Ice march of the Baltic Fleet
The Ice March of the Baltic Fleet ( Russian Ледовый поход Балтийского флота ) was an operation of the Baltic Fleet in the spring of 1918, given the advance of German troops on the Eastern Front since early 1918 and the Finland intervention , their ships from the forward bases in Reval (Tallinn) and Helsingfors (Helsinki) to withdraw to Kronstadt .
history
On February 25, 1918, German troops conquered Reval on their advance through the Baltic States . The ships of the Baltic Fleet stationed there - with the exception of one submarine - were able to leave the port and reached Helsingfors on March 5th thanks to the tireless use of icebreakers . Even the newbuildings under construction or in equipment in the shipyards of Lange & Böcker and the Russian Baltic Works were transferred.
After the landing of the German Baltic Sea Division on April 3 at Hangö and the conclusion of the Hangö Agreement between Rear Admiral Hugo Meurer and representatives of the ZENTROBALT (Central Committee of the Baltic Fleet), the longest-serving officer of the Baltic Fleet, Captain 1st rank Alexei Schtschastny ( Алексей Михайлович Щастный), the transfer of the Russian units to Kronstadt. From April 6th, despite adverse weather conditions (-12 ° air temperature) and difficult ice conditions in the Gulf of Finland, around 170 units could be returned. This means that Russia and the Soviet Union have practically the entire Baltic fleet. Shchastny, who initiated and carried out this feat, which was unusual under the given circumstances, was arrested and shot by the Bolsheviks shortly afterwards . Reason: "He consciously made himself popular through his act in order to be able to use this popularity later against the Soviet power."
Ships involved
The two icebreakers Yermak and Wolhynez conquered the 330 km to Kronstadt in five days. The following larger units belonged to the company:
- four battleships : Gangut , Petropavlovsk , Poltava , Sevastopol
- three older ships of the line : Andrei Perwoswanny , Respublika (formerly Imperator Pawel I ), Graschdanin (ex. Zessarewitsch )
- five armored cruisers : Rurik , Admiral Makarov , Bajan , Gromoboi , Rossija
- four cruisers: Bogatyr , Oleg , Aurora , Diana
- 57 destroyers (including 16 modern large Novik- type destroyers )
- three gunboats : Grozyashchi , Chrabry , Chiwinez
- 12 submarines
- three mine layers
Abandoned units
Shortly before the German troops landed, the Russian submarines AG 11 , AG 12 , AG 15 and AG 16 sank themselves in the port of Hangö . Two of the boats, AG 12 and AG 16 , were later lifted with the intention of being carried by the Finnish one Navy to be put into service, but its repair turned out to be too costly and was not carried out. The following day, the British submarines HMS C26 , HMS C27 , HMS C35 , HMS E1 , HMS E8 , HMS E9 and HMS E19 were scuttled by their crews in Helsingfors .
literature
- NS Krowakow: "Ледовый поход" Балтийского флота in 1918 . Moscow, 1955.
- VI Saposhnikov: Подвиг балтийцев in 1918 . Moscow, 1954.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Fock, Harald: Z-before! Vol. 1, p. 193.
- ↑ Finnish Navy in World War II ( Memento of the original from March 8, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
