Defense plays a critical role in combat. And the main rule of its effectiveness is expediency in certain military and historical conditions. So, for example, fortified areas on land, which were impenetrable for centuries, after the First World War were no longer relevant - therefore, the Maginot and Siegfried lines, despite the impressive size and power of the weapons, could not hold back the onslaught of the enemy in World War II war. But with port inclusions, everything is different: they remained effective, and a vivid example of this is the Voroshilov battery on the Russian island, which made the Japanese army fearful.
Unlike land fortified areas, port tower batteries remain effective and relevant - hard positions on the coast are the main guarantee of high-quality defense. Therefore, after the First World War in the newly formed Soviet Union, they almost immediately began to modernize old and build new fortified areas near ports.
The Far East was especially in need of such a renovation: in the tsarist era, Vladivostok was the only major port, and its fortifications fell into decay by the early 1920s. In addition, when the USSR started a war in Manchuria in 1932, the need for a new line of fortifications became especially acute. Russky Island was chosen as the second point for creating a fortified battery.
Coastal tower battery # 981, named "Voroshilovskaya", was completed in 1934. The shooting practice took place in the presence of the commander of the Far Eastern Army, Blucher and other military officials. In addition to armament, until 1941, four target designation posts were rebuilt for the horizontal base rangefinder, for the most accurate and quick determination of the coordinates of enemy ships.
In the location and armament of the Voroshilov battery, engineers used several constructive tricks and camouflage measures at once. So, the fortifications were located on a hill, the relief of which did not allow to see the flashes of working guns from the coast, and also complicated enemy reconnaissance from the air. In addition, during the shelling, the battery commander could detonate explosives located at different points of the latter in order to confuse the aircraft correctors.
Even... the weather was "used" as an additional camouflage. The fact is that the island's relief often allowed the oncoming fog to hide the battery's firing positions from enemy spotters. But the command post was located just on a hill, from where the approaches to the island from the sea were perfectly visible.
The battery's armament consisted of 12-inch (305 mm) turret guns, as well as mobile railway guns, three of which had a caliber of 356 mm, three - 305 mm. This decision was not accidental: the engineers rightly believed that stationary batteries could be fired upon and destroyed, and for this, weapons on wheels were provided.
Calculation of the battery - 399 people, on each tower - 75 people. And its defenses turned out to be such that any ship that comes closer than 34 kilometers to the island Russian, became a potential target of turret guns - that is, the passage to the Amur and Ussuri straits was reliable protected. However, there was also a drawback in the battery's operation: its guns, unlike the Sevastopol ones, were not intended to defend the city from an attack from land.
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However, the Voroshilov battery did not manage to make war: by the time the Great Patriotic War began, the USSR and Japan had already managed to conclude a peace, the conditions of which the latter regularly fulfilled. There were several reasons: first, it was frankly not profitable for the Japanese to deploy a second front and fight the Soviet Union and America at the same time.
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And the second reason can rightly be considered... the Voroshilov battery itself, because even if Japan wanted to try to seize Vladivostok, she simply could not break the defensive line, and the well-chosen terrain does not allow landing troops without the danger of being fired upon.
Despite the fact that hostilities with the participation of the power of the Voroshilov battery were not foreseen, it continued to be regularly modernized and maintained in a combat-ready state. Only in 1997 it was withdrawn from the Russian Armed Forces due to its "moral obsolescence". Today the former fortified area is a branch of the Military-Historical Museum of the Pacific Fleet "Voroshilovskaya Battery".
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A source: https://novate.ru/blogs/150520/54534/