril Islands, it can also pose a direct threat to Tokyo.

Major Boykoden could not understand, what kind of artillery shell can have a range of nearly 1,000 kilometers, and how long does it take to fly such a shell in the air? Nearly 1,000 kilometers, so you can’t fly for more than an hour?

Of course, there is no answer for Major Boykoden to these questions. He doesn’t even know the fact that the “Rocket Army”, which is almost incredible in his concept, has now been deployed to Kamchatka, the Rocket Army camp. In the small town of Zaporozhye near Cape Lopatka.

Today’s weather is very good, and the visibility at sea is very high. Although it is late at night, the bright moonlight spreads on the calm sea, making the whole sea bright. In this month, there are not many good weather like this. See.

Once upon a time, the cruise from the port of Petropavlovsk to Ust-Bolsheretsk was not an easy one, on the contrary, this voyage was a crisis. At that time, the Japanese controlled the waters of the Kuril Islands, and they frequently harassed the warships of the alliance, and the two sides occasionally went on fire. During the Great Patriotic War, although the Soviet Union did not declare war on Japan in the early stage, the navigation of the Allied Navy in this sea area still had great risks, and this risk did not come from the Japanese, but from the United States. people.

At that time, the Americans pursued the strategy of “starting first to be stronger”. Any surface ships sailing in the waters around Japan, once discovered by the US Air Force, would take the lead in attacking. to the American attack.

However, with the end of the war against Japan, this danger no longer exists, and this kind of cruising mission along the route has also become a routine matter. Rest in the captain’s room.

Just after the early morning, the sleepy Major Boycoden was awakened by a shrill alarm sound, and he sat up abruptly from the somewhat narrow bed. Almost at the same time, the loudspeaker in the captain’s room. In the middle, the voice of the radio operator came out. According to him, the ship received an alert from the 1116th Air Defense Company. Three minutes ago, two unidentified medium bombers rushed past the Soviet army. The air defense positions at Cape Lopatka moved towards the waters of the Gavryushkin Islands and reefs.

With his general coat draped haphazardly over his body, Major Boycorden hurriedly left his room and headed straight for the bridge. The 1116th Air Defense Company is deployed at Cape Lopatka. In addition to its own anti-aircraft gun positions, this company also has a high-power radar station. Its function is to monitor the airspace in the direction of Hokkaido, Japan. And from Lopatka Point to the waters off Gavryushkin Island and Reef, it only takes ten minutes at most for the plane to sail. In other words, the two unidentified medium bombers, after six or seven minutes at most, will appeared above them.

In normal times, Major Boykoden would immediately get excited and actively search for the two planes that flew into the Union’s airspace. After all, during the cruise mission, the PK-10 and the PK-10 were sailing in coordination, and there was another aircraft with relatively strong anti-aircraft firepower. The border patrol boat, if the two sides encounter, Major Boykoden is not worried that his formation will fall into the disadvantage.

But today’s situation is special. The PK-10 has no patrol formation, only its own cruise mission. Compared with the border patrol ship, the PK-10, which mainly performs submarine hunting missions, is slightly inferior in air defense firepower. In the event of a firefight, Major Boycorden had difficulty predicting the outcome.

But even so, Major Boykoden is not very worried. After all, it is still night. Although the visibility is good, in the entire waters of the Gavryushkin Islands and reefs, it is unlikely that the two planes passing by are just right. The chance of encountering them is too small.

As a precaution, Major Boykoden still ordered the first officer to issue an order to enter a combat state, and at the same time, turned on the searchlight on the ship, and made a posture of preparing to engage with the enemy aircraft – if Major Boykoden issued the order With the order to keep the whole ship silent, he can naturally avoid these two planes of unknown origin, but he is the naval commander of the alliance, and he is in charge of the task of cruising the route. In the face of the incoming enemy plane, what he should do, It is to warn the other party and try to expel the other party from the territorial waters and airspace of the alliance. If he orders the whole ship to be silent under the circumstances tonight, it is estimated that he will be sent to a military court.

The most important thing is that things like this kind of unidentified aircraft invading the airspace have happened very frequently in the past. The so-called “unknown origin” aircraft must belong to the Americans. Their spying on the coastline of the alliance has never stopped. Pass. Of course, the alliance’s spying on the Japanese coastline is just as frequent, nothing new.

According to past practice, when a ship encounters a U.S. aircraft, it will take a series of warning methods, including warning shots, to drive the other party away. The possibility of a direct conflict between the two sides is very small. To be precise, it is Never happened. That’s why Major Boycorden was so relaxed.

In the shrill siren, two bright lampposts were projected from the ship, shining straight into the night sky. At the same time, PK-10 continued to move towards the south of the sea area of ​​Gavryushkin Island and reef under the shadow of the night. .

The PK-10 has always maintained a daily cruising route, and in this case, the low probability of encountering two aircraft is outrageous, but it is even more outrageous that just ten minutes later, the sky above the ship appeared The red lights flickering frequently, and the two searchlights on the ship shot the beam of light in the first place.

Immediately, according to Major Boykoden’s order, a 12.7mm anti-aircraft machine gun on the ship was loaded with tracer rounds and fired a round in front of the two aircraft, which was to remind the other side to turn around and leave the alliance’s airspace.

According to past experience, the two planes will either turn around and return, or ignore the warning and continue to go further inland. The mission was transferred to the Coast Defence Air Force.

But to his surprise, the two planes that received the warning made a half-arc in the air and dived straight towards the ship.