Legendary Unit Of Russian Pacific Fleet Special Forces Carry Out Breach And Capture Exercise

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On October 15^th, elite servicemen from Russia’s Pacific Fleet carried out an exercise to take control of an enemy position and more.

First, the guards on the water were neutralized, and then the commandos promptly attacked the “enemy” on the Raptor speedboat, which had recently entered service. The landing craft has impressive speed and combat power.

With massed dense fire, the soldiers suppressed the resistance of the conditional enemy. And, quickly advancing along the coast, they took control of the objects of the “enemy”.

This unit is the 389th Naval Reconnaissance Point of the Pacific Fleet. This is the name of the legendary 42nd MRP “Holuay” now.

On June 5, the division celebrated the 65th anniversary of its foundation.

It was created in 1955 in the Maly Ulysses Bay near Vladivostok, later redeployed to Russky Island, where scouts-saboteurs undergo combat training to this day.

There are many legends about the unit, their physical fitness is admired, they are called the best of the best, the cream of the special forces. Each of them could become the main character of an action movie.

Back in 2017, RIA PrimaMedia published material by military historian and journalist Alexei Sukonkin about the legendary part of Holuay. In 1993-94, he served in the special forces unit of the ground forces, but periodically their part also visited the naval special forces.

This is his recollection of the unit:

“Suddenly for the enemy, we landed at a Japanese airfield and entered into negotiations. After that we, ten people, were taken by the Japanese to the headquarters to the colonel, the commander of the aviation unit, who wanted to make us hostages.

I joined the conversation when I felt that he was with us the representative of the Soviet command, Captain 3rd Rank Kulebyakin, as they say, was “pinned against the wall.” Looking into the eyes of the Japanese, I said that we had fought the entire war in the west and had enough experience to assess the situation that we would not be hostages, or rather we will die, but we will die together with everyone who is in the headquarters.

The difference is, I added, that you will die like rats, and we will try to escape from here. Hero of the Soviet Union Mitya Sokolov immediately stood behind the back of the Japanese colonel. Hero of the Soviet Union Andrei Pshenichnykh locked the door, put the key in his pocket and sat down on a chair, and Volodya Olyashev (after the war – Honored Master of Sports) lifted Andrei along with the chair and put the d Japanese commander.

Ivan Guzenkov went to the window and reported that we were not high, and Hero of the Soviet Union Semyon Agafonov, standing at the door, began tossing an anti-tank grenade in his hand. The Japanese, however, did not know that there was no fuse in it. The colonel, forgetting about the handkerchief, began to wipe the sweat from his forehead with his hand and after a while signed the act of surrender of the entire garrison.”

This is how the naval reconnaissance officer Viktor Leonov, twice Hero of the Soviet Union, described just one military operation in which a handful of daring and brave naval scouts of the Pacific Fleet literally without a fight forced a large Japanese garrison to lay down their arms. Three and a half thousand Japanese samurai have shamefully surrendered.

The formation of the 42nd Naval Reconnaissance Point of the Pacific Fleet began in March and ended in June 1955. During the formation, the duties of the commander were temporarily fulfilled by the captain of the second rank Nikolai Braginsky, but the first approved commander of the new unit was, not a scout, but the former commander of a destroyer, captain of the second rank Pyotr Kovalenko.

For several months, the unit was based on Ulysses, and the personnel lived on board the old ship, and before leaving for the point of permanent deployment on Russky Island, the reconnaissance sailors at the submarine training base underwent an accelerated diving training course.

On July 1, 1955, the unit began single combat training of future scout divers under the program for training special forces. A little later, military coordination of groups began.

In September 1955, the newly formed naval special forces took part in their first exercises – having landed on boats in the Shkotovsky region, naval scouts conducted reconnaissance of the Abrek naval base and elements of its anti-sabotage defense, as well as highways in the rear of the conditional “enemy”.

Already at that time, the command of the unit came to the understanding that the selection for the naval special forces should be as tough as possible, if not cruel.

The unit is legendary, with its harsh conditions, and difficulty of being accepted in it, and 65 years later, it has changed, but it appears to still be as elite.

It has a slightly changed structure and number, after a series of organizational staff events, it continues to live its own life – according to its own special, “spetsnaz” way of life. Many cases in this part will never be declassified, and books will be written about some more. The names of the people who serve here today are closed to the public, and rightly so.

Naval scouts today sacredly honor their military traditions, and combat training happen without break.

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Every day, the servicemen from the unit are engaged in a variety of activities: they train dives (both real in the sea and in a pressure chamber), achieving the proper level of physical fitness, practice hand-to-hand combat techniques and methods of covert movement, learn to shoot from various types of small arms, learn new techniques , which is being supplied to the troops in abundance today (now there are even combat robots in service) – in general, they are preparing at any moment on the orders of the Motherland to perform any assigned task.

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