Read online battleships in battle. The winner's weapon is the battleship

Battleships in battle. The Great and the Terrible - description and summary, author Sick Alexander, read for free online on the website of the electronic library ParaKnig.me

A new book from the author of the bestselling book “Dueling Aircraft Carriers”! The best study by a leading naval historian, which, for all its professionalism, reads like an exciting adventure novel! Incredible adventures and transformations of a battleship over four centuries - from wooden sailing ships to heavily armored colossi that seem to be aliens from another world!

Why has this class of ships been repeatedly changed beyond recognition? Why did the battle fleets, on the creation of which astronomical sums were spent, not live up to the hopes placed on them in the 20th century, and why did the bet on a general artillery battle fail? Is it true that battleships have forever lost their primacy to aircraft carriers - or have missile weapons given them a new life? And should we expect another “reincarnation” of the battleship in the near future?

This book will allow you to take a fresh look at the past, present and future of the most formidable warships in history - a clear embodiment of sea power.

Feat of "Glory"

In the summer of 1915, the Germans advanced along the Baltic coast on the territory of what is now Soviet Latvia, approached the initial, southern bends of the Gulf of Riga and... stopped. Until now, their Baltic Fleet, freely drawing large forces from the Atlantic Ocean and the North Sea, provided strong support to the ground forces and helped them carry out offensive operations. Now the troops had to move along the shore of the Gulf of Riga. German ships could only enter it through the narrow Irbe Strait. But the masters of the closed Gulf of Riga were the ships of the Russian Baltic Fleet. They blocked the entrance channels with minefields and guarded them vigilantly.

The command of the German ground forces did not stop calling for help from their naval forces. Encrypted German radiograms exchanged between the army and navy filled the airwaves, were intercepted by Russian intelligence and... easily translated into the language of open messages.

The Germans did not know one very important fact. At the very beginning of the war in the Baltic Sea, the German cruiser Magdeburg threw itself onto the rocks and was captured by Russian sailors. The commander of the cruiser tried to hide the most important military secret from the Russian sailors - a secret code with the help of which secret military radio transmissions are compiled and read. For this purpose, he simply threw it overboard, tying a secure weight to it.

Not finding the code on the captured ship, the Russian sailors guessed where to look for it. Brave and skillful military divers went to the bottom of the sea, searched it around the cruiser and obtained for their homeland what is often more important than a major victory - the key to the secret language of the enemy. That is why the command of the Russian fleet knew from about mid-summer that the Germans were about to try in large forces to break through the Irben Strait and oust Russian ships from the Gulf of Riga. It was necessary to prepare a worthy meeting.

Large Russian ships were based at the ports of the Gulf of Finland. They could not enter the Gulf of Riga through the northern passage - the Moon-Sound Strait: this strait was characterized by shallow water and was impassable for large ships with deep draft. This means that it was necessary to take a roundabout route, go around the islands blocking the Gulf of Riga, and pass through the Irbe Strait. In addition, it was impossible to send large forces, even if they managed to pass unnoticed, since the Gulf of Finland and the approaches to Petrograd would be left unprotected. Therefore, we had to rely more on the minefields of the Irben Strait and the vigilance of the destroyers and other small warships covering it, led by the already famous Novik. And only one battleship, Slava, which by that time had 12 years of service in its native fleet, was sent to help the defenders of the Gulf of Riga. “Slava” passed unnoticed by the Germans through the windings of the strait, through the stockades of minefields, without hitting a single mine, and its 4 powerful guns with a caliber of 305 millimeters and auxiliary artillery thoroughly strengthened the defense of the strait.

Several days passed. On the night of July 26, Russian intelligence warned the defenders of the bay that a powerful German squadron was approaching the strait. The Germans threw 7 battleships (pre-dreadnought type), 10 cruisers and many ships of other classes against the defense of the strait in order to quickly and surely crush it. At the same time, the Germans did not know that Slava was in the bay, and considered their superiority in forces even greater than it actually was.

From early morning, detachments of German minesweepers, protected by a light cruiser and a large number of destroyers, began to clear passages for their main forces. The Russian ships opened energetic and accurate fire, their shells forced the enemy minesweepers to go off course and rush around in panic among the minefields. Soon one of the German destroyers hit a mine and immediately sank. Meanwhile, the artillery salvos of Russian ships were joined by bombs from our seaplanes.

The battle has been going on for more than an hour, and the Germans cannot advance through the impregnable “gates” of the strait. And suddenly a new strong explosion raised a column of water, this time above the light cruiser - the leader of the destroyers covering the minesweepers was blown up by a mine. With a hole in the hull, the cruiser has no time for a breakthrough. His commander recalls the minesweepers from the minefields and leaves along with the entire flotilla in a southwestern direction.

But the Germans did not give up on the breakthrough. After the first unsuccessful attempt, they decided to send their main forces into the strait, so powerful and numerous that the Russians could no longer hope for any long-term and successful resistance. And soon those on watch on the Russian patrol ships saw the outlines of enemy ships on the western horizon. Again, minesweepers and destroyers were ahead, but the place of one light cruiser was taken by the heavy silhouettes of two battleships, accompanied by three cruisers. All this formidable force went against two gunboats and destroyers.

The roar of gun salvos echoed far across the bay. Together with the radiotelegraph, he conveyed a call for help to Slava. The Russian battleship rushed towards the strait at full speed. He arrived in time and - alone against five large ships - opened fire from his guns. Already at the beginning of the battle, he sank one and knocked out another enemy destroyer.

Hours passed, evening approached, and the unequal battle continued, and the German “armada” could not move forward, could not solve its problem. A few more well-aimed salvos from the Slava - and the Germans realized that this time they would not be able to get into the bay. At a signal from the flagship, the entire detachment of German ships turned and again disappeared beyond the horizon in a westerly direction.

***

The Russian sailors understood that the enemy would not abandon the much-needed invasion of the Gulf of Riga, and that a new onslaught should be expected.

And indeed, a few days later, early in the morning, numerous smokes again appeared on the horizon. This time an even stronger squadron was heading towards the strait - two dreadnoughts, 4 light cruisers, 32 destroyers and a large number of minesweepers. Twelve 281 millimeter guns constituted the main armament of each dreadnought. These guns were much longer ranged than the artillery of the Slava. It seemed that there could be no question of any resistance by the old battleship to such a huge force. But the commander of the “Slava” led his ship towards the enemy and first of all scattered the German minesweepers, forced them to stop trawling and leave the strait. Then the German dreadnoughts entered the battle. They: opened fire on the Slava from the main caliber guns and at the same time kept at such a distance that the shorter-ranged Slava guns could not reach them. The Germans were confident of an easy victory, and when the Slava began to quickly retreat beyond the range of the enemy guns, they decided that the old battleship had chosen to retreat rather than be immediately destroyed. But then “Slava” came out from under enemy fire and stopped. An unusual, strange command is heard, and the seacocks in the starboard compartments open to let in seawater. The ship begins to list to starboard, the barrels of its guns, aimed at the enemy, seem to be thrown up. Now their “elevation angle” is increasing - something that gives artillery guns additional range. Now Slava’s shells will fly much further than the usual maximum distance. And then the tilted ship again develops its highest speed, but no longer moves away from the enemy, but, unexpectedly for the astonished Germans, boldly approaches them. The turrets of the “Glory” fire continuously, heavy shells this time fly an incredible distance for the enemy and cover the Germans. The advantage of invulnerability was lost for the Germans, and the attacks of the Slava, well-aimed and strong, threatened with serious losses. The German ships for the third time refused to break through into the Gulf of Riga and quickly retreated to the south. This is how the sailors of the “Glory” accomplished their feat, this is how they showed, along with examples of courage, firmness and devotion to the homeland, also an example of excellent mastery of the ship’s equipment, which gave them the opportunity to essentially discover a completely new means of increasing the combat power of their artillery.

This incident happened more than 30 years ago and is well known to everyone. This, however, did not prevent the corrupt American press in 1945 from publishing a note in one of its popular technical magazines about the possibility of increasing the range of naval guns by creating an artificial roll as a new proposal.

Flight of "Goeben"

At the very beginning of the First World War, numerous ships of the English and French fleets, for several days observing in the Mediterranean Sea the German battle cruiser Goeben, at that time the strongest and fastest ship of this class, and the light cruiser Breslau, deliberately gave them the opportunity to escape to Turkey.

On the night of October 29, 1914, Turkey treacherously attacked Russia and began military operations in the Black Sea. "Goeben" and "Breslau" entered the Black Sea. The enemy command had high hopes for these ships.

Our Black Sea Fleet at that time included old slow-moving battleships with a small and insufficiently long-range artillery, but with well-trained artillerymen who had excellent command of the military equipment assigned to them. Therefore, in all battles with Russian ships, after the very first salvos, the Goeben had to leave the battle. This was the case on November 18, 1914, when the Goeben could not withstand a duel with the Russian battleship Eustathius, receiving serious damage and losing many people. This was the case on April 3, 1915, when meeting with Russian ships near Sevastopol. This was the case on May 10 of the same year, when the Goeben was seriously damaged in a battle near the Bosporus.

But at the beginning of 1916, the newly commissioned new Russian battleships “Empress Maria” and “Empress Catherine” set out on their first military campaigns. The meeting with such opponents did not make the Germans happy at all. And yet “Goeben” could not avoid it. How did it happen?

At a distance of 100-120 miles from the entrance to the Bosphorus Strait, on the southern shore of the Black Sea there is an area that supplies the capital of Turkey with coal. Coal had to be transported by sea through the port of Zunguldak, since there were no land roads connecting the area with Istanbul. In peacetime, the Turks also used imported – mainly English – coal. But as soon as Turkey entered the war and the blockade of the Dardanelles from the Aegean Sea began, the influx of foreign coal ceased, peacetime reserves were quickly depleted, and Zunguldak remained the only source of fuel. That is why the sea route between the Bosphorus and the port of Zunguldak became the most important artery for the Turks from the very beginning of the war. Along this artery, day and night, dozens of steamships, hundreds of sailing ships, anything that could sail a distance of 100 miles with a load of several tons, continuously transported fuel.

Stopping or significantly reducing the supply of coal to the Istanbul region is the combat mission set by the Russian command to the Black Sea Fleet at the very beginning of hostilities.

And this task was solved very successfully by Russian sailors. In the first year of the war alone, 58 steamships and countless sailing ships transporting coal were sunk in the Black Sea. Then the Turks had to send their warships to guard the coal ships - first destroyers, then cruisers, including the Breslau. But that didn't help either.

Almost every day, Russian destroyers continued to destroy the last steamships and sailing ships and captured dozens of fishing vessels. The coal blockade was already strangling the Turks. And then the Germans and Turks decided to take an extreme measure - to send their strongest warship, the Goeben, to the sea to cover the coal ships returning from Zunguldak.

On the morning of January 7, the coal transport Carmen left the Bosphorus for Zunguldak. He was accompanied by Turkish destroyers. With the onset of darkness, the destroyers turned back on course, leaving the transport amp; security: after all, Zunguldak is already very close, and the darkness of the night well hides the ship from the Russian blockade ships.

In the evening, following the Carmen, the Goeben also left the Bosphorus with the expectation of arriving in Zunguldak by the next morning and taking the returning Carmen transport under its protection. But in the morning, when “Goeben” arrived at the place, it turned out that “Carmen” had not come here yet... And then the radio brought bad news to the commander of “Goeben”: at night, Russian destroyers sank our transport and sank it.

“Goeben” had to return to the west, to the Bosphorus.

From the selected and captured sailors from the Carmen, the Russians learned that the Goeben should leave the Bosphorus after the transport. The destroyers immediately set course for the Bosphorus in order to track down, lay in wait for the battle cruiser, serve as bait for it and point it at the new and powerful Russian battleship Empress Catherine.

They succeeded. "Goeben", noticing the Russian destroyers, gave full speed and pursued, as it seemed to him, certain prey. The destroyers retreated to the northwest. The Empress Catherine cruised there.

"Goeben" had been racing forward for about an hour, when suddenly thick, black smoke appeared on the horizon (in the north-northwest). It was the “Empress Catherine”, which, already from a distance of 110 cables (20 kilometers), opened accurate fire, took a counter course and went at full speed towards the German ship. Soon the Catherine's shells rained down on the Goeben's deck in a hail of fragments.

The Germans did not wait for the inevitable defeat when approaching on a collision course; they turned towards the Bosporus, again reached full speed and began to respond with fire from their main caliber. Following “Goeben”, “Ekaterina” also turned. Now the battle took place on parallel courses, still at a long distance. "Goeben" strained all the power of its engines in order to increase the distance, to quickly escape from the crushing artillery strikes of the Russian battleship.

But “Ekaterina” also developed a speed of 21 knots, which was enormous for that time, and it was very difficult for the Germans to win every cable. Finally, the distance increased to 23 kilometers (125 cables) and continued to grow. “Empress Catherine” sent her last powerful salvo at the fleeing, wounded enemy and stopped the pursuit, and “Goeben” still rushed west to quickly hide in the convolutions of the saving Bosphorus from the new and formidable force of the Russian fleet on the Black Sea.

Jutland fight

The British brought 28 battleships, 9 battlecruisers, 8 heavy and 26 light cruisers and 79 destroyers into the North Sea. What alarmed the British Admiralty so much? Why were almost all the forces of the English fleet simultaneously thrown in one direction, to the northwestern shores of the Jutland Peninsula?

When the Russians captured the German cruiser Magdeburg at the beginning of the war, they made a copy of the secret code they found for radio transmissions and gave it to the British. Therefore, British intelligence intercepted and easily deciphered secret radio communications between German ships and naval bases. On the afternoon of May 30, 1910, an order from German Vice Admiral Hipper was intercepted: at 20 o'clock the fleet would set out to sea north to the Skagerrak Strait, to the southern shores of Norway.

The intelligence report about this order caused the English fleet to be sent east to cross the Germans to the area of ​​the North Sea where a meeting with Hipper's ships was expected.

Hipper's squadron consisted of only five battlecruisers, supported by light cruisers and destroyers. Behind, 50 miles behind, Admiral Scheer walked with all the German forces. His plan was as follows: Hipper's ships were to serve as bait for part of the English fleet. They were supposed to meet the British, engage them in battle and lead them towards their main forces. The united parts of the German fleet will be stronger and will quickly destroy the enemy before the British main forces arrive. In total, the Germans put to sea 16 battleships, 5 battlecruisers,

6 battleships of an obsolete type, built before the advent of the Dreadnought, 11 light cruisers and 61 destroyers.

The British knew nothing about Scheer's plan. According to intelligence reports, they believed that the main forces of the German fleet had not gone to sea. Like Scheer, Jellicoe decided to lure the Germans into a trap. He sent Beatty's squadron ahead so that he, having met Hipper's ships, would engage them in battle and lure them towards the main forces of the British. It turned out that both sides did not expect to meet the main forces of the enemy. But the Germans were afraid of such a meeting - they did not have enough strength to withstand the battle with the “Big Fleet” of the British.

Late in the evening of May 30 there was great activity in the North Sea. Beatty's ships were hurrying from the northwest to the shores of the Jutland Peninsula. They marched in two lines: in front were the battlecruisers under the direct command of Beatty, and a few miles behind were the battleships under the command of Rear Admiral Thomas. Ahead of both battle lines were scouts - light fast cruisers, and the flanks were guarded by flotillas of destroyers.

Not far from the coast of England, at a predetermined point in the sea, the ships coming from Scapa Flow, Invergordon and Cramarty met and united into one large squadron under the command of Admiral Jellicoe. From there they followed Beatty. From the south, Hipper's ships were coming towards the British, and Scheer with the main German forces was moving even further south behind them. All night and the morning of the next day, May 31, all these ships continued their journey towards Cape Skagerrak, as if aiming for one point in the North Sea.

Having not met the Germans, in the afternoon Beatty wanted to turn north to the main forces. But at that moment, around 2 p.m., the English light cruiser Galatea noticed a thick and motionless column of black smoke on the horizon. Soon, observers from the Galatea saw the peaceful Danish cargo steamer U-Fiord stopped and smoking furiously. Two German destroyers, also seeing the black smoke of the U-Fiord from afar, caught up with the steamer and stopped it. The Galatea opened fire on the German destroyers, and the ship's radio sent word to Beatty over the air that Hipper's battlecruisers were approaching.

Nine minutes later, the German light cruiser Elbing, which was on advanced patrol, reported to Hipper: “I see enemy ships in the northwest.” At about 14:30 in the afternoon, both advanced squadrons went towards each other and began the famous Battle of Jutland.

For more than an hour, the opponents – the battlecruisers of both sides – converged. At this time, their combat reconnaissance officers - light cruisers - were conducting a firefight. And only at 15 hours 48 minutes, almost simultaneously and at full speed, six British and five German battle cruisers opened fire from their main caliber guns.

Why did only six British battlecruisers take part in the battle? Where were the four powerful battleships that were part of Beatty's squadron at that time? It turned out that they were so far behind that they could not help their flagship. Poor communication and lack of coordination between parts of Beatty's squadron led to the fact that at the decisive moment the forces of the English vanguard were scattered. But Beatty wasn't particularly sad about it. He considered himself stronger than the Germans and sought to defeat them without any help.

In terms of speed, caliber and range of the main artillery, the German ships were inferior to the British. It seemed that all the chances for victory were on Beatty's side.

Seeing the British, Hipper turned his ships and began to leave in the direction from which the main forces of the Germans - Scheer's battleships - were supposed to appear. In pursuit of the escaping enemy, Beatty immediately followed the German ships without waiting for his four battleships.

The battle was divided into several artillery duels between enemy ships. Quite unexpectedly, the British began to suffer significant losses. The British battlecruisers did not withstand heavy enemy artillery strikes well. The shells easily penetrated their side, turret and deck armor at a distance of 9-16 kilometers. After 17 minutes of battle, the English battlecruiser Indefatigable sank. Another 20 minutes later, the second English battlecruiser Queen Mary also ended her combat life.

Soon after the death of the Indefatigable, Beatty's four battleships arrived in time and entered the battle. These were even more powerful ships than battlecruisers. They were armed with 381 mm caliber guns.

Why did the British suffer such losses?

The English ships on the western horizon stood out clearly, clearly, while the German ships on the eastern horizon were covered with a slight haze. Therefore, during the first period of the battle, the British ships were hit by twice as many shells as the German ones. But the main reason for the British losses was hidden in the design of the ships: they were not sufficiently protected from the destructive and incendiary effects of shells. They did not have thick enough armor, the placement of bulkheads and waterproof compartments was not thought out. Therefore, fire and water spread throughout the ship, ammunition exploded. The ships turned out to be insufficiently durable.

While the battle was going on between the large ships, while the light cruisers were fighting in combat reconnaissance, monitoring the maneuvers of their opponents, detachments of destroyers collided between the lines in counter attacks and dispersed. These fast and stealthy ships flew into the battle lines of large ships and quickly left. The destroyers of both sides failed to sink a single large warship in daytime attacks. The torpedo's trail on the water gave away its direction, and the ships "turned away", dodging an underwater strike. And yet these small, seemingly weak ships provided enormous assistance to the linear forces. Their attacks forced large ships to frequently change course and speed. This disrupted the aiming of the guns and reduced the accuracy and rate of fire. Therefore, in the most dangerous, critical moments of the battle, both sides threw flotillas of destroyers at the enemy and received a respite to carry out the maneuver.

The second hour of the Battle of Jutland ended. Despite the loss of two ships, Beatty continued to advance resolutely. The battle between the battlecruisers had been going on for 45 minutes - the Germans were leaving, the British were pursuing them, shells were hitting the German ships more and more often. And suddenly an alarming report came from the advanced reconnaissance officer of the English squadron, from the cruiser Southampton: “Hurry. Out of turn. I see the enemy’s battle fleet, the bearing is approximately southeast, the enemy’s course is north.” This was the main force of the German “High Seas Fleet” under the command of Admiral Scheer approaching.

The picture of the battle changed dramatically. The English battlecruisers turned back one after another. Scheer's long line of ships turned west at full speed to cut off Beatty's squadron's escape route. Beatty fired back energetically, his ships rushing forward at full speed to the north in order to escape from the loop that threatened them in time. Their combat assistants - light cruisers - under the fire of the heavy guns of German ships vigilantly monitored the movements and maneuvers of the enemy, and the fast destroyers again rushed to attack their pursuers. This attack helped Beatty's ships, already heavily damaged, turn north without much loss. Now it was necessary to lure the Germans to the British main forces.

And from the northwest, Jellicoe’s ships, the main forces of the British, were already approaching.

24 battleships lined up in six wake columns of four ships each. Each wake column is a separate squadron of battleships. All around is a cover of 39 fast destroyers, and far ahead and on the flanks are heavy and light cruisers. But these were not all of Jellicoe's ships. 25 miles east of his main forces, even closer to Beatty and the Germans, Admiral Hood's squadron of three battle cruisers, guarded by cruisers and destroyers, was moving south at full speed. This reconnaissance squadron went ahead of Jellicoe and at that moment was east of the battlefield. The radio brought Hood orders from Jellicoe to join the main force.

This entire naval force was quickly approaching the battlefield. Beatty, who was leaving the Germans, knew that the roles would soon change again, but in the meantime he was luring Admiral Scheer’s fleet closer to Jellicoe, away from the German bases. By this time, the light at sea had changed in favor of the British and their artillerymen began to inflict heavy damage on Hipper's ships more and more often.

The chase continued. The Germans were confident of victory over Beatty's ships and were unaware of the danger looming from the north. Only at 5 p.m., one of the German cruisers, which came under fire from Hood’s ships, was the first to radio Scheer about the approach of a new strong enemy, and at 5 p.m. 45 minutes, Jellicoe’s advanced cruisers opened fire on Scheer’s lead cruisers. This is how the main forces of the opponents met.

Again, the decisive advantage was on the side of the British, but the slow deployment of Jellicoe’s ships and the confusion in the movements of individual parts of the English fleet allowed the Germans to adapt to the situation and take aim at the enemy. Soon, half an hour after the meeting of the main forces, the third English large ship, the armored cruiser Defense with a displacement of 14,600 tons, was lost, and the other armored cruiser Warrior was seriously damaged and left the battle. Along with these two cruisers, the battleship Warspite was also put out of action. A few minutes later, the English cruiser Invincible exploded, broke in two and sank. On the Defense, Rear Admiral Arbuthnot and the entire crew were killed, on the Invincible, Rear Admiral Hood was killed, and only six people from the crew were saved.

The battle was heating up. Fiery flashes of gunfire covered the horizon over a vast area. But Scheer did not yet know that he had met with the entire “Big Fleet” of the British. At 18:25, German destroyers picked up the British from the sunken ship. The prisoners were questioned, and only then did Scheer find out what forces they would have to fight with. A signal was immediately sent to the German ships to turn “all of a sudden” by 16 points. Each ship had to turn to its place in the line of battle; the leading ship became the terminal one, and the terminal one became the leading one.

By this time, the British artillerymen had already taken aim at the German ships. The battlecruisers Seydlitz, Derflinger and Lützow, who found themselves at the rear when turning, experienced a number of strong impacts that caused great destruction to these ships. As a result of the damage received, the cruiser Lützow completely lost its combat capability. At night he drowned.

There are two hours left before dark. The entire German tactics in the second half of the battle boiled down to not accepting the battle, holding out until night and escaping with as few losses as possible.

Map of the Battle of Jutland

The slow caution of the English admiral helped Scheer. With sudden “all of a sudden” turns of his ships, he knocked down the British fire and saved his forces from defeat. Continuous torpedo attacks by German destroyers forced the British to turn away and provided respite for the larger ships. Thus, the last light hours of the day on May 31 passed in short battles and respites. Evening came, then night, and Scheer managed to take his heavily damaged ships to the German bases.

The figures from the Battle of Jutland are very expressive. On both sides, 249 warships took part in it, including 44 battleships and 14 battlecruisers. The battle was fought over enormous distances - up to 16-18 kilometers. The opponents fired more than 8,000 heavy shells of caliber from 280 to 380 millimeters. On average, such a projectile weighed approximately 600 kilograms. Thus, in six hours of battle, the guns threw out about 5 million kilograms of steel and explosives - almost a million per hour. But for every 100 rounds there were only two or three hits, and very few ships were disabled: the British lost three battlecruisers and three armored cruisers, and the Germans lost one old and small pre-dreadnought battleship, one battlecruiser and four light cruisers. In addition, both sides lost several destroyers.

Military historians and writers in Western countries have called the Battle of Jutland the greatest naval battle of all time. In fact, this battle deserves such a name only due to the number of naval forces that collided and the power of their weapons.

The Battle of Jutland did not have the significance that was attributed to it, because neither side achieved a decisive victory. The English fleet, which had a huge advantage in strength, in the most favorable combat situation was unable to solve its task - to defeat and destroy the main forces of the enemy. In addition, major shortcomings in the design of battlecruisers and armored cruisers led to the fact that the British suffered greater losses than the Germans. The German fleet, which at the beginning of the battle had a great superiority in strength over Beatty's squadron, also did not solve its task - to destroy part of the English fleet lured into a trap.

Historical operation

On October 25, 1917, the cruiser Aurora, with the thunder of its guns aimed at the Winter Palace in Petrograd, heralded the beginning of a new era - the era of the Great Socialist Revolution.

Under the leadership of Lenin and Stalin, the working class overthrew the power of capitalists and landowners and established its own, Soviet power - the power of workers and peasants.

The October Revolution split the whole world into two systems - the system of capitalism and the system of socialism. That is why Russian landowners and capitalists, as well as the imperialists of England, France, the USA and Japan, entered into a fierce struggle against the young Soviet Republic. In addition to the open war, the White Guards and foreign invaders began to send in; their agents into our territory to organize conspiracies and sabotage. An example of one such conspiracy was the mutiny at the Krasnaya Gorka fort.

On the night of June 13, 1919, the commandant of the Krasnaya Gorka fort, together with other traitors, disarmed and arrested the sleeping communist fighters who were taken by surprise and went over to the side of Yudenich’s White Guards advancing from Estonia. A strong fort, armed with two batteries of long-range naval guns with a caliber of 305 millimeters, one battery of fortress guns with a caliber of 254 millimeters and other, smaller guns, unexpectedly fell out of the defensive system of Petrograd and at the same time strengthened the artillery power of the advancing enemy. In the same treacherous way, after the “Red Hill”, the enemy captured the “Grey Horse” fort with less powerful, but still quite strong artillery.

In Petrograd itself and in the rear of our troops, in institutions and in some headquarters, traitors, saboteurs and spies were operating in the service of foreign intelligence services. They tried to upset, undermine the defense of Petrograd, relieve the enemies of their stupefaction and, at the decisive moment, organize a coup and seizure of power in the city itself.

Our Motherland was going through difficult days. From one side to the other, the most important vital centers of the young Soviet Republic were threatened by the White Guard hordes and expeditionary forces. interventionists.

The great Lenin sent his faithful comrade-in-arms, Comrade Stalin, to the most dangerous fronts that were decisive for the revolution. Just recently, in the summer days of 1918, Comrade Stalin, having led the defense of Tsaritsyn, stopped and then defeated the hordes of Ataman Krasnov that were already hanging over the city, forcing them to roll far away from the Volga stronghold of the country of the Soviets. Now, at any cost, it was necessary to repel the enemy in the north-west, push him back, push him away from Petrograd. And again, Comrade Stalin was at the most decisive battle post - where the revolution and the homeland were in greatest danger.

Arriving in Petrograd, Comrade Stalin carried out enormous organizational work in the city, in front-line institutions, in military units and on naval ships. The supply of the front and ships was established, centers of betrayal and espionage in rear institutions and in Petrograd itself were destroyed, new, highly combat-ready units were organized. Comrade Stalin inspired the defenders of Red St. Petersburg to new exploits and instilled in them confidence in eventual victory.

Enemies at the front and in the rear soon felt the results of his grandiose work: the resistance of our units became stronger and stronger, they launched counterattacks more and more often and more successfully, it became more and more difficult for traitors and spies to do their dirty work in the rear of our troops and in Petrograd. All this forced the White Guards, with the direct help of the British, to accelerate the organization of treacherous seizures of the Kronstadt forts. But, except for “Red Hill” and “Grey Horse”, the enemy’s plans were not successful anywhere. All other forts of Kronstadt continued to steadfastly and confidently defend the city of the proletarian revolution and the sea approaches to it. The transfer of two forts with their strong artillery into the hands of the enemy did not bring confusion to the ranks of its defenders, led by Comrade Stalin, but, on the contrary, caused quick and decisive countermeasures, in which the main role was entrusted to the battleships of the Baltic Fleet "Petropavlovsk" and "Andrew the First-Called" "

The peculiarity of the situation was that there was no time to waste. It was impossible to allow the enemy to use the Krasnaya Gorka artillery to shell Kronstadt and actively assist their advancing units. It was impossible to give the British enough time to understand the situation and come to the rescue

to the rebel forts - after all, now British ships could count on success when breaking through the minefield. Therefore, the plan proposed by Comrade Stalin required immediately opposing the guns of “Krasnaya Gorka” with an equally powerful artillery force, which could counter the guns of the fort and divert their fire. At the same time, it was necessary to quickly organize shock units to attack Krasnaya Gorka from land. And to support these units, powerful and long-range artillery was again needed. Such artillery - guns with a caliber of 305 millimeters - were armed with both battleships that headed the “Operating Detachment” of the Baltic Fleet - “Petropavlovsk” (12 guns) and “Andrei Pervozvanny” (4 guns). The first of them was one of the best battleships of its time. Comrade Stalin proposed using these two battleships, as well as the cruiser Oleg, as the main artillery force for attacks on Krasnaya Gorka, and the seaplanes of the fleet for simultaneous bombing of the enemy, reconnaissance and correction of ship fire. Thus, Comrade Stalin proposed a coordinated attack on the fort, in which land, sea and air forces would simultaneously participate and help each other, but the main role would be assigned to battleships.

This decision of Comrade Stalin met with resistance from old naval specialists. They proposed attacking only from land and argued that there had never been a case where, when taking modern powerful coastal fortresses, the main combat mission was solved by the forces of the fleet, that such a decision contradicts maritime science and overturns it. Comrade Stalin rejected their proposals as incorrect and doomed to failure.

As soon as it became known about the night events of June 13, the battleships and the cruiser "Oleg" received orders to be in combat readiness - to take positions for a possible battle with the enemy on the shore and at sea and "immediately respond with fire from the ships if the forts captured by the enemy begin to fire Kronstadt: The Air Brigade of the Baltic Fleet also received an order for combat readiness.

And when the Krasnaya Gorka opened fire on Kronstadt, both battleships responded with blows from their main caliber guns and from that time on almost continuously kept the fort under fire. Soon the smoke of fires rose above the fort, and the fire of its guns became weaker and weaker.

In the meantime, shock units, called the “Coastal Group of Forces,” were formed and concentrated in Oranienbaum. And already on the night of June 14, these units moved west and began to take up their starting positions for the attack on Krasnaya Gorka.

Soon the cruiser "Oleg" also entered the battle. The powerful guns of Soviet ships accurately hit the enemy, causing more and more fires and destruction, spreading fear and panic in the ranks of the White Guards. In the evening, a strong explosion shook the fort's structures. Flames rose to the sky, and a column of black smoke almost covered the fort for a short time. This is a particularly successful salvo from Petropavlovsk. And before the smoke of the fire it had caused had cleared, Soviet seaplanes appeared in the air, dropping 14 bombs and 7,000 arrows on the fort.

The enemy was confused, sprayed his artillery fire on many targets - the results of his shooting were insignificant.

Thus, during June 13 and 14, all conditions were prepared for a coordinated attack on Krasnaya Gorka on June 15.

On this day, the battleship Petropavlovsk began intensive shelling of the Krasnaya Gorka early in the morning. The cruiser "Oleg" stood at the combat post of the "Andrew the First-Called", which had been set up the day before for repairs and to receive fuel, and opened fire on the "Grey Horse" fort. At the same time, supported by the fire of the armored train and the destroyer Gaydamak, the coastal group of troops went on the offensive.

Within an hour, large fires broke out on Krasnaya Gorka, and clouds of black-brown smoke obscured the fort’s structures. The enemy's return fire was erratic, his guns were aimed alternately at Soviet ships, then at Kronstadt, then at coastal targets and, rarely, at advancing units. And units of the Red Army moved closer and closer. Here. Bolshie and Malye Borki are already occupied, Rigolovo is about to be taken. The Red Army begins to advance in the Narva direction. Deceived by the traitors, the soldiers of the Krasnaya Gorka garrison, one by one and in groups, began to go over to the side of the attackers

Soviet units, the White resistance was broken. At 5 p.m. the fire from Krasnaya Gorka stopped, and in the evening the enemy hastily left the fort. A few more hours - and the banner of the country of the Soviets soared over the “Red Hill” again. And by noon on June 16, the fire of the cruiser Oleg forced the enemy to clear the Gray Horse fort. A few days later, the artillery of “Krasnaya Gorka” and “Grey Horse” again entered the defense of Petrograd with its full power.

In his historic telegraph report to Lenin on the completion of the operation to retake the forts, Comrade Stalin wrote:

“...Naval experts assure that the capture of Krasnaya Gorka from the sea overthrows all naval science, period. I can only mourn the so-called science, period. The rapid capture of Gorka is explained by the grossest interference on the part of me and civilians in general in operational matters, comma, which went as far as canceling orders by sea and land and imposing my own point I consider it my duty to declare that I will continue to act in this way despite all my reverence for science."

Thus, for the first time in history: the naval wars of the last half century, contrary to all recognized but outdated theoretical principles, the possibility of capturing coastal fortresses was proven with the help of coordinated actions of interacting ground, sea and air forces with the main participation of naval ships. Stalin's operation on June 13-16, 1919 served as an example and the beginning of those coordinated operations against the enemy's shore, which were widely used by the Armed Forces of the Soviet country during the Great Patriotic War.

Notes:

Displacement is the weight of water displaced by the part of the ship immersed in it and equal to its total weight.

Kingston is a valve in the underwater part that allows sea water to enter the ship.

One rhumb is equal to 11.25°; 16 directions are equal to 180°.

IMEL Archive, No. 4266.

Bearing – compass direction; determined by the angle between the meridian and the direction to the observed object.

By the beginning of the First World War, battleships were considered the main striking force in the battle at sea, but in reality they almost did not participate in hostilities - with the exception of the only general battle between the British and German fleets, which took place in 1916 off the coast of the Jutland Peninsula. Basically, the mighty dreadnoughts remained in bases throughout the war and, following the well-known principle of “fleet in being,” threatened the enemy with the very fact of their existence.

However, such a passive use of battleships did not protect them from significant losses. The Odeyshes was the first to perish in October 1914: it hit a mine off its shores and sank, clearly demonstrating the weakness of the underwater defense of British dreadnoughts. Another 4 battleships became victims of fires and subsequent explosions of ammunition - in 1916–1918, for this reason, the Italian Leonardo da Vinci, the English Vanguard, the Japanese Kawachi and the Russian Empress Maria died directly in their bases.

But the battlecruisers were much more active - in the outbreak of the World War, not a single major naval battle took place without their participation. The “finest hour” of the English “Invincible” and “Inflexible” was the destruction of the German armored cruisers “Scharnhorst” and “Gneisenau” near the Falkland Islands in December 1914. A month and a half later, a fierce battle took place between British and German battlecruisers off Dogger Bank in the North Sea. The British realized their numerical advantage by sinking the old armored cruiser Blücher, which, for some unknown reason, was included in a detachment of stronger fast ships. He became the only casualty of the battle, although the English Lion was on the verge of death. In the midst of the battle, Admiral David Beatty's flagship was hit in the engine room. Insufficient protection had an impact: the turbine failed, and the cruiser began to list. One of the German shells pierced the roof of the gun turret on the Lion and nearly destroyed the ship. As a result, the admiral was forced to transfer command to the junior flagship, who chose to finish off the already badly damaged Blucher rather than continue the pursuit and perhaps win a more decisive victory.

The battle at Dogger Bank was the first serious test for the German battlecruisers. A 343-mm shell from the Lion pierced the barbette of the Seydlitz aft turret and ignited the charges in the reloading compartment. Apparently, someone, fleeing, opened the door to the lower compartments of the neighboring tower... One way or another, the fire engulfed both aft towers at once. About 6 tons of gunpowder ignited - the flames soared above the masts, instantly consuming 165 crew members. Everyone expected an explosion, but it did not happen: the rational design of the cellars and brass sleeves made it possible to avoid a disaster.

The operations of World War II presented another surprise, which not all historians noticed. Finally, the old truth was refuted: a ship should not fight with coastal batteries. And the battleships should thank for this the very damned aviation that removed them from the throne, or rather, spotter planes. Now the battleship could conduct accurate fire from a long distance without exposing itself to special risks, as was the case in 1915 in the Dardanelles. Allied battleships destroyed not only Japanese batteries on the Pacific islands, where there were no guns larger than 203 mm, but also heavy German batteries in Brest and Cherbourg. Of course, dive bombers helped the naval artillery, but the battleships’ guns also had their say.

Although, why was it necessary to build such large and expensive ships for this? It was possible to get by with cheap monitors, but the British built Abercrombie and Roberts. And if there had been a second Vittorio Cuniberti, who wrote the article “The Ideal Battleship for the American Navy” somewhere in 1943, he would probably have proposed crossing the Roberts with the Iowa and some kind of air defense cruiser. The result would be something like projects for completing the French battleship Jean Bart at American shipyards: many, many anti-aircraft guns and one main caliber turret at quite decent speed. And what? Such a ship will ensure the stability of the air defense of an aircraft carrier formation, it will shoot down the coastal battery, and it obviously will not face a linear battle.

Actually, after the war, those who survived degraded to the state of high-speed monitors. American Iowas fought in Korea and Vietnam, Lebanon and Iraq in this capacity. Even the appearance of Tomahawks on their decks did not change anything, well, it turned out to be a missile monitor. So, back in the 1950s, projects were proposed to rebuild these same ships into BBMG ballistic missile monitors. A sad and paradoxical end to the career of the former ruler of the seas...

Not quite battleships and not battleships at all

There is an interesting question: who actually discovered America, but the main thing is why did he commit such a vile act? At first everything was completely clear to us: the great Genoese Christopher Columbus did this in 1492, the Americans even celebrated Columbus Day. Then, somehow, imperceptibly, damned questions began to arise. And Columbus seems to be not really Columbus, but Cristobal Colon, and not from Genoa at all, but from somewhere else. And now Americans have to celebrate the Day of Leif Ericsson, who, as it turned out, discovered America 500 years before Columbus. However, Columbus was not offended, so in the United States, October 9 is celebrated as Leif's Day, and October 21 is Christopher's Day, and everyone is happy. After this, the discoverers of America began to fall out as if from a leaky bag, but for some reason the Americans themselves were in no hurry to recognize them. The reason is clear: can you imagine celebrating Zheng He Day in the United States?! Personally, I just can’t. It would be nice if Juan Cortrerial or the monk Brendan were also there, but the Chinese may also present Hu Shen, or a Malian Sultan will suddenly appear. As complete nonsense, a hypothesis was put forward that America was discovered by Tamerlane during his campaign against India, and this name came from his title - Amir Timur Guragan - that is, Amir-aka. You understand, this certainly proves that America was discovered by the Uzbeks.

The situation is approximately the same with battleships, that is, battleships. When exactly and where exactly the first armored battleship appeared, it is impossible to say with complete certainty; in any case, each historian solves this question in his own way. You can choose any of the options you like, we are going on a little trip into the past.

The first stop is 1859, the iron frigate "Warrior" with side armor was laid down in England. It was called a frigate, of course, only because the armament - 36 guns - was completely indecent for a battleship, but its displacement (more than 9,000 tons) was twice the displacement of any wooden battleship. The French dispute this, claiming that back in 1858 they laid down the wooden but armored ship Gloire. In extreme cases, they are even ready to date this date back a few years ago, when during the siege of Sevastopol they built several armored floating batteries and managed to take the Kinburn fortress with their help. However, Korean historians completely disagree with them, who claim that Admiral Yi Sun-sin, under the leadership of our beloved leader Comrade Kobukson... Or vice versa? Our great leader, Comrade Kobukson... Okay, in short, back in 1592, in a naval battle off Hansan Island, the Koreans defeated the Japanese with the help of the world's first battleships. The fact that a 300-ton punt will simply sink under the weight of its armor does not interest them at all. There was a valuable indication “it floats”, which means that everything else is a falsification of history to the detriment of interests. The Japanese modestly hint that the Atakebune ships participating in the same battle could also have had armor, although it did not help the Japanese. But we must reject all these claims as unfounded. After all, two thousand years ago Archimedes built the ship "Syracusan", on the deck of which iron shields were installed to protect the crew, which means that the first battleship in history was built in Syracuse. It is not clear who should lay claim to primacy. Syracuse is located in Sicily, like Italy, but, on the other hand, it was a Greek colony, like Greece. So decide for yourself.

The Americans are also making their claims. They, of course, did not go so far as to claim that the Sioux tribes built ironclad canoes, but they proudly claim that the first battle of ironclad ships in history took place on March 8, 1862. It’s hard to argue with this, except that it’s hard to call the “Monitor” and “Virginia” ships, they were too... unseaworthy, or something. Here we are faced with another nice example of historical fraud. The vast majority of sources call this collision a battle between the Monitor and the Merrimack, although the Merrimack was the name given to the wooden frigate of the still united United States, and the battleship of the Confederate States was named Virginia. That is, the USS "Merrimac" is not the CSS "Virginia" at all, although quite modern authors Jack Green and Alessandro Massignani think differently.

The main reason for the appearance of armor on ships is said to be the creation of explosive shells, or bombs, as they were called then. But with the combat use of bombing weapons, not everything is clear either. Russian historians confidently declare that the decisive event was the battle of Sinop, in which the Black Sea Fleet destroyed the Turkish squadron on November 30, 1853, the main role in which was played by the Peksan bombing guns. However, they were first used at the Battle of Vera Cruz in Mexico back in 1839. And in 1849, the Danish sailing battleship Christian VIII had the misfortune of contacting a Prussian coastal battery in Ekernfjord with sad consequences for itself. But it would be completely fair to say that it was Sinop who dispelled the last doubts - wooden ships cannot withstand explosive shells.

Also, the issue of using linear tactics has not been fully resolved. The proud admirals of the “Mistress of the Seas” confidently declare that it was they who first laid the foundations for the main tactical technique of all fleets for the next few centuries during the Anglo-Dutch wars. Probably, the systematic use of the wake column began precisely then, but we can see the first example much earlier. On February 12, 1503, in the battle off the Malabar coast of India, the famous navigator Vasco da Gama gave a classic example of the use of linear tactics. Having lined up his ships in a wake column, he defeated the flotilla of the Zamorin of Calicut with artillery fire. That is, as always happens, the concept of an armored battleship was not born out of nowhere and not suddenly, the fleets of the whole world have been working towards it for quite a long time.

But still, let’s return to the battles of the Civil War in the United States, because it was they who finally changed the nature of naval warfare; there was no going back to the old ways.

After the outbreak of the Civil War, the Confederate command began to frantically search for a way to somehow neutralize the unconditional superiority of the northerners at sea, since almost the entire fleet remained at their disposal. The only solution was to create a qualitatively new ship that would be able to withstand everything that the northerners could throw at it, and not only survive, but also win. The industrial weakness of the South made it possible to talk only about units, but not about the fleet. Does this remind you of anything? That's right, everything new is well-forgotten old; it was precisely such considerations a hundred years later that prompted the Japanese to begin building battleships of the Yamato type. The only pity is that at the same time they completely forgot how the combat career of the Confederate battleships ended and what victories they were able to win.

Oddly enough, the Confederate Navy Minister Mallory was inspired by an article in the London Times to create the battleship. In the end, it was decided to rebuild the frigate Merrimack, which the southerners received as a trophy at the shipyard in Gosport, into an armadillo. Although the frigate's hull was almost burned out, its engines were in tolerable condition, as the southerners claimed. And here we encounter the first contradiction. All, literally all descriptions of the battles of the Civil War are replete with complaints from Confederate naval officers about the disgusting state of the engine installations, and the story of the Virginia is no exception. How the good condition of the vehicle during the rebuilding of the ship turned into terrible in the very first battle is a complete mystery.