Mortally wounded battleship "Marat" defended Leningrad

The battleship "Marat" was laid in 1909, and launched in 1911. Then it was called "Petropavlovsk" otherwise. About three years left for the installation of weapons and equipment, after which the ship was transferred to the active fleet. It was huge: the length was 181 m, the greatest width was 27 m, the depth of the draft was 8.5 m.

The role of Baltic sailors in the world war was not very important, the main battles took place on land fronts. Russian ships were locked in a German-bombed Gulf of Finland, their participation was limited to artillery strikes against the enemy.

Most of the sailors of the Baltic Fleet supported the coming to power of the Bolsheviks, who conducted an active propaganda work among the personnel. Nevertheless, in 1921, having understood the policy of the new government, the sailors raised an uprising in Kronstadt, demanding the creation of Soviets without Communists.

The rebellion was suppressed, the rebels were shot. To erase from memory unpleasant events for the Bolsheviks, many ships were renamed, including Petropavlovsk.

The battleship "Marat" (this was the new name) was repeatedly upgraded in the next two decades. The basic design of the hull was powerful, its dimensions allowed to install various weapons systems. The displacement of the ship, which amounted to 23,000 tons in 1914, was increased to almost 26,000 tons, mainly due to the weighting of the superstructures, the improvement of the motor-energy system (the possibility of using liquid fuels), the installation of artillery and machine guns of air defense (in which the need arose) . Much has been done and to ensure that the battleship "Marat" was equipped with modern communication equipment, range finders and fire control devices.

The power meter of any artillery ship is the main caliber. In the time of the tsar, the Obukhov Plant produced excellent weapons for the fleet. Twelve 305-mm trunks were housed in four artillery towers. Blocking fire battleship "Marat" could lead from sixteen 120-millimeter cannon system "Vickers" with a rate of fire of 7 rounds per minute each. True, their location on the middle deck caused censure of the sailors, since their low position made it difficult to fire during the excitement, but, as further events showed, this did not matter much.

By the beginning of the war, the USSR had three powerful artillery dreadnoughts, one of which was the battleship "Marat".

The history of 1914 was repeated in the summer of 1941. The Baltic Fleet has been blocked in the Gulf of Finland and is deprived of the possibility of access to operational space. The value of ships in this situation was determined by the ability to shoot far and accurate, they turned into floating artillery batteries, which, in general, was also not bad.

Having experienced the work of long-range "dvenadtsatidyuymovok", the Germans quickly realized that something must be done to silence them. Only the assault aviation could become a real means to solve this task.

Hans-Ulrich Rudel was commissioned to bomb the Soviet dreadnought. This lieutenant of the Luftwaffe gained combat experience during the European campaigns, showing himself to be one of the most apt pilots. Before him, many tried to hit the ship, first with 250 kilograms, then with half-ton bombs, but only that pilot managed to get into the powder cellar.

A bomb weighing 1000 kg pierced the armored deck and caused a detonation of the ammunition. The entire bow was broken off, more than 320 crew members were killed, including the commander of the ship Ivanov PK

Trying to save the battleship "Marat", the personnel showed courage and resourcefulness. The hull could be put on the ground with a minimum roll and a differential, which allowed after the rescue work to maintain the fighting capacity of the artillery towers, and then fire from the second bow. In this situation, the ship fought until the day of the breakthrough of the Leningrad blockade. In 1943 he again became "Peter and Paul". Apparently, the time of the Danton-Robespierres ended ...

There was another renaming, in 1950 the battleship was named "Volkhov". The ship was cut to metal in 1953, young sailors still had time to learn it.