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Undermining the Kakhovka hydroelectric power station: Ukrainian propaganda revived the historical myth
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited.by Denis Davydov [REGNUM] The myth of the "tsunami" that descended in a terrible wave downstream of the Dnieper after the explosion of the dam of the Dnieper hydroelectric power station in 1941 is one of the favorites in the box of Ukrainian propagandists. For years, a ten-meter wave that “killed one hundred thousand Ukrainians” has been wandering around in various publications, eventually turning into a thirty-meter one.  She covered the units of the Red Army defending on Khortitsa (although there were already Germans there), drowned 20 thousand Red Army soldiers in floodplains and at crossings, then hanging them “over bushes and trees”, buried “dozens of ships along with teams” in the abyss. As a result of the careful work of the masters of the pen, " giant whirlpools cut off and literally sucked into themselves two of our retreating combined arms armies and a cavalry corps ." Only a few were able to swim out, immediately captured. But the coastal villages did not float anywhere, they were covered with water, which at the same time devoured the “columns of refugees”. All together, this was intended to illustrate the inhumanity and criminality of the Soviet government, which "hated the Ukrainians." And now this story was taken out of the box outside the schedule to be filed as evidence for the explosion of the dam of the Kakhovskaya hydroelectric power station: look, they always do this. Only now “Russians hate Ukrainians”, and therefore they commit such acts that are senseless in their cruelty. Only all this was not. The Dnieper HPP dam was indeed partially blown up, which was done by a great master of his craft Boris Epov, a teacher at the Engineering Academy with extensive practice, the author of many scientific papers. In his autobiography, he gave the exact parameters of the task: " as a result of an explosion in the body of the dam, about 100 meters along its length were torn out (out of a total length of the dam equal to 600 m)." The main task was to make it impossible for the German troops to cross, since the dam is a natural bridge. And they blew it up taking into account future recovery, even destroying the turbines by turning off the lubricant supply at full power. The overflowing waters of the Dnieper flooded the outlying streets of Zaporozhye, the writer Oleg Zoin in his "Ordinary Romance" says that tram number 5 did not run from Svobody Square to the Pristan, because the tram tracks were hidden by a meter layer of water. But downstream, the water spread no more than during the annual spring floods that occurred before the construction of the Dnieper Hydroelectric Power Station. Yes, it dispersed suddenly, which caused the drowning of many cattle tied in the meadows and bees in the hives: local residents repeatedly told inquisitive local historians about this. Kyiv is preparing to dump water from reservoirs during the offensive But that's all, since the bridges were destroyed, the refugees had long gone to the left bank, and all the military units downstream in an organized manner crossed on improvised means. The height difference at the dam was only 37 meters, and before a neat undermining (with the expectation of restoration), excess water was dumped. An approximate simple calculation shows that during the destruction of the dam section, a breakthrough wave about 12 meters high and about a hundred meters wide from the very first second began to diverge along the kilometer-long channel of the Dnieper and a wide floodplain. After 20 seconds, this is already a one and a half meter wave, and further downstream the level will rise by five centimeters per minute, rapidly dropping to zero. The destruction of the central section in 1941 made it possible to successfully defend until the fall and to take out all industry and all property from Zaporozhye in an organized manner. But when the Germans blew up the DneproGES dam on October 15, 1943, they no longer thought about any restoration. They needed to spoil as much as possible, leaving, about which propaganda for some reason never reports anything. Of the 49 bulls of the dam, only 17 survived; the electrical facilities of the station and the bridge were destroyed. Although the plan was to destroy the entire body of the dam, which was prevented by fast Soviet sappers. So it is in Novaya Kakhovka: there is military expediency, but there is a stupid desire to spoil and destroy. Blowing up the dam is definitely the second. It is tied to the water supply of new Russian territories and the Crimea. Berdyansk, Melitopol and Genichesk will sit down on water austerity. The main damage from flooding is on the left, Russian bank. There are also defensive structures built in case of an attempt to break through. And most importantly, there is a new reason to squeal fitfully about "historical hatred" for the unfortunate Ukrainians. Which, by an amazing coincidence, aired beautifully laid-out memos on rescuing drowning people the very next morning after the disaster. By and large, there is no difference between the German approach from 1943 and the Ukrainian one from 2023. But the Germans, at least, were honest. Posted by: badanov 2023-06-07 |
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