Battle of Sukho Island

The Battle of Sukho Island, also known as Operation Brazil (), was an amphibious operation and naval engagement on Lake Ladoga between the Soviet Navy and a German naval detachment during World War II.

Background

During the siege of Leningrad the Soviets moved supplies to the city through Lake Ladoga. The Axis deployed the Finnish Ladoga Naval Detachment, Naval Detachment K (including the Italian ), and the German , to interdict the route; the MAS unit conducted motor torpedo boat attacks. The combined Axis force failed to significantly interrupt traffic.

The culmination of Axis operations was the raid against Sukho Island, from the southern shore of the lake, which covered supply lines and the approaches to Soviet bases.

Axis forces

The attack was commanded by Max Wachtel. The flotilla was composed of 16 Siebel ferries, 7 infantry boats (, a.k.a. ), and 3 Italian motor torpedo boats (two of them provided escort to Sukho Island, after which they returned to their base). Seven combatant ferries (SF 11, SF 13, SF 15, SF 17, SF 21, SF 23, SF 25) were fitted with heavy anti-aircraft weapons. Four combatant ferries (SF 12, SF 14, SF 22, SF 26) were fitted with light anti-aircraft weapons. A 70-troop landing party was carried aboard three transport ferries (T 2, T 4, T 6), and allocated five of the . There was also one HQ ferry and one hospital ferry.

Axis fighters (German Messerschmitt Bf 109s and Finnish Fiat G.50s) provided air cover for the landing force during the battle.

Battle

The German ferries were escorted at a distance by the Italian motor torpedo boat MAS 526 (according to some sources, it was MAS 528); critically, surprise was lost when they were detected by the Soviet minesweeper ' which joined the battle, and then by the patrol boat ' which entered the battle later. Before landing, nine German Junkers Ju 88 As from KG 1 bombed the island (according to some sources, these were two Junkers Ju 88s). The Axis landing party landed on Sukho under the cover of the combatant ferries; two of the three Soviet coastal guns, as well as two anti-aircraft machine guns, were destroyed, another anti-aircraft machine gun was damaged; and the lighthouse was also damaged but not taken. The landing party withdrew after sustaining casualties and losing radio contact (radios were flooded with water), having received a flare retreat signal.

On the lake, multiple German ferries grounded around the island. SF 12 grounded on rocks, followed by SF 13 while attempting to assist. SF 22 grounded after being disabled by the remaining Soviet 100 mm coastal gun; SF 14 and SF 26 grounded attempting to assist. A Soviet patrol boat was damaged and retreated under a smoke screen. The arrival of the main forces of the Soviet Ladoga Flotilla forced the Axis to withdraw after having refloated SF 14 and SF 22.

Soviet naval and air forces pursued but inflicted only minor damage on the retreating Germans; attacks by the Soviet s ' and ' on rear-guard transport ferries scored no hits, while the Germans claimed four hits on a Soviet ship. The German retreat was slowed by ferries suffering machinery failure. SF 21 was used as a rearguard; it silenced the remaining gun on Sukho but was damaged and then abandoned – along with the towed infantry boat I 6 – when it began to sink from leaks and pump failures, after which it was set on fire by gunfire from the ferries SF 11 and SF 23.

Aftermath

The Axis suffered heavy casualties for little result, and marked the effective end of offensive Axis operations on Lake Ladoga. 17 of the 23 participating German ships were sunk or seriously damaged; four combatant ferries (SF 12, SF 13, SF 21, SF 26) and one (I 6, which was captured by Soviet forces) were lost, and SF 22 was heavily damaged (one of the light anti-aircraft combat Siebel ferries that were lost aground near Sukho Island was captured by Soviet forces, then repaired and commissioned as ' of the Soviet Navy). Crew and troop casualties amounted to 18 killed, 57 wounded (one of them fatally) and 4 missing.