Liberty type transports. History of Liberty ships

Liberty type transports.  History of Liberty ships
Liberty type transports. History of Liberty ships

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Alternative designs for battleships, cruisers, and aircraft carriers appear on our website almost every day. But I personally don’t remember the projects of transport or paramilitary ships. For reasons of greater variety, I decided to post this project on our website. Although in terms of AI, this project makes very little sense and is possible in a very alternative USSR, little similar to the one we remember and which we usually mean. But let's return to the project:

The famous battle of the steamship "Sibiryakov" with the German pocket battleship "Admiral Hipper" and its tragic death. It gave the Soviet leadership the idea of ​​​​creating special, cheap and mass-produced ships to participate in Arctic convoys.

The main condition, in addition to the above, was the presence of serious weapons on the ship, which would give him the opportunity, if not to fight off the German raiders, then to inflict unacceptable damage on them. This, according to the naval leadership, was supposed to cool the ardor of the German hunters.

In addition, the ships had to have good anti-aircraft weapons, which would make it possible to independently protect themselves from enemy air raids.

The first ship in the series was the Sibiryakov transport, named after the famous deceased ancestor.

The ships received really good weapons, both for transport. At the ends of the superstructure in the center of the hull there were two towers with four 130 mm universal cannons. In addition, at the ends of the hull there were two 85 mm anti-aircraft guns, which could also be used for firing at surface targets. This, so to speak, was the ship’s universal armament, but it also had quite powerful purely anti-aircraft weapons, which consisted of twenty 20 mm guns (as I understand it, Oerlikons, apparently Lend-Lease) and 8 and 12.7 mm machine guns ( in the original the author indicated some 15 mm cannons, or machine guns).

The ships of the “Siberian” series began to be built in 1943 and in total, no less than 27 units were built.

12 were taken by the Pacific Shipping Company, 12 by the Murmansk Shipping Company. This is to ensure emergency supplies under Lend-Lease.

2 was requested by the Northern Fleet command for the purpose of converting into artillery escort ships - to escort internal convoys in summer period navigation. The ships were built in the expectation that anyone would be able to thwart an attack by an auxiliary cruiser. The command of the Northern Fleet, not unreasonably, believed that large Kriegsmarine surface vessels, if used, would be used against much more valuable Allied convoys transporting finished military products. Soviet internal convoys finished products as a rule, they are not lucky, and they have a high probability of avoiding a meeting or evading warship simply due to geographical reasons. It is economically unjustified to waste fuel, which is scarce for the Reich, for the sake of Soviet coasters, and intelligence promised not to oversleep the release of a German large warship (this time). At the same time, the Germans could quietly launch a raider disguised as a single Allied merchant ship into the sea against Soviet shipping.

Representatives of the merchant fleet were indignant, saying that one such ship was enough, since a new air base for reconnaissance aircraft with hangars on Kolguev Island, jump airfields all the way to Dikson, and a mine-torpedo air regiment with the priority task of “catching the next reptile”, theoretically, should have excluded the unnoticed penetration of an enemy ship into the deserted Kara Sea, and even more so to get out of it. But the sailors reasonably stated that the convoys were traveling in two directions and said that the pilots had orders to fly in bad weather merchant seamen they will give it themselves. The final argument was that the Northern Fleet did not have guns larger than 130 mm on its ships, and in the future operations against the coast were more than obvious. The armament of each ship was 6,180 mm B-1-P mounts in 6 turrets: two linearly elevated ends and one on each side - in such a way as to be able to guarantee fire with 4 out of 6 guns during retreat and catch-up courses. Anti-aircraft weapons - 4,100 mm universal installations B-34, 8 70-K anti-aircraft guns, and 4 25 mm 72-K cannons.

Well, 1 ship was asked by the leadership of GlavSevMorPut - to ensure its operability. The ship had 12 cargo boats and 3 connected seaplanes on deck; the ship's holds were filled with fuel (kerosene and gasoline in barrels, coal in basket bags) building material, food, spare parts, winter clothing, medicine and water. The ship had additional cabins, a multidisciplinary repair shop that allowed for quick repairs of electric generators, boiler plants, radio stations, an outpatient clinic with several doctors (there was an X-ray machine, an operating room and a dental office), a Russian-style bathhouse and even a kind of restaurant where those suffering from loneliness and difficult conditions employees could relax both mind and body. Motorboats supplied meteorological, radio broadcasting stations, and patrol posts with everything necessary; seaplanes provided courier and communications services, since, for obvious reasons, the ship tried not to go on the air. The ship was actually used as a floating base and all transitions were made with “passing” convoys under the protection of an escort.

During the war, out of 27 ships, 4 ships were lost and one was seriously damaged. In the North, 3 ships were lost - one was sunk during the passage of convoy JW-55A in December 1943 in the Barents Sea by the submarine U-354, the other was sunk by Ju-188 torpedo bombers from III/KG-26 in November 1944 in the Norwegian Sea, and was left behind due to a breakdown from convoy RA-61A, the ship was detected by the radar of a reconnaissance aircraft. The reconnaissance aircraft, having determined the parameters of the target, hung a chain of flare bombs along the course on the north side of the ship, and the torpedo bombers, as if in a training exercise, approached the illuminated target from the south from the darkness. Everyone died. A third died on a mine at the mouth of the White Sea in February 1945. The last one died due to a navigation error on Far East near Sakhalin in the spring of 1945. Bad weather did not allow the observation to be made, and radio equipment was damaged due to the storm.

Only one ship in the series was damaged, but how! In early spring In 1944, it was decided to convert one ship into a tanker and transfer it in passing allied convoys from the Barents Sea to the Black Sea - in order to deliver fuel from Caucasian ports closer to the front in future operations on the southern theater of operations of the Soviet-German front, bypassing the overloaded Rostov-Batay railway junction . Around the Sea of ​​Azov it is geographically inconvenient, uneconomical, slow, noticeable and dangerous. Moreover, opponents from GrAr “South” are destroying everything behind them. And then there are 10,000 tons of fuel on one flight. And the ship looks like a transport. The ship was converted into a tanker in March and set sail with a convoy on April 28. The British were very surprised that the ship set off on such a voyage empty, but the Soviet allies explained that the ship was not ready to sail with cargo and would be completed in the Black Sea. But they didn’t lie: the holds have already been turned into tanks, only without the lids on top for now. And on May 28, a ship sailing alone in the Mediterranean Sea south of the island of Crete came under a star raid by German aviation. The Fritz-X guided bomb from the He-177 pierced the hold of the tank that had become a tank and did not explode. However, the hold was partially filled with water. Ju-88 bombers dropped bombs from a fairly high altitude, but the ship was hit by a 250 kg bomb, which tore off the stern valve. The He-111 torpedo bombers were repulsed with barrage fire from 130 mm cannons, although the torpedo passing astern detonated (probably the magnetic fuse went off), and the ship was left without movement. The ship went to Alexandria for repairs. In tow. Until the end of the war

All 20 surviving merchant ships were disarmed and continued to work after the war, both artillery ships became targets during missile testing, the polar explorer served out its life as a blockade on Dikson, and the tanker was sold for scrap immediately after the war in Alexandria.

Vessel.

John Brown - one of two surviving Liberty class ships

Story
The first one launched: September 27, 1941
General characteristics
Architecture: Smooth-deck tween-deck type with midship position
Displacement: 14,450 tons
Load capacity 9,140 tons
Tryumov 5
Length: 135 meters
Width: 17.3 meters
Draft: 8.5 meters
Power point: One steam engine
2 boilers,
2360 hp
1 screw (diameter approx. 2.9 m; 4 blades)
Speed: 11 knots (20.4 km/h) or 11.5 knots
Crew: 41 people (ranged 38-62)

Predecessors

Hog Islander class (1918)

Direct predecessor of "Liberty" - typical transport ships, built by the production method at the end of World War I at the Hog Island shipyard in Philadelphia. Built in 1918, the shipyard with 50 slipways and 7 dry docks was the first designed for mass production of civilian transport (a similar project for the construction of patrol ships was implemented in the same 1917-1918 by Henry Ford). The first Hog Islander was launched on August 5, 1918, the last on January 29, 1921; In total, 122 ships were built - 110 dry cargo ships and 12 troop transports. The Hog Islanders suffered no losses in the First world war; During World War II, 58 ships of this type were lost.

Officers SS Booker Washington after returning from the first Atlantic crossing

Ocean class vessels (1941)

Subsequently, Liberty ships were named in honor of people of all professions, while anyone who donated $2 million for defense could name the ship after themselves.

Technology development

Model "Liberty"

Construction of the first 14 ships took about 230 days. During 1941-1942, through successive improvements, the construction period (from laying to launching) was reduced to 42 days. In November 1942, the Kaiser shipyard set a record - laid down on November 8 SS Robert Peary was launched on November 12 (4 days, 15 hours and 29 minutes after laying), and went on its first voyage on November 22; the ship survived the war and served until 1963. However, this was more of a propaganda stunt that could not be mass-produced. In total, 18 shipyards were involved in the construction of the Liberty (not counting numerous subcontractors), and in 1943 production averaged 3 ships per day.

Manufacturing defects

"Liberty" of the first series suffered from cracks in the hull and deck. 19 ships literally fell apart at sea. Initially, the defects were attributed either to the welded structure as a whole, or - low quality welding in conditions of round-the-clock continuous production. A metallurgist from the UK, Constance Tipper, who was involved in the investigation, proved that cracks in the welded set developed due to an unsuccessful choice of steel grade, which became brittle in arctic conditions. Welded construction facilitated the propagation of fatigue cracks, but did not generate them. During 1942, these shortcomings were eliminated. The Liberty experience was taken into account in the production of subsequent military series - Victory transports (534 vessels) and T2 tankers (490 vessels).

Service

Liberty's capacity could reach:

In practice, as a rule, the cargo was assembled as a groupage.

Surviving Liberty

The Liberty were built as "five-year ships": it was believed that their limitations in speed and maintainability would make the ships uncompetitive in the post-war world. In fact, the Liberty served actively in Korean War convoys and in civilian service until the early 1960s: in the 1950s, shipping companies only made money with the Liberty to renew their fleets. The Liberty was massively scrapped in the 1960s; The firstborn of the series, "Patrick Henry", was broken in 1958.

As of 2005, two Liberty museum ships are in operation SS John W. Brown in Baltimore and SS Jeremiah O'Brien San Francisco ; both are seaworthy and go to sea periodically. The third surviving Liberty is a floating fish factory. (English) Russian Star of Kodiak(Kodiak in Alaska).

The hull of one of the Liberty ships is used as a base for the floating nuclear power plant MH-A1 Sturgis. Today, Sturgis (transformed from a ship to a barge) is at its last stop on the James River (USA).

Turn your chest to the torpedoes, Liberty

September 27 is a glorious and memorable date in the history of world shipping and the Second World War. On this day in 1941, the Bethlehem-Fairfield Shipyard near Baltimore, Maryland, USA, launched the first bulk carrier of the famous and legendary Liberty series - one of the world's first experiences in the production of ships of one design in mass quantities, almost in an assembly line manner. Anyone who knows a little about the history of World War II and world shipping will know what these ships were and what their role was in the war as a whole.
The first Libertos was called the SS Patrick Henry and took 244 days to build. Subsequently, the average Liberty ship took 42 days to build, and one, the SS Robert E. Peary, was built in 4 days! Although this was done for advertising purposes, nevertheless, a record was set - and it seems that no one has yet broken it. The Allies needed to ensure uninterrupted supplies of materials and equipment from the USA and Canada to Europe and the USSR, and as you know, 40-43 years was the period of undivided dominance of German submarines. To ensure transportation, it was necessary not only to build new transports to replace the sunken ones, but to build them en masse. It was the Liberty that became such courts.

Launching of the firstborn, SS Patrick Henry

They received the nickname “Liberty” from the light hand of President Roosevelt, he participated in the launching ceremony of the first-born, SS Patrick Henry, and said in welcome speech the next words are “give me freedom, or let me die.” Liberty - freedom. Ships under this proud nickname made a huge contribution to the victory of the Allies in general and the USSR in particular; they are written about in all the memoirs of merchant marine sailors. Those libertos that the USSR received under Lend-Lease worked for us until the 70s, and we remembered them exclusively with pleasure. They were built like steam engines, and the steam engine is characterized by low noise - there was no roar and clang of modern diesel engines and vibration of the tin settings of modern ships. Libertos were solid steamships, made of almost armor, judging by our modern standards. Yes, there were problems with the strength of the hull, due to the fact that the Libertos became the first mass series of ships built not by riveting, but by welding. But the hull was strengthened, and after that they worked for many more decades.

A little history:
At the beginning of the war, the merchant fleet of the United States allies in the anti-Hitler coalition carried huge losses from mine explosions, enemy air raids, submarine attacks and surface ship actions. By December 1940, Great Britain alone had lost 585 ships, accounting for 20% of its tonnage, and by the summer of 1941 it had decreased by a third.

World Merchant Marine in 1939:

The ratio of transport losses to their reproduction:

It was urgently necessary to take some radical measures to ensure sea transportation of military cargo and troops in the required volumes, in all basins. Otherwise, the Allies faced defeat. Let’s not forget that the USSR depended on supplies under Lend-Lease much more than our propaganda, both Soviet and current, tells us. Our propaganda focuses on supplies military equipment, such as tanks and planes. And here, indeed, our industry played the main role. But our people forget about what tanks and airplanes cannot be built without - about special grades of steel and additives, about aluminum and machine tools, about much more. They also forget about something without which planes cannot fly, aviation gasoline, and we received it from the allies in very considerable quantities - about a third of what we consumed. That’s the point, that’s the importance of allied supplies - these were materials and things that we ourselves, at such a level and in such quantities, could not produce, or did not have at all. Radar, for example, or radio stations. Or the legendary jeeps and Studebakers. In short, without establishing sufficient sea transportation to meet military needs, the Allies could lose altogether. The situation became critical in 40-41, when the merchant fleet was rapidly declining and the warring countries were unable to make up for the losses.

Convoy in the North Atlantic

The USA came to the rescue, with its gigantic industrial potential, with its ability to implement the most fantastic projects. A competition has been announced in the USA best project for the construction of a huge series of transports, with the following requirements: ships must be as cheap and simple as possible to build and operate, as low as possible in terms of their own weight with maximum carrying capacity, and have the highest possible survivability and basic comfort for the crews.
Since the world production of diesel engines ended up in Germany and the countries it occupied, a steam engine with boilers running on liquid fuel was chosen as the main engine.
According to the results of the competition, the winner was a project with the following parameters: a universal dry cargo ship, designed to operate in an unlimited navigation area, had a displacement of more than 14 thousand tons, longest length about 135 meters, a beam of more than 17 meters and a fully loaded draft of 8.5 meters. It was entirely welded, which represented a revolution in shipbuilding technology. The steamer was double-deck, with five cargo compartments, with a superstructure and an engine room in the middle part, with seven watertight bulkheads that ensured the ship was unsinkable if any compartment was flooded.

Scheme basic version project Liberty - bulk carrier

At power power plant With 2.5 thousand horsepower and a carrying capacity of 10 thousand tons, the ships had a relatively low operating speed of 11 knots, which facilitated their use in convoys together with other types of ships. All equipment, even furniture in the cabins, is made of thin sheet steel, so the ship turned out to be much lighter than other ships of the same carrying capacity. The world shipbuilding industry has never seen ships with such advantageous characteristics.
Living quarters were located in the middle and aft superstructures, with access to lifeboats and rafts. To decorate the deck and cabins, instead of wood, non-slip fire-resistant mastic was used, which was cheaper and provided high fire resistance, which was very important in war conditions.

Finished section Robert E Peary

The ships had ten cargo booms with a lifting capacity of 3-5 tons; they had one or two heavy booms with a lifting capacity of up to 50 tons. The upper deck made it possible to place large cargo on it.
The ships had good weapons and could fend for themselves when meeting with enemy surface ships, and during attacks by submarines, and during raids by enemy aircraft. In addition to two cannons - at the bow and at the stern, six to eight 20-40 mm rapid-fire anti-aircraft guns and machine guns were installed, and a supply of depth charges was provided. The demagnetization device protected the hull from being blown up by mines with magnetic fuses; and the steering and charthouse were covered with reinforced concrete slabs.

Car

The production was organized on a grand scale. The Americans established mass production of the Liberty without large outlays and in a short time. The entire industry of the USA and Canada was involved in construction. The program provided for the construction of 2,742 ships at 18 shipyards on the Pacific and Atlantic coasts, numbering 170 slips. The enterprises were bound by a strict integration and delivery schedule. unification of ship equipment and new assembly technology ensured a reduction in construction time. The vessels were assembled using the conveyor method using electric welding. This required organizing mass accelerated training of shipbuilding workers. The ships were built at an incredible speed, the production cycle of their construction was constantly decreasing.
It was believed that Liberty-class ships were built for one or two voyages: if the ship crossed the ocean and delivered its cargo, it would have justified the construction costs.
Dry cargo ships of the Liberty type formed the basis of the entire world fleet, which provided sea transportation for the countries of the anti-Hitler coalition during the Second World War. The Liberty were the main sea carrier of Lend-Lease cargo and took an active part in transporting troops and landing amphibious assault forces.
About 2,700 ships of this series were built during all the years of the war. At the height of the war and construction, between March 1943 and December 1943, more than 100 ships were built per month. At first, the press and public were very skeptical of Liberty, calling them “ugly ducklings.” However, later the attitude towards them changed radically, and in the end they became favorites. The ships turned out to be simple to build, reliable, easy to rebuild, and exceeded all expectations.
Dimensions of Liberty main type, bulk carrier:
Displacement: 14245 tons Length max: 129.81 meters Width: 16.76 meters Draft: 8.16 meters Propulsion power and speed: 2500 hp, 11 knots

Bridge

Stern gun

Liberty at the California shipyards

Fate:
The firstborn, SS Patrick Henry, was decommissioned in 1960. There are currently two fully functional libertos preserved in the United States, the SS Jeremiah O'Brien (San Francisco) and the SS John W. Brown (Baltimore).
Whether we still have them, I don’t know. Just a few years ago, Alexander Nevsky stood alone on the First River in Vladivostok, as the head of the nautical school and training center for combating survivability and rescue equipment. It seems that he is no longer there. What a pity! After all, legendary ships are closely connected with our history.

Causes of death and fate of the series vessels:
Cause of death Quantity

Submarines sunk by torpedoes: 114
Submarines sunk by artillery: 11
Sunk by surface ships: 6
Sunk by aircraft: 30
Kamikaze: 5
Mines: 34
As a result of normal accidents: 280
Scrapped: 1556
US Reserve Fleet: 434
Other (including Liberty transferred to other countries): 241
Total: 2711

Shipyards that built Liberty: Alabama Dry Dock Co, Bethlehem-Fairfield Shipyards Inc, California Shipbuilding Corp, Delta Shipbuilding Co, J A Jones Construction Co (Brunswick), J A Jones Construction Co (Panama City), Kaiser Co, Marinship Corp, New England Shipbuilding Corp, North Carolina Shipbuilding Co, Oregon Shipbuilding Corp, Permanente Metals Co, St Johns River Shipbuilding Co, Southeastern Shipbuilding Corp, Todd Houston Shipbuilding Corp, Walsh-Kaiser Co.
Main modifications of the project: bulk carrier; tanker; coal tanker; air transport; tank carrier; hospital ship; landing transport.
Basic flags: USA; England; Norway; Belgium; THE USSR; France; Greece; Netherlands.
Laying the keel of the firstborn: April 30, 1941
Launching the last one: October 30, 1945.
Total 2,711 ships were laid down, a total of 2,710 ships were delivered.

One of the Lend-Lease Liberty, Jean Jaurès, was received and driven by the deeply respected Anna Ivanovna Shchetinina (of blessed memory), the most famous woman in Russia - captain.
Songs were also written about Liberty; once upon a time I heard one, and I remembered fragmentary lines:
“it was an hour, I thought the end had come for me, but apparently God himself was turning the helm with me... ... turn your chest to the torpedoes, Liberty”
Glorious ships, glorious fate, and let's hope - eternal memory.

Liberty postage stamp

One of the survivors - SS Jeremiah O"Brien

Convoy formation, Liberty in the background

Liberty in the stormy Atlantic

Got there...

Another steamship of the legendary Liberty series will become a museum
January 15 - an unusual ship arrived in Greece, the Hellas Liberty steamship of the legendary Liberty series, formerly called Arthur M. Huddel. The steamer left Norfolk Virginia, USA, on December 6 last year. Until July last year, the World War II veteran steamer Arthur M. Huddel was a member of the US Reserve Fleet and was stationed at Fort Justus. An agreement was reached between Greece and the United States to transfer the ship to Greece, where it will undergo repairs and reconstruction and become a floating museum. The Liberty series steamships played a huge role not only in the entire 2nd World War, but also in the fate of Greece and its post-war shipping. During the war, the country's merchant fleet was practically destroyed, and many ships were lost delivering various loads for allies. After the end of the war, the United States transferred 104 Liberty-class ships to Greece on favorable terms, which in the country were called the “Blessed Hundred” - it was these ships that laid the foundation for the revival of the Greek merchant fleet. The US Classification Society American Bureau of Shipping allocated to the Institute of History navy Greece 250 thousand dollars for the reconstruction of the ship. In the United States, there are two more Liberty-class ships, John W. Brown and Jeremiah O'Brien, as floating museums. The photo shows Hellas Liberty as Arthur M. Huddel - click on the icon to go to the full-size photo:

In 1934, the Black Sea Shipping Company in Germany acquired a dry cargo ship, almost the same type as the Anhalt (Kharkov), with a deadweight of 11,800 tons, built in 1913. We called it “Tbilisi”. During the war, under the command of Captain D.I. Soroka, the ship worked on the northern front-line communications. In September 1942, during the transition from Iceland to Arkhangelsk, with military cargo, as part of convoy PQ-18, during a battle with enemy bombers, Captain D.I. Soroka was seriously wounded. He had to be transferred to a military minesweeper for emergency surgery.
On September 6, 1943, the p/v "Tbilisi", traveling from Dudinka to Arkhangelsk with a cargo of coal under the command of Black Sea captain V.K. Subbotin in the Yenisei Gulf of the Kara Sea, when leaving the mouth of the Yenisei, was blown up by bottom mines laid by the German submarine U -6З6 and sank. 2 people died.

A few months later, the name of the capital of Georgia was given to a new ship of the Liberty type, received under Lend-Lease from the USA. The crew of the sunken ship, led by captain V.K., boarded the ship "Tbilisi". Subbotin.
The Liberty-class steamships were quite good ships, with a deadweight of 10,800 tons and a loaded speed of about 11 knots. In total, 2,710 units were built in the United States during the war. These were relatively inexpensive ships, as they say, “for one voyage”, were built according to a simplified design and fully met the requirements of wartime. During the construction of these ships, the all-welded hull method and the abandonment of rivets were used for the first time. Construction included continuous assembly using a sectional assembly method on a slipway, which significantly speeded up construction. An absolute record was set at the shipyard in Richmond: the ship "Robert E. Peary" left the slipway 4 days 15 hours 30 minutes after laying.

Under Lend-Lease, about 40 Liberty-class ships were transferred Soviet Union, for a long time after the war, ships of this series worked honestly in various shipping companies, including. and in the ChMP. These were “Sukhona”, “Jean Zhores”, “Kutuzov”, “Kirov”, “Ala-Tau” and others.
And in the Museum of the Ukrainian Maritime Fleet there is a model of the ship "Liberty", which was presented to the people of the USSR in 1973 and transferred to the museum by the Maritime Administration of the US Department of Commerce, as a symbol of the contribution of these ships to joint efforts during the war and hopes for strengthening trade ties between countries in peacetime.

Ships of the "Liberty" type, for all their positive qualities, had insufficient transverse strength. There have been quite a few cases of fractures in swimming. So, for example, on December 13, 1943, in the Bering Sea on the steamship Valery Chkalov, commanded by the famous captain A.Sh. Shantsberg, a crack formed, the deck burst, the starboard plating to the waterline. After several hours of towing, the ship broke through a crack. Both halves remained buoyant and were safely towed to an American port. The crew survived several terrible days, but, fortunately, no one was injured.
The Americans apologized... and handed the sailors of the broken ship a new ship under the same name “Valery Chkalov”.
In the same year, Voikov, Suchan, Askold, Kherson, Vitebsk, Jean Zhores and other Liberty suffered ruptures in their decks and hulls.

Corresponding changes to the reinforcement of the ship's hull were made to project documentation, which reduced the risk of accidents, but so far the fractures continued.
Tragic news came from the North on December 30, 1944. On a voyage with military cargo from Murmansk to the liberated port of Pechenga, the Liberty-class steamer Tbilisi was torpedoed by the German submarine U-956. Captain V.K. Subbotin, 8 sailors and 43 passengers were killed. The bow of the ship sank, but the stern with the engine room and superstructure remained afloat and was towed to Murmansk, where the military cargo was unloaded. For a long time the saved half was in the port.

The sailors proposed changing the inscription on the ship's seal from the Tbilisi terminal to the Tbilisi terminal - after all, the ship was really a “semi-steamer”. It was to this stern part of the steamship “Tbilisi” that remained afloat, remembering the story of the “Kharkov”, that Murmansk ship repairmen used electric welding to “sew” the preserved bow end, either from a torpedoed or broken ship of the same type. Its captain was A. Kacharava, who later became the head of the Georgian Shipping Company, the former captain of the legendary icebreaker ship "Alexander Sibiryakov". For a long time in the post-war period, the Tbilisi sailed as part of the ships of the Azov Shipping Company.

Oleg Bulovich,
deputy chairman of the veterans organization
fleet of GC "ChMP"
“SAILOR OF UKRAINE”, No. 46 from 11/25/15

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USS Liberty is a US Navy electronic intelligence ship. She was laid down on February 23, 1945 at Portland, Oregon as the freighter Simmons Victory, one of a large series of so-called "Victory ships" built during World War II for transatlantic convoys. Simmons Victory was transferred to the Maritime Commission on May 4, 1945, and chartered to the Pacific Far East Line, for which it carried out commercial cargo transportation. In 1958, the ship was returned to the US Department of Commerce's Merchant Marine Administration for transfer to the US Navy Reserve. In February 1963, Simmons Victory was purchased by the US Navy and converted into a multi-purpose support vessel. On June 8, 1963, it was renamed Liberty and received tail number AG-168. On April 1, 1964, it was reclassified as a technical reconnaissance ship with hull number AGTR-5. In February 1965, the Liberty sailed from the West Coast to Norfolk, Virginia, where it was installed optional equipment, allowing you to perform tasks for collecting and processing electronic intelligence data in the interests of the US National Security Agency. In June 1965, the Liberty set off on its first voyage to the shores of West Africa; then for two years he participated in other US Navy operations in the Atlantic. In 1967 he was sent to the Mediterranean Sea, where during the Six-Day War he carried out electronic reconnaissance in the eastern Mediterranean. The day of June 8, 1967 off the coast of the Sinai Peninsula was sunny and clear. It was the fourth day of the Arab-Israeli "six-day war". But on the deck of the Liberty, slowly cutting through the azure surface Mediterranean Sea 12 nautical miles from the coast, an almost resort idyll reigned. Off-duty team members, having rubbed themselves with sunblock, basked under the gentle southern sun. I couldn’t even believe that fierce tank and air battles were taking place very nearby in the sands of Sinai and in the Suez Canal area.

The Americans felt completely safe. Their ship was in international waters, and a large Stars and Stripes flag fluttered on the mast, which Israeli Air Force reconnaissance planes, which had flown around the Liberty 13 times at low altitude in the morning, could not help but notice. The sailors waved to the pilots: after all, the USA and Israel were allies. The operators of the radio interception posts clearly heard the pilots' reports to their command: the discovered ship was American. Only the ship's commander, Commander (Captain 2nd Rank) William McGonagle, was tormented by vague premonitions. Having received orders to approach the war zone on June 5, he asked the commander of the US 6th Fleet, Vice Admiral Thomas Martin, to assign him a destroyer as an escort. But he was refused. The admiral assured him that “if anything happens,” carrier-based aircraft from aircraft carriers would immediately be scrambled to help. At about 2 o'clock in the afternoon, the radiometrician on duty reported the appearance on the radar screen of three high-speed surface objects following an intersecting course. Five minutes later, one of the Israeli planes circling the Liberty suddenly dived onto the ship. Unguided aircraft missiles launched by the Mirage - NARs - crashed into the deck and superstructure of the American ship. This was followed by another missile salvo from the second Mirage. The hull of the ship shook from many explosions, most of the sailors peacefully sunbathing on the deck were instantly killed or maimed. Having turned around, the Mirages opened fire on the Liberty with 30-mm cannons, and the Super-Mister attack aircraft that came up behind them dropped napalm bombs. The ship burst into flames in several places at once. The surviving crew members, under fire from Israeli aircraft, began a desperate fight against the fire and tried to help the numerous wounded. Despite the fact that most of the antennas were destroyed during the 20-minute air raid, the radio operators managed to install an emergency antenna and broadcast the SOS signal. The signal was heard, but the carrier aircraft promised by Admiral Martin never showed up either during the attack or after it. Meanwhile, the situation for Liberty took an even worse turn. As soon as the planes were out of sight, three Israeli torpedo boats appeared on the scene - the same surface targets detected earlier by radar. Approaching the American ship at a distance of 200 meters, the boats fired their torpedoes at it. Fortunately for the Americans, the Israeli boats turned out to be less accurate than their Air Force counterparts: out of five torpedoes, four missed. But the fifth hit right in the middle of the hull, where the main electronic reconnaissance and communications posts were located. For an instant, the explosion literally threw the Liberty out of the water and instantly killed 25 people. A 12-meter hole appeared in the starboard side and the ship immediately received a list of 10°.

But the ship was lucky again. The sailors on the lower decks managed to batten down the watertight bulkheads of the compartments and the flow of sea water into the hull stopped. However, Commander McGonagle ordered his team to prepare to evacuate. But as soon as the American sailors launched three life rafts, the Israeli boats immediately sank two of them with machine gun fire, and dragged the third on board. According to the testimony of the crew members, the boats approached the Liberty at a distance of up to 15 meters and clearly could not help but notice on the stern of the ship its name written in large white letters - USS LIBERTY, as well as the large side number characteristic of the US Navy on the bow - GTR 5. However, after this, for another 40 minutes, the torpedo boats circled around the crippled ship, methodically firing heavy machine guns at the crew members who were putting out the fire and providing assistance to their wounded comrades. Although the Liberty had four machine gun mounts for self-defense, the American sailors, stunned by the sudden attack, were not really able to use them. At one point, someone just fired a short burst into the air, which caused even more fierce fire from the Israelis. Suddenly the boats stopped firing and sped off in a northerly direction. The attack on the Liberty lasted 1 hour and 25 minutes. Of the 290 crew members, 34 sailors were killed and 171 wounded. Miraculously, the ship, which stayed on the water, was able to get underway and began to move away towards the sea, waiting for the ambulance helicopters sent from the ships of the 6th Fleet to pick up the wounded. Meanwhile, an hour after the end of the attack, Israeli torpedo boats again approached the Liberty, this time asking: “Do you need help?” In response, the Liberty signaled: “Get to hell!” Soon, an Israeli helicopter filled with armed paratroopers hovered over the ship, from which they dropped a note offering help. However, the Americans, seriously fearing that the Allies intended to finish off their ship and destroy the survivors, decisively refused their services. The helicopter took off reluctantly. All night the sailors who remained in the ranks did not close their eyes, expecting new Israeli attacks. But the night passed peacefully. On the morning of June 9, the US Navy destroyer USS Davis finally approached the Liberty. However, the first thing the members of the reconnaissance ship's crew heard from its commander was an order to forget everything that happened to them. The wounded Liberty sailors, who were transported to the ships of the 6th Fleet, also received an order to remain silent on pain of a military tribunal. Thus began the operation of concealing the truth about the incident. Liberty was towed to Malta and, after hasty repairs, sent to the United States, where she was scrapped. Israel formally apologized to the United States. According to the Israeli side, the American ship was allegedly mistaken for an Egyptian ship that had a similar silhouette. The administration of then President Lyndon Johnson unconditionally accepted all Israeli explanations and tried to close this issue as quickly as possible. Indeed, in the event of an outburst of anger by the American public, it would become impossible to provide large-scale military assistance to Israel. The results of departmental investigations conducted by US Navy commissions were classified. The ship's commander, W. McGonagle, was almost secretly awarded the highest American award, the Medal of Honor, by the US Congress in 1968. Several years later, Israel also paid the United States a total of more than $13 million in compensation for property damage and to pay the wounded and families of the dead Liberty sailors. However, despite all efforts, the US and Israeli authorities were unable to completely oblivion the incident. In 1982, the Liberty Veterans Association was created, which declared its goal to establish the whole truth about the tragedy of 1967. The Association’s demands to the US Congress for a full and independent investigation were supported by very prominent politicians and military personnel, in particular former Secretary of State Dean Rueck and former commanders headquarters of the US Navy, Admirals Arleigh Burke and Thomas Moorer, as well as a number of congressmen. But until now, US officials do not want to hear about the resumption of the investigation into this case. Moreover, Liberty veterans are constantly accused of anti-Semitism and are subjected to persecution in pro-Israeli controlled countries. US media lobby. And this despite the fact that among the sailors killed and wounded by Israeli missiles and bullets there were many Americans of Jewish origin. Over the past 35 years, several books and documentaries about Liberty have been published in the United States and other countries, which outline different things. , often conflicting versions of the incident, provide recollections of eyewitnesses and witnesses from both the American and Israeli sides. There are even several sites on the Internet dedicated to this topic. Judging by the materials posted there, most of the Liberty veterans and independent researchers We are convinced that the Israeli strike on the ship was deliberate, and the official version does not stand up to criticism.

In particular, the Israeli side’s claims that at the time of the attack the Liberty was allegedly not flying an American flag and was moving at a speed “characteristic of warships” of more than 30 knots (actually 5 knots) have long been refuted. Also absurd are Israel's claims that its pilots and sailors confused the Liberty, a fairly large ship with a displacement of more than 10 thousand tons with a characteristic silhouette due to large parabolic antennas, with the old Egyptian transport Al-Quseir with a displacement of 2600 tons, intended for transportation of horses. How could the world's best Israeli intelligence make such an idiotic mistake? There are currently several alternative versions reasons for the Israeli attack on Liberty. The most common is the so-called "Golan version". According to it, the General Staff of the Israeli Armed Forces did not want the United States to prematurely learn about the Israeli army’s operation planned for June 9 to capture the Golan Heights from Syria. Powerful radio intelligence equipment on board the Liberty made it possible to listen to and decipher all communications on Israeli military networks and promptly transmit the received data to Washington. A little-known fact until now: Liberty, formally part of the US Navy, was actually controlled by the US National Security Agency (NSA), a top-secret agency responsible for global electronic espionage. Thus, by giving the order to sink the Liberty, the Israeli General Staff may have sought to keep its military plans secret, for it feared information leaks in Washington to Soviet or Arab intelligence. Recently, other versions have appeared. In particular, some researchers claim that an American reconnaissance vessel could intercept negotiations between the Israeli military about their execution of over 1 thousand captured Egyptian soldiers in Al-Atshsh in the Sinai. Israel's chief of staff at the time was General Yitzhak Rabin, later prime minister and Nobel laureate, who was assassinated by a Jewish nationalist in 1995. So he allegedly gave the order to “remove” an unwanted witness to Israeli war crimes. However, in addition to the reasons for the Israeli military attack on the Liberty, there is another question in this case. Why didn’t the US government come to the aid of its sailors, knowing that they were being shot and killed with impunity by the military forces of another state for more than an hour? The former officer of the ship, James Innes, by the way, the author of the famous book “The Attack on the Liberty,” in an article recently published in the Navy Times newspaper, called it “an act of betrayal at sea.” Some Liberty veterans, who were taken to the hospital wounded after the incident aircraft carrier America, talk about his confidential conversation with Rear Admiral Lawrence Race, who at that time commanded the carrier forces of the 6th Fleet. The Admiral then admitted that, having received an SOS signal from the Liberty, he reported this to the commander of the fleet and to Washington. After that, he took into the air a strike group of 12 aircraft from the aircraft carrier Saratoga, which was closest to the scene of the incident. However, the admiral was immediately called in by Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara himself, who ordered the immediate return of the aircraft. Ninety minutes later, having received a report of a torpedo attack on the Liberty, Geis took the planes back into the air. But there was another call from McNamara with an order to hang up. rescue operation. When the admiral demanded confirmation of the order, he heard the voice of President Lyndon Johnson himself on the phone: “I don’t care if this ship sinks and everyone there dies! I will not put our allies in an uncomfortable position.” Whether such a conversation actually took place or not is anyone's guess. In Washington and Jerusalem, few people now want to remember the Liberty tragedy, the circumstances of which continue to be stubbornly hushed up by official authorities.