Category Archives: military art

PBY Catalina making a comback?

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The Consolidated PBY-5 Catalina first flew in 1935 and, in a short decade, over 3,300 were built at four factories in the U.S., Canada, and the Soviet Union.

Onto the Ramp PBY seaplane Catalina Joseph Hirsch. Lot 3124-3: Paintings of Naval Aviation during World War II: Abbott Collection. #47.

The big flying boat was a classic of naval air power and provided the backbone of maritime search and rescue, reconnaissance, commando/stay behind support, and anti-shipping/ASW missions for the Allies in WWII, with the type only fully retired in military service (by the Brazilians) in 1982.

Not a bad run.

Well, a Florida-based Catalina Aircraft has been supporting civil PBY-5 fleets for the past two decades and just unveiled a new Next Generation Amphibious Catalina II variant of the classic flying boat at the AirVenture Oshkosh air show in Wisconsin this week.

They plan both a civilian variant with a maximum take-off weight (MTOW) of 32,000 pounds and a capacity for 34 passengers or six tons of cargo. The military version will have an expanded MTOW of 40,000 pounds. Deliveries are planned to begin in 2029.

Warship Wednesday, July 19, 2023: Red Sub Circumnavigator

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Here at LSOZI, we take off every Wednesday for a look at the old steam/diesel navies of the 1833-1954 period and will profile a different ship each week. These ships have a life, a tale all their own, which sometimes takes them to the strangest places.- Christopher Eger

Warship Wednesday, July 19, 2023: Red Sub Circumnavigator

Above we see the type IX-bis S (Stalinets) class “medium” Guards Red Banner submarine S-56 returning to Polyarni in early 1944 from a patrol off the coast of German-occupied Norway. The most celebrated of her class, she claimed one of her biggest “kills” some 80 years ago today.

The S-class

It is a little-known fact that the Tsarist Imperial Navy entered the Great War in 1914 with more submarines in its inventory than anyone else. Following the national disaster that was the Russian Revolution and Civil War, the reformed Red Navy inherited a few of these old boats and even managed to keep some of them in operation into the 1950s!

When it came to new designs, by the late 1920s the Soviets built a half dozen modest 1,300-ton Dekabrist-class (Series I) submarines constructed with Italian expertise, followed by 25 minelaying Leninets-class (L class, or Series II) submarines of the same size which were essentially reverse engineered from the lost British L-class submarine HMS L55 which was recovered by the Soviets, and a staggering 88 Shchuka-class (Series III, V, V-bis, V-bis-2, X, X-1938) “medium” submarines that went some 700 tons and were ideal for use in the cramped Baltic and Black seas.

Then, the Stalinets class in IX, IX-bis, IX-bis-II, and XVI series, began to appear in 1936.

Besides the lessons learned in making the Italian-based Dekabrist-class and English-based Leninets-class boats, the Russians, who were very close to a quietly rearming Weimar Germany in the early 1930s, worked with the Dutch front company Ingenieurskantoor voor Scheepsbouw (IvS), which was, in fact, a dummy funded by the German Weimar-era Reichsmarine using design assets from German shipyards AG Vulcan, Krupp-Germaniawerft, and AG Weser to keep Berlin in the sub-making biz while skirting the ban on such activity by the Versailles treaty.

IvS had previously built boats and shared technology with Finland and Spain and it was with the latter’s planned Submarino E-1 that the Soviet S-series was based.

Spanish submarine E-1 at the shipyard in Cádiz. Built in Spain from 1929-30, Soviet engineers participated in her construction and trails. Although her design would go on to be used as the basis for both the German Type IA submarine and the Russian Stalinets class, ironically, the Spanish Navy never operated E-1, as she was sold to Turkey in 1935 just before the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War. She went on to fly the star and crescent until 1947 as TCG Gür.

Some 255 feet long and with an 840/1070 ton displacement, the basic Stalinets design was good for 19.5 knots on the surface and a cruising range of 4,000nm. Carrying four forward torpedo tubes and two sterns, they also mounted a 100mm deck gun and a 45mm backup as well as machine guns that could be set up for AAA use. Besides the six 533mm torpedoes in the tubes, they could carry another six spare fish.

Stalinets class

The first flight of three boats used German diesels, something that was corrected in follow-on ships that evolved slightly across their construction, hence the four different flights. In all, some 41 Stalinets would be completed. The first, C-1, was laid down on Christmas Day 1934 (because who needs religion in the worker’s paradise) and delivered on 23 September 1936 while a final eight whose construction began at around the same time languished on the builder’s ways during WWII, and were only finished post-war.

The subject of our tale is the most successful of the class. Of the 33 Stalinets class boats completed in time for WWII, 16 were lost. Of the 30 that saw combat patrols, 19 claimed tonnages. This would include the infamous S-13, which sank five ships including two large transports Wilhelm Gustloff and General Steuben, regarded as among the worst maritime disasters in history.

1946 Janes entry on what was left of the class at that time

Two submarines of the class were awarded the rank of Guards, and seven boats earned the Red Banner, only S-56 was awarded both distinctions.

Meet S-56

A 2nd series (IX-bis) Stalinets, S-56 was intended for service in the Pacific Fleet and therefore was assembled at the Dalzavod works at Vladivostok from a kit sent across Siberia from Leningrad starting on 24 November 1936. Launched Christmas 1939, she was commissioned on 20 October 1941, as the Germans were on the outskirts of Moscow.

With the Soviets eschewing combat against the Japanese until after Berlin was licked, on 6 October 1942, S-56, along with sisters S-51, S-54, and S-55, departed Vladivostok ahead of the ice to join the Red Navy’s Northern Fleet at Murmansk. They would be joined by the Leninists-class minelaying subs L-15 and L-16 sailing from Petropavlovsk on a 17,000-mile transoceanic voyage across both Pacific and Atlantic, maneuvering the seas of Japan, Okhotsk, Bering, Caribbean, Sargasso, Northern, Greenland, Norwegian and Barents with stops in Dutch Harbor, San Francisco, the Panama Canal, Guantanamo Bay, Halifax, and Rosyth.

At least that was the plan.

L-16 was lost en route with all hands, believed torpedoed and sunk by the Japanese submarine I-25 on 11 October 1942 approximately 500 miles west of Seattle. This was even though the Soviet Union and Japan were officially at peace. Fog of war, after all.

Via Combined Fleets on I-25:

While returning to Japan on the surface, I-25 spots two ships, apparently en route to San Francisco. The seas are rough. LCDR Tagami first identifies the ships as two battleships. Later, he identifies them as two “American” submarines. At 1100, he dives and fires his last remaining torpedo. It hits 30 seconds later. Several heavy explosions follow. One of the explosions wrecks a head aboard I-25.

The leading submarine starts to sink rapidly stern first with its bow up 45 degrees. A second explosion follows. When the smoke clears there is only an oil slick on the water. The submarine sinks with all 56 hands (a Russian crew of 55, a naturalized American and American interpreter/liaison officer Sergey A. V. Mikhailoff (USNR) who boarded the submarine at Dutch Harbor) at 45-41N, 138-56E. (Postwar, it is learned that the submarine was Soviet Cdr Dmitri F. Gussarov’s 1,039-ton minelayer L-16 en route from Petropavlovsk, Siberia via Dutch Harbor, Alaska to San Francisco.)

The accompanying Soviet L-15 reports seeing one more wake, fires five 45-mm rounds at I-25 and mistakenly claims a hit on I-25’s periscopes.

The five remaining Russian boats were captured several times by American and Canadian cameras while en route to Murmansk.

Russian S-type submarine probably photographed about 1942. 80-G-636837

The Russian submarine S-54 is seen departing Mare Island on 11 November 1942. USN photo # 6697-42

Russian submarine SS-55 is seen departing Mare Island on 11 November 1942. USN photo # 7001-42

The skippers had a chance to meet and pose for a snapshot in Panama, where they rested from 25 November 25 to 2 December 1942.

From left to right: S-54 skipper, LCDR Dmitry Kondratievich Bratishko, S-51 skipper Captain 3rd rank Ivan Fomich Kucherenko, submarine group commander, Captain 1st Rank Alexander Vladimirovich Tripolsky, commander of S-56 LCDR Grigory Ivanovich Shchedrin, commander L-15 Captain 3rd Rank Vasily Isakovich Komarov, Commander S-55 Captain 3rd Rank Lev Mikhailovich Sushkin. Unfortunately, the names of the American officers are not noted.

Soviet “L” Class submarine (L-15) in Halifax harbor. Date: January 1943. Reference: H.B. Jefferson Nova Scotia Archives 1992-304 / 43.1.4 180.

In March 1943, S-56 became part of the 2nd division of the submarine brigade of the Northern Fleet, after a voyage of 153 days.

Her combat career would encompass 125 days underway on eight patrols against the Germans in which she was declared overdue and likely destroyed no less than 19 times, more an issue of poor radio communications than anything else.

S-56 in the Northern Fleet

She logged 13 attacks and fired 30 torpedoes. This included several runs on German convoys, escaping a surface duel with a pair of escorts, surviving a glancing torpedo strike from the German U-711, and reportedly hitting at least one large freighter with a dud torpedo.

Although she would claim 14 enemy transports and warships sunk with a total displacement of 85,000 tons, her post-war validated tally is a good bit smaller (as are most subs from all sides).

Her successes detailed by U-boat.net, included:

  • 17 May 1943 sank the German tanker Eurostadt (1118 GRT) off the Kongsfjord.
  • 17 July 1943 sank the German minesweeper M 346 (551 tons) west of the Tanafjord.
  • 19 July 1943: Torpedoed and sank the German auxiliary patrol vessel NKi 09 / Alane (466 GRT, former British ASW trawler HMS Warwickshire) off the Tanafjord near Gamvik.
  • 31 July 1943 sank the German merchant Heinrich Schulte (5056 GRT) west of the Tanafjord.

C56 Victory Parade July 1945

Epilogue

In 1954, the now famed S-56 was sent back to her birthplace at Vladivostok via the then very perilous Northern Sea Route through the Arctic, thus becoming the first Russian submarine to circumnavigate the globe.

Decommissioned in 1955, she was retained in the Pacific Fleet as a floating charging station and damage control training hulk, renamed ZAS-8 and then UTS-14.

In 1975, on the 30th anniversary of VE Day, she was installed as a museum ship on the Korabelnaya Embankment, where she remains well preserved today, the last of her class.

She is also celebrated in several heroic Soviet maritime art pieces.

Ships are more than steel
and wood
And heart of burning coal,
For those who sail upon
them know
That some ships have a
soul.

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Somewhere under a camo net in the Bay area…

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80 years ago, July 1943: Riveter at work on an aircraft, possibly a PB2Y-3 Coronado patrol bomber hull, at Consolidated-Vultee (Convair) Aircraft Plant, San Diego, California.

Original color photo by Jacobs via the National Archives. 80-G-K-15117

The female war worker is “dressed right for safety.”

Of the Consolidated plant, Mr. Jacobs captured several great Kodachromes during the same visit that are so crisp and clear they look like they were taken yesterday.

PB2Y and PB4Y Construction at Consolidated Vultee Plant in San Diego, California. 80-GK-15708

Women workers rivet wing section of PB2Y at Consolidated-Vultee Plant, San Diego, Calif. 80-GK-15704

Original Caption: “Women workers sort electrical wiring for PB2Y’s at Consolidated Vultee Plant, Downey, Calif. 80-GK-15702

Construction of PB2Y-3s shown at Consolidated-Vultee plant, San Diego, Calif. Lunchtime under camouflage netting at the plant. 80-GK-15144

Construction of PB2Y-3 is shown at Consolidated Vultee plant, San Diego, Calif. Interior of the plane is checked under camouflage netting. Note the Arco gun turret. 80-GK-15122

Consolidated Vultee Aircraft Factory, San Diego, California. Caption: Women workers lunching under the plant’s camouflage netting, July 1943. Planes in the background are PB2Ys. Photo by Jacobs. 80-G-K-15143

Consolidated Vultee Aircraft Plant, San Diego, California. Caption: Parts stockyard under the camouflage netting at the Consolidated Aircraft Factory, July 1943. Assemblies in the foreground are waist gun turrets for PBY patrol bombers. Note the “Work to Win” sign on the loading dock in the distance. Photograph by Jacobs. 80-G-K-15146

The commercial camouflage industry in the 1942-45 era was on point!

In all, Consolidated would produce no less than 739 PB4Y-2 Privateers (navalised B-25s), 977 PB4Y-1s, and 217 PB2Y Coronados during the war, as well as 1,871 PBY Catalinas, providing the backbone of the WWII Allied patrol bomber force.

By 1945, the company employed 45,000 around the Bay Area– under cover.

Happy Bastille Day

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14 July 1910. Béni Ounif, Bechar, Algeria. Parade of Senegalese Tirailleurs on the occasion of the Bastille Day celebrations there:

Réf. : D0388-121-003-0639 Jules Imbert/ECPAD/Défense

As detailed previously, Senegal– a traditional French ally who provided the Republic the use of the famed Tirailleurs Sénégalais for twin World Wars (where 200,000 served in the first and 140,000 in the second) as well as Algeria and Vietnam Indochina– produced some of the most reliable of French colonial troops for generations.

1940 uniform of Régiment de Tirailleurs Sénégalais du Tchad, via the Musee d’la Armee

These hardy Senegalese riflemen were stationed throughout France, Asia, and Africa, where their descendants often endure in their own unique enclaves.

Senegalese Tirailleurs from a March 1913, newspaper colour supplement

The first Senegalese Tirailleurs were recruited in 1857 while the last had their contracts expire in the French Army in 1965, six years after the independence of Senegal and the French Soudan. At their peak in 1917, they formed no less than 89 battalions.

As for Béni Ounif, today it is a desert border town on the Algeria–Morocco border and is probably best known for the brutal 1999 massacre by guerillas who stopped a bus at a fake roadblock, slashed 23 throats, then reportedly faded back into the Moroccan interior.

Odds are a company of Tirailleurs would have put a quick halt to that. Just saying. 

Old School and the New Class

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80 Years Ago Today, 14 July 1943, while steaming from San Diego to Norfolk: The mighty dreadnought USS Nevada (Battleship No. 36), seen after her extensive repairs due to the pummeling she took at Pearl Harbor 19 months prior, returning from Alaska, where she had provided naval gunfire support from 11 to 18 May 1943 for the liberation of Attu (Operation Landcrab).

Photo # 80-G-74411 now in the collection of the US National Archives

Nevada, in the above, was bound for the Norfolk Navy Yard to undergo another several months of further modernization in preparation for service in the Atlantic Ocean and to support amphibious landings in the European Theater of Operations.

As noted by DANFS

After her time in the yard, she shifted to Boston and for several months, she engaged in convoy duty calling at New York, Maine, Massachusetts, and Ireland. On 18 April 1944, Nevada sailed from Casco Bay, Maine, bound for British waters in order to prepare for Operation Neptune, the landing component of Operation Overlord, the invasion of Normandy.

Trailing astern Nevada is the newly commissioned Bogue-class escort carrier USS Croatan (CVE-25), one of just 11 who served in the U.S. Navy. Just finished at Tacoma in time to sail with the battleship for the East Coast, Croatan would eventually lead her own hunter-killer ASW group that would account for six German U-boats by the end of the war. She would outlast Nevada in the fleet, lingering until 1970 when she concluded her final use as the MSTS-manned aircraft ferry, USNS Croatan (AKV-43) carrying hundreds of Army helicopters to Vietnam.

First of Ford’s Subusters Hits the Water

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Here we see, 105 years ago today, “Patrol Eagle (PE) Boat #1” ready to be Launched at the Ford River Rouge Plant, on the outskirts of Detroit, 11 July 1918. The vessel is seen sliding bow-first from the mammoth construction that was “Building B,” which was considered a temporary structure at the time

Ford Motor Company. Photographic Department. From the Collections of The Henry Ford. THF97490

And there she goes…THF270203

During World War I, Ford built “Eagle” anti-submarine patrol boats at a new plant on the Rouge River. Ford assembled the boats using the same mass-production assembly-line techniques it perfected for its automobiles. The launching of the first Eagle, above, was cause for celebration.

The Rouge Plant consisted of a 1,700-foot assembly line that would spit out a 200-foot patrol boat at the end, ready to take on the Kaiser’s undersea pirates. When fully operational, it could do so at a rate of 25 vessels a month. It was initially thought that 125 Eagles would be a good number to start with.

During World War I, Ford Motor Company built “Eagle” anti-submarine patrol boats for the U.S. Navy. Henry Ford called on industrial architect Albert Kahn to design the Eagle factory, located at the mouth of the Rouge River. Kahn created three principal structures: a fabricating shop, a main assembly building, and a fit-out shop. Via the Henry Ford Museum

Eagle No. 1 had her keel laid on 7 May 1918, was launched on 11 July, and was commissioned on 27 October, a span of 173 days. This rate never really shortened, and, by Eagle No. 11, which was completed post-war, was stretching well over a year. 

Inside Building B at Rouge. Construction of Ford Eagle Boats (200′ Patrol Boats #1 to 60) Ford Motor Company, Detroit, Michigan. March 29, 1918. NH 112098

Ford Built Eagle Boat No 1 via Hampton Roads Naval Museum

Ford Built Eagle Boat No 1 via Hampton Roads Naval Museum

These boats had a solid cement bow, specially built for ramming and sinking submarines– a popular early Great War ASW practice. They were equipped with 4-inch guns on the bow and stern and also carried depth charges and primitive sound gear. Here, class leader, USS PE-1. NH 85434

Ford Built Eagle Boat No 1 via Hampton Roads Naval Museum

Note the depth charge stern racks and projectors. Via Hampton Roads Naval Museum

Ford Built Eagle Boat No 1 via Hampton Roads Naval Museum

However, the war ended four months later, before any of the boats saw combat, and, in the end, just 60 were built. Only the first three were in commission on Armistice Day. 

Downright ugly and generally seen as being unsuccessful due to poor speed and range, they were largely disposed of by the early 1930s without ever firing a shot, although eight survived long enough to see limited CONUS WWII service. It was in that later conflict that one, PE-56, was sunk on 23 April 1945 by the German submarine U-853 off Portland, Maine just two weeks before VE Day. 

Meanwhile, after Eagle production ended, Ford exercised its option to buy the production “B” Building from the federal government, which postwar became the core of Ford’s Rouge factory complex. It was from that building that “everything from Model As to Mustangs” were made. It remained in use until 2004.

The Ford has an extensive online resource on the Eagles.

Husky at 80

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“Invasion Craft—Sicily,” by U.S. Navy war artist Mitchell Jamieson.

Painting, Oil on Canvas; 1943; Framed Dimensions 44H X 35W. NHHC Accession #: 88-193-GA

“Grim, stark reality and the enemy lie ahead for these steel-helmeted men as they are huddled closely together inside an invasion craft bound for the beach at Sicily.”

Today is the 80th anniversary of the Allied amphibious landings in Sicily, 10 July 1943. Some 160,000 men from the U.S. Seventh Army (with attached Free French units) along with the Commonwealth forces of the British Eighth Army, hit the beaches in Operation Husky, the first time the Allies landed in Europe for other than raids since the withdrawal from France in June 1940.

By the time the Sicily campaign ended in August, the Allies would suffer over 23,000 casualties, including 5,600 dead.

Snapshots from the battle, 125 Years Ago

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The naval Battle of Santiago/Combate en Santiago de Cuba, on 3 July 1898, pitting the five battleships, two armored cruisers, and two armed yachts of Commodore Winfield Scott Schley and RADM William T. Sampson against the bottled-up Spanish fleet of Almirante Pascual Cervera y Topete– the latter with a much smaller force of just four armored cruisers and two destroyers– would normally just be remembered in maritime art such as this:

Battle of Santiago, Cuba, July 3, 1898. Painting by Dr. Alfonso Saenz, a Spanish Naval Surgeon and Naval Artist. Signed and dated by the artist, 1899. Courtesy of Army-Navy Club of Washington. Via the National Archives.

And this.

Battle of Santiago, 3 July 1898. Caption: “The last Spanish Torpedo Boat leaving Santiago Harbor,” during the battle. Colored Lithograph published in “Deeds of Valor,” Vol. II, p34, by the Perrien-Keydel Co., Detroit, 1907. NH 79912-KN

Battle of Santiago July 1898 Texas Maria Teresa Cristobal Colon Oqundo Oregon SpanAm War by Henry Reuterdahl

However, the widespread availability of inexpensive personal cameras meant there were a number of snapshots captured during the battle itself– one of the first sea clashes so documented.

This was especially true among the tech-savvy young Annapolis cadets rushed to service aboard the battleships USS Oregon and USS Iowa.

Naval Cadet and future Fleet Admiral William D. Leahy (center) and Captain Charles Edgar Clark (right) on board USS Oregon (Battleship # 3) during the action. Photograph by Hart. Copied from the Journal of Naval Cadet R.R. Miller, USN, 1898. U.S. Naval History and Heritage Command Photograph. NH 1757

Naval Cadets Luther M. Overstreet and Henry Norman Jenson aboard the USS Oregon (BB-3). Caption: At Santiago, July 3, 1898, during the Spanish-American War. From Journal of Naval Cadet C.R. Miller, USN, 1898. NH 2191

Captain Charles Edgar Clark, Cadet Luther Martin Overstreet, Haight (Sailor otherwise unidentified), and Cadet Mark St. Clair Ellis. Caption: Aboard the USS Oregon (BB-3) after the Battle of Santiago, Cuba, July 1898. Spanish-American War. From Journal of Naval Cadet C.R. Miller, USN, 1898. NH 2195

Spanish-American War, 1898. Lieutenant Commander J.K. Cogswell wig-wagging to Battleship “Your Shots Are Falling Short” during the Battle of Santiago, Cuba, July 3, 1898, aboard the USS Oregon (BB-3). From Journal of Naval Cadet C.R. Miller, USN. 1898. NH 2197

Spanish-American War, 1898. Captain Francis William Dickins and Lieutenant Austin Rockwell Davis (later KIA in the Boxer Rebellion), United States Marine Corps, on deck during the Battle of Santiago, in July 1898. From Journal of Naval Cadet C.R. Miller, USN, 1898. NH 2198

Battle of Santiago, 3 July 1898. Lieutenant (later Admiral) Edward W. Eberle on board USS Oregon (BB-3), during a lull in the battle. Photograph from the journal of Naval Cadet C.R. Miller, USN. NH 2186

Crew of the USS Oregon (BB-3) Caption: Cheering the hauling down of the colors of the “Cristobol Colon” (a Spanish auxiliary armored cruise) during the Battle of Santiago, 3 July 1898. NH 1110

Battle of Santiago, 3 July 1898.Watching the battle from the deck of USS Iowa (Battleship # 4). Note the volume of dense gun smoke around the ship in the left center. Copied from the Journal of Naval Cadet Cyrus R. Miller. NH 1132

Of course, the American joviality was largely due to the fact they only suffered one death and one wounded as casualties in the sea battle and more than carried the day. A naval layup, so to speak.

On the other side, where some 1,800 Spaniards died, the response was probably less enthusiastic.

The King’s Shilling

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As it is getting to be summer festival time– and the annual hate the lobsterbacks remembrance– this seemed apt.

The King’s Shilling, 1770 (c) “A recruiting party of an officer, sergeant, drummer, and fifer of an infantry regiment in a village street with a fair in the background.”

Oil on canvas, artist unknown, 1770 (c)., on display at the National Army Museum, Soldier Gallery. Accession Number NAM. 1983-10-15-1

As noted by the National Army Museum:

When a man had ‘taken the King’s shilling’ it meant that he had enlisted in the Army. In the eighteenth century, recruiting parties were a common sight in villages and at country fairs. Recruiting officers would persuade men to enlist with misleading tales of the glamour of army life, and the offer of a ‘bounty’. This was a large sum of money, supposedly paid to the new recruit when he enlisted. In fact, most of it disappeared in various ‘deductions’ and the recruit was lucky to see any of it.

Here, the new recruit takes the money or shakes hands to seal the bargain, with the officer. His wife or sweetheart, obviously less naive, is clearly distressed at the prospect of his ‘going for a soldier’.

A deeper dive into the painting:

And with that, Becca Stevens and Chris Thile covering Planxty’s arrangement of “As I Roved Out” seemed likewise appropriate.

Warship Wednesday, June 28, 2023: The Tsar’s Jutland Veteran

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Here at LSOZI, we take off every Wednesday for a look at the old steam/diesel navies of the 1833-1954 period and will profile a different ship each week. These ships have a life, a tale all their own, which sometimes takes them to the strangest places.- Christopher Eger

Warship Wednesday, June 28, 2023: The Tsar’s Jutland Veteran

Archivio Centrale dello Stato

Above we see the Italian light cruiser Bari moored at Patras in Axis-occupied Greece in May 1941. Note her laundry out to dry, her 5.9-inch guns trained to starboard, and her crew assembled on the bow with the band playing. A ship with a strange history, a wandering tale, she was lost some 80 years ago today.

The Muravyov-Amurskiy class

No fleet in military history was in desperate need of a refresh as the Imperial Russian Navy in the 1910s. Having lost 17 battleships (depending on how you classify them), 13 cruisers, 30 Destroyers, and a host of auxiliaries to the Japanese in 1904-1905, the Russians were left with virtually no modern combat ships except those bottled up in the Black Sea by the Ottomans. Also, with lessons learned from the naval clashes, it was clear the way of the future was dreadnoughts, bigger destroyers, and fast cruisers.

To fix this, the Russian Admiralty soon embarked on a plan to build eight very modern 25,000-ton Gangut, Imperatritsa Mariya, and Imperator Nikolai I-class battleships augmented by a quartet of massive 32,000-ton Borodino-class battlecruisers. With the age of the lumbering armored cruiser over, the Russians went with a planned eight-pack of fast new protected cruisers of the Svetlana and Admiral Nakhimov classes (7,000 tons, 30 knots, 15 5.1-inch guns, 2 x torpedo tubes, up to 3 inches of armor) as companions for the new battle wagons.

And, with Russia all but writing off its larger Pacific endeavors, eschewing rebuilding its former battle fleet there in favor of a much more modest “Siberian Military Flotilla” based out of often ice-bound Vladivostok and Petropavlovsk, the Tsar’s admirals deemed that just two light scouting cruisers were needed for overseas use in the Far East, typically to wave the flag, so to speak.

That’s where the Muravyov-Amurskiy class came in.

The two cruisers, at 4,500 tons displacement and 426 feet overall length, were generally just reduced versions of the Svetlana/Admiral Nakhimov classes being built in Russian yards already.

Planned to be armed with eight 5.1-inch guns and four torpedo tubes, they were turbine powered and expected to be fast– able to touch 35 knots at standard weight for short periods although published speeds were listed as 27.5 knots.

Mine rails over the stern allowed for up to 120 such devices to be quickly sown– a Russian specialty.

Their armor was thin, never topping three inches, and spotty with just a protective deck above machinery spaces, a protected conning tower, and 50mm gun shields.

Muravyov-Amursky class in 1914 Janes.

It should be noted the Russian cruisers feel very much like a follow-on to the experimental “cruiser corvette” SMS Gefion (4,275 t, 362 ft oal, 10 x 4-inch guns, 1-inch armor) that Schichau built at Danzig in the mid-1890s for overseas service. 
 

SMS Gefion, commissioned in 1895, would serve briefly in East Asia before she was laid up in 1901. After service as an accommodation hulk through the Great War, she was converted to use as a freighter, Adolf Sommerfeld, in 1920, only to be broken up a few years later.

The two new vessels were to be named after historic 19th Century Russian figures who had expanded the country’s reach towards the Pacific: General Count Nikolay Nikolayevich Muravyov-Amursky, a statesman who proposed abolishing serfdom; and Admiral Gennady Ivanovich Nevelskoy, a noted polar explorer.

General Muravyov-Amursky and Adm. Nevelskoy.

They were ordered in the summer of 1913 from F. Schichau’s Schiffswerft in Danzig, as yard numbers 893 and 894.

The choice to have a German firm build the new cruiser class wasn’t too unusual for the Tsarist fleet as the Russian cruiser Novik and four Kit-class destroyers was built at Schichau in the 1900s while Krupp delivered the early midget submarine Forel at about the same time. The Russian protected cruiser Askold, one of the most successful of her type, was built at Kiel by Germaniawerft while the cruiser Bogatyr was ordered from AG Vulcan’s Stettin shipyards, also in Germany.

Besides German orders and construction at domestic yards along both the Baltic and the Black Sea, the Russians also ordered warships and submarines from France, Britain, Denmark, and the U.S.– they needed the tonnage.

The planned future Muravyov-Amursky at Schichau-Werke, Danzig, on the occasion of her launch, 29 March 1914 (Old Style), 11 April (N.S.).

Ironically, this was at the same period that Russia’s primary military ally was France, whose principal threat was from Germany. However, most Russian Stavka strategists and statesmen of the era assumed that they would be far more likely to fight the Ottomans or Austrians– perhaps even the Swedes– long before the Germans.

Then came August 1914 and relations between Germany and Russia kind of took a turn.

Kreuzer Pillau

When Germany declared war on Imperial Russia, Muravyov-Amursky had been launched just four months prior and was fitting out with an expected delivery in the summer of 1915. Sistership Admiral Nevelskoy was still on the ways with her hull nearly complete. With the Kaiserliche Marine hungry for tonnage, they seized the two unfinished Russian cruisers and rushed them to completion.

Muravyov-Amursky was renamed after the East Prussian town of Pillau, and Nevelskoy after the West Prussian port city of Elbing. Muravyov-Amursky/Pillau was completed in December 1914 and Nevelskoy/Elbing was delivered the following September.

To keep them more in line with the rest of the German battleline, they were fitted with slightly larger (and better) 15 cm/45 (5.9″) SK L/45 guns, the same type used as secondary armament on German battleships and battlecruisers as well as later on most of their cruisers built during the Great War.

Pillau as seen during her German career. Courtesy of Master Sergeant Donald L.R. Shake, USAF, 1981. NHHC Catalog #: NH 92715

SMS Elbing of the Pillau class, circa 1915-16

SMS Pillau shortly after entering service, 1915

Pillau had her baptism of fire in the Battle of the Gulf of Riga in August 1915– ironically against the Russians– while Elbing took part in the bombardment of Yarmouth in April 1916. Both were assigned to the High Seas Fleet’s 2nd Scouting Group (II. Aufklärungsgruppe), commanded by Contre-Admiral Bödicker, and took a key role in the Battle of Jutland.

While Jutland is such a huge undertaking that I won’t even attempt to showcase it all in this post as I would never have the scope to do it properly, Elbing scored the first hit in the battle, landing a 5.9-inch shell against HMS Galatea from an impressive distance of about 13.000 m at 14.35 on 31 May. In the subsequent night action, she was accidentally rammed by the German dreadnought SMS Posen and had to be abandoned, with some of her crew saved by the destroyer S 53 and others landed on the Danish coast by a passing Dutch trawler.

As for Pillau, she was hit by a single large-caliber shell– a 12-incher from the battlecruiser HMS Inflexible— that left her damaged but still in the fight while she is credited with landing hits of her own on the cruiser HMS Chester. In all, Pillau had fired no less than 113 5.9-inch shells and launched a torpedo in the epic sea clash while suffering just four men killed and 23 wounded from her hit from Inflexible.

Her chart house blown to memories and half of her boilers out of action but still afloat, Pillau then served as the seeing eye dog for the severely damaged battlecruiser SMS Seydlitz— hit 21 times by heavy-caliber shells, twice by secondary battery shells, and once by a torpedo– on a slow limp back to Wilhelmshaven with the dreadnought’s bow nearly completely submerged.

German battlecruiser SMS Seydlitz, low in the water after Jutland. The image was likely taken from Pillau, who led her back to Wilhelmshaven from the battle

SMS Seydlitz after the Battle of Jutland, 1916. Amazingly, she only suffered 150 casualties during all that damage and would return to service by November– just six months later. Colorized photo by Atsushi Yamashita/Monochrome Specter http://blog.livedoor.jp/irootoko_jr/

Then, her work done, Pillau had to lick her wounds.

SMS Pillau in Wilhelmshaven showing heavy damage to her bridge, caused by a 12-in shell hit from the battlecruiser HMS Inflexible.

She only suffered 27 casualties at Jutland while her sister, Elbing, was lost.

The entry wound, so to speak

Repaired, Pillau took part in the Second Battle of Heligoland Bight on 17 November 1917 as well as other more minor operations before the end game in October 1918 in which her crewed mutinied and raised the red flag rather than head out in a last “ride of the Valkyries” suicide attack on the British Home Seas Fleet.

SMS Pillau passing astern of a ship of the line, winter 1917

SMS Pillau on patrol in Helgoland Bay, 1918 note AAA gun forward

Incrociatore Bari

Retained at Wilhelmshaven as part of the rump Provisional Realm Navy (Vorläufige Reichsmarine) under the aged VADM Adolf von Trotha while 74 ships of the High Seas Fleet surrendered to the British in November 1918 to comply with the Armistice, Pillau was saved from the later grand scuttling of that interned force seven months later at Scapa Flow.

The victorious allies, robbed of the choicest cuts of the German fleet, in turn, demanded Pillau be turned over for reparations along with a further nine surviving battleships, 15 cruisers, 59 destroyers, and 50 torpedo boats. Pillau was therefore steamed to Cherbourg and decommissioned by the Germans in June 1920.

It was decided that Pillau was to go to the Italians as a war prize, with the Regia Marina renaming her after the Adriatic port city of Bari in Italy’s Puglia region. The Italians also were to receive the surrendered German light cruisers SMS Graudenz and SMS Stassburg, the destroyer flotilla leader V.116, and the destroyers B.97 and S.63. Italy would further inherit a host of former Austrian vessels including the battleships Tegtthof, Zrinyi, and Radetzky; the cruisers Helgoland and Saida; and 15 destroyers.

The future light cruiser Bari seen in rough shape, with the provisional denomination “U” painted on her bow, right after being ceded to Italy, Taranto, 5 May 1921.

Embarrassingly, just after she entered service with the Italians, Bari ran aground at Terrasini and was stuck there for a week before being refloated.

Aerial photos of Bari stranded at Terrasini, 28 August 1925.

Still, she went on to have a useful and somewhat happy peacetime service with the Italian fleet.

L’incrociatore leggero Bari late 1920s a

L’incrociatore leggero Bari late 1920s

L’incrociatore leggero Bari late 1920s, seen from the port side.

Bari, fotografiado en Venecia en el año 1931

Italian cruiser Bari, in Venice in the early 1930s. Colorized by Postales Navales

Cruiser Bari (ex SMS Pillau ) in floating dock, 1930s

Italian light cruiser Bari (formerly the German SMS Pillau) moored at the pier in 1933

Italian Light Cruiser RM Bari pictured at Taranto c1929 

Bari would be extensively rebuilt in the early 1930s, including a new all-oil-fired engineering suite that almost doubled her range but dropped her top speed to 24 knots. This reconstruction included several topside changes to appearance as well as the addition of a few 13.2mm machine guns for AAA work.

Bari crosses the navigable canal of Taranto after the second round of modification works, circa 1933-40. Compare this to the postcard image shown above taken at the same angle and place that shows her mid-1920s appearance

Bari in the 1931 Janes Fighting Ships

She took part in the Ethiopian war in 1935 and would remain in the Red Sea as part of the Italian East African Naval Command well into May 1938. She then returned home for further modernization at Taranto in which her torpedo tubes were removed and a trio of Breda 20mm/65cal Mod. 1935 twin machine guns were installed and two twin 13.2/76 mm Breda Mod. 31s.

Bari, as covered by the U.S. Navy’s ONI 202, June 1943.

When Italy joined WWII, Bari was soon sent to join the invasion of Greece where she conducted minelaying and coastal bombing missions in the Adriatic and the Aegean. She served as the flagship of ADM Vittorio Tur’s Special Naval Force (Forza Navale Speciale, FNS), an amphibious group that was used to occupy the Ionian Islands including Corfu, Kefalonia, Santa Maura, Ithaca, and Zakynthos. She would also participate in naval gunfire bombardment operations on the coast of Montenegro and Greece against partisans and guerrillas.

Bari in Patras in occupied Greece, as the flagship of the Forza Navale Speciale, May 1941

Another shot from the same above.

Bari moored in Patras, around 18 June 1941, with the ensign of Ammiraglio Comandante Alberto Marenco di Moriondo aboard.

ADM Tur and the FNS, with Bari still as his flag, would go on to occupy the French island of Corsica in November 1942 during the implementation of Case Anton, the German-Italian occupation of Vichy France after the Allied Torch landings in North Africa.

Bari anchored at the breakwater of the harbor of Bastia, Corsica, on 11 November 1942, as the flagship of the Forza Navale Speciale that was then occupying the island after Operation Torch.

The cruiser in Bastia on November 11, 1942, during the Italian landings. Note the steel-helmeted blackshirt troops in the foreground

In January 1943, with the FNS disbanded and ADM Tur assigned to desk jobs, Bari retired to Livorno where she was to be fitted as a sort of floating anti-aircraft battery, her armament updated to include a mix of two dozen assorted 90mm, 37mm, and 20mm AAA guns.

This conversion was never completed.

On 28 June 1943, she was pummeled by B-17s of the 12th Air Force and sank in the industrial canal at Livorno, deemed a total loss.

From 10 June 1940 to the sinking, the Bari had conducted 47 war missions and steamed 6,800 nautical miles.

After the Italian armistice, the Germans attempted to salvage the cruiser for further use but in the end wound up scuttling it once more in 1944. Post-war, she was stricken from the Italian naval list in 1947 and raised for scrapping the following year.

Epilogue

Very few remnants of these cruisers endure.

A painting by German maritime artist Otto Poetzsch was turned into a series of widely circulated Deutsches Reich postcards, used to depict both Pillau and Elbing.

Elbing‘s wreck has been extensively surveyed and studied over the years and is generally considered to be in good shape after spending a century on the bottom of the Baltic. Besides her guns, she has china and glassware scattered around the hull.

The Russian scale model firm Combrig makes a 1/700 scale kit of Pillau.

Ships are more than steel
and wood
And heart of burning coal,
For those who sail upon
them know
That some ships have a
soul.

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