Sovetskaya Ukraine

Sovetskaya Ukraine

Ship data flag  Soviet Union Ship type Battleship class Soviet-Soyuz class Shipyard Nikolayev Keel laying July 17, 1939 Whereabouts Not completed

Ship dimensions and crew length 262.0 m ( Lüa ) width 39.7 m Draft Max. 9.8 m displacement Standard: approx. 50,000 ts Maximum: approx. 60,000 tn.l.

Machine system machine 3 steam turbines 6 steam boilers Machine performance 164,000 PS (120,622 kW) Top speed 30 kn (56 km / h) propeller 4th

Armament 9 × Sk 40.6 cm L / 50 12 × Sk 15.2 cm L / 50 12 × flak 10 cm L / 56 32 x Flak 3.7 cm L / 67.8

The Sowjetskaja Ukraina ( Russian Советская Украина ) was a new Soviet battleship of the planned Soviet-Soyuz class , which was captured by the Wehrmacht in 1941 .

history

During the German attack on the Soviet Union was on 18 August 1941 in Nikolayev on sea black battleship under construction Sovetskaya Ukraina , nor to stack lying, looted and the Navy confiscated.

The ship was only 18% complete and 75% ready to be launched . Since it was to be equipped with a turbine propulsion system manufactured under license from the Swiss company BBC , an order from the Navy to the Swiss company for the propulsion system of the ship was possible, and the main armament with 40.6 cm guns provided by the Soviet side corresponded exactly to this Type of gun intended for the German H-class battleships and in production in Germany. The Soviet Union wanted to acquire the construction plans for these guns from Germany in 1940, but Adolf Hitler refused to sell them . So the question arose of completing the battleship for the German fleet.

On September 20, 1942, the war diary of the naval war command noted : So far, new battleship has been preserved at the shipyard in Nikolajew - question of completion or scrapping - no construction plans available - prefabrication is currently not possible due to a lack of workers and raw materials - considerations speak in favor of scrapping the ship.

From 1943 onwards the construction of the battleship is said to have been carried out at a slow pace; However, in view of Hitler's order of January 26, 1943, to decommission all large surface units and the subsequent suspension of all construction work on large ships, even in German shipyards.

When the German troops withdrew from Nikolayev on March 18, 1944, the hull, which was still lying on a pile, was largely destroyed by explosions. The shipwreck was later canceled by the Soviet Union.

literature

• Siegfried Breyer: Battleships and battle cruisers 1905–1970 . Manfred Pawlak Verlagsgesellschaft, Herrsching 1970, ISBN 3-88199-474-2 , p. 436 f .

Footnotes

1. ^ ^{A b} Breyer: Battleships and battle cruisers 1905–1970. P. 426.
2. ^ Breyer: Battleships and battle cruisers 1905–1970. Pp. 281, 333 and 426.
3. ^ War diary of the Naval War Command 1939–1945. Volume 37: September 1942. Mittler & Sohn, Herford 1993, ISBN 3-8132-0637-8 .