We have borrowed the name of the group from the popular novel by V. Bogomolov as it most corresponds to the essence of included objects. In fact separate items of arms, self-propelled military technics, vehicles scattered at the bottom as a result of various accidents are included in this category. Studying of archival materials has shown that there are a lot of them. As the elementary examples it is possible to name the Russian signal guns stood on an extremity of the channel in Peterhof. They were thrown off into the sea during catastrophic flooding of the year 1777, and they lay somewhere, washed away in the ground till nowadays. Also 22 guns dumped from a board of the Swedish capital ship «Finland» in the day-time on June, 23rd, 1790 lay at the bottom. At Swedes breakthrough attack from the Vyborg Gulf it took the ground and later yielded itself prisoner. At attempt to remove it from stones Russian seamen have dumped 5 155 mm guns (24 pounds), 14 120 mm guns (12 pounds) and 398 mm guns (6 pounds) from it. Subsequently these guns have not been found.
Of the recent mass cases of military technics loss losses during "Winter" Soviet-Finnish War and during the period of the Second World War are known. First of all what is meant here are tanks, artillery tractors, trains, motor vehicles gone under the ice. The biggest number of such incidents was in the winter of 1939-1940, to be more precise, in February – March 1940 when the Red Army mounted the offensive across the Karelian Isthmus and the east coast of Ladoga Lake. Archival materials of EPRON testify that some hundreds of military technics units went under the ice during these battles. And a significant part of it has not been found at the bottom. It is enough to give the following cases stated in our database as examples:
- On February, 20th, 1940 a tank corps of 10000 military technics units was forwarded across Gulf of Finland to Karelian Isthmus along three routes. At ferrying 20 machines, including 13 tanks "T-26", 6 cargo motor vehicles and 1 tractor "Komintern" of 62 tank regiment went under the ice. The hydrographic service has lost 1 motor vehicle – the cross-country vehicle;
- On March, 8-9th, 1940 the Soviet units forced the mined Vyborg Gulf overice under fire of the Finnish artillery and at constant aviastrikes of the Finnish bomber. Exact number of the sunken tanks is not known, but according to the documents their number comes to 80 pieces. At least five T-26 tanks, one BT-2 tank (?), two BT-5 tanks and two BT-7 tanks of 62 tank regiment went under the ice. Exact number of the sunken tanks is not known, but according to the documents their number comes to 80 pieces.
- According to EPRON seven T-26 tanks and 3 tractors with 6 guns in tow went under the ice of Ladoga Lake only on one site in the east of the Karelian Isthmus then.
Similar cases during Second World War are known. So the Soviet units took up defensive dispositions on Gogland, Bolshoj Tjuters and Lavensari (the present Moshjnyj Island) islands in 1941-1942. Numerous cases of technics loss on armament delivery on island overice are known. For example:
- On April, 6th, 1942 on the way to Seskar Island 1 artillery tractor went under the ice.
- On April, 9th, 1942 on the way to Moshjnyj Island 2 tanks of Izhora fortified region tank company went under the ice. Both tanks had 45–mm guns;
- On April, 14th, 1942 6 motor vehicles went under the ice at shelling on the way to Seskar Island.
There is no necessity to speak about mass loss of motor vehicles on «a lifeline across the Ladoga». It is known, that totally 460 motor vehicles had been weighed by Baltic Fleet divers on Ladoga in 1942-43 that makes only a part of lost vehicles. But it is necessary to remind, that the same ice routes were organized between Lisij Nos and Kronstadt and between Kronstadt and Oranienbaum bridgehead.
Except for that a lot of technics went under the ice of the river Neva during battles for seizure and control of bridgeheads on the left riverbank. «Nevskij Pyatachok» was a region where ferryings across the Neva were intensively used. A part of technics and tanks were lost there even in the autumn of 1941 when they were pontooned to the east coast.
Generally the sunken tanks are the type of military technics most often weighed. As a rule all the weighed samples are in a good condition and can move in self-propelled mode after the restoring repair. The most known operations in the Northwest region are:
- In 1988 T-26 tank of rare version was weighed from the bottom of the Neva near «Nevskij Pyatachok» during the joint expedition of Voronezh club "Reef" and Sosnovyj Bor club "Katran".
- In 1994 (?) the sunken T-26 tank was weighed by Moscow searhers in the north of Ladoga.
- In 2003 a heavy V-1 tank sunk in autumn of 1941 was weighed by joint efforts of Petersburg club "Open Sea" and Belarus military-patriotic club "Search" with the help of "MGA" group searchers and Tolyatti technical museum;
- On February, 18th, 2005 the same group weighed a floating tank T-38 from the Neva bottom;
- 21 – on February, 30th, 2005 in the Vyborg Gulf the joint group of experts of "Selector" Joint-Stock Company (Petersburg) and "Baltic Breeze" Joint-Stock Company (Vyborg) with the participation of Belarus club "Search" and the Vyborg rescue squad of the Ministry of Emergency Measures lifted command tank T-26 lost on March, 9th, 1940 from 11-meter depth.
- In June, 2005 members of Petersburg club "Neva" declared a find of six lorries on «a lifeline across the Ladoga».
An operation on steel bomb guns recovery to the north of Kronstadt is an example of artillery pieces lifting. Works were executed by experts of Joint-Stock Company "Perot" (Waste processing) and of the Sea Researches Technology and Technics Center "Rift". Eight cannon trunks made in Sweden were weighed at the place of one of the destroyed pile batteries protected the northern Kronstadt waterway in the middle of XIX century.
Certainly, the number of the objects of this group is much less rather than the number of the lost ships or planes and left anchors. Nevertheless during our works such finds took place. All of them are incidental. Unfortunately, an enormous busy condition on the found ship bodies inspection does not allow to distract with their studying. We just state the finding of the objects at the bottom, not executing their research. Therefore identification of the stated objects is presumable.