Soviet destroyer Leningrad

Unknown Leningrad-class destroyer in Leningrad, June 1944
History
Soviet Union
Name: Leningrad
Namesake: Leningrad
Ordered: 1st Five-Year Plan
Builder: Shipyard 190 (Zhdanov), Leningrad
Laid down: 5 November 1932
Launched: 17 November 1933
Commissioned: 5 December 1936
Fate: Sunk after being used as target ship, 1963
General characteristics (as built)
Class and type: Leningrad-class destroyer
Displacement:
Length: 127.5 m (418 ft 4 in) (o/a)
Beam: 11.7 m (38 ft 5 in)
Draught: 4.06 m (13 ft 4 in)
Installed power:
Propulsion: 3 shafts; 3 geared steam turbines
Speed: 40 knots (74 km/h; 46 mph)
Range: 2,100 nmi (3,900 km; 2,400 mi) at 20 knots (37 km/h; 23 mph)
Complement: 250 (311 wartime)
Sensors and
processing systems:		 Arktur hydrophones
Armament:

Leningrad (Russian: Ленингра́д) was the lead ship of her class of six destroyer flotilla leaders built for the Soviet Navy during the 1930s, one of the three Project 1 variants.

Design and description

Impressed by the French large destroyer (contre-torpilleur) designs such as the Vauquelin class of the early 1930s, the Soviets designed their own version. The Leningrads had an overall length of 127.5 meters (418 ft 4 in) and were 122 meters (400 ft 3 in) long at the waterline. The ships had a beam of 11.7 meters (38 ft 5 in), and a draft of 4.06 meters (13 ft 4 in) at deep load. Built in two batches, the first batch (Project 1) displaced 2,150 long tons (2,180 t) at standard load and 2,582 long tons (2,623 t) at deep load. Their crew numbered 250 officers and sailors in peacetime and 311 in wartime.[1] The ships had three geared steam turbines, each driving one propeller, designed to produce 66,000 shaft horsepower (49,000 kW) using steam from three water-tube boilers[2] which was intended to give them a maximum speed of 40 knots (74 km/h; 46 mph). The Leningrads carried enough fuel oil to give them a range of 2,100 nautical miles (3,900 km; 2,400 mi) at 20 knots (37 km/h; 23 mph).[3]

As built, the Leningrad-class ships mounted five 130-millimeter (5.1 in) B-13 guns in two pairs of superfiring single mounts fore and aft of the superstructure and another mount between the bridge and the forward funnel. The guns were protected by gun shields. Anti-aircraft defense was provided by a pair of 76.2-millimeter (3.0 in) 34-K AA guns in single mounts on the aft superstructure and a pair of 45-millimeter (1.8 in) 21-K AA guns mounted on either side of the bridge as well as four 12.7-millimeter (0.50 in) DK machine guns. They carried eight 533 mm (21.0 in) torpedo tubes in two rotating quadruple mounts; each tube was provided with a reload. The ships could also carry a maximum of either 68 or 115 mines and 52 depth charges. They were fitted with a set of Arktur hydrophones for anti-submarine detection.[3]

Modifications

In 1943, Leningrad exchanged her two 21-K mounts for four 37-millimeter (1.5 in) 70-K AA guns, a twin-gun mount for the 34-K known as the 81-K and two twin-gun mounts for ex-German 37 mm SK C/30 AA guns, although these latter guns were later replaced by a pair of 70-K guns.[4] She received a British Type 128 asdic system[5] and was fitted with a Type 291 early-warning radar and an American SF-1 radar.[4] After the war, all of the 76- and 37-millimeter guns were replaced by a dozen water-cooled V-11M versions of the 70-K gun in twin mounts. During the 1950s, the radars were replaced by Top Bow, EWS Top, Plum Jar and Ball End radars and the pole foremast was replaced by a tripod mast to support them.[5]

Construction and career

Leningrad, named after the capital of the Russian Empire,[4] was laid down on 5 November 1932 at Shipyard No. 190 (Zhdanov) in Leningrad and launched on 17 November 1933. Commissioned on 5 December 1936, she was assigned to the Red Banner Baltic Fleet.[6] After the Winter War began on 30 November, both Leningrad and her sister ship Minsk bombarded Finnish coastal defense positions on Saarenpää Island, part of the Beryozovye Islands, on 10 December and again on 30 December–3 January 1940.[7] During these missions she was badly damaged by ice and was under repair until 31 May 1941.[8] The beginning of Operation Barbarossa found Leningrad and Minsk in Tallinn, Estonia, and they were ordered to cover mine-laying operations at the entrance to the Gulf of Finland between Hanko and Osmussaar on 23 June. Both ships bombarded German positions surrounding Tallinn 23–27 August and participated in the evacuation of Tallinn to Leningrad over the next several days. On 30 August, Leningrad provided naval gunfire support to Soviet troops in the Kronstadt/Oranienbaum area from the Leningrad Sea Canal together with the heavy cruisers Maxim Gorky and Petropavlovsk and the destroyers Svirepny, Grozyashchy, Silny, Stoiki and Storozhevoi.[9] Leningrad was damaged by a nearby mine explosion on 11 November, but was able to return to Leningrad for repairs.[10] The ship was part of the third evacuation convoy from Hanko, Finland, to Leningrad from 9–12 December, but was forced to turn back by damage from nearby mine explosions.[11] She later reached Leningrad where she spent the rest of the war bombarding German troops during the Siege of Leningrad.[12]

Postwar

Leningrad continued to serve with the Baltic Fleet postwar and was reclassified as a destroyer on 12 January 1949. She was refitted and modernized between 19 December 1951 and 25 November 1954. After brief service, the destroyer was withdrawn from combat duty and reclassified as the target ship TsL-75 on 18 April 1958. In 1959 she was sent to the Northern Fleet, being assigned to it on 13 October. The former Leningrad was disarmed on 15 September 1960 and converted into a floating barracks, PKZ-16, then target ship SM-5 on 10 August 1962. She was used to test the new P-35 anti-ship cruise missiles of the guided missile cruiser Groznyy in May 1963 while anchored in the Kandalaksha Gulf, and was hit by two missiles but remained afloat with a slight list. After an unsuccessful attempt to tow her back to Severodinsk, she sank in shallow water east of the island of Sennaya Luda in the Solovetsky Islands.[13]

References

  1. ↑ Breyer, pp. 218, 220
  2. ↑ Budzbon, p. 329
  3. 1 2 Breyer, p. 220
  4. 1 2 3 Hill, p. 26
  5. 1 2 Breyer, p. 217
  6. ↑ Breyer, p. 216
  7. ↑ Rohwer, pp. 11–12
  8. ↑ Hill, p. 27
  9. ↑ Rohwer, pp. 81–82, 94–95, 97
  10. ↑ Hill, p. 28
  11. ↑ Rohwer, p. 114
  12. ↑ Hill, p. 28
  13. ↑ Kachur, pp. 131–132

Bibliography

  • Breyer, Siegfried (1992). Soviet Warship Development: Volume 1: 1917-1937. London: Conway Maritime Press. ISBN 0-85177-604-3.
  • Budzbon, Przemysaw (1980). "Soviet Union". In Chesneau, Roger. Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships 1922–1946. Greenwich, UK: Conway Maritime Press. pp. 318–346. ISBN 0-85177-146-7.
  • Hill, Alexander (2018). Soviet Destroyers of World War II. Oxford: Osprey Publishing. ISBN 978-1-4728-2256-7.
  • Kachur, Pavel (2008). "Гончие псы" Красного флота. "Ташкент", "Баку", "Ленинград" [Hounds of the Red Fleet: Tashkent, Baku, Leningrad] (in Russian). Moscow: Yauza/Eksmo. ISBN 978-5-699-31614-4.
  • Rohwer, Jürgen (2005). Chronology of the War at Sea 1939-1945: The Naval History of World War Two (Third Revised ed.). Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press. ISBN 1-59114-119-2.

Further reading

  • Whitley, M. J. (1988). Destroyers of World War 2. London: Cassell Publishing. ISBN 1-85409-521-8.
  • Yakubov, Vladimir; Worth, Richard (2008). Raising the Red Banner: A Pictorial History of Stalin's Fleet. Gloucestershire, England: Spellmount. ISBN 978-1-86227-450-1.
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