Operation Anadyr
The code name Anadyr ( Russian Ана́дырь ) denotes a secret Soviet military operation during the Cold War . It was named after the Anadyr River in Siberia. In the course of this, around 40,000 Soviet soldiers and several medium-range nuclear missiles were stationed on the island of Cuba .
On May 21, 1962, the Defense Council met in the Moscow Kremlin to discuss plans to deploy missiles in Cuba. Were among the members of the Defense Council: Nikita Khrushchev (General Secretary of the CPSU), Frol Kozlov , Leonid Brezhnev , Alexei Kosygin (First Deputy Prime Minister), Anastas Mikoyan , Rodion Malinowski (Defense), Andrei Grechko (supreme commander of the troops of the Warsaw Pact ), Alexei A. Jepischew (Head of the Political Headquarters of the Army and Fleet) and Colonel General Semyon P. Ivanov (Head of the Main Operational Department of the Soviet General Staff). The aim was to use the missiles to protect Cuba and at the same time to increase the Soviet threat potential against the US mainland.
On May 24, 1962, the Defense Council had a plan from the General Staff that provided for the stationing of a group of Russian forces in Cuba. They should be under a unified supreme command of the commander of the Soviet armed forces in Cuba. The plan was approved unanimously. The 43rd Missile Division (Commander: Colonel General Igor D. Statsenko ), which comprised five regiments , was stationed . These included the 79th, 181st and 664th regiments, each with eight medium-range missiles of the type R-12 (SS-4 Sandal) and the 665th and 668th regiments, each with eight medium-range missiles of the type R-14 (SS-5 Skean) . A total of 60 missiles and 60 warheads should be available to the regiments. Shipping was to begin in June 1962. In addition, two air defense divisions, consisting of six regiments with anti-aircraft missiles and a fighter squadron with MiG-21 planes and two radar battalions were to be stationed. Three battalions with launching ramps for surface-to-surface missiles S-2 Sopka (SSC-2B Samlet) with a range of 80 km and Komar-class torpedo boats were to be relocated for coastal protection . In addition, the General Staff ordered the stationing of the 561st and 584th regiments, each equipped with 40 cruise missiles of the type FKR-1 (SSC-2A Salish) with a range of 180 km, each equipped with nuclear warheads . Finally, four motorized rifle regiments with a total of 10,000 soldiers and two tank battalions with T-55 tanks were planned. General Issa Pliyev was appointed commander of the Soviet troop contingent in Cuba . As the commander of the North Caucasus military district, Pliev was jointly responsible for the brutal suppression of the unrest in Novocherkassk in June 1962.
The troops and material were shipped to Cuba in the strictest secrecy on 85 ships from the following eight Soviet naval bases: Sevastopol , Feodosia , Nikolajew and Poti on the Black Sea, Kronstadt , Liepāja , Baltiysk on the Baltic Sea and Murmansk on the Arctic Ocean. It was in Anadyr the largest amphibious operation of the Soviet Union, while the largest Soviet secret operation of the Cold War. Neither the captains nor the crews were informed of the destination of their respective freighter. In order to avoid the impression that the crossing was going to the Caribbean, winter clothing and skis were brought along. The ships were camouflaged as wooden freighters and the rocket parts were hidden in the holds. Only after reaching the Atlantic were the captains, in the presence of a KGB officer, allowed to open an envelope containing the destination and further instructions. In the event of an attack, evasive maneuvers should be carried out, the documents on board destroyed and the respective ship sunk in an emergency.
In August 1962, Khrushchev decided to add a squadron of medium-sized Il-28 bombers with six nuclear warheads from 8 to 12 kT and up to three departments with tactical ballistic missiles of the 3R9 Luna-1 (FROG-3) type to Cuba. This happened at short notice.
On October 8, 1962, the first cargo ship, Omsk, arrived in Cuba with the first load of rockets. The nuclear warheads for the R-12 (SS-4) missiles followed on board the Indigirka, which departed from Severomorsk .
When the launch bases under construction were discovered by a US U-2 reconnaissance aircraft on October 14, 1962 , the two-week Cuban Missile Crisis began .
literature
- Anatoli Gribkow and William Y. Smith: Operation Anadyr: US and Soviet Generals Recount the Cuban Missile Crisis , Edition Q, 1993, ISBN 978-0867152661
Web links
- Anatoli Gribkow : Operation Anadyr: General Anatolij Iwanowitsch Gribkow on the stationing of Soviet nuclear missiles in Cuba 1962 (Part I) and Part II In: Der Spiegel from April 13th and 20th, 1992
Individual evidence
- ↑ Stefan Büttner, Klaus Stark: American and Soviet cruise missiles in Germany in Flieger Revue Extra No. 32, Berlin 2011, p. 25
- ↑ Rolf Steiniger: Cold War: Towards the Abyss. In: Die Zeit from October 4, 2012, accessed on December 26, 2013