740.0011 EW/6–545
The Department of State to the Embassy of the Soviet Union 29
Aide-Mémoire
Reference is made to the Embassy’s aide-mémoire of June 5, 1945 which contained the charge that anti-aircraft and machine gun fire from the American transports Stevenson Taylor, Albert C. Ritchie, Benjamin Hill, and the English vessel Lapland, set fire to several aerial defense balloons in the harbor of Murmansk on May 9, 1945; wounded several persons, one of them fatally; and caused damage to nearby property. It is noted that this charge was based on the declarations of a commission of experts and the interrogation of a series of witnesses.
The contents of the aide-mémoire under reference were transmitted to the Navy Department and the War Shipping Administration, both of which promptly initiated an appropriate investigation. The findings of these investigations fail to substantiate the allegations made in the Embassy’s aide-mémoire. It appears that the American vessels named were expressly requested by Captain Dushin of the Soviet Port authorities to participate in the extensive celebration of V–E Day being carried out that day by Russian ships and shore batteries in the Murmansk area, and that they did so in a carefully controlled manner for a period of approximately twenty minutes (between 12:30 and 12:50 p.m.). Two of the balloons were observed to fall in flames before the firing by American vessels commenced. The Albert C. Ritchie fired no guns at all and limited its contribution to blowing a V–E signal on the ship’s whistle, Captain Dushin himself being on [Page 874] board at the time. The other two American vessels fired anti-aircraft guns and machine guns on carefully selected, safe bearings over the water of Kola Inlet for a period of twenty minutes. It is entirely clear that no damage was caused by American fire.
With regard to the commission of experts and the interrogation of witnesses mentioned in the Embassy’s aide-mémoire, the Department of State has been informed that, although the three American vessels remained in Murmansk for several days following May 9, no request was made by the Soviet Port authorities to question any persons aboard the American vessels referred to: and that these authorities were completely non-cooperative with respect to the efforts of the United States Naval Attaché there to ascertain the facts in the matter.
It is noted that the Embassy’s aide-mémoire expresses the belief that the American authorities will hold the guilty responsible and reimburse the damage caused, the size of which is to be submitted later. On the basis of the investigations outlined above, and particularly in view of the heavy volume of fire from Soviet ships and shore batteries throughout the entire day, the United States Government finds no evidence to substantiate the charge that the American vessels named above caused the alleged damage and personal injury, and can accept no responsibility whatever therefor.
[For the declaration of war by the Soviet Union on Japan, see memorandum by the Acting Secretary of State, August 8, volume VI, section under Japan entitled “Surrender of Japan …”, Part I; see also Foreign Relations, The Conference of Berlin (The Potsdam Conference), 1945, volume II, page 1474, footnote 1.]
- Text of this aide-mémoire was sent to the American Embassy in Moscow in telegram 1908, August 24, 1945, 6 p.m.↩