many experienced pilots died in the first six months of the war, and it was not easy to prepare their replacements quickly. In terms of tactical and technical characteristics, German aviation was also still superior to almost all Soviet aircraft, and something had to be done about it. I was doing something, but it takes time to introduce new technology, and in war, as a rule, this resource is always in severe short supply.
The second problem was traditionally shells. The defenders of Sevastopol had a lot of artillery, and it was very good artillery, but the ammunition for this zoo of different artillery systems was very scarce. The armies of the Crimean Front were better off with shells, but there was no fabulous abundance here either, while the Germans were doing very well with artillery and shells.
The new German tanks also made me very nervous. Manstein managed to squeeze the 22nd Panzer Division out of the Wehrmacht's command, staffed by these nasty machines. The tanks themselves were still the same Panzer III and Panzer IV, but their guns were now long-barreled and could penetrate the armor of the T-34 and KV relatively easily when firing sub-caliber shells. Our tankers didn't know about it yet, but Letra immediately drew my attention to the new dangerous weapon of the enemy.
Judging by the satellite image, the Crimean Front was preparing for another offensive, although it should, of course, have burrowed into the ground, build a regimented defense, cover the engineering barriers with an effective system of fire and minefields, allocate mobile reserves to promptly respond to threats of breakthroughs, and prepare in every way to repel a powerful enemy strike.
Manstein was preparing in a big way and seemed to be seriously planning to dislodge the Soviet armies from the Kerch Peninsula. The Germans managed to move a considerable part of their artillery, including heavy howitzers, from near Sevastopol and methodically took up positions, intending to sweep away the Soviet troops approaching the front with a powerful strike of artillery and aviation. If Comrade Stalin had delayed sending me to the Crimean Front for at least a week, it would most likely have been too late to do anything about it. Even now, I must say, there was hardly any time left.
In the past month and a half, Korolev was able to make significant progress, but unfortunately the Soviet industry could not yet provide mass production of cruise missiles. Still, it was a technologically complex product, especially with the modifications made according to my drawings. Too high precision was required in the production of many parts, which meant the need to have an adequate machinery equipment and qualified specialists with high labor and technological discipline. Both were available in the Soviet Union, but, unfortunately, in extremely limited quantities. Nevertheless, it was possible to prepare 14 missiles, half of them with a new control system. Their flight could now be corrected by radio from the ground or from a plane within line of sight. The reliability of this engineering marvel was abominable, but with a certain luck, a missile did not deflect more than 20 meters from its target.
Naturally, no one transferred the Tsaitiuni artillery regiment with its 203 mm B-4 howitzers from near Leningrad to the Crimea, so I was left without heavy artillery subordinate directly to me, but the replenished and additionally reinforced Kudryavtsev’s air regiment arrived at Novorossiysk even slightly ahead of Mekhlis and me, and this time it was well staffed with fuel-air bombs. But the Korolev rocket launchers were not expected until a week later. The special train with their products, unfortunately, could not arrive sooner.
Lena flew to the Crimea with me. Comrade Beria did not object. Lieutenant of State Security Serova showed considerable organizational skills in the operation to repel the "chemical" raid on Leningrad, and I was going to give her about the same tasks on the Crimean front. True, Lena was no longer a lieutenant, but a Senior Lieutenant of State Security, and not Serova, but Nagulina, but it did not change the matter, unless one counts as something serious the fact that Comrade Mekhlis had managed to pick on me because of this fact of "nepotism" in official relations, and this made his attitude toward me even worse.
By the way, a very curious story happened in the Moscow registry office. The marriage itself between a major general and a female NKVD officer could not surprise anyone in particular. Lena brought some friend of hers from Moscow, whom I had never seen before, as a witness, but Comrade Beria came to the registry office from my side, which no one had been notified in advance for some reason.
When I caught Beria after another meeting of the Headquarters of the Supreme High Command, informed him of my and Lena's decision and asked him to be a witness at the marriage registration, the Commissar measured me with a long look, in which I read a whole gamut of emotions. Beria did not refuse, although he clearly had a bad suspicion about the reasons for my unexpected request. Yes, I think it was not even suspicion, it was absolute certainty. In any case, in the registry office he looked at Lena a little too intently, but she just smiled sweetly and pretended not to notice anything.
The registry clerk seemed to worry the most during our marriage registration. Comrade Beria's appearance made an indelible impression on her. I didn't tell Lena anything beforehand either, only warning her that something unexpected was waiting for her. The surprise was a success.
“What did you do, Nagulin!?” Lena said to me right after we were alone. “Why did you bring him as a witness? He knew right away! Now he knows that I told you everything about the recruitment and about my mission.”
“Naturally, he understood it all. And I am really grateful to him for the fact that voluntarily or involuntarily he contributed to the beginning of our relationship. And it's very good that Beria knows all about it now, although I think he guessed it anyway. There won't be any consequences for you, you'll see. Well, except that no one else would want reports from you about my behavior and mindset. You see, it turns out that we ourselves informed your superiors that you told me everything. Unofficially, but we did. If we didn't, you'd have to keep pretending that you're on a mission for the NKVD and spying on your own husband. It would have been a very bad deception that would have come out sooner or later, and then the consequences would have been really hard to foresee. But as it was…”
“Yeah, you're probably right,” Lena smiled and took my hand. “I didn't look at the situation from that point of view. It all makes a lot of sense, and it's probably really better that way. The People's Commissariat gave me a whole day's leave on the occasion of my marriage, so let's at least forget about the war and everything connected with it for a while.”
Naturally, I did not object.
We arrived at Novorossiysk in the evening. Mekhlis immediately demanded to be delivered to the front headquarters, and I, without delay, went to the location of my air regiment. I didn't give a damn about the Army Commissar's leering looks. Every operation of mine traditionally started with night air reconnaissance, and Colonel Kudryavtsev was already waiting at the airfield, having given orders to prepare the Pe-3 twin-engine fighter for the flight in advance. Mekhlis will obviously find something to do at the front headquarters. No doubt he will send a telegram to Stalin today about how horribly everything is organized here and how the front leadership is not in control of the situation, has lost the initiative and does not know where his troops are. And, naturally, he will mention in this telegram my inadequate behavior. Instead of tightening the screws on the slackers here, the boy Major General went off to fly a plane… Let it be. The main thing is that he doesn't shoot anyone there in a fit of temper, but I don't think it will come to that – I'll be back in the middle of the night from the reconnaissance flight.
Following the plane in which Mekhlis and I arrived, two PS-84 transport planes landed at the airfield. Perfectly aware of the nature of the problems I was to face in the Crimea, I requested from the Leningrad Front the equipment and specialists with whom we were setting up air defense fire control system to repel the massive Luftwaffe raid. The situation on the Kerch Peninsula and Sevastopol Defense District was in many ways similar to the situation in the besieged city of Leningrad. Even the battleship Paris Commune was of the same type as the Marat and the October Revolution. Here, however, it was
