Heavy cruiser Lützow. "lützow" Lützow heavy cruiser 1939

Unfinished German heavy cruiser Lutzow during towing in the USSR

On September 17, 1942, Soviet sailors and workers of the Baltic Shipyard carried out a unique operation to covertly raise the heavy cruiser Petropavlovsk, sunk by German artillery exactly a year ago, on September 17, 1941, during the first assault on Leningrad.

Right under the noses of the Nazis, "Petropavlovsk" was raised and towed up the Neva to a safe place. With the help of caissons, ship repair workers welded the ship's hull, which received holes from 53 direct hits of 210-mm shells, restored the main and auxiliary mechanisms, fire, drainage and drainage systems of the cruiser. At the same time, the ship's artillery was put into operation. Already at the end of December 1942, "Petropavlovsk" under the command of Captain II rank S. Glukhovtsev again opened fire on the Nazi fortifications.

The heavy cruiser Petropavlovsk, originally named Lützow, was laid down on August 2, 1937 at the Deschimag AG Wesser shipyard in Berlin and launched on July 1, 1939. The ship, which was only 70% ready, was sold to the USSR at the end of 1939 for 106.5 million gold marks. On May 31, 1940, German tugboats brought the ship to the shipyard of the Baltic Shipyard, which began its completion. Despite the fact that the Germans, not wanting to strengthen their future enemy, in every possible way delayed the supply of mechanisms and weapons for the cruiser, and then completely withdrew the engineering and technical personnel who installed the equipment, by the summer of 1941 the ship was almost completed, although not a single of its premises was not finally completed. From the armament of the ship, only the 1st and 4th 203-mm gun turrets and 1x2 - 37-mm and 8 - 20-mm anti-aircraft guns were installed. The cruiser did not have a course, but even in this state it could already fire. On August 15, 1941, the Soviet naval flag was raised on the Petropavlovsk. By this time, his crew was 408 people. On September 7, 1941, when the Nazi troops approached Leningrad, the Petropavlovsk, like all ships of the Red Banner Baltic, began to provide artillery assistance to the ground forces.

The German heavy cruiser "Lützow" during its inspection by the Soviet selection committee

On September 11, 1941, during live firing on the 22nd shot, the barrel of the left gun of turret No. 1 was torn apart by an explosion of a shell in the canal. Every day the intensity of the battles increased. On the night of September 17, "Petropavlovsk" fired continuously at the enemy troops, which came close to Leningrad. On the morning of September 17, Hitler's artillery from a distance of three kilometers began to shoot at a stationary cruiser with direct fire. Unable to maneuver, the ship received 53 direct hits from 210mm shells that day. Through holes with an area of ​​​​up to 30 square meters, water began to penetrate into the hull. Slowly flooding, "Petropavlovsk" was attached to the port side and after 6 hours with a trim on the bow lay down on the ground.

After lifting the cruiser returned to the Baltic Navy. In 1944, the cruiser participated in the lifting of the blockade of Leningrad, when it crushed the enemy's defenses for 10 days in a row. They carried out 31 artillery firing and fired 1036 203-mm shells.

On March 11, 1953, the cruiser was reclassified into a non-self-propelled training ship and renamed Dnepr, and at the end of the 50s she was scrapped.

Floating barracks "Dnepr" (former cruiser "Petropavlovsk/Tallinn") in the mid-50s.

If you have additional information or photos related to this event, please post them in the comments of this post.

Photo information.

Why exactly him? Probably because of his "bad luck" - "Lützow", as a ship, is very nice to me, but even in model reincarnations he was not lucky - the only available model released by Heller is incredible in its wretchedness. In addition, I always wanted to have a pickpocket in my collection, but the Spee seemed painfully hackneyed, and besides, purely visually, I don’t like its tower-like superstructure. I wanted to try my hand at deep conversion - I'll be honest: I'm tired. The project lasted almost 2.5 years.

A bit of history

The ship is the lead in a series of German "pocket battleships" that appeared as a result of the restrictions of the Treaty of Versailles, according to which post-war Germany could not have more than 6 ships in the class of battleships, and newly built units could not exceed 10,000 "long" tons in displacement, and the caliber of guns limited to 280 mm (11 inches). A total of three units were built: "Deutschland", "Admiral Scheer" and "Admiral Graf Spee" ("Deutschland", "Admiral Scheer" and "Admiral Graf Spee").
Deutschland (future Lutzow) was laid down on 02/09/1928, launched on 05/19/1931 at the Deutsche Werke shipyard in Kiel.

In the interwar period, he performed representative functions, "demonstrated the flag." Since 1933 - the flank ship of the German Navy. In 1934-1936. made visits to Scotland and Scandinavia, transatlantic passage in South America, together with the "Admiral Scheer" cruised in the North and Central Atlantic.
Started in 1936 Civil War in Spain called "pocket battleships" for service to the Iberian Peninsula. On July 19, the German squadron, which included, in particular, "Deutschland" and "Admiral Scheer" set off for the coast of Spain, where it took part in the evacuation of 9,300 foreigners. Then the ship began to pursue failures. On the evening of May 29, on the roadstead of the island of Ibiza, it was subjected to an air strike by the Republican aviation and received 2 bomb hits. One bomb hit near the bridge and exploded between the decks, and the second fell near the third aft 150-mm gun. A strong fire broke out in the interdeck space. 23 sailors were killed, 73 were injured, many were burned. The ship itself had to urgently return to Germany for repairs.
In March 1939, with Adolf Hitler on board, he took part in the occupation of Memel (Klaipeda).

I met the beginning of the war at sea - on August 24, 1939, he went out to raid the Atlantic, to positions south of Greenland. But his successes in this field were more than modest: he sank only two ships against eleven at the Spee (the English Stonegate and the Norwegian Lorenz W. Hansen) with a total capacity of about 7000 tons, and in November 1939 returned to Germany.
In 1939, the battleship Deutschland was renamed the heavy cruiser Lutzow, but this did not add to her luck. In November 1939, he went to the Skagerrak to intercept merchant ships, but to no avail.

The opportunity to show himself came during the invasion of Norway on April 9, 1940. There he acted as part of a group intended for the occupation of Oslo, along with the heavy cruiser Blucher, the light cruiser Emden, 3 destroyers and several small ships.

But as we all know, everything did not go according to plan - the Norwegians flatly did not want to give up without a fight and during the operation "Blucher" was sunk; Lutzow, in turn, received three hits from 280-mm shells. The central gun of the bow turret of the main caliber was disabled, a fire broke out on the ship. After the capture of Oslo, the damaged "pocket battleship" was ordered to urgently return to Kiel. But the way home turned out to be thorny: on the night of April 10-11, at about 2 a.m., he was attacked by the English submarine Spearfish and was hit by a torpedo. The hull behind the stern turret broke (in fact, the stern turned out to be half-torn off), 4 compartments were flooded; the ship took about 1300 tons of water. The ship was towed to Kiel, where it stood for repairs for more than six months. Already on July 9, 1940, during the bombing of Kiel, a bomb hit the ship. After repair, it was actually ready for action only by the beginning of 1941. It was assumed that in July 1941 the Lutzow would go on a new Atlantic raid, but this did not happen. During this repair, the appearance of the ship changed significantly: a beveled "Atlantic" stem appeared, one of the forward anchor ports was welded on the port side, and a degaussing system was installed along the sides.

On June 13, the Beaufort was again attacked by British torpedo bombers, hit in the middle of the hull. Two engine compartments and one of the compartments with couplings were flooded. "Lützow" lost its course, took 1000 tons of water and received a threatening roll - about 20 °. Again to Kiel for repairs - until January 1942.
During Operation "Knight's Walk" ("Rosselsprung") in July 1942, he was supposed to act against the famous convoy PQ-17, but ran into a rock not marked on the map even before leaving Bogen Bay, and was forced to return to Narvik. The raid to the Atlantic planned for the summer was canceled again.


At the end of December 1942, he took part in Operation Rainbow (Regenbogen) against the JW-51B convoy, together with the heavy cruiser Admiral Hipper and 6 destroyers under the command of Admiral Kümmetz. The fight was a series of short bouts. "Admiral Hipper" was damaged by the British cruisers "Sheffield" and "Jamaica", the German destroyers "Frederick Eckoldt" and "Beitzen" were sunk, the destroyer ("Esheites") and the minesweeper were sunk by the British; the convoy was practically undamaged. The result of this operation was Hitler's order forbidding the further active use of large warships.

In the future, "Lützow" formally remained in service, while in Narvik - with a reduced crew, and at the end of September 1943, the "pocket battleship" moved to Germany and was put in for another repair and modernization, which took place until March 1944 in Liepaja ( Libau). It was assumed that after modernization it would become a purely training vessel.

Since the autumn of 1944, the "pocket battleship" "Lützow" was used mainly to support the retreating German ground forces on the eastern front.
In April 1945, "Lützow" was in Swinemünde. In the middle of the month, he was attacked by British aircraft. The close explosions of the 5.5-ton Tollboys (there were no direct hits) caused such damage to the ship that its hull gradually filled with water, and the Lutzow sat on the ground at a shallow depth. His guns still continued to take part in defensive battles against the Soviet troops.

On May 4, 1945, when the Germans left Swinemünde, the Lützow was blown up by a team; body is completely burnt out.

But in the end, he didn’t even manage to die with dignity: in the spring of 1946, Soviet rescuers raised the ship, and on September 26, the Lutzow was finally flooded in the central part of the Baltic Sea on July 22, 1947 after several high-explosive bombs were blown up on it. His last photo:

This is such an unenviable and somewhat useless fate for this ship, although - how to look: he did less evil on the other hand.

Why exactly him?

Probably because of his "bad luck" - "Lützow", as a ship, is very nice to me, but even in model reincarnations he was not lucky - the only available model released by Heller is incredible in its wretchedness. In addition, I always wanted to have a pickpocket in my collection, but the Spee seemed painfully hackneyed, and besides, purely visually, I don’t like its tower-like superstructure. I wanted to try my hand at deep conversion - I'll be honest: I'm tired. The project lasted almost 2.5 years.

Assembly

The model represents the ship in 1942, at the time of the Rosselsprung operation, which she never made it to. This period was chosen because of the interesting camouflage.
Literature used (what I remember):
1) Pocket battleships of the Deutschland class by Gerhard Koop and Klaus-Peter Schmulke
2) Marine-Arsenal, Die Panzerschiffe der Kriegsmarine special band 2, by Siedfried Breyer
3) Marine-Arsenal, Panzerschiff "Deutschland" by Siedfried Breyer
4) Kagero, The heavy cruiser “Lutzow”
5) Momografie morskie 7, 9
6) Gunpower 17 German naval artillery 1

The aftermarket purchased an incredible amount of all sorts of different things. I don't remember exactly:
1) Set on Spee from Eduard
2) Set on Spee from Ka-models
3) German radars from Flyhok (FH350061)
4) Automatic machines from Flyhawk 3.7 cm and 2 cm (FH353001 and FH353002)
5) 20 mm four-barrel anti-aircraft guns (VTW35056) and a set of German searchlights (VTW35058) from Veteran
6) All kinds of trunks from Master Model
7) Resin life rafts (I don’t remember from whom)

The construction process is more or less laid out in a forum thread, I won’t especially paint here. I can only say that only the hull and the aircraft are native to the model, and even then - both have undergone modifications. The rest is all homemade from Evergreen plastic of different thicknesses. Towers GK, 150 mm and torpedo tubes poured out of resin, of course not very successful, but for the first time - the norms. The paints were used by Vallejo, the wash was done with Vallejo's ready-to-use wash, and the varnish was Satin Vallejo. I am extremely pleased with everything - after Humbrol it is just some kind of holiday. I can’t say anything good about the Academia model itself, I didn’t check it for compliance with the prototype (Spee). In terms of quality - incredible firewood - I have not seen worse. I also used boats from the set - I had to cover it with a tarpaulin, since it was not possible to bring the interior to mind. The boats have undergone a major overhaul. I'll post some pictures of the process:
Beginning: extrusion of the Lützow hull from the solid array of the Spee:

Superstructure weekdays:

Passion through the pipe:

Artillery crane works:

The last of the German heavy cruisers laid down met the strangest fate. After the launch, which took place two years after the laying, on July 1, 1939, its completion slowed down significantly. The reason was the lack of labor and the first failures of the German industry that had been working like clockwork until now. The turbine blades arrived with great delays, which slowed down the installation of all the main mechanisms. But the fate of the ship was decided not by technology, but by politics. On August 23, 1939, Germany and the Soviet Union signed a non-aggression pact that provided, in particular, for intensive economic exchange. The USSR supplied a large amount of food and raw materials, intending to receive modern military equipment. In accordance with Stalin's perfectly reasonable considerations: "A ship bought from a prospective enemy is equal to two: one more from us and one less from the enemy," special attention was paid to attempts to purchase large warships. The acquisition of almost all large units of the German fleet was discussed, but in reality the Germans had to give up only one - the Lutzow. This choice once again shows that heavy cruisers were of the least interest to Hitler, already embroiled in a war with strong naval opponents and having lost hope of achieving sea parity with Britain in traditional balanced fleets. So the loss of a ship that was not very suitable for individual raider actions due to its power plant could not greatly affect the plans of the German fleet, which was clearly incapable of a direct clash in battle with the English. On the other hand, the USSR received one of the most modern and technically advanced cruisers, albeit in an unfinished state.

On February 11, 1940, an agreement was signed on the purchase of Lutzow. For 104 million Reichsmarks, the USSR received a ship completed along the upper deck, which had part of the superstructures and a bridge, as well as two lower towers of the main caliber (however, the guns were installed only in the bow). This, in fact, ends the history of the German heavy cruiser Lutzow and begins the history of the Soviet warship, which first received the designation "project 53", and from September 25, the name "Petropavlovsk". On April 15, the "purchase" with the help of tugs left the Deshimag shipyard and on May 31 was towed to Leningrad, to the Baltic Shipyard. To continue work, a whole delegation of 70 engineers and technicians arrived with the ship, led by Rear Admiral Feige. Then the game began with dishonest intentions. According to the German-Soviet plans, it was supposed to put Petropavlovsk into operation by 1942, but in the autumn the work slowed down noticeably - through the fault of the German side. The war with the Soviet Union had already been decided, and the Germans did not want to strengthen the enemy. Deliveries were delayed at first, and then completely stopped. The explanations of the German government consisted of numerous references to difficulties in connection with the war with England and France. But even after the fall of France, construction did not speed up at all, it even slowed down even more. Entire wagons with goods for "Petropavlovsk" "by mistake" got instead of Leningrad to the other end of Europe.

The game without rules continued. In the spring of 1941, Rear Admiral Feige went to Germany on "sick leave", from which he never returned. Then the rest of the specialists began to leave; the last of them left the Soviet Union on June 21, just a few hours before the German attack. It is not surprising that by the beginning of the Great Patriotic War the heavy cruiser was only 75% ready, and most of the equipment was missing. The guns were available only in the lowered bow and stern turrets supplied with the ship; in addition, several light anti-aircraft guns arrived from Germany (1 twin 37-mm installation and eight 20-mm machine guns were installed). Nevertheless, the workers of the plant and the team led by Captain 2nd Rank A. G. Vanifatiev made every effort to bring the cruiser to at least a conditionally combat-ready state. By June 1941, the ship was fully staffed with officers and petty officers and approximately 60% with privates. After the start of the war and the threatening advance of the enemy to the northern capital, from July 17, by order of the commander of the Leningrad Naval Defense, the forces of the crew and workers hastily put into operation the existing artillery and the power equipment necessary for its functioning - diesel generators. At the same time, the ship, which was clearly not threatened with going to sea, lost a significant part of the crew. From its composition, 2 companies of marines were formed and sent to the front. Only the most necessary people remained on the cruiser - gunners, diesel mechanics, electricians. They had to work around the clock with their equipment, putting it into action. The team was assisted by the workers of the Baltic Plant, whose number almost equaled the number of the remaining military sailors.

On August 15, the naval flag was hoisted at the Petropavlovsk and it joined the Soviet fleet. In accordance with its condition, the cruiser was included in the detachment of newly built warships of the KBF. By this time, the first level of the superstructure, the base of the bow and stern bridges, the chimney and the temporary lower part of the main mast rose above the hull.

When the enemy came close to Leningrad, work was found for the 8-inch new unit. September 7 "Petropavlovsk" for the first time opened fire on German troops. Obviously, the Germans at one time considered that shells without guns were not too dangerous, and supplied the entire ammunition load, inflicting a double blow on themselves, reducing the reserve of ammunition for their heavy cruisers and making it possible to fire from four guns Soviet ship practically without restrictions. Only during the first week from the moment the "Petropavlovsk" was connected to actions against the troops, he fired 676 shells. September 16, the first shells exploded at the side of the cruiser. On the shore, wooden buildings caught fire, which had previously covered the Petropavlovsk. Enemy shells also destroyed the coastal substation that supplied the ship with electricity. The position of the cruiser, which had lost its energy and was now in direct line of sight of the enemy, became threatening. Its commander, Captain 3rd Rank A.K. Pavlovsky, called tugboats, but for now the cruiser continued to fire all night.

On September 17, from early morning, the Germans began shelling "their" ship. One of the first shells hit the hull and disabled the cruiser's only source of power - generator room No. 3. The team had to not only stop firing; she was helpless against fire from subsequent hits, as the water supply to the fire mains was cut off. Meanwhile, as a result of a direct hit, a fire broke out in a cistern with a solarium. The fire began to spread throughout the cruiser. During the unfortunate day of September 17, the helpless ship received 53 hits by shells of various calibers, mostly 210 mm - the “norm”, quite sufficient to sink even a fully combat-ready heavy cruiser. The crew had to abandon ship; First of all, the wounded were handed over to the shore. A lot of water entered the hull, and on August 19 the cruiser sat on the ground. Only the wall of the embankment, on which the Petropavlovsk fell sideways, saved it from capsizing. The damage was very significant; the area of ​​individual holes reached 25 sq.m. The team lost 30 men, including 10 killed.

Light anti-aircraft artillery began to be removed from the ship; his machine guns were installed on the ships of the Ladoga flotilla. The difficult situation at the front prompted the command to "cut down" the crew even more, which was reorganized. A small group of specialist technicians remained on board, mainly from the electromechanical warhead and several officers. After the survey, it was decided that the cruiser could still be raised and her artillery, which was of significant value to the besieged city, brought into combat readiness.

The work had to be carried out mainly at night in conditions of maximum secrecy and camouflage, since the enemy was only 4 km away. The EPRON rescue ships imperceptibly approached the board, but since they had to limit themselves to the smallest units, the power of their drainage facilities was not enough to lift the Petropavlovsk. Then the bay was covered with ice, and the rescuers were forced to leave. Meanwhile, the small crew did not stop fighting. It was decided to pump out water sequentially from each compartment, pre-sealing it. Initially, only low-power portable pumps were used, but after draining the aft engine compartment, it was possible to put the power plant No. 1 into operation. Gradually, stationary regular pumps located in the compartments began to be used. German technology turned out to be worthy of these truly heroic efforts (work was still carried out only at night), and the ship began to surface. For camouflage, every morning water was again taken into part of the drained compartments in order to hide changes in the draft from the Germans. The ship's pumps could work in completely flooded rooms and drained them quickly enough to take another step towards saving the ship at night. All this work was carried out in the midst of the cold blockade winter of 1941/1942. The personnel suffered not only from cold and dampness, but also from a lack of food: although the rations in the fleet remained in sizes acceptable for maintaining life, people also needed to work hard physically. Nevertheless, during the winter and spring, 2 more diesel generators were put into operation.

Petropavlovsk was in a completely incompetent state for exactly a year. Only on September 10, 1942, it was possible to completely restore the water resistance of the hull, and the next day to make a test ascent. In the morning they put him back on the ground. The operation was carried out so covertly that most of the personnel of the infantry unit located nearby on the shore in the trenches did not notice anything. Finally, on the night of September 16-17, the cruiser finally surfaced and, with the help of tugboats, proceeded to the wall of the Baltic Shipyard.

According to all the rules, repairs should have been continued in the dock, but it was impossible to bring the cruiser to Kronstadt along the Sea Canal, which was completely shot through by the enemy. I had to carry out work in the old fashioned way, as almost 40 years ago in Port Arthur. A huge caisson measuring 12.5 x 15 x 8 m was made at the factory, which was brought in turn to holes, pumped out water and closed up wounds inflicted by enemy shells. At the same time, work continued on the premises and on the deck to restore artillery weapons, electrical equipment and mechanics. And after their completion, the equipment had to be mothballed: work on the hull was too slow.

The repair continued throughout the next year, and already in January 1944, the three remaining 203-mm guns spoke from the new parking lot at the Trade Harbor (the left gun in the bow turret was completely disabled in 1941). The cruiser became part of the 2nd Artillery Group of the Fleet along with the battleship "October Revolution", the cruisers "Kirov" and "Maxim Gorky" and two destroyers. Its artillery was commanded by Senior Lieutenant J.K. Grace. "Petropavlovsk" took part in the Krasnoselsko-Ropsha offensive operation, firing on the first day, January 15, 1944, 250 shells. From January 15 to January 20, this number increased to 800. And in just 31 shelling, 1036 shells were fired at the enemy. The guns of the crippled ship were not too spared: it accounted for about a third of the firing and shells fired by the 2nd artillery group of the fleet. At the final commissioning, they put an end to it, so saving guns and ammunition no longer made any sense.

According to the reports of coastal observation groups and our troops, artillery operations proved to be very effective. Only on January 19, 3 guns, 29 cars, 68 wagons and 300 killed enemy soldiers and officers were recorded at the expense of the battery cruiser. But gradually the front moved away, and it became more and more difficult to fire. The ship fired its last salvos on January 24, 1944.

So, in fact, the combat life of the "Russian German" ended. September 1 "Petropavlovsk" was renamed "Tallinn". The war was drawing to a close, but there were no changes in the fate of the long-suffering ship. After the victory, there was a fundamental opportunity to complete the work begun five years ago, since the Soviet shipbuilders got their hands on the damaged and unfinished Seydlitz. However, prudence prevailed, and the alien, already outdated cruiser was never completed. For some time it was used as a non-self-propelled training vessel, and then as a floating barracks (on March 11, 1953 it was renamed Dnepr, and on December 27, 1956 it received the designation PKZ-112).

On April 3, 1958, the former Lutzow was excluded from the lists of the fleet and towed to the ship cemetery in Kronstadt, where it was dismantled for metal during 1959-1960.

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Yesterday Dmitry Nagiev "loaded" us a little with his participation in a film about a state security officer crawling through the forest ... This is over, a very important moment in the history of the Great Patriotic War ... but still I propose to pay attention to another topic.
Here are two selections in Yandex for "Petropavlovsk Cruiser".

First source:

(before the purchase - "Luttsov", until 10/2/1940 the cruiser "L"), from 09/19/1944 "Tallinn", from 03/11/1953 "Dnepr"

Laid down on August 2, 1937 at the shipyard of Deschimag AG Wesser in Berlin. Launched on July 1, 1939. At the end of 1939, the unfinished cruiser was bought by the USSR for 106.5 million marks in gold. Initially, in Soviet documents, it appeared under the name cruiser "L".

On May 31, 1940, German tugboats brought the KR to the concrete wall of Plant No. 189 in Leningrad. The plant began to complete the construction of the cruiser, which on September 25, 1940, by order of the People's Commissar Navy was given the name "Petropavlovsk".

Despite the fact that the Germans in every way delayed the supply of mechanisms and weapons for the cruiser, and then completely withdrew the engineering and technical personnel who installed the equipment, by the summer of 1941 the ship was already in 70 percent readiness. However, none of its premises was finally completed. Of the armament of the ship, only the 1st and 4th 203-mm turrets and 1x2 - 37-mm and 8 - 20-mm anti-aircraft guns were installed. The cruiser did not have a course, but even in this state the cruiser could already fire. On August 15, 1941, the Soviet naval flag was raised on the Petropavlovsk. By this time the crew was 408 people. On September 7, 1941, when the Nazi troops approached Leningrad, the Petropavlovsk, like all ships of the Red Banner Baltic, began to provide artillery assistance to the ground forces. He opened artillery fire for the first time and did not stop it for eleven days.

On September 11, 1941, during live firing on the 22nd shot, a shell explosion in the channel tore the barrel of the left gun of turret No. 1.

With each passing day, the intensity of the fighting increased. On the night of September 17, "Petropavlovsk" fired continuously at the enemy troops. But, despite the heavy losses, the enemy units came close to Leningrad. On the morning of September 17, Hitler's artillery began to shoot at a stationary cruiser from a distance of three kilometers with direct fire. Unable to maneuver, the ship received 53 direct hits from 210mm shells that day. Through holes with an area of ​​​​up to 30 square meters, water began to penetrate into the hull. Slowly flooding, "Petropavlovsk" was attached to the port side and after 6 hours with a trim on the bow lay down on the ground.

A year later, on September 17, 1942, the cruiser was raised and towed to the wall of plant No. 189. With the help of caissons, the workers of the Baltic plant welded holes, restored the main, auxiliary mechanisms, fire, drainage and drainage systems of the cruiser. At the same time, the ship's artillery was put into operation. In December 1942, Petropavlovsk again entered service as a floating battery and was towed to the iron wall of the Trade Port, from where, on December 30, 1942, it opened fire on German troops.

In 1944, the cruiser participated in lifting the blockade of Leningrad. On January 15, 1944, both towers of the cruiser in the first hours of the offensive fired 250 shots at the positions and fortifications of the Nazis on Voronya Gora, in Duderhof, communication centers near Krasnoe Selo and Novye Vilozi, enemy observation and command posts in Kirgof. For ten days in a row, the heavy cruiser crushed the enemy's defenses. They carried out 31 artillery firing and fired 1036 203-mm shells.

After the war, several options for completing the construction of the cruiser were considered, but none of them was implemented. The cruiser was returned to the Baltic Shipyard, in January 1949 it was reclassified into a light cruiser, and on March 11, 1953 - into a non-self-propelled training ship and renamed Dnepr ". In December 1956, it was reorganized into the floating barracks PKZ-112. By order of April 4, 1958, he was excluded from the lists of the Navy and during 1959-1961 was cut into metal at the Vtorchermet plant.

The second source: "The name Petropavlovsk was borne by another warship. It was the German cruiser Lutzow, laid down in 1936 at the Deutschland shipyard in Bremen. In February 1940, the USSR signed an agreement on its acquisition. In the spring of 1940, Lutzow "without weapons was delivered from Germany to Leningrad. Here at the Baltic Shipyard he was being completed. On September 25, 1940, the ship was renamed Petropavlovsk. By the beginning of World War II, the work had not been completed, and it was decided to use it as a floating battery On September 7, 1941, the cruiser opened fire on German troops approaching Leningrad. On September 17, after heavy damage inflicted by German artillery, Petropavlovsk lay down on the ground. During the year, rescue work was carried out on the damaged cruiser, and in September 1942 the ship was delivered to the dock of the Baltic Shipyard In January 1944, the cruiser took part in breaking the blockade of Leningrad.

Since in 1943 the battleship "Marat" was returned to its previous name "Petropavlovsk", the cruiser received the name "Tallinn". The ship was not completed, its hull was used as a training ship, then as a floating barracks, and in 1958 was excluded from the fleet.

I would like to draw your attention to the following points:

a) the dates and place of laying (construction) are different, but in both cases - 1936 or 1937!!! Maybe the Lützev cruiser was an old project - there is no best cruiser in the world!

b) February-March 1940, just at the time when the decision was made to shoot Polish soldiers, in March 1940 the Finnish company ended (Germany and Finland were allies), the goal of the Finnish company was to "cut out" Sweden - the factory of the German military-industrial complex, from the game, with this official ally Soviet Union Great Britain is in a critical situation - it is completely blockaded from the sea by the German fleet and prays to Stalin for help and is ready to take off its "last shirt" only to persuade "Koba" to enter the war against Germany. Moreover, the first convoys from Britain to Arkhangelsk began to arrive even before the start of the war in 1941 - this was when they began to engage in vandalism there - they sent park fences for melting down ...

c) the traditional leapfrog with the renaming "Petropavlovsk" (until 1921 *) - "Marat" (until 1943) - "Petropavlovsk", respectively, this "Petropavlovsk", which is "Luttsov", became "Tallinn" because that former name was already taken , ... swept through all ships (of the first rank) * on the Baltic and Black Sea Fleets- why in the middle of the war to rename dozens of ships?

*) In connection with the uprising of sailors dissatisfied with the policy of the Bolsheviks.

I draw your attention to the fact that in many sources, home-grown military historians substitute a photo of another type of LIGHT cruiser like "Mikhail Kutuzov" (see below), as a photo of "Petropavlovsk" (aka Lyuttsov - HEAVY cruiser).

And now I frankly "turn on the fool" and in the next post I publish excerpts from foreign economic agreements between the USSR and Germany. That's where the "berries" will be.

*) Corrected due to a clarification question from a reader.