Leningrad class destroyer - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

The Leningrad-class destroyer leaders were built for the Soviet Navy

Soviet Navy

The Soviet Navy was the naval arm of the Soviet Armed Forces. Often referred to as the Red Fleet, the Soviet Navy would have played an instrumental role in a Warsaw Pact war with NATO, where it would have attempted to prevent naval convoys from bringing reinforcements across the Atlantic Ocean...

in the late 1930s. They were inspired by the contre-torpilleurs built for the French Navy

French Navy

The French Navy, officially the Marine nationale and often called La Royale is the maritime arm of the French military. It includes a full range of fighting vessels, from patrol boats to a nuclear powered aircraft carrier and 10 nuclear-powered submarines, four of which are capable of launching...

. They were ordered in two groups of three ships each, the first group was designated Project 1 and the second Project 38. These ships were the first large vessels designed and built by the Soviets after the revolution.

Both ships in the Baltic Sea

Baltic Sea

The Baltic Sea is a brackish mediterranean sea located in Northern Europe, from 53°N to 66°N latitude and from 20°E to 26°E longitude. It is bounded by the Scandinavian Peninsula, the mainland of Europe, and the Danish islands. It drains into the Kattegat by way of the Øresund, the Great Belt and...

bombarded Finnish coast defense positions during the Winter War

Winter War

The Winter War was a military conflict between the Soviet Union and Finland. It began with a Soviet offensive on 30 November 1939 – three months after the start of World War II and the Soviet invasion of Poland – and ended on 13 March 1940 with the Moscow Peace Treaty...

. During Operation Barbarossa

Operation Barbarossa

Operation Barbarossa was the code name for Germany's invasion of the Soviet Union during World War II that began on 22 June 1941. Over 4.5 million troops of the Axis powers invaded the USSR along a front., the largest invasion in the history of warfare...

they provided fire support during the German siege of Tallinn

Tallinn

Tallinn is the capital and largest city of Estonia. It occupies an area of with a population of 414,940. It is situated on the northern coast of the country, on the banks of the Gulf of Finland, south of Helsinki, east of Stockholm and west of Saint Petersburg. Tallinn's Old Town is in the list...

and escorted the convoys when it was evacuated at the end of August 1941. Again they provided fire support during the Siege of Leningrad

Siege of Leningrad

The Siege of Leningrad, also known as the Leningrad Blockade was a prolonged military operation resulting from the failure of the German Army Group North to capture Leningrad, now known as Saint Petersburg, in the Eastern Front theatre of World War II. It started on 8 September 1941, when the last...

as they were blockaded in Leningrad

Saint Petersburg

Saint Petersburg is a city and a federal subject of Russia located on the Neva River at the head of the Gulf of Finland on the Baltic Sea...

and Kronstadt

Kronstadt

Kronstadt , also spelled Kronshtadt, Cronstadt |crown]]" and Stadt for "city"); is a municipal town in Kronshtadtsky District of the federal city of St. Petersburg, Russia, located on Kotlin Island, west of Saint Petersburg proper near the head of the Gulf of Finland. Population: It is also...

by Axis minefields. Minsk was sunk by German air attack in September 1941, but was later raised and recommissioned. Neither ship did anything notable after the siege was lifted in January 1944. Moskva had a very short career in the Black Sea Fleet

Black Sea Fleet

The Black Sea Fleet is a large operational-strategic sub-unit of the Russian Navy, operating in the Black Sea and the Mediterranean Sea since the late 18th century. It is based in various harbors of the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov....

as she was sunk on 23 June 1941 by either a mine or the Soviet submarine Shch-206. Kharkov participated in most of the battles on the Black Sea coast, but was sunk by Stukas in October 1943 as she returned from a bombardment mission. Baku began the war in the Pacific, but was transferred to the Soviet Northern Fleet via the Northern Sea Route

Northern Sea Route

The Northern Sea Route is a shipping lane officially defined by Russian legislation from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean specifically running along the Russian Arctic coast from Murmansk on the Barents Sea, along Siberia, to the Bering Strait and Far East. The entire route lies in Arctic...

between 15 July and 14 October 1942, where she spent the rest of the war escorting Arctic convoy

Arctic convoys of World War II

The Arctic convoys of World War II travelled from the United Kingdom and North America to the northern ports of the Soviet Union—Arkhangelsk and Murmansk. There were 78 convoys between August 1941 and May 1945...

s and attempting to intercept German convoys to their ports on the Arctic Ocean

Arctic Ocean

The Arctic Ocean, located in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Arctic north polar region, is the smallest and shallowest of the world's five major oceanic divisions...

. Tblisi had little to do until after the Soviet invasion of Manchuria when she transported elements of the 358th Naval Rifle Battalion to the Korean port of Rason on 12 August 1945.

Not much is known of the details of their post-war careers. Most underwent a lengthy modernization in the early 1950s

1950s

The 1950s or The Fifties was the decade that began on January 1, 1950 and ended on December 31, 1959. The decade was the sixth decade of the 20th century...

before being relegated to roles as training or target ships in the late 1950s. They were scrapped or expended as targets in the early 1960s.

Design

Ordered under the First Five-Year Plan

First Five-Year Plan

The First Five-Year Plan, or 1st Five-Year Plan, of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics was a list of economic goals that was designed to strengthen the country's economy between 1928 and 1932, making the nation both militarily and industrially self-sufficient. "We are fifty or a hundred...

the three Project 1 destroyer leaders were intended to lead flotillas of destroyers in combat. Rather than copy the British concept of a slightly enlarged version of the standard destroyer like was for the A class destroyer

A class destroyer

The A class was a flotilla of eight destroyers built for the Royal Navy as part of the 1927 naval programme. A ninth ship, Codrington, was built to an enlarged design to act as the flotilla leader...

s, the Soviets chose to copy the French contre-torpilleurs like the , a series of very large and very fast destroyers that weren't intended to cooperate with other, slower destroyers. When the Leningrads were being designed the only destroyers in service for them to lead were old, ex-Tsarist ones that were only capable of 30 kn (36.5 mph; 58.8 km/h), but they were designed for 40 kn (48.7 mph; 78.4 km/h). These ships were the largest yet built from the keel up by Soviet shipbuilders and were plagued with delays and design issues as the Soviets were overambitious for their level of experience, having only previously built the s, only one-third the size of the Leningrads.

The three Project 38 ships were ordered under the Second Five-Year Plan and were slightly larger than their Project 1 half-sisters, but otherwise identical.

General characteristics

The three Project 1 ships were 127.5 m (418.3 ft) long overall. They had a beam

Beam (nautical)

The beam of a ship is its width at the widest point. Generally speaking, the wider the beam of a ship , the more initial stability it has, at expense of reserve stability in the event of a capsize, where more energy is required to right the vessel from its inverted position...

of 11.7 m (38.4 ft) and a maximum forward draft of 4.06 m (13.3 ft) and a rear draft of 3.76 m (12.3 ft). They displaced 2150 long tons (2,184.5 MT) at standard load, and 2582 long tons (2,623.4 MT) at full load. The Project 38 ships displaced 2350 long tons (2,387.7 MT) at standard load, and 2680 long tons (2,723 MT) at full load; between 100–200 LT (101.6–203.2 MT) more than their half-sisters. Their massive bridge structure made them both top-heavy and poor seaboats because of the concentration of weight forward.

Armament

As a result of experience in the First World War these ships were designed to use five of the new 130 mm (5.1 in) 50-caliber B-13 guns

130 mm/50 B13 Pattern 1936

The 130 mm/50 B13 Pattern 1936 was a 50 caliber Soviet Union naval gun. The gun was used as a standard destroyer weapon during World War II, and it was also used as a coastal gun and railway gun. The gun was produced in three different versions which all had mutually incompatible ammunition and...

then under development in single mounts; two forward, two aft and the fifth gun between the bridge and the forward funnel. It was intended as a replacement for the Tsarist-era 130 mm 55-caliber gun, but with a shorter barrel suitable for use in destroyers. More propellant was used in the B-13 to duplicate the ballistics of the older weapon, but this caused severe erosion problems with the barrel, so much so that the first versions had an expected barrel life of only 130 rounds, less than the ammunition carried for each gun on the Leningrads. The solution proved to be the use of deeper grooves in the barrel, but this greatly complicated the logistical situation as liners with two different depths of grooves were produced, each with their own mutually-incompatible ammunition. Determining the solution proved to be a long and difficult process and the first guns weren't delivered until 1936, three years after the Project 1 ships were launched. The gun could be depressed to −5° and elevated to 45° at a rate of 5° per second. Traverse was about 300°, but this was limited by the gun's location on the ship. Traverse speed was 5° per second. They fired 33.5 kilograms (73.9 lb) semi-armor-piercing

Armor-piercing shot and shell

An armor-piercing shell is a type of ammunition designed to penetrate armor. From the 1860s to 1950s, a major application of armor-piercing projectiles was to defeat the thick armor carried on many warships. From the 1920s onwards, armor-piercing weapons were required for anti-tank missions...

projectiles at a muzzle velocity

Muzzle velocity

Muzzle velocity is the speed a projectile has at the moment it leaves the muzzle of the gun. Muzzle velocities range from approximately to in black powder muskets , to more than in modern rifles with high-performance cartridges such as the .220 Swift and .204 Ruger, all the way to for tank guns...

of 870 m/s (2,854.3 ft/s) to a maximum range of around 25600 m (27,996.5 yd), depending on ammunition and liner type. An individual gun weighed 5.07 tonne, but an entire mount weighed 4.9 tonne. Their rate of fire was 6–10 rounds per minute and 150 rounds were stowed aboard for each gun.

A pair of 76.2 mm (3 in) 34-K anti-aircraft

Anti-aircraft warfare

NATO defines air defence as "all measures designed to nullify or reduce the effectiveness of hostile air action." They include ground and air based weapon systems, associated sensor systems, command and control arrangements and passive measures. It may be to protect naval, ground and air forces...

guns were mounted on the rear deckhouse. Manually worked, they could depress 5° and elevate to 85° with an elevation speed of 8° per second. They had 360° of traverse and a traverse speed of 12° per second. They fired an 11.5 kilograms (25.4 lb) time-fuzed projectile at a muzzle velocity

Muzzle velocity

of 810 m/s (2,657.5 ft/s) to a maximum range of around 89700 m (98,097.1 yd), although maximum effective range was considerably shorter at 6500 m (7,108.5 yd). An individual gun weighed 1263 kg (2,784.4 lb), but an entire mount weighed 12 tonne. The rate of fire was about 15–18 rounds per minute.

Light AA guns initially consisted of two semi-automatic 45 mm (1.8 in) 21-K

45 mm anti-aircraft gun (21-K)

The 45 mm anti-aircraft gun was a Soviet design adapted from the 45 mm anti-tank gun M1937 . This was a copy of a German weapon designed by Rheinmetall that was sold to the Soviets before Hitler came to power in 1933 that had been enlarged to in increase its penetrating power...

AA guns mounted on either side of the bridge. These were hand-loaded, semi-automatic guns that had been adapted from the 45 mm anti-tank gun M1937 (53-K) and consequently lacked time-fuzed ammunition, which meant that only a direct hit would detonate the rounds. On the surviving ships these were supplemented during the war, and perhaps replaced, by six to ten fully automatic 37 mm (1.5 in) 70-K AA guns and two to eight DK

DShK

The DShK 1938 is a Soviet heavy machine gun firing the 12.7x108mm cartridge. The weapon was also used as a heavy infantry machine gun, in which case it was frequently deployed with a two-wheeled mounting and a single-sheet armour-plate shield...

12.7 mm (0.5 in) machine guns. Some ships landed their middle 130 mm gun in exchange for more light AA guns. Photographic evidence shows that some ships received Lend-Lease

Lend-Lease

Lend-Lease was the program under which the United States of America supplied the United Kingdom, the Soviet Union, China, Free France, and other Allied nations with materiel between 1941 and 1945. It was signed into law on March 11, 1941, a year and a half after the outbreak of war in Europe in...

, water-cooled 0.5 in (1.3 cm) Browning M-2 AA machine guns.

They were the first Soviet ships to mount quadruple torpedo tubes, one 533 mm (21 in) launcher between the funnels and the other aft of the rear funnel. Sources disagree if any reload torpedoes were carried. The Leningrads were given a square stern with ramps to facilitate mine-laying. They could carry 68 Model KB, 84 Model 1926 or 115 Model 1912 mines. Although no sonar

Sonar

Sonar is a technique that uses sound propagation to navigate, communicate with or detect other vessels...

was initially fitted, just the Arktur hydrophone

Hydrophone

A hydrophone is a microphone designed to be used underwater for recording or listening to underwater sound. Most hydrophones are based on a piezoelectric transducer that generates electricity when subjected to a pressure change...

system that was useless at speeds above three knots, they carried 20 B-1 and 32 Model 1931 depth charge

Depth charge

A depth charge is an anti-submarine warfare weapon intended to destroy or cripple a target submarine by the shock of exploding near it. Most use explosives and a fuze set to go off at a preselected depth in the ocean. Depth charges can be dropped by either surface ships, patrol aircraft, or from...

s. At some point during the war Baku, Minsk, Leningrad and Tblisi were fitted with British Lend-Lease ASDIC (sonar), Type 285 fire control radar

Radar

Radar is an object-detection system which uses radio waves to determine the range, altitude, direction, or speed of objects. It can be used to detect aircraft, ships, spacecraft, guided missiles, motor vehicles, weather formations, and terrain. The radar dish or antenna transmits pulses of radio...

s and American SG air search radars.

Propulsion

The Leningrads had three shafts, which necessitated laying out the boilers and machinery on the "unit" principle which had the advantage that one hit couldn't disable all of the boilers or engines and immobilize the ship. Two boiler rooms, each with one triple drum, water-tube boiler

Water-tube boiler

A water tube boiler is a type of boiler in which water circulates in tubes heated externally by the fire. Fuel is burned inside the furnace, creating hot gas which heats water in the steam-generating tubes...

, were sited beneath the forward funnel. Immediately aft of them were two machinery rooms, each with one 22000 shp geared steam turbine

Steam turbine

A steam turbine is a mechanical device that extracts thermal energy from pressurized steam, and converts it into rotary motion. Its modern manifestation was invented by Sir Charles Parsons in 1884....

for the two flank shafts. The third boiler room was near the rear funnel and its turbine room was just aft, powering the central shaft.

The ships proved to be as fast as required reaching 40 kn (48.7 mph; 78.4 km/h). 210 long tons (213.4 MT) of fuel oil

Fuel oil

Fuel oil is a fraction obtained from petroleum distillation, either as a distillate or a residue. Broadly speaking, fuel oil is any liquid petroleum product that is burned in a furnace or boiler for the generation of heat or used in an engine for the generation of power, except oils having a flash...

were normally carried, but this could be increased to 600 long tons (609.6 MT) at full load. This gave a range of 2100 nmi (3,889.2 km) at 20 kn (24.4 mph; 39.2 km/h). One problem that evidenced itself during the war was that the boiler foundations were vulnerable to shock damage.

Construction

Building times for these ships was absurdly long, not least due to mismanagement. Many delays were caused by the armament and the turbines, neither of which was ready for production when Leningrad was laid-down. The new turbines entered production after the Leningrad was launched, but the new guns which didn't even enter into production until three years after that. Additional problems were caused by the large numbers of defective parts, some items reaching a 90% rejection rate. Unusually for Soviet ships of the interwar period, the Leningrads were not overweight.

Both Baku and Tblisi were assembled at Komsomolsk-on-Amur from parts provided by the shipyard at Nikolayev.

Ships

All ships were named after cities.

Ship	Builder	Laid down	Launched	Commissioned	Fate
Project 1
Leningrad	Zhdanov Severnaya Verf Severnaya Verf is a shipyard in Saint Petersburg and major shipyard producing both naval and civilian ships. Originally was founded exclusively for military shipbuilding.... , Leningrad Saint Petersburg Saint Petersburg is a city and a federal subject of Russia located on the Neva River at the head of the Gulf of Finland on the Baltic Sea...	5 November 1932	17 November 1933	5 December 1936	Sunk as a missile target May 1963
Kharkov	Marti South Black Sea Shipyard The Black Sea Shipyard is located in Mykolaiv, Ukraine and is the largest shipyard with near direct access to the Black Sea. It is most often referred to as the Nikolayev South Shipyard and was known as Soviet Shipyard No... , Nikolayev Mykolaiv Mykolaiv , also known as Nikolayev , is a city in southern Ukraine, administrative center of the Mykolaiv Oblast. Mykolaiv is the main ship building center of the Black Sea, and, arguably, the whole Eastern Europe.-Name of city:...	19 October 1932	9 September 1934	19 November 1938	Sunk by bombing off the coast of the Crimea Crimea Crimea , or the Autonomous Republic of Crimea , is a sub-national unit, an autonomous republic, of Ukraine. It is located on the northern coast of the Black Sea, occupying a peninsula of the same name... 6 October 1943
Moskva	Marti South, Nikolayev	29 October 1932	1934	10 August 1938	Sunk by mine or submarine on 26 June 1941, near Constanţa Constanta Constanța is the oldest extant city in Romania, founded around 600 BC. The city is located in the Dobruja region of Romania, on the Black Sea coast. It is the capital of Constanța County and the largest city in the region.... , Romania Romania Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeastern Europe, on the Lower Danube, within and outside the Carpathian arch, bordering on the Black Sea...
Project 38
Minsk	Zhdanov, Leningrad	5 October 1934	6 November 1935	15 February 1939	Sunk in Kronstadt Kronstadt Kronstadt , also spelled Kronshtadt, Cronstadt \|crown]]" and Stadt for "city"); is a municipal town in Kronshtadtsky District of the federal city of St. Petersburg, Russia, located on Kotlin Island, west of Saint Petersburg proper near the head of the Gulf of Finland. Population: It is also... harbour 23 September 1941, but salvaged. Sunk as a missile target 1958
Tbilisi	Dalzavod, Komsomolsk-on-Amur Komsomolsk-on-Amur Komsomolsk-on-Amur is a city in Khabarovsk Krai, Russia, situated on the left bank of Amur River. It is located on the BAM railway line, northeast of Khabarovsk. Population: -Geography and climate:...	15 January 1935	24 July 1939	11 December 1940	Sold for scrap 31 January 1964
Baku	Dalzavod, Komsomolsk-on-Amur	15 January 1935	10 March 1936	25 July 1938	Sold for scrap 30 July 1964

Baltic Fleet

Leningrad was commissioned into the Baltic Fleet

Baltic Fleet

The Twice Red Banner Baltic Fleet - is the Russian Navy's presence in the Baltic Sea. In previous historical periods, it has been part of the navy of Imperial Russia and later the Soviet Union. The Fleet gained the 'Twice Red Banner' appellation during the Soviet period, indicating two awards of...

in December 1936, but one source claims that she was still being worked on until July 1938. Minsk was commissioned in early 1939. She sailed to Tallinn

Tallinn

on 22 October 1940 when the Soviet Union began to occupy Estonia

Estonia

Estonia , officially the Republic of Estonia , is a state in the Baltic region of Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland, to the west by the Baltic Sea, to the south by Latvia , and to the east by Lake Peipsi and the Russian Federation . Across the Baltic Sea lies...

. After the Winter War

Winter War

broke out both ships bombarded Finnish coastal defense positions on Saarenpää Island, part of the Beryozovye Islands

Beryozovye Islands

Beryozovye Islands , alternatively spelled Berezovye Islands, is an island group in Leningrad Oblast, Russia. The islands are situated at the bottom of the Gulf of Finland, just outside the town of Primorsk on the Karelian Isthmus....

on 10 December 1939 and again on 30 December–3 January 1940. In addition Minsk bombarded them on 18–19 December as well. The beginning of Operation Barbarossa

Operation Barbarossa

found Leningrad and Minsk in Tallinn and they were ordered to cover mine-laying operations at the entrance to the Gulf of Finland

Gulf of Finland

The Gulf of Finland is the easternmost arm of the Baltic Sea. It extends between Finland and Estonia all the way to Saint Petersburg in Russia, where the river Neva drains into it. Other major cities around the gulf include Helsinki and Tallinn...

between Hanko and Osmussaar

Osmussaar

Osmussaar is an Estonian island situated in the mouth of the Gulf of Finland in the Baltic Sea, 7.5 km off the Estonian mainland. Administratively the island is part of Noarootsi Parish in Lääne County. Its area is ....

on 23 June. Both ships bombarded German positions surrounding Tallinn 23–27 August and participated in the evacuation of Tallinn from Tallinn to Leningrad

Saint Petersburg

Saint Petersburg is a city and a federal subject of Russia located on the Neva River at the head of the Gulf of Finland on the Baltic Sea...

at the end of August 1941. Minsk was sunk in Kronstadt

Kronstadt

harbor by Junkers Ju 87

Junkers Ju 87

The Junkers Ju 87 or Stuka was a two-man German ground-attack aircraft...

dive-bombers of StG 2

Sturzkampfgeschwader 2

Sturzkampfgeschwader 2 Immelmann was a Luftwaffe Dive bomber-wing of World War II. It was named after Max Immelmann in 1939.The unit was originally formed as Fliegergruppe Schwerin in 1934; the first Stuka wing of its type, attaining the sobriquet 'Immelmann' in 1935...

on 23 September. She was later salvaged and recommissioned on 22 June 1943. Leningrad was part of the third evacuation convoy from Hanko to Leningrad from 9–12 December, but was forced to turn back by damage from nearby mine explosions. For most of the rest of the war both destroyers were blockaded in Leningrad and Kronstadt by Axis minefields and could only provide gunfire support for the defenders during the Siege of Leningrad

Siege of Leningrad

Black Sea Fleet

Moskva was commissioned in 1938 and twice made port visits in Turkey before Operation Barbarossa

Operation Barbarossa

began on 22 June 1941. Both ships bombarded the Romania port of Constanţa

Constanta

Constanța is the oldest extant city in Romania, founded around 600 BC. The city is located in the Dobruja region of Romania, on the Black Sea coast. It is the capital of Constanța County and the largest city in the region....

with a total of 350 rounds on 26 June, but Moskva either struck a mine or was torpedoed in a case of mistaken identity by the Soviet submarine Shch-206 which also attacked, but missed, Kharkov which had been damaged by near-misses from 28 cm (11 in) shells from the German coast defense battery Tirpitz and bombs from Romanian aircraft. Shch-206 was sunk in retaliation by destroyers summoned to escort Kharkov back to Sevastopol.

Kharkov was repaired by 18 July and covered the retreat of Soviet Danube Flotilla to Odessa

Odessa

Odessa or Odesa is the administrative center of the Odessa Oblast located in southern Ukraine. The city is a major seaport located on the northwest shore of the Black Sea and the fourth largest city in Ukraine with a population of 1,029,000 .The predecessor of Odessa, a small Tatar settlement,...

during the next several days. She bombarded Axis positions a number of times during the Siege of Odessa as well as escorting the evacuation convoys from Odessa to Sevastopol in October. During the Siege of Sevastopol she provided gunfire support and evacuated cut-off troops from elsewhere in the Crimea into Sevastopol and brought in reinforcements from Caucasian ports. She helped to transport the 388th Rifle Division from Novorossisk and Tuapse

Tuapse

Tuapse is a town in Krasnodar Krai, Russia, situated on the northeast shore of the Black Sea, south of Gelendzhik and north of Sochi. It serves as the administrative center of Tuapsinsky District, although administratively it is separate from it...

to Sevastopol between 7–13 December, the 79th Naval Rifle Brigade on 19–20 December and the 354th Rifle Division between 21–22 December, bombarding German positions in the interim. Between February and July 1942 she bombarded German troops on multiple times and brought in reinforcements and supplies for Sevastopol, evacuating wounded and refugees as she returned to port. She bombarded Axis positions near Feodosiya on 2–3 August and provided fire support for the defenders of Novorossiysk on 1–4 September. Between 8–11 September she ferried the 137th and 145th Rifle Regiments along with the 3rd Naval Rifle Brigade from Poti

Poti

Poti is a port city in Georgia, located on the eastern Black Sea coast in the region of Samegrelo-Zemo Svaneti in the west of the country. Built near the site of the ancient Greek colony of Phasis, the city has become a major port city and industrial center since the early 20th century. It is also...

to Tuapse and Gelendzhik

Gelendzhik

Gelendzhik is a resort town in Krasnodar Krai, Russia, situated on the Gelendzhik Bay of the Black Sea, between Novorossiysk and Tuapse . Greater Gelendzhik sprawls for along the coastline and covers an area of 122,754 ha...

and a month later she transported 12,600 men of the 8th, 9th and 10th Guards Infantry Brigades from Poti to Tuapse to reinforce the defenses there between 20 and 23 October. On 29 November 1942 she escorted the cruiser Voroshilov

Soviet cruiser Voroshilov

Voroshilov was a Project 26 of the Soviet Navy that served during World War II and into the Cold War. She bombarded German troops during the Siege of Odessa before being badly damaged in November 1941 by German bombers...

on a mission to bombard Axis positions on Feodonisi

Snake Island (Black Sea)

Snake Island, also known as Serpent Island, , is a Ukrainian island located in the Black Sea near the Danube Delta.The island is populated. A rural settlement of Bile was established in February 2007, which is part of the Vylkove city, Kiliya Raion, Odessa Oblast...

and bombarded Yalta during the night of 19–20 December. On the night of 4 February 1943 the Soviets made a series of amphibious landings to the west of Novorossiysk, behind German lines. Kharkov, two cruisers, and two other destroyers provided fire support for the main landing, but the Soviet troops there were wiped out by 6 February, although one secondary landing was successful. She bombarded German positions near Novorossiysk again on the night of 21–22 February. Anapa

Anapa

Anapa is a town in Krasnodar Krai, Russia, located on the northern coast of the Black Sea near the Sea of Azov. It was originally a seaport for the Natkhuay tribe of the Adyghe people. Population: The town boasts a number of sanatoria and hotels...

was bombarded on the night of 13–14 May and Feodosiya on 22–23 May. During the night of 5–6 October 1943 Kharkov and the destroyers Besposhchadny and Sposobny bombarded Yalta, Alushta

Alushta

Alushta is a resort town in Crimea, Ukraine, founded in the 6th century by Emperor Justinian. It is situated on the Black Sea on the road from Gurzuf to Sudak, as well as on the Crimean Trolleybus line....

and Feodosiya and were spotted on their return voyage and attacked by Stuka

Junkers Ju 87

The Junkers Ju 87 or Stuka was a two-man German ground-attack aircraft...

s of III./StG 3. Kharkov was damaged by their first attack and had to be towed by Sposobny. The second attack damaged all three ships and Sposobny took Besposhchadny under tow as well. The next attack sank both Kharkov and Besposhchadny. Sposobny was sunk by the fourth wave while trying to rescue survivors. This incident prompted Stalin

Joseph Stalin

Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin was the Premier of the Soviet Union from 6 May 1941 to 5 March 1953. He was among the Bolshevik revolutionaries who brought about the October Revolution and had held the position of first General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union's Central Committee...

to issue an order forbidding the use of ships destroyer-sized and larger without his express permission.

Pacific Fleet

Baku began the war in the Pacific, but was transferred to the Soviet Northern Fleet via the Northern Sea Route

Northern Sea Route

between 15 July and 14 October 1942, where she spent the rest of the war escorting Arctic convoy

Arctic convoys of World War II

s, attempting to intercept German convoys enroute to their ports on the Arctic Ocean

Arctic Ocean

The Arctic Ocean, located in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Arctic north polar region, is the smallest and shallowest of the world's five major oceanic divisions...

and providing gunfire support for Soviet operations. Tblisi had little to do until the Soviet invasion of Manchuria when she transported elements of the 358th Naval Rifle Battalion to the Korean port of Rason on 12 August 1945.

Postwar

Little is known of their post-war careers, other than that most underwent a lengthy modernization in the early 1950s

1950s

The 1950s or The Fifties was the decade that began on January 1, 1950 and ended on December 31, 1959. The decade was the sixth decade of the 20th century...

. Minsk wasn't modernized, but rather redesignated as a training ship in 1951 and assigned to the Dzerzhinsky Higher Naval Engineering College. By the late 1950s most were being converted to target ships and other auxiliary roles before being scrapped or expended as targets in the early 1960s

1960s

The 1960s was the decade that started on January 1, 1960, and ended on December 31, 1969. It was the seventh decade of the 20th century.The 1960s term also refers to an era more often called The Sixties, denoting the complex of inter-related cultural and political trends across the globe...

External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.