The Battle of Sukho Island, also known as Operation Brazil (), was an amphibious operation and naval engagement on Lake Ladoga between the Soviet Navy and a German naval detachment during World War II.
Background During the siege of Leningrad the Soviets moved supplies to the city through Lake Ladoga. The Axis deployed the Finnish Ladoga Naval Detachment, Naval Detachment K (including the Italian ), and the German , to interdict the route;Kijanen, Kalervo (1968). Suomen Laivasto 1918–1968 II. Helsinki: Meriupseeriyhdistys/Otava. pp. 185–197. the Italian unit conducted MAS attacks.Ruge, F. (1979), The Soviets as Naval Opponents , p. 26, . The combined Axis force failed to significantly interrupt traffic.
The culmination of Axis operations was the raid against Sukho Island, from the southern shore of the lake, which covered supply lines and the approaches to Soviet bases.
Axis forces
The attack was commanded by Max Wachtel. The flotilla was composed of 16 Siebel ferries, seven infantry boats (, also known as ), and three Italian MAS boats (two of which escorted the landing force to Sukho Island and subsequently returned to base).
Seven combat ferries (SF 11, SF 13, SF 15, SF 17, SF 21, SF 23, SF 25) were fitted with heavy anti-aircraft weapons. Four combat ferries (SF 12, SF 14, SF 22, SF 26) were fitted with light anti-aircraft weapons. A 70-troop landing party was carried aboard three transport ferries (T 2, T 4, T 6), and allocated five of the . There was also one HQ ferry and one hospital ferry.
German and Finnish fighter aircraft provided air cover for the landing force during the battle.
Soviet forces
Garrison of Sukho Three /56-caliber coastal guns, one 12.7 mm DShK anti-aircraft (AA) machine gun, one 7.62 mm PM M1910 AA machine gun, one quadruple 7.62 mm AA machine gun mount, troops under the command of Senior Lieutenant Ivan Gusev.
Screening force off Sukho The minesweeper (formerly the Finnish gunboat Aunus from 1919 to 1940, originally a 1900-built icebreaking river tug commissioned into naval service) commanded by Senior Lieutenant Pyotr Kargin, and the patrol boat under the command of Senior Lieutenant Vladimir Kovalevsky.
These Soviet warships patrolled the waterway area near Sukho Island on the night of October , 1942, and participated in the battle during the Axis landing.
Pursuing force from Naval Base Morye The Moskva-class gunboats Bira and Selemdzha, and the s and (towed by the gunboats), under the command of Captain 1st Rank Nikolai Ozarovsky. The MO-class patrol boats and , and the Type 1124BKA armoured motor gunboats and , commanded by Senior Lieutenant Nikolai Yepikhin.
These Soviet naval forces departed from sometime after receiving a radio message from about the Axis landing on Sukho Island and went on to participate in the battle during the pursuit phase.
Pursuing force from Naval Base Novaya Ladoga The Moskva-class gunboat Nora, the Izhorets-class minesweepers , , and , and the MO-class patrol boats , , and , under the command of Captain 3rd Rank Pyotr Kuriat.
This Soviet naval detachment departed from Novaya Ladoga sometime after receiving a radio message from about the Axis landing on Sukho Island. According to some sources, the force arrived too late to intercept the enemy and join the battle.
Battle
The German ferries were escorted at a distance by an Italian MAS boat (MAS 526 or MAS 528 according to various sources); crucially, surprise was lost when they were detected by the Soviet minesweeper which joined the battle together with the patrol boat entering the fight later. Prior to the landing, nine German Junkers Ju 88 As from KG 1 unsuccessfully bombed the island (according to some sources, there were only two Junkers Ju 88s). The Axis landing party landed on Sukho under the cover of the combat ferries; two of the three Soviet 100 mm coastal guns, as well as two anti-aircraft machine guns, were destroyed, another anti-aircraft machine gun was damaged; and the lighthouse was also damaged but not taken. The landing party withdrew after sustaining casualties, losing radio contact due to waterlogged equipment, and receiving a flare signal to retreat.
On the lake, multiple German ferries grounded around the island. SF 12 grounded on rocks, followed by SF 13 while attempting to assist. SF 22 grounded after being disabled by the remaining Soviet 100 mm coastal gun; SF 14 and SF 26 grounded attempting to assist. A Soviet patrol boat was damaged and retreated under a smoke screen. The arrival of the main forces of the Soviet Ladoga Flotilla forced the Axis to withdraw after having refloated SF 14 and SF 22.
Soviet naval and air forces pursued but inflicted only minor damage on the retreating Germans; attacks by the Soviet -class motor torpedo boats and on rear-guard transport ferries scored no hits, while the Germans claimed four hits on a Soviet ship. The German retreat was slowed by ferries suffering machinery failure. SF 21 was used as a rearguard; it silenced the remaining gun on Sukho but was damaged and then abandoned – along with the towed infantry boat I 6 – when it began to sink from leaks and pump failures, after which it was set on fire by gunfire from the ferries SF 11 and SF 23.
Aftermath The Axis suffered heavy casualties for little result, and marked the effective end of offensive Axis operations on Lake Ladoga. Seventeen of the 23 participating German ships were sunk or seriously damaged; four combat ferries (SF 12, SF 13, SF 21, SF 26) and one (I 6, which was captured by Soviet forces) were lost, and SF 22 was heavily damaged (one of the light anti-aircraft combat Siebel ferries that ran aground near Sukho Island was captured by Soviet forces, repaired, and subsequently commissioned into the Soviet Navy as ). Crew and troop casualties amounted to 18 killed, 57 wounded (one of them fatally) and four missing.
Total Soviet losses are six killed (or seven killed according to some sources) and 23 wounded (according to some sources, two of them fatally). Beyond naval losses, the Germans took six prisoners from Sukho.
See also Road of Life
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