18 June 1942 · Day 362 of 1418

A pipeline under the water

Lake Ladoga

the length of the pipeline

≈ 30 km

the length of the pipeline

of it laid right on the lake bed

≈ 21 km

of it laid right on the lake bed

In summer the ice melted and the Road of Life became a water route. So engineers and divers laid a pipeline about 30 km long along the bottom of Lake Ladoga in just six weeks. In June 1942 it began carrying fuel to the city and the front.

The pipes were welded on the shore, pressure-tested and lowered to the bottom, and divers checked every metre. They worked under shelling: the enemy was only a few kilometres away. The pipeline was hidden so well under water that the enemy never found it.

In the autumn an electric cable, the “cable of life”, was also laid along the bed of Ladoga. Power from the Volkhov hydroelectric station reached the city, and lights came on again in people's homes.