Battleship “Novorossiysk”1955
Giulio Cesare (Julius Caesar) was one of three “Conte di Cavour” class battleships built for the Royal Italian Navy (Regia Marina) in the 1910s. Completed in 1914, she was little used and saw no combat during the First World War. During World War II, both Giulio Cesare and her sister ship, Conte di Cavour, participated in the Battle of Calabria in July 1940, when the former was slightly damaged, but repairs were made.
The ship was transferred to the Soviet Union in 1949 and renamed Novorossiysk (Новороссийск). The Soviets used it for training. While at anchor in Sevastopol on the night of 29 October 1955, an explosion ripped a 4x14-meter hole in the front. The flooding could not be controlled, and she capsized with the loss of 608 men, including men sent from other ships to assist.
The official cause of the explosion was a magnetic bottom RMH mine which is a rectangular box-shaped mine with a wooden case to reduce its detection. During World War II it must have been laid there by the Germans and was triggered by the dragging of the battleship’s anchor chain.
Subsequent searches located 32 mines of these types, some of them within 50 meters from the explosion. The damage was consistent with an explosion of 1,200 kg of TNT, and more than one mine may have detonated. A flash of light was seen from nearby cruisers. Rescue boats approached the battleship, but only a small part of the crew got off.
The crash claimed the lives of more than 600 crew members and among them, 13 were Kursk citizens. By the morning of October 30, the battleship “Novorossiysk” sank. In the last minutes before their death, those inside could be heard singing “Varyag” ( a song of sailors). The remaining inside the ship were desperately banging on metal objects on the sides, giving a message about themselves. The divers stopped hearing their knocks only on the 1st of November. The tragedy claimed 607 lives of Soviet sailors.
A monument to the crew of Kursk origins was made on 26 May 2002 on the initiative and efforts of the members of the Kursk Marine Society. It is located on the territory of the Mikhailovsky Church (Karl Liebknecht, 49). The Church of Michael the Archangel is also called — the Sea.
REFERENCE
1.michaelhiske.de/Allierte/USA/OrdnancePamphlets/OP1673A/Chapter08/Chapter08_02_08.htm
2. topwar.ru/77975-kto-vzorval-linkor-novorossiysk.html
3. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Italian_battleship_Giulio_Cesare
4. gorenka.org/index.php/gorodskie-pamyatniki/3540-kuryanam-chlenam-ekipazha-linkora-novorossijsk
