Soviet "Hipper" fights
"Hawkins" is the founder of the class
Heavy cruisers as a class appeared during the First World War, but they did not make it to the war. The first was the British Hawkins, which received 190 mm guns as its main caliber, which were supposed to turn German raiders, which did not have guns with a caliber greater than 150 mm (and raiders with 150 mm guns did not have time to enter service), into an easy target for the new ship. And then there was the Washington Peace Conference of 1922, after which shipbuilders were placed within the framework of strict restrictions. Heavy cruisers of the Washington type were not supposed to have more than 10 thousand tons of displacement and guns with a caliber greater than 203 mm.
Project 26 cruiser "Kirov" - Soviet "light heavy"
The USSR did not sign the Washington Accords, so it did not skimp on arming its ships. However, the young Soviet engineers had no experience in building large ships. Therefore, on the one hand, the design of the first Soviet cruiser, the Kirov, was ordered from the Ansaldo company, and on the other, the 152 mm main caliber guns included in the Italian design were replaced with 180 mm ones. The result was a ship that stood approximately in the middle between light and heavy cruisers: light in armor and size, but with artillery... Much better than their "Washington classmates". But in the USSR in 1936 they had already adopted a program for the construction of a "large fleet", which meant that real heavy cruisers were needed...
Heavy cruiser of the Kronstadt type - the final version of the project carried 305-mm guns
Here it is worth making a lyrical digression: according to the Soviet classification, "heavy cruisers" were to be called Soviet analogues of battlecruisers: ships of the "Kronshtadt" class, carrying 305-mm main caliber guns. And it was decided to buy lighter ships from the Germans. Why from the Germans? The logic of the purchase was expressed in the aphorism coined by Stalin: "A ship bought from the enemy is equal to two: one more from us and one less from the enemy." Therefore, Soviet naval sailors watched the training firing of the "Admiral Hipper" with special interest...
"Admiral Hipper" is the lead ship of the series
The Third Reich, like the USSR, did not sign the Washington Agreements, so the German heavy cruisers of the Admiral Hipper type did not fit into the Washington restrictions. Their standard displacement was 14240 tons, full - 19800 tons. The length of these ships was 199,5 meters at the waterline, the width - 21,8 meters, the draft - 5,9-7,2 meters. The ship was well armored for its class: belt - 40-80 mm, beams - 80 mm, deck - 30 + 30 mm and 50 mm - slopes, turret front - 160 mm, barbettes - 80 mm, conning tower - 150 mm.
The cruisers' main caliber consisted of 4x2 203-mm SK C/34 guns with a barrel length of 60 calibers (maximum firing range - 33540 meters). Anti-aircraft artillery - 6x2 105-mm universal guns, 6x2 37-mm anti-aircraft machine guns, 10x1 20-mm "Oerlikons". In addition to artillery, the ships also carried 4 triple-tube torpedo tubes. However, the Germans decided to cheat with the artillery: initially it was announced that the main caliber would consist of 12 150-mm guns in four three-gun turrets. But the bases of the turrets were immediately designed for the possibility of installing 8x203-mm guns.
Laying of the heavy cruiser "Lützow"
The fifth and final cruiser of this project was laid down at the DeSchiMAG shipyard in Bremen on August 2, 1937. The ship was launched on July 1, 1939 and was named "Lützow" - in honor of the German partisan general of the Napoleonic Wars, Baron Adolf von Lützow. However, soon after the launch, the completion of the ship slowed down: the Reich's shipbuilding industry could not cope with the forced construction of the Kriegsmarine.
"How glad I am, how glad I am that I will go to Leningrad!" - "Lutzow" leaves for the USSR
And on August 23, 1939, the Non-Aggression Pact was signed between the USSR and Germany. The pact also included trade agreements, according to which the USSR supplied the Reich with raw materials and bought industrial products in return. Heavy cruisers fell under the definition of "industrial products", so the Soviet Union expressed a desire to purchase the Lützow. Hitler, in the conditions of the war with England, had no need for ships that were not very suitable for ocean raiding, so... After a little haggling, they agreed on a price of 104 million Reichsmarks, and the ship, designated "Project 53", was sent to Leningrad, to the Baltic Shipyard, for completion. A group of German engineers arrived with the ship, who were supposed to monitor the completion of the ship and provide assistance to their Soviet colleagues. At the time of sale, the ship was 54 percent complete.
"Lutzow" in the Baltic Shipyard
In our historiography, we often read that the Germans sabotaged the construction of the ship, not wanting to strengthen the Soviet Navy on the eve of the war. It is difficult to say whether this is true: according to the plan, the ship was not to be ready before 1942, and in Germany, shipbuilders also did not meet the construction deadlines - before the war, there was a forced growth of the Navy of both the Reich and the USSR, it is quite possible that suppliers simply could not cope with the colossal volume of orders, and the departure of wagons with equipment from Leningrad to the other end of Europe can be explained by the military chaos with logistics.
One way or another, but at the beginning of the war the cruiser had a readiness level of 70 (sometimes there are reports that it was 75) percent. Of the main caliber artillery, only the bow and stern lower turrets with four eight-inch guns were installed, from the anti-aircraft artillery 37-mm and 20-mm anti-aircraft guns arrived (the Germans supplied the ship with ammunition in full). But the USSR had no time for fat, and on August 15, 1941, the naval flag was raised over the ship, which was in a conditionally combat-ready state, and Captain 2nd Rank Alexander Vanifatyev took command of the ship. The new cruiser was named "Petropavlovsk". Since the cruiser was not in danger of going to sea, only the personnel necessary for firing and ensuring the operation of the artillery remained on board - gunners, electricians, diesel operators ...
Heavy cruiser "Tallinn" ("Petropavlovsk") - painting by artist V. M. Ivanov
The first salvos of the main caliber of the Petropavlovsk were fired on September 7 at the German troops approaching the city on the Neva. The cruiser's BC-2 did not stop shelling the enemy for 11 days. Even when on September 11, as a result of a shell explosion in the barrel bore, the left gun of turret A was disabled (we also usually attribute this to pre-war German sabotage, but something similar happened on the battleship Marat...), the ship continued firing from its remaining guns. Meanwhile, the enemy was approaching the city.
By September 17, there were only 3 kilometers between the cruiser and the enemy batteries on the opposite shore of the Gulf of Finland. From September 7 to 17, Petropavlovsk fired 676 shells, killing 10 and wounding 30 crew members on board. During the duel with the German batteries, the ship received 53 hits, including 20 of 210 mm caliber: more than enough for a fully combat-ready cruiser with a full crew. The only generator was disabled, the ship ceased fire, and the Red Navy sailors began fighting the fires.
"Petropavlovsk" on fire
"Petropavlovsk" was perishing: with a reduced crew, the fight for survivability was difficult. Due to the hole received, the cruiser listed to the left side (only the embankment wall saved it from capsizing) and sat on the ground. Anti-aircraft guns were removed from the cruiser and installed on ships of the Ladoga military flotilla. The crew was reorganized: most of them went to the marines (there is information that 44 sailors from "Petropavlovsk" died during the Peterhof landing) and to the ships of the Ladoga flotilla, but the specialists of BC-5 who remained on board carried out repairs to the ship, eliminating the combat damage. After an inspection of the damage received, it turned out that it was possible to raise the ship and put into operation the main caliber artillery, which was not superfluous in besieged Leningrad.
The absence of guns in the upper turret is clearly visible...
The problem was that the enemy was only 4 kilometers away, and all work had to be done at night, and in order to maintain secrecy, it was necessary to use only the smallest rescue ships with weak water-draining equipment. In general, it was not possible to raise the cruiser before the ice formed, and the operation was postponed until spring. But the rest of the crew was on board, and they were not idle. Water was pumped out sequentially from each compartment, after which it was sealed. At first, low-power portable pumps were used, but after the aft engine room was drained, it was possible to start up power plant No. 1. Then the stationary pumps started working, and the ship gradually began to float. Drainage was carried out at night, and during the day, water was again collected in some compartments - so that it would not be noticeable that the ship was alive (stationary pumps could work in a completely flooded room). During the hungry winter of the siege of 1941-42, two more diesel generators were put into operation...
Heinz-Ulrich Rudel. He may have been responsible for not only the Marat, but also the Petropavlovsk. However, neither ship was destroyed...
The Germans considered the Petropavlovsk destroyed, but just in case, on April 4, 1942, a lone "Laptezhnik" (sometimes written that it was piloted by Heinz-Ulrich Rudel) appeared over the ship lying on the ground and dropped a 200-kg bomb. It pierced the deck and exploded inside the ship, fortunately, there were no casualties in the explosion... All work was completed by September 10, 1942. At night, the ship made a trial full surfacing and was laid down on the ground again.
On the night of September 16-17, under the noses of the entrenched German infantry, the Petropavlovsk was raised and towed to the wall of the Baltic Shipyard. It was unrealistic to take the cruiser to the dock along the completely open sea channel, so the ship was repaired using the "Port Arthur method": by welding a caisson measuring 12,5 by 15 by 8 meters. The structure was brought to the holes in turn and sealed. Meanwhile, artillery and electrical equipment were being restored in the rooms and on the deck.
Repairs in the conditions of the besieged city proceeded slowly, but in January 1944 the three remaining eight-inch guns of the cruiser opened fire again: the ship entered the same 2nd artillery group as the battleship Oktyabrskaya Revolyutsiya, the cruisers Kirov and Maksim Gorky (there is information that the ship was included in the Leningrad defense system on December 30, 1942, but I have not found confirmation of this). On January 15, Petropavlovsk fired 250 203-mm shells at the enemy, supporting the troops participating in the Krasnoselsk-Ropsha offensive operation. And there was more! The cruiser fired at German positions on Voronya Gora, shelled communications, observation and command posts. In total, the ship carried out 31 shellings, firing 1036 shells: the ship was not looked after - the restoration of the heavy cruiser was put to rest.
The main caliber shell of the Petropavlovsk is 122 kg, no joke!
Meanwhile, the actions of the Petropavlovsk's eight-inch guns were quite effective. Coastal observation groups counted three destroyed guns, 29 cars, 68 carts and 300 killed soldiers and officers. On January 24, 1944, the ship fired its last shots - the combat life of the former Lutzow was over. On September 1, 1944, Petropavlovsk became Tallinn. At first, the idea of finishing the ship was in the air: its unfinished sister ship Seydlitz fell into the hands of Soviet shipbuilders, so there should not be any problems with the equipment. The ship was towed to the dock, several projects for completion were drawn up and considered. But...
Non-self-propelled training vessel "Dnepr"
The cost of completion was too high for the post-war USSR — 191 million rubles. At first, it was decided to complete the ship as a training cruiser, but there was not enough money for that either. On January 12, 1949, Tallinn was reclassified as a light cruiser. Then it managed to be a non-self-propelled training ship Dnepr, a floating workshop for Sverdlov-class cruisers, and a floating barracks PKZ-112, and on April 4, 1958, it was excluded from the fleet lists and scrapped.
How should we evaluate the USSR's purchase of a German heavy cruiser? Despite the ship's not-so-happy fate, in my opinion, it was a very successful decision. Even if we do not take into account the benefit of having its main caliber artillery in besieged Leningrad (let's not forget the anti-aircraft guns on the ships of the Ladoga military flotilla!), at least it was not included in the Kriegsmarine. The same Admiral Hipper did us a lot of harm during Operation Wunderland. True, it is not a fact that Lützow would have been completed: Seydlitz was never brought to fruition. Nevertheless, during the completion of the ship and the operation of complex German equipment, Soviet shipbuilding engineers acquired valuable experience, and a certain amount of equipment was delivered to shipyards. The logic of the "best friend of Soviet athletes": "The enemy has one less ship, we have one more ship" worked!
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