At that time the artillery battery under the command of lieutenant Nikolay Kornyakov took a battle with the German cruiser Admiral Scheer at the coast of the Arctic village of Dikson. This is the only place on the map of the Krasnoyarsk region where military operations took place during the Great Patriotic War.
On the night of 26-27 August, 1942, the northernmost battle of the Second World War developed there. The German heavy cruiser approached the port and engaged the SKR-19 patrol ship Dezhnyov and the steamer Revolutionist. According to the plan of the cruiser Admiral Scheer command it was supposed to enter the defenseless port, destroy the existing Soviet ships with cannon fire, disembark troops, obtain information about the Northern Sea Route, the state of ice and other datailes necessary to carry out attacks on ships caravans. Even ordinary small-scale nautical charts of the area were of great interest to the Germans.
The German cruiser possessed the most modern weapons, large-caliber guns, and a superbly trained crew. The steamers Dezhnyov and Revolutionist carried light weapons, the overwhelming majority of crews were civilian specialists. The inhabitants of Dikson – polar explorers, the personnel of the local scientific station, as well as the workers of the port – took to the guns of the coastal port defense together with the artillerymen.
Despite the fact that the balance of forces was not in favor of the Dixon’s defenders, the desperate resistance of the ship and garrison commands forced the Admiral Scheer raider’s commander to abandon the approved plan and retreat. For the heroism shown, the battery commander Nikolay Kornyakov was awarded the medal For the Defense of the Soviet Arctic. Together with his comrades, he prevented the destruction of the village and paralyzed the movement of the Germans along the Northern Sea Route.
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Text: Victor Tsaryov, Photo: Taimyr Museum of Local Lore
