Marinestützpunkt Warnemünde, Sunday, 16 November 1947
Konteradmiral Siegfried Engel was reading a report at his desk when a knock at the door announced a visitor. “Come,” he replied. His assistant opened to admit Captain First Rank Kozyukhin – and Engel rose to greet him. Once preliminaries were complete both officers sat down to discuss business.
“I have read your after-action report on the recent exercise,” Engel said by way of opening. “You mince few words.” Engel looked down at the report and found the item he wanted, and quoted, “It would be expected that the 13th Flotilla would have been supported by land-based antisubmarine aircraft operating around the clock in the immediate vicinity of the flotilla and scouting its advance. The exercise placed too great an emphasis on a single platform rather than using a layered defence.” Kozyukhin nodded.
“Yes Admiral,” he said, “such is standard VMF Rossii doctrine for operating in these waters.”
“And what might be doctrine for operating in the North Atlantic, say, west of Iceland?” Engel countered.
Kozyukhin thought a moment. “In such a situation, it would be expected that the aircraft carrier Moltke would have operated antisubmarine aircraft to provide air support…”
“In the best of all worlds,” Engel said, “that would have been the case. But neither you nor I live in the best of all worlds – too often we must make do with the resources we have available, however limited and imperfect they may be. That is the situation here; few Marineflieger assets are deployed to the Baltic and most of those are not suited for carrier operation; none are assigned to my direct command. The reliance on your destroyers to screen their charge against attack was intended to mimic possible outcomes of submarine operations in distant waters where air support might be limited or non-existent.”
Kozyukhin understood the point, and was about to protest the unfairness of an unbalanced scenario, but checked himself. In war, ‘balance’ was an absent concept.
Engel continued. “Despite your unfamiliarity with the countermeasures employed by our submarines, you were able to overcome them and eliminate the submarine threat. The Groza launchers aboard your ships are very potent weapons.”
“Thank you Admiral; not only were the countermeasures a surprise to us, the use of acoustic torpedoes was also unexpected.”
“They are still untried,” Engel admitted, “and one of the objectives of this exercise was to ascertain if they are reliable enough for deployment throughout the fleet. That is still to be determined. However, if you wish, I can arrange for you and a delegation of your officers to visit the torpedo station at Kiel for a briefing on both torpedoes and countermeasures.”
At this Kozyukhin smiled. “That,” he beamed, “would be most appreciated Admiral.”