Witnesses to this Soviet mystery are hard to find: the “ghost” of the Curonian Spit can only be seen in winter

This is the basis for the reconnaissance torpedo submarines installed at the Curonian Spit, Alksnyne, during the Soviet era. Its remains can be found and inspected in winter, because in the warm season, everything is reliably hidden by the herbaceous vegetation covered with vegetation and the rising water of the Curonian Spit.

The mooring of the submarine built after World War II was so classified, strictly guarded, that finding living witnesses who know something about this ghost is like looking for a needle in a haystack. However, the “Weekly Express” managed to obtain information that so far has not been made public anywhere.

Shadows from the past

After the annexation of the Klaipėda region in 1939, most of the heritage objects built by German military engineers remained. The Soviet army entered the territory in 1944-1945. In the postwar period, a new order came into force, which in its rigor was probably more reflected in the seashore, which became a border section.

Historians note that the Iron Curtain was lowered to the seashore immediately after the war, as early as 1945. The Baltic coast was closed: it was possible to walk and swim only during the day, because at night the border guards dug a wide strip on the beaches, which should show the footprints of the saboteurs who could land on the shore. At dusk, additional spotlights were turned on.

In general, the Curonian Spit was declared the most strictly protected area, which was not accessible to everyone. Even for the convenience of the townspeople, the pre-war ferry trips to Smiltyne were interrupted, Užmaris could only be reached for a time by boat and after receiving special permission from the army or border guards . In the established interval, this area was combed by military patrols led by dogs. The atmosphere was also observed from the towers hastily built by the border guards.

Although such measures were officially taken to protect the border from mythical intruders who might have emerged from the sea, the real goal was different: to prevent refugees from Soviet Lithuania.

Naturally, what was happening on the Curonian Spit behind such an iron curtain was masked by thick fog. The gliding school in Nida, the Sand Inn in Smiltynė and … a submarine base were secretly burned down.

Everyone knew of its existence, the history of this object was riddled with rumors and myths, because the leak of information could end sadly. The strange maneuvers in the Curonian lagoon were betrayed only by the fact that it was decided unexpectedly and for inexplicable reasons to deepen the lagoon street south of Kiaule Nugara. Even then, it was suspected that it had nothing to do with port handling: the dog was buried elsewhere.

Thus, secretly, silently, it is speculated that in the late 1950s or early 1960s an invisible object emerged in the Curonian lagoon near Alksnynas (approximately 1 km north of the current checkpoint). A wide wooden bridge, supported by sturdy posts, stretched from the shore to the water, at the end of which protruded a rectangular concrete structure parallel to the spit.

A puzzle of details

The remains of the mysterious submarine mooring can be found more easily in winter or early spring, when the reeds dry up and the lagoon water runs off. From the New Ferry towards Alksnyne, at the point where the road descends from the hill, a barely visible road forks to the left. During the Soviet era, it was lined with iron plates – fragments of them are still found. Behind the fire lane just off the road, a path leading to the shoreline leads directly to a concrete column buried in the ground with a falling pipe and iron rods (the purpose of this relic is not yet clear) .

On the shore, a strip of burnt wooden posts twisted in four rows stretches from the shore to the water, which still retains deeper partitions in the reeds. The fishermen say that in this place, about 20 meters from the shore, there is also a concrete structure under the water. On the same bank, near a concrete column with a pipe, a cemented well ring can also be found buried in the ground. At first glance this would resemble the WWII German Koch bunker, but it is different (different construction) and more related to the legacy of the Soviet era.

Laisvūnas Kavaliauskas, a member of the Baltic Sea States Coastal Culture and Maritime Heritage Monitoring Working Group and a heritage conservationist for the port city, told the Weekly Express that it is now very difficult to figure out the purpose of the Alksnynė underwater base.

“It is difficult to say what that base looked like during its existence and since it was no longer used. My wife told me that in the 1970s she saw submarines in the Curonian Lagoon floating and looking terrifying, like ghosts, protruding from the water. from Klaipėda, acquaintances also shared only fragments of memories. Having said that those boats were moored at night, “said the chief specialist of the Klaipėda section of the Department of Cultural Heritage.

It is believed that small Soviet submarines that ran on electricity and diesel may have docked ashore due to the shallow depth. These belonged to the types “Малютка” (Lithuanian, “M”) and middle (Russian: “Средняя”, “С”). The smaller diesel-electric boats had 2 torpedo cartridges, a crew of 36 soldiers and were intended for coastal reconnaissance. The average crew – 36-46 people, armament – 6 torpedoes.

“One of the versions: small submarines came to the Alksnyne base to charge the battery. These looked like current machines, only much larger: around 50X60 cm. There were several of them on board. In this case, the shore had to be transformative. A few decades ago, a man had brought me a Soviet shaving foam mouthpiece with the inscriptions Москва, Свобода and a Soviet uniform shoulder. He said he found it near the place where the wooden bridge was. He led to a mooring built in the lagoon and burned significantly in 2006. Alder during a devastating fire. It was after that fire that I was able to see what was left of the bridge, because reeds were cut on the shore, “said L. Kavaliauskas.

The bridge could have caught fire if it and the reeds had not been extinguished by the Klaipėda State Port Authority ship Šakiai from the side of the lagoon.

Intermediate stop

Lithuanian hydrotechnical engineer, Ph.D. in physical sciences and former long-term chief researcher at the Lithuanian Energy Institute’s Hydrology Laboratory Brunonas Gailiušis told the “Express of the Week” that during the difficult Soviet period he had to go to the Curland spit and swimming for scientific purposes.

“Expeditions were organized, we participated in them as hydrologists. But to the place where he installed the submarine base, we were not allowed. Armed soldiers were constantly on duty there: at first we saw sailors, then wearing other uniforms. That place was a restricted area. I mean the seventies and eighties. I did not see the submarines myself, but there were legends about them. Supposedly arriving at night, in secret, low draft diesel. To this end, around 1960-1961. the so-called new street was deepened to 8 m, with a depth of about 5 m. It is said that the submarine base was installed immediately after World War II: in the late 1950s or early 1960s, ”the scientist shared.

He reasoned that a version about recharging batteries was plausible because the army was on land even when the ships no longer arrived.

“Suppose there is some precious tangible property there. That and transformer. You know, it’s very difficult to say anything because that base was talked about in whispers. It was a kind of legend, people used to tell fictional things. Unless the military or scientists with special tasks could see everything with their own eyes. For example, a colleague, dr. Juozas Dubra, who walked along the coast in the late 1960s and measured the speed of the water flow, ”said B. Gailiušis.

Unfortunately, dr. Dubra left Anapilin in 2018. His son, the current head of the Navigation Department of the Lithuanian Higher Maritime School, Dr. Vytautas Dubra.

“It just caught my eye in the 1980s. Very strange object. It is as unfinished as a prototype, a pilot. Perhaps the ambitions were greater, there was a desire to install a permanent base of submarines and larger, of other types, but it no longer succeeded. Those facilities, the bridge and the pontoon, seemed frivolous, too simple. However, it can be argued that the Alksnyne base could have been used as an intermediate stop, “said V. Dubra.

According to him, the ships sailed from the port of Baltijsk in the Kaliningrad region to the port of Liepaja in Latvia.

“In this last port, the navigation conditions are quite difficult. If there is wind, the high waves begin to roll, the port of Liepaja closes quickly, restrictions are imposed. And in Klaipeda, in a different way. So perhaps the base on the shores of the Curonian Spit was a temporary refuge for the ships waiting for the sailing conditions to improve and it will be possible to enter the port of Liepaja? If this is blocked for some reason, then there is a backup option on Curonian Spit, ”the interviewer considered.

In Klaipeda – German

Among other things, a mooring base for submarines was installed in the port city. During the Second World War, in 1940-1944, the 24th Fleet of the so-called German “u-bots” was deployed in the then Mėmel. There were up to 53 u-bots in the fleet in different years. 24 submarines in Klaipeda participated in military attacks and 19 were used for training. In the middle of the war, the fleet was already a mere training. Submarines learned to orient themselves, find a target, and avoid contact with it.

The fleet was disbanded in 1944, but on the currently closed territory of the Klaipėda Ship Repair Company, south of the Cruise Terminal, there is still a historic pier with special mooring bollards for submarines. They are not on the pier, as usual, but on the pier itself, hidden between the water and the top of the pier.