Soviet destroyer Leningrad

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Leningrad
, the city which the lead ship is named after, June 1944
History
Soviet Union
NameLeningrad (Russian: Ленингра́д)
Namesake
Leningrad
Ordered
1st Five-Year Plan
BuilderShipyard 190 (Zhdanov), Leningrad
Yard number450
Laid down5 November 1932
Launched17 November 1933
Commissioned5 December 1936
Out of service18 April 1958
Renamed
  • As TsL-75, 18 April 1958
  • As PKZ-16, 15 September 1960
  • As SM-5, 10 August 1962
Reclassified
  • As a destroyer, 12 January 1949
  • As a target ship, 18 April 1958
  • As an
    accommodation ship
    , 15 September 1960
  • As a target ship, 10 August 1962
FateSunk after being used as target ship, May 1963
General characteristics (as built)
Class and typeLeningrad-class destroyer
Displacement
Length127.5 m (418 ft 4 in) (
o/a
)
Beam11.7 m (38 ft 5 in)
Draft4.06 m (13 ft 4 in)
Installed power
Propulsion3 shafts; 3 geared steam turbines
Speed40 knots (74 km/h; 46 mph)
Range2,100 nmi (3,900 km; 2,400 mi) at 20 knots (37 km/h; 23 mph)
Complement250 (311 wartime)
Sensors and
processing systems		Arktur hydrophones
Armament

Leningrad (

Leningrad–Novgorod Offensive
drove them away from the city in January 1944.

After the war, the ship was modernized in 1951–1954. She became a

hulk was reconverted into a target ship, SM-5, in 1962. The following year the ship was used to test anti-ship missiles
and sank afterwards.

Design and description

Impressed by the French large destroyer (contre-torpilleur) designs such as the

kW) using steam from three three-drum 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

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

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

launched on 17 November 1933. Commissioned on 5 December 1936, she was assigned to the Red Banner Baltic Fleet.[7] After the Winter War began on 30 November, 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.[8] During these missions she was badly damaged by ice and was under repair until 31 May 1941.[9]

The beginning of Operation Barbarossa on 22 June found Leningrad in Tallinn, Estonia, as part of the 4th Destroyer

Rear Admiral Y. A. Panteleyev transferred his flag to Leningrad the following day. On 30 August, Leningrad was assigned to provide 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 Svirepy, Grozyashchy, Silny, Stoyky and Storozhevoy. On 1 and 3 September, Leningrad helped to lay minefields covering the approaches to Kronstadt and Leningrad.[10]

The ship moved to the Leningrad Sea Canal on 17 September to bombard German troops and then steamed to the Leningrad Trade Port. On 22 September, she was slightly damaged by shell splinters and moved to

Shipyard No. 196 (Sudomekh).[11]

On 9 November she departed Kronstadt for Hanko as part of the third convoy to evacuate Soviet troops together with the destroyer Stoyky and the minelayer Ural. Bad weather forced them to seek shelter behind Gogland Island on the morning of 11 November, although they were able to resume movement that evening. Later that evening Leningrad's paravanes detonated one mine at a distance of 10 meters (33 ft), but the ship was not damaged. Early in the morning of 12 November, another mine detonated in her paravanes, but only at a distance of 5 meters (16 ft). The explosion disabled both turbines and flooded many of her fuel tanks. The ship was able to get underway again, but was forced to return to Kronstadt, escorted by two minesweepers and the transport SS Andrey Zhandov. She was repaired in Leningrad where she resumed providing gunfire support; the ship fired a total of 1,081 rounds from her 130 mm guns during 1941.[12]

On 14 May 1942, near misses by artillery shells wounded four crewmen, disabled a searchlight and damaged a torpedo tube. During the Leningrad–Novgorod Offensive that lifted the siege of the city, Leningrad fired 650 shells in support of the attack between 14 and 18 January 1944.[13]

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. She was assigned to the Northern Fleet on 13 October 1959. 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

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.[14]

See also

References

  1. ^ Breyer, pp. 218, 220
  2. ^ Budzbon, p. 329
  3. ^ a b Breyer, p. 220
  4. ^ a b c Hill, p. 26
  5. ^ a b Breyer, p. 217
  6. ^ Rohwer & Monakov, p. 232
  7. ^ Breyer, p. 216
  8. ^ Rohwer, pp. 11–12
  9. ^ Hill, p. 27
  10. ^ Platonov, p. 130; Rohwer, pp. 81–82, 94–95, 97
  11. ^ Platonov, p. 130
  12. ^ Platonov, pp. 130–131; Rohwer, p. 114
  13. ^ Platonov, p. 131
  14. ^ Kachur, pp. 131–132

Bibliography

Further reading
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