Soviet Battleship "Sevastopol"

[Taz]

Another bit of info about a refit.
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Dec 1937 : The battleship "Parizhskaya Communa" (a powerful artillery ship that contributed a vivid page to the heroical history of the Naval Fleet of the country) was commissioned to the fleet after the modernization.

Notice a powerful "artillery ship"
Dave your'e a Navy guy would that mean for ship to shore artillery support?

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USSR Parizhskaya Kommuna

Battleship of the Sevastopol class

Navy: The Soviet Navy
Type: Battleship
Class: Sevastopol
Built by: Baltijsij zavod, Sankt Petersburg

Laid down: 3 Jun, 1909
Launched: 16 Jun, 1911
Commissioned: 4 Nov, 1914

History: Built as Sevastopol.
Belonged to Baltic Fleet. 22.11.1929 - 18.01.1930 transfered to Black Sea Fleet. Since 31.03.1921 as "Parizhskaya Kommuna".

Since 31.05.1943 as "Sevastopol" again.

Former name: Sevastopol




Eddie.

[Dave]

Dave isn't that the same ship?

Eddie-

No, there were actually two ships named Sebastopol at the same time. One was transferred to working with amphibious units, and had two small caliber guns (from the pic, they look like around 3" guns, perhaps smaller). It would have been used to escort landing boats up to the shore and provide close-in fire support.

The battleship Sebastopol... Yes, with the big guns, it most likely provided shore bombardment support. I'm not really that familiar with Soviet amphibious operations during WW2, so I don't know if they went that route or not (like the US did). That said, with the big guns, it could also stay outside the range of shore artillery pieces, save for the "Big Bertha" type rail guns and the very large German artillery pieces (which they liked using around Sebastopol).

What I'd like to see is the whole text of the citation, and see who the recommending officers were. If, for instance, the Commander of the ship is only a Captain 2nd or 3rd Rank, then I'd go for the smaller Sebastopol. If it's a Captain 1st Rank, I'd tend towards the battleship.

--Dave

[Taz]

Cheers Dave, ;)

Let's hope Tom can post the citation that would clear this one up.

Eddie.

[medaldude]

Here is what the citation says:

Since the beginning of the war comrade Lomako has participated in all battle actions of the "Sevastopol" battleship. Being the First Sergeant of the boiler-room watch comrade Lomako was a perfect watch keeper, ensuring undisturbed operation of all the mechanisms, trained other soldiers, struggled for survivorship. Strong shaking of the ship caused by artillery salvos resulted in multiple fails of paravanes and pipe lines. Comrade Lomako kept his self-control removing failures under high temperature.

At one of bombardments brickwork of one boiler crumbled. The crew of comrade Lomako wearing asbestos uniforms stopped the boiler's operation, repaired the fire-chamber and restarted the boiler's operation again

The citation states that since April 1944 Lomako served on the destroyer "Ognevoy". He was part of the acceptance team and my research on the web found that this ship was used to test various radar systems in 1944 and 1945, so acceptance was for accepting/testing radar not accepting a new ship. The Ognevoy was built/launched 1940/41.

The citation, dated April 1945, was signed by the Captain of the Ognevoy and strangely he only nominated Lomako for a Combat Service Medal. The commander of the 1st Destroyer Division of the Black Sea Fleet raised it to a Ushakov Medal. The records show he was awarded the medal Dec. 1945 in Sevastopol. He also received the Sevastopol Defense Medal in 1943.