#头条创作挑战赛 #
On the night of April 19, 1995, Trincomalee, the main port of the Indian Ocean island nation of Sri Lanka, was shrouded in darkness. A remnant moon hangs in the sky, and the flickering light shines on the sea and the nearby port area, presenting a tropical island country's night view.
But in the midst of this enchanting night, several black dots on the surface of the sea are constantly approaching the port. Due to the undulating and sparkling sea surface, which seriously hampered the effect of the sea lookout, the Sri Lankan sentries at the entrance to the port area did not find these black spots. These black dots are the four frogmen of the "Black Tiger" Death Squad Frogman Detachment, which has just been established by the Tamil Tigers, namely Matusa (female), Kadirawan, Sani Magaran and Sansa (female). Their target was three Chinese-made Type 62 frigates of the 3rd High-Speed Gunboat Squadron moored in the Trincomalee Military Port! This time, which can be called the Sri Lankan version of the Pearl Harbor incident, destroyed 40% of the Sri Lankan naval forces in one fell swoop.
Type 62 frigate
The Sri Lankan Navy began using Chinese-made Type 62 frigates early on, even much earlier than many of us think. In February 1972, shortly after U.S. President Richard Nixon concluded his visit to China, Sri Lanka tested with the Chinese side whether it could obtain a batch of Type 62 frigates in the form of "assistance." With the approval of Premier Zhou Enlai, China handed over to the Slovak side four Type 62 frigates actively served by the People's Liberation Army Navy in 1973, named "Verea", "Barawata", "Lanakami" and "Dakshaya". In satisfaction with the comprehensive performance of these ships, Sri Lanka purchased two more Modified Type 62 frigates in 1980, named "Lahsaka" and "Jagata", which formed the main force of the Slovak Navy's coastal defense, and after the outbreak of the Sri Lankan Civil War in 1983, the Type 62 and 62 modified frigates actively participated in the attack and encirclement of the "LTTE".
The Type 62 frigate is a type of highly effective ship in the equipment sequence of the Chinese People's Liberation Army Navy. In the three naval battles launched on both sides of the Taiwan Strait in 1965, the 62 frigates played an extremely good role, with the characteristics of light and sensitive size, maneuverability, and fierce close combat firepower, first suppressing the firepower of the enemy ships with firepower, suppressing their deck personnel, covering the torpedo boats to carry out torpedo attacks, and achieving the record of sinking 3 Taiwan warships and seriously injuring 2 at a very small cost.
Of course, as a small frigate of the first class, the Type 62 is not without its drawbacks. The biggest disadvantage is that its internal space is too narrow and the living environment is extremely poor. Although most of the ships of the People's Navy in the early years lived in a poor environment, it is indeed rare to have a harsh environment like the Type 62 frigate. It is said that the per capita space in the rear cabin is only about 2 cubic meters, and there are almost no other facilities except for the hanging shop. And the tank can only store 5 tons of fresh water, but there are nearly 40 people, if you want to insist on 7 days at sea, you must implement strict conservation measures, in the north you may be able to insist on it, but in the south, especially in the hot summer, the saving measures can even be said to be extremely severe. In addition, the Type 62 frigate has not been air-conditioned for a long time, and in the summer, the cabin is like a steamer, and the environment can be imagined.
The crew of the Type 62 frigate held a meeting in the cabin, and it could be seen that the cabin was extremely narrow and crowded, and the overhead of the officers and men was a hanging bunk
A cross-sectional view of the interior of the Type 62 frigate drawn by the director of the plant
After the first batch of 4 and the second batch of 2 Type 62 frigates joined the Slovak Navy, they soon won a lot of praise for their superior performance, but the officers and officers responsible for directing these frigates gave a bad evaluation of the habitability of the type while giving the boat a five-star praise for its combat performance. The Sri Lankan Army was an army born out of the former British Empire colonies, and its officers were deeply influenced by the British faction, no matter how the battle was fought, the faction learned ten out of ten.
They compared the harsh cabin conditions of the 62 boats with the comfortable officer cabins of british battleships they had previously served, and lashed out at the living conditions of the 62 boats. Even officers with strong hands-on ability directly di-Y-style decoration of the interior cabin to improve their own conditions.
Type 62 frigate equipped by the Sri Lankan Navy
In the early 1990s, the Sri Lankan Navy, plagued by the LTTE, felt that it was not strong enough to suppress the growing LTTE sea power, the Sea Tiger (sea tiger for short), so it began to seek a cost-effective small ship in the world arms market.
At the end of the Cold War, the world arms market was nearly saturated, the United States and the Soviet Union were vigorously marketing their products in order to open up new markets, and neighboring India was also ambitiously trying to pry open the arms market of the neighboring island nation. For a time, when Sri Lanka issued a demand for ship purchases, arms dealers from various countries flocked to the country, and various ship plans and envelopes containing kickbacks were piled up on the desks of Sri Lankan officers in charge of procurement. But the Sri Lankan Navy, after a three-storey shop, decided to continue to buy Chinese-made Type 62 frigates.
The speedboat of the "Sea Tiger"
Although it was not the first time that the Sri Lankan Navy had purchased a Type 62 frigate, why did it choose this gunboat, which seemed "obsolete" at the time, as its main force in the early 1990s? This is mainly because the Sri Lankan Navy's combat objects are relatively special, high-tech fully automatic naval guns, small missiles, etc. are a bit of a bit of a big deal against the "Sea Tiger", and the quality of the Sri Lankan Navy officers and men themselves can only be said to be unsatisfactory, and the sensitivity to high technology is not high. In addition, the Sri Lankan government's finances were also difficult to bear the high prices of the United States and the Soviet Union. The Type 62 frigate was low in price, fast and powerful enough to meet the needs of the Sri Lankan Navy, so the Sri Lankan military finally ordered two Type 62 frigates again in 1991.
However, the Sri Lankan side has quite a criticism of the difficult living conditions of the six Type 62 frigates previously delivered, and strongly demands that the Chinese side make changes according to the actual situation in use by its own side. The Sri Lankan military has particularly stressed the need to improve the living conditions of officers and non-commissioned officers. For example, our army pays attention to "equality between officers and soldiers", although the captain of the Type 62 frigate also has a small independent space, but it is separated by a curtain, a single bed inside, plus a small writing desk.
However, the Sri Lankan military, which inherited the tradition of the British Empire, required that the treatment of officers and soldiers must be opened, that officers such as the chief and deputy captains must have independent cabins, and that non-commissioned officers must also have independent cabins, which must be separated from ordinary soldiers. Although the Chinese side has repeatedly pointed out in the discussion that if the existing design is drastically improved, it is likely to have a series of adverse effects, but sri Lankan military representatives have turned a deaf ear.
The Qingdao shipyard that received the order did not dare to be sloppy and began to make a dojo in the "snail shell". In the already modest hull of the Type 62, the designers forced the captain and deputy captain to separate 2 separate spaces for their cabins, and then separated a place as a non-commissioned officer cabin. In view of Sri Lanka's tropical location and sweltering and humid climate, the officer and non-commissioned officer cabins have installed more powerful air conditioners, and the officer cabins and non-commissioned officer cabins have refrigerators to store food. As for the ordinary sailor cabin, they can only be wronged by changing from three-storey paving to four-storey paving, in addition, due to the increase of electrical appliances and high-power air conditioning, the original generator has been unable to meet the needs, and replaced by a larger generator.
In addition, the addition of separate cabins and many additional living facilities forced the shipyard to make many major changes to the hull structure. In order to install the air conditioning pipes, holes had to be made in the watertight compartment, while some emergency equipment and damaged pipe facilities were cut down to make room. As for the weapons, drastic changes were made: the original Type 61 twin 37 mm machine gun was replaced by the Type 76 twin 37 mm machine gun, and the Type 61 twin 25 mm machine gun was replaced by the Type 69 twin 14.5 mm machine gun.
This series of improvements is indeed effective in improving the living conditions of officers and non-commissioned officers, but it also pays the price of a decline in buoyancy reserves and a sharp increase in safety hazards, and we will soon see the consequences of this.
In 1991, the two frigates, known as type 62-1, were completed and officially joined the Sri Lankan Navy after being accepted by the Sri Lankan side, and were named "Suraya" (hull number P310) and "Nalasu" (P320) respectively.
The superstructure of the Type 62-1 frigate, which was greatly modified according to the requirements of the Sri Lankan side, was obviously much larger than the model used by our army for its own use, causing the center of gravity to shift upwards and be top-heavy
The two gunboats were incorporated into the 3rd High Speed Gunboat Squadron in the Eastern Sea Defense Zone of Yus, stationed in Trincomalee. Since then, these two gunboats, together with friendly forces, have frequently participated in the blockade and attack of the government army on the area controlled by the "LTTE", and have been quite active, causing a heavy blow to the SEA lifeline of the LTTE, so they soon became the thorns in the eyes and flesh of the LTTE, and they wanted to get rid of it quickly.
On January 8, 1995, under the mediation of the United Nations and other international organizations, the Sri Lankan government and the LTTE reached a ceasefire agreement, and the two sides began peace talks. But the LTTE is not really seeking peace, and while they are at the negotiating table, offering various high-priced conditions that the Sri Lankan government cannot agree to, on the other hand, they are secretly training and forming a death squad specifically for the Sri Lankan Navy, that is, the frogman detachment of the "Black Tiger".
When selecting members of the "Black Tiger", it is generally selected to those who have a blood feud with the Sri Lankan government, and "equality between men and women", the membership of men and women is basically 1 to 1. A reporter from Germany's "Sunday Bild" once interviewed the "Tiger" control area, and reported that the members who joined the "Black Tiger" were generally around the age of 20, and many even participated in the event without their parents and families.
The female daredevils in the Black Tiger call themselves "Free Birds", and once they join, they must keep the same short hair and wear men's clothing as men. Every day at 4 o'clock in the morning, you have to get up to participate in high-intensity training, and smoking and drinking are strictly prohibited, you can only go home to visit your relatives once a year, and only women who have served for more than 5 years can get married (in the "Black Tiger", people who can mix for 5 years are miracles, both men and women). These women, like men, always carry a capsule containing potassium cyanide around their necks, and if they are at risk of being captured, they will not hesitate to commit suicide by taking poison.
In addition to normal training, the Black Tiger's frogman detachment added diving training and training in underwater bombing. The high-intensity training makes it impossible for many people to survive to the end, the elimination rate is extremely high, and the rest are all uncompromising elites. After several months of training, the first members of the "Black Tiger" frogman detachment graduated. This time, the leader of the "Tigers" Prabapuran was determined to take out this trump card and deal a fatal blow to the Sri Lankan Navy.
Prabapuram (center), the leader of the Tigers, poses with the members of the Black Tigers, and it can be seen that men and women make up half of them
On 19 April 1995, Prabapuran sent a sudden letter to the President of Sri Lanka, Chandrika Kumalamatongga, informing her that the ceasefire agreement had expired on the same day. Confused, Kumaratunga immediately called an emergency cabinet meeting to discuss the incident. At the meeting, it was agreed that the vigilance of the troops should be strengthened to prevent sudden attacks by tigers. Immediately after the meeting, the Government issued a warning to the troops and called for full alert. But it was clear that it was too late for all the troops to be ready for battle at once, because by this time the Sea Tiger's death squad was already on the road.
Chandrika Kumaratunga
The Tigers' target this time was the 3rd High-Speed Assault Craft Squadron, which had three Type 62 frigates in the harbor on April 19, in addition to the Type 62-1 "Suraya" and "Narasu", and a 62 modified frigate "Lahsaka". The Tigers transported the death squads to disguise themselves as fishing boats and came outside the port of Trincomalee, mingling with swarms of fishing boats. The four members of the ship then changed into diving suits, carried their weapons and 5 kg bombs and quietly dived into the sea, swimming towards the military port dock where 3 escort boats were moored.
Satellite view of The Port of Trincomalee
It must be noted that although they are frogmen, the "Sea Tiger" death squad is different from the special forces diving infiltration in the blockbuster we often watch, the "Sea Tiger" did not have a GPS positioning system, nor did it have any diving thrusters, in order to avoid diving in the sea when getting lost or being swept away by the current, they must dive for a distance and must expose their heads to the surface of the sea to look at the reference object to determine the direction. Therefore, if the armed sailors on duty on the warships in the harbor are highly vigilant and can detect divers in time, they may be able to thwart the attack.
Unfortunately, according to the requirements of the Sri Lankan military, the power of the Type 62-1 frigate was mainly used to ensure the air conditioning of the officer and non-commissioned officer cabins, which made the high-power searchlights on the boat unable to be used at all when mooring, and the sentry on the boat could only use a flashlight to take a look around the perimeter of the escort boat from time to time. The brightness and power of the flashlight could not be compared with the searchlight, so the sentry was unaware of the approaching danger.
The 4 frogmen, like 4 bloodthirsty sharks, each chose a target and began to act. According to the prior plan, the first 3 people each select a frigate to attack, the 4th person as a mobile force, if someone in front of them misses, the 4th person will immediately make up for the position to continue the suicide attack.
Since all four frogmen eventually blew themselves up and died in the attack, the specific details of the attack have not been verified. But to be sure, before the attack, the Sri Lankan Navy was completely unprepared and caught off guard. Huge explosions sounded one after another, shaking the entire harbor, and the ferocious shock wave shattered all the glass on the three frigates, many equipment and instruments were destroyed, the bottom cabin was also blown out of a large opening, and the sea violently poured into the boat.
The Officers and Men of the Sri Lankan Navy on board in the explosion, with the exception of those killed on the spot and the seriously wounded, calmed down quickly after the initial panic in an attempt to rescue the ship. Unfortunately, the entire power of the frigate after the attack was interrupted. Although the crew activated the emergency generator, the emergency generator was insufficient, resulting in the boat's pumping machine being unable to pump away the large influx of seawater. And because of the excessive emphasis on living conditions, the number of compartments was greatly reduced than the prototype, so that after the influx of seawater, the 62-1 frigates "Suraya" and "Narasu" lost their balance in a short period of time and quickly overturned, overturning and sinking on the berth, and the sailors who were unable to rescue the battleship had to jump into the sea to escape. However, the older model of the 62 variant "Lakhsaka" was not sunk due to the large number of compartments, the large reserve buoyancy, and the complete damage pipe facilities, so it was lucky not to sink under the desperate rescue of the sailors, but it still suffered heavy damage and floated on the surface of the sea.
After dawn, Sri Lankan Navy divers recovered the remains of 11 dead officers and men in the harbor, as well as the bodies of four "Sea Tiger" frogmen who had been blown to pieces. In addition to the dead, 22 other Sri Lankan Navy officers and men were injured in the explosion, one of whom died in hospital due to ineffective rescue.
The seriously injured "Lahsaka" frigate was towed to other ports by tugboats, and after inspection, the Sri Lankan military felt that "it can be rescued again", so the shipyard began a long-term repair, but in the end because the damage was too serious, the shipyard had to be completely scrapped after 1 year, becoming the "organ donor" of the same type of boat.
The First Appearance of the Sea Tigers destroyed three Frigates of the Sri Lankan Navy, accounting for almost 40% of its strength (there were 8 Type 62 frigates in the Sri Lankan Navy at that time), greatly limiting the Sri Lankan Navy's ability to patrol and blockade the coast of the LTTE-controlled area. It allowed lt. to smuggle weapons and much-needed supplies from abroad with relative ease, while also weakening the Sri Lankan navy's ability to cover amphibious attacks by marines and army on LTTE territory.
The attack also led to the Sri Lankan Navy having to withdraw all combat ships from Trincomalee for a time, only to return after the situation had subsided. It also means that the third phase of sri Lanka's civil war has begun, with LTTE ground forces using the gains of the Sea Tiger to continue to expand, successfully occupying key areas such as Kilinochi and Muletivu and controlling elephant passages, and by the time the two sides reached a ceasefire again in 2002, lt ltteus had controlled nearly 30% of Sri Lanka's total land area.
Sri Lankan government forces fighting the LTTE
The Navy, after suffering a heavy loss, stepped up its vigilance against the port, and on the other hand had to start ordering 3 new Type 62 frigates from China again to replenish the loss (NATO called the "Shanghai II" type, with a displacement of 135 tons), and then added 4 and 2 orders (NATO called the Shanghai III, displacement of 170 tons), so that the total number of Type 62 frigates that Sri Lanka has been equipped with has reached 17. However, this time, they no longer dared to ask the Chinese side to significantly modify the original design, but asked the Chinese side to tailor the new boat according to the needs of Sri Lanka.
Type 62 frigate tailored by the Chinese side to the requirements of the Sri Lanka Navy (Shanghai TYPE II)
In 1996, the Sri Lankan Navy ordered a type 037IS hunting submarine from China, allegedly because the Sri Lankan Navy suspected that the "Sea Tiger" used submersible thrusters in the attack (in fact, the "Sea Tiger" did not have this thing), so it introduced a battleship with anti-submarine capability, named "Palakla Mabahu", which will also become the flagship of the Sri Lankan Navy, and write its own legendary story in the Indian Ocean (the story of the "Parakramabahu" Please see the director of the factory "Yellow Water Battleship "Great War"). Tigers on the Sea", the debut of the flagship of the original Sri Lankan Navy and the final battle of the Sri Lankan Navy's "Battleship", recorded in 10.18, 2006.
The Tigers organized their own submarines, but in 1995 the Tigers did not have this capability
Sri Lankan Navy flagship ParakramaBahu (hull number P351)