Fort "Krasnaya Gorka" (Alekseevsky)

Fort "Krasnaya Gorka" (Alekseevsky) (renamed "Krasnoflotsky" in 1919) is one of the two powerful coastal forts of the Kronstadt position of the Peter the Great Naval Fortress. It was built between 1909 and 1914 to protect against a possible attack by the fleet of the German Empire. It was part of a strong mine-artillery position that reliably defended the approaches to Kronstadt and Saint Petersburg from the approach of large enemy ships. It was named after the village of Krasnaya Gorka, near which it was located (now the settlement Fort Krasnaya Gorka in the Lomonosov district of the Leningrad region).

The project was based on the design of the "Russian fort" by K. I. Velichko. The gun positions are connected to each other by underground passages and surrounded by subterranean structures. The vaults of the concrete structures reached a thickness of 183 cm and were equipped with anti-spall coverings made of corrugated iron and I-beams. Ammunition delivery was carried out by railway. The rear of the fort was protected by a powerful belt of field and permanent fortifications, a minefield, wire obstacles, and a moat. Great attention was paid to camouflage during construction—the gun positions were covered by a belt of iron "bushes" painted to match the color of the vegetation.

Construction, under the direction of Major General Apollon Alekseevich Shishkin, began in 1909 simultaneously with Fort Ino (Nikolaevsky) and was completed by 1915. It was named after the village of Krasnaya Gorka (now the settlement Fort Krasnaya Gorka), near which it was located.

The fort became operational at the beginning of 1914. By the start of World War I, the fort's garrison was staffed according to wartime standards (2,000 artillerymen, 2,000 infantrymen, and more than 500 servicemen of other branches). The fort did not participate in combat operations during the world war.

By January 1917, the fort's garrison had grown to 5,500 people. In 1918, due to the proximity of the German army, the fort was mined. The explosion was canceled, but the charges were not removed. On August 19, during a severe thunderstorm, several charges detonated. The powder magazines of three Canet guns and four 254-mm guns exploded. The artillery crew perished, the guns were severely damaged, and one 254-mm gun was destroyed.

During the Civil War, the fort was part of the defensive fortifications of "Red" Petrograd. By this time, the fort had 25 guns ranging in caliber from 76 to 305 mm. During hostilities, it opened fire on the enemy: on November 20, 1918, on the battery "Pummola" captured by the Finns, which had previously been part of the fort Ino's fortification system, and on June 29, 1919, on an enemy transport ship.

On June 13, 1919, during the Northern Corps offensive on Petrograd led by General A. P. Rodzyanko, the fort's garrison raised an anti-Bolshevik uprising, joined by the forts "Gray Horse" and "Obruchev." On June 16, the uprising was suppressed by fire and a landing force from Baltic Fleet ships (more than 600 12" shells were fired at the fort). The insurgents defended themselves by shelling Kronstadt and ships of the Red Baltic Fleet. On June 16, Red Army troops entered the fort abandoned by the insurgents. The White Army could not take advantage of the fort's defection to their side because they learned of the uprising only on the third day—the day it was crushed. The fort's garrison retreated to the Whites.

On October 30, 1919, the fort engaged in an artillery duel with the British monitor "Erebus," which was providing timid and belated fire support by the British Fleet to Yudenich's army offensive.

In 1919, the fort was subjected to strikes by British aviation: from September 29 to November 12, 1919, there were 13 raids (18 airplanes) on the fort's structures, dropping 176 bombs. Minor damage to the fort's internal structures was noted; no hits or damage to the guns were achieved. Two people were killed and 24 wounded in the garrison.

In 1921, the guns of "Krasnaya Gorka" fired on Kronstadt, suppressing the anti-Bolshevik uprising.

During the Winter War in 1939, the guns of "Krasnaya Gorka" fired on Finnish positions located on the opposite shore of the gulf. On February 26, 1940, a Finnish lone bomber "Blenheim" bombed "Krasnaya Gorka."

By late summer 1941, German troops entered the effective firing range of the main caliber artillery of "Krasnaya Gorka," and on August 31, the 12-dm batteries opened fire on enemy troop concentrations near Koporye. In September, the Germans reached the shore of the Gulf of Finland near Strelna, forming the Oranienbaum bridgehead. The fort's artillery range was about 25 kilometers, while the bridgehead's boundaries were approximately 30 km from the fort. The Krasnaya Gorka artillerymen were responsible for securing the fairway—fighting Finnish batteries that could shell Soviet ships and submarines on missions. Thus, two years of continuous combat operations passed. Also, armored trains "Baltiets" and "For the Motherland" ran on the railway tracks around "Krasnaya Gorka."

In the fall of 1943, troop concentrations began on the bridgehead for the complete lifting of the siege of Leningrad. On January 14, 1944, the batteries of "Krasnaya Gorka" opened fire on resistance points in the villages of Gostilitsy and Dyatlitsy. The intense work ended only by January 27, when the encircled Strelna-Peterhof enemy group ceased to exist, and the German-fascist troops were pushed back 65–100 km from Leningrad.

With the threat eliminated in the south, the center of the struggle shifted north—against enemy troops on the Karelian Isthmus. Artillery preparation for breaking through the fortification line on the isthmus lasted from June 9 to 16, 1944. In addition to the batteries, railway transporters TM-1-14 and TM-1-180, brought here from Leningrad, fired on the Finns from the fort's territory. The fort's combat activity ended with these salvos.

The first postwar years were spent restoring the fort's facilities, replacing naval veterans—the 6-dm Canet guns—with modern 130-mm B-13 guns, and installing a radar station at the fort. In 1950, "Krasnaya Gorka" received a new fire control system.

The fort existed as a military unit until the early 1960s, after which it was disarmed, and the guns and equipment were sent for melting. In 1975, a memorial was created at the fort; three guns (100-, 130-mm, and a 6-dm Canet gun) and two railway gun transporters—TM-3-12 and TM-1-180—were installed on the former 6-dm battery. In the early 1990s, the military finally left the fort, and the memorial was looted. The fort itself was also raided by "metal scavengers," who did not even hesitate to dig up the deep underground passages with their armored vaults.

In 2006, the railway transporters and the 6" battery were firmly enclosed by three rows of barbed wire supposedly for demining; everything was dug up, the forest was felled, and now the whole area stands dug up and disrupted. The 6-dm "Canet" was sent to Moscow for melting, the 100-mm gun's whereabouts are unknown.

By 2012, demining of the 6- and 10-dm batteries was completed, and the barbed wire was removed. Now it is possible to walk there. Among the bad news— the mess hall, galley, and club were demolished. The demolition of old barracks has begun.

Sources:

https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/Krasnaya_Gorka_(fort)

http://www.nortfort.ru/kgorka/