RUSSIA: It has taken 60 years for a Kremlin leader to follow Nikolai Sobolyev to the beaches of Normandy writes Daniel McLaughlin in Moscow.
It has taken 60 years for a Kremlin leader to follow Nikolai Sobolyev to the beaches of Normandy.
But when President Vladimir Putin attends this weekend's commemoration of the D-Day landings he will mark a sharp shift in Russian perceptions of the battle, and also honour the unheralded handful of his countrymen who fought there alongside the Allies.
Mr Sobolyev was dispatched by Soviet intelligence to serve with the British navy from 1943 to 1945, and mostly helped guide supply vessels through dangerous waters to the Soviet Union. However, he also sailed 11 combat operations on seven different British ships, attacking Nazi convoys and guiding bombers to their targets.
For Mr Sobolyev (89), now a retired vice-admiral, the Normandy landings dwarf his other missions. Yet for his nation D-Day has always been seen as just the long-overdue opening of a second front after millions of Soviets had died driving the Nazis back towards Berlin.
Mr Putin's presence in northern France will raise the standing of D-Day in the minds of Russians, who are taught that the five-month battle of Stalingrad - and not the biggest seaborne invasion in modern history - turned the war against Hitler.
From June 1941 to the end of hostilities in May 1945, more than 20 million Soviet citizens died. Those losses, the 900-day siege of Leningrad, the near-capture of Moscow and epic battles like those at Stalingrad and Kursk, forged an enduring legend of triumph through suffering.
But there is little room in that legend, shaped by the bitter enmity of the Cold War, for the Allies' role in defeating Hitler. Its Soviet-centric view of events is encapsulated in the very name used here for the second World War: the Great Patriotic War.
Moscow's military leaders long lambasted the West for waiting until 1944 to open the second front, accusing them of delaying their attack to wait for the Soviets to deal a crushing blow to the Nazis and suffer crippling casualties in the process.
As the theory goes, Western leaders saw the Red Army rolling the Third Reich back into Germany, and launched D-Day to quell the threat of Moscow's troops effectively winning the war alone and sweeping through the rest of Europe.
While recognition of the Allies' efforts has grown since the Soviet empire collapsed in 1991, many war veterans here still baulk at what they call a lack of Western appreciation for their efforts and sacrifice. They also complain that none of them have received an invitation to join Mr Putin in France.
But for Mr Sobolyev, this weekend's events are an overdue reminder of wartime co-operation. "I already realised the importance of opening a second front in achieving ultimate victory over the Nazis," he told The Irish Times. "When I heard about the planned landing I approached a navy commander, and asked to be allowed to take part.
"I boarded the battleship at Greenock naval base near Glasgow. We sailed to the south of England, and then turned towards Normandy. The sea was swarming with ships bound for the French coast."
Mr Sobolyev helped shell the coast to provide cover for the landing. While watching soldiers swarm onto the beaches, he also scanned the sky and sea for incoming fire. "My strongest memory is of the German planes dropping bombs on us all through the landing. Thankfully, we had no direct hits."
He recalled how his advice at the artillery post earned him "lucky mascot" status on the ship.
"We had to don gas masks because the smoke from the ship's chimney was blowing into our faces, so I passed a message to our commander to change course by 90 degrees. As we completed the turn, a sailor cried: 'Two torpedoes on the port side!' and a Norwegian destroyer crossing our path went up in smoke and flames, with body parts and debris showering into the sea."
After the landing, while resting and having tea, a British sailor told Mr Sobolyev: "If we had not changed course then we would have been lying on the cold sea bed rather than having hot tea."
He added: "When our ship came back to Portsmouth in July to stock up, and I announced my intention to transfer to another ship, the crew begged me to stay as they thought I brought them good fortune - we had not a single wounded man while I was on board."
For Mr Sobolyev it is high time Russia remembered June 6th.
"I welcome our president's decision to go to Normandy. We were allies, and I think it's time to thank our allies for the landing, and for their great help during the war. It is the right thing to do."
And he is glad to see the back of the Cold War sensitivities that stymied his efforts to publish a book about his old comrades. The commander of the Soviet navy made sure it would never see the light of day, saying: "Not for publication - Sobolyev is too complimentary about the British navy."