Having hit
the big boys when it comes to doing books on WWII navy ships, Osprey now turns
to one of the lesser known subjects. In this case it is WWII Soviet destroyers.
Prior to the fall of the tsar, Russia had a very respectable navy. Its ships
were modern and capable, though perhaps it could have used better leadership.
When the Soviet Union came into being, much of the military fled as did many of
those who knew anything about building ships. What was left over from the war
was basically left to rust as the Soviets did not have the funds to do anything
in terms of building ships.
After the end of the Soviet civil war, plans were made
to build new ships. The Soviets were basically in need of coastal defense and so
their ships were constructed with that in mind. They needed ships in four major
areas; the Baltic, North seas, Black Sea, and on the Pacific. So a construction
program was developed to provide destroyer type ships as the major focus as they
were inexpensive (relatively), and could provide the sort of weapons in terms of
guns and torpedoes needed. However, Soviet shipbuilding was behind those of
other nations. Their ships were unable to meet speed requirement, were fuel
thirsty, did not have modern armament, were generally poor sea keepers, and were
totally lacking in modern electronics.
This became very evident once the war started as the
ships had nought but depth charges and passive listening devices to detect
German submarines. No Sonar (Asdic) and no Radar. Even after getting some
systems from the Allies, Soviet copies were not that good and their technicians
were ill trained to accurately use them. Things changed after the war, but that
is another story. During the war a rather large number of ships were lost to a
number of factors including submarines, surface ships, storms and many to mines.
February 2018
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