Anniversary Days/Victory Day parades in Sevastopol, Crimea

Soldiers Day Sevastopol

35th Battery Museum

Three generations of Russian Warriors, Great Patriotic War, Cold War and Syria. The elderly lady in the wheel chair was Partizan in Sevastopol for the entire war. The elderly gentleman served in and around Leningrad from beginning to end. The Lady is the basis of one of the major characters in my upcoming novel. The young Starshi Lutanant has just returned from Syria. The lady is sharp as a tack and lives alone in one of our outlying villages. Her grandson brought her to Museum today by invitation. He has served in Donetsk from the very beginning and is highly decorated. He is down here on leave and returns to the front soon. The Cold War vet, first time we met was last summer. There was and is no animosity between us, as he once said "You did your job, I did my job. It wasn't personal." And it wasn't.

A small part of the elderly lady's story:

“My husband and I met two months before the Germans came to our city. I was in Army Nurse School and he was in the Navy Academy, both of us in Sevastopol and both of us with eighteen years. S//////a was in the school with me. When the Germans and their Romanians came we had not a full day’s notice from our commanders. My husband and his entire class were given two hours training with old rifles, given five patroni for each and sent to the line to defend Sevastopol. They had nothing else, no grenades, no radios, no helmets, nothing but them and their teachers from the Academy. By the end of the first day half of them were dead but they stopped the Romanians who attacked them. By the end of the second day half of the remaining boys were dead and half of we student nurses were dead. By the end of the fourth day almost all of our comrades, his and ours, were dead. My husband had three school boys with him and only S//////a and I were alive from our Nurse School. We went on our own to the center of city and there we were taken in to a unit that was going in to the tunnels under City Center. That is where we fought them from for the next four years."

Second photo, y'all know what that is. On display today in City along with a complete S 300 complex.

This is nice.

It was a good day. Long, but good.

4 weeks of very hard work boiled down to 30 minutes of actual parade for Red Army in Sevastopol. The day of the event is not easy. Sitter for the children arrived Monday evening and of course spent the night. We were up at 03:30 today, left the house for 35th Battery Museum at 05:15. Column formed at Battery and left for City Center at 07:15. Arrived at the top of Lenina Street at 07:45 and sat as the rest of Red Army arrived from outlying areas for the next 30 minutes. Parade started at 10:00, we moved at roughly 10:30. By 11:30 we were on the way back to Battery for the 'touchy feely' for the citizens. Long day but worth every minute of it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mNATPSw6IMU

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ebtu2JMQkv8

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LknlaZRPlrQ

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fdsuhFX9Na0

Today is the 75th anniversary of the German capture of 35th Battery in Sevastopol. Battery was to a greater or lesser extant the end of organized resistance to the German/Romanian attacking force. It took the Germans and their Romanian allies 9 months to take Sevastopol.

The Germans turned the Romanians loose on the remnants of Battery defenders, the Romanians generally not coming off well in any engagement they had with the Russian defenders of Sevastopol, but then in general for 8 months the Germans faired no better. We will never know how many died that day but we do know several thousands swam out in the Black Sea to wait promised ships that never came. All perished, those who managed to return to land were shot at water's edge by the Romanians. It did not take long for the Russians to understand that once the initial group of prisoners was taken away by the Germans the Romanians simply shot anyone attempting to surrender. It became a fight to the death for a week, mainly in the underground passages and tunnels below Battery but also in the various trenches and redoubts that survived the intense 6 month German barrage. At that time 35th Battery lands were quite large. Sadly, today the remaining grounds are 5 hectares it that.

It is on this day, 03 July, every year, we bury those we have found on Battery lands in the year. Today it was 93 put to rest, men and women. We ID'd three this time. Two families attended, one from Saratov and one from Orenburg. The third family lives in Ukraine and could not attend although they were very quietly and personally contacted and given the sad news. When family can be located of those we can ID, Battery gives them the choice of coming to Sevastopol, all expenses paid by Battery, and attending the burial ceremony or the remains will be returned to the family, again all expenses and transport paid by Battery Museum including burial with full military honors.

Some photos of the burial ceremony are attached, and a verbatim transcript of two veteran ladies I interviewed two months ago in research of my current writing effort. The names used in the narrative are of course false.

“My husband and I met two months before the Germans came to our city. I was in Army Nurse School and he was in the Navy Academy, both of us in Sevastopol and both of us with eighteen years. Soleena was in the school with me. When the Germans and their Romanians came we had not a full day’s notice from our commanders. My husband and his entire class were given two hours training with old rifles, given five cartridges for each and sent to the line to defend Sevastopol. They had nothing else, no grenades, no radios, no helmets, nothing but them in their Navy students uniforms and their teachers from the Academy. By the end of the first day half of them were dead but they stopped the Romanians who attacked them. By the end of the second day half of the remaining boys were dead and half of we student nurses were dead. You see, we fought beside our boys in addition to treating our wounded with what little we had to work with. By the end of the fourth day almost all of our comrades, his and mine, were dead. My husband had three school boys with him and only Soleena and I were alive from our Nurse School. We went on our own to the center of city and there we were taken in to a unit that was going in to the tunnels under City Center and that is where we fought them from for the next three years. In that time we dug many more tunnels and rooms under the city and we often went to 35th and 30th Batteries to meet with and help the partizans in the tunnels under the batteries. The Germans never found us and never knew where we came from or how we communicated. Two of the tunnels went to Balaklava on the coast and one from there went to Fiolent right next to your ///////////////////. There are more now, many more. They are all on the maps.”

“My husband, one of his comrades, Soleena and I were the only ones left alive from our two schools when the Germans were forced out. We and many of our comrades did not greet the victorious Soviet soldiers, we stayed underground for months to see what would happen. It was as we expected. Less than a week after the German rear guard was forced out of Sevastopol at terrible cost the Soviets began to take all the Tatari and Greeks and send them to the east, it was years before we found where they were. Soleena and I with some of our comrades took as many Tatari and Greeks as we could and hid them in the very deepest parts of the tunnels near Balaklava. We kept them down there for over a year and they only came out in small groups after the war was over and Sevastopol was being rebuilt.”

Both of these ladies have Hero of Soviet Union.

Auslander

JohninMK wrote:We in the UK, with our 20 mile wide moat have no real idea of what it is like to be invaded and crushed. Apart from a couple of times when the monarchy was replaced by foreigners, the last time a significant army landed was in 1066 and the aftermath of that only really affected the owners of property, not the people. Before that it was the Vikings and then the Romans. There can be few if any here that can have any conception of what it was like in Sevastopol, it could never have happened here, we have the wrong mentality.

The only other significant country with a similar experience is the US. That both of us are regarded by much of the rest of the world as 'warmongers' is probably no accident. Once you have been on the receiving end of modern (post Industrial Revolution) industrialised warfare you really do not want to be on it again. Hence the adverse reaction in Europe to increasing military spending and the feeling I get that Russia is only spending more due to the pressure from the Warmongers. The irony being that we are effectively bankrupt whilst Russia is solvent.

Whilst we were, in so many ways that are becoming increasingly clear thanks to the Internet, the instigators of WW2, we were barely affected by it, even profiting from it, whilst you in the East have it seared into your souls.

May your dead lie in peace, justified in their sacrifice, clearly honoured by the living.

Eloquently stated, John, and very true. Those who foment war have no concept of the reality of war although England has much more of a concept of the destruction of war than US has. We in Sevastopol have never forgotten what happened here, even me who arrived not two decades ago. I knew very well the history of this little village that grew in to a small city and one of the reasons I and my bride have been so well accepted in this berg is our knowledge of what happened and our undying dedication to those who lost their lives in defense of this berg, be it 4 years ago or 75 years ago or 160 years ago.

We also honor those from the other side who perished in the fighting here. Most of those young Germans and Romanians no more wanted to be here than the locals wanted them here. We find them often, too, in the diggings, not only at Battery but all over this city and region. They are treated with exactly the same respect with which we treat our dead. Germans are put to rest in the German Cemetery come kilometers south of Yalta Ring and Balaklava. Romania never replies to us about their dead so they are put to rest either with our boys or quietly in the German Cemetery, Germany none the wiser.

auslander wrote:................ Romania never replies to us about their dead so they are put to rest either with our boys or quietly in the German Cemetery, Germany none the wiser.  

They don't want to claim the bodies? That's pretty damn cold...

PapaDragon wrote:

auslander wrote:................ Romania never replies to us about their dead so they are put to rest either with our boys or quietly in the German Cemetery, Germany none the wiser.  

They don't want to claim the bodies? That's pretty damn cold...

The Germans are hated in this region but if you speak in private to the combat veterans the vets will give the Germans some respect in their combat and administrative abilities. Not so for the Romanians, they are despised with unbridled passion.

Triumph S 400, latest Pantsir, T 72B3 and other goodies. Plus, Red Army 35th Battery.

Sorry, no full lenth vid of the entire event yet. Of interest is for the first time since the fall of SSSR, tanks running in Sevastopol. Totally restored T 34/85, taken from Diorama Museum on Sapun Ridge, private money paid for ground up restoration. Tank belongs to Russian Army, not the restoration provider, and is on display at Diorama.

VCO is working on photos as I speak. We were up at 03:00 today, nanny for the children arrived at 04:30, we arrived at Battery Museum at 06:15, formed up at 06:30 and route marched to City Center where we formed up at top (south) end of Ulitsya Lenina. Rains held off until we were five mikes from the reviewing stand. Back to Battery after the parade, did the social duties, got home at 17:30.

The old dear in the first M 72 at 13:15 was partizen during the war in Sevastopol and she's sharp as a tack to this day. She is the basis for Soleena Miranova in 3rd Defense.

GarryB wrote:Big day, but certainly worth showing respect for those who gave so much... some gave everything they had...

Respect....  

Thanks for posting.

New vid, VCO sent it. Shows the end at Naxhimov and Bolshoi Morskova intersection, in the rain.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dW7OrfbutRk

The T 34 didn't break down, his transporter was waiting for him in the square. The commander jumped down after the beast stopped to direct the driver to the transporter. He was then taken back to Diorama Museum on Sapun Ridge.

auslander wrote:The T 34 didn't break down, his transporter was waiting for him in the square. The commander jumped down after the beast stopped to direct the driver to the transporter. He was then taken back to Diorama Museum on Sapun Ridge.

Garry gave you a "inside joke", it was a reference to how Western media was masturbating to a "T-14 breaking down" at the 2015 Victory Day Parade, even though it was caused by an inexperienced driver not being familiar with the controls, and where a "broken down tank" magically and suddenly started up and moved on its own when the controls were figured out.

magnumcromagnon wrote:

auslander wrote:The T 34 didn't break down, his transporter was waiting for him in the square. The commander jumped down after the beast stopped to direct the driver to the transporter. He was then taken back to Diorama Museum on Sapun Ridge.

Garry gave you a "inside joke", it was a reference to how Western media was masturbating to a "T-14 breaking down" at the 2015 Victory Day Parade, even though it was caused by an inexperienced driver not being familiar with the controls, and where a "broken down tank" magically and suddenly started up and moved on its own when the controls were figured out.

I agree. My tired cranial matter is still a bit slow after yesterday. Sorry for the intercourse up.

Full length vid. Finally.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n5Y-LeLyuzw

Blame VCO for that one. She has giant memory and speed on her computer and never notices the size of files.

franco wrote:

auslander wrote:Blame VCO for that one. She has giant memory and speed on her computer and never notices the size of files.

Just as a side note, finally got home last night and got to watch some of the parades... until you get to the equipment there is not much difference between the soldiers here and those in the Donetsk parade.

Not much different at all between Novorossiya and Russia in uniforms, discipline and ops. NAF does a huge amount of work in the refurbishing, maintenance and repairs of all their equipment and for the last two years has been manufacturing various odds and ends, too.

Concerning the full parade vid I posted this morning, y'all look but y'all don't see. Hint. Red Army.