Russia (bbabo.net), - On February 12, 1988, sailors of the Black Sea Fleet on the patrol ships "Bezzavetny" and "SKR-6" rammed the missile cruiser Yorktown and the destroyer Caron off the coast of Crimea. Having received damage, the newest American ships left the 12-mile Soviet zone and went to neutral waters.
The state of emergency, later called "The Last Incident of the Cold War", "Red Bulk" and "The Third World War Could Start" was caused by the confrontation between the USSR and the USA. Soviet military intelligence received information in advance about the impending provocation, and the decision to counter the Americans was made by the Central Committee of the CPSU and approved by General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev.
"They will apparently try to invade our territorial waters, as they did last time, in the area of the southern tip of the Crimean peninsula (Cape Sarych), where the borders are in configuration a triangle with a peak extended to the south. There are more places for such a "demonstration" violation on the Black Sea theater does not exist. And it was here that the main phase of the entire operation was to take place, "recalls Admiral Valentin Selivanov.
The patrol ship Bezzavetny, under the command of Captain 2nd Rank Vladimir Bogdashin, was supposed to counteract the cruiser Yorktown, and the destroyer Caron became the target of SKR-6, Captain 3rd Rank Anatoly Petrov. The operation was led by Captain 2nd Rank Nikolai Mikheev.
“The sailors imagine how difficult and dangerous it is to perform such maneuvers: a huge cruiser with a displacement of 9200 tons and a patrol boat with a displacement of 3000 tons is “moored” to it on the move, and on the other “flank” against a destroyer with a displacement of 7800 tons there is a very small watchdog with a displacement of only 1300 tons. Imagine: at the moment of approaching closely with this little watchdog, put the destroyer sharply on the steering wheel "to the left on board" - and what will happen to our ship?", - recalls the admiral.
According to the recollections of Soviet sailors, the Americans did not expect such decisive action and, jumping out on deck, insulted the Black Sea people. However, having fallen under the bulk, they disappeared inside the ships.
“I hear Mikheev’s completely calm voice, as if when drawing such episodes on the cards:“ We walked along the port side of the cruiser. They broke the Harpoon missile launcher. Two broken missiles hang from launch canisters. They demolished all the rails of the left side of the cruiser. The commander's boat was smashed to smithereens. In some places, the board and side plating of the bow superstructure were torn," says Selivanov.
The patrol boat "SKR-6" walked along the port side of the destroyer Caron and cut down the rails, smashed the lifeboat and tore the side.
However, the Americans were not going to give up - they did not allow the rocket launcher to ignite, they tried to lift helicopters into the air and wanted to crush the Selfless. The Soviet guard made another bulk, increased speed and left the "box". And the Mi-24 helicopters did not allow the Americans to take off, and the cruiser with the destroyer had to leave Soviet waters.
The incident ended with an exchange of diplomatic protests and the publication in the Pravda newspaper of the article "What do they want off our shores? Inadmissible actions of the US Navy."
After the incident, Yorktown was under renovation for several months. On April 4, 1988, the cruiser commander, Captain 1st Rank Philip Dur, was removed from his post "for passive actions and initiative given to the Soviet ship, which caused moral damage to the prestige of the American fleet." Captain 2nd rank Vladimir Bogdashin in 1989 "for the development of new military equipment" received the Order of the Red Star.
The fate of the ships was different. The patrol boat "Selfless" was transferred to Ukraine in 1997, renamed "Dnepropetrovsk", and in 2005 sent for scrap to Turkey, but the warship sank on the way. The old "SKR-6" in 1990 was expelled from the Navy, in the same year it was disposed of. Cruiser Yorktown was decommissioned in 2004 and is located at the US Naval Reserve Ship Maintenance Base in Philadelphia. The destroyer Caron was put out of action in October 2001, and a few months later sank near the naval base in Puerto Rico.
bbabo.Net