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Warship Wednesday, June 25, 2025: Rozhestvensky’s Pirates

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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

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Warship Wednesday, June 25, 2025: Rozhestvensky’s Pirates

Above we see the Imperial Russian Navy’s auxiliary cruiser (vspomogatel’nyy kreyser) Terek, formerly the Royal Spanish Navy’s cruiser Rapido, formerly the Hamburg America Line steamer SS Columbia,

Terek just narrowly avoided combat in 1898 under the yellow and red Pabellon de la Armada, but some 120 years ago this week, she would land the final Tsarist Russian blows against the Empire of Japan at sea.

Kinda

The Tsar’s auxiliary cruisers

When war broke out with Japan in February 1904, the Russian admiralty activated its long-standing plans to cough up a series of armed merchant cruisers. Originally intended in the 1880s and 1890s to chase down British merchantmen should the “Great Game” turn hot, the Russians were able to activate nine large rakish steamers, all capable of making over 18.5 knots. Almost all (six of nine) were three-funnel liners, and all had been built as fine 1st class ships in the best German and British yards. In peacetime, they were operated by Dobroflot, the Russian state-controlled “Volunteer Fleet,” then switched to Navy crews during war.

These nine AMCs activated were generally named after rivers or Cossack hosts that lived along their banks, including: Angara (12,050 tons), Lena (10,675 t), Kuban (12,000 t), Don (10,500 t), Ural (10,500 t), Dnepr (9,500 t), Rion (14,614 t), Rus (8,600 t) and our Terek (10,000 t).

The main batteries typically consisted of a few 120mm/45 (4.7″) Pattern 1892 Canet guns augmented by a secondary of 75mm/50 (2.9″) Pattern 1892 Canet guns and a tertiary of 57mm/6-pdr, 47mm/3-pdr, or 37mm/1-pdr Hotchkiss counter-boat guns. Dedicated magazine space was set aside and rigged for emergency flooding if needed. As their promenade decks didn’t lend well to gun emplacements, most were arranged on the fore and aft well decks, with smaller guns on the poop and forecastle.

4.7-inch guns on auxiliary cruiser Lena

As the cruisers had at least two military masts complete with lookout tops, they would typically carry at least a 1-pounder in each. Two to four large searchlights were fitted as well.

The Illustrated London News on October 8, 1904, details the “Russian Menace to Neutral Shipping” during the Russo-Japanese War, focusing on converted cruisers in neutral waters, including Lena (Kherson), Terek, Peterburg (Dnepr), and Smolensk (Rion).

The presence of these Russian cruisers in neutral ports, particularly the well-armed Lena (35 guns in four diverse batteries), which called at San Francisco in late 1904, caused a huge surge in war risk insurances for vessels of all flags bound for Japan, threatening a general halt in shipments.

Fresno Bee, Sept 14, 1904

Russian auxiliary cruiser Lena in San Francisco, November 1904. Built in 1896 by Hawthorn Leslie, Newcastle– at the time the largest ship built on the Tyne– she sailed with the Volunteer Fleet in peacetime as Kherson. Activated in late 1903 as tensions with Japan grew, she operated out of Vladivostok until she arrived at San Francisco for repairs in September 1904 and was eventually interned for the rest of the war. She later served as Naval Transport N73 in the Black Sea Fleet, then, evacuating Russia with Wrangel’s White navy in 1920, had a short career with the London Steamship & Trading Co, then was broken up in Venice in 1925.

Besides acting as scouts and raiders, a role well-suited to the force due to their large ocean-crossing coal bunkers, they also had lots of spare room in their peacetime passenger cabins to accommodate troops for use as a fast transport, or captured enemy mariners. One, Rus, was used as a balloon aircraft carrier, toting nine Parseval-Sigsfeld kite balloons and making 186 controlled ascents from her deck.

Sailing as a scouting unit with Russian ADM Rozhestvensky’s 2nd Pacific Squadron on its way to its destiny at Tsushima, several also bagged some prizes.

But we are getting ahead of ourselves here. Let’s turn this story back a bit.

Meet Columbia

Ordered in 1888, an express steamer of the Hamburg-Amerikanische Packetfahrt-Actien-Gesellschaft (HAPAG) line, the Doppelschrauben-Schnelldampfer Columbia was intended to compete with the fastest liners of the British shipping companies. Built to the same plans as her AG Vulcan-built sister, SS Augusta Victoria, who claimed the fastest maiden voyage across the Atlantic in an east-west direction in May 1889, Columbia was fast.

Some 480 feet overall with a narrow 55-foot beam and knife-like bow, she was HAPAG’s second twin-screw express steamer on the North Atlantic. Equipped with twin VTR engines fed by nine boilers good for 13,300 shp, she made 20.5 knots on trials.

From The Engineer, 8 Nov 1889:

Some 7,300 GRT, she had accommodations for 1,100 passengers (400 first-class, 120 second-class, and 580 third-class).

German maritime artist Alexander Kircher penned several illustrations aboard the Columbia for the publication Die Rudermaschine in 1890.

A series of interior and exterior views upon delivery is in the collection of the DeGolyer Library at Southern Methodist University.

However, she and her sister were ready for war if needed. Following the government subsidy provided by the Imperial Postal Steamer agreement (Reichspostdampfervertrages), the Reich could use these steamers in the event of mobilization, and ships built for the service had to pass a Kaiserliche Marine inspection, including weight and space for deck guns and magazines. We saw how this played out with a host of German auxiliary cruisers in 1914 in past Warship Wednesdays. 

Columbia was delivered to HAPAG in June 1889 and began her maiden voyage from Hamburg via Southampton to New York on 18 July. Importantly, in July 1895, Columbia and Augusta Victoria transported the guests of honor at the opening of the Kiel Canal.

Besides the American runs, the sisters would cruise in winter to the Mediterranean, in midsummer north to Spitsbergen, and from 1896 also to the West Indies.

It was postcard and poster worthy.

War! (under a Spanish banner)

With Madrid in dire need of modern ships for their looming clash with the U.S., three weeks before war was declared, on 8 April 1898, HAPAG sold the proud Columbia and the slightly larger Normannia to Spain. Normannia became the Spanish auxiliary cruiser Patriota, armed with four 12 cm/L40 Skoda rapid-firing guns and ten 47 mm/L44 QF guns, while the speedy Columbia would enter Spanish service as the auxiliary cruiser Rapido. Her skipper was Capt. Federico Campaño y Rosset.

In Spanish service, Columbia/Rapido would carry four 16.2cm/35s, two 14cm/35s, and six 47 mm/L44s. The conversion, no doubt easy due to the weight and space reserved for guns and shells in her design, only took 12 days.

Originally part of Gruppo E of the Reserve Squadron, intended for action against American lines of communication along the Atlantic coast, both Columbia/Rapido and Normannia/Patriota were reassigned to RADM Manuel de la Camara’s relief squadron for the Philippines six weeks after Dewey had destroyed RADM Patricio Montojo’s Spanish Pacific Squadron.

Sailing in line with the strongest Spanish ship in the fleet, the 11,000-ton 12-inch gunned battlewagon Pelayo; the armored cruiser Emperador Carlos V, destroyers Audaz, Osado, and Proserpina; and the troop-packed transports Buenos Aires and Panay, the force left Cadiz on 16 June 1898 and made Egypt ten days later, only to fight for coal with the English there for a week.

RADM Manuel de la Camara’s fleet under steam. Columbia/Rapido, with three masts and three stacks, is to the far left with Normannia/Patriota ahead of her. Original Location: Stanley Cohen, Images of the Spanish-American War (Missoula, MT: Pictorial Histories Pub. Co., 1997). Via NHHC.

Rapido, Spanish auxiliary cruiser, at Port Said, Egypt, 26 June – 4 July 1898, while serving with Rear Admiral Manuel de la Camara’s squadron, which had been sent to relieve the Philippines. Copied from the Office of Naval Intelligence Album of Foreign Warships. U.S. Naval History and Heritage Command Photograph. NH 88730

Camara’s squadron in the Suez Canal in 1898. Pelayo is in the foreground, with the rest of his fleet, Columbia/Rapido (visible between Pelayo’s masts) and Normannia/Patriota included. NHHC WHI.2014.36x

However, with Spanish VADM Pascual Cervera’s squadron’s defeat at the Battle of Santiago de Cuba on 3 July, and the fear that metropolitan Spain was left defenseless, Camara’s squadron was recalled home just as it made the Red Sea. Spending the rest of the war in European waters, Columbia/Rapido and Normannia/Patriota were later used as troop transport to help bring the defeated Spanish forces home from the lost colonies of Cuba and Puerto Rico, shepherding (often towing) eight smaller, often derelict, vessels behind them back to Cadiz with stops in Martinique and the Canary Islands.

The Spanish admiralty having no further use for Columbia/Rapido, she was disarmed and sold back to HAPAG on 6 July 1899 for a nominal fee. Her career in Spanish service spanned just under 15 months and, as far as I can tell, she never fired a shot in anger during this period.

Meanwhile, Normannia/Patriota was given to the French government to resolve war debts. Renamed L’ Aquitaine, the former Normannia entered service with the Compagnie Générale Transatlantique (CGT) line in December 1899, and, in poor condition, was scrapped in 1906.

Under a Russian flag

Following a refit and a fresh coat of paint, Columbia spent the next four years in a shuffle of commercial runs from Hamburg via Southampton and Cherbourg to New York.

It was while on a run to the Big Apple in May 1904 that HAPAG unceremoniously sold Columbia, along with her sister Auguste Victoria and the liner Furst Bismarck, for 7.5 million rubles to the Russian Navy, in need of hulls to take the fight to the Japanese. At the same time, NDL sold the Russians the fast little (6963 BRT) liner Kaiserin Maria Theresia.

Auguste Victoria became the Russian auxiliary cruiser Kuban, Furst Bismarck became the cruiser Don, and Kaiserin Maria Theresia the cruiser Ural.

Columbia departed New York after discharging her passengers for the Russian naval base at Libau (now Liepaja, Latvia) in the Baltic, joining Auguste Victoria, Furst Bismarck, and Kaiserin Maria Theresia, who had arrived earlier.

Terek in Libau 1904. Note that the other auxiliary cruisers are in dark military livery

At Libau, Columbia’s German civil crew took trains for the frontier while dock workers began the conversion process. Her deck was additionally reinforced, magazines for ammunition and devices for feeding shells to the upper deck were equipped. Some of the rooms in the emigrant class cabins were adapted to accommodate additional supplies of coal, fresh water, and food. Hatches were cut out for coaling at sea, a task rarely performed by ocean liners. To protect the engines and boilers from enemy shells, additional steel sheets were installed. Columbia was also equipped with additional equipment: two combat searchlights, a powerful wireless telegraph station, etc.

Columbia’s armament was lighter than in Spanish service, consisting of just two 12 cm L/45s, four 7.5 cm L/50s, eight 5.7 cm Hotchkiss guns, and two Maxim machine guns. The Russian naval staff had initially intended for each of the three new-to-them German-made auxiliary cruisers to carry fourteen 6-inch guns, but the ordnance just wasn’t available.

Our subject was named Terek after the fierce Cossack host on the river of the same name in the Caucasus region.

Terek Cossacks

Terek’s inaugural Russian skipper was Capt. (2nd rank) Konstantin Aleksandrovich Panferov, a 44-year-old career officer who had joined the fleet as a 14-year-old midshipman and had earned sea legs on everything from schooners to armored cruisers. His father, Aleksandr Konstantinovich, was friends with Nakhimov, took part in the Siege of Sevastopol as a battery commander, and retired as a rear admiral.

The rest of the wardroom was light, just four lieutenants and a dozen or so warrant officers and midshipmen rushed into service. Her sole surgeon was seconded from a teaching position at a Petersburg university. The new (again) cruiser’s crew of just over 400 was drawn from depots all over Russia.

As described by a Russian Tsushima veteran, Capt. Vladimir Ivanovich Semenov, of this force, “The naivety is almost touching…”

While Auguste Victoria/Kuban and Furst Bismarck/Don were repainted from their commercial livery to a heavy grey/green scheme, there wasn’t either enough time or paint left to do the same for Terek, and she sailed as-is.

War (against Japan, kinda)

Sent out from Libau on 12 August 1904 to hunt for Japanese merchant ships (or those of other flags carrying Japan-related contraband), Terek sortied out into the Atlantic before making Las Palmas, Vigo, and Lisbon for resupply then haunted the approaches to Gibraltar before she arrived back in the Baltic on 8 October, covering 9,190nm and inspecting 15 suspect vessels with no prizes. She earned enough attention from harassing ships with Red Dusters to be shadowed by the British cruisers HMS St. George and Brilliant.

Terek overhauling the British merchant ship Derwen off Cape St. Vincent (Cabo de San Vicente) off southern Portugal, August 1904.

As noted by Patrick J. Rollins in the 1994 Naval War College Review: “In August 1904, the three largest shipping firms in England, including the great P&O Line, suspended service to Japan. By the end of August, insurance rates on British ships bound for the Far East stood at 20 shillings per hundred, or four times the rate charged to the French and Germans.”

Terek was selected, along with her sister Auguste Victoria/Kuban and the auxiliary cruiser Kaiserin Maria Theresia/Ural, to join VADM Zinoy Rozhestvensky’s “2nd” Pacific Squadron, which was just the Russian Baltic Fleet, on its ill-fated mission to relieve besieged Port Arthur in the Pacific.

However, due to the nature of Rozhestvensky’s straggling fleet, Terek was not released to join the squadron until 18 November, following Ural, which had left four days earlier, and Kuban, which had sailed a full three weeks prior. Sailing around the Cape of Good Hope via Dakar, Terek only managed to link up with Kuban and Ural off Madagascar in January 1905. Dnepr (ex-Petersburg) and Rion (ex-Smolensk), who had spent the summer harassing British shipping off the East Coast of Africa, joined them. The five ersatz cruisers formed the fleet’s Reconnaissance Detachment.

By that time, Port Arthur had fallen and, much like Camara’s squadron in 1898, you would expect Rozhestvensky to be recalled back home. However, this was not to be, and the force, after weeks in Madagascar, was ordered to attempt to run past the Japanese to Vladivostok.

Another of the nine Russian auxiliary cruisers, Angara, was lost in the fall of Port Arthur, pounded into the mud by Japanese heavy artillery.

Once in the Pacific, Rion and Dnepr were detailed to escort a group of transports to Shanghai, then break off for commerce raiding along Japan’s sea lanes in the southern part of the Yellow Sea.

Ural would accompany the main force and would soon end up on the bottom.

According to Rozhestvensky’s order No. 380 of 21 May, the Kuban and Terek were to sail ahead and feint around the east of Japan and work in the area between the island of Shikoku and Yokohama. The cruisers were ordered to “without hesitation sink” all steamships on which military contraband would be noticed, a plan surely designed to draw Japanese Admiral Togo’s forces away from the Tsushima straits.

As noted by Semenov at the time back with the main fleet on 22 May, five days before the run through Tsushima, “Yesterday, the Kuban, and today the Terek, separated from the squadron to cruise off the eastern shores of Japan. May God grant them more noise.”

Kuban spent three weeks off Japan, in terrible weather, and only managed to close with two freighters, the German steamer Surabaya, carrying a cargo of flour from Hamburg to Vladivostok of all places, and the unladen Austrian freighter Ladroma. Down to her last 1,800 tons of coal, and finding out about the destruction of the 2nd Pacific Squadron from the latest issue of the Singapore Free Press newspaper aboard Ladroma, Kuban’s skipper called it quits and sailed for Saigon for coal, then made it back to Libau alone on 3 August.

Rion was able to break a few eggs, so to speak, after the battle. On 30 May, some 60 miles from Cape Shantung, she detained the German steamship Tetartos (2409 GRT), heading from Otaru to Tianjin with railway sleepers and fish, and sank it the next morning. Four days later, while 80 miles from Wusung, she stopped the English steamship Cilurnum (2123 GRT), heading from Shanghai to Moji. The steamship was released after its cargo of beans and cotton was thrown over the side. Her war over, Rion sailed for home, arriving in Kronstadt on 30 July.

Dnepr came across the British steamer St Kilda (3519 GRT) off Hong Kong on 5 June with a cargo that included rice, sugar, and gunnies bound for Yokohama. She then sent said steamer to Davy Jones and landed the crew back in Hong Kong before heading back home.

This left our Terek to strike the last blows. She did so against the British-flagged Ikhona (5252 GRT) of the Indian Steam Navigation Company on 5 June while north of Hong Kong in the Philippine Sea, during the latter’s voyage from Rangoon to Yokohama with a cargo of rice and mail. Taking off the crew, the shipwrecked mariners were transferred to the passing Dutch steamer Periak at sea two weeks later and eventually landed at Singapore. The ship’s skipper, one Capt. Stone reported that the capture and sinking had taken six long hours, with dynamite charges failing to scuttle the steamer before Terek opened up with “quick-firers.”

Ikhona was the fourth British ship lost to the Russians during the conflict after SS Knight Commander, St. Kilda, and the schooner Hip Sang. His majesty’s government later pursued a claim of £250,000 against Russia for the value of the ships and their cargoes, with Ikhona being the most expensive at £100,000.

Continuing in the South China Sea, on 22 June 1905, Terek came across the unlikely victim that was the Kiel-built Danish East Asiatic Company steamer Prinsesse Marie (5416 tons), bound with cargo for Japan, and sank the same. Another bloodless kill by old school “cruiser rules,” her crew was taken off and brought to Batavia in the Dutch East Indies a week later. With the Dutch refusing Terek coal, the Russian cruiser ended her sortie there and was interned for three months until the Treaty of Portsmouth ended the war. Capt. Panferov dutifully offered his flag and sword to the local Dutch naval commander, who refused them.

Det Østasiatiske Kompagni Prinsesse Marie

Ironically, the Danish EAC protested the sinking of Prinsesse Marie under the pretext that, while her cargo was bound for a Japanese port, it was manifested to go to a European concern. It’s possible the Tsar, his mother being a Danish princess, made that one right in the end.

Returning home to Russia, on 10 December 1905, an order was received to Kuban, Terek, and Don of “all weapons and things related to naval affairs,” and investigate the possibility of selling the ships.

On 18 November 1906, by order of the fleet and the Naval Department No. 300, the Terek and her sister Kuban were excluded from the naval lists and were handed over to the port of Libau pending auction. The following February, Vosidlo and Co. paid 442,150 rubles for both vessels and sent them to Stettin to be cut up for scrap metal.

Epilogue

Terek could arguably be listed as one of the most successful ships on the Tsarist side of the Russo-Japanese War. A huge 1:48 scale model of the ship was crafted for the Russian Naval Museum in St. Petersburg following the campaign. Although damaged by fire during German bombs in WWII, it remains on display.

Terek’s only wartime Russian skipper, Panferov, earned both the Order of St. Anne, 2nd degree, and the Order of St. Vladimir, 4th degree for his service on the cruiser. Promoted to Capt. 1st Rank in 1908, then, switching to a shoreside non-line duty, by 1913, rose to the rank of major general. During the Great War, as chief quartermaster of Kronstadt, he earned the St. Anne 1st degree in 1916. One of the rare senior officers retained by the Red Navy post-revolution, he retired in 1919.

Russian Navy MG Konstantin Aleksandrovich Panferov. His son, Georgy Konstantinovich Panferov, went on to become a surgeon colonel during WWII and a professor at the Naval Medical Academy (VMMA). His grandson, Yuri Georgievich Panferov, followed in his footsteps and became an officer in the Red Banner fleet.

Meminisse est ad Vivificandum – To Remember is to Keep Alive

***

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Is Pavutyna Taranto 1940?

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You have to be under a rock to have not seen the news that Ukraine’s Security Service (SBU) recently hit the button on an operation– dubbed “Pavutyna” (Spideweb)– some 18 months in the making.

The complex logistics involved smuggling nearly 200 FPV drones and their mobile storage hangars into Russia.

The drones, likely fiber-optic controlled (hence “Spider Web”) so as to counteract EW defenses, were hidden inside 20-foot ISO shipping containers with roofs rigged to slide open via remote control to allow their UAV cargoes to lift off toward their targets– Russian strategic aircraft, often nuclear-capable.

The trucks were staged very near bases and controlled via datalink back in Ukraine. Meanwhile, the drivers were already well on their way to exfiltrating.

Check this out for a great nuts and bolts on how the raid happened.

While one strike– on the Ukrainka air base near Seryshevo in far-off Amur oblast– failed when the truck exploded, four other strikes, using 117 drones, were more successful.

The strikes hit:

  • Belaya Air Base in the Irkutsk Region of the Russian Far East, some 2,600 miles from Ukraine, damaging at least one Tu-95MS Bear and two Tu-22M3 Blackjacks. TASS reports it is the first strike into Siberia during the war.
  • Near Murmansk, the Ukrainians hit Olenya Air Base, some 1,100 miles north of their border, damaging at least 4 Tu-95s, allegedly a Tu-160 Swan, and an An-12.
  • At Ivanono Air Base, some 620 miles north of Ukraine and only 150 miles from Moscow, they hit an A-50 Mainstay (Russki AWACS).
  • Closest to home, at Dyaglievo near Ryazan, some 320 miles north of Ukraine and some 120 miles from Moscow, they hit “more than 10” aircraft.

The damage assessments and claims are all over the place. Whereas Ukraine says they damaged/destroyed 41 strategic Russian airframes, according to the OSINT project AviVector, only 13 were hit on camera.

The Russians themselves are tight-lipped as to any losses.

It was dramatic, for sure, but it took 18 months to set up, and surely benefited from Western intelligence as to targeting packages.

Did it really accomplish a lot?

Probably not on a strategic scale, other than the fact that it will now stress the Russians into sanitizing their bases, far from the front lines, for random trucks and curious buildings anywhere within a few kilometers of their flight lines, as the fiber-optic controlled battery-powered drones have a very short range. This ties down troops. Lots of them. All for the cost of some cheap drones, some converted trucks, and the risk to some drivers who were already headed home before the button was pressed.

The big thing is the precedent.

‘Taranto Harbour, Swordfish from Illustrious Cripple the Italian Fleet, 11 November 1940′ by Charles David Cobb. Painting in the collection of the National Museum

Much how the nighttime raid on the Italian port of Taranto by 21 Fleet Air Arm Fairly Swordfish on 11/12 November 1940 left three Italian battleships and a heavy cruiser damaged, but paved the way for a much more successful and much larger strike by the Japanese at Pearl Harbor 13 months later, Pavutyna could be the rough blueprint for a first strike in the next big war.

USS SHAW exploding at Pearl Harbor. NARA 80-G-16871

What if China had 2,000 such drones set to attack 50 strategic bases and communication nodes in the U.S. on D1? What if they had another 2,000 set to go after infrastructure such as nuclear power plants, dams, and the like?

Now you have a Pearl Harbor 2.0.

And in that vein, the Army just released its latest Counter-Unmanned Aircraft System (C-UAS)
At the same time, the five Marine Corps bases will host drone competitions to test Marine teams from across the fleet on “hunter-killer” drone employment, speed, and agility, with the first event occurring at Quantico, Virginia, in November.

The Tsar’s Finest

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It happened 110 years ago today.

Here we see the submarine Bars (Snow Leopard), the first of a class of 24 planned boats for the Imperial Russian Navy, after being launched on 2 June 1915 at the Baltic Shipyard in St. Petersburg (then Petrograd).

Note her Romanov eagle bow crest and four port topside “drop collar” torpedo launcher positions. Designed by a Polish-Russian submarine engineer, Prof. Stefan Karlovich Dzhevetskiy, the launchers were a cost-effective and easy way of carrying torpedoes and were used by both the French and Tsarist navies. However, the design proved an issue in winter months, especially in ice, and greatly shortened the lifespan of the weapons carried. 

On 25 July 1915, the boat, under the command of LT V. F. Dudkin, entered service and became part of the 1st Division of the Baltic Sea Submarine Force, and would be operational for the next 22 months.

Russia. Baltic. Submarine Bars 1915-1917. Note: torpedoes carried in the Dzhevetsky drop collars

Designed by Maj. Gen. (Russian admiralty officers in non-line billets were listed as colonels and generals, not admirals) Ivan Grigorievich Bubnov, the head of the GUK (Main Directorate of Shipbuilding), the Bars class was probably the most advanced and effective Russian submarines until the late mid-1930s when the Malyutka (type M) class boats began entering service.

Russian submarines Volk and Bars (center), iced in over a Baltic Winter. 1915-1917.

At 223-feet oal, they had a displacement of 650 tons (780 submerged) and could operate down to 300 feet. This made them almost ideal for the Baltic. Keep in mind that today’s Sweden’s Blekinge (A26)-class SSKs under construction right now run just 216 feet overall.

Bars class submarine, via Spassky

Diesel electric (with German Krupp or Russian Ludwig Nobel Kolomna plant diesels, later augmented by some American-made engines sent from New London) powering twin screws, they could make 9 knots submerged (13 on the surface) and carried enough fuel and food for 14 days of operations.

Heavily armed, they had eight 18-inch torpedos carried on the deck in Dzhevetsky drop collar trapeeze systems, and another eight fish in fore and aft torpedo rooms with two tubes in each. A small deck gun or two and a light machine gun were added. Mines could also be carried.

The Russians were able to complete 20 Bars-type boats, of which four were lost during the Great War (including Bars) while three others sank in peacetime operations. Four, as well as two of the unfinished hulls, were captured by the Germans in 1917-18. Post-war, the Soviets kept a dozen of the class in operation into the 1930s, with at least two surviving until the 1950s in use as training ships and battery charging barges.

The Soviets considered them the first “modern” submarines in Russian service.

Evolution of Soviet subs from 1914-1955 with Bars-class at top

In 1993, in the Baltic Sea, in the area of ​​Gotska Sandön Island, the Swedish minesweeper Landsort discovered a Bars-type submarine (most likely Bars herself, which went missing in May 1917) at a depth of 127 meters.

Cap ribbon and model of the Russian submarine Bars at Vladivostok

As for her father, designer Bubnov died of typhus during the Russian Civil War in 1919, aged just 47.

MG Bubnov, in front of the building Tsarist submarine Akula, in happier days

Warship Wednesday, May 28, 2025: Part Eagle, Part Phoenix

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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

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Warship Wednesday, May 28, 2025: Part Eagle, Part Phoenix

Photo received from the U.S. Office of Naval Intelligence. Naval History and Heritage Command Catalog #: NH 45853

Above we see a port bow view of the Tsar’s brand-new Borodino-class squadron battleship Orel (also seen transliterated in some Western sources as “Oryol” and “Ariol”), taken in the Baltic soon after her completion in September 1904.

She had a curious history that saw her rushed to the losing side of one of the worst naval defeats of the 20th Century, some 120 years ago this week, after an 18,000-mile shakedown cruise. She would then be reborn to fight the Germans in China (!) while under a Japanese flag, return to her homeland under very different circumstances, and meet her ultimate fate at the hands of budding technology that would echo into another Pacific war.

The Borodinos

In the 1900s, the Imperial Russian Navy was full speed ahead to create three top-notch fleets: one in the Baltic to defend against the Germans (or attack Swedes, who knows); a second in the Black Sea to take on the Turks who were rapidly rearming with new vessels from America and Britain; and a third in the Pacific to be able to hold on to its Manchurian possessions which had been essentially stolen from Japan after the latter’s cakewalk victory against China in 1895.

A key acquisition during this period was the one-off 388-foot tumblehome hulled battleship Tsesarevich, which had been built in France at Forges et Chantiers de la Méditerranée, La Seyne-sur-Mer. The same yard had produced a series of 12,000-ton leviathans for the French Navy (Jauréguiberry et. al.) and patterned the new Russian ship along those lines.

Tsesarevich. Forges et Chantiers de la Méditerranée, La Seyne-Sur-Mer brochure published by the society for its fiftieth anniversary, Imprimerie Chaix, Paris, July 1906, p. 40.

Weighing in at 13,000 tons due to her thicker armor (up to 10 inches of good German Krupp plate), Tsarevich was powered by 20 Belleville water-tube boilers that ate coal like it was going out of style. Armament was in two pairs of impressive Russian-built (Obukhov) French-designed (Canet) 12″/40 (30.5 cm) Pattern 1895 guns mounted in double turrets fore and aft, with six French-made Canet Model 1892 6-inch guns in double turrets arrayed along the hull of the ship. Capable of 18 knots and able to steam over 6,000nm before needing more coal, she was capable of deploying to the Pacific, which was to be her homeport at Port Arthur.

With Tsesarevich as a cue, the Russians embarked on a campaign to build at least five (with potential for up to ten) new ships in the St. Petersburg area for their Baltic fleet. Just nine feet longer than their inspiration but with heavier engines, thicker armor, and larger turrets (but with the same general armament), the Russian admiralty packed another 1,400 tons onto essentially the same hull. This gave them a draft pushing 30 feet– on a hull just 397 feet long!

profile Borodino class

The new ships, the Borodino class, would have significantly less coal bunkerage, cutting their range in half, which was not seen as a hindrance, as their Baltic role would ensure they never operated very far from a Russian port. When loaded with more coal than designed, their protective armor belt submerged, and their 6-inch guns rode so low and close to the waves as to be useless at all but point-blank range.

armor plan Borodino class, with thickness in mm

Equipped with old-style (1880s-designed) French Lugeol stadiametric rangefinders, which typically maxed out after 4,000m, their guns were handicapped when it came to fire control. The Russians made a move to change these out for more modern British Barr and Stroud coincidence rangefinders, but training in their use was minimal before the class was rushed to war with Japan.

The five ships of the class were all ordered within months of each other from yards around Saint Petersburg, with Borodino constructed at the New Admiralty Shipyard; Imperator Aleksandr III, Knyaz Suvorov, and Slava contracted at the Baltic Works (now OJSC Baltic); and our subject, Orel, ordered from the Galernyi Island Shipyard (now JSC Admiralty Yard). The cost for each ran between 13.4 and 14.5 million rubles, with Orel being the cheapest.

Meet Orel

Our subject was at least the fifth ship to carry the Russian name for “Eagle” in the history of the Imperial Navy. The first was the first sea-going warship of the Russian Empire, a Dutch-style three-mast pinnace ordered by Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich in 1667 to protect Russian merchant ships on the Caspian Sea from pirates. Of note, the ship’s crew consisted of 20 Dutch sailors and officers and 35 Russian musketeers.

The original three-master Orel, a frigate in Russian parlance, was the first sea-going Russian warship. Today, the ship’s profile is the emblem of St. Petersburg. Likewise, her contracting date, 29 June, is celebrated annually as “Shipbuilder’s Day” (Den’ sudostroitelya) in Russia.

Our Orel was laid down on 20 May 1900, launched 6 July 1902, and– despite sinking to the bottom of Kronstadt during a storm while fitting out on 7 May 1904 and settling with a 24-degree list– was commissioned on 1 October 1904 following three weeks of builder’s trials.

Orel under construction, c. 1903

Her construction was overseen by Russian Maj. Gen. Mikhail Karlovich Yakovlev, the senior shipbuilder of the Admiralty.

Those who are savvy with military history will realize that Orel entered the fleet eight months into the Russo-Japanese War, at a time when the bulk of the Russian Pacific Fleet was bottled up by the Japanese in their besieged homeport at Port Arthur.

Orel was photographed in 1904. NH 92419

The bad news for Orel was that, with her three other finished sisters (Slava was still under construction), and almost everything in the Baltic fleet that could float, would be rushed to the Pacific to clock in against the Japanese, changing the course of the war.

At least that was the plan.

War!

Covering the nightmarish 7-month, 18,000-mile voyage of the Russian Baltic Fleet (renamed the 2nd Pacific Squadron) to reach the Tsushima Straits from St. Petersburg is a bit beyond the scope of this post. We will be more narrow in our focus, relying on Orel’s part in the trip– which she began on 15 October, just two weeks after she was commissioned.

Not a misprint. She sailed to war a fortnight after hoisting her colors for the first time, and just six months after she sank pierside while fitting out.

Borodino class battleship of the 2nd Pacific Squadron getting ready to leave the Baltic in 1904.

With so many battleships rushed to completion in a country without a huge maritime tradition, the Russians were scraping the barrel to crew Orel. Many were pulled from shoreside assignments and the far-away Caspian Sea flotilla and Black Sea fleet. As the standard term of service for new Russian recruits was seven years active and four reserve, many of the men aboard were of the latter category and less than enthusiastic when it came to returning to the colors amid a war they did not understand.

Her skipper, Capt. (1st rate) Nikolay Viktorovich Jung (Naval Cadet Corps 1876), had dallied with the Narodnaya Volya revolutionary movement as a young officer, for which he had been arrested and blackballed for a time. Despite nearly 30 years of service, his largest command before Orel was a 4,600-ton cruiser, having spent most of his career on training ships.

Her XO, Capt. (2nd rate) Konstantin Leopoldovich Shvede, had entered the Navy in 1884 but had never held a seagoing command and had spent most of his career in shoreside service as a functionary. His last assignment before Orel was as the officer in charge of the mess hall at the Kryukov barracks.

A few capable young officers, such as LT (future RADM and polar explorer) Nikolay Nikolaevich Zubov, quickly sought transfer to other vessels. Zubov, reassigned to the destroyer Blestyashchy, fought his ship at Tsushima until it sank under his feet and made it to internment in Shanghai for the rest of the war.

47mm Hotchkiss with gunnery officer, LT Fedor Petrovich Shamshev on Orel, headed to the Far East in 1904. After graduating from the Naval Corps in 1891, he served in several posts until joining Orel in 1903. Wounded at his post in the ship’s burning conning tower, he spent much of his time as a POW in Japan in 1905 in the hospital. After the war, he returned to service, commanded the gunboat Gilyak, and the destroyer Storozhevoy. During the Great War, he was the skipper of the old monitor training ship Pyotr Velikiy and commanded the coastal artillery on Nargen Island off Tallinn. After the Revolution, he left Russia for exile in Denmark, where he died in 1959, aged 90.

Some among her enlisted only narrowly missed the brig, or worse. This included one of her senior sailors, Alexey Silych Novikov-Priboy, who had been cashiered as an “unreliable person” for spreading revolutionary propaganda while on the old cruiser Minin, but, with the fleet in need of bodies, was reassigned to Orel. Soon, with the help of a like-minded engineering officer, he maintained a full-blown revolutionary library aboard. As he was paymaster steward, Novikov-Priboy had contact with every member of the crew.

Orel suffered from numerous incidents of sabotage on the way to the Pacific, with steel shavings found in her engines, a propeller shaft nearly ruined on the outbound cruise, a grounding, a rudder cable incident that forced her to stop briefly at Tangier, and one good-sized fire reported. Still, she pressed on to meet her destiny, albeit punctuated by breakdowns.

Orel and her three sisters formed the Russian First Division, with Squadron commander, VADM Zinovy Rozhestvensky, flying his flag from Orel’s sister, Knyaz Suvorov. The Second and Third Divisions, respectively, were formed of increasingly older battlewagons. Of note, the Second Division commander, RADM Baron Dmitry Gustavovich von Folkersahm, who had previously been the naval gunnery school commander, was ill with cancer. He was pulled out of convalescence for his seagoing billet and would perish in his cabin while on the cruise, well before the force met the Japanese.

The morning of 27 May 1905, the end came as the Russian battleline was crossed by that of ADM Togo’s Japanese Combined Fleet. The revolutionary Novikov-Priboy recalled that, with the straits approaching, Orel’s crew held a mass on deck just before the battle, “crossing themselves furiously as if swatting away flies.”

Our subject fired the first shots of the battle at 11:42, hurling 30 12-inch shells unsuccessfully at a distant Japanese cruiser that was shadowing on the horizon some 9,000 yards out. Rozhestvensky’s flagship, Knyaz Suvorov, the lead ship in the Russian battle line, later opened fire at the Japanese battleship Mikasa, Togo’s flagship, at 14:05. Over the next five hours, the battle went very badly for the Borodino class.

Imperator Aleksandr III turned turtle and sank at 18:50, leaving but four survivors.

Knyaz Suvorov, with Rozhestvensky switching his flag to a destroyer, sank with all hands at 19:20.

Borodino went up in a flash when a shell from the battleship Fuji ignited her magazine at 19:30, leaving just one survivor. Gunlayer Semyon Semyonovich Yushchin swam out of a flooded casemate, held onto a floating debris, and was picked up by the Japanese destroyer Oboro later that night.

Orel was the only battleship of the First Division to survive the maelstrom; her three other sisters were sent to the bottom with just five men living to tell the tale. She limped off into the night, riddled with holes and her decks filled with mangled bodies. Her skipper was mortally wounded.

“Broken hell” Russian Battleship Orel leading 2nd Pacific Squadron last daylight hours during the battle of Tsushima by Alexander Zyakin.

The next morning, falling in with RADM Nebogatov’s Third Division, including the old battleship Imperator Nikolai I (his flag) and the two small coastal battleships General-Admiral Apraksin and Admiral Seniavin, the badly damaged Orel, under the command of her XO, surrendered to the Japanese just after 1300 on 28 May, the group’s withdrawal to Vladivostok cut off by the Japanese.

Capt. Jung, who succumbed to his wounds, was buried at sea as the group sailed toward captivity.

Fortunio Matanya. Drawing 1905. Burial at sea of the commander of the battleship Orel

Taken under escort by the battleship Asahi and the armored cruiser Asama to Maizuru Navy Yard in Japan, Orel’s crew was moved ashore, politely, and would spend the rest of the war under a very gentlemanly confinement, a stark contrast to how enemy POWs were treated by the Emperor’s forces in WWII. They were repatriated in February 1906.

Russian battleship Orel officers on Asahi, 28 May 1905, after Tshumia

Orel lost 43 killed in addition to Jung and had over 80 seriously wounded, casualties that amounted to about 15 percent of her complement.

One of those nursing a life-changing injury was LT Leonid Vasilyevich Larionov, the battleship’s junior navigator. Entering the service in 1901 and cutting his teeth on the cruisers Africa and Abrek, Larionov was at his battle station in the conning tower of Orel during the fight. Wounded seriously in the head, he persevered. He had managed to destroy the battleship’s sensitive papers before reaching Japan, keeping one of her logbooks hidden on his person. In captivity, he carefully began the task of reconstructing the ship’s brief history.

Knocked out by Japanese shrapnel while in command of the left bow 6-inch turret, LT Konstantin Petrovich Slavinsky later reported:

At about 3 o’clock I felt a strong blow to the tower, my eyes were blinded by the explosion on the roof, I was thrown from the command platform and lost consciousness. When I came to, I saw that I was lying on the floor of the tower, there was blood all around, a stream of which was flowing from my forehead, the gunners were trying to lift me up and arguing whether I was killed or just wounded. Having forbidden them to see me off, I got to the operations point with the help of the porters, where they bandaged two deep wounds to my head and a knocked out left eye, after which I was placed in a room in front of the operations point, where I again lost consciousness from severe pain.

Slavinsky recovered enough to help lead firefighting efforts until knocked unconscious by another shell. He spent three months in a Japanese hospital in Maizuru, wearing an eyepatch for the rest of his life.

Orel survived some serious damage. Some reports contend she had 76 hits (five from 12-inch shells, two from 10-inch, nine from 8-inch, 39 from 6-inch, and 21 from smaller shells). Russian sources, namely from engineer Vladimir Polievktovich Kostenko of Orel (who helped Novikov-Priboy store his library), cited that the ship suffered more than 140 hits.

New Jersey-born Lloyd Carpenter Griscom, the 33-year-old U.S. Minister to Japan, was able to almost immediately obtain several very detailed images of the captured Russian battlewagon, a vessel considered well-protected at the time. It is known that he passed them on to Teddy Roosevelt personally.

As they showed Russian/German armor (on ships largely designed with help by the French) under the effects of Japanese/British weapons (especally the Shimose powder/cordite filled shells and the new Barr and Stroud FA3 coincidence rangefinders and the Dumaresq, the latter an early mechanical fire control computer), the snaps were surely of great interest to the man who was readying his “Great White Fleet” to circle the globe.

Orel, shortly after her capture by the Japanese in the Battle of Tsushima, 28 May 1905. Japanese photograph, inscribed: “To the Honorable Theodore Roosevelt, from Lloyd C. Griscom.” Farenholt Collection. NH 66272

Orel photographed at Maizuru Navy Yard Japan, on 3 June 1905, following her surrender at the Battle of Tsushima on 28 May 1905. Courtesy of J. Meister collection, 1976. NH 84789

Same as above, NH 84788.

The Russian battleship Orel, shortly after her capture by the Japanese in the Battle of Tsushima, 28 May 1905. Fragment of ship’s forward left twelve-inch gun, which lodged in a signal locker on the starboard side of the bridge. Japanese photograph, inscribed: “To the Honorable Theodore Roosevelt, from Lloyd C. Griscom.” Farenholt Collection. NH 66267

Orel shortly after her capture by the Japanese in the Battle of Tsushima, 28 May 1905. Damages to the shelter deck and boats (overhead). Japanese photograph, inscribed: “To the honorable Theodore Roosevelt, from Lloyd C. Griscom.” Farenholt Collection. NH 66263

Orel, view of port side, looking forward from the after bridge, showing damage to superstructure and boats. Japanese photograph, inscribed: “To the Honorable Theodore Roosevelt, from Lloyd C. Griscom.” Farenholt Collection. NH 66264

Orel, view taken looking into a damaged searchlight on the after bridge. The reflector reverses the view. Notice that the photographer has photographed himself and a Japanese officer. Japanese photograph, inscribed: “To the Honorable Theodore Roosevelt, from Lloyd C. Griscom.” Farenholt Collection. NH 66261

Orel, damage near the port center six-inch turret. Looks like a shell exploded immediately upon impact with this bulkhead. Japanese photograph, inscribed: “To the Honorable Theodore Roosevelt, from Lloyd C. Griscom.” Farenholt Collection. NH 66262

Orel, note the shot holes around the 6-inch gun turret. Japanese photograph, inscribed: “To the Honorable Theodore Roosevelt, from Lloyd C. Griscom.” Farenholt Collection. NH 66270

Orel, damage near 47mm (3-pounder) quick-firing gun, port side of the fore bridge. Japanese photograph, inscribed: “To the Honorable Theodore Roosevelt, from Lloyd C. Griscom.” Farenholt Collection. NH 66265

Orel, fore 12-inch turret of the Russian battleship OREL, shortly after she was captured by the Japanese in the Battle of Tsushima, 28 May 1905. The muzzle of the damaged twelve-inch gun was carried bodily to the starboard side of the bridge, and lodged in a signal locker. A Japanese sailor is in the foreground, standing guard. Japanese photograph, inscribed: “To the Honorable Theodore Roosevelt, from Lloyd C. Griscom.” Farenholt Collection. NH 66269

Orel, damaged 12-inch gun of the fore turret of the Russian battleship OREL, shortly after she was captured by the Japanese in the Battle of Tsushima, 28 May 1905. This photograph graphically illustrates the construction of a “built up” gun. Japanese photograph, inscribed: “To the Honorable Theodore Roosevelt, from Lloyd C. Griscom.” Farenholt Collection. NH 66268

Orel, damage to fore port 6-inch turret and the deck. A 12-inch shell exploded on impact at the turret base. Notice the immense force of this Japanese shell, which exploded on impact, without penetration. The downward explosive force burst in the deck, and the upward force cut a wide piece out of the turret from top to bottom. Japanese photograph, inscribed: “To the Honorable Theodore Roosevelt, from Lloyd C. Griscom.” Farenholt Collection. NH 66266

The photos were likely widespread in Japan at the time, as one of Orel’s senior signalmen, one V.P. Zefirov, who filled at least three journals with drawings during his captivity in Japan (preserved in Russian archives), depicted several in his work.

Rebirth

By far the most powerful Russian warship captured at Tsushima, Orel was an important trophy. Further, unlike the Tsar’s ships salvaged from the mud of Port Arthur, her crew did not have extensive opportunity (and will) to wreck her.

Renamed Iwami on 6 June 1905 after a traditional feudal province, now the western part of Shimane Prefecture, the former Russian battlewagon was presented a statue of Umashimachi as the guardian deity of the ship by Mononobe Shrine in Oda City. The Japanese also renamed the other four captured Russian warships from Tsushima on the same day, with Imperator Nikolai I renamed the battleship Iki, Admiral Senyavin renamed the coastal defense ship Mishima, General Admiral Apraksin dubbed the coastal defense ship Okishima, and the destroyer Bedovy renamed the destroyer Satsuki.

This set up Orel for an extensive 29-month reconstruction which saw her French Bellville boilers replaced by Japanese-built Miyabara boilers, her superstructure and funnels rebuilt lower to help change her overloading, and her armament greatly modified. Retaining her Russian 12-inchers (the Japanese had a quantity of shells and replacement guns captured at Port Arthur), new gun tubes were later ordered from the Muroran Works of the Japan Steel Works.

Her heavy twin 6-inch turrets were placed by single 8″/45 Armstrong guns in deck mounts as used in the cruiser Takasago, further saving weight. Her 3″/48 Canet guns were landed, replaced by fewer Japanese Type 41 guns of the same caliber. Likewise, her 47/40 Hotchkiss and 37/20 Hotchkiss light guns were removed, replaced by a smaller number of Yamauchi-type 47mm guns. Even two of her four torpedo tubes were removed, saving only her twin submerged beam tubes, which were upgraded from 381mm to 450mm. The above-water torpedo tubes at the bow and stern were eliminated.

Emerging from the Kure Naval Arsenal on 26 November 1907, at the time, Iwami was the newest battleship in the Imperial Japanese Navy’s fleet at the time, excluding the two new Vickers-built Katori-class battleships, which were only slightly larger and only delivered in May 1906.

Battleship Iwami, 2 November 190,7 Kure via Kure Maritime Museum

Assigned to the 1st Fleet, Iwami was rated a first-class battleship and saw serious service with the Japanese fleet for the next five years, only re-rated to a second-class coastal defense ship in 1912 after the two 20,000-ton Satsuma-class and two 21,000-ton Kawachi-class dreadnoughts were completed under the 1907 Warship Supplement Program.

The U.S. Navy, keeping tabs on the Emperors’ increasingly suspect fleet from 1905 onward, dutifully photographed every Japanese warship when encountered in the region. Cataloged by the Office of Naval Intelligence, this left a ton of photos in the NHHC’s files.

Iwami. Starboard beam view taken between 1907 and 1914. Received in archives from ONI, 1935. NH 45832

Iwami photographed in a Japanese port, probably shortly before 1914. The battleship Settsu (1911-1947) is partly visible in left background. Courtesy of Mr. Tom Stribling, 1987. NH 101762

Another War

When the Great War began, Japan, an ally of Britain, jumped at the chance to gobble up German colonies in the Pacific. Iwami helped in this task, joining in the reduction and capture of the Kaiser’s treaty port in China.

Added to the VADM Kato Sadakichi’s Second Fleet, from September to November 1914, Iwami was exclusively engaged in bombardment of the artillery batteries in the Tsingtao (Qingdao) area, adding her 12- and 8-inch shells to the more than 43,000 fired into the German positions during the siege. As Sadakichi’s force was made up primarily of cruisers (Tokiwa, Tone, Chitose, Akashi, Niitaka, Otoha, Kasagi, and Yakumo) and destroyers, Iwami was an important asset.

British Major-General Nathaniel Barnardiston next to a wrecked gun at Fort C, Tsingtao, November 1914. Barnardiston commanded the 1,500 British troops (2nd Battalion The South Wales Borderers and a detachment of the 36th Sikhs) sent to assist the 20,000 Japanese soldiers under General Kamio Mitsuomi in capturing Germany’s naval base at Tsingtao (Qingdao) in China. The port fell to the Allies on 7 November 1914. NAM. 1969-06-31-53

Allied troops inside one of Tsingtao’s forts, November 1914. The German naval base of Tsingtao (Qingdao) in China was captured by the Allies on 7 November 1914 following a two-month siege. Around 4,700 Germans were captured and sent to Japan for internment. NAM. 1992-08-139-21

Battleship Iwami, December 26 1915, Kure Arsenal

Spending the rest of the war on duty in Japanese home waters, Iwami was tapped for an ironic mission on 9 January 1918 when she received orders to leave Kure as part of the 5th Squadron, with the battleship Ashai under RADM Kato Kanji, bound for Vladivostok, where the newly-formed Bolshevik government was in charge.

Her marines and armed naval infantry spearheaded the seizure of the port on 6 April, and Iwami would remain in Russian waters for most of the next four years until the final Japanese withdrawal.

Japanese marines in a parade of Allied forces in Vladivostok before French and American sailors 1918

Japanese marines in a parade of Allied forces in Vladivostok before French and American sailors, 1918

Vladivostok, circa 1918-1919, during the Russian Intervention Operations. Ships in harbor include Suffolk (British cruiser, 1903); Iwami (Japanese Battleship, 1902); and Ashai (Japanese Battleship, 1902); NH 50290

Iwami Saihaku Incident 1918, with American officers aboard Iwami. National Diet Image 966644_0019

Battleship IJN Iwami anchored in Vladivostok, winter of 1921 22

With the Japanese evacuation from Russia, Iwami was removed from the fleet list in September 1922.

The following May, she was ordered disarmed and prepped, along with the old battleships Aki and Satsuma, the unfinished Tosa, and the Hizen (former Russian battleship Retvizan, salvaged from Port Arthur) for use as target ships in line with the naval limits of the Washington Conference of 1921–22.

Former Russian battleship Orel as Iwami floating target with a Tikuma-class light cruiser

In July 1924, the ships were used for the Japanese equivalent of Billy Mitchell’s Virginia Capes experiment in airpower, subjected to bomb runs from aircraft from the carrier Hosho, Navy H-450 and F-5 flying boats, and land-based Army T2 bombers. Heavily damaged over two days, Iwami slipped under the waves near Jogashima on 9 July.

Epilogue

Iwami’s armament outlived her, with her Armstrong guns emplaced in the coastal defenses around Tokyo Bay and on Iki Island in the Strait of Tsushima (what irony).

One of her Russian 12-inch guns was installed vertically in the schoolyard of Iwataki Elementary School in Yosano, Kyoto, in 1927, where it remains, surrounded by inert shells.

The statue of Umashimachi carried by Iwami from 1905 through 1922 was returned to the Mononobe Shrine in Oda City, where it remains today.

bronze statue of Umashide no Mikoto Mononobe Shrine Oda City. Photo by Professor Jun Kuno.

In Japanese service, her skippers included several officers who went on to lead the fleet in the 1920s and 30s, including Admiral Baron Sadakichi Kato, and vice admirals Kumazo Shirane, Ishibashi Hajime, and Yoshita Masaki. Kato had an outsized influence on Japanese naval thinking, advocating a “big-ship, big-gun doctrine” that ultimately led to the construction of the super battleships of the Yamato class.

As for Orel’s Russian crew that rode her into captivity, Capt. Shvede, the XO who was in command when she surrendered, was court-martialled when he returned to Russia in 1906. Acquitted as he was following RADM Nebogatov’s orders, he never did command another ship at sea, although he did continue in shoreside service until 1917. He passed in 1933.

The revolutionary Novikov-Priboy would become a noted writer under Soviet rule– after penning scathing essays on the loss of his ship and the Russian fleet at Tsushima, which sent him into exile in Western Europe until 1913. Serving on hospital trains along the Eastern Front during the Great War, his fame grew under Stalin with the publication of the rather spicy novel “Tsushima,” which saw seven printings. During WWII, he wrote numerous patriotic articles about the Red Banner fleet, having found his patriotism. He passed in 1944, aged 67.

The good LT Larionov, who saved Orel’s logs, recovered from his wounds while in Japanese custody, then returned home and served on the Naval Staff. Commanding the minelayer Neva during the Great War, he fell in with the Reds post-Revolution, then worked as a historian in the Central Naval Museum in Leningrad, compiling the official history of Tsushima and Orel. His shoulder straps that he wore in the battle are on display in the Peter the Great Naval History Museum.

Larionov died during the siege of Leningrad in WWII, aged 59, but his shoulder straps and compiled history of the Russo-Japanese War endure.

LT Slavinsky, who gave his eye to the service, returned to naval service and by early 1918 was a captain in the Volga-Caspian Flotilla. Post-war, he was tossed into a Red prison for three years. Released in 1923, he worked as an engineer in Soviet shipyard concerns until 1930, when he was arrested on charges of “espionage” during the Gulag Archipelago phase of Soviet history. Sentenced to 10 years at hard labor, he was released in 1940 and died in exile in remote Syktyvkar, some 500 miles north of Moscow.

Since 1905, the Russians have recycled the name Orel several times. This included an auxiliary cruiser in the Siberian Flotilla during the Great War and being attached to at least two CVN projects (Project 1153 and 1160) in the late 1960s – early 1970s that never left the drawing board.

Since 1993, a Project 949A Antey-class (NATO “Oscar II”) SSBN, (K-266) has carried the name Orel as part of the 11th Submarine Division of the Northern Fleet of the Russian Navy.

Orel, Murmansk, April 2017

Meminisse est ad Vivificandum – To Remember is to Keep Alive

***

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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What’s a little armor between friends

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Liezen, Styria, central Austria, May 1945. A Lend-Leased American-made M4A2(76)W VVSS Sherman in Russki livery (and with no muzzle brake) comes to the rescue of one of the Motherland’s T-34-85s.

LIFE Arnold E. Samuelson Photographer

Both tracks are from the Soviet 1st Guards Mechanized Corps, which had just “liberated” Vienna, some 140 miles to the East of Liezen, and was soon to be denoted as the “Vienna Order of Lenin Order of Kutuzov Mechanized Corps.”

This top image was apparently during a Victory Parade along with the U.S. 9th Armored “Phantom” Division, which they met at the demarcation line.

The 9th had just recently, in turn, liberated Zwodau and Falkenau an der Eger, both subcamps of the Flossenbürg concentration camp.

City of Music at the foot of Uncle Joe, courtesy of Lend Lease

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The 6th Guards (Order of Red Banner) Tank Army of Colonel General of Tank Troops Andrei Grigorievich Kravchenko– who had earned a Hero of the Soviet Union title after Kursk as head of the 5th Guards Tank Corps– was formed in Ukraine in early 1944 and, earning its “Guards” title after suppressing the the Korsun-Cherkassy Pocket and smashing West during the follow-on Iassy-Kishinev Offensive, entered Hungary on the Debrecen Offensive on the 2nd Ukrainian Front by the end of that year. Still pushing as part of Stalin’s steamroller, it helped smash the last German offensive in the East (Frühlingserwachen under Sepp Dietrich’s 6th SS Panzer Army) along the shores of Lake Balaton in March 1945 and, after brutal street-to-street fighting, by 11 April had outflanked and entered Vienna, which was fully captured by the 15th.

There, in all its majesty, the great 6th Tank Army showed off all of its fine Detroit muscle, courtesy of Lend Lease, M4A2(76)W Shermans in the lead.

Going on to capture Prague by 12 May, the 6th Tank Army was pulled from Central Europe and shipped 11,000 km across Siberia to the Transbaikal. There, the 1,100 armored vehicles of the 6th Tank Army were ready to take on the Japanese Kwantung Army in Manchuria by 9 August 1945 and would fight the last armored battle of WWII, famously racing 150km across the Gobi Desert in the first day of the offensive against the Japanese, seizing the passes of the Greater Khingan mountains and effectively bottling up toughest remaining Japanese units in its wake on the Manchurian plain.

Soviet Japanese Defeat of the Kwantung Army, 1945

Kravchenko was made a Twice Hero of the Soviet Union and, surviving Stalin, would retire from the military in 1955 and pass in 1963.

Lessons from Ukraine for the Future Force

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In the mood for some light reading on lessons learned in blood and treasure from the war in Ukraine. Well, here are 359 pages courtesy of the U.S. Army War College.

Written by John A. Nagl and Katie Crombe, A Call to Action: Lessons from Ukraine for the Future Force explores the changing character of war through the lens of the Russia- Ukraine War. The authors analyze the conflict’s history, each side’s warfighting functions, the role of multidomain operations, and more. The radical changes in the character of war suggest the United States is at a strategic inflection point.

The authors draw lessons from both the Ukrainians and the Russians to suggest improvements for the United States. Advances in drone technology, cyber warfare, and electromagnetic warfare pose new technological vulnerabilities and possibilities. In addition, the war has highlighted the roles of allies in deterrence and training, as well as how leadership styles within the military—specifically, in the implementation of mission command—can be a decisive factor. As the Russia- Ukraine War has demonstrated, modern conflict touches a plethora of domains; thus, having sufficient personnel who are ready to fill a variety of capacities will be critical in the future.

Finally, the war has shown that history and justice are critical aspects of going to war and achieving peace, so crafting a narrative and satisfying stakeholders will be necessary for establishing a stable world order. The Russia- Ukraine War foreshadows the challenges the United States will face in future conflict and highlights the keys to adapting to modern warfare.

Download here.

Red Stars over Niagara

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Just call it Operation Honeymoon.

The curious, but very normal, 1944-45 sight of Lend-Leased Bell P-63 Kingcobras flying over Niagara Falls, clad in the Red Stars and tactical dark green livery of the Soviet Air Force.
Bell assembled the P-63 at the company’s factory in Wheatfield, New York.

P-63A-10-BE at Bell’s Wheatfield, New York factory

From there, after passing inspections by first an American and the Soviet AF officer, these P-63s would be immediately attached to twin 285-liter drop tanks, flown by USAAF Air Transport Command ferry pilots across the Dakotas to Great Falls, Montana, then to RCAF Station Edmonton, Alberta, and finally to Ladd Field at Fairbanks Alaska– a trip of over 4,000 miles– where the “Reds” picked them up and flew them on to Siberia and points west.
Notably, on both the American and Soviet ends of the Alaska-Siberia route, a predominance of ferry pilots was female.

WASP “skippers” on Wheatfield P-39s and P-63s

Besides the P-63s and the earlier P-39s, P-40s, A-20s, C-47s, and B-25s were also ferried from CONUS and then across the Bering Sea, with 7,983 aircraft successfully delivered to the Russians, and only 133 of all types were lost to weather or pilot error.

Warming pre-flight

P-63 Kingcobra fighters in flight during a ferry flight along the Alaska-Siberia air route, with Avachinskaya Sopka in Kamchatka in the background

Being slow compared to the P-38 and P-51 and less of a brute than the P-47, the Kingcobra saw negligible service with the USAAF. However, the Russkis loved the tough, heavily-armed, and reliable aircraft, which was well-suited to their particular brand of tactical aviation.

Of the 3,303 production aircraft, some three-quarters, at least 2,397 airframes, were delivered new to Uncle Joe and the gang, with only the hours racked up in the ferry flights from Niagara. They endured in Soviet service so long that they picked up a NATO F-code (fighter) reporting name in the 1950s (Fred).

Ace pilots of the 9th Guard Aviation Division at the Bell P-39 fighter Airacobra by GA Rechkalova. From left to right: Alexander Fedorovich Klubov (twice Hero of the Union, shot down 31 airplanes personally, 19 in a group), Grigory Andreevich Rechkalov (twice a Hero, shot down 56 airplanes personally and 6 in a group), Andrei Ivanovich Trud (Hero of the USSR, shot down 25 airplanes individually and 1 in a group) and commander of the 16th Guards Fighter Squad Air Regiment Boris Borisovich Glinka (Hero of the Soviet Union, shot down 30 airplanes personally and 1 in a group). The 2nd Ukrainian Front. The photo was taken in June 1944 – the number of stars on Rechkalov’s plane corresponds to his achievements at that time (46 planes shot down personally, 6 in a group).

Soviet Red Air Force ace Alexander Pokryshkin chalked up 65 victories on the Eastern Front, almost all in P-39 Aircobras and P-63 Kings

Soviet P-63 Kingcobra of the VVS. Artist Vladimir Voronin.

Bear Patrol

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The old turboprop-powered Tu-95 Bear, first flown in 1952, is still poking around, spotted this time over the Bearing and Chukchi Sea, and a whole new generation of interceptors are now rising to meet them.

North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) F-35 Lightning II fighter aircraft positively identified and intercepted two Russian Tu-95 and two Su-35 military aircraft over the Bering Sea, on 18 Feb. 2025.

North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) F-35 Lightning II fighter aircraft positively identified and intercepted two Russian Tu-95 and two Su-35 military aircraft over the Chukchi Sea, on 19 Feb. 2025.

Two Russian Tu-95 and two Su-27 military aircraft are positively identified and intercepted by North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) F-35 Lightning II fighter aircraft over the Chukchi Sea,19 Feb. 2025. 

North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) F-35 Lightning II fighter aircraft positively identified and intercepted two Russian Tu-95 and two Su-35 military aircraft over the Bering Sea, on 18 Feb. 2025.

Via Alaskan Command:
On Feb. 18th and 19th, 2025, North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) F-35 Lightning II fighter aircraft positively identified and intercepted two Russian Tu-95 and two Su-35 military aircraft in the Alaska Air Defense Identification Zone (ADIZ) remaining in international airspace west of Alaska.
NORAD remains ready to employ a number of response options in defense of North American including meeting presence with presence.
The bandits appear to include Tupelov Tu-95MS Bear-H Red 45 (RF-94189), a strategic missile slinger of the Amur long-range aviation unit, escorted by Sukhoi Su-35 Super Flankers Blue 24 (95493) and Red 51– possibly of the 23rd Fighter Aviation Regiment.
Of note, Blue 24 seemed to be armed with two long-range Vympel NPO R-77s and two short-range R-73 AAMs, which is a flex.

Alaska Reindeer Games

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You may have missed a series of incidents and noteworthy news from the 17th Coast Guard District, Alaskan Command (ALCOM), Alaskan North American Aerospace Defense Command Region, and the Eleventh Air Force in the past couple of weeks.

USCG Bumps into Chinese Coast Guard, Russian Border Guard patrol in Bering Sea

An HC-130J Super Hercules airplane crew from Coast Guard Air Station Kodiak observes two Russian Border Guard ships and two Chinese Coast Guard ships approximately 440 miles southwest of St. Lawrence Island on Sept. 28, 2024. This marked the northernmost location where Chinese Coast Guard vessels have been observed by the U.S. Coast Guard. (U.S. Coast Guard courtesy photo)

1 October: JUNEAU, Alaska – The U.S. Coast Guard located four vessels from the Russian Border Guard and Chinese Coast Guard conducting a joint patrol in the Bering Sea, on Saturday.

While patrolling the maritime boundary between the United States and Russia on routine patrol in the Bering Sea, an HC-130J Super Hercules airplane crew from Coast Guard Air Station Kodiak observed two Russian Border Guard ships and two Chinese Coast Guard ships approximately 440 miles southwest of St. Lawrence Island.

The vessels were transiting in formation in a northeast direction, remaining approximately five miles inside the Russian Exclusive Economic Zone. This marked the northernmost location where Chinese Coast Guard vessels have been observed by the U.S. Coast Guard.

“This recent activity demonstrates the increased interest in the Arctic by our strategic competitors,” said Rear Adm. Megan Dean, commander of the 17th Coast Guard District. “The demand for Coast Guard services across the region continues to grow, requiring continuous investment in our capabilities to meet our strategic competitors’ presence and fulfill our statutory missions across an expanding operational area.”

The HC-130 aircrew operated under Operation Frontier Sentinel, an operation designed to meet presence with presence when strategic competitors operate in and around U.S. waters. The Coast Guard’s presence strengthens the international rules-based order and promotes the conduct of operations in a manner that follows international law and norms.

In its own statement, the CCG issued images of the 3,450-ton Zhaoyu-class patrol cutter Haijing 2303 and noted it was the first time the service has entered the Arctic Ocean– but keep in mind the 16,000-member force was only formed in 2013: 

The 3,450-ton Zhaoyus, which are frequently seen in the South China Sea harassing Philipino ships, is armed with a H/PJ-26 76 mm naval gun, two 30mm guns, and two anti-aircraft machine guns.

This is the first time that Chinese Coast Guard ships have entered the Arctic Ocean, which effectively expanded the scope of the Coast Guard’s ocean-going navigation, comprehensively tested the Coast Guard ships’ ability to carry out missions in unfamiliar waters, and provided strong support for active participation in international and regional ocean governance.

Russian Su-35s, TU-142s, Tu-95s, IL-38s penetrating ADIZ

A NORAD F-16 Fighting Falcon intercepts a Russian IL-38 in the Alaska Air Defense Identification Zone in September 2024 under Operation Noble Eagle. NORAD employs a layered defense network of satellites, ground-based and airborne radars, and fighter aircraft in seamless interoperability to detect and track aircraft and inform appropriate actions. NORAD remains ready to employ several response options in defense of North America.

There have been lots of incursions from Russian aircraft into the Alaska Air Defense Indication Zone (ADIZ) in the past few weeks.

Notable incidents include:

  • Two unspecified Russian military aircraft on Sept. 11.
  • Two Russian TU-142 bombers on Sept. 13.
  • Two Russian IL-38 patrol aircraft on Sept. 14.
  • Two Russian IL-38 patrol aircraft on Sept. 15.
  • Four aircraft including Tu-95 Bears escorted by Su-35s on Sept. 23.

Gen. Gregory Guillot, Commander of NORAD and U.S. Northern Command, spoke on the latter event, stating:

“On Monday (Sept. 23), NORAD aircraft flew a safe and disciplined intercept of Russian military aircraft in the Alaskan ADIZ. The conduct of one Russian Su-35 was unsafe, unprofessional, and endangered all – not what you’d see in a professional air force.”

Healy Heads Back to the Arctic

U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Healy (WAGB 20) transits with assist tugs through Elliott Bay near Seattle following its departure from Base Seattle, Oct. 1, 2024. The crew of the Healy are scheduled to resume their scientific mission that was cut short due to an onboard fire in late July. (U.S. Coast Guard photo by Petty Officer 1st Class Steve Strohmaier)

U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Healy (WAGB 20) departed Seattle on Tuesday, beginning her months-long Arctic deployment.

Healy’s earlier science mission was cut short due to a high-profile fire while underway in July. The icebreaker– the country’s only medium polar capable breaker– returned to Seattle in August for a thorough inspection and repairs but is now back on her mission.

While essentially unarmed other than the contents of her small arms locker, she at least has 16,000 tons of presence, a decent common suite, and a helicopter/UAV capability. 

She will support NSF/UNOLS scientists and NOAA survey personnel conducting three distinct science missions:

The first mission supports the Arctic Port Access Route Study (PARS). During this mission, the cutter will perform bathymetric mapping in the Chukchi and Beaufort Seas. The Coast Guard has initiated an Arctic PARS to analyze current vessel patterns, predict future vessel needs, and balance the needs of all waterway users by developing and recommending vessel routing measures for the Arctic. The Arctic PARS may lead to future rulemaking or international agreements that consider coastal communities, fishing, commercial traffic, military needs, resource development, wildlife presence and habit, tribal activities, and recreational uses.

For the second mission, Healy will embark 20 early career polar scientists and their mentors on an Arctic Chief Scientists Training Cruise sponsored by the National Science Foundation and University-National Oceanographic Laboratory System. These early career scientists will conduct multidisciplinary research, including mapping to fill critical bathymetric gaps and scientific sampling across various disciplines, in addition to developing skills in shipboard leadership, coordination, and execution.

The final mission of the deployment will support other science of opportunity to include sea floor mapping for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Office of Coast Survey.

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