Soviet Cruiser Slava (1939)

''Molotov'' () was a Project 26bis of the Soviet Navy that served during World War II and into the Cold War. She supported Soviet troops during the Siege of Sevastopol, the Kerch-Feodosiya Operation and the amphibious landings at Novorossiysk at the end of January 1943.

The ship was extensively modernized between 1952 and 1955. She was renamed ''Slava'' (, ''Glory'') in 1957 after Vyacheslav Molotov fell out of favour. ''Slava'' was reclassified as a training ship in 1961 before being sold for scrap in 1972.

Description

''Molotov'' and her sister ''Maxim Gorky'' had heavier armor and were slightly improved from the first two ''Kirov''-class cruisers of Project 26, and were thus designated Project 26bis.

She was long at the waterline, long overall, with a beam of and a draft between . She displaced at standard load and at full load.Yakubov and Worth, p. 84

Her steam turbines produced a total of during her sea trials, reaching a maximum speed of , just shy of her designed speed of 37 knots, mainly because she was overweight by . ''Molotov'' normally carried of fuel oil, at full load and at overload. This gave her a range of at .Yakubov and Worth, p. 90

''Molotov'' carried nine 57-calibre B-1-P guns in three electrically powered MK-3-180 triple turrets. Her secondary armament consisted of three single 56-calibre B-34 anti-aircraft guns fitted on each side of the rear funnel. Her light AA guns consisted of nine semi-automatic 21-K AA guns and four DK machine guns.Yakubov and Worth, pp. 86–7 Six 39-Yu torpedo tubes were fitted in two triple mountings.Yakubov and Worth, p. 88

''Molotov'' was the first Soviet ship to carry radar, a Redut-K air warning system, which she used for the entire war. Soviet-designed Mars-1 gunnery radar systems were added by 1944.

Wartime modifications

By 1943 three of ''Molotov''s 45 mm semi-automatic guns were replaced with twelve fully automatic 70-K AA guns with one thousand rounds per gun and two extra DK machine guns. Her aircraft catapult was removed in 1942 to make room for more light AA guns.

In 1943 an improved ZK-1a catapult was fitted and successfully test-launched a Supermarine Spitfire fighter. However, in 1947 the concept was abandoned and the catapult was removed.

World War II

''Molotov'' was laid down at the Marti South, Nikolayev on 14 January 1937, launched on 4 December 1939 and was completed on 14 June 1941. As the only ship in the Soviet Navy with radar, ''Molotov'' remained in Sevastopol for the initial period of Operation Barbarossa to provide air warning.Yakubov and Worth, p. 94 The advance of German troops into the Crimea in late October 1941 forced her to transfer to Tuapse where she continued to provide air warning. However, the ship did bombard German troops near Feodosiya with nearly 200 180 mm shells on 9 November before returning to Tuapse. ''Molotov'' helped to carry the 386th Rifle Division from Poti to Sevastopol between 24 and 28 December 1941. While off-loading troops on 29 December her stern was damaged by German artillery and she shelled Axis positions in retaliation, firing 205 180 mm and 107 100 mm shells. The ship evacuated 600 wounded upon her departure on 30 December.

''Molotov'' reprised her role as a transport during the first week of January. Her bow was damaged during a heavy storm in Tuapse when she was thrown against the jetty on 21–22 January 1942. The ship spent most of the next month under repair, although her bow could not be straightened; the residual damage reduced her speed by several knots. She made a number of bombardment sorties in support of Soviet troops on the Kerch Peninsula until 20 March when she returned to Poti for more permanent repairs. On 12 June ''Molotov'' transported 2998 men of the 138th Rifle Brigade to Sevastopol, shelling German positions while unloading. She evacuated 1065 wounded and 350 women and children as she departed. On 14–15 June the ship returned, carrying 3855 reinforcements in company with other ships, bombarded German positions again, and evacuated 2908 wounded and refugees. On 2 August, while returning from another bombardment mission near Feodosiya, of her stern was blown off by Heinkel He 111 torpedo bombers of 6./KG 26 acting in concert with Italian MAS motor torpedo boats. The damage reduced her speed to and ''Molotov'' had to be steered by her engines. ''Molotov'' was under repair at Poti until 31 July 1943 and used the stern of the incomplete ''Frunze'', the rudder of the incomplete cruiser ''Zheleznyakov'', the steering gear from the cruiser and the steering sensor from the submarine . The loss of three destroyers to German air attack on 6 October 1943 resulted in Stalin's order that forbade the deployment of large naval units without his express permission; this meant the end of ''Molotov''s active participation in the war.

Postwar career

''Molotov'' was refitted in November 1945 to repair the last of her wartime damage. She suffered a fire in the shell handling room for Turret #2 on 5 October 1946 that had to be extinguished by flooding the magazine and handling room at the cost of 22 dead and 20 wounded. The ship served as the test bed for the radars intended for the and s during the late 1940s. ''Molotov''s postwar modernization began in 1952 and lasted until 28 January 1955.

As part of this modernization ''Molotov'' received a radar suite composed of Gyuys for air search, Rif for surface search, Zalp for main-armament gunnery and Yakor' for anti-aircraft gunnery. All of her light anti-aircraft guns were replaced by eleven twin gun water-cooled 37 mm V-11 mounts and her 100 mm guns were reinstalled on fully powered B-34USMA mountings. Her anti-aircraft fire-control system was replaced by a Zenit-26 with SPN-500 stabilized directors. In addition she lost her torpedo tubes, anti-submarine weapons, boat cranes and all remaining aircraft equipment. This cost 200 million rubles, between half and three-quarters the cost of a new Project 68bis .

On 29 October 1955 the ship participated in rescue efforts after an explosion sank the ex-Italian battleship ''Novorossiysk''. Five of her own men were lost when the battleship capsized almost three hours after the explosion. She was renamed ''Slava'' on 3 August 1957 after Vyacheslav Molotov was purged from the government after an unsuccessful coup against Nikita Khrushchev that same year.Vyacheslav Molotov joked: "Firstly the cruiser was named on my family name, now she is named on my first name". ("Slava" means in Russian not only glory, but also is a diminutive of Vyacheslav.) She was reclassified as a training cruiser on 3 August 1961. ''Slava'' was deployed to the Mediterranean between 5–30 June 1967 to show Soviet support of Syria during the Six-Day War. She returned to the Mediterranean between September and December 1970, where the ship assisted the destroyer ''Bravyi'' after the latter's collision with the aircraft carrier on 9 November 1970. ''Slava'' was sold for scrap on 4 April 1972.Yakubov and Worth, p. 95

Notes

Footnotes

References

* Mandel, Vladimir, "Cold War Duty in the Black Sea Fleet," ''Naval History'' (Annapolis, Md., April 2011), pp. 42–48
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Further reading

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External links

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Cruiser "Molotov" from Black Sea Fleet (with photos)
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Molotov
Kirov-class cruisers
Ships built at the Black Sea Shipyard
1939 ships
World War II cruisers of the Soviet Union
Cold War cruisers of the Soviet Union
Maritime incidents in January 1942
Maritime incidents in August 1942
Ships built in the Soviet Union