Imperator Aleksander III.

[EricFG]

The Imperator Aleksander III ( Emperor Alexander III) was an Imperatritsa Mariya-class Dreadnought battleship in the Imperial Russian Navy.

Imperator Aleksander III was launched in 1914 as part of the Imperial Russian fleet. The ship did not take part in operations during World War I due to long delays in the delivery of its machinery from Britain, but was able to go to sea by 1917 and conduct a series of trials. However, final outfitting was interrupted by the chaos of the Russian Revolution and she was never fully completed.

In 1918, renamed "Volya" the ship was part the Ukrainian Navy. Later in 1918 the ship was under German control for a few months. After Germany's surrender it was seized by the British, who moved it to İzmir, Turkey. In 1919 it rejoined Russian use, this time by the White Russian forces and returned to the Black Sea, where it fought in the Russian Civil War against the Red Army, mainly by carrying out shore bombardments. With the collapse of the White Russian armies in Southern Russia in 1920, the battleship participated in their evacuation and then sailed to the Mediterranean, where it was interned in Bizerta, Tunisia. With the French recognition of the USSR in 1924 the ship passed to Soviet control, but upon Soviet Naval inspection it was not returned to service due to her poor condition.

The heavy guns of the ship were stored in Bizerta following the ship's scrapping in 1936. In 1940, France sold them to Finland. Of the 12 pieces, 8 made it to Finland, while 4 were seized by Germany and used in shore batteries on Guernsey in the English Channel. The Finns mounted 3 guns on Soviet TM-3-12 gun railway platforms abandoned at Hanko in 1941. After the war these handed over to the Soviet Union, where they were kept operational until the 1990s.

So, Imperial Russian ship, built with British parts joins Ukraine's Navy during the Revolution, is briefly in Imperial German hands, then seized by the British. Moves to Turkey, taken by the White Russians then moves to Tunisia where's it's surrendered (or given) to the French. Given to the Soviet government it's abandoned and scrapped but it's guns sold by the French to the Finns although some were captured by the Germans and presumably fired at the British while those that made it to Finland were mounted on captured Soviet carriages for use against the Soviet forces. In the 40s again under Soviet control and kept usable until the 90s, and now displayed as a museum piece in St. Peterburg.

What a long, strange trip. Anybody else dizzy?

[deValcourt]

Long and certainly strange, but interesting in that the guns were used for so many cross purposes. The photo shows a definitely Soviet-era-looking rail mounted canon.

How'd you even hear about this?

Phillip

[EricFG]

Originally Posted by deValcourt

How'd you even hear about this? Phillip

Surfing through Wikipedia like I do almost every day when I'm not working.