At the beginning of the week, divers recovered another body of a crew member from the sunken BDK Novocherkassk from the water in the port of Feodosia. This is the fourth sailor. The relatives of the missing crew members are still not told anything and are only fed with promises that DNA testing will shed light on the identity of the 4 bodies found – all of them were damaged by fire and explosion at the time of sinking. The laboratory assures that DNA studies on the recovered remains will be ready by the end of February.
The Cheka-OGPU became aware of the details of what happened with the Novocherkassk large landing ship. The ship has been under repair in Feodosia since November 17. On December 26, it was planned to begin sea trials, so the BDK was equipped with a seconded crew from the BDK Yamal, Azov and Nikolai Filchenkov. On board, among others, were 14 conscripts (during the explosion, some were slightly injured, four were killed). Before the strike, an air defense alarm was announced. Some of the sailors slept in cockpits and cabins during it. The command was on the navigation bridge. The missiles flew into the stern and bow. From the impact, all the metal “shrank” and flew into fragments. The sailors did not have the time or opportunity to get out; almost everyone who was sleeping died. 33 crew members (including 4 conscripts) were killed or “missing in action”, one died in hospital.
There was air defense at the port, but a day before the attack it “broke down” and did not react in any way to the missile attack.
“ВЧК ОГПУ”