Hero of the Soviet Union Lieutenant Commander of the Red Navy Konstantin Kochiev (1913-1946) during the Great Patriotic War. Eastern Front, World War II.
From the beginning of the Great Patriotic War – on its fronts, he fought as a commander of a detachment of torpedo boats of the 1st brigade of torpedo boats of the Black Sea Fleet. Participated in the defense of Odessa, Sevastopol and Novorossiysk, the Kerch landing operation and the liberation of Crimea. Under the leadership of Konstantin Kochiev, the detachment made 250 combat sorties, destroying 4 transports, 1 submarine, 13 self-propelled barges, 1 torpedo boat, 1 aircraft, laying 78 mines, transporting more than 250 marines.
From the first week of the war, non-contact mines became an acute problem for the main naval base of Soviet Russia in the Black Sea, with which the enemy threw the fairway from aircraft, causing heavy damage to Russian warships and blocking exits from ports. Konstantin Kochiev proposed to undermine mines with depth charges at full speed of torpedo boats. The commander of the Black Sea Fleet, Vice Admiral Philip Oktyabrsky, instructed him to conduct an experiment on the Inkerman alignment. Not on the first try, but some of the sea mines detonated.
Boat D-3 under the command of the future Hero of the Soviet Union Konstantin Kochiev on June 13, 1942, during a raid on the port of Yalta, sank an Italian CB-5 midget submarine. The retreat without loss was a success thanks to the production of a smoke screen. On October 22, 1942, a group of torpedo boats under his command broke into the harbor of Feodosia and sank a tanker there. On April 23, 1943, near Anapa, a group of Konstantin Kochiev sank 2 high-speed landing barges.
In the winter of 1943, during the Kerch-Eltigen landing operation, Konstantin Kochiev’s torpedo boat hit a mine and began to sink rapidly. The personnel ended up in cold water. They managed to save everyone, but because of the long stay in the icy water, the health of the lieutenant commander was shaken, although he continued to remain in the ranks.
On the night of May 5, 1944, Konstantin Kochiev, with four torpedo boats, went to Cape Khersones, where a caravan of fascist ships was moving in the protection of minesweepers, landing barges and boats. Soviet boats rushed to the attack, broke through the living curtain and sank two transport ships and barges with torpedo strikes.
By a decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR dated May 16, 1944, Lieutenant Commander Konstantin Kochiev was awarded the high title of Hero of the Soviet Union with the Order of Lenin and the Gold Star medal.
According to the former commander of a torpedo boat in the detachment of the Hero of the Soviet Union A.E. Chertsov, Konstantin Kochiev enjoyed exceptional prestige among officers and sailors for his personal heroism, excellent qualities of a mentor and leader, and the highest sense of justice. When in one of the battles he was thrown overboard by a close explosion of a shell, at the same moment, without a command, several sailors immediately rushed into the icy water (it was in December) to save their commander.
Place of photo: USSR
Shooting time: 1944