Members of Konstantin Bogdanov’s Underwater Exploration Team explored the Soviet boat they’d discovered during the expedition of the RGS «Voices of the Lost Ships». The vessel sank as a result of an enemy attack in 1942 near Sommers Island in the Gulf of Finland.
«The boat lies at a depth of 55 m,» says Konstantin Bogdanov, the expedition leader. «The vessel has kept the bow and deckhouse, the stern is seriously damaged, probably from a mine explosion or an artillery hit. There are boxes of 45 mm shells on the deck in the bow and stern. In front of the cabin we saw the gun bed. The cannon itself was allegedly ripped off by fishing trawls that had entangled the deck. We managed to find and lift a pair of marine binoculars in a leather case from the bottom, which was immediately transferred for restoration.»
It is known from the surviving documents that on August 13, 1942, the MO-308 was assigned the task of escorting a group of seven Soviet minesweeper boats, whose purpose was to destroy German mines in the Gogland section. The crew set sail around 9 p.m. and kept a safe distance from the minesweepers, following a parallel course.
This is what the Soviet MO-4 type boats of the Northern Fleet looked like with troops on board. Photo: military correspondent Evgeny Ananyevich Chaldey, Wikipedia.org
«Seven minesweeping boats were conducting trawling to the west and northwest of Lavansaari Island,» says Miroslav Morozov, a historian and scientific consultant of the expedition. «Three mines were cut and shot by them, and the enemy’s mine cluster of five mines was also discovered.»
At about ten o’clock, the positions of the Soviet ships were shelled by German artillery from Sommers Island. Thanks to the coordinated actions of the crew, it was possible to avoid direct hits and continue trawling. The crew of the MO-308 was blown up by one of the mines.
«According to the place of sinking and the nature of the damage, the researchers put forward a version that it was the 'Maly Okhotnik — 308’,» says Mikhail Ivanov, a member of the Underwater Exploration Team. «After analyzing the damage in the stern, it became clear that the boat had hit a mine.»
The explosion in the stern caused severe damage to the MO-308 boat, tearing off part of the hull. A few minutes later, minesweeper No. 281 arrived to help and evacuated all the survivors. Today we know from the report of the commander of the boat that the explosion killed the chief boatswain Petty Officer Grigoriev, Red Navy Officer Popov, and Red Navy Officer Bukin. Senior Lieutenant Azeev, Petty Officer Krasnov, and Petty Officer Tretyachenko were injured. All the secret documents on board were saved.
Before diving. Photo: Konstantin Bogdanov's Underwater Exploration Team
«One of the goals of the RGS’s underwater research expeditions is to perpetuate the memory of the sailors who fought at sea during the Second World War. The survey and identification of vessels and ships are often followed by memorial events: the names of the crews are written into history and are passed on to the next generations,» says Natalya Belyakova, Director of the Expeditionary and Tourism Development Department of the RGS. «3D models of sunken objects form digital collections. They are replenished with new virtual tours after almost every expedition of the RGS.»
Currently, the expedition members plan to continue their exploration. That includes photogrammetric photography to create a detailed 3D model of the boat, as well as the search for the vessel’s documents that could have been preserved in the cabin. This work will allow to definitively identify the find and fill in another page of the history of the so-called mosquito fleet, which carried out significant combat work during the Second World War.
