Forel class
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|---|---|
| Forel class | |
 Wlastni of the Forel type |
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| Overview | |
| Type | Torpedo boat destroyer |
| units | 5 |
| Shipyard |
Chantier Augustin Normand , Le Havre (2) |
| Order | 1898 |
| Launch | 1900 to 1902 |
| delivery | 1901 to 1902 |
| Whereabouts | three war losses in 1904 |
| Technical specifications | |
| displacement |
346 t |
| length |
56.6 m over everything |
| width |
6.3 m |
| Draft |
3.4 m |
| crew |
64 men |
| drive |
4 Normand boilers, |
| speed |
28 kn |
| Range |
1250 nm |
| Armament |
|
| Fuel supply |
38.2 to 76 tons of coal |
| Sister ships |
Forel - later Vnimatelni |
| similar |
55 French 300 ton destroyers 4 Turkish Samsun destroyers |
The Forel class ( Russian Форель , for trout ) was a class of Russian destroyers of the Baltic and Far East Fleets of Tsarist Russia, which was ordered in France as part of the construction program for the needs of the Far East in 1898. In 1902 the boats were renamed, the type ship was then called Wnimatelni ( Russian Внимательный , for attentive ). When the Russo-Japanese War broke out, all five boats were in Port Arthur . Three boats were lost in the war. The two remaining boats were stationed in the Far East until 1917 and then moved to the Arctic Flotilla . The demolition took place until 1924.
Building history
The fleet building program to strengthen the Russian fleet , taking into account Russian interests in the Far East, led not only to the order of liners and cruisers abroad, but also to the procurement of ten destroyers abroad. According to the plans of the Navy Ministry, 30, then 20 destroyers were to be procured and the local Nevsky shipyard wanted to build ten boats. Despite the ministry's concerns, the order was placed, but the completion of the resulting Buiny class was delayed considerably and only two boats reached the Far East before the outbreak of the Russo-Japanese War in 1904. Others did not reach it until the "Second Pacific Squadron" in 1905 planned area of operation and seven of these destroyers were lost at Tsushima .
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The tender led to offers from Germany, where the Schichau shipyard had already delivered larger boats to Russia with the torpedo cruisers of the Kasarski class , of which the Wsadnik and Gajdamak, built in Finland under Schichau's supervision, were the first larger torpedo vehicles to serve in the Far East . In August 1898, Schichau received an order for four kit-class boats , which were delivered by August 1900. They moved to the Far East in the winter of 1900/1901.
The hope of receiving British offers was largely dashed, as Yarrow and Thornycroft in particular saw rival Japan as their main customers. Only one destroyer was ordered from Laird Brothers in Great Britain (delivered Som , August 1900), which was moved to Port Arthur with the destroyers delivered from Germany. The plans to order destroyers in the United States were soon abandoned.
As early as April 1898, negotiations began to buy six boats in France. The French Navy itself did not yet have any destroyers. She had ordered the first destroyers of 300 tons, which were not launched until 1899. The negotiations conducted personally with Augustin Normand by the Russian naval commander-in-chief, General Admiral Grand Duke Alexei , led to the promise of the purchase of five boats; The final setting of the treaties did not take place until December, however, and only partially took Russian interests into account.
As early as June 1898, the Chantier Augustin Normand shipyard in Le Havre began building two boats, the Forel ( Russian Форель , for trout ) on December 8, 1900 and Sterljad ( Russian Стерлядь , for Sterlet ) on March 8, 1901 walked. After successful speed tests, both boats were taken over by the Imperial Russian Navy on August 28, 1901 .
Three more boats were started from 1899 at the branch of the Forges et Chantiers de la Méditerranée in Graville near Le Havre. They were launched as Ossjotr ( Russian Осётр , for sturgeon ) on January 23, 1901, Kefal ( Russian Кефаль , for mullet ) on November 28, 1901 and Lossos ( Russian Лосось , for salmon ) on March 11, 1902. The Ossjotr was handed over to the Russian Navy together with the two Normand boats on August 28, 1901. The other two boats were not delivered until July 5, 1902. The completion of the five "French" boats was delayed considerably; they achieved the speeds required in the tests, but their machines proved difficult to operate without French skilled personnel. The Russian Navy Ministry refused to use foreign personnel. As a result, only the Forel of the first delivery went into the Baltic Sea, while the other two boats were supposed to join a laying association there after further training in Le Havre.
In March 1902 all destroyers were renamed. The fish names should be used for submarines in the future. The Forel was Wnimatelni ( Russian Внимательный for attention ), Sterljad was Wynosliwi ( Russian Выносливый for stubbornly ) Osyotr River was Wnuschitelni ( Russian Внушительный for impressive ), Kefal was Wlastni ( Russian Властный for bossy ) and Lossos was Grosowoi ( russian Грозовой , for stormy ).
Mission history
On November 12, 1901, the Forel left Kronstadt to move to East Asia. Due to severe storms, the destroyer had difficulties and did not reach Kiel until November 22; in the roadstead of Cuxhaven there were again problems, so that Hamburg was called for an emergency repair. On December 20th, Le Havre was reached and a thorough six-week overhaul was carried out in the shipyard there.
On February 2, 1902, the Forel , the Sterljad and the Ossjotr left Le Havre and marched into the Mediterranean as far as Piraeus . Since larger units were no longer on the way to East Asia, the boats stayed there and were also temporarily stationed in Palermo .
The Wlastni (previously Kefal ) and the Grosowoi (initially Lossos ) moved from Le Havre via Norway and Copenhagen to Kronstadt from July 30, 1902 after their acceptance tests. In autumn they joined the transfer association to the Pacific Squadron under Rear Admiral Stackelberg , which included the ships of the line Retwisan and Pobeda , the cruisers Pallada , Diana , Nowik , Bogatyr and Boyarin and with the Boiki and the Burny also two torpedo boats made in Russia, whereby the squadron actually never marched together.
The Vlastni and the Grozowoi visited Piraeus on October 7th and then met again in Palermo with the three sister ships after almost a year.
Transfer from the Mediterranean to East Asia
The seven torpedo boats then marched through the Suez Canal and via Colombo (March 7, 1903) to Saigon , with the cruiser Bogatyr mostly supporting the association of torpedo boats. In Saigon, the association split up to visit different ports along the Chinese coast. The Vnimatelni , the Wlastni and the Grozowoi arrived in Port Arthur on May 18, 1903, one month after the Retwisan . The Wynosliwi and the Wnuschitelni were the last boats that reached the Russian base in July together with the Pobeda .
The five destroyers of the Forel, now Wnimatelni class, formed the first destroyer flotilla with the seven other boats in the construction program. In the 2nd flotilla the torpedo boats of the Sokol type were organized under the command of the former Chinese destroyer Lieutenant Burakow . In autumn 1903 all boats of the 1st flotilla were given an olive green paint instead of the tropical white paint. Some boats carried out extensive boiler repairs. Despite the massive tensions with Japan and the reluctance to negotiate on the part of the Commander-in-Chief in the Far East, Yevgeny Ivanovich Alexejew , no association exercises took place. Ten boats were in the reserve and only two were actually in active service.
Russo-Japanese War
The five boats built in France were only reactivated after the outbreak of war and used for guard duty and as reconnaissance. The Wnimatelni was the most frequently used destroyer in the first month, with 16 sorties (often as a division leader). The Grozowoi had 14 missions, the Wynosliwi 13 missions, the Wlastni eleven missions, the Wnuschitelni eight.
The Wnuschitelni ran on February 26, 1904 when returning from another reconnaissance voyage to Jinzhou Bay (Dalian) , where it was blocked by Japanese cruisers at dawn. The likewise included there destroyer Besstraschnyi the kit class broke out of the bay and reached Port Arthur, but the commander of the Wnuschitelni , Lieutenant Podushkin, refused to break out and tried to flee closely along the coast. After being hit by the Yoshino , he gave up his destroyer. There were attempts to raise it again until May, but it was only possible to recover two 47-mm guns.
On March 11, 1904, there was a battle between Russian and four Japanese destroyers. The Vynosliwi under NA Matusewitsch was the flagship of the Russian Federation, which opened fire on the Japanese at 3:30 a.m. The Japanese ships focused their fire on the flagship, which was hit in the engine room at the beginning of the fight and was immobilized for a while. At around 3:45 a.m., a shell struck the command post and killed the flotilla chief among others. Since the opponents lost themselves in the dark, the Wynosliwi could be towed and was back in Port Arthur at 7:00 a.m. The Japanese Akatsuki was sunk in battle, the Wnimatelni suffered minor damage and the Wlastni considerable damage.
On March 22, 1904, the Grozowoi recognized an attack by Japanese destroyers in the roadstead of Port Arthur.
On May 27, another night destroyer battle broke out near Jingzhou. The Wnimatelni ran aground. After all attempts to dissuade her had failed, the Wynosliwi tried to destroy her sister boat with a torpedo. On May 26, Japanese patrol ships found the stranded Russian boat and tried unsuccessfully to recover it. However, a few weeks later a storm finally smashed the boat on the rocks.
The Wynosliwi , the Wlastni and the Grozowoi supported the Russian troops at Jinzhou in May and June . During this time there were some short skirmishes with Japanese ships.
The remaining three destroyers of the Forel type took part in the naval battle in the Yellow Sea . The Wynosliwi and then returned to Port Arthur with the greater part of the squadron. The Grozovoi managed to break out with the cruiser Diana . She was released from the southbound cruiser to Shanghai, where she arrived on August 13, 1904, and was then interned by the Chinese government along with the cruiser's flagship, Askold , who had arrived earlier .
The Wynosliwi received a mine hit on August 24 while securing a small convoy, which broke the destroyer. Twelve seamen, among them the commander, died in the sinking.
The Wlastni was no longer ready to fight due to heavy wear and tear of the machines and could not be used to defend Port Arthur. On January 1, 1905, shortly before the surrender of the Russian base, she broke out of Port Arthur and reached Tschifu , where she was interned by the Chinese authorities and so survived the war.
Service in the Siberian Flotilla
On 15 January 1905 the interned in Tschifu were Wlastni and interned in Shanghai Grosowoi the Siberian Flotilla allocated. After the ratification of the peace treaty, the boats were allowed to move to Vladivostok . In 1912 and 1913, the two sister boats were overhauled again. The bridge was moved further aft, the boats received a second 75 mm gun and a radio system aft. The 47 mm guns were replaced by six machine guns. The installation of heavy artillery was not possible because of the reserve torpedoes on deck. In addition, the boats were given a new green paint. The boats were not actively used. The importance of Murmansk for the further warfare of Russia on the side of the Allies became more and more important, so that the Russian government decided to station its own naval units there.
From February 4 to September 7, 1916, the two boats were moved from Vladivostok to Southeast Asia, through the Indian Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea to Arkhangelsk . On the way they were partly used to secure convoy with Allied destroyers. In Gibraltar they experienced submarine attacks for the first time .
Service in the North Atlantic Flotilla
After their arrival in the polar sea, the Vlastni and the Grozovoi immediately took up service with their new unit between the Kolabucht and Arkhangelsk. Both had in the UK water bombers received. They both had skirmishes with submarines, and on November 2, 1916 , the Grosowoi slightly damaged the German submarine U 56 with gunfire. In February 1917, both boats went to England for repairs, where they were confiscated by the British on August 14, 1918.
Whereabouts
The last missions of the two boats are somewhat unclear and contradictory in the sources. They are said to have been used during the occupation of Arkhangelsk by the British, perhaps also as boats of the White Guards. Wlastni was returned to the Soviet Union on May 14, 1921, which sold the obsolete boat for demolition via the Soviet-German stock corporation “Derumetall”. With regard to Grozovoi, it is unclear where it was broken off; it is only certain that this took place in 1921.
literature
- Harald Fock: Black journeymen. Vol. 2 Destroyers until 1914. Koehlers Verlagsgesellschaft mbH, Herford 1981, ISBN 3-7822-0206-6 .
- Harald Fock: Z-before! Vol. 1 International development and war missions of destroyers and torpedo boats 1914 to 1939. Koehlers Verlagsgesellschaft mbH, Herford 1998, ISBN 3-7822-0207-4 .
- Robert Gardiner (Ed.): Conway's All The World's Fighting Ships 1906-1921. Conway Maritime Press Ltd., London 1979, ISBN 0-8517-7133-5 .
- René Greger: The Russian fleet in the First World War 1914–1917. JF Lehmanns, Munich 1970, ISBN 3-46900-303-3
Web links
- NN Afonin, SA Balakin: "Wnimatelni" and others (Port Arthur destroyers built abroad) (Russian)
- Rift of the Forel class
- colored side view
- "Wnimatelni" class
- Note on ship kit
- Note on model ship
