There are ships that for the entire period of being in the combat composition of the fleet did not participate in naval battles, did not bombard the coast, but by their mere presence they influenced not only the tactical, but also the strategic background of events. These were the battleships - the German "Tirpitz" and the Soviet "Arkhangelsk".
Destruction operations
Until November 1944, the British constantly carried out operations to destroy the Nazi battleship Tirpitz in the waters of Northern Norway. And the Germans, fearing the strengthening of the Soviet Northern Fleet, hunted for the battleship Arkhangelsk until the end of the war. On the fighting significant forces and means of the warring countries were diverted against these ships.
Developing operations to destroy the superdreadnought of the Royal Sovereign type - the battleship Arkhangelsk, the Germans also hoped to quarrel the allies, because everything was going to the fact that Germany would lose the war, and so there was hope for a different outcome.
The allies handed over the battleship for temporary use to the Soviet fleet. The pursuit of the Arkhangelsk began from the moment it left Scapa Flow in Scotland on August 17, 1944, from where the ship as part of the JW-59 convoy was to proceed to the Kola Bay.
It was impossible to keep this a secret, therefore the British, realizing the full responsibility of the event, allocated an unprecedented escort to the convoy: a battleship, three aircraft carriers, three cruisers and 18 destroyers. And these were not vain precautions. In Alta Fjord (Norway), the German battleship Tirpitz was stationed, more than ten destroyers were in readiness at the northern bases of Norway. On the way, the enemy could put up to 50 submarines.
The Headquarters of the Supreme Commander-in-Chief was daily interested in the passage of ships. The very next day after they left the base, reports of attacks by German submarines began to arrive. The tension of the personnel of the detachment at the transition was at the limit.
On August 24, the ships, having traveled 1880 miles, entered the Kola Bay and anchored. The entire operation to receive and move the battleship took about four months. And yet, one ship was lost - this is the V-1 submarine ("Sunfish") under the command of Captain 2nd Rank I.I. Fisanovich. The mystery of her death has not been revealed to date.
old ships
A turning point came in the war, but the leadership of the Union did not live in illusions and thought about the future. Navy showed its importance, especially in the North. The North Seas with the beginning of the war became the scene of fierce fighting. The Norwegian, Greenland and Barents Seas have not lost their significance even today.
At the end of July 1943, when Italy capitulated, Soviet Union demanded his share of captured Italian ships. But the allies, under all sorts of pretexts, delayed the solution of this issue, as well as the opening of a second front. Stalin's insistent demands forced them to offer such an option - to temporarily use allied ships. All of them were old, including the superdreadnought Royal Sovereign built in 1915.
Here is how Nikolai Gerasimovich Kuznetsov, who was then People's Commissar of the Navy, recalled this:
“I reported to Headquarters that the old ships are being handed over to us ...
It is not worth counting on the transfer of more modern ships to us, ”Stalin replied. -
Can you tell me where do you think to use them?
in the Northern Fleet. There they can still be useful. Useful for escorting convoys, anti-submarine warfare and coastal protection.
Good. Get them there."
On March 3, 1944, People's Commissar of the Navy N. Kuznetsov signed order No. 0062 on the formation of a detachment of ships from those transferred by the Allied side, led by the Royal Sovereign dreadnought.
The teams for the ships of the detachment were formed in the glorious city of the Russian Pomors of Arkhangelsk, and therefore it was decided to name the resulting battleship Arkhangelsk. This did not contradict tradition - most of the battleships of Russia bore the names of cities. Russian sailors so quickly mastered the new technology for them that they even aroused the admiration of the British.
School for sailors and shipbuilders
With the arrival of the Northern Fleet, the battleship "Arkhangelsk" became the core of the formed squadron of surface ships and the flagship of the fleet.
Naturally, they did not want to risk the ship. In case of loss, he would still have to pay for it. After all, it is a myth that the allies provided assistance to the USSR for free. Everything was paid for with Russian gold and human lives. And besides, it was impractical to use a battleship to protect convoys; destroyers and aircraft did an excellent job with this. Although the destroyers were old, in the hands of Soviet sailors they were a formidable weapon against the fascist " wolf packs»Grand Admiral Karl Dönitz.
Service on the battleship has become a good school for hundreds of sailors. Shipbuilders also, as they say, took advantage of best practices. Already in post-war years in the USSR, such cruisers of the 68-bis project were built (the most famous are the Sverdlov and Dzerzhinsky), which were already being hunted by British scouts.
People's Commissar of the Navy N. Kuznetsov also advocated for a large surface fleet. Stalin also dreamed of a "big fleet".
"Big Fleet" is the collective name of the shipbuilding programs of the USSR Navy in 1938-1955, the purpose of which was to create a powerful ocean-going fleet. Battleships were to become its core. For this, personnel were needed, which were also being prepared at Arkhangelsk.
In 1949, the battleship was returned to Great Britain, where she was scrapped. The USSR received a captured Italian dreadnought of the Giulio Cesare type built in 1910, which, under the name "Novorossiysk", died in October 1955.
The bigger, the better
Until the middle of the 20th century, the power of any navy was determined by the presence of battleships in it.
During World War II, the US Navy had the largest number of battleships (27). Japan had 14 battleships. USA defeated the Land of the Rising Sun pacific ocean, and even the act of complete surrender of Japan - the actual end of World War II - was symbolically signed on board the US battleship Missouri, which today has the status of a naval museum.
During the Great Patriotic War, the Navy had three battleships built in 1914, which did an excellent job of bombarding enemy positions: on the Black Sea - "Paris Commune" (the name "Sevastopol" was returned to the ship on May 31, 1943), and in the Baltic - battleships "Petropavlovsk" ("Marat") and " October Revolution"("Gangut"). So the battleship "Arkhangelsk" was quite consistent in age with its counterparts in other fleets.
Kings of the seas and oceans
What is the power of battleships, the author knows firsthand. In 1955, I had to do an internship on the October Revolution battleship, which by that time was a training ship. In that year, the battleship made its last transition Kronstadt - Baltiysk - Kronstadt and fired the main caliber at Seskar Island. It was something!
Before firing, the ship prepared thoroughly, half-ton shells (caliber 305 millimeters) flew at a distance of up to 30 kilometers. The ship shook, spewing tons of metal. Yes, battleships were indeed "kings" not only of the seas, but also of the oceans. They were floating fortresses.
It is unfortunate that the battleship Arkhangelsk, which served the Soviet Navy during the war and a little later, did not receive a proper assessment in official reports. But each type of ship meets the requirements of its time, and today these are aircraft carriers and submarines.
I cited this little-known fact from the history of our fleet - the presence of a battleship in its composition - as a reminder to those who belittle the role of the Navy in the victory in the Great Patriotic War and who considers the fleet for Russia an expensive and unnecessary toy. The fleet has always been the core of statehood. He was and remains a reliable defender of Russia's state interests.
After withdrawing from the war on September 8, 1943, Italy had to pay reparations to those states on whose territory its troops fought. The Soviet government wanted to receive warships of the main classes on account of these reparations in order to partially compensate for the losses. But it was not possible to get Italian ships at that time, and the Allies temporarily transferred to the USSR a certain number of their own obsolete ships. One of these "temporary" ships was battleship Royal Sovereign.
By the time the ship was transferred to the USSR, it had the following artillery weapons:
main caliber- 8 381/42 Vickers guns in four twin turret mounts;
anti-mine caliber - 8 152/42 Vickers guns in single-gun casemates;
long-range anti-aircraft caliber - 8 102/45 Vickers guns in four two-gun shield mounts;
melee anti-aircraft caliber - 24 40/45 Vickers guns in two eight-barrel and two four-barrel mounts, 46 20/70 Oerlikon guns in twin and 14 single-barrel mounts.
TTX of the ship at the time of transfer:
Empty displacement - 28,950 tons;
Standard displacement - 29,150 tons (with bow draft 8.92 m, stern 8.79 m);
Full displacement - 33,500 tons (draft bow 10.83 m, stern 9.96 m).
Maximum length 189.38 m
Waterline length 187.3 m
The greatest width (on boules) - 32.18 m
Board height (maximum) - 16.54 m
According to the English state personnel The ship was supposed to have 1234 people: 59 officers, 54 specialists of the 1st class (in the Soviet fleet - midshipmen and chief foremen), 151 - of the 2nd and 970 - of the 3rd class.
Host with Soviet side and Deputy Commissar of the Navy Vice Admiral G. I. Levchenko was appointed commander of the combined detachment of ships, Rear Admiral V. A. Fokin was appointed chief of staff of the detachment, Captain 1st Rank N. P. Zarembo was appointed head of the political department, Rear Admiral was commander of the battleship V. I. Ivanov (former commander of the battleship "Marat"). Preparations for the reception of the ship were carried out by members of the Soviet naval mission, engineer-captains of the 1st rank A.E. Brykin and P.P. Shishaev.
On March 3, 1944, People's Commissar of the Navy N. G. Kuznetsov signed order No. 0062 on the formation of a detachment of ships received from the allies and crews for them, and on March 9, the battleship Royal Sovereign and other received ships were included in the lists of ships of the USSR Navy.
Teams for the ships were formed in Arkhangelsk and on April 28, 1944, with the next convoy, they were sent to England on the New Holland steamer. On May 7, the sailors arrived at the Greenock naval base near Glasgow, from where railway got to the naval base Rosyt, where the battleship was stationed. Work began on repairing the ship and training the crew. The battleship was in relatively good condition, although defects in the hydraulics were found. Also, a large shooting of the main caliber barrels and the absence of high-explosive shells were revealed. The command of the detachment raised the question of changing the liners and providing the ship with high-explosive shells.
On May 30, the handover ceremony of the ship took place. At 11:15 a.m., the Soviet naval flag was hoisted on its mast. From that moment on, the ship began to be called "Arkhangelsk".
During the summer, the battleship went to sea for firing practice and joint practice with other ships. On August 17, Arkhangelsk with convoy JW-59 left Scapa Flow for Vaenga (now Severomorsk). At first, the battleship with eight destroyers held together with the convoy, which was subjected to several attacks by submarines, and then, increasing its speed, broke away from the convoy and followed north of it, also reflecting the attacks of submarines. On August 24, having traveled 1880 miles, the battleship arrived safely in Vaenga, where it became the flagship of the squadron created from the transferred ships.
Until the end of the war, the battleship did not leave the Kola Bay. The only time the main caliber of the Arkhangelsk fired a blank salvo was on Victory Day. Arkhangelsk spent September and December 1944 mainly at anchor, and in November it had 10-12 running days (short exits from the base within the Kola Bay for combat training: firing practice with anti-aircraft calibers, radio rangefinder exercises, etc.) . The greatest sailing time for the year - 40 days - the ship had in 1945, during which time it traveled 2750 miles, and later it was operated twice as less intensively, periodically going out to work out combat training tasks in the Barents and White Seas. In total, in 1946, for 19 running days, the battleship traveled 1,491 miles, and in 1947 - 1,826 miles (21 running days). The ship did not undergo factory repairs and docking during its stay in the Soviet fleet.
He served in the Soviet Navy, in which he bore the name "Arkhangelsk".
| "Royal Sovereign" | |
|---|---|
| HMS Royal Sovereign | |
HMS Royal Sovereign |
|
| Service | |
| United Kingdom | |
| Vessel class and type | Revenge-class battleship |
| Organization | Royal Navy |
| Construction started | January 15, 1914 |
| Launched into the water | May 29, 1915 |
| Withdrawn from the Navy | Transferred to the Soviet Navy on May 30, 1944 |
| Service | |
| the USSR | |
| Name | "Arkhangelsk" |
| Vessel class and type | Rivenge-class battleships |
| Organization | Soviet Navy |
| Commissioned | May 30, 1944 |
| Withdrawn from the Navy | Returned to Great Britain in January 1949 |
| Status | Broken down in 1949 |
| Main characteristics | |
| Displacement | 28 000 t normal 31,000 tons total |
| Length | 189 m 176.9m DWL |
| Width | 27.0 m |
| Draft | 8.7 m |
| Booking | main belt: 102-330mm beams: 102-152 mm deck: 127 mm GK towers: forehead - 330 mm barbettes of GK towers: 102-254 mm conning tower: 279 mm |
| Engines | 24 oil-fired water tube boilers Parsons turbines |
| Power | 26 500 l. with. |
| mover | 4 screws |
| travel speed | 21 knots maximum |
| cruising range | 5000 miles at 12 knots |
| Crew | 997 people |
| Armament | |
| Artillery | 4 × 2 - 381mm/42 Mk I 14 × 1 - 152 mm/50 BL Mk XII 2×1 - 76mm 4×1 - 47mm |
| Mine and torpedo armament | 4 underwater 533 mm TA |
| Media files at Wikimedia Commons | |
Service in the Royal Navy of Great Britain (1915-1944)
May 1916 - Assigned to 1st Squadron, Grand Fleet. 1916 - due to a breakdown of the machines, he could not take part in the Battle of Jutland.
In the 1920s and 1930s, the Royal Sovereign underwent many minor upgrades, mainly to increase anti-aircraft weapons. In 1924-1925, 76-mm guns gave way to 102-mm single anti-aircraft guns (first two, and then four), which, in turn, were replaced by twin ones at the end of the 30s. At the same time, from 1936, the installation of eight-barreled 40-mm machine guns (“two-pound pom-poms”) began, which ended after the start of hostilities, and radars. The elevation angle of the main battery guns was not increased, and they were inferior in firing range to almost all battleships of the Second World War.
In September 1939, the battleship was part of the Home Fleet (Home Fleet), and then was transferred to the Mediterranean Fleet and participated in the battle of Punta Stilo on July 18, 1940, however, due to the insufficient speed of the ship, Cunningham was unable to impose on the Italian battleships "Giulio Cesare" and "Conte di Cavour" decisive battle.
In 1940-1941, the Royal Sovereign escorted Atlantic convoys. In 1942, she was briefly assigned to the Eastern Fleet, based at Trincomalee, Ceylon, and then transferred to Kilindini, Kenya, as it was considered too outdated to fight the Japanese fleet.
From September 1942 to September 1943, due to the poor condition of the mechanisms, it was overhauled in the USA, after which it served for one month in the Indian Ocean and was recalled to the reserve.
After withdrawing from the war on September 8, 1943, Italy had to pay reparations to those states on whose territory its troops fought. The Soviet government wanted to receive warships of the main classes on account of these reparations in order to partially compensate for the losses. But it was not possible to get Italian ships at that time, and the Allies temporarily transferred to the USSR a certain number of their own obsolete ships. One of these "temporary" ships was the battleship "Royal Sovereign".
By the time the ship was transferred to the USSR, it had the following artillery weapons:
- main caliber - eight 381-mm / 42 Vickers guns in four two-gun turret mounts;
- anti-mine caliber - eight 152-mm / 42 Vickers guns in single-gun casemates;
- long-range anti-aircraft caliber - eight 102-mm / 45 Vickers guns in four two-gun shield mounts;
- melee anti-aircraft caliber - 24 40-mm / 39 Vickers guns in two eight-barrel and two four-barrel mounts, 46 20-mm / 70 Oerlikon guns in twin and 14 in single mounts.
TTX of the ship at the time of transfer:
- Empty displacement - 28,950 tons;
- Standard displacement - 29,150 tons (with bow draft 8.92 m, stern 8.79 m);
- Full displacement - 33,500 tons (draft bow 10.83 m, stern 9.96 m).
- Maximum length 189.38 m
- Waterline length 187.3 m
- The greatest width (on boules) - 32.18 m
- Board height (maximum) - 16.54 m
According to the British state, the personnel of the ship should have consisted of 1234 people: 59 officers, 54 specialists of the 1st class (in the Soviet fleet - midshipmen and chief foremen), 151 - of the 2nd and 970 - of the 3rd class.
Vice-Admiral G. I. Levchenko, Deputy Commissar of the Navy, Vice-Admiral G. I. Levchenko, Chief of Staff of the detachment - Rear Admiral V. A. Fokin, Head of the Political Department - Captain 1st Rank N. P. Zarembo, commander of the battleship - Rear Admiral V.I. Ivanov (former commander of the battleship Marat). Preparations for the reception of the ship were carried out by members of the Soviet naval mission, engineer-captains of the 1st rank A.E. Brykin and P.P. Shishaev.
Literature
In Russian
- Guzanov V.G. Wolf Fjord. - M. : TERRA, 1998. - 320 p. - (Secret missions). - ISBN 5-300-01801-5.
- Vasiliev A. M. Battleship "Arkhangelsk" // Gangut. - 2001. - No. 27.
- Saveliev E.V. From Scapa Flow to Vaenga on the battleship "Arkhangelsk" // Gangut. - 1995. - No. 9.
- Usov V. Yu. The battleship "Arkhangelsk" // Shipbuilding. - 1995. - No. 2-3.
- Przemyslaw Budzbon. Soviet Navy at War 1941–1945. - London: Arms and Armor Press, 1989. - ISBN 0-85368-948-2.
- R. A. Burt. British Battleships, 1919–1939. - Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press, 2012. - ISBN 978-1-59114-052-8.
- R. A. Burt. British Battleships of World War One. - Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press, 1986. - ISBN 0-87021-863-8.
- Dennis Angelo Castillo. The Maltese Cross: A Strategic History of Malta. - Westport, Connecticut: Praeger Security International, 2006. - ISBN 0-313-32329-1.
- Royal W. Connell, William P. Mack. Naval Ceremonies, Customs, and Traditions. - Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press, 2003. - ISBN 1-55750-330-3.
- R. J. Daniel. The End of An Era: The Memoirs of A Naval Constructor. - Penzance, UK: Periscope Publishing, 2003. - ISBN 1-55750-352-4.
- Ashley Jackson. The British Empire and the Second World War. - London: Hambledon Continuum, 2006. - ISBN 1-85285-417-0.
- Robert Jackson. The Royal Navy in World War II. - Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press, 1997. - ISBN 1-55750-712-0.
- Angus Konstam. British Battleships 1939–45: Queen Elizabeth and Royal Sovereign Classes. - Oxford, UK: Osprey Publishing, 2009. - Vol. 1. - ISBN 978-1-84603-388-9.
- James P. Levy. The Royal Navy's Home Fleet in World War II. - Hampshire, UK: Palgrave Macmillan, 2003. - ISBN 1-4039-1773-6.
- Bernard Lovell. Our Present Knowledge of the Universe. - Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 1967.
- Stephen McLaughlin. Russian & Soviet Battleships. - Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press, 2003. - ISBN 1-55750-481-4.
- Vincent P. O "Hara, W. David Dickson, Richard Worth. On Seas Contested: The Seven Great Navies of the Second World War. - Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press, 2010. - ISBN 978-1-59114-646-9.
- Vincent P. O "Hara. Struggle for the middle sea. - Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press, 2009. - ISBN 978-1-59114-648-3.
- Lawrence Paterson. Weapons of Desperation: German Frogmen and Midget Submarines of the Second World War. - Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press, 2006. - ISBN 1-59114-929-0.
- Peter Plowman. Across The Sea To War. - Dural Delivery Center, NSW: Rosenberg, 2003. - ISBN 1-877058-06-8.
- Alan Raven, John Roberts British Battleships of World War Two: The Development and Technical History of the Royal Navy's Battleship and Battlecruisers from 1911 to 1946. - Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press, 1976. - ISBN 0-87021-817-4.
- Jurgen Rohwer.
Our hero began at Portsmouth on May 29, 1915, when the battleship Royal Sovereign was launched. But he got into our history because from 1944 to 1949 he served in the Soviet Navy, under the name "Arkhangelsk".
In general, the entire combat path of this ship passed under the sign of "bad luck."
At the time of construction, the Royal Sovereign was considered a superdreadnought of the Rivenge series. Excellent for those times armament of 8 381-mm guns, good armor. But a move of 21 knots was, let's say, the Achilles' heel of the ship.
And the cars became exactly the factor that actually deprived the battleship of military glory.
1916 First World War. The famous Battle of Jutland. "Sovereign" could not take part in it due to a breakdown of the machines. The war has passed.
In the 1920s and 1930s, the Royal Sovereign underwent many minor upgrades, mainly to increase anti-aircraft weapons. Instead of 76-mm anti-aircraft guns, 102-mm single anti-aircraft guns were installed, which, in turn, were replaced by twin ones at the end of the 30s.
In 1936, radars and 40 mm anti-aircraft guns were installed. What the British engineers could not do was to increase the elevation angle of the main battery guns. In the end to the beginning new war the battleship was inferior in firing range (22 km) to all colleagues from the fleets of other states.
At the beginning of World War II, the battleship was part of the Home Fleet, but was quickly transferred to the Mediterranean Fleet. On July 18, 1940, he tried to participate in the battle of Punta Stilo, but the Italian Giulio Cesare and Conte di Cavour, having a higher speed (28 knots), simply washed away from the British and the Warspite took the rap for everyone.
Further, the Royal Sovereign played the role of a "suitcase without a handle." He accompanied the Atlantic convoys in 1940-41, was on a meringue on the island of Ceylon, and then he was transferred to Kenya, as he was considered absolutely unsuitable for fighting the Japanese fleet.
As a result, the battleship ended up in the United States, where it was overhauled from September 1942 to September 1943, after which it served for one month in the Indian Ocean and was finally withdrawn to the reserve. Where Sovereign did not expect anything so promising.
And then the next part of his story began.
On September 8, 1943, Italy capitulated and withdrew from the war. As the losing side, Italy had to pay reparations to those states on whose territory its troops fought. Including the Soviet Union.
Our government wanted to receive warships of the main classes on account of these reparations in order to partially compensate for the losses incurred. But with the receipt of Italian ships, difficulties arose, and a luxurious solution was invented: the Allies temporarily transferred a certain number of their ships to the USSR. It must be understood, according to the principle of "give back what is not good for yourself."
I already wrote about the destroyers that replenished the Northern Fleet. And as you already understood, the British happily appointed the Royal Sovereign as the lead ship in the transferred squadron. Overturning, for joy, obviously, more than one bucket of whiskey or rum.
Unlike the Americans, who, according to the agreement, drove the Milwaukee/Murmansk cruiser to our port, the British insisted that the reception of the battleship, destroyers and submarines took place in England. We had to send our teams to Britain.
On March 3, 1944, People's Commissar of the Navy N. G. Kuznetsov signed order No. 0062 on the formation of a detachment of ships received from the allies and crews for them, and on March 9 the ships were included in the lists of ships of the USSR Navy.
Teams for the ships were formed in Arkhangelsk and on April 28, 1944, with the next convoy, they were sent to England on the New Holland steamer.
The battleship was in relatively good condition, apparently affected by overhaul in the United States. Multiple defects in hydraulics were found. Also, "suddenly" a large shooting of the trunks of the main caliber was revealed. But the main difficulty in acceptance was the complete absence of high-explosive shells.
The British stubbornly did not want to equip the ship's ammunition with land mines, mumbling about the needs and requirements for the opening of the Second Front. But the topic was so beaten by that time that the commander of the detachment of ships, Vice Admiral G. I. Levchenko, the chief of staff of the detachment, Rear Admiral V. A. Fokin, and the commander of the battleship, Rear Admiral V. I. Ivanov, intervened in the process of preparation and transfer actually forced the British to fulfill their obligations.
As a result, the liners in the barrels of the main caliber were replaced, but the land mines were still "found".
On May 30, the handover ceremony of the ship took place. At 11:15 a.m., the Soviet naval flag was hoisted on its mast. From that moment on, the ship began to be called "Arkhangelsk".
And already on August 17, 1944, the Arkhangelsk with the JW-59 convoy left Scapa Flow for Vaenga (now Severomorsk).
Naturally, the Germans could not miss the opportunity to give a splash to the opponents, especially since it was unrealistic to hide such a thing as the exit of the convoy.
At that time, Britain's headache, the Tirpitz, was still hanging around in the Norwegian Altenfjord, and a gang of 11 destroyers was based next door. In addition, up to 50 submarines were simultaneously in the Norwegian and Barents Seas.
What could hypothetically oppose the Royal Sovereign to the Tirpitz? 22 knots of speed against 30 and 22.4 km of firing range against 36.5. Escort aircraft carriers (there were already 4 of them in the convoy) “Tirpitz” could not be particularly afraid, since at that time its anti-aircraft artillery was an awesome force.
16 × 105 mm (8 x 2) guns;
16 × 37 mm single guns;
12 × 20 mm single guns;
72 × 20 mm in quad mounts.
Yes, and the German destroyers of the Z series were two heads superior American colleagues 1914-16 built.
However, Hitler's fear of losing the second super battleship left the Tirpitz at the base. And the operation to sink the Arkhangelsk was undertaken by the submariners of Grand Admiral Doenitz.
In fact, the detachment of now Soviet destroyers was guarded only by the battleship. But the fight against German submarines by that time for our sailors was a matter of everyday life and habitual, so that two "Germans" did not return to their bases, and the rest, in general, were "lucky". A 9-point storm allowed the ships to break away from the enemy and arrive in our northern ports.
It is difficult to predict how effective the actions of our sailors on the old English battleship would be if the Tirpitz crawled out of its lair. But I join the opinion of many historians, the chances would be very small.
Nevertheless, in spite of, whether thanks to, but "Arkhangelsk" arrived in Vaenga. And it became the lead ship no longer of the squadron, but in fact of the Northern Fleet. A battleship, a cruiser, three divisions of destroyers, guards, submarines… It was already the Fleet!
But the service of "Arkhangelsk" was strange and ambiguous.
Until the end of the war, the battleship never left the Kola Bay to perform combat missions. Even for offensive fire support Soviet troops in mid-October 1944 and the disruption of the evacuation of German troops from Finnmark, although his mere appearance in the Varanger Fjord would have thwarted all the plans of the Germans.
Apparently, Admiral Golovko was afraid of responsibility in the event of the loss of the ship. The only time the main caliber of the Arkhangelsk fired a blank salvo was on Victory Day.
Until the end of 1944, Arkhangelsk spent at anchor, only in November it had 10-12 running days. And even then, these were short exits within the Kola Bay for combat training: firing practice with anti-aircraft calibers, radio rangefinder exercises, and the like.
In 1945, the ship spent 40 days at sea and covered 2,750 miles. Further - even less. In 1946, in 19 running days, the battleship traveled 1,491 miles, and in 1947, in 21 days, 1,826 miles.
Apparently, in order to save money (to return it to the allies anyway!) The ship did not undergo repairs and docking.
The final fate was highly expected.
January 15, 1949 "Arkhangelsk" left Vaenga and February 4 arrived at naval base Rosyth. Upon the return of the ship, Royal Navy technicians carried out a thorough inspection of the ship's systems and found that much of the equipment was unfit for further service.
The main caliber towers, which did not turn over the entire period of service in the USSR Navy, were wedged in the middle position. The last campaign "Royal Sovereign" made on May 18 in the Scottish Inverkiting where it was dismantled.
Strange fate. It is very difficult to judge why this old ship was again put into operation by the forces of our sailors, driven to Arkhangelsk, but did not serve with a single shot what it was supposed to serve.
There is a certain identity with Tirpitz. He also did not particularly show himself in that war, but was either a symbol of the German fleet, or a scarecrow (or rather) for timid British admirals. And it was the presence of the Tirpitz at sea that led to the betrayal with the PQ-17 convoy.
But basically, "Tirpitz", if you look seriously, was the target for exercises in the bombing of English pilots. Which eventually finished him off. Not without help, however, the "aces" of the Luftwaffe.
"Arkhangelsk" also served as a target for German submariners. Several attempts were made to sink it, but they were all thwarted by the anti-submarine defense of the Northern Fleet. What the Germans, after 20 years, wrote in the magazine "Marine Rundschau".
But still, the battleship had a strange fate.