Transport ships of USSR in 1941-1945 - any info!!

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mjbollinger
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#721

Post by mjbollinger » 24 Sep 2007, 21:02

BP,

I've tried for years to get more information with Henri Barbusse in 1941 -- without success. There are several accidents in the 1938-41 period that remain confused.

MB

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BIGpanzer
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#722

Post by BIGpanzer » 24 Sep 2007, 22:38

I see...Well, the very unknown case of collision and loss of "Anri Barbyus" ["Henri Barbusse" :wink: ] in April 1941 on the Black Sea just adds fog to the often confused info about dry-cargo ships of "Tsyurupa"-type :roll:

Regards, BP


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BIGpanzer
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#723

Post by BIGpanzer » 25 Sep 2007, 00:15

As for Soviet small sea-going ships.

Leningrad shipyard named for A. Marti built three cargo-passenger ships "Kareliya", "Mud'yug" and "Pomor'e" in 1930. They were intended to be used in north seas. Specifications - full displacement 1320 tons [cargo capacity 430 tons and up to 138-250 passengers (in cabins - 109 men)], 60 m length, 9.2 m beam, 3.46 m full draft, 2 x 400 hp diesels (some sources mention they were steamers), 10.2 knots, 4000 miles, 34 men crew.

"Kareliya" was scrapped in 1969, "Mud'yug" (GS-4 in 1941-1942) was scrapped in 1970.
"Pomor'e" [used by North State Sea Steamship Company, SGMP] was exploded on two mines in White Sea [near Bolshoi Sedlovatyy Is., Kandalaksha bay] 22.08.1941 at 22:40 during run from Kandalaksha to Umba bay with cargos and passengers on board. Some men tried to reach coast on life-boat and life-raft but only 2 of them survived because of strong storm; 32 crewmembers (including captain S. Varakin) and 30 passengers were lost.
As for the origin of mines - some sources mention that was German mines installed from aircraft or submarines [indeed, they did this in Kandalaksha bay quite active], but also the report of captain from transport "Kuibyshev" is known ["Pomor'e" performed run together with "Kuibyshev"] - "Pomor'e" ignored the warning signals from "Kuibyshev" and crossed Soviet mine field...

Small cargo-passenger ship of "Mud'yug"-type (photo of "Mud'yug" is from http://www.sea.infoflot.ru )
Image

Regards, BP

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BIGpanzer
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#724

Post by BIGpanzer » 25 Sep 2007, 19:00

I've written recently:
It is also very hard to find good photos of another type of Soviet-built merchant ships used on the Black Sea [also in Pacific] during WWII - reefer diesel ships of "Volga"-type [so called "Marseilles refrigerators"] we've discussed here already - http://forum.axishistory.com/viewtopic.php?p=733909

Four were built by Admiralty shipyard named for Andre Marti in Leningrad in 1929-1932; they had displacement 6830 tons and were intended for transportation of 3724 tons of cargos including 1970 tons of refrigerated cargos [double decker with 4 holds per each deck]. With the operational range of 4000 miles "Marseilles refrigerators" were used along Black and Mediterranean sea routes [also performed runs to Great Britain and North Europe] in 1930s. Two of them ["Neva" and "Kuban"] were the first Soviet ships delivered cargos to Spanish Republic in September 1936. "Kuban" was also the first transport ship which entered Feodosiya port 29.12.1941 during the famous landing operation [performed four runs from Novorossisk to Feodosiya, captain G. Vislobokov was KIA during the first run].

The fates of "Marseilles refrigerators":
1. "Volga" - survived the war, hulked in 1968.
2. "Neva" - survived the war, scrapped in 1978.
3. "Kuban" - lost in Novorossisk 02.07.1942 because of strong German air attack [77 bombers dropped ~170 bombs] against the port. "Kuban" was damaged by sea mine 02.1942 during the run Novorossisk-Kerch, was towed to Novorossisk and repaired there. During loading in Novorossisk 07.1942 the ship on the berth was attacked by bombers and got several bomb hits, raised in 1944 by emergency rescue service of Black Sea Navy and scrapped.
4. "Rion" - survived the war, scrapped in 1979.
Here is the photo of reefer diesel ship "Kuban" - first ship photo on the page [ from http://who-is-who.com.ua/makets/seakomp ... tory_8.jpg ] and her captain G. Vislobokov [KIA]. Another photos show hospital transport "Lvov" [ex-Spanish passenger liner "Ciudad de Tarragona"] and captain V. Ushakov, and Soviet-built icebreaker "A. Mikoyan".
Image
Last edited by BIGpanzer on 30 Sep 2007, 12:51, edited 2 times in total.

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BIGpanzer
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#725

Post by BIGpanzer » 26 Sep 2007, 14:29

Here is my translation of some text fragments from the page mentioned above [Soviet merchant ships of Black & Azov seas before and during WWII].
In 1940 there were 28 cargo-passenger ships and 67 cargo ships there. The chief of Black Sea State Steamship Company, ChGMP in 1939-1941 was G. Mezentsev [ex-captain of diesel ship "Komsomol" which was sunk in Gibraltar 14.12.1936 during the Spanish Civil war, crewmembers were imprisoned in Spanish prison near one year]. Many ships of ChGMP transported food supplies, medicaments, armament to Spain in 1936 during military-fascist coup d'etat there - "Kuban", "Zyryanin", "Komsomol", "Neva", "Stary bolshevik".
Regards, BP

P.S. As for the participation of Soviet merchant ships in Spanish Civil war. Here is good source on Russian (I am translating it at the moment) - http://spalex.narod.ru/biblio/zoloto_3.html
Some info from the link:

1. Telegram of K. Voroshilov to I. Stalin from 27.09.1936: "100 tanks, 387 technical specialists are ready to shipment; we are sending 30 aircraft without MGs, 15 of them are equipped with bombs and crewmembers. The steamer goes to Mexico and comes to Cartagena. We are sending 50 tanks."

2. The order of delivery of military cargos to Spain was well planned - this made possible to deliver ~500.000 tons of armament, ammunition and other cargos, also hundreds of volunteers and specialists to Spanish ports by merchant ships [encoded as "Y" transports] despite of complicated conditions of sea blockade and relatively long range - 3500 km. The unique experience of Intelligense Department in planning of such kind of operation was taken into consideration when USSR performed operation "Anadyr" [transportation of large amount of army units to Cuba in July-October 1962].

3. The transportation of cargos to Spain by merchant ships was under control of Section "X". Special groups received military cargos of People's Commissariat of Defense in Black Sea ports, usual dockers were replaced by sailors from naval bases, tugs/motor boats/floating cranes for loading of cargos to Spain were given according to direct orders of chiefs of corresponding ports only. All territories of sea ports involved in operation were guarded well.

To be continued, BP

kgvm
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#726

Post by kgvm » 27 Sep 2007, 11:16

A link I'm looking for confirmation as to identity:
http://www.photoship.co.uk/JAlbum/Old%2 ... aga-01.jpg
I assume the "Malaga" on the picture is the later "Kijuch". The hull form with a short forecastle and a long combined poop/bridge matches the dates given by Lloyd's, and the sequence of the rigging is identical to that given by Gröner.
Anybody with an other picture of "Malaga"/"Kijuch" or of one of her sisters "Catania"/"Tunetz" and "Messina"/"Ternei"?

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BIGpanzer
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#727

Post by BIGpanzer » 27 Sep 2007, 16:40

Hi, Klaus!
I will try to find something according to your request. I suppose that the name of steamer was not "Kijuch" but "Kizhuch" ["Êèæó÷"]. Others were "Tunets" and "Ternej". All were from AKOflot [transport/fishing fleet of Kamchatka Joint Company], "Kizhuch" was given to North Maritime trust 09.07.1935, "Ternej" was given to Glavamurrybprom company [main fishing industry of Amur] in 1941.
I found the mention that Soviet crewmembers didn't like those German-built ships as their steam engines needed in coal so crews should contain many firemen and their work was very hard during runs. Also those steamers had small coal and water bins which was the reason of often fueling in ports, once "Kizhuch" was run out of all coal and water during run to Alaska even and the ship was towed to Petropavlovsk port by diesel-electric ship "Yaroslavl".

P.S. For MB :wink: - "Kizhuch" is direct transliteration of ship name. The "original" should be kisutch [because Oncorhynchus kisutch, silver salmon]

Regards, BP
Last edited by BIGpanzer on 01 Oct 2007, 18:04, edited 1 time in total.

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BIGpanzer
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#728

Post by BIGpanzer » 01 Oct 2007, 17:15

Some more photos of Soviet merchant ships of Black Sea of WWII period from Ukrainian site http://who-is-who.com.ua/

Photo of Soviet-built passenger diesel ship "Abkhaziya" [famous for dozens of runs to Odessa and Sevastopol despite of strong German air attacks, the ship was sunk 10.06.1942] and picture of combat of damaged Soviet-built large timber carrier "Stary bolshevik" against 9 enemy bombers during PQ-16 convoy run.
http://who-is-who.com.ua/makets/seakomp ... tory_6.jpg
Image

Photos of Soviet-built cargo-passenger diesel ship "Felix Dzerzhinsky" ["London reefer" of "Andrey Zhdanov"-type], icebreaker "Toros" [participated in transportation of floating docks to Far-East in 1937], French-built tanker "Sovetskaya neft" [world-famous for extremelly dangerous for tanker rescue operation of passengers from burning French liner "Georges Philippar" 16.05.1932 in Indian Ocean, Soviet crewmembers were awarded with French decorations after that], British-built steamer "Kursk".
http://who-is-who.com.ua/makets/seakomp ... tory_7.jpg
Image

Regards, BP

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#729

Post by Sonntagsforscher » 01 Oct 2007, 18:57

For a good account of the Dzhurma and other ships that were used to transport prisoners to Kolyma, see Bollinger, Martin J., _Stalin’s Slave Ships: Kolyma, the Gulag Fleet, and the Role of the West_ (Westport, Connecticut: Praeger, 2003). This seems to be the best thing in English.

Sonntagsforscher

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BIGpanzer
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#730

Post by BIGpanzer » 01 Oct 2007, 23:04

We know :)
MB is writing a new book at the moment - about the history of Soviet merchant fleet till 1940s and participation of Soviet merchant ships in WWII [all theatres of operation except Caspian Sea].

Regards, BP

kgvm
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#731

Post by kgvm » 02 Oct 2007, 09:19

Thanks for the links, BIGpanzer.
In exchange two Italian links:
http://www2.agenziabozzo.it/vecchie_nav ... Gagara.htm (dated ca. 1950, but I assume the picture was taken when "Gagara" was delivered)
http://www.naviearmatori.net/albums/use ... ENISEI.JPG (Enisei of 1916)
Regards
Klaus Günther

mjbollinger
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#732

Post by mjbollinger » 02 Oct 2007, 19:02

Hi everyone,

The book is finished: 600 pages. Now just looking for a publisher. In the process of writing the formal book proposal.

By the way, for those interested, there will be an article in the upcoming Naval War College Review about the legnd that the Japanese carrier strike force encountered a Soviet merchant ship on the way to Pearl Harbor in 1941.

Marty

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Michael Emrys
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#733

Post by Michael Emrys » 02 Oct 2007, 21:01

mjbollinger wrote:By the way, for those interested, there will be an article in the upcoming Naval War College Review about the legnd that the Japanese carrier strike force encountered a Soviet merchant ship on the way to Pearl Harbor in 1941.
Will that be available online? If not, could you post an abbreviated version somewhere on this site, perhaps the Japan at War Forum? I, for one, would be very interested.

Michael

mjbollinger
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#734

Post by mjbollinger » 03 Oct 2007, 02:18

Hi Michael,

The article can be found online here -- hot off the press:

http://www.nwc.navy.mil/press/review/do ... CRAu07.pdf

Marty

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Michael Emrys
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#735

Post by Michael Emrys » 03 Oct 2007, 02:53

Thank you, Marty. Very interesting and it looks like a carefully researched and thought out paper.

Michael

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