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Sinking of the Battleship Novorossiysk

The tragedy of 29 October 1955 in Sevastopol Bay, when the flagship of the Soviet Black Sea Fleet, the battleship Novorossiysk (the former Italian Giulio Cesare), exploded and sank as a result of an act of sabotage, killing 829 people.

Overview

On the night of 29 October 1955 at 1:31 a.m., a powerful explosion rang out under the keel of the Black Sea Fleet flagship — the battleship Novorossiysk — in Sevastopol Bay near Hospital Quay. Exactly 30 seconds later a second explosion occurred. The ship suffered fatal damage and, three hours later, capsized and sank.

Instead of rescuing the crew, the Soviet command tried to save the material part (the ship), which led to the mass death of sailors — 829 people died in the disaster. The tragedy had far-reaching personnel and strategic consequences: the Commander-in-Chief of the Soviet Navy, Admiral N. Kuznetsov, was removed from his post, and his program for building an ocean-going fleet with aircraft carriers was cancelled.

Key Details / Subtopics

  • The tragedy in Sevastopol Bay: On 28 October 1955 the battleship returned from its cruises and moored in Sevastopol. The explosions on the night of 29 October, at a 30-second interval, indicated a deliberate, planned act of sabotage.
  • Parallel with the 1915 disaster: a tragic coincidence — in 1915, in almost the same spot in Sevastopol, the flagship of the russian imperial Black Sea Fleet, the battleship Imperatritsa Mariya, exploded and was lost.
  • The sabotage by the 10th MAS Flotilla: the commander of the Italian underwater saboteurs, Valerio Borghese (the "Black Prince"), swore to avenge the dishonor after the Italian battleship Giulio Cesare was handed over to the USSR in 1949. In October 1955, a group of saboteurs reached Sevastopol on a midget submarine, the SLC ("maiale"), delivered by an Italian cargo ship, and laid mines under the ship's keel.
  • Official declassification (2013): in July 2013, a former officer of the 10th MAS Flotilla, Ugo D'Esposito, officially confirmed that the ex-Giulio Cesare had been blown up by the combat swimmers of Borghese's unit.
  • Personnel and strategic consequences: the disaster served as a pretext for the removal of Admiral Nikolai Kuznetsov and for the USSR's abandonment of building its own aircraft-carrier fleet in the 1950s.