Soviet destroyer Smetlivy (1937)

''Smetlivy'' (russian: Сметливый, lit=Sly) was one of 29 s (officially known as Project 7) built for the Soviet Navy during the late 1930s. Completed in 1938, she was assigned to the Baltic Fleet and played a minor role in the 1939–1940 Winter War against Finland. After the start of the German invasion of the Soviet Union (Operation Barbarossa) in June 1941, the ship participated in the Gulf of Riga Campaign before withdrawing to Tallinn, Estonia. ''Smetlivy'' supported Soviet forces during the defense of Tallinn in August and covered the subsequent evacuation to Leningrad. The ship provided naval gunfire support to the defenders of Leningrad over the next several months before she was assigned to evacuate Soviet troops from their enclave in Hanko, Finland, in November. ''Smetlivy'' struck several mines returning from Hanko and sank with heavy loss of life.

Design and description

Having decided to build the large and expensive destroyer leaders, the Soviet Navy sought Italian assistance in designing smaller and cheaper destroyers. They licensed the plans for the and, in modifying it for their purposes, overloaded a design that was already somewhat marginally stable.

The ''Gnevny''s had an overall length of , a beam of , and a draft of at deep load. The ships were significantly overweight, almost heavier than designed, displacing at standard load and at deep load. Their crew numbered 197 officers and sailors in peacetime and 236 in wartime. The ships had a pair of geared steam turbines, each driving one propeller, rated to produce using steam from three water-tube boilers which was intended to give them a maximum speed of . The designers had been conservative in rating the turbines and many, but not all, of the ships handily exceeded their designed speed during their sea trials. Others fell considerably short of it, although specific figures for most individual ships have not survived. Variations in fuel oil capacity meant that the range of the ''Gnevny''s varied between at .

As built, the ''Gnevny''-class ships mounted four B-13 guns in two pairs of superfiring single mounts fore and aft of the superstructure. Anti-aircraft defense was provided by a pair of 34-K AA guns in single mounts and a pair of 21-K AA guns as well as two DK or DShK machine guns. They carried six torpedo tubes in two rotating triple mounts; each tube was provided with a reload. The ships could also carry a maximum of either 60 or 95 mines and 25 depth charges. They were fitted with a set of Mars hydrophones for anti-submarine work, although these were useless at speeds over . The ships were equipped with two K-1 paravanes intended to destroy mines and a pair of depth-charge throwers.

Construction and service

Built in Leningrad's Shipyard No. 189 (Ordzhonike) as yard number 294, ''Smetlivy'' was laid down on 17 September 1936, launched on 16 July 1937, and was completed on 6 November 1938. Assigned to the Baltic Fleet, she served on patrol and escort duty during the Winter War, aside from bombarding the coastal artillery positions on the Finnish island of Russarö on 1 December 1939 with her sister ship and the light cruiser .

When Operation Barbarossa, the German invasion of the Soviet Union, began on 22 June 1941, the destroyer was based in Ust-Dvinsk, Latvia, as part of the 1st Destroyer Division of the fleet's Light Forces Detachment. She participated in the defense of the Gulf of Riga, laying minefields in the Irben Straits during the nights of 24/25 and 26/27 June; she was damaged by two near misses by bombs on 25 June. The ship sailed to Kuivastu, Estonia, on the 27th and then helped to escort ''Kirov'' through the Moonsund archipelago to Tallinn, Estonia, three days later as the Soviets evacuated their forces from the Gulf of Riga. ''Smetlivy'' steamed to Leningrad for repairs on 15 July which were completed on the 27th.

The ship bombarded German positions during the defense of Tallinn between 24 and 28 August, firing 456 shells from her main guns.Platonov, p. 188 She covered the evacuation of Tallinn on 28–29 August as part of the detachment of main forces led by ''Kirov''. Together with the minelayer , ''Smetlivy'' laid a minefield off Gogland Island on 10 September. She bombarded German positions on 3–5 October in support amphibious landings in the Peterhof area. On 14 October the destroyer was attached to the group of ships in the River Neva and moved to the Ust-Izhora area to provide gunfire support. ''Smetlivy'' supported a local counter-attack near Sinyavino between 20 and 25 October. During 1941 the ship fired a total of 700 shells from her 130 mm guns.

On 4 November she was assigned to the second convoy helping to evacuate the garrison of Hanko to Kronstadt, together with the destroyer . While loading 560 evacuees,Yakubov & Worth, p. 108 ''Smetlivy'' was struck by a Finnish artillery shell. On the return voyage, a mine exploded in her paravanes at 23:10 and knocked out her engines. Twenty minutes later, another mine explosion detonated her forward magazine and blew off her bow all the way back to her bridge. At 23:50 she struck yet another mine that broke her in half, killing over half of her crew and passenger. The ship's stern section sank at 00:30 in the area of Naissaar at . 80 crewmen and 274 evacuees were rescued by the minesweeper and several patrol boats.Platonov, pp. 188–189 ''Smetlivy'' was officially struck from the Navy List on 19 November.Berezhnoy, pp. 332–333

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Smetlivy (1937)
Gnevny-class destroyers
1937 ships
Ships built at the Baltic Shipyard
Ships sunk by mines
Shipwrecks in the Baltic Sea
Maritime incidents in November 1941