Unsinkable

History 26/01/20 Unsinkable “the väinämöinen”: how many times the Soviet pilots tried to destroy Finnish battleship

After the liberation of Finland from the power of the Russian Empire in 1917, the Finnish Navy consisted of a few small vessels. This is clearly lacking to protect the country from the sea. In the late twenties it was decided to build two battleships, to somehow defend the Finnish coast from fleets neighbors on the Baltic sea. The German-Dutch firm “M. V. Incinerator Thief Shelbaev” in 1932-33 was built two of the same type of Armadillo. Entering service, they received the names of “väinämöinen” and “Ilmarinen”. Each of them was equipped with two powerful 254-mm guns, and had four 105-mm antiaircraft guns, the same 40-millimeter anti-aircraft guns and two 20-millimeter automatic.

the”väinämöinen” and “Ilmarinen” as the other ships of the coast defense of Finland, subject to destruction by order of the Commissar of the Soviet Navy N. G. Kuznetsov at the beginning of the Winter war (1939-1940): it was important not to allow the departure of the Finnish ships to Sweden, where they have been impossible to capture and where they might come back to interfere with Soviet ships. Armadillos of fennobio a priority of submarines and aviation of the Baltic fleet. Already in the first day of the war (30 November) Soviet bombers DB-3 attacked the battleships, but did not inflict any damage.

After a long period of bad weather, from December 19 to bombers again bombed Finnish ships, and the attacks involved dozens of aircraft. Despite numerous raids, during which it was dropped almost 63 tons of bombs, to sense was not any — just all the bombs fell wide of the goal. Thus repulsed, Finns shot down 3 and damaged 9 cars of the Soviet Union. General S. F. Zhavoronkov was almost kidding when I say that the Soviet pilots “imbued with respect to the Finnish battleships” — that’s the result the sustained efforts of aviation.

to succeed prevented, on the one hand, a good anti-aircraft armament of the Finnish ships, on the other (most important) — inept bombers deprived due to ice your main weapon — torpedoes and not really knowing how to aim, when it was necessary to use the bombs. The winter war ended quickly, and the aircraft fleet has not solved the task — Finnish battleships remained intact.

a New attempt to destroy them was made in the beginning of the great Patriotic war, when battleships shelled the naval base of Hanko. The Soviet Navy was lucky: “Illmarinen” sank on 13 September 1941, stepped on a German or Finnish mine. Left The “Väinämöinen”. In 1944, the patience of the Soviet command in the Baltic snapped, and the destruction of the “väinämöinen” sent additional forces.

In July, the command of the Baltic fleet decided to take up the matter with mind: first, the airmen trained for a long time aiming to throw bombs, second — allocated as many as 132 of the aircraft (weight 38 tons of bombs) to search for and destruction of “väinämöinen”. Supervised the operation commander of the air force fleet, Colonel-General M. I. Samokhin. The aircraft took off and finally the bombers hit the target: in the “väinämöinen” (as they thought) hit two bombs FAB-250 (explosive weight of 250 kg) and two FAB-1000 (weighing a ton). Shortly after the defeat of the bombs the ship sank. The Soviet group had lost 1 plane shot down and 4 back at the airport with injuries.

the Command BF the Soviet Union was already introduced participants to the awards and celebrating the victory, when it became clear that sunk not “väinämöinen”, a German cruiser defense “Niobe” (also a good goal, but were not in operation). The “väinämöinen” was not destroyed. The name of the cruiser “väinämöinen” is the name of the hero of the ancient Finnish national epic, the son of the gods. A ship with this name fought in two wars without damage.

Although the war ended, the Soviet Union decided not to allow presence of a Finnish vehicleher in the Baltic. In 1947, the allies signed, in Paris, a series of peace treaties with the former satellites of Germany: Italy, Romania, Hungary, Bulgaria and Finland. These countries returned the rights of sovereign States, but laid on them reparations, some political and territorial obligations. Finland recognized the achievements of the Soviet Union in 1940, gave the Soviet Pechenga and had to reduce its armed forces. In addition, the Finns were forbidden henceforth to have nuclear weapons, submarines and bombers. The USSR forced the Finns to the sale of the remaining battleship. The “väinämöinen” was sold Finland to USSR in 1947 and renamed Vyborg. Until 1966, the ship remained in service. A few Finnish submarines, minelayers, minesweepers and gunboats went for scrapping.

Konstantin Dmitriev

Source:
© Russian Seven

see also: editor’s choice, “Russian Seven”thieves in law on the eve of the Olympics-80 struggled with prestupnostiu was the biggest surprise of the Germans in the USSR after the beginning of valupedia Black devil in Khakassia: the most mysterious place in Sibirica special in men who are born only sinovialnaya article also Listen to the podcast “the Russian Seven”. Share: Comments Comments on the article “Unsinkable “the väinämöinen”: how many times the Soviet pilots tried to destroy the Finnish battleships” Please log in to leave a comment! br>
Share on Tumblr