We are now at the western tip of Kotlin Island.
In 1704, not far from this place, on the Tolbukhin Spit
Swedes tried to land their troops for the first time.
Soldiers, knee-deep in water, were slowly making their way to the shore,
when they were surprised by rifle salvos.
Having suffered significant losses, they hastily returned to their ships.
NAVAL FORTRESSES
Two hundred years later, on the very spot of Kotlin Island,
where the Swedish landing party had been repelled,
a new fort was built.
In the beginning of the 20th century, it had the same purpose as all other forts
here since the times of Peter the first— to protect Kronstadt
against attacks from the Kotlin Spit.
Forts have some advantages over warships and ship-based artillery.
Firstly, they have solid foundations and pre-sighted fire zones.
And every shell, every salvo would hit these zones,
exactly where they needed to hit.
Fort Reef is not the only one in Kronstadt.
And the Kronstadt Fortress is an entire system of fortifications.
By the beginning of the 20th century,
the sea approaches to Saint Petersburg were protected by 18 forts and batteries.
However, the development of artillery, and an increase in its power and range,
required that fortifications be moved farther from the city to the Gulf of Finland.
Old forts were decommissioned and replaced by new ones.
By the beginning of World War I, if the German fleet tried to break through
to the Gulf of Finland
they had to survive salvos from the heavy 12-inch guns of forts Ino and Krasnaya Gorka,
and overcome a very powerful mine barrier.
After that, the enemy would be greeted by artillery fire from Fort Reef.
Its location was very advantageous:
its artillery could protect both the south and north fairways to the city.
Fort Reef wasn't built from scratch.
For a long time, this location was a proving ground
for testing new means of defense and attack.
In some way, even Brest took construction lessons from the Kronstadt Fortress.
The proving grounds where the fort was constructed
had served to test the durability of fortifications built from Portland cement.
Many experimental buildings of that time survived
and were later incorporated into the fort structure.
According to the project the fort perimeter was longer than 2 km.
The fortress took up an area of 15 hectares
5 of them were artificial embankments.
The walls were 2 meters high and 3 meters wide.
The fort was armed with eight 152-millimeter Canet guns
and four 254-millimeter Brink guns.
The maximum range of fire was 15 kilometers
Four 40-kilowatt searchlights were installed in the center
and around the edges of the fort.
The fort was garrisoned by 200 people.
That's how the fort was commissioned five years later, in 1915.
...To make it possible to fire at both the southern and northern shores,
and the entire space in front of the island, a powerful 254-millimeter battery
was built at Fort Reef.
Brink guns became the primary armament of Fort Reef.
At the beginning of the 20th century, 254-millimeter guns
were the main type of large caliber guns used in Russian coastal defenses.
And these guns played a major part—
maybe even a crucial part—
in assuring that no one ever tried to pass by this fort.
Fort Reef, built on the western tip of Kotlin Island,
was designed to destroy enemy ships that broke through to the bay.
The fort's artillery consisted of a couple of standard fortress guns of the time.
To the right and to the left of fortifications housing 254-millimeter Brink guns,
two batteries of 152-millimeter Canet guns were erected.
These two calibers complemented each other perfectly.
Canet guns were compact and quick-firing—
if the gun crew was well-trained, it was able to make five shots per minute.
It all depended on the speed of the ammunition feed.
A well trained gun crew is crucial
for the successful operation of an artillery battery.
However, the mechanisms ensuring its correct working are equally important.
It's hard to believe, but the device used to feed shells into a gun survived.
Of course, the mechanism has become quite rusty, but it is still able to function.
Everything was operated exclusively by hand—
it was easier and more reliable,
because an enemy bombardment could easily cause interruptions in a power supply.
At Fort Reef, elevating mechanisms were used not only to feed ammunition,
but to lift the guns themselves.
Initially this shaft housed a device known as "a disappearing artillery turret,"
which was installed here to test the idea in an experimental environment.
A 57-millimeter gun was placed in a turret-like casemate.
This construction was based on the idea of "a disappearing battery
by German Egorovich Pauker."
...Again, he suggested this idea to protect gun crews.
The gun would go down on an elevator, there it would be reloaded and sent back up.
After firing a shot it would go down again.
However, this elevating system provided quite an unreliable foundation for the gun,
and, after some experimentation, it was found to be impossible
to put the disappearing battery into service.
Nevertheless, the same design was implemented later for combat searchlights.
This shaft looks quite modern and bears a slight resemblance
to a silo for ballistic missiles.
In fact, these shafts housed combat searchlights—the eyes of the fort.
Before the invention of radar they were the only means to discover an enemy at night.
A metallic platform with a Siemens-Schuckert "combat lantern"
was installed inside each of these shafts.
They were produced by a Siemens factory in St. Petersburg,
which was later known as the Elektrosila plant.
The glow was emitted by an arc discharge,
which was then focused and reflected by a mirror with a diameter from 1.5 to 2 m
With a current of 150 amperes or more,
each searchlight required an individual diesel generator in order to function.
Apart from its powerful large-caliber artillery,
Fort Reef also had antiaircraft armament.
These were four 85-millimeter guns and eight 45-millimeter guns—
quite powerful weapons as well.
This massive building is the command and observation post.
It was used to direct the fire
from four 45-millimeter anti-landing and anti-boat guns.
Enemy landing parties posed a serious threat, especially in winter,
when the bay was frozen over and they could walk to the island.
Torpedo boats were dangerous as well.
The use of these small ships allowed the British to sneak by the forts
and attack the fleet in Kronstadt's havens in 1919.
All the mistakes and landscape peculiarities were taken into account and in World War II
neither German aviation nor their landing parties had a chance to break through
to Kronstadt and Leningrad.
Fort Reef's antiaircraft armament played an important role,
because it was the first to face enemy aircraft approaching from the sea.
...And attempts to make air raids from the bay were all stopped
by the antiaircraft artillery of Fort Reef.
As Fort Reef was being built,
the telephone and telegraph network connecting all the forts of St. Petersburg
was upgraded and extended.
They needed to lay more than 108 kilometers of underwater cables and up to 28 kilometers
of underground cables, as well as more than 300 kilometers of aerial cables.
The Kronstadt's telephone and telegraph network of the time
was more developed than many other cities of the Russian Empire.
Fort Reef was commissioned in 1915, when World War I was in full swing.
Kronstadt was reliably covered by mine and artillery positions,
which is why the first shots from the fort were made later during the civil war,
which was far more devastating for Russia.
When suppressing a revolt at Fort Krasnaya Gorka,
Fort Reef, controlled by bolsheviks, opened fire on its concrete counterpart
manned by a garrison supporting General Yudenich.
The 254-millimeter guns of Fort Reef played a crucial role
in suppressing the revolt at Krasnaya Gorka.
Of course, large battleships fired their 305-millimeter guns,
but the commission that looked into the matter afterwards
concluded that it was the 254-millimeter guns of Fort Reef
that had inflicted the most damage to Krasnaya Gorka.
As a twist of fate, in 1921, during the Kronstadt revolt,
Fort Reef became the last fortification under the control of rebellious sailors.
The Red Army managed to enter Kronstadt only two days later.
But by then, more than 8,000 rebels had left for Finland,
walking over the ice of the Gulf of Finland,
and Fort Reef was their departure point.
It’s hard to overestimate the value of Kronstadt and its forts
for the defense of Leningrad during World War II.
Fort Reef was actively used as a forward air defense position, above all.
Only once did a 254-mm gun from Fort Reef fire in the direction of the enemy.
And there’s a rather curious story behind this shot.
Charges for these guns used very old "black powder"
that produced a very distinctive pillar of smoke.
Unexpectedly, it was helpful for artillery men from Kronstadt...
Obruchev, the commanding officer of the fort, called to Reef and asked,
"What are you doing? What are you firing with?"
The artillery man replied. Then the commander requested,
"Fire again, the smoke helps me adjust my aim,
and I don't need to waste any ammunition."
Fort Reef was the last fortification to be built on Kotlin Island
and it remained in service for the longest.
Even at the beginning of the 1970s, guns were still here
and monthly artillery training was held.
Later, the fort was used as storage for ammunition and other equipment.
In 2014, the military left Fort Reef.
Wargaming would like to thank the Kronstadt Fortress Museum for all resources and support.