Soviet destroyer Minsk

Unknown Leningrad-class destroyer in Leningrad, June 1944
History
Soviet Union
Name: Minsk
Namesake: Minsk
Ordered: 2nd Five-Year Plan
Builder: Shipyard No. 190 (Zhandov), Leningrad
Laid down: 5 October 1934
Launched: 6 November 1935
Commissioned: 10 November 1938
Reclassified: As target ship, 1958
Fate: Sunk as target, 1958
General characteristics (as built)
Class and type: Leningrad-class destroyer leader
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:

Minsk (Russian: Минск) was one of six Leningrad-class destroyer leaders built for the Soviet Navy during the 1930s, one of the three Project 38 variants. Completed in 1939, the ship played a minor role in the Winter War against Finland in 1939–1940.

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 second batch (Project 38) displaced 2,350 long tons (2,390 t) at standard load and 2,680 long tons (2,720 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 six 12.7-millimeter (0.50 in) DShK 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 work.[3]

Modifications

During the war, Minsk exchanged her two 21-K mounts for six 37-millimeter (1.5 in) 70-K AA guns.[4] She received a British Type 128 asdic system[5] and was fitted with a Type 291 early-warning 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

Minsk, named after the capital of Belorussia,[4] was laid down on 5 October 1934 at Shipyard No. 190 (Zhdanov) in Leningrad and launched on 6 November 1935. Commissioned on 10 November 1938,[6] she was assigned to the Red Banner Baltic Fleet in February 1939.[7] She sailed to Tallinn on 22 October when the Soviet Union began to occupy Estonia. After the Winter War began on 30 November, both Minsk and her sister ship Leningrad bombarded Finnish coastal defense positions on Saarenpää Island, part of the Beryozovye Islands, on 10 December and again on 30 December–3 January 1940; Minsk bombarded them by herself on 18–19 December as well.[8] She was badly damaged by a storm in September and under repair until 17 June 1941.[9]

The beginning of Operation Barbarossa five days later found Leningrad and Minsk in Tallinn 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 on 23–27 August; Minsk being damaged on the 27th by a near-by mine detonation. Regardless, the sisters participated in the evacuation of Tallinn to Leningrad over the next several days. On 30 August, Minsk provided naval gunfire support to Soviet troops in the Kronstadt/Oranienbaum area together with the battleships Oktyabrskaya Revolutsiya and Marat, the heavy cruiser Kirov and the destroyers Steregushchy, Smetlivy, Gordy, Slavnyy and Surovy and the gunboat Volga. Minsk was sunk in Kronstadt harbor by Junkers Ju 87 dive-bombers of StG 2 on 23 September.[10] She was refloated in August 1942, repaired at Shipyard No. 190 and returned to service on 5 November, although the ship did not resume operations until 22 June 1943,[7] or 28 August 1944.[11]

She continued to serve with the Baltic Fleet postwar and on 12 January 1949 was reclassified as a destroyer like her surviving sister ships. Minsk was converted into a training ship of the Dzerzhinsky Higher Naval Engineering School in Leningrad on 31 July 1951. She was reclassified an unpowered training ship on 8 April 1953, being renamed Chorokh on 13 December 1954, then UTS-14 on 27 December 1956. The vessel was struck on 3 April 1958, turned into a floating target on 22 April, and sunk later that year during testing of new missiles in the Gulf of Finland near the island of Maly Tyuters.[12]

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. ↑ Kachur, pp. 23–24, 30
  7. 1 2 Breyer, p. 216
  8. ↑ Rohwer, pp. 7, 11–12
  9. ↑ Hill, p. 27
  10. ↑ Rohwer, pp. 81–82, 94–95, 97, 102
  11. ↑ Hill, p. 28
  12. ↑ Kachur, p. 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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