Dreadnought Battleships: Gangut Class
Posted: Wed Dec 12, 2018 11:31 pm
Soviet,Gangut Class Dreadnought Battleship Marat (Ex Petropavlovsk) pictured at the 1937 Spithead Fleet Review.
She was the third of the four Gangut-Class Dreadnoughts, built at Baltic Works Shipyards, Saint Petersburg.She was completed during the winter of 1914–1915, but was not ready for combat until mid-1915. Her role was to defend the mouth of the Gulf of Finland against the Germans, who never tried to enter, so she spent her time training and providing cover for Minelaying operations. Her crew joined the general mutiny of the Baltic Fleet after the February Revolution of 1917 and she was the only Dreadnought available to the Bolsheviks for several years after the October Revolution of 1917. She bombarded the mutinous garrison of Fort Krasnaya Gorka and supported Bolshevik light forces operating against British ships supporting the White Russians in the Gulf of Finland in 1918–19. Later, her crew joined the Kronstadt Rebellion of 1921 and she was renamed Marat after the rebellion was crushed.
Marat was reconstructed from 1928 to 1931 and two years later, she bombarded a Finnish coastal artillery position during the Winter War once before the Gulf of Finland iced up. Shortly afterwards, her anti-aircraft armament was upgraded. When the Germans invaded on June 22nd 1941 she was in Kronstadt and provided gunfire support to Soviet troops in September as the Germans approached Leningrad. Later that month she had her bow blown off and sank in shallow water after two hits by 2,200 lb bombs (dropped from a Ju 87 Stuka, piloted by Hans Ulrich Rudel) that detonated her forward magazine. She was refloated several months later and became a Stationary Battery, providing gunfire support during the Siege of Leningrad. Plans were made to reconstruct her after the war, using the bow of her sister Frunze, but they were not accepted and were formally cancelled in 1948. She was renamed Volkhov, after the nearby river, in 1950 and served as a Stationary Training Ship until stricken in 1953 and broken up afterwards.
She was the third of the four Gangut-Class Dreadnoughts, built at Baltic Works Shipyards, Saint Petersburg.She was completed during the winter of 1914–1915, but was not ready for combat until mid-1915. Her role was to defend the mouth of the Gulf of Finland against the Germans, who never tried to enter, so she spent her time training and providing cover for Minelaying operations. Her crew joined the general mutiny of the Baltic Fleet after the February Revolution of 1917 and she was the only Dreadnought available to the Bolsheviks for several years after the October Revolution of 1917. She bombarded the mutinous garrison of Fort Krasnaya Gorka and supported Bolshevik light forces operating against British ships supporting the White Russians in the Gulf of Finland in 1918–19. Later, her crew joined the Kronstadt Rebellion of 1921 and she was renamed Marat after the rebellion was crushed.
Marat was reconstructed from 1928 to 1931 and two years later, she bombarded a Finnish coastal artillery position during the Winter War once before the Gulf of Finland iced up. Shortly afterwards, her anti-aircraft armament was upgraded. When the Germans invaded on June 22nd 1941 she was in Kronstadt and provided gunfire support to Soviet troops in September as the Germans approached Leningrad. Later that month she had her bow blown off and sank in shallow water after two hits by 2,200 lb bombs (dropped from a Ju 87 Stuka, piloted by Hans Ulrich Rudel) that detonated her forward magazine. She was refloated several months later and became a Stationary Battery, providing gunfire support during the Siege of Leningrad. Plans were made to reconstruct her after the war, using the bow of her sister Frunze, but they were not accepted and were formally cancelled in 1948. She was renamed Volkhov, after the nearby river, in 1950 and served as a Stationary Training Ship until stricken in 1953 and broken up afterwards.