On August 6, 1945, while on a patrol mission, Soviet PK-7 and PK-10 patrol crafts were viciously attacked by two planes in the vicinity of Gavryushkin Kamen island. PK (ПК in Russian) stands for “Pogranichniy Kater”, Пограничный Катер or “Border Patrol Craft”. They had a crew of twelve and armament of 2x 12.7mm MG each (see the photos below). At 09:32, while passing the vicinity of the small island of Gavryushkin Kamen, they were repeatedly attacked by two planes. During the strafing, which continued for the twenty-seven minutes from the mast-top height, 11 sailors died, and another 11 were wounded, including Lt. Cmdr. Nikifor Boyko, commander of the division of Border Patrol boats. PK-7 sustained engine trouble and lost speed. The other craft used the smokescreen and, eventually, towed the damaged PK-7 back to Petropavlovsk. After the war, a monument was erected at the burial place in the territory of the new Border Patrol boat station at Solenoe Lake. 

In 1945, my grandfather’s house was next to the boat station by Medvezhye Lake.  He and his three sons (including my then-five-year-old father) became good friends with the crews. On the morning of August 6, just as always, some sailors stopped by the house to say hello before embarking on their vessels. As my granddad remembered from talking to the survivors, there was never a doubt that the attacking planes were Japanese. However, some modern Russian reports suggested that the attackers could be the Americans. This prompted me to do some archive digging.

I found a flight report of Lt. Maurice Noyer and Lt. Norman Hofheymer, who were on their first mission to the Kuriles on August 5, Aleutian time. Their newly-formed Squadron VPB-120 had just transferred to Shemya from training at Whidbey Island NAS. With malfunctioning LORAN, they first miscalculated their position by about 70 miles and were spotted and reported by Soviet border guards as “B-24s violating Kamchatka air space near Utashud island”. Then Lt. Noyer in the leading plane (call code 86 Victor, BuNo 59816), thinking they were over Paramushiro coast, failed to make an identifying pass over the Soviet vessels (even though they were briefed to do that) and started a head-on strafing attack. Lt. Hofheimer’s plane (call code 92 Victor, BuNo 59716) joined him shortly, but during the second pass, the top turret gunner noticed the Soviet Navy flags on the boats, and the attack was called off.

Rhodes Arnold, in his book “Foul Weather Front,” quotes the August 5 log book entry of Clyde Paul Cunningham, a gunner on Lt. Noyer’s crew:

“My first strike at the enemy, poor devils didn’t have a chance. Sank one ship, left the other one badly burning. Burnt my gun barrels up. Remember chunks of wood big as car wheels flying off the deck. First run over ship could not fire cause guns wouldn’t bear on target. Second run sank ship with machine gun fire. Second ship was throwing such heavy AA fire at us two runs was all able to make. Saw men on the deck, some dead, some in cold ice water, and some hiding from our accurate fire. Could see large balls of fire coming from the enemy’s five inch guns. I doubt if the second vessel made shore, because the vessel was aflame all over. Heard suddenly over I.E.S. heavy antiaircraft was firing at us from shore. Got out of there in a hurry. Heavy flak was coming up at us all the time, although we were twenty five feet off the water doing 200 miles an hour. One large shell came so close it knocked water over the port wing. We flew so close to the water prop wash was kicking up waves behind us. Did this to keep fighters off our aircraft. Returned to base”.

There was no word about the misidentification, but interesting details were provided about the number of passes, which was officially reported as five, and Soviet AA gun support from the shore.

Unfortunately, Soviet sailors paid the ultimate price for this mistake. Those perished in the attack were:

1. Lt. Cmdr. Boyko Nikifor Ignatyevich, commander of the division of Border Patrol boats, born in 1915.
2. Lt. Tselyutin Viktor Vissarionovich, flagship mechanic of the division of Border Patrol boats, born in 1917, Kropotkin, Krasnodar Territory.
3. PO1c Prikhodko Nikolay Petrovich, boatswain of the PK-7, born in 1913, village of Sheptukhovka, Korneevsky District, Kursk Region.
4. PO2c Andrianov Mikhail Nikolaevich, commander of the gunners’ department of the PK-10, born in 1918.

5. PO2c Tikhonov Pyotr Yakovlevich, helmsman of PK-10, born in 1917, Balakovo, Volsky district, Saratov region, called up in 1941, Perm.

6. PO2c Gavrilkin Sergey Fedorovich, crew member of PK-7 (position not specified), born in 1919.

7. Leading Seaman Krashennikov Vasily Ivanovich, senior gunner of PK-10, born in 1919.

8. Leading Seaman Novoselov Pavel Petrovich, gunner of PK-7, born in 1917, Bezvodnaya village, Kiknursky District, Kirovskaya oblast.

9. Leading Seaman Dubrovny Aleksey Petrovich, gunner of PK-7, born in 1921, Travnoye village, Dovolnensky District, Novosibirsk Region. Heavily wounded on August 6, 1945, died of his wounds on August 12, 1945 in the Petropavlovsk Naval Hospital.

10. Sailor Zimerev Andrey Ivanovich, senior miner of PK-10, born in 1922.
11. Sailor Kalyakin Vasily Ivanovich, hydroacoustic operator of PK-10, born in 1924, Penza Region, Luninsky District, village of Merlinka. Heavily wounded on August 6, 1945, died of his wounds on August 8, 1945 in the Petropavlovsk Naval Hospital.

Surviving sailors showed a wallet of PO2c Sergei Gavrilkin, pierced by a bullet, to my grandfather and his kids. This was one of my late father’s childhood memories.

The deceased sailors were buried in a mass grave on the territory of the base of the 2nd division of border boats of the 60th Order of Lenin Marine Border Detachment of the Primorsky District of the Border Troops of the NKVD of the USSR in Solenoe Ozero Bay in Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky. Since 1968, the name of Lt. Cmdr (Captain 3rd Rank) N.I.Boyko has been borne by the former Solenoe Ozero Street.

Since the monument lists the names of only 8 of the 11 victims – without V.V.Tselyutin, N.P.Prikhodko and P.P.Novosyolov, it can be assumed that the bodies of those three fallen were not delivered to the base in Solenoe Ozero, but during the battle simply fell overboard and, using official wording, were “committed to the sea”.

Why did the surviving sailors insist that the planes were Japanese? They did not want to believe that the Americans could make such a mistake. At that time, the residents of Kamchatka saw with their own eyes the vast volumes of American military and humanitarian aid. Many had the opportunity to communicate and sincerely become friends with the Americans. No one could have imagined then that in just a year or two, the relationship between the two countries would change polarity.

VPB-120 squadron veteran Al Southwick: “I do remember that incident when our planes strafed Soviet ships, but I never learned much about it, because the bombing of Hiroshima took place two days later, and we were all so engrossed in what that meant for us and the world. Incidentally, we had warm feelings for the Soviet military, which suffered such severe losses on the Eastern front. Despite the Cold War, we never forgot those sacrifices. Also they had permitted us to set up a Loran station on the Siberia coast (in fact, those were weather stations in Kamchatka and Primorye Region- BI). That allowed us to navigate with precision, unlike when we were trying to navigate by stars and dead reckoning.“

(from correspondence with the author, 2013).