Soviet destroyer Opytny
| History | |
|---|---|
 Soviet Union | |
| Name | Sergo Ordzhonikidze |
| Namesake | Sergo Ordzhonikidze |
| Ordered | 2nd Five-Year Plan |
| Builder | Shipyard No. 190 (Zhdanov), Leningrad |
| Yard number | 500 |
| Laid down | 26 June 1935 |
| Launched | 8 December 1935 |
| Commissioned | 11 September 1941 |
| Out of service | March 1944 |
| Renamed | Opytny (Template:Lang-ru), September 1940 |
| Stricken | 10 February 1953 |
| Fate | Scrapped, 1953 |
| General characteristics (as built) | |
| Type | Destroyer |
| Displacement | 1,707 long tons (1,734 t) (normal) |
| Length | 113.5 m (372 ft 5 in) (o/a) |
| Beam | 10.2 m (33 ft 6 in) |
| Draft | 4.6 m (15 ft 1 in) (deep load) |
| Installed power |
|
| Propulsion | 2 shafts; 2 geared steam turbines |
| Speed | 35 knots (65 km/h; 40 mph) |
| Range | 1,370 nmi (2,540 km; 1,580 mi) at 18 knots (33 km/h; 21 mph) |
| Complement | 262 |
| Armament |
|
Opytny (Template:Lang-ru) was the only member of her class of destroyers built for the Soviet Navy during the 1930s. The Soviet designation for her class was Project 45. She was completed in 1941 and fought in World War II as part of the Baltic Fleet. She was indigenously designed in contrast to the Type 7 which was built with Italian assistance and intended as a prototype for future Soviet destroyers. She was not a successful ship, with severe problems with her machinery and stability. Her intended armament of twin-gun turrets were transferred to the destroyer leader Tashkent and replaced by single gun mounts.
Background
When the naval architect Valerian Bzhezinsky was visiting German shipyards in 1930–1932, during the period when Weimar Germany and the Soviet Union were cooperating most closely, he was intrigued by the high-pressure Wagner boilers being developed for the German Navy. These offered the possibility of producing more power than lower-temperature propulsion plants for a given weight. After his appointment as director of the Soviet Navy's surface-ship design office in 1931 and the struggle to save weight with the design of the Gnevny-class destroyers in 1933–1934, he conceived of a smaller destroyer using this type of advanced propulsion machinery that would be much faster than the Gnevny class.[1]
Bzhezinsky intended the ship to serve as a prototype to test the straight-flow, high-pressure boilers developed by Leonid Ramzin. These worked at a pressure of 75 kg/cm2 (7,355 kPa; 1,067 psi), almost three times the pressure used by the boilers of the Gnevny-class ships, and were intended to produce 70,000 shaft horsepower (52,000 kW), enough to give the ship a speed of 42 knots (78 km/h; 48 mph). This was more than enough to cooperate with the Leningrad-class destroyer leaders then under construction.[2][3]
To maximize survivability, the ship's propulsion machinery was organized in a unit layout with alternating boiler rooms and engine rooms so that a single torpedo hit could not disable more than one pair of coupled boilers and engines. The separation between the boiler rooms dictated two widely spaced funnels. To save weight, welding was extensively used for the internal structure with traditional riveting limited to the hull plates. More weight savings would accrue from auxiliary machinery working on high-pressure steam and electrical equipment using alternating current. The Soviet Navy originally intended use the same armament as the Gnevny class, but decided to take advantage of the weight savings and augment the main armament to six 50-caliber 130-millimeter (5.1 in) B-13 guns in three twin-gun B-2LM turrets. They were arranged with a single mount forward of the superstructure and an superfiring pair at the stern. The main guns were to be controlled by a Galileo fire-control system with a Duplex fire-control director. The torpedo armament was to consist of two quadruple mounts for 533-millimeter (21 in) torpedo tubes, each of which was to be provided with a reload. The Soviets expected significant savings from the fuel-efficient boilers and the ship's range was anticipated to be 3,200 nautical miles (5,900 km; 3,700 mi) at 18 knots (33 km/h; 21 mph). The design was approved as Project 45 on 29 December 1934.[4]
Description
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Opytny had an overall length of 113.5 meters (372 ft 5 in), a beam of 10.2 meters (33 ft 6 in), and a draft of 4.6 meters (15 ft 1 in) at deep load. The ship was significantly overweight, displacing 1,707 metric tons (1,680 long tons) at standard load and 2,016 metric tons (1,984 long tons) at deep load. Her crew numbered 262 officers and sailors. Opytny was powered by two geared steam turbine sets, each driving a single propeller shaft using steam provided by four Ramzin boilers that operated at a temperature of 450 °C (842 °F). During her first speed trials in 1940, boiler problems only allowed the ship to attain a speed of 35 knots (65 km/h; 40 mph). Similarly her radius of action proved to be a major disappointment as her maximum capacity of 372 metric tons (366 long tons) of fuel oil only gave her a range of 1,370 nautical miles (2,540 km; 1,580 mi) at 18 knots (33 km/h; 21 mph), less than half of what expected.[1]
Armament and fire control
Development of the B-2LM turrets was delayed and Opytny was completed with three single 130 mm mounts instead. The development of the gun was troubled by excessive barrel erosion problems and three variants were built in a not entirely successful effort to resolve the problem which complicated logistical and operational support as each performed slightly differently. The manually operated mounts had an elevation range between −5° to +45° and had a rate of fire of 6–10 rounds per minute. They fired a 33.4-kilogram (74 lb) shell at a muzzle velocity of 2,900 ft/s (870 m/s), which gave them a range of 25,597 meters (27,993 yd).[5]
Anti-aircraft defense was provided by two 55-caliber 76.2-millimeter (3 in) 34-K AA guns and two 46-caliber 45-millimeter (1.8 in) 21-K AA guns, all in single mounts[6] as well as a pair of 12.7-millimeter (0.50 in) DK or DShK machine guns. The 34-K guns could elevate between −5° and +85°, had a rate of fire of fire of 15–20 rounds per minute, and the ships carried 300 rounds per gun for them. Their muzzle velocity of 801 meters per second (2,630 ft/s) gave their 26-pound (11.9 kg) high-explosive shells a maximum horizontal range of 14,640 meters (16,010 yd) and an effective ceiling of 6,500 meters (21,300 ft). The 21-K was a converted anti-tank gun with a rate of fire of 25–30 rounds per minute with an elevation range between −10° and +85°. The gun fired a 1.41-kilogram (3.1 lb) shell at a muzzle velocity of 760 m/s (2,500 ft/s). This gave them a range of 9,200 meters (10,100 yd). The Project 7s stowed 500 rounds for each gun. The DShK had an effective rate of fire of 125 rounds per minute and an effective range against aircraft of 2,500 meters (2,700 yd).[7]
The ships were equipped with six 533 mm (21.0 in) torpedo tubes in two rotating triple mounts amidships; each tube was provided with a reload. The Project 7-class ships primarily used the 53-38 or the 53-38U torpedo, which differed only in the size of their warhead; the latter had a warhead 100 kilograms (220 lb) heavier than the 300-kilogram (660 lb) warhead of the 53-38. The torpedoes had three range/speed settings: 10,000 meters (11,000 yd) at 30.5 knots (56.5 km/h; 35.1 mph); 8,000 meters (8,700 yd) at 34.5 knots (63.9 km/h; 39.7 mph) and 4,000 meters (4,400 yd) at 44.5 knots (82.4 km/h; 51.2 mph). 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 it was useless at speeds over 3 knots (5.6 km/h; 3.5 mph).[8]
Fire control for the main battery of the Opytny was provided by a Mina-7 fire-control system that was derived from an Italian Galileo system. It included a TsAS-2 mechanical analog computer that received information from a KDP2-4 gunnery director on the roof of the bridge which mounted a pair of DM-4 four-meter (13 ft 1 in) stereoscopic rangefinders. Anti-aircraft fire control was strictly manual with only a DM-3 three-meter (9 ft 10 in) rangefinder to provide data to the guns.[9]
Service
The ship was built by Shipyard No. 190 (Zhdanov) in Leningrad, laid down as yard number 500 on 26 June 1935 under the name Sergo Ordzhonikidze. She was launched on 8 December 1936,[10] and commissioned on 11 September 1941 after extensive trials and subsequent reconstruction. She served as a floating battery during the Siege of Leningrad, during which time she suffered significant damage from German artillery fire.[11] After the war she served as an experimental ship and was decommissioned in 1949. She was scrapped in 1955–1956.
References
- ^ a b Budzbon, Radziemski & Twardowski, p. 132
- ^ Budzbon, Radziemski & Twardowski, pp. 115, 132
- ^ Hill, p. 44
- ^ Budzbon, Radziemski & Twardowski, pp. 132–133
- ^ Yakubov & Worth, pp. 103–104
- ^ Hill, p. 40
- ^ Yakubov & Worth, pp. 101, 104
- ^ Yakubov & Worth, pp. 101, 105–106
- ^ Yakubov & Worth, pp. 104–105
- ^ Rohwer & Monakov, p. 233
- ^ Hill, p. 45
Bibliography
- Budzbon, Przemyslaw; Radziemski, Jan & Twardowski, Marek (2022). Warships of the Soviet Fleets 1939–1945. Vol. I: Major Combatants. Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press. ISBN 978-1-68247-877-6.
- Campbell, John (1985). Naval Weapons of World War II. Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press. ISBN 0-87021-459-4.
- Budzbon, Przemysaw (1980). "Soviet Union". In Chesneau, Roger (ed.). Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships 1922–1946. Greenwich, UK: Conway Maritime Press. pp. 318–346. ISBN 0-85177-146-7.
- Hill, Alexander (2018). Soviet Destroyers of World War II. New Vanguard. Vol. 256. Oxford, UK: Osprey Publishing. ISBN 978-1-4728-2256-7.
- Platonov, Andrey V. (2002). Энциклопедия советских надводных кораблей 1941–1945 [Encyclopedia of Soviet Surface Ships 1941–1945] (in Russian). Saint Petersburg: Poligon. ISBN 5-89173-178-9.
- Rohwer, Jürgen & Monakov, Mikhail S. (2001). Stalin's Ocean-Going Fleet: Soviet Naval Strategy and Shipbuilding Programs 1935–1953. London: Frank Cass. ISBN 0-7146-4895-7.
- Westwood, J. N. (1994). Russian Naval Construction, 1905–45. London: Macmillan. ISBN 0-333-55553-8.
- Yakubov, Vladimir & Worth, Richard (2008). "The Soviet Project 7/7U Destroyers". In Jordan, John & Dent, Stephen (eds.). Warship 2008. London: Conway. pp. 99–114. ISBN 978-1-84486-062-3.