Soviet destroyer Nezamozhnik
A postwar view of sister ship Zheleznyakov
| |
History | |
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Russian Empire | |
Name | Zante (Занте) |
Namesake | Russian capture of Zakynthos |
Ordered | 30 March [O.S. 17 March] 1915 |
Builder | Russud Shipyard, Nikolayev |
Laid down | May 1916 |
Launched | 3 April [O.S. 21 March] 1917 |
Fate |
|
Armed Forces of South Russia | |
Name | Zante |
Captured | July 1919 |
Fate | Wrecked in storm, February 1920 |
Soviet Union | |
Acquired | 1922 (raised September 1920) |
Commissioned | 7 November 1923 |
Renamed |
|
Reclassified | As a target ship, 1949 |
Honours and awards | Order of the Red Banner |
Fate | Sunk, early 1950s |
General characteristics (as built) | |
Class and type | Fidonisy-class destroyer |
Displacement | |
Length | 92.75 m (304 ft 4 in) |
Beam | 9.07 m (29 ft 9 in) |
Draft | 3.81 m (12 ft 6 in) |
Installed power |
|
Propulsion | 2 shafts; 2 steam turbines |
Speed | 27.5 knots (50.9 km/h; 31.6 mph) |
Range | 1,560 nmi (2,890 km; 1,800 mi) at 18.5 knots (34.3 km/h; 21.3 mph) |
Complement | 137 |
Armament |
|
Nezamozhnik (Russian and Ukrainian: Незаможник, Ukrainian romanization: Nezamozhnyk, lit. 'poor peasant') was one of eight Fidonisy-class destroyers built for the Imperial Russian Navy during World War I. Originally named Zante (Занте), the ship was left unfinished during the Russian Revolution in 1917 and later captured by Ukrainian and White forces. The mostly complete destroyer was towed from her shipyard by retreating White forces and wrecked during a storm in 1920. She was refloated by the Soviets following their victory in the Russian Civil War and completed in 1923 as Nezamozhny (Незаможный).
Serving with the
Design and description
In early 1914, several months before
As a Fidonisy-class destroyer, Zante displaced 1,350
As built, the Fidonisy-class ships mounted a main armament of four single 102-millimeter (4 in)
Modifications
A second 76.2 mm gun was added on the stern during her 1928–1929 refit and she was equipped to carry 60 M1926 mines. During her 1935–1936 refit, the destroyer received four 12.7-millimeter (0.5 in)
Construction and service
After being added to the Black Sea Fleet ship list on 15 July [
The Main Maritime Technical Directorate and the Supreme Soviet of the National Economy concluded an agreement for her completion at Nikolayev's Andrei Marti yard on 23 December. The destroyer was completed with a design virtually identical to her sisters. On 12 June 1923, the ship was renamed Nezamozhny (Russian: Незаможний, lit. 'poor peasants')[7] in recognition of a fundraising drive by the Ukrainian Committee of Poor Peasants that had helped provide funds necessary for her completion.[8] Presented for testing on 23 September of that year after long delays, the destroyer was sent to Sevastopol after ten days of machinery tests, where she continued trials until 14 October, when Nezamozhny returned to Nikolayev for boiler cleaning. After being accepted by the Soviet Navy on 20 October, the naval jack was hoisted aboard her on 7 November, when she became part of the Black Sea Naval Forces.[6]
Interwar period
Shortly after her completion, Nezamozhny participated in the first Black Sea Naval Forces maneuvers, with
She was again renamed to Nezamozhnik (Russian: Незаможник, the
In October she cruised to Istanbul (3 to 5 October),
World War II and postwar
Siege of Odessa
By 1941, the destroyer was part of the 1st Destroyer Division of the fleet. She was refitting until 15 July, following the start of the German invasion of the Soviet Union,
She did not arrive at the port until 13 August, when she and Shaumyan unsuccessfully attempted to prevent the Romanian encirclement of the city from the landward side with naval gunfire. Damaged by three near misses from Axis bombs on 14 August while bombarding targets off
Returning to Odessa on 13 October escorting three transports for the evacuation of the defenders, she provided air defense alongside her sisters. Her crew helped extinguish fires from two bomb hits aboard the transport Gruziya the following day. Exiting the port at 06:00 on 15 October, the destroyer moved into the
Siege of Sevastopol and Kerch–Feodosia operation
The destroyer escorted the
With the destroyer Boyky, Nezamozhnik escorted two transports from Poti to Sevastopol between 8 and 11 December, then fired fourteen shells at Axis positions from Severnaya Bay on 12 December. Returning to Novorossiysk between 16 and 17 December, the destroyer joined the cruisers Krasny Kavkaz and Krasnyi Krym, the destroyer leader Kharkov, and the destroyer Bodry to transport the 79th Naval Rifle Brigade to Sevastopol. They departed on 20 December, with Nezamozhnik bringing up the rear, and arrived in Sevastopol after coming under air attack at Cape Fiolent. With Krasnyi Krym, the destroyer left Sevastopol for the return voyage, firing a hundred shells in a night bombardment off Balaklava before arriving at Tuapse on 23 December.[15]
Nezamozhnik, Shaumyan, Krasny Kavkaz, and Krasnyi Krym were assigned to support the landing near Mount Opuk during the
With Krasny Kavkaz, Nezamozhnik escorted two tankers from Poti to Sevastopol between 16 and 19 March, surviving an air attack without loss and returning to Poti. After escorting a transport from Novorossiysk to Sevastopol with Shaumyan and Kharkov between 27 and 31 March, she and two patrol boats escorted the tanker Kuybyshev from Novrossiysk to Kamysh-Burun, Kerch, on 2 April, but the destroyer ended up returning to Novorossiysk with the survivors from the tanker, which had exploded after being struck by an aerial torpedo from a German bomber. Between 3 and 7 April Nezamozhnik escorted the transport Svanetiya from Novorossiysk to Sevastopol to Tuapse and back to Novorossiysk.[16]
Alongside Krasnyi Krym and her sister Dzerzhinsky, the destroyer loaded reinforcements at Novorossiysk on 12 May and departed for another run to Sevastopol. They approached the entrance to Sevastopol channel in fog on the night of 13–14 May, and remained there to await improved visibility conditions. While in search of a minesweeper whose position marked the Soviet defensive minefield, Dzerzhinsky struck a mine and sank with heavy loss of life on 14 May. The remaining two ships entered Sevastopol, departed with wounded on 19 May, and returned to Tuapse a day later. Nezamozhnik left for her last trip to the besieged port on 5 June, escorting Gruziya with two patrol boats, and arrived on 7 June. The destroyer departed with 94 evacuees and arrived at Tuapse two days later.[17]
Later operations and fate
After the fall of Sevastopol, the Black Sea Fleet was reorganized, and Nezamozhnik became part of the 2nd Destroyer Division together with Zheleznyakov and the Uragan-class guard ships Shtorm and Shkval. She moved to Novorossiysk from Poti on 1 July, surviving unscathed a German air raid that sank the destroyer leader Tashkent and the destroyer Bditelny on the next day. With Shtorm and Shkval the destroyer departed the port and in the Tuapse area began escorting the light cruiser Molotov, which was transferred to Poti. She left Tuapse on 2 August to assist Molotov and Kharkov, damaged in a failed raid on Feodosia, escorting them to Poti. Four days later, the destroyer evacuated 295 government and Communist Party officials from Novorossiysk to Batumi.[17]
During the following months, Nezamozhnik served as a convoy escort, being additionally pressed into service to transport troops between bases during the
The destroyer and Shkval shelled the port of Feodosia in the early hours of 14 October, assisted by two Beriev MBR-2 flying boats acting as spotter aircraft, with Nezamozhnik expending 92 high-explosive shells, which started fires in the port; she was unsuccessfully engaged by German coastal artillery. Between 18 October and 30 November she escorted two transports and tankers from Batumi and Poti to Tuapse and back, delivering 1,150 reinforcements to Tuapse. Krasnyi Krym and the destroyer brought elements of the 9th Mountain Rifle Division from Batumi to Tuapse on 2 December, and with Besposhchadny she transported 1,108 sailors detached to the army from Poti to Tuapse a week later. In the early morning hours of 20 December she and Shkval again shelled Feodosia using spotter aircraft, evading a torpedo boat attack and the fire of coastal batteries; Nezamozhnik expended 124 shells in seventeen minutes and observed fires in the port.[17] A German motor tug was set ablaze and sunk by a direct hit.[18]
By the beginning of 1943, the Black Sea Fleet included only six remaining destroyers, including Nezamozhnik and Zheleznyakov. She transported Chief of the Naval General Staff Admiral Ivan Isakov from Poti to Tuapse on 13 January. Three days later, she and the minesweeper Gruz escorted Kalinin from Poti to Tuapse. Under the flag of Counter Admiral Nikolay Basisty she supported the landing on 4 February in the area of Stanichka and Yuzhnaya Ozereyka[4] together with Zheleznyakov, an attempt to recapture Novorossiysk. The two destroyers bombarded German positions in the Novorossiysk valley and at Ozereyka between 03:52 and 06:15 that morning, with Nezamozhnik expending one hundred seventy-three 102 mm shells in support of the left flank of the main landing. The main landing ran into fierce opposition and at 06:20 Basisty ordered a withdrawal to avoid German air attack, abandoning the troops that had been landed; a diversionary landing gained a beachhead that became known as Malaya Zemlya. The destroyer covered the withdrawal of the gunboats to Gelendzhik and returned to Tuapse. En route, she was attacked by five German Junkers Ju 87 dive bombers at 10:13, who missed with fifteen bombs; one plane was claimed downed by her anti-aircraft gunners.[17]
After returning to Poti on 5 February, Nezamozhnik and two patrol boats escorted a tanker from Poti to Tuapse, delivering reinforcements and ammunition on 10 February. A shore bombardment of Anapa during which fifty shells were fired on 26 February became her last combat action, and from 1 March the destroyer was under refit, which lasted until the end of the Black Sea campaign. After the sinking of Kharkov and two destroyers in October, Stalin forbade the Black Sea Fleet cruisers and destroyers from participating in operations without his express permission. Nezamozhnik and Zheleznyakov served as part of the force escorting Krasny Kavkaz from Batumi to Poti on 15 July 1944. On 30 July, Nezamozhnik and Zheleznyakov sailed from Poti under escort from two patrol boats and nine aircraft for radar equipment tests, which proved unsatisfactory.
Disarmed and removed from the Soviet Navy on 12 January 1949,[11] she was converted into a target ship and sunk during tests of new weaponry off the Crimean coast in the early 1950s.[4][22]
References
- ^ Verstyuk & Gordeyev, p. 100
- ^ a b c Verstyuk & Gordeyev, p. 116
- ^ a b c Verstyuk & Gordeyev, pp. 111–112
- ^ a b c d e f Berezhnoy, p. 326
- ^ Breyer, p. 246; Hill, p. 10
- ^ a b Verstyuk & Gordeyev, p. 101
- ^ Chernyshev, p. 125
- ^ Ammon & Berezhnoy, p. 152
- ^ a b c Chernyshev, pp. 127–129
- ^ Chernyshev, p. 65
- ^ a b Apalkov, p. 137
- ^ a b Chernyshev, p. 142
- ^ Chernyshev, pp. 143–144
- ^ a b Chernyshev, p. 146
- ^ a b Chernyshev, pp. 147–148
- ^ Chernyshev, p. 150
- ^ a b c d e f Chernyshev, pp. 151–153
- ^ United States. Office of Naval Intelligence, p. 224
- ^ Naval General Staff (1951), pp. 426, 449
- ^ Naval General Staff (1951), pp. 491–492, 495
- ^ Chernyshev, p. 154
- ^ Chernyshev, p. 162
Bibliography
- Ammon, Georgy & Berezhnoy, Sergey (1981). Героические корабли российского и советского Военно–Морского Флота [Heroic Warships of the Russian and Soviet Navies] (in Russian). Moscow: Voenizdat. OCLC 9046897.
- Apalkov, Yu. V. (1996). Боевые корабли Русского флота 8.1914–10.1917 гг. Справочник [Directory of Russian Navy Warships, August 1914–October 1917] (in Russian). St. Petersburg: Intek. ISBN 978-5-7559-0018-8.
- Berezhnoy, Sergey (2002). Крейсера и миноносцы. Справочник [Guide to Cruisers and Destroyers] (in Russian). Moscow: Voenizdat. ISBN 978-5-203-01780-2.
- Breyer, Siegfried (1992). Soviet Warship Development: Volume 1: 1917–1937. London: Conway Maritime Press. ISBN 978-0-85177-604-0.
- Chernyshev, Alexander (2011). Русские суперэсминцы. Легендарные "Новики" [Russian Superdestroyers: Legendary Noviks] (in Russian) (2nd ed.). Moscow: Yauza/Eksmo. ISBN 978-5-699-53144-8.
- Hill, Alexander (2018). Soviet Destroyers of World War II. New Vanguard. Vol. 256. Oxford, UK: Osprey Publishing. ISBN 978-1-4728-2256-7.
- Naval General Staff (1951). Хроника Великой Отечественной войны Советского Союза на Черноморском театре [Chronicles of the Great Patriotic War of the Soviet Union in the Black Sea Theatre]. Vol. 6. Moscow: Voyenno-Morskoye Izdatelstvo. OCLC 31341499.
- Verstyuk, Anatoly & Gordeyev, Stanislav (2006). Корабли Минных дивизий. От "Новика" до "Гогланда" [Torpedo Division Ships: From Novik to Gogland] (in Russian). Moscow: Voennaya Kniga. ISBN 978-5-902863-10-6.
- United States. Office of Naval Intelligence; Germany. Kriegsmarine. War Diary of Admiral, Black Sea, 1 October 1942 - 31 December 1942. Henry E. Eccles Library U. S. Naval War College.
Further reading
- Budzbon, Przemysław (1980). "Soviet Union". In Chesneau, Roger (ed.). Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships 1922–1946. Greenwich, UK: Conway Maritime Press. pp. 318–346. ISBN 0-85177-146-7.
- Budzbon, Przemysław; Radziemski, Jan & Twardowski, Marek (2022). Warships of the Soviet Fleets 1939–1945. Vol. I: Major Combatants. Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press. ISBN 978-1-68247-877-6.
- Likachev, Pavel Vladimirovich (2005). Эскадренные миноносцы типа "Новик" в ВМФ СССР 1920–1955 гг [Novik-class Destroyers in the Soviet Navy 1920–1955] (in Russian). Samara, Russia: ISTFLOT. ISBN 978-5-98830-009-0.
- ISBN 978-1-59114-119-8.
External links
- Soviet destroyer Nezamozhnik at sea (in Russian)
- Nezamozhnik images Archived 2019-06-22 at the Wayback Machine