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Grandfather of the Russian special forces. Hitler's personal enemy

Grandfather of the Russian special forces. Hitler's personal enemy

29.09.2019

German special forces: SS saboteurs and special forces Otto Skorzeny

By the spring of 1943, it became clear to everyone that the strategic initiative had passed from the Germans and Italians to the Allies. Behind was Stalingrad (300 thousand dead and captured German soldiers), 112 Wehrmacht divisions were already killed on the Eastern Front in 20 months of hostilities. In search of ways to change the course of events in their favor, the leaders of Nazi Germany proclaimed in February 1943 the doctrine of "total war".

The main saboteur of the Third Reich: Otto Skorzeny.

New ideas required the promotion of new people to command positions in the army, navy, and special services. So, Ernst Kaltenbrunner became the head of the Main Directorate of Imperial Security (RSHA). He, in turn, made a number of permutations in his department. Among other things, he appointed 35-year-old Hauptsturmführer Otto Skorzeny as head of department "C" (sabotage and terror) of the VI Directorate of the RSHA. It should be clarified that the VI control - this is SS foreign intelligence. The track record of this athletic SS man (height 196 cm) by that time included such actions as participation in the forcible annexation of Austria to Germany (March 38), a campaign in Holland (May 40), a campaign in Yugoslavia (May- June 41), war on the territory of the USSR (June 41 - December 42 AD).

Otto Skorzeny and Adolf Hitler. At the meeting, Hitler instructs the saboteur to release their ally, Benito Mussolini, from captivity.

In the spirit of the ideas of "total war" it was required by the forces department "C" organize sabotage operations around the world on the largest scale in order to significantly increase the chances of the fascists to succeed in an open war by covert means. He was ordered to arm and send against the British tribes of mountaineers in Iran, India, Iraq; paralyze shipping on the Suez Canal; introduce terrorists and provocateurs into the ranks of the Yugoslav and French partisans; blow up or burn down the main military factories USA and England; create a combat-ready "fifth column" in Brazil and Argentina; organize attacks on the headquarters of the Soviet armies, destroy the commanders of the largest partisan detachments. Pay special attention to sabotage at the enterprises of the Soviet defense industry in the regions of the Urals, Northern Kazakhstan, Western Siberia, which are absolutely inaccessible to German aviation. It should also be recalled that the destruction of the leaders of the anti-fascist coalition (Roosevelt, Stalin, Churchill) in Tehran and Casablanca was also prepared by Skorzeny and his "C" department.

Successful operation of German saboteurs Skorzeny: Benito Mussolini released

For the training and retraining of terrorist saboteurs, the Oranienburg Special Purpose Courses were opened. They were located in the Friedental hunting castle, not far from the town of Sachsenhausen, an hour's drive from Berlin. time of the day, they wore only civilian clothes to disguise. All of them, entering the studies, received new names and surnames. Germans predominated among them, there were also fascists from other countries. But who was not among them, it was newcomers. Everyone had for shoulders a solid experience of sabotage and terror.These were hardened killers: to break a person's spine or neck with one movement, pierce his Adam's apple, stab him with a knife so that he could not even scream - all this was a mere trifle for them.

Benito Mussolini surrounded by German special forces led by Otto Skorzeny.

Therefore, in Friedenthal Castle, they improved their skills according to individual programs and prepared for specific operations. Among the technical innovations used by the SS agents, special mention should be made of plastic explosives and shaped charges; poisoned bullets that caused instant death when hit in any part of the body; portable means of arson (pencils with thermite filling, thermoses, suitcases, books, in which the shell itself was a combustible material); a device for evacuating a person from the ground without landing an aircraft. This invention was a trapezoidal design of small rods, with a rope between them 4 meters long. A low-flying plane captured her with a special hook along with an agent sitting at the bottom of the trapezoid! (After the war, this device was adopted from the Germans by the Americans).

Going on a mission, Friedenthal's pupils got acquainted with the directive of the Reichsführer SS Himmler: "Not a single person from the RSHA has the right to fall into the hands of the enemy alive!" Accordingly, each of them received a couple of capsules with a strong poison, so that in a hopeless situation they could instantly commit suicide. And we must pay tribute, very few SS spies and saboteurs were captured during the war. In addition to poison, they were supplied with impeccably made fake documents and money, as a rule, also fake. During the war in the V11I (technical) Office of the RSHA, 350 million British pounds sterling alone were printed! The quality of the fakes turned out to be so high that until the end of hostilities, the British could not identify these banknotes. And then long-range aircraft from the 200th bomber squadron or submarines delivered the Skorzeny guys to different parts of Europe and the entire globe.

For example, in Tanganyika (now Tanzania), a group of six people operated under the command of 24-year-old Franz Wimmer-Lamkvet. Having recruited a couple of dozen local thugs, receiving explosives and ammunition by parachute from German aircraft, this group operated for about a year and a half. It caused a lot of trouble for the British: saboteurs blew up bridges and power plants, derailed trains, set fire to coffee and cotton plantations, poisoned wells and livestock, killed the families of white farmers...
The most high-profile operation of the "C" department was the kidnapping of the leader of the Italian fascists, Benito Mussolini, on September 12, 43. After the anti-fascist coup d'état on July 25 of the same year, the government of Marshal P. Badoglio arrested Mussolini and ordered 200 carabinieri to be guarded in a tourist hotel located in the remote mountain range of Gran Sasso, near the peak of Abruzzo. Only one cable car (funicular) led there from the valley.

Skorzeny decided to land troops directly on the mountain meadow near the hotel. Otherwise, it would have been necessary to seize the cable car station in the valley, and it was not possible to do this quickly and imperceptibly. He used 12 cargo gliders of the DFS-230 type. Each such glider could take on board, in addition to the pilot, 9 people in full combat gear. The capture group consisted of 12 pilots, 90 airborne troops, 16 pets of Friedenthal, Skorzeny himself and the Italian General Soletti, in total exactly 120 people. During the launch from the Pratica de Mare airfield, two overloaded gliders capsized. On the way, two more collapsed to the ground (saboteurs were carrying machine guns, a mountain of ammunition and explosives to “beat off” Mussolini). And although in reality they did not have to fire a single shot, as a result of accidents 31 people died, another 16 were seriously injured. But Mussolini was taken to Germany, and then for several months he headed the so-called "Republic of Italian Fascists" in the northern part of the country, which fought with partisans and allied troops of the British and Americans.

Skorzeny's daring operation became widely known and made headlines. She impressed even Hitler, and he instructed Skorzeny to create new special forces battalions among volunteers recruited from paratroopers and SS troops.

In the spring of 44, Skorzeny, who by that time had become a Sturmbannführer (major), formed 6 “destroyer battalions” of human hunters: “Ost”, “Center”, “South-Ost”, “South-West”, “Nord-West” and "Nord-Ost". Their main purpose was to conduct counter-partisan operations against Polish, Soviet, Czechoslovak, Yugoslav, Italian, French partisans.

On May 25, 1944, one of the new formations, the 500th SS paratrooper battalion, landed from the air on the Bosnian town of Drvar, where the headquarters of Marshal Tito and the allied military mission in Yugoslavia were located. German losses were heavy, but Tito was forced to abandon his residence and flee to the Adriatic island of Vis, which was under the control of the British.
Five months later, another battalion, this time under the command of Skorzeny himself, struck at the center of Budapest. During the action, members of the government of Admiral Horthy were kidnapped, who were trying to negotiate terms of surrender with the USSR.
Thanks to his brave attacks, Skorzeny gained great popularity. He was even spoken of as "the most dangerous man in Europe".

When the Anglo-American troops landed in Normandy launched an offensive on the territory of Belgium and Northern France towards the Rhine, Skorzeny received the order: “You are obliged to capture several bridges across the Meuse in the area between Liege and Namur. In carrying out this task, you will all disguise yourself in the form of the enemy ... In addition, it is necessary to send forward small teams, also in English and American uniforms, which should distribute misleading orders, disrupt communications and introduce confusion and panic into the ranks of the enemy troops ”(in other words , do the same as the Brandenburg units on the Eastern Front in 41-42).

For this operation, those soldiers and officers of the fighter battalions and parachute units who spoke English tolerably were selected. British and American non-commissioned officers were brought from the prisoner of war camps, they were supposed to teach the German saboteurs the most common English phrases, American jargon, teach them the forms of treatment and behavior of the Allied armies (then they were all shot to keep the secret). They also delivered British and American captured weapons (from pistols to machine guns, from jeeps to light tanks), uniforms, personal documents of killed or captured soldiers, officers, non-commissioned officers. Of course, the saboteurs were supplied with counterfeit pounds and dollars, they were given capsules with poison.

On December 14, 1944, Skorzeny announced to the commanders of three special groups (135 people each) their tasks in Operation Thunder. At dawn on December 16, the German counteroffensive began. First, hurricane fire was opened by two thousand German guns. This was followed by the strike of 11 battle groups, the backbone of which was 8 tank divisions. Bad weather wiped out Allied air superiority. German tanks crushed their forward positions. And in their rear, in the columns of the retreating troops, Skorzeny's detachments were already working hard. They gave false orders to unit commanders, disrupted telephone communications, destroyed and rearranged road signs, mined highways and railways, blew up ammunition and fuel depots, and killed commanders and staff officers. Soon, "tommy" and "ami" were not able to distinguish where they had the front, and where the rear. Thousands of them died or were captured on the first day. About 700 tanks and several thousand vehicles were lost. The front line rolled back several tens of kilometers. But Skorzeny’s detachments also lost almost two-thirds of their personnel in the Ardennes: victory is not given to anyone for nothing!
In 1944, the situation of 1940 (the disaster near Dunkirk) did not repeat itself - instead of a general surrender, the Allies responded with a decisive counterattack. The communication center of the Ardennes was the city of Bastogne. The US 101st Airborne Division was stationed there, cut off from the rest of the world. She was shelled and attacked from all sides. The commander, Brigadier General Anthony McAuliff, responded briefly to the German offer to surrender: “fuck you ...”

The defense of Bastogne slowed down the German advance. As a result of the cooling on December 26, low clouds and thick fog disappeared. Now the US Air Force was able to connect. The British were approaching from the north. SAS units infiltrated the eastern Ardennes and the Eifel hills. British jeeps with four driving wheels, equipped with heavy machine guns, threatened German communications. Thus, both opponents equally used special forces units. The Allies withstood the pressure of the Germans and forced them to withdraw. The outcome of the war in the West was a foregone conclusion.

This book, published in Hannover in 1956, was written by the well-known West German historian Caius Becker, the author of the “documentary report” that made a splash at the time called “Kampf und Untergang der Kriegsmarine”.

Now K. Becker has come up with a new book about the German navy during the Second World War. This time he made an attempt to generalize the experience of combat operations of the sabotage and assault unit of the German Navy.

The new book was conceived by K. Becker as a kind of polemical response to the accusations that were made in post-war West German literature and the press against the Nazi naval command, which deliberately sent saboteur sailors to certain death. Its publication also pursued the goal of demonstrating the desire to "keep up" with the military historiography of Italy, France, England and the United States, where a number of special publications have recently appeared on the actions of naval saboteurs in World War II, and at the same time show that the Germans were in no way inferior in the development of sabotage and assault means, say, to the Italians, who, according to the opinion generally accepted in bourgeois military literature, were the "ancestors" of such means and methods of struggle.

For all the tendentiousness of the author, who is an apologist for neo-fascism and neo-racism, for all his desire to whitewash the high naval command of Nazi Germany, the book will be of interest to the Soviet military reader due to the rich factual material on the technique and tactics of the sabotage and assault formation of the Navy, known in the German military history. literature under the name of compound "K". Its creation in 1944, when, according to Becker himself, "Germany's affairs were bad," reflected the desire of the Nazi command, using unusual means and methods of fighting at sea, to try to some extent correct the catastrophically shaken affairs. And although the achievements of this, according to the definition of K. Becker, “the brainchild of the last year of the war”, in fact, did not go beyond tactical successes (which, by the way, the author is repeatedly forced to emphasize), nevertheless, the very unusualness of the methods and the uniqueness of combat means which naval saboteurs acted cannot but attract the attention of a reader interested in the history of the past war.

K. Becker dwells in detail on the creation and use of individual sabotage and assault weapons - single-seat human-controlled torpedoes, exploding boats, midget submarines, etc. A significant place in the book is also given to the actions of "frog people" - combat swimmers, light diving and swimming whose equipment allowed them to get close under water to enemy objects (ships, bridges, locks) and undermine them with special charges.

The reader will undoubtedly get acquainted with interest with the pages of the book, which - in a rather fascinating semi-fictional form with citing eyewitness accounts or the participants themselves - tells about the most interesting sabotage operations of the fighters of the “K” formation (the fight against the Allied invasion fleet in the Seine Bay and in the Strait Pas de Calais, blowing up bridges across the Orne River and near Nijmegen, destruction of the lock in the port of Antwerp, etc.).

Of particular interest will also be the final chapter of the book, devoted to the characteristics of numerous samples of sabotage and assault weapons that were developed by German designers, but "did not have time" to find combat use.

The publishing house offers the book of K. Becker to the attention of the Soviet reader, guided by the consideration that, for all the viciousness of the premises due to the bourgeois narrow-mindedness of the author, it acquaints in some detail with the facts, the knowledge of which to some extent will supplement our understanding of the course of the struggle at sea during the second world war, and along with other books already published by the Publishing House (The Tenth Flotilla of the IAS by Borghese, Submarine Saboteurs by Bru and some others), introduces events that make up one of the interesting, although relatively little known in military history literature pages.

Instead of a preface

Reading these fascinating and vividly written essays about the events experienced by our comrade in the Navy, Caius Becker, I again remembered the "K" unit and, above all, many unforgettable people of this unit. Over the past years, the people and deeds of those days have been pushed into the background in my mind by new impressions, new tasks. Essays Caius Becker revived the pictures of bygone days. The book, like a fascinating film, tells about the origin of the “K” units and their initially modest actions, about their purpose and evolution, their internal structure, completely new for German conditions, and the process of rallying personnel into a single soldered team.

I will always remember with special pride that at a time when the fatal outcome of the war seemed more and more inevitable to any knowledgeable person, I managed to create in the German Wehrmacht such a unit in which, contrary to the deep-rooted traditions of independent initiative and a sense of responsibility of each individual soldier much more importance was attached to than simply following the letter of the order. The rank and position had weight with us only if they corresponded to the personal qualities of a person.

The ideal to which the union aspired was Nelson's motto - to be "a band of brothers" ("brotherly family"). It is clear that in the difficult conditions of the last year of the war, when the choice of command personnel was very limited, and severe combat tests made ever higher demands on people, the Nelsonian ideal was only partially achieved. But still, even today I am of the opinion that this, in some way, completely new atmosphere for a soldier was a significant factor that predetermined the unusually high combat capability of the personnel of the “K” formation, and the key to its success.

Apparently, it was this special atmosphere within the "K" formation that contributed to the fact that between those who served in it, a close relationship is still maintained within the whole of Germany - regardless of the age of former colleagues, their previous positions, professions, religion or political beliefs. I very much want this book to serve the cause of further strengthening these ties.

As a former admiral and commander of the "K" formation, I would like to make a few fundamental remarks regarding the main direction and possibilities of using the "K" formations in general.

"K" formations, whatever their type, can only supplement regular forces, by no means replace them, and yet with the help of such formations, using a small number of determined and well-trained people, one can successfully achieve fragmentation and fettering of much larger enemy forces.

In contrast, for example, to Japanese suicide pilots, combat crews, consisting of representatives of highly civilized peoples of the white race, must have real chances to save their lives when performing a combat mission.

For the success of individual actions, physical strength is not as important as will and personal discipline. Intense and comprehensive, almost athletic-type training increases the chances of success and reduces losses.

The ideal lone fighter is a soldier who acts in the interests of carrying out command decisions on his own initiative, even without receiving an order.

In conclusion, it only remains for me to thank Caius Becker on behalf of the former soldiers of the "K" formation and their relatives, and with him all those who, by providing him with information, contributed to the publication of such exciting essays. May this book resurrect the events described in the memory of those who experienced them; let it tell the readers of the whole world what has been done by our people and what they are capable of; let it serve as a reminder of those of our comrades who are no longer among us.

Who is a saboteur? This is a person who, as part of a combat group or alone, commits sabotage behind enemy lines. By sabotage is meant the disabling of important military strategic facilities. For example, the explosion of a bridge, railway tracks, enemy equipment. Saboteurs always operate secretly. Their activities do not provide for the conduct of hostilities with enemy units. If this happens, it means failure.

Sabotage is as old as prostitution, journalism, espionage and diplomacy. That is, it arose in those days when a person became reasonable and picked up a club. It was since then that the warring tribes, and then the states, began to practice covert and brutal struggle in the camp of enemies. We will not go into history, but we will talk about those people who were engaged in such dangerous and risky activities during the years of the USSR.

Soviet saboteurs showed themselves especially brightly during the Second World War. They caused significant damage to the German army. But after the victory in such activities, they did not put an end to it. On the contrary, the skill of sabotage groups was constantly improved. These groups were, as a rule, part of separate reconnaissance battalions of Spetsnaz. They made up a special platoon in such a unit, and were usually deployed on the territory of disciplinary battalions.

It is very comfortable. The entire territory is fenced with a high fence with several rows of barbed wire. It is easy to fence off a special area for training on it, and you can keep the “dolls” without any hassle. And such platoons were disguised as sports teams. Runners, wrestlers, boxers, shooters. The Soviet government did not spare money for sports, and athletes not only pleased people with their achievements in the Union, but also traveled abroad. Therefore, special platoons had the opportunity to navigate in a particular area not only on the map.

The most important thing in a saboteur's equipment is, of course, a parachute, and shoes are in second place. During the years of Soviet power, it was a cross between boots and boots. A hybrid that combines the best qualities of boots and boots. Official name - BP: jump boots.

They were made of thick soft cowhide, and weighed much less than they seemed. There were many belts and buckles. Two straps around the heel, one wide around the foot and two around the calf. The straps were soft too.

Each such shoe has absorbed the experience of millennia. After all, this is how distant ancestors went on a campaign. They wrapped the leg in soft leather and then tied it with straps. That's why sabotage shoes were made like that - soft leather and belts.

But the soles of these shoes were the main thing. Thick, wide and soft. Soft does not mean fragile. Each sole has three titanium plates. They are superimposed on each other. Durable and flexible. They protected the legs from spikes and stakes, which are always scattered in abundance on the way to important objects.

The pattern on the soles was copied from the soles of the soldiers' shoes of potential opponents. That is, the saboteur could leave behind a standard American, German, Spanish or any other trace.

But that was not the main trick. The jump boot had a heel in front and a sole in the back. This was done so that when the sabotage group went in one direction, the tracks were turned in the other. It is clear that the heels were made thinner, and the soles thicker, so that the foot was comfortable, so that the rearrangement of the heel - forward, the sole - back did not create difficulties when walking.

An experienced tracker, of course, cannot be deceived. He knows that when walking fast, the toe leaves a deeper dent than the heel. But how many real trackers exist? And who would come up with the idea of a boot that has the opposite? Who will fully understand that if the footprints lead to the east, then a person goes to the west? It must also be borne in mind that a group abandoned behind enemy lines goes trail after trail. So the number of people cannot be determined, and besides, if many feet have passed along the trail, then it is almost impossible to catch the difference in the depressed ground between the toe and the heel.

Socks were supposed to go with the BP, but only one type - thick and made of pure wool. They dressed both in the hot desert and in the winter taiga. Such socks both warm well, and keep the foot from sweat, and do not rub, and do not wash themselves. Two pairs of such socks were issued - at least for a day, at least for a month.

Thin linen linen. It must be new, but slightly worn and washed at least once. A second underwear was worn over the underwear. It was made of thick soft ropes as thick as a finger and was a mesh. This was done so that between the outerwear and underwear there was always an air gap of almost 1 cm thick.

Smart heads figured it out. If it's hot, if sweat rolls, if the whole body is on fire, then the protective mesh is salvation. Clothing does not stick to the body, and ventilation under it is excellent. In frost, the air layer stores heat, and weighs grams. The grid also had another important purpose, given that Soviet saboteurs walked more often in the forest than in open areas. And in the forest the most terrible, as you know, mosquitoes.

The mosquito nose, having pierced the clothes, falls into the void, but does not reach the body. This helps people a lot, because they can lie in the swamp for hours under the ringing mosquito itch.

Trousers and a cotton jacket were worn over linen. The seams are triple throughout. The clothes are soft and durable. On the folds, on the elbows and knees, the material is tripled everywhere for greater durability.

A helmet was put on the head. In winter, leather, fur with a silk comforter. In summer - cotton. The helmet consisted of 2 parts. This is, in fact, the helmet itself and the mask. The landing helmet was carried out exactly on the human head, covering the neck, chin and leaving only the eyes, nose and mouth open. In severe frosts and when disguised, the face was covered with a mask.

The set also included a jacket. Thick, lightweight, warm and waterproof. It was possible to lie in the swamp and sleep in the snow. Length to mid-thigh. Wide below. Long floors were attached to the jacket. They covered the body to the very toes. These floors could be easily fastened and unfastened. The lining of the jacket is soft on the inside and rough on the outside. The color is light gray, like last year's grass or dirty snow. A white camouflage robe could be worn over the jacket.

All the equipment of the saboteur fit in the RD - a landing pack. It had a small rectangular shape. So that the satchel does not pull back the shoulders, they made it rectangular, wide and long. His mount was designed in such a way that it could be fixed in a variety of positions: on the chest, high on the back, on the belt.

Wherever the Soviet saboteur went, he had only one flask of water - 810 grams. In addition, he had a bottle of brown disinfectant tablets. You throw such a pill into water contaminated with oil, dysentery bacilli, soap suds, and in a minute all the dirt settles. The top layer can be drained and drunk. True, the water has a cutting smell of chlorine, but when you are thirsty, you drink such water with the greatest pleasure.

The saboteur for any period of the assignment was given the same amount of food - 2765 grams. During the execution of a mission behind enemy lines, food, water, and ammunition could be dropped from an aircraft. But this might not have happened. Then live as you please. But almost 3 kg of food was considered a good norm, taking into account the calorie content of special food.

Also in the RD were 4 boxes of sapper matches. They did not get wet and burned in any wind. There were 100 tablets of dry alcohol. Soviet saboteurs did not have the right to kindle a fire. Therefore, they warmed themselves and cooked food on the flame of a pill. There were also medical pills for various diseases and poisonings.

The kit included: a towel, a toothbrush, toothpaste, a safety razor, a tube of liquid soap, a fishing hook with a fishing line, a needle and thread. There were no combs in the kit, because those going on a mission had their heads shaved. They sweat less, and wet hair does not interfere.

As for weapons, there were 2 options. Complete kit and lightweight. The full one included an AKMS assault rifle and 300 rounds of ammunition for it. Some machine guns additionally had PBS - a device for silent and flameless shooting - and NSP-3 - a night sight without illumination. Each person performing the task also had a silent P-8 pistol and 32 cartridges for it.

In addition, there was a sabotage knife-strop cutter and 4 spare blades for it. The knife is not quite normal. A strong spring was built into the blade. If you remove the safety and press the release button, then the blade will rush forward with great force, and the hand with an empty handle will be thrown back. The range of destruction of the blade was 25 meters. The complete set also included 6 grenades, plastic explosives and directional mines. Lightweight kit includes a machine gun with 120 rounds, a silent pistol and a knife.

In the Soviet Army, everyone, regardless of rank, packed their parachute personally. This also applied to colonel-generals and army generals. Such a rule was very wise. If you crashed, then all the responsibility is on you, and other people do not bear any responsibility.

Parachutes were stored in a warehouse. They have been sealed and are always ready to use. On each of them there is a receipt on silk: "General Sidorov or Sergeant Ivanov. I laid this parachute myself."

But sometimes the sabotage group had to pack parachutes just before the mission. The laying was carried out in the conditions in which you have to jump. If it is winter and minutes 30 degrees Celsius, then laying in the cold. And it took 6 hours.

At first, parachute tables were prepared. This is a piece of a long tarpaulin, which was spread on concrete and fastened with special pegs. Laying was carried out in 2 stages. First, we pack your parachute together: you are the eldest, and I am the helping one. Then we pack my parachute. Here the roles are changing. The reserve parachutes are then stowed. Senior and helping in the same order.

First, the lines and the canopy are stretched along the parachute table. After that comes the deputy for the PDS - the deputy commander for the parachute service. It is his job to make sure everything is done correctly. Then he gives the command: "Fix the top of the dome." And again he goes through the rows, checking the correctness of the execution. People may have a lot of styling experience, but no one is immune from mistakes. And if an error is detected, then the parachute will be immediately dismissed, and the person will start laying from the very beginning. And everyone else will stand and wait until the one who made a mistake does all the work again. And the frost can be bitter.

After the laying is over, people go to warm barracks, and the parachutes remain guarded in the cold. If they are brought into the room, then droplets of moisture invisible to the eye will settle on the cold matter. And tomorrow the parachutes will again be taken out into the cold, and the droplets will turn into ice. They will firmly grab the layers of pircal and silk. This is death. Even a schoolboy understands such a simple thing. But there were such cases, and Soviet saboteurs were killed by entire platoons and companies.

After packing, everyone signs on the silk stripes of their parachutes: "Captain Vasilyev. I laid this parachute myself." Tomorrow this Vasiliev will be broken, and the culprit will immediately be found. It will be himself.

A doll is such a person, especially for training. When a saboteur conducts a training battle against his comrade, he knows in advance that all this is for fun. Nobody can kill or hurt him. Therefore, interest in training combat is lost. But the doll can kill, but the one who trains will not be strongly scolded if he breaks the legs of that doll or twists his neck.

Soviet saboteurs always performed a very responsible job, and therefore their hands should not have trembled at a decisive moment. But in order for the commanders to be completely sure of this, they threw these very puppets to them for training. And they were invented a long time ago. They were used from the first days of Soviet power. Only much wider than in the 60s and 70s, and they were called differently. In the Cheka - gladiators, in the NKVD - volunteers, and in SMERSH they were called Robinsons. And only during the time of Leonid Ilyich Brezhnev did they become puppets.

They became dangerous criminals sentenced to death. Those fanatics who are old, frail and sick were immediately destroyed after the death sentence was passed. But the strong and strong before death were used to the fullest.

There was talk that those sentenced to death were sent to uranium mines. This is complete nonsense. Ordinary people worked in such mines. Only they were paid 5 times more than workers from other industries. And murderers and rapists were used more rationally. For the combat training of saboteurs, this is an undoubted benefit. As for the legal side of the issue, let's leave it to the conscience of the former leadership of the USSR.

But, most importantly, with such a formulation of the case, everyone was fine. And Special Forces, and criminals. The former practiced combat techniques, not being afraid to cripple their opponents, while the latter received a reprieve from death.

At first, there were enough gladiators and volunteers for everyone. And in the 1970s, there was a shortage. Everything was in short supply back then. Either there was not enough meat, then milk, and the situation with dolls became tense. And those who want to use them have not diminished. Therefore, the command ordered them to be used for a long time, carefully. But this did not greatly affect the quality of classes. Since a fight with a doll is a hundred times more useful than training with an instructor or your colleague.

It was in such an environment that real Soviet saboteurs were brought up. They belonged to the elite of the Soviet Army. They had excellent physical training, psychologically stable character and were well politically savvy. Today, such troops also exist and do the same job. It can not be in any other way. After all, sabotage is considered one of the main tactical components of any war. And the hostilities on the planet are constantly going on and do not stop for a minute.

The article was written by Maxim Shipunov

In the history of the twentieth century, there were many specialists in sabotage. This is a story about the most famous saboteurs who carried out the most daring operations during the Second World War.

Otto Skorzeny

In early July 1975, Otto Skorzeny died in Spain, thanks to his memoirs and popularity in the media, he turned into the "king of saboteurs" during his lifetime. And although such a high-profile title, given his poor track record, does not look entirely fair, the charisma of Skorzeny - an almost two-meter stern man with a strong-willed chin and a brutal scar on his cheek - charmed the press, which created the image of a daring saboteur.

Skorzeny's life was constantly accompanied by legends and hoaxes, some of which he created about himself. Until the mid-30s, he was an ordinary and unremarkable engineer in Vienna, in 1934 he joined the SS, after which myths began to appear. A number of sources claim that Skorzeny allegedly shot the Austrian Chancellor Dollfuss, but it is currently believed that the murder of the chancellor during the attempted putsch was carried out by another SS representative. After the Anschluss of Austria, its Chancellor Schuschnigg was arrested by the Germans, but even here it is impossible to unambiguously confirm Skorzeny's participation in his arrest. In any case, Schuschnigg himself later stated that he knew nothing about Skorzeny's participation in his arrest and did not remember him.

After the outbreak of World War II, Skorzeny turned out to be a sapper in the active troops. Information about his front-line experience is rather contradictory and it is only known that he did not take part in the hostilities for long: he spent only a few months on the eastern front and in December 1941 was sent to his homeland for the treatment of an inflamed gallbladder. More Skorzeny did not participate in hostilities.

In 1943, as an officer with an engineering education, he was sent to the Oranienburg camp, where a small group of saboteurs was trained. On its basis, the Jaeger SS battalion 502 was later formed, which was commanded by Skorzeny.

It was Skorzeny who was entrusted with the leadership of the operation, which glorified him. Hitler himself appointed him as leader. However, he had little choice: there were practically no sabotage units in the Wehrmacht, since the officers, who were mainly brought up in the old Prussian traditions, treated such "gangster" methods of warfare with contempt.

The essence of the operation was as follows: after the landing of the allies in southern Italy and the defeat of the Italian troops near Stalingrad, Mussolini was removed from power by the Italian king and kept under arrest in a mountain hotel. Hitler was interested in maintaining control of the industrialized north of Italy and decided to kidnap Mussolini to install him as head of a puppet republic.

Skorzeny requested a company of paratroopers and decided to land at the hotel on heavy gliders, take Mussolini and fly away. As a result, the operation turned out to be dual: on the one hand, its goal was achieved and Mussolini was able to take away, on the other hand, several accidents occurred during the landing and 40% of the company's personnel died, despite the fact that the Italians did not resist.

Nevertheless, Hitler was pleased and from that moment on he completely trusted Skorzeny, although almost all of his subsequent operations ended in failure. The daring idea of destroying the leaders of the anti-Hitler coalition, Stalin, Roosevelt and Churchill, failed at the talks in Tehran. Soviet and British intelligence neutralized German agents even at the distant approaches.

Operation Vulture, during which German agents dressed in American uniforms were to capture the commander-in-chief of the Allied Expeditionary Force Eisenhower, was also unsuccessful. To this end, all over Germany they searched for soldiers who spoke American English. They were trained in a special camp where American prisoners of war told them about the characteristics and habits of soldiers. However, due to the tight deadlines, the saboteurs could not be properly prepared, the commander of the first group was blown up by a mine on the first day of the operation, and the second group was captured with all the documents for the operation, after which the Americans found out about it.

The second successful operation - "Faustpatron". The Hungarian leader Horthy, against the backdrop of failures in the war, set out to sign a truce, so the Germans decided to kidnap his son so that he would abdicate and Hungary would continue the war with the new government. There was nothing specifically sabotage in this operation, Skorzeny lured his son Horthy to a meeting supposedly with the Yugoslavs, where he was captured, rolled up in a carpet and taken away. After that, Skorzeny simply arrived at Horthy's residence with a detachment of soldiers and forced him to recant.

After the war: settled in Spain, gave interviews, wrote memoirs, worked on the image of the "king of saboteurs". According to some reports, he collaborated with the Mossad and gave advice to Argentine President Peron. He died in 1975 from cancer.

Adrian von Völkersam

German saboteur No. 2, who remained in the shadow of Skorzeny, largely due to the fact that he did not survive the war and did not receive similar PR. Company commander of the 800th Special Brandenburg Regiment, a unique sabotage special unit. Although the unit acted in close connection with the Wehrmacht, German officers (especially those brought up in the old Prussian traditions) were scornful of the specifics of the regiment’s activities, which violated all imaginable and unimaginable canons of war (dressing in someone else’s uniform, refusing any moral restrictions in waging war ), so he was assigned to the Abwehr.

The soldiers of the regiment underwent special training, which made it an elite unit: hand-to-hand combat, camouflage techniques, subversion, sabotage tactics, learning foreign languages, practicing combat in small groups, etc.

Felkerzam got into the group as a Russian German. He was born in St. Petersburg and came from a famous family: his great-grandfather was a general under Emperor Nicholas I, his grandfather was a rear admiral who died on a ship right on the way to the Battle of Tsushima, his father was a prominent art critic and keeper of the Hermitage's jewelry gallery.

After the Bolsheviks came to power, Felkerzam's family had to flee the country, and he grew up in Riga, from where, as an Baltic German, he emigrated to Germany in 1940, when Latvia was annexed to the USSR. Felkersam commanded the Baltic company of Brandenburg-800, in which Baltic Germans were assembled, who spoke Russian well, which made them valuable for sabotage operations on the territory of the USSR.

With the direct participation of Felkersam, several successful operations were carried out. As a rule, these were the captures of bridges and strategically important points in cities. Saboteurs, dressed in Soviet uniforms, calmly drove over bridges or drove into cities and captured key points, Soviet soldiers either did not have time to resist and were captured, or died in a shootout. Similarly, the bridges over the Dvina and Berezina, as well as the train station and power station in Lvov, were captured. The most famous was the Maykop sabotage in 1942. Felkersam's soldiers, dressed in NKVD uniforms, arrived in the city, found out the location of all defense points, captured headquarters communications and completely disorganized the entire defense, sending orders around the city for the immediate retreat of the garrison in connection with the imminent encirclement. By the time the Soviet side figured out what was happening, the main forces of the Wehrmacht had already pulled up to the city and took it with little or no resistance.

The successful sabotage of Felkerzam attracted the attention of Skorzeny, who took him to him and made him practically with his right hand. Völkersam was involved in some of his operations, notably the removal of Horthy and the attempted capture of Eisenhower. As for Brandenburg, in 1943 the regiment was expanded to a division and, due to an increase in numbers, actually lost its elite status and was used as a regular combat unit.

He did not live to see the end of the war, he died in January 1945 in Poland.

Junio Valerio Borghese (Black Prince)

He came from a famous Italian aristocratic family, which included popes, cardinals and famous industrialists, and one of the ancestors was related to Napoleon after marrying his sister. Junio Borghese himself was married to the Russian Countess Olsufieva, who was a distant relative of Emperor Alexander I.

Captain 2nd rank of the Italian Navy. At his personal insistence, a special sabotage unit of "torpedo people" was organized in the 10th flotilla subordinate to him. In addition to them, the flotilla had special ultra-small submarines for the delivery of these torpedoes and boats filled with explosives.

Human-guided torpedoes, called "Maiale", were developed by the Italians in the late 30s. Each torpedo was equipped with an electric motor, breathing apparatus for the crew, a warhead from 200 to 300 kilograms, and was controlled by two crew members sitting on top of it.

The torpedo was delivered to the place of sabotage by a special submarine, after which it was submerged under water, heading towards the victim ship. The warhead was equipped with a clock mechanism up to five hours, which allowed swimmers to leave the explosion site.

However, due to the imperfection of technology, torpedoes often failed, breathing apparatus also broke, which forced the submariners to stop the mission ahead of schedule. Nevertheless, after the first setbacks, the Italians managed to succeed. The most famous operation was the raid on Alexandria in December 1941, where the base of the British fleet was located. Despite British precautions, Italian saboteurs managed to set off torpedoes, causing the mighty British battleships Valiant and Queen Elizabeth to be badly damaged and sent for overhaul. In fact, only the fact that they were parked at a shallow depth saved them from flooding. One destroyer was also badly damaged and a cargo tanker was sunk.

It was a very serious blow, after which the Italian fleet for some time gained an advantage in the Mediterranean theater of operations due to the quantitative superiority in battleships. The British were in a difficult position, lost superiority at sea, and this allowed the Italians and Germans to actively supply the military in North Africa, where they achieved success. For the raid on Alexandria, combat swimmers and Prince Borghese were awarded the highest Italian award - the gold medal "For Valor".

After Italy's withdrawal from the war, Borghese supported the puppet pro-German republic of Salo, but he himself practically did not participate in the hostilities, since the fleet remained in the hands of Italy.

After the war: Borghese was convicted of collaborating with the Germans (for activities in the Republic of Salo, when Italy had already left the war) and sentenced to 12 years in prison, however, given his exploits during the war years, the term was reduced to three years. After his release, he sympathized with ultra-right politicians and wrote memoirs. In 1970, he was forced to leave Italy due to suspicion of involvement in an attempted coup. He died in Spain in 1974.

Pavel Sudoplatov

The main Soviet saboteur. He specialized not only in sabotage, but also in operations to eliminate political figures objectionable to Stalin (for example, Trotsky). Immediately after the start of the war in the USSR, a Special Group was created under the NKVD, which oversaw the partisan movement and led it. He headed the 4th branch of the NKVD, which specialized directly in sabotage in the rear of the Germans and in the territories occupied by them. In those years, Sudoplatov himself no longer took part in operations, limiting himself to general management and development.

Sabotage detachments were thrown into the German rear, where, if possible, they united into larger partisan detachments. Since the work was extremely dangerous, much attention was paid to the training of saboteurs: as a rule, people with good sports training were recruited into such detachments. So, in one of the sabotage and reconnaissance groups, the USSR boxing champion Nikolai Korolev served.

Unlike ordinary partisan groups, these DRGs (sabotage and reconnaissance groups) were led by regular NKVD officers. The most famous of these DRGs was the Pobediteli detachment, led by NKVD officer Dmitry Medvedev, who, in turn, was subordinate to Sudoplatov.

Several groups of well-trained saboteurs (among whom there were many who went to prison in the late 30s or were dismissed during the same period of the Chekists, amnestied with the outbreak of war) were parachuted into the rear of the Germans, uniting in one detachment, which was engaged in the murders of high-ranking German officers , as well as sabotage: undermining railways and trains, destroying telephone cables, etc. The famous Soviet intelligence officer Nikolai Kuznetsov spent several months in this detachment.

After the war: continued to head the sabotage department (now he specialized in foreign sabotage). After the fall of Beria, Lieutenant General Sudoplatov was arrested as his close associate. He tried to feign insanity, but was sentenced to 15 years in prison for organizing the murders of Stalin's opponents, and was also deprived of all awards and titles. He served time in the Vladimir Central. After his release, he wrote memoirs and books about the work of Soviet intelligence, tried to achieve his rehabilitation. He was rehabilitated after the collapse of the USSR in 1992. Died in 1996.

Ilya Starinov

The most famous Soviet saboteur who worked "in the field". If Sudoplatov only led sabotage operations, then Starinov directly carried out sabotage, specializing in explosives. Even before the war, Starinov was engaged in training saboteurs and himself "trained" abroad, having carried out a number of sabotage operations during the Civil War in Spain, where he trained Republican saboteurs. He developed a special anti-train mine, which was actively used in the USSR during the war years.

Since the beginning of the war, Starinov has been training Soviet partisans, teaching them explosives. He was one of the leaders of the headquarters for sabotage in the Central headquarters of the partisan movement. Directly carried out an operation to destroy the commandant of Kharkov, General von Braun. During the retreat of the Soviet troops, explosives were buried near the best mansion in the city, and in order to avert the suspicions of German sappers, a snag was laid in a conspicuous place next to the building, which the Germans successfully cleared mines. A few days later, the explosives were detonated remotely using radio control. This was one of the few successful applications of radio-controlled mines in those years, since the technology was not yet sufficiently reliable and mature.

After the war: engaged in mine clearing of railways. After retiring, he taught sabotage tactics in KGB educational institutions until the end of the 80s. After that, he retired, died in 2000.

Colin Gubbins

Before the war, Gubbins studied guerrilla warfare and sabotage tactics. Later he headed the British Special Operations Executive (SOE), which was probably the most global factory of terror, sabotage and sabotage in human history. The organization sowed chaos and organized sabotage in almost all territories occupied by the Germans. The organization trained personnel for the resistance movement fighters in all European countries: Polish, Greek, Yugoslav, Italian, French, Albanian partisans received weapons, medicines, food and trained agents from the SOE.

The most famous acts of SOE sabotage were the explosion of a huge bridge across the Gorgopotamos River in Greece, which interrupted communication between Athens and the city of Thessaloniki for several months, which contributed to the deterioration of the supply of Rommel's African Corps in North Africa, and the destruction of a heavy water plant in Norway. The first attempts to destroy the heavy water plant, potentially suitable for use in nuclear energy, were unsuccessful. It was not until 1943 that SOE-trained saboteurs succeeded in destroying the plant and thereby practically disrupting the German nuclear program.

Another famous SOE operation was the elimination of Reinhard Heydrich, the Reich Protector of Bohemia and Moravia and the head of the Imperial Security Main Directorate (to make it clearer: it’s as if the Germans had killed Lavrenty Beria). Two British-trained agents - a Czech and a Slovak - landed in the Czech Republic and dropped a bomb that mortally wounded the odious Heydrich.

The pinnacle of the organization's activities was to be Operation Foxley - the assassination attempt on Hitler. The operation was carefully designed, prepared agents and a sniper who were supposed to jump in German uniforms by parachute and get to Hitler's Berghof residence. However, in the end, it was decided to abandon the operation - not so much because of its impracticability, but because of the fact that Hitler's death could turn him into a martyr and give an additional impetus to the Germans. In addition, a more talented and capable leader could take the place of Hitler, which would complicate the conduct of the war, which was already coming to an end.

After the war: retired, headed a textile factory. He was a member of the Bilderberg Club, which is considered by some conspiracy authors to be something like a secret world government.

Max Manus

The most famous Norwegian saboteur who sank several German ships. After the capitulation of Norway and its occupation by Germany, he went underground. He tried to organize an assassination attempt on Himmler and Goebbels during their visit to Oslo, but could not carry it out. He was arrested by the Gestapo, but was able to escape with the help of the underground and, in transit through several countries, moved to Britain, where he underwent sabotage training at the SOE.

After that, he was abandoned in Norway, where he was engaged in the destruction of German ships in ports with the help of sticky mines. After successful acts of sabotage, Manus moved to neighboring neutral Sweden, which helped him avoid capture. During the war years, he sank several German transport ships, becoming the most famous fighter of the Norwegian Resistance. It was Manus who was entrusted to be the bodyguard of the Norwegian king at the Victory Parade in Oslo.

After the war: wrote several books about his activities. He founded an office equipment sales company that still exists today. In post-war interviews, he complained that he was suffering from nightmares and painful memories of the war, which he had to fill with alcohol. To overcome nightmares, he changed the situation and moved with his family to the Canary Islands. He died in 1986 and is now considered a national hero in Norway.

Nancy Wake

Before the war she was a journalist. She met the beginning of the war in France, where she married a millionaire and received money and ample opportunities for her activities. From the very beginning of the occupation of France, she participated in organizing the escape of Jews from the country. After some time, she ended up on the lists of the Gestapo and, in order not to fall into their hands, fled to Britain, where she took a sabotage training course at the SOE.

She was parachuted into France with the task of uniting the disparate detachments of the French rebels and leading them. The British gave great support to the French resistance movement, dropping weapons and trained officers to coordinate. In France, the British used women especially as agents, as the Germans tended to be less suspicious of them.

Wake led the guerrillas, was engaged in the distribution of weapons, supplies and money dropped by the British. A responsible task was entrusted to the French partisans: with the beginning of the Allied landings in Normandy, they had to do their best to prevent the Germans from sending reinforcements to the coast, for which they blew up trains and attacked German detachments, fettering them in battle.

Nancy Wake made a big impression on her charges, who, as a rule, were non-professionals. Once she shocked them by easily killing a German sentry with her bare hands: she crept up behind him and broke his larynx with the edge of her hand.

Post-war: Received many awards from governments around the world. Several times unsuccessfully took part in the elections. She wrote memoirs, several series and films were shot about her life. Died in 2011.

November 1941. Hitler's troops, who occupied Kharkov, are inspecting the buildings of the city in search of explosive devices left by Soviet saboteurs. In house 17 on Dzerzhinsky Street, in the basement of the former party mansion, where he himself lived before the war Nikita Khrushchev, German sappers discover a powerful, carefully camouflaged mine and successfully clear it.

The prestigious house is ready for use by the German command. But at 3:30 am on November 14, 1941, the cleared building takes off into the air with everyone who was in it at that moment. All that remains of the mansion is a huge crater.

The real bomb was lower than the "baubles" discovered by the occupiers, and was activated by a radio signal from Voronezh. The organizer of the sabotage was Colonel Starinov, a man who went down in history as the "grandfather of the Soviet special forces."

Compared to the real biography of this man, the adventures James Bond seem like sugary women's novels.

He was nominated at least three times for the title of Hero of the Soviet Union and twice more for the title of Hero of Russia, but was never awarded. The man whom the best officers of the elite domestic special forces respectfully called Grandfather never received the general's epaulettes. On the other hand, in his life he happily avoided execution many times, which both his own and others threatened him with ...

Escape of the Red Army

It all started in the Oryol region, in the village of Voinovo, where on August 2, 1900, in the family Grigory Starinov a boy was born who was named Ilya.

Ilya's father worked as a lineman. One night, Grigory Starinov discovered a broken rail and, not hoping that the driver would notice the red signal he had set, put firecrackers on the rails, which delayed the train. These explosions struck the imagination of Ilya, for a long time crashing into his memory. Perhaps this childhood impression influenced the choice of the business of a lifetime.

The Starinov family lived in poverty, eight people huddled in the lineman's booth. It was about such that he said: "They have nothing to lose, except their own chains." For Ilya Starinov, the October Revolution was a boon, and it is not surprising that he soon found himself in the ranks of the Red Army.

He was fabulously lucky - after a severe wound in the leg, there was a question of amputation, but a doctor was found who preserved Ilya the ability to walk normally.

After one of the battles, Starinov and his comrades were captured by the Whites. During the escort, the Cossacks appeared, set on fire with the idea of \u200b\u200bcarving stars on the backs of prisoners, but the convoy prevented the massacre. They were taken to the village, where the fate of each was to be decided by ... a priest. The most "reliable" shone service already in the White Army or work in the mines, the rest, especially those who did not have crosses around their necks, were waiting for execution. Ilya did not have a cross, but for some reason the priest did not come that evening. And at night, the prisoners disarmed the guards and fled ...

Mine master

In the Civil fighter of the Red Army, Ilya Starinov reached Kerch, and in 1921, as a promising military man, he was sent to study at the Voronezh School of Military Railway Technicians, after which in September 1922 he was appointed head of the subversive team of the 4th Korostensky Red Banner railway regiment stationed in Kiev.

Starinov is passionate about mine-explosive business, plunges deep into it, looking for new ways both for sabotage and for their prevention.

Back in the years of the Civil War, he drew attention to the fact that the "hellish machines" for undermining railways were too cumbersome and inefficient. In the 1920s, Starinov developed his own portable mine, which would become known as the "Starinov train mine".

It is explosive devices of this type that will become the most effective weapon of the partisans. For this development, Ilya Starinov received the title of candidate of technical sciences.

Then, in the 1920s, Starinov also came up with a way to counter saboteurs planning to blow up railway bridges. At unguarded facilities, booby traps were set up that exploded upon unauthorized entry to the facilities. One trap was enough to stun a man, but not kill him. The mines turned out to be extremely effective - the number of sabotage decreased, and several shell-shocked intruders were detained.

In the late 1920s and early 1930s, Ilya Starinov was engaged in the creation of minefields on the western border of the Soviet Union, and was also working on improving sabotage equipment.

Comrade Rodolfo's work

The defense concept of the USSR of that period involves the widespread use of guerrilla warfare methods in the territories occupied by the enemy. In an atmosphere of secrecy, caches of weapons and ammunition are being laid, specialists are being trained, groups are being formed that should become the backbone of future partisan detachments. Starinov acts as an instructor in sabotage training.

In 1936, Starinov went on a business trip to Spain, where he had to test his own theories in practice.

Under the pseudonym Rodolfo, he becomes an adviser to a sabotage group in the Republican army. Very soon on the soldiers and officers of the army Franco the name Rodolfo begins to terrify. During the Spanish mission, which lasted about a year, he planned and carried out about 200 acts of sabotage, which cost the enemy thousands of lives of soldiers and officers.

In February 1937, a few kilometers from the major railway junction of Córdoba, Rodolfo's group captured two young soldiers of the Francoist army. The prisoners agreed to help and led the group to a section of the railway at the turn, where the path passed along a cliff. Under the outer rail of the canvas, the saboteurs set two mines and, having laid all the available stocks of explosives, waited for the train to appear. The train was carrying the headquarters of the Italian air division sent Mussolini to the aid of Franco's army. Italian aces in full force went to the forefathers.

Some time later, in the same way, an echelon with selected Moroccan cavalry, the pride of Franco's army, was destroyed.

Opponents of the regime of General Franco during the Spanish Civil War. Photo: RIA Novosti

Trojan mule

To say that the enemies hated Rodolfo is to say nothing. The best demolition specialists of the enemy understood Starinov's explosive devices, trying to understand Rodolfo's techniques and find an antidote. But the Soviet saboteur always went one step ahead.

Rodolfo's students worked incredibly quickly. One or two minutes before the arrival of the train was enough for them to mine the tracks, literally just checked by the enemy patrol.

Starinov acted masterfully. Once a mine was made from an ordinary tire that did not attract the attention of the guards. A locomotive pulling an ammunition train caught a tire and dragged it into the tunnel. There was a powerful explosion. Ammunition burst for several hours in a row. The most important transport artery of the Francoists was put out of action for several days.

Another time, the saboteurs were given the task of blowing up the wall of the monastery, which the rebels turned into an impregnable fortress. But how?

And then Rodolfo remembered the legendary Trojan horse. The next day, an ownerless mule appeared near the walls of the monastery, peacefully nibbling grass. The besieged decided that the cattle would be useful to them on the farm, and, having made a sortie, they took it for themselves. Convinced that the bait worked, Rodolfo released another mule a day later, allegedly running away from the Republicans. This time the animal was loaded with luggage. The rebels again hastened to seize the spoils.

But the mule's load was nothing more than a hefty supply of explosives. Once the mule was inside, the bomb was detonated. The destruction was such that the rebels soon capitulated.

© Commons.wikimedia.org / Battle of the Falangists and the people's militia in the area of the Madrid barracks, July 30, 1936
© Commons.wikimedia.org / "No pasaran" ("The enemy will not pass") is a banner in Madrid denoting the intention to defend the city

Life in the balance

Rodolfo not only acted himself, but also trained personnel. From a small group, a partisan corps of 3,000 people was created in a year.

By the way, four Spanish students of Starinov, many years later, will land with Fidel Castro in Cuba from the Granma yacht, starting the Cuban Revolution.

By the time Starinov returned from his business trip, a performance for the title of Hero of the Soviet Union was already being prepared for him, but ... The Great Terror began in his homeland. Many of Starinov's friends, colleagues, commanders were shot, including the man who was preparing an award presentation for him.

The life of the super-saboteur himself hung in the balance, but he was lucky again - the extra-class specialist was not touched.

During the Soviet-Finnish war, Starinov fought fiercely with Finnish saboteurs, unraveling their secrets and drawing up instructions for mine clearance. Once he was "caught" by a Finnish sniper, but here, too, luck was on the side of the Soviet officer - he escaped with a wound in the arm.

Diversion High School

It is not possible to list all the operations carried out by Colonel Starinov during the Great Patriotic War. Over 250 bridge blowing operations alone were carried out.

In 1942, Ukrainian partisans derailed just over 200 enemy trains. In 1943, colonel Starinov took up the planning of sabotage and the training of saboteurs at the Ukrainian headquarters of the partisan movement, and as a result, the number of enemy echelons destroyed increased to three and a half thousand.

It is difficult to calculate how many partisan saboteurs were trained by Starinov during the war years - according to the most conservative estimates, we are talking about five thousand people.

Starinov's students, among whom were not only Soviet citizens, but also Spaniards, Yugoslavs, Poles, became heroes, generals, and only a narrow circle of initiates knew about their teacher, who still wore the epaulettes of a colonel.

After the end of the war, Colonel Starinov was appointed to the post of deputy head of the 20th Directorate of the Railway Troops of the Soviet Army in Lvov. In this position, he carried out mine clearance and restoration of railways and took part in the fight against Bandera.

Then he returned to teaching again, preparing specialists in sabotage and counter-sabotage operations, already taking into account the experience of the Great Patriotic War.

People's Commissar of Defense of the USSR Kliment Voroshilov shakes hands with Captain Ilya Starinov. 1937 Photo: Public Domain

Grandfather made plans for Khattab

He officially retired in 1956. But Starinov did not stop his activities in his specialty. In 1964, he was appointed to the post of teacher of sabotage tactics at the Advanced Courses for Officers (KUOS). For more than 20 years he taught at the higher educational institutions of the KGB.

Almost all the officers of the legendary elite domestic special forces were trained by Starinov, the author of three secret textbooks on sabotage and several open books of memoirs.

Long before today, Starinov, in his work "Guerrilla Warfare", wrote that modern armed conflicts will take place in the form of local clashes with a predominance of guerrilla tactics.

During the First Chechen campaign, Starinov, who was already over 90 years old, sharply criticized the actions of the federal forces, pointing out that the developments that had been created over several decades were not used against terrorists. Only the initiates knew that Grandfather literally worked out plans to defeat the gangs to the smallest detail. Khattaba, Basayev And Raduev based on their own experience, but these proposals have remained unclaimed.

Order of Courage instead of the Star of the Hero

In 1998 Sergey Goncharov, President of the Association of Veterans of the Alpha Anti-Terror Unit sent President Yeltsin a letter in which he raised the issue of awarding the country's oldest commando with the star of the Hero of Russia. There was no answer.

In 2000, when Ilya Grigoryevich Starinov turned 100 years old, a similar appeal was sent to President Putin. It did not go unnoticed, but instead of the star of the Hero, Colonel Starinov received the Order of Courage, which became the last award of the old soldier.

Ilya Starinov died on November 18, 2000, at the age of 101. At his funeral at the Troekurovsky cemetery, the entire color of the national special forces gathered - known and unknown heroes of our Motherland.

“I am proud of my students,” wrote Ilya Starinov in his book Notes of a Saboteur. Starinov's disciples seem to have managed to mark themselves all over the planet, and often this turned out in the most unexpected way. At one time, the fighters of the Vympel special forces adopted partisan experience from the Sandinistas in Nicaragua. The Nicaraguan guerrillas were trained by the Cubans, who in turn learned from the Vietnamese. The Vietnamese, on the other hand, went through school with their Chinese comrades, who learned the basics of sabotage back in the 1920s from a Soviet instructor ... Ilya Starinov.

In the late 1990s, one of the journalists who interviewed Colonel Starinov remarked: “They call you the Russian Skorzeny…” The old soldier looked gloomily at the reporter and cut him off: “I am a saboteur, and he is a braggart!”

Alas, braggarts and talkers at all times have been more famous than people of action.