Martin Antonenko
A Fixture
- Joined
- Jul 11, 2008
- Messages
- 9,001
Like A Miracle...
On March 7, 1960, sailors from the US aircraft carrier USS "Kiersarge" rescued four completely exhausted and emaciated pioneers of the Red Army from distress at sea in the Pacific.
The odyssey of sergeant Askhat Ziganzhin and soldiers Philip Poplavsky, Anatoly Kryukhkovskyi and Ivan Fedotov...
...in the open sea had lasted 49 days since their motor cargo ship BT 36...
...was caught in a violent storm while mooring in the harbor (15 meter high waves!) and was driven into the open Pacific.
The four soldiers are pioneers, i.e. members of the army (they were originally commanded to do unloading work on board) without any sea experience! They don't know how to navigate and they can't start the engine either.
It is a miracle that the boat, which has no drive or steering, does not sink on the first night.
There was no search operation by the Soviet side; debris and parts of the cargo had been found washed up on the bank and it was assumed that BT 36 had sunk with all hands!
When the storm finally subsides, the four Red Army soldiers find themselves in the middle of the Pacific...
On board, there was next to no food supplies for the four pioneers, only 16 tablespoons of muesli, a bit of bread, a jar of canned fruit and some - diesel-soaked! - Potatoes found in a corner of the engine room.
There was also no fresh water - the soldiers had to use cooling water from the failed machinery and finally drink their own urine.
After the last food was eaten, everything that even remotely resembled food was eaten, leather belts, bootlegs, toothpaste and soap.
Sergeant Ziganschin, who keeps a diary, meticulously noted that he and his men lost around 800 grams a day.
Rescue came 49 days later when the USS Kiersarge found and rescued the half-dead soldiers 1,930 kilometers from Wake Atoll.
Ziganshin, who previously weighed over 70 kilos, now weighed less than 40 kilos...
The soldiers are fed up again, taken to San Francisco and flown home from there. There they are received triumphantly...:
The newspaper headline above the pictures of the four lucky ones reads: "Glory to the homeland!"
A homeland, mind you, which they had already abandoned and hadn't even searched for their bodies...
On March 7, 1960, sailors from the US aircraft carrier USS "Kiersarge" rescued four completely exhausted and emaciated pioneers of the Red Army from distress at sea in the Pacific.
The odyssey of sergeant Askhat Ziganzhin and soldiers Philip Poplavsky, Anatoly Kryukhkovskyi and Ivan Fedotov...
...in the open sea had lasted 49 days since their motor cargo ship BT 36...
...was caught in a violent storm while mooring in the harbor (15 meter high waves!) and was driven into the open Pacific.
The four soldiers are pioneers, i.e. members of the army (they were originally commanded to do unloading work on board) without any sea experience! They don't know how to navigate and they can't start the engine either.
It is a miracle that the boat, which has no drive or steering, does not sink on the first night.
There was no search operation by the Soviet side; debris and parts of the cargo had been found washed up on the bank and it was assumed that BT 36 had sunk with all hands!
When the storm finally subsides, the four Red Army soldiers find themselves in the middle of the Pacific...
On board, there was next to no food supplies for the four pioneers, only 16 tablespoons of muesli, a bit of bread, a jar of canned fruit and some - diesel-soaked! - Potatoes found in a corner of the engine room.
There was also no fresh water - the soldiers had to use cooling water from the failed machinery and finally drink their own urine.
After the last food was eaten, everything that even remotely resembled food was eaten, leather belts, bootlegs, toothpaste and soap.
Sergeant Ziganschin, who keeps a diary, meticulously noted that he and his men lost around 800 grams a day.
Rescue came 49 days later when the USS Kiersarge found and rescued the half-dead soldiers 1,930 kilometers from Wake Atoll.
Ziganshin, who previously weighed over 70 kilos, now weighed less than 40 kilos...
The soldiers are fed up again, taken to San Francisco and flown home from there. There they are received triumphantly...:
The newspaper headline above the pictures of the four lucky ones reads: "Glory to the homeland!"
A homeland, mind you, which they had already abandoned and hadn't even searched for their bodies...
