There is such a sign: if by the mistake of a person suddenly declared the dead or died, and in the meantime he dwells in good health, then live happily for many years ...
17 times the Hitlermen solemnly declared that the Soviet submarine C-56, her commander Grigory Ivanovich Shchedrin and the entire carriage no longer exists that the ship was sweeping. But the boat again and again went to the sea to beat the fascists ...
From the point of view of any military seaman Grigory Ivanovich Shchedrin lived really happy life. Maybe, not all of his dreams were still fulfilled (in any case, we can simply not know about many of them), but still in a professional plan it was, we can say, we pass and lucky. Judge for yourself.
Vice Admiral, Hero of the Soviet Union, the commander glorified during the Great Patriotic War of the S-56 submarine, Commander of the Kamchatka Military Flotilla, the editor of the Maritime Collection, the writer, the author of several books ...
The heroic submarine C-56, which he commanded for many years, the first submarine-museum in our country, a monument to the courage of sailors-submariners installed in Vladivostok. Gregory Shchedrin is an honorary citizen of the cities of Tuapse and Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, in Moscow at the address of Leningradskoe highway, 15, where he lived, a memorial plaque is installed. He is well remembered on the fleet, because before his leaving life in 1995, at the age of 82, he was, perhaps, one of the most active popularizers of the Fleet traditions, brought up patriotism in the younger generation.
Grigory Shchedrin was born in the Black Sea Tuapse town on December 1, 1912. Childhood passed by the sea, and it is not difficult to guess that it predetermined the choice of profession. In seven years I went to learn, and at 12 I was already forced to work on logging to help the family. But in 1926, the thrust for the sea took her: he did Jung on the two-person schooner "Dioskuria". They walked the sailor on the ships of the Black Sea Company and at the same time he studied, despite all the difficulties. After the end of the Kherson Maritime Technical School, Grigory Shchedrin in 1932 became a navigator.
In 1934, Grigory Ivanovich was called on the fleet. Here, his fate decided - he became a submariner. The future hero of the Soviet Union was also appointed by Sch-301 submarine, he was appointed eldest assistant commander of the submarine Sh-114 Pacific Fleet, and then after a year - commander Sh-110. As the historical chronicles say, his crew won six naval prizes, and in 1939 he left the first place on the Pacific Fleet and held it for two years.
In 1941, just on the eve of the Great Patriotic War, the young captain Lieutenant Shchedrin was appointed commander of the C-56 submarine underwater boat, subsequently became under his command of the Guards.
In September 1942, the boat was relocated from the "quiet" Pacific on a warring northern fleet. It is forever inscribed in the pages of the Soviet submarine: the boat under the command of Shchedrin as part of a special detachment of other underwater ships made an unparalleled transition through nine seas and three oceans, leaving the feed over 17 thousand miles.
On the northern fleet, the new C-56 with a superbly trained crew under the command of Grigoria Ivanovich Shchedrin made eight combat trips, sank 10 and damaged four enemy ships with a common displacement of about 85 thousand tons. The boat was on a special account of Hitler's warriors: when in the agent data (alas, spies in Soviet Polar bases were also) before them came information that the boat was published under the command of Shchedrin, all the fascist ships and courts in the sea came to Radio special instructions: to be extremely attentive. But despite this, generin all the wind and trottered enemy transports and combat ships ...
Several times, after the terrible attacks of deep bombs, he had to go for a cunning: in the torpedo devices was loaded with rods, jars with diesel fuel, even objects of uniforms of sailors - and all this was shot by air in the sea. According to the "remains" to the surface, the fascists made the conclusion that the C-56 was surpassed and happily reported on this command. Attacks in deep bombs, naturally stopped. But C-56 after some time went to the enemy ships completely on the other side and again attacked!
In the 70s of the last century, the retired German submariner, the navigator of one of the submarine crigsmarine, Helmut Prap, wrote in his memories that this Soviet boat was considered a kind of ghost: she always appeared exactly where her least was waiting for her. The fascist watchwinds, and submarines, and floating batteries, were hunted behind her, but everything was useless. When Prancen once reported to his commander that the Soviet boat "Once again" is surfplanted, but it appeared on positions again and completely on the other side, he was down to the very end of the war in rank to lieutenant ...
And the Soviet ship continued to fight, leaving the winner would seem in the most hopeless situations. On March 31, 1944, the boat was awarded the Order of the Red Banner, and on February 23, 1945 they assigned the title of Guards. Well, by that time the captain II rank Gregory Shchedrin was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. After the war, he did not leave the underwater fleet, successfully continued the service. In 1954, Grigori Ivanovich graduated from the Military Academy of the General Staff, was the commander of the Kamchatka Flotilla. By the decision of the Council of Ministers of the USSR, it was envisaged in the main base of the Kamchatka military flotilla in Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky by 1957 to base 270 pennants. These are guard ships, destroyers, trails, large and medium submarines, torpedo boats, landing, auxiliary vessels.
And for all of them, it was necessary to urgently build berths, pises, infrastructure, residential barracks for personnel and apartments for officers! All this work lay on the shoulders of the new fleet commander. And then Shchedrin showed himself not only as a talented warlord, but also as a "strong businessman." Shchedrin took to build economic, or, as he himself called, "HAP-way" 90 residential four-quarters for sailors. The promised building materials from the fleet never came. But Grigory Ivanovich found a way out. True, I had to count only on my own strength: one brigade of sailors and soldiers built a house, and the second at the construction site of the city earned construction materials from "civilian" builders. Thus, many residential buildings and buildings in the city are built with the participation of sailors of the Kamchatka military flotilla. There were fewer problems with housing in the sailors, but the commander is great "flew" for self-government ...
In a short time, a three-storey hospital was built for military sailors, instead of mistakenly designed, as the generin believed, two floors. It began to be treated not only servicemen, but also the civilian population of the city. For the peculiar commander was punished again. But his hard, but a fair character, he did not "pacify"! After the Kamchatka earthquake of 1959, he again sent several teams of military sailors to restore destroyed urban objects. Here he got not reprimanded, but gratitude, what is called, "from the very top"!
Soon a new appointment will be followed - for many years, Shchedrin will lead the Specialized Naval Magazine "Marine Collection". After his leaving of life at the request of military sailors, war veterans, the inhabitants of Petropavlovsk in 1996 in front of the house of the fleet officers are named after the famous submarine ...
Andrey Mikhailov
Capital photo: Submarine S-56, 1944