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

kgvm · #751

Thanks for your informations BP.
Now it's my turn with some links again:
http://www.wivonet.nl/Texel1.jpg (Sigulda of 1901 as Texel)
http://atomic.msco.ru/images/lepse.jpg (a link already given by BP, but this time it’s the bigger picture with higher resolution)
http://www.bebelaar.nl/Vloot%20overzich ... dordrecht1 (Leeni of 1891)
http://www.jsu.or.jp/siryo/map/phillipi ... nryo_t.jpg (Komsomolets of 1938 as Minryo Maru)
http://www.jsu.or.jp/siryo/map/chishima ... tenryo.jpg (Bolshevik of 1938 as Tenryo Maru)
The last two have the same picture

. The first of the three lettersymbols of the pictures ship's name looks a little bit more like that of Tenryu Maru, but I'm in no way sure.
Regards
Klaus Günther

BIGpanzer · #752

Thanks again for the excellent photos.

Dutch-built steamer "Sigulda" from Baltic State Sea Steamship Company (military transport VT-519, 1999 brt in 1941) was lost 29.08.1941 in the Gulf of Finland (at South Gogland lighthouse; 60.01', 26.59') - the ship in ballast performed convoy run to Tallinn, but convoy returned to Is. Gogland after mine explosions destroyed mine-sweeps of the escorted mine-sweeper; the ships were attacked by bombers there and damaged "Sigulda" ran aground, sank in 1 day. 1 man was lost.

British-built steamer "Leeni" from Estonian State Sea Steamship Company (military transport VT-503, 1842 brt in 1941) was lost 21.08.1941 in the Gulf of Finland north to the Cape Juminda Nina; 59.49', 25.29'. The ship performed run Tallinn-Kronshtadt with 2947 tons of cargos and was attacked by enemy bombers, captain J. Sander tried to avoid bombs but hit the mine during manoeuvrings, the ship sank.

Japanese steamers "Minryo Maru" and "Tenryo Maru" (laid down in Nagasaki for USSR but confiscated in 1938, army cargo transports during the war) were torpedoed 14.02.1944 (US Flasher) and 29.05.1945 (US Sterlet), correspondingly. In your links the photos are identical, but the info and names are differ, about "Minryo Maru" and "Tenryo Maru", correspondingly (I need to refresh by quite basic Japanese, but note the corresponding sinking dates at least).

Regards, BP

kgvm · #753

Thanks for your efforts, BP.
Yes; I noted well that the written parts for the two Japanese ships are different - otherwise I wouldn't have remarked the different writing of their names

.
But apart from GRT, date of loss and the position of sinking (if she is not given relative to a town or island) i don't understand anything - and bablefish isn't helpful if the text is part of a jpg

Regards
Klaus Günther

BIGpanzer · #754

Some more details about "Armeniya" - from the article of Russian naval historian V. Kostrichenko "Mysterious loss of "Armeniya".

As we know her captain disobeyed the order of admiral not to leave the port before 19:00 because of great danger of enemy aircraft attacks and he started the run in the morning. But almost all historians are on the side of quite experienced captain - stay in Yalta was already very dangerous as German troops were very close (Yalta was captured next morning, but Germans were in the suburbs around 18:00; Yalta wasn't significantly defended by Soviets who completelly left the city at 15:00 already) and could capture the ship full of wounded men and medical staff or sink it by artillery fire; also captain, probably, didn't like to leave the port at the supreme moment just before Germans entered the port. So he left the port earlier.

The most tragic event was that together with thousands of wounded men also the whole staff and equipment of almost all naval hospitals of Black Sea were lost with "Armeniya" 07.11.1941 - Sevastopol naval hospital, main naval hospital of Black Sea Navy, 5th medical troop, base lazaret and many others (around 21 medical naval and army hospitals and organizations). Black Sea Navy was without medical support after the lost of "Armeniya" and all hospitals were created a new, a lot of civil doctors and medical students were mobilized to solve the great problem. So the shipment of all medical staff and equipment of almost all hospitals of Black Sea Navy on the board of one ship was the tragic mistake of naval HQ. But there are quite many evidences that was not just a mistake...

Double-decker "Armeniya" had 9 hull compartments and long (81,7 m) midship superstructure, those six cargo-passenger ships were developed by Leningrad Central design office of sea shipbuilding (chief designer - Ya. Koperzhinsky) and represented the best Soviet passenger liners on the Black Sea. The liner could transport cargos in 6 holds (including 1 refrigerated) and 2 tweendecks; there were comfortable cabins for 60 passengers of 1st class, 192 passengers of 2nd class and 266 of 3rd class; 442 tourists could be transported on the deck - so maximum 960 passengers were taken on board during peaceful times. The crew consisted of 96 men. "Armeniya" was reequipped into hospital ship and was given to medical service of Black Sea Navy 10.08.1941 - musical saloon and restaurants of 1st and 2nd class were reequipped into surgery and dressing rooms, smoke room - into pharmacy, additional beds and hammocks were installed in cabins. The civil captain V. Plaushevsky was appointed to captain-lieutenant (soon - to captain 3rd rank). Hospital ship "Armeniya" could take 400 wounded men and the ship had 1 surgery and 4 dressing rooms with 11 tables; medical staff of the ship - 9 doctors, 29 nurses and 75 aidmen. The head doctor was army doctor of 2nd rank P. Dmitrievsky (recalled civil doctor, ex-head of Odessa railway hospital). "Armeniya" performed 15 runs during 3 months and evacuated 15000 men from Odessa and Sevastopol to Caucasian ports, the ship spent 820 hours on the run and 144 hours during repair that time. A lot of surgical operations were made on board during those runs.

BIGpanzer · #755

The last tragic run of "Armeniya" began 04.11.1941 at 05:40 when hospital ship with infantry battalions and military cargos left Tuapse and headed for Yalta, the ship was escorted by destroyer "Sposobny" and mine-sweeper "Gruz". At 11:00 "Armeniya" returned back to Tuapse because of engine problems and she headed for Yalta again after short repair (escort - destroyer "Soobrazitelny"). The captain of destroyer thought that Yalta was already captured by Germans (which was not in reality) and he insisted to turn the "Armeniya" from her course and headed for Sevastopol. The ship began to take wounded soldiers there (they were transported by motor boats to "Armeniya").

Suddenly, HQ of Sevastopol defensive area sent the order to captain of "Armeniya", that all(!) hospitals and medical units of Sevastopol should be evacuated with the help of "Armeniya" to Tuapse. The strong combats were 15 km from the Sevastopol already, there were a lot of wounded men in the city, heroic 250-days defense of Sevastopol was not began still but naval HQ ordered to evacuate all hospitals - the reason was that naval command didn't want to defend Sevastopol and already began to evacuate everything from the city (only the experienced actions of army general-major I. Petrov stopped huge chaos in Sevastopol and organized the defense of the city). Probably, this is also the reason why tragedy of "Armeniya" was "forgotten" by Soviet government after the war. "Armeniya" came to the berth, and loading of wounded men and medical staff continued - using motor boats from the one side, and brow from the another. The were a huge amount of men on board (from Sevastopol naval hospital, 2nd naval hospital, Nikolaev base hospital, medical storehouse No. 280, epidemiological laboratory, 5th medical troop, hospital of Yalta sanatorium, medical units of Maritime and 51st armies, civilians) and also the captain received the order to leave the port not at 19:00 but at 17:00!, and to go to Yalta. The reason of such speed-up of loading was the message to naval HQ that many local party leaders and other communist staff are waiting the evacuation in Yalta (also wounded men and medical staff), and there are no ships to perform the evacuation. Naval HQ in Sevastopol decided to send "Armeniya" full of wounded men and medical staff from the hospitals to do this despite the fact that there were another liners ("Gruziya" and "Belostok") in Sevastopol as well as military transports and many smaller ships which could perform evacuation from Yalta. That was the first strange order!

Under the escort of only one patrol boat (SKA-041) "Armeniya" left Sevastopol and headed for Yalta (the ship reached it in 9 hours only, at 02:00, because it made run to Balaklava before and took there from boats NKVD officers, civilians, some medical staff and wounded men - that was a new, 2nd lethal order!). Liner stayed in Yalta for quite long time because of many evacuated men - medical staff of 11 hospitals and lazarets, wounded men, NKVD staff, communist leaders of the Yalta and resort area, civilians. The loading finished at 08:00 in the morning (so it lasted the whole invaluable night time!), and captain V. Plaushevsky ordered to unmoor. According to memoires of sailor M. Yakovlev from escorted patrol boat they saw German recon airplane at 10:00 and soon they saw two German torpedo-bombers, one went to Yalta but another dropped two torpedos against "Armeniya" which missed; patrol boat couldn't open AA fire because of strong stormy weather. "Armeniya" (escort - 2 patrol boats and 2 fighters I-153) was attacked by enemy aircraft again near Gurzuf. According to the official version - the ship was attacked from the shore side by the single torpedo-bomber He-111 at 11:25, one torpedo (the second one missed) hit the nose part and "Armeniya" foundered head down in 4 min. But some eye-witnesses mentioned another info - that hospital ships were attacked by 8 Ju-87 which seems to know the exact route of the ship, which was bombed and sank immediately broken in two parts. 8 men survived only, including petty officer (starshina) from "Armeniya" Bocharov, soldier I. Burmistrov and citizen of Yalta A. Popova (who was pregnant but could reach the shore despite of stormy weather, cold water and at least sevaral miles distance). From those 8 men three were rescued by patrol boat and five reached the shore by themselves.

Admiral F. Oktyabrsky (commander-in-chief of Black Sea Navy that time) mentioned in his memoires that 39-years old captain of "Armeniya" V. Plaushevsky disobeyed his order - not to leave the port during the day time but only after 19:00. Nevertheless, many historians think that Oktyabrsky disguised truth as it was impossible for captain to disobey the admiral order that time so Plaushevsky got the unknown order (the third strange and lethal order?) after the order of Oktyabrsky (many documents about "Armeniya" were especially lost in 1949). There are several theoretical versions how it was possible that the whole medical staff of all Black Sea naval hospitals was transported by single ship which was sunk by enemy aviation - one of the versions mentions the action of special NKVD service which negotiated by radio with transports transported refugees and especially allowed German aviation to intercept such messages and to sink those ships (as Stalin didn't want panic and arrival of huge amount of refugees and wounded soldiers to the Caucasian ports), nevertheless, this seems to be quite unlikely and senseless. The most possible is another version of tragedy - there was a traitor in the HQ of Black Sea Navy or HQ of Sevastopol defense area, or Germans decoded Soviet naval radiomessages, so enemy intelligence planned the operation to destroy all medical support of Black Sea Navy. There is another version - that German aviation tried to detect and sink destroyers "Boiky" and "Bezuprechny" which transported 7th brigade of mariners from Yalta to Sevastopol that day, and unexpectedly German aircraft detected "Armeniya" instead those destroyers....

Regards, BP

BIGpanzer · #756

As I've already mentioned mail-cargo-passenger diesel ships of "Abkhaziya"-type were the largest and the best Soviet passenger liners in 1930s. The design of smaller cargo-passenger diesel ships for Caspian Sea ("Dagestan" and "Turkmenistan") was based partially on that project also. Both ships of "Dagestan"-type were built in 1931 by Kolomna engineering plant for Baku-Krasnovodsk route and had the following specifications - length 89.7 m, width 12.8 m, loaded draft 4.42 m, full displacement 3558 tons, passengers 371 men in cabins and 229 men on the deck, 900 tons of cargos, 54 men crew, 2 x 957 kWt diesels, 13.5 knots, 6230 miles. Both ships survived the war (served on Caspian Sea, home port Baku), were used till 1962 and were scrapped in 1960s-1970s.

Does anybody have any photos of those ships and more detailed info about their service on Caspian Sea during WWII? I only know that "Dagestan" together with other 30 civil ships of Kaspflot paricipated in Soviet landing operation against Iran in August 1941 and transported men, horses, ammunition and armament of 105th mountain infantry regiment and 563th artillery squadron.
The captain of "Turkmenistan" (ship transported different cargos during the war, also Lend-Lease cargos from Iranian ports) in 11.1941-09.1944 was woman, B. Rapoport (who was mate of "Katayama", captured by Spanish nationalists in October 1938).

Regards, BP

P.S. I believe that Klaus and Martin should have at least one photo of cargo-passenger ships of "Dagestan"-type

mjbollinger · #757

Hello BP,

As you know I have not tried to document the ships of the Caspian fleets. But I will look for photos of Dagestan and Turkmenistan just in case.

Marty

BIGpanzer · #758

Yes, I know that you are not interested in Caspian Sea

; but I also know that you collect the info about all Soviet-built ships of the corresponding period

Thank you very much in advance.

Regards, BP

BIGpanzer · #759

As for Soviet-built cargo-passenger ships of Black Sea. Somewhere here I've already mentioned the ships of "Delfin"-type (two were finished by Sevastopol shipyard in 1931 (laid down in 1927) - "Delfin" and "Chajka"). They were intended for connections of Sea of Azov ports with the ports of Black Sea, and could transport 395 passengers each (345 in cabins, 50 on the deck) and 750 tons of cargos.

Specifications: length 79.9 m, width 12 m, loaded draft 3.9 m, full displacement 2625 tons, 2 x 715 hp diesels, 12.5 knots.

“Delfin” was renamed as “Anton Chekhov” in 1936, the ship was reequipped into hospital ship (captain Z. Sobolev) of Black Sea Navy when the war with Germany began.
Hospital ship “A. Chekhov” performed 11 dangerous runs, the medical staff of the ship included 5 doctors, 12 nurses and 17 aidmen; the ship usually took 400-600 heavily wounded men instead of 100 (around 5000 men were evacuated by the ship from Kerch). The ship was damaged by aircraft bomb in July 1941, but repaired soon.
“A. Chekhov” exploded on bottom mine 14.04.1942 in the Kerch strait (45.14’, 36.27’) during the run from Novorossisk to Kamysh-Burun with men and cargos on board. Mine explosion broke the forecastle away, more than 200 men were lost, 50 were wounded. The waterlogged ship was bombed by enemy aviation also soon.

“Chajka” was renamed as “Nikolai Ostrovsky” in 1937. That diesel ship was reequipped into mine-layer of Black Sea Navy (armament – 2x76.2mm, 4x45mm guns) since 11.1939, in naval service since 08.07.1940. “Ostrovsky” was sunk by enemy bombers during the German raid against Tuapse port, 23.03.1942 (the ship stayed in the port after unloading under small repair, she was sank after several direct bomb hits), no info about lost men.

http://sovnavy-ww2.by.ru/minelayers/pic/chaika.jpg (cargo-passenger diesel ship “Chajka”)

Cargo-passenger ship "A. Chekhov" ("Delfin"-type) from Azov State Sea Steamship Company (AGMP) in 1930s. The photo is from http://www.sea.infoflot.ru Does anybody know what is the pennant on mast (of AGMP, probably)?

Regards, BP

mjbollinger · #760

Hi BP,

I found a photo of Turkmenistan and Dagestan in my collection. I also have a line drawing of the class from a 1961 Soviet ship directory. I'll scan that and forward it next.

MB

BIGpanzer · #761

Oh, wonderful, thanks a lot, Martin! Those passenger ships look quite similar to famous "Abkhaziya"-type but they were smaller.

Regards, BP

kgvm · #762

mjbollinger · #763

Klaus Günther,

Thanks. I am almost finished building the Hasagawa model of Soya shown in your photograph. Trust me that the end product will not be nearly as nice as the one in the photo. It is a very complex little model, only about 8" long.

Very sad story about Odessa. It was scrapped a couple of years ago. The last surviving Liberty Ship build by Kaiser.

MB

BIGpanzer · #764

Thanks, Klaus!

Klaus wrote:
http://media.shipspotting.com/uploads/photos/199996.jpg (Petersburg von 1894, even if not serving in WW II)

That "old guy" was scrapped in 1921 I think.

Klaus wrote:
http://media.shipspotting.com/uploads/photos/141797.jpg (surveying vessel „Ost”)

Not a merchant ship but anyway. This is an interesting WWII photo of "Ost" armed with 3 x 45mm guns and 3 x 12.7mm MGs. IIRC "Ost" was used by Caspian flotilla, survived the war.

Four such surveying vessels (hydrographic ships, GISU) were built by Sudomekh shipyard in Leningrad in 1935-1937 - type "Nord".
Specifications: 850-880 tons, 56.8 x 9.3 x 3.6 m, 600 hp diesel and 2 screws, 11.1 knots, 6000 miles, 46 men crew.

"Nord" and "West" served on Baltic Sea, they were armed with 2 x 76mm, 4 x 45mm and 2 x 12.7mm (after the beginning of war according to some sources). Since the beginning of war in June 1941 "Nord", reequipped into mine-layer, installed mines near Moonsund archipelago, Finnish coast and Estonian ports (Pjarnu, etc.). The ship exploded on mine 21.08.1941 near Cape Juminda and sank.
"West" exploded on magnetic mine 23.06.1941 near Laine Bank (Moonsund archipelago) and sank. Russian and Estonian divers mention that the ship is in quite good condition till now (mine hit the central part of the ship, fire took place on captain's bridge but crew used at least one life-boat). Here are the photos of different things from "West" found by divers.
http://www.diving.ee/articles/art086.html

"Zuid" served as hydrographic ship of Caspian flotilla in 04.1937-08.1941, then the ship was reequiped into mine-layer (50 mines, 1 x 76.2mm + 6 x 45mm + 2 x 20mm + 2 x 12.7mm + 2 x 7.62mm; crew 105 men). "Zud" participated in escorting convoys on Caspian Sea and in AA defense of Astrakhan port. The ship was disarmed 12.11.1943 and reequipped back into hydrographic ship, reequiped into rescue ship after the war.
http://sovnavy-ww2.by.ru/minelayers/pic/zuid.jpg

Regards, BP

BIGpanzer · #765

I wrote today:

“Chajka” was renamed as “Nikolai Ostrovsky” in 1937. That diesel ship was reequipped into mine-layer of Black Sea Navy (armament – 2x76.2mm, 4x45mm guns) since 11.1939, in naval service since 08.07.1940. “Ostrovsky” was sunk by enemy bombers during the German raid against Tuapse port, 23.03.1942 (the ship stayed in the port after unloading under small repair, she was sank after several direct bomb hits), no info about lost men.

There is a small memorial in Tuapse embankment (it was installed 09.1971) with the following inscription "23 March, 1942 the mine-layer of Black Sea Navy "N. Ostrovsky" was lost during the repulse of massive air raid of enemy aviation against the port and city. Died a hero's death the following sailors -....18 names. Undying glory for the heroes, lost in combats for our Soviet Motherland. From combat comrades".
http://tuapse-victory.narod.ru/IMAGES/memo_28.jpg

P.S. Mine-layer "N. Ostrovsky" participated in the war since June 22nd, installed several thousands of mines (many sources give the number 6000) for defense of Soviet ports and bases. Sank in Tuapse during German air raid because of 3 direct bomb hits. Raised by rescue service of Black Sea Navy in 1946 and scrapped.

Regards, BP

Axis History Forum

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

Dagestan and Turkmenistan Photos