Battery (Fort) "Gray Horse"

X6Q8+JX Gora-Valday, Leningrad Oblast, Russia

The "Gray Horse" Battery, from August 29, 1919 — "Advanced" Fort, from 1926 — "Bukharin" Fort, from 1936 to 1953 — "Krasnogvardeysky" Fort, was an anti-landing coastal battery of the Kronstadt position of the Peter the Great Naval Fortress. It was built in 1911 on Gray Horse Cape in the area of the village of Chyornaya Lakhta. The position included two open long-term batteries — on the left flank, a four-gun 120-mm Vickers battery, and on the right, a three-gun 152-mm Canet battery.

Kronstadt - a fort fortress

The "Gray Horse" battery, from August 29, 1919 — the "Forward" fort, from 1926 — the "Bukharin" fort, from 1936 to 1953 — the "Krasnogvardeysky" fort, was an anti-landing coastal battery of the Kronstadt position of the Peter the Great Naval Fortress. It was built in 1911 on Cape Gray Horse in the area of the village of Chyornaya Lakhta. The position included two open long-term batteries — on the left flank a four-gun 120-mm Vickers gun battery, on the right — a three-gun 152-mm Canet gun battery.

The battery was designed thanks to a report by Engineer Major General A. A. Shishkin. Its main task was to combat enemy landing ships in the Koporye Bay to prevent the capture of the "Krasnaya Gorka" fort from the land side. Apparently, due to its purpose, the fort was renamed "Forward" during Soviet times. And, to be precise, these defensive structures were called anti-landing batteries, not forts.

In May 1919, together with the "Krasnaya Gorka" fort, it repelled the advance on Petrograd by General Rodzyanko's Northern Corps and in October of the same year took part in repelling the advance on Petrograd by General Yudenich's Northwestern Army, successfully fending off all attacks. For this, in December 1919, it was awarded the Honorary Red Banner.

On June 13, simultaneously with the uprising at the "Krasnaya Gorka" fort, an uprising began at the "Gray Horse" battery, prepared by officer Ogloblin. The communists and the battery commissar were arrested, but the crew behaved passively and did not join the rebels, taking a wait-and-see position and barricading themselves in one of the bastions.

The battery's guns participated in shelling Kronstadt and Baltic Fleet ships; however, due to the crew's refusal, only officers conducted the artillery fire. On the night of June 16, the uprising was suppressed, and the rebels left the battery without damaging the guns or structures.

“Following Krasnaya Gorka, Gray Horse was liquidated. The guns there are in perfect order. A rapid inspection of all forts and fortresses is underway. Naval specialists assure that the capture of Krasnaya Gorka from the sea overturns naval science. I can only mourn the so-called science. The swift capture of Gorka is explained by the grossest interference from my side and generally from civilians in operational matters, reaching the cancellation of orders by sea and land and imposing their own. I consider it my duty to declare that I will continue to act in this manner, despite all my reverence for science.” — I. V. Stalin, telegram dated June 16, 1919

In 1925, it was planned to strengthen the battery with two 254-millimeter turret installations from the cruiser "Rurik." In 1927, a project was developed to reinforce the fort with two 203-millimeter turrets from the battleship "Respublika." The basis was a modernized project of a 254-millimeter turret battery by Konoplyov and Gabbin. The turrets were installed in separate concrete nests instead of a single concrete mass for two turrets. The turrets were modernized during installation. The new battery was assigned No. 9, later No. 333. Together with the batteries of the "Krasnogvardeysky" fort, it formed the 33rd separate artillery division of the Izhora fortified area (from April 1942 — the Izhora sector of the Baltic Fleet coastal defense).

Originally, there were twelve barrack buildings here, including both summer and winter ones — wooden structures measuring 40 by 14 meters with wide brick partitions to prevent fire from spreading to other parts of the building during wartime.

The power plant and boiler house were connected to the turret blocks by special underground passages. Such a layout ensured better survivability of the entire battery and allowed savings on concreting.

During the shelling to suppress the rebellion, the forest around the battery burned down, making it visible from a great distance. In 1929, during Baltic Fleet exercises, Commissar Voroshilov, seeing the bare concrete, ordered it to be reforested. The battery was urgently planted with red currant bushes, which concealed the fort.

During the Great Patriotic War, the battery held the defense of the Oranienbaum bridgehead. In 1943, the 120-millimeter Vickers guns were replaced with 130/50-millimeter B-13 guns. It was disarmed due to the liquidation of the Kronstadt fortress in the 1950s.

Sources:

https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/Серая_Лошадь_%28батарея%29

https://www.petersburg-bridges.ru/lenregion/pamyatniki/fort-seraya-loshad.html

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