Baltic fleet

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Baltic fleet

Great emblem of the Baltic fleet.svg

Association badge
Lineup 1696
Country Russian Empire 1883Russian Empire Russian Empire (1696–1917) Soviet Union (1917–1991) Russia (since 1991)
Soviet Union 1955Soviet Union 
RussiaRussia 
Armed forces Russian armed forces
Armed forces Russian Navy
Type fleet
Location Baltiysk
Awards Order of the Red Banner (2 ×)
Commander
Vice admiral Alexander Nossatov

The Baltic Fleet or Baltic Red Banner Fleet ( Russian Балтийский флот ; transcribed Baltijskij flot ) is one of four deep-sea fleets of the Russian Navy . She is stationed in the Baltic Sea . Its main base is in Baltiysk near Kaliningrad , and its headquarters are in Kaliningrad.

history

Tsar times

The Baltic Fleet is the oldest part of the Russian Navy and was founded by Tsar Peter I in 1696 ; Cornelius Cruys became the first commander in chief in 1704 . In its long history it was first part of the Tsarist , then the Soviet and now the Russian Navy .

In the Russo-Japanese War 1904/05, a large part of the fleet was sent to the Pacific as the "Second Pacific Squadron" to support the Pacific Fleet and destroyed there in the Battle of Tsushima . This not only broke Russia's power in East Asia , but also its maritime power in the Baltic Sea. The result was the Russian Revolution of 1905 , in which mutinous sailors from the Baltic Fleet were also involved.

Although it was numerically superior, contrary to the ideas of its first commander, Admiral Nikolai von Essen, it never went on the offensive in the Baltic Sea during the First World War , but was largely blocked by German forces under Prince Heinrich of Prussia until the end of the war and thus forced to inactive. This was due on the one hand to the natural conditions (the northern Baltic Sea freezes over for up to five months from November) and on the other hand to the defensive ideas of the Genmor (General Staff of the Navy), who aimed at defensive warfare with the backing of the sea ​​fortress of Emperor Peter the Great . In addition, the modern large units should not be exposed to unnecessary risks. According to the specifications, the naval war in the Baltic Sea mainly consisted of sporadic actions by destroyers and the trade war with submarines. These did not succeed in stopping the iron ore supply from Sweden, which was essential for the German Empire. Since 1915 there were problems with the discipline of the teams; more frequently murdered crew ranks officers. Sailors from the Baltic Fleet played a key role in the October Revolution of 1917. The starting gun was fired on October 25th by the cruiser Aurora , which is still a museum ship in Saint Petersburg today .

Soviet era

The fleet became part of the Soviet Navy and received the designation of the Baltic Red Banner Fleet in 1935 due to the award of the Order of the Red Banner . In April 1939 Vladimir Tributz (Russian: Влади́мир Три́буц) was their commander in chief until 1947.

In the winter war against Finland in 1939/40 she had no influence on the course of the fighting because of supply problems, technical inadequacies, poor level of training and lack of education. For example, aircraft in the fleet dropped around 64.5 tons of bombs on islands in the Gulf of Finland , most of which, however, had been evacuated. The Finns' only coastal battery on the islands was not eliminated by these attacks. At the end of December, the fleet operations largely came to a standstill due to pack ice .

In the Peace of Moscow (March 1940) the Hanko Peninsula , which is conveniently located in southwest Finland at the entrance to the Gulf of Finland, was leased to the Soviet Union as a naval base for 30 years.

In the summer of 1940, the Soviet Union occupied the Baltic States and thereby gained the ports of Tallinn in Estonia and Liepāja (German Libau) in Latvia, which had been used by cooperation agreements from 1939 .

In June 1941 the fleet consisted of the following ships:

The fleet did not play a major role in World War II either. The rapid German advance in 1941 deprived it of the naval bases in the Baltic that had only recently been taken over. The evacuation of Tallinn from August 27, 1941 onwards resulted in very large losses . The Soviets withdrew their 25,000 soldiers from Hanko and Finnish troops moved in in December. Most of the ships were locked in Leningrad from September and helped with their guns in the defense of the besieged city . The battleship Marat sank after heavy bomb hits on September 23, 1941 in Kronstadt on the quay, but could still be used as a permanent battery.

On April 4 and 5, 1942, parts of Kampfgeschwader 1 , together with parts of Sturzkampfgeschwader 1 and 2 , Kampfgeschwader 4 and Jagdgeschwader 54 attacked warships of the Baltic Fleet in the Leningrad port. Here, the battleship were damaged, Oktyabrskaya Revolutsija by four bomb hits, the cruiser Maksim Gorky by seven goals medium caliber cruiser Kirov and Petropavlovsk and the destroyer Silnyj each by a severe hit, and the destroyer Grozjashchi , the minelayer Marti and the training ship Svir by easier hits. The destroyers Stoyki and Svirepy as well as the submarines M-79 , P-2 and P-3 were also damaged .

Only after the end of the siege in January 1944 began individual operations against weaker German forces in the Baltic States. The sinking of the refugee ships Wilhelm Gustloff , Steuben and Goya in 1945 by Soviet submarines, which killed up to 20,000 people, became known.

After the Second World War, the Baltic Red Banner Fleet was part of the Warsaw Pact armed forces . They moved to new headquarters in Baltiysk near Kaliningrad. With the Polish Naval War Fleet and the People's Navy of the GDR, the Baltic Fleet formed the allies of the Baltic Sea Fleets , which should become active as the United Baltic Sea Fleet in the event of war . The Baltic Fleet was in charge of the Allied Baltic Fleet. Besides protecting their own coasts, their task was mainly offensive. In particular, she was equipped to carry out amphibious operations against the coasts of West Germany , Denmark or other Baltic Sea countries. A large number of DropShips and other warships were available for this purpose.

Since the NATO states with their navies dominated the Baltic Sea exits (see also Federal Navy ), the Baltic fleet was largely cut off from free access to the Atlantic during the Cold War . After the German rearmament in 1956 at the latest, the Soviet Union was therefore forced to relocate the bases for some of its ships - especially the strategic submarines - in the North Sea . As the importance of the Northern Fleet grew, so did that of the Baltic Fleet. However, the ports in the Baltic Sea with their efficient shipyards remained important for the Northern Fleet, whose ships received their basic repairs here.

Russian Federation

As a result of the dissolution of the Soviet Union , the bases of the Baltic fleet in Estonia , Latvia and Lithuania were evacuated, so that only the Kaliningrad Oblast remained as a largely ice-free access to the Baltic Sea. This exclave, located between Poland and Lithuania, has since been cut off from Russia - it is home to the powerful Jantar shipyard . The largest and most important naval shipyards are still in the Saint Petersburg area. For this purpose, there are two large bases of the Baltic Fleet in Kronstadt , a satellite town located on the island of Kotlin in the Gulf of Finland about 29 km northwest of Saint Petersburg and there itself.

When Russia withdrew all its troops from Poland and the Baltic States in 1992–1994, some air, naval and ground units were stationed in Kaliningrad, allegedly because of supply shortages in Russia. Russian insistence on keeping Kaliningrad as a heavily armed garrison has sparked international criticism, particularly from Poland.

In 1996 the operational forces consisted of nine submarines, three cruisers, two destroyers , 18 frigates and 56 smaller ships.

In the middle of 2000 the Baltic fleet consisted of over 100 combat ships of various types; their naval aviation group was equipped with 112 combat aircraft.

In the summer of 2016, the previous commander-in-chief of the Baltic fleet, Viktor Kravchuk, along with the chief of staff and 36 other officers, was surprisingly replaced. The reasons given were “serious failures in the organization of combat readiness ”, “lack of concern for subordinates” and “distortions of the actual situation”. At the same time, amber was illegally mined on the naval site. Alexander Nossatow became the new commander-in- chief and Vice-Admiral Muchametschin was appointed Chief of Staff.

Status of the fleet 2019

The main base of the Baltic fleet is Baltiysk .

The Baltic fleet includes (as of 2019) the following ship units:

Baltic Fleet and Baltic States

Since mid-March 2015, the Baltic fleet of the Russian Navy disrupted the construction of the North Baltic power connection , the 700 MWe line from Klaipėda ( Lithuania ) to Nybro in Sweden, four times in the Baltic Sea . Sweden's Foreign Minister Margot Wallström described the incidents as unacceptable. Lithuania summoned the Russian ambassador to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Vilnius , but apparently received no direct explanations.

Admirals of the fleet

Former ships and submarines in the service of the fleet

  • Soviet submarine M-256
  • Soviet submarine S-13

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Friedrich Schmidt: Yellowed fame. FAZ.net, July 9, 2016, accessed July 30, 2016 .
  2. ↑ Meyer's Universal Lexicon. 3rd edition 1982, order no .: 5769737, license no. 433130/182/82, Volume IV, p. 129.
  3. ↑ van Dyke pp. 47ff, 65ff, 78ff; Trotter, p. 54
  4. ^ Jürgen Rohwer , Gerhard Hümmelchen : Chronik des Maritime War 1939–1945, April 1942 , accessed on July 14, 2013.
  5. ↑ Russianships.info , accessed August 19, 2019
  6. ^ Protests from Sweden and Lithuania

Web links

Commons : Baltic Fleet  - collection of images, videos and audio files