The Soviet Navy

[Stefan]

Major ships in service with the Soviet Navy on 22 June 1941: 3 Battleships (all from Zarist era), 8 Cruisers (4 from Zarist and 4 from Soviet era), 71 Destroyers (17 from Zarist and 54 from Soviet era).

Major ships commissioned during the war 1941-1945: 3 Cruisers, 20 Destroyers

Major ships received from USA & UK in 1944 (in lieu of the Italian ships alloted to the USSR after the Italian surrender, as those ships were only handed over after the war): 1 Battleship, 1 Cruiser, 9 Destroyers

In all: 4 Battleships, 12 Cruisers, 100 Destroyers

Those ships were distributed as follows:

Northern Fleet: 1 Battleship, 1 Cruiser, 23 Destroyers
Baltic Fleet: 2 Battleships, 3 Cruisers, 38 Destroyers
Black Sea Fleet: 1 Battleship, 6 Cruisers, 23 Destroyers
Pacific Fleet: 2 Cruisers, 16 Destroyers

Losses 1941-1945: 1 Battleship (Baltic Fleet), 2 Cruisers (both Black Sea Fleet), 36 Destroyers (3 Northern Fleet, 19 Baltic Fleet, 14 Black Sea Fleet)

Based on data from books by Siegfried Breyer and Mike J. Whitley

[Freiritter]

Danke, Stefan. What was the Charkov affair? Was that a botched Soviet effort? Why was it in the Black Sea where the Soviet Navy was the most active?

[Stefan]

On 6 October 1943, the destroyers Charkov, Besposcadnyj and Sposobnyj were sunk by german Stukas off Yalta. Because of the losses, Stalin decreed that all naval missions in which ships from destroyer size upwards were to participate would need his personal approval. Therefore, destroyers and bigger ships hardly left their ports in 1943-1945.
As the Baltic fleet was blockaded in Kronstadt 1941-1944, significant naval operations were only possible in the Black Sea in 1941-1943.

[Victor Nitu]

The Soviet subs were pretty active throughout the war in the Black Sea, as was the ChF-VVS, the fleets air arm. Here is a list of their success:
http://www.worldwar2.ro/forum/viewtopic.php?t=35

[AMVAS]

I do have rather complete listing of all soviet fleet including all 211 submarines and their history, but unfortunately I have not much time for fleet history as it's over the subject of my site (http://www.rkkaww2.armchairgeneral.com)
Some comments though.
Battleship "Parizhskaya Kommuna" ("Sevastopol") was used until the spring of 1942 on the Black Sea. Its effectiveness was rather low due to the specific of the naval operations.
Battleship "Marat" was seriosly damaged in Sept. '41 by German aviation and couldn't be called battleship after it. It became an immovable battery which took part in arillery fights until 1944
Battleship "Arkangelsk" received in 1944 didn't take part in combat operations and later was returned to Awestern allias

Baltic fleet took an active part in Leningrad defence. That time Baltic sea was almost breaked by a huge number of mine barrages. In 1943 even soviet submarines needed to stop their activity in that area.
But they got the main prize for this in 1945 when S-13 (Capt.Lt. Marinesko) in one raid sank "Wilhelm Gustlov" and "General Stoiben" vessels

It should be noticed, that Soviet fleet shoed rather high effectiveness if take into account the hard battle conditions.
Most active fleet in the war until 1943 was Black sea one. Later only submarines were used due to Stalin's order (after loosing of 3 destroyers at once)

In Nothern fleet initially there were no large ships. Only several destroyers and several dozens of submarines.

[dragos03]

Recent evidence published in a Romanian magazine shows that a Romanian torpedo-boat torpedoed the Soviet large destroyer/light cruiser Taskent in a night engagement near Odessa, during the Odessa siege.

[John Kilmartin]

Hi Freiritter,
The book Blood on the Shores by Viktor Leonov tells the story of the Soviet Naval Scouts operating in Norway. I couldn't tell anyone if everything in the book is totally factual but there is a definite propaganda slant to some of it. There is also some information on other activities of the Naval Scouts.

[Robert Rojas]

Greetings to both brother Freiritter and the community as a whole. Well Free Knight, in reference to your introductory posting of Friday - March 05, 2004 - 1:51pm, old Uncle Bob would like to recommend the following work of literature for your perusal. The literary work in question is entitled as SOVIET NAVAL OPERATIONS IN THE GREAT PATRIOTIC WAR 1941 - 1945. The authors (plural) are V.I. Achkasov and N.B. Pavlovich. The original Russian edition was published by the Military Publishing House of the Ministry of Defense of the U.S.S.R. in Moscow. The publishing year was 1973. The original Russian edition was subsequently translated into the English language under the auspices of the Naval Institute Press of Annapolis, Maryland in 1981. This particular work does, in its own biased way of course, address the various facets of your broad inquiry. I hope this literary reading suggestion is of relevant interest to your historical pursuits. ENJOY! Well, that's my initial two cents or kopecks worth on this naval topic of interest - for now anyway. In anycase, I would like to bid you a copacetic day over in the Show Me State of Missouri.

[Enrico Cernuschi]

Hello Drago,

may you give us some more details about the Tashkent - Royal Rumenian MTBs encounter?

Greeting

EC

[sid guttridge]

Hi Dragos,

Ditto. It seems inherently unlikely that this would have escaped attention for so many years. Does the Stanescu-Koslinski book mention it? Who was the author of the article?

Cheers,

Sid.

[dragos03]

I only noticed the replies to this post now.

Yes, the incident is mentioned in the Stanescu-Koslinski book, although the Soviet ship is not identified. An article in "Modelism" (I think) claims that the ship hit by the torpedo was Tashkent.

I don't have any of the sources at hand, but here is what I remember. During the Romanian siege of Odessa, the Romanian navy sent its MTBs several times to the area, in an attempt to intercept enemy ships supplying the besieged port. The incident happened during one of these missions. A MTB approaching Odessa at night suddenly found itself in the middle of a Soviet convoy, fired its torpedoes from almost point-blank range and fled. The crew heard a noise from the direction of the targeted enemy ship and the conclusion was that a torpedo probably hit it but failed to detonate because of the very close range (torpedoes needed a certain distance for the fuse to arm, or something like that).

The Soviets didn't detect the Romanian ship but their anti-aircraft guns opened fire (since the Romanian MTBs had aircraft engines, the distinctive sound made the Soviets think they were under air attack).

I hope this helps.

[Volgadon]

It should also be mentioned that the Black Sea Fleet was capable of mounting and supporting marine assaults, like Malaya Zemlya during the Novorossiysk campaign.