The destroyer "Anshan" - the former Soviet "Record" - at the pier of the Naval Museum in the city of Qingdao. Author's photo
The famous destroyers of Project 7, which took an active part in the Great Patriotic War, today can be seen alive only in one country in the world - in China.
"Sevens" played an important role in the development of not only the Soviet fleetbut also Chinese. In our country, they became the first large-scale surface ships of the sea zone and marked an important step towards the creation of an ocean fleet. And in China, the four destroyers received from the USSR generally acquired the status of a “visiting card” of their Navy, having received numerous pretentious nicknames: “four diamonds”, “four King Kongs”, “four heavenly guards”, “four mighty warriors”, etc. .
For a decade and a half, they remained the largest combat units of the fleet, on which almost the entire future naval elite served. But if in our country all representatives of this series of destroyers either died in battle or were scrapped, then in China, out of four ships, three are preserved as monuments and museums. It remains only to envy ...
The destroyer "Taiyuan", the former "Zealous", in the city of Dalian. Author's photo
Mao's ambition
By the time the PRC was formed, not a single more or less large warship remained in the naval forces of the Celestial Empire. It was not possible to restore the sunken cruiser Chongqing, and all the combat-ready destroyers in the Kuomintang fleet went to Taiwan. Therefore, the desire of the Chinese leadership to acquire "status" ships is quite understandable.
In April 1952, a delegation headed by Xiao Jingguang, Commander of the Naval Forces of the People's Liberation Army of China, arrived in Moscow. The main topic of the talks was the purchase of naval equipment for the Chinese fleet. The ambitions of the guests, who wanted to receive not only modern destroyers, but also cruisers, did not arouse enthusiasm among the Soviet leadership. Since the heavy losses suffered during the Great Patriotic War, and the growing confrontation with the West, required the priority replenishment of the ship's composition of its own fleet.
However, the Chinese had enviable perseverance, it came to personal telephone conversations between Mao Zedong and Stalin. In the end, on June 4, 1953, Moscow and Beijing signed an agreement on cooperation in the naval field, under which the Soviet Union, in particular, undertook to transfer four Project 7 destroyers. But the Chinese comrades expected to receive the most modern ships and did not hide their displeasure . The future permanent commander-in-chief of the Chinese Navy, Xiao Jingguang, in general, boldly called the destroyers "scrap metal." Only after delving into the details and realizing that the USSR, under the agreement, is assisting in the construction of shipyards, transferring documentation, materials and equipment for the construction of new ships in China, as well as sending specialists and providing training, the guests from the Middle Kingdom changed their anger to mercy.
Xiao Jingguang (1903-1989) - admiral of the fleet, one of the highest ranks of the PLA. From 1950 to 1980 he served as Commander-in-Chief of the Navy; in the media, he is sometimes called the "Chinese Gorshkov"
For transfer to China, the destroyers Record, Resolute, Sharp and Zealous were allocated. All of them were laid in 1936 at the A. Marti plant in Nikolaev, then transported to the Far East in the form of separate sections and structures. Ships were assembled and completed by factories No. 199 in Komsomolsk-on-Amur and No. 202 in Vladivostok. The destroyers were handed over to the fleet in 1941-1942, and after the war they underwent repairs and modernization according to the TsKB-53 standard design.
The crew of the destroyer Record, 1946. Photo from the collection of Sergei Aprelev
The firstborn of the PLA fleet
The transfer of the ships took place in two stages.
According to Chinese sources, the first pair - "Record" and "Sharp" - was received by the PLA Navy on October 14, 1954. On this day, Chinese sailors settled on the destroyers in Vladivostok. Each of the ships of the detachment, which, in addition to the destroyers, included two submarines and two minesweepers, went to sea with two crews. During the transition, the Chinese, under the supervision of Soviet comrades, steered ships, worked with mechanisms and conducted artillery practice firing. On October 25, the detachment arrived at the port of Qingdao, and the next day the official signing of the act on the transfer of destroyers to China took place. The ships received new names in honor of the industrial cities of Dongbei (Manchuria): "Record" became "Anshan", "Sharp" - "Fushun".
The signing of the act on the transfer to China of the destroyers "Record" and "Sharp", October 26, 1954
About the names.
The press cited information that it was proposed to name the lead destroyer the name of the country's capital - "Beijing" (that is, Beijing), but the commander-in-chief Xiao Jingguang did not agree. He allegedly said: if China wants to see warships of domestic construction in the fleet, then the country needs a powerful industrial base. And the city of Anshan is the largest metallurgical and industrial center, the "city of steel." And the destroyer should bear the name of the "steel" city on board ... For some reason it seems to me that this история invented specifically for a patriotic magazine article.
The second pair of destroyers was handed over to China on 28 June 1955. "Resolute" was named "Changchun", and "Zealous" - "Taiyuan". The latter may have been called the Jilin at first, but I will talk about this ship later.
Officially, the destroyers were excluded from the lists of the USSR Navy later: "Resolute" and "Zealous" - on January 14, 1955, and "Record" and "Sharp" - six months later, on July 6. This introduced additional confusion in the dates published in different publications.
In general, there are a lot of errors, one way or another connected with Chinese destroyers. I confess, I am also not sinless: the Chinese names of the ships given in the book “The Legendary Sevens” published in 2007 do not correspond to reality. Since they are taken from Western publications - after all, one and a half to two decades ago, there was simply no other information.
Now the official Chinese data has become available. Here, for example, is a plaque on display aboard the Anshan museum ship:
However, even here there are "misunderstandings". Unfortunately, I do not speak Chinese, I use only computer translators, but they cannot accurately translate the hieroglyphs given in brackets under the word “Record”. They usually read them as "Bold" or something like that. And one of the options generally puzzled me - “Decisive”! Is it really a mistake again, now coming from the Chinese?
I will not bother the reader with a story about my research, but in the end I came to the conclusion that there was no mistake. It's just that, as I understand it, the word "Record" is absent in Chinese, hence such strange translations. Everything agrees with the names of the other three ships, which once again confirms: "Anshan" is definitely the former "Record".
Outwardly, the “four King Kongs” were almost the same. Perhaps the only noticeable difference is the following: on the "Sharp" and "Resolute" the visors of the shields of the 1st and 4th 130-mm guns had stiffeners, while on the "Record" and "Zeal" they did not.
Chinese sailors have fun in their moments of rest, 1954. Stiffeners are visible on the shield of the stern 130-mm gun. If the date of the picture is correct, then it was taken on the Fushun destroyer
Sailors banish the bow 130-mm gun, 1954
The history of the service of Soviet destroyers in the Chinese fleet was long, but very ordinary. This can be judged by the example of the leading Anshan. In September-November 1955, together with the destroyer Fushun, he took part in exercises to repel amphibious assault on the Liaodong Peninsula. On August 14, 1957, Anshan was visited by the head of the State Council of the People's Republic of China, Zhou Enlai. In 1959, the destroyer again participated in joint exercises with the land army, worked out counteraction to landings, fired 130-mm shells at old Japanese coastal fortifications.
In April 1962, the Anshan, together with the Changchun and Taiyuan sisterships, provides tracking and expulsion of the American destroyer De Haven (DD-727) from the territorial waters of China. The Americans repeatedly crossed the sea border, conducted radar reconnaissance and tested the reaction of a potential enemy. During this operation, Chinese ships entered international waters and approached the Japanese base of Sasebo. According to Chinese sources, this was the first time that surface ships of the PLA Navy had gone beyond the territorial waters of the PRC (that is, during the first 7-8 years of service, Chinese destroyers did not move more than 12 miles from the coast at all).
On June 4, 1962, the crew of the destroyer Anshan again received a delegation led by Zhou Enlai on board, and in August 1965 they rescued a North Korean fishing boat in distress, which fell victim to a powerful typhoon. In September 1970, the destroyer takes part in large-scale exercises organized by the Shenyang Military Region, during which the interaction of the fleet was worked out, aviation and land units of the PLA.
One of the Project 7 destroyers during a PLA Navy exercise, 1960s.
Modernization project 6607
By the end of the 1960s, it became completely clear that the main weapon destroyers - straight-line anti-ship torpedoes - are completely outdated, in connection with which a logical proposal arose to replace torpedo weapons with missile ones. The ship modernization project, designated 6607, included the installation of SY-1 cruise missiles in place of torpedo tubes, as well as the replacement of steam boilers and the installation of additional electronic equipment. The total displacement of the ship at the same time increased to 2 tons, and the maximum speed was reduced to 681 knots.
The destroyer Fushun was the first to arrive at the shipyard in Dalian for modernization under project 6607. In all likelihood, the work was completed in 1971. The rest of the sisterships followed. According to information given on board the Anshan museum ship, this destroyer was undergoing modernization from March to October 1974.
The destroyer "Fushun" after modernization. This is my old work, done on paper using an airbrush, but subsequently finalized in Photoshop. Compared to the image given in the book "Legendary Sevens", this drawing has a lot of clarifications made after the publication of the book (the shape of the superstructure, visors on gun shields, etc. has been corrected).
Rotary anti-ship missile launcher on the destroyer "Taiyuan". Author's photo
The Four King Kongs were the first major missile ships of the PLA navy. However, with their rocket weapons, the situation was rather complicated.
China managed to get P-15 Termit anti-ship missiles before breaking with the USSR, but mastering their production for Chinese industry turned out to be a difficult task. An unlicensed copy, produced at the Nanchang aircraft factory and designated SY-1 ("Shangyou-1"), turned out to be insufficiently reliable, and the operation of the destroyers' radar interfered with its homing system. The name "Shangyou" literally translates as "Upstream" and comes from the saying of Mao Zedong, included in the collection of his quotes (they say, "do not be afraid to swim against the current, then you will achieve a better result" - something like that).
The SY-1 anti-ship missile was rather bulky (weight 2 kg, length 095 m, wingspan 6,55 m), had a rocket engine and a powder booster, subsonic speed and a flight range of 2,41 km. Guidance system - inertial plus radar or infrared seeker. The advantage of the rocket is a powerful cumulative high-explosive warhead weighing 42 kg. Estimated hit probability is 510%.
In the 1970s, upgraded versions of the SY-1 rocket appeared, called HY-1 and HY-2 ("Hayin" - "Sea Eagle"). They were distinguished by an increased flight range (due to additional fuel tanks), as well as the presence of an improved radar altimeter and a new anti-jamming seeker. Missiles of the Shangyou and Haiying families could be launched from the same ship launchers.
Anti-ship missile HY-1 (without launch booster) on display at the Naval Museum in Qingdao. Author's photo
Anti-ship missiles of the HY-2 family in the military museum in Luishunkou (Port Arthur). In the foreground lies a powder starting accelerator. Author's photo
Veteran destroyers
In parallel with the modernization of the "sevens", China began the serial construction of new project 051 destroyers of its own design, also armed with Haiying missiles. The Anshan and its brethren lost the status of the most representative ships of the PLA Navy, but, despite their age, they continued to actively serve, participate in maneuvers and training campaigns.
The destroyer "Anshan" after the modernization of the project 6607
"Anshan" in May-July 1977 provided large-scale work organized by China to search for and raise gold and diamonds, which were allegedly located on the Japanese transport "Awa Maru", sunk in 1945 in the Taiwan Strait. Underwater searches continued for about three years, almost 10 thousand dives were made, but no jewels were found.
On May 19, 1980, during the mourning ceremony, the ashes of the statesman and one of the leaders of the Communist Party of China, Liu Shaoqi, were scattered from the destroyer Anshan.
"Anshan" in the Yellow Sea, 1986. Photo taken from an American aircraft
"Four Guardians of the Middle Kingdom" remained in combat formation until the turn of the 80-90s of the last century. "Fushun" (No. 102) was excluded from the fleet in 1989, "Changchun" (No. 103) - in 1990, "Taiyuan" (No. 104) - in 1991. And the former "Record", "Anshan", turned out to be truly record holder. It was decommissioned on April 24, 1992, having served in the fleets of the two countries for more than half a century! During his time in the PLA Navy, he traveled more than 200 miles. For a long time, she was the flagship of the fleet, many statesmen and military figures of China, including Zhou Enlai, Deng Xiaoping, Liu Shaoqi, Marshal Peng Dehuai, Commander-in-Chief of the Navy Xiao Jingguang and others visited it.
Despite the fact that the Project 7 destroyers were already considered obsolete at the time of their transfer to China, they fulfilled their purpose one hundred percent and became a real “forge of personnel” for the Chinese fleet. And the fact of their 50-year operation indicates that with timely repairs and careful maintenance, the Soviet "sevens" could become no less long-lived than the famous American "fletchers" and "gearings". Against this background, numerous complaints from our sailors about the design and quality of the destroyers' construction look somehow unconvincing.
Political studies on one of the Chinese destroyers of project 6607
Recognition of the role that Soviet destroyers played in the development of the Chinese fleet can be the fact that three of the four ships, after decommissioning, were turned into monuments and memorials. Currently, "Anshan" is an exhibit of the PLA Naval Museum in Qingdao, "Taiyuan" is a museum and a floating hostel in Dalian, and "Changchun" is installed as a monument in the city of Zhushan. I happened to visit two of them, and the next two publications of the cycle will be devoted to the story of the “sevens” museums.
The destroyer "Anshan" - a full-scale exhibit of the Naval Museum in Qingdao, 2019. Photo by the author