Soviet destroyer Opytny
Opytny (Russian: Опытный, lit. 'Experimental') was the only member of her class of destroyers built for the Soviet Navy during the 1930s. The Soviet designation for her class was Project 45. She was completed in 1941 and fought in World War II as part of the Baltic Fleet. She was indigenously designed in contrast to the Type 7 which was built with Italian assistance and intended as a prototype for future Soviet destroyers. She was not a successful ship, with severe problems with her machinery and stability. Her intended armament of twin-gun turrets were transferred to the destroyer leader Tashkent and replaced by single gun mounts.
| History | |
|---|---|
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| Name: | Sergo Ordzhonikidze |
| Namesake: | Sergo Ordzhonikidze |
| Ordered: | 2nd Five-Year Plan |
| Builder: | Shipyard No. 190 (Zhdanov), Leningrad |
| Yard number: | 500 |
| Laid down: | 26 June 1935 |
| Launched: | 8 December 1935 |
| Commissioned: | 28 September 1941 |
| Decommissioned: | 1949 |
| Renamed: | Opytny (Russian: Опытный, lit. 'Experimental'), September 1940 |
| Fate: | Scrapped, 1952 |
| General characteristics (as built) | |
| Type: | Destroyer |
| Displacement: | 1,707 long tons (1,734 t) (standard) |
| Length: | 113.5 m (372 ft 5 in) (o/a) |
| Beam: | 10.2 m (33 ft 6 in) |
| Draft: | 3.98 m (13 ft 1 in) |
| Installed power: |
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| Propulsion: | 2 shafts; 2 geared steam turbines |
| Speed: | 35 knots (65 km/h; 40 mph) |
| Range: | 1,370 nmi (2,540 km; 1,580 mi) at 18 knots (33 km/h; 21 mph) |
| Complement: | 262 |
| Armament: |
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Design
The Specifications (TTZ in Russian) for this ship were issued in 1934. The ship was intended as a prototype to test a new propulsion system, which was intended to use high-pressure Wagner-type boilers developed by Germany. The Wagner boilers were more compact and powerful than conventional boilers and used super-heated steam (75 atmospheres vs. the 26–27 atmospheres in conventional boilers used for the Project 7 destroyers). The machinery was mounted in a unit layout with two funnels and alternating boiler rooms and engine rooms. The design speed was 42 knots
Due to the weight savings it was designed to mount three twin enclosed gun turrets in positions A, X and Y similar to the Japanese Fubuki-class destroyers. A new gun system, the B-2LM, was developed for this ship however due to poor weight control the twin turrets were substituted for single guns.
Service
The ship was built by Shipyard No. 190 (Zhdanov) in Leningrad, laid down as yard number 500 on 26 June 1935 under the name Sergo Ordzhonikidze. She was launched on 8 December 1936, and commissioned on 28 September 1941[1] after extensive trials and subsequent reconstruction. She served as a floating battery during the Siege of Leningrad, during which time she suffered significant damage from German artillery fire.[2] After the war she served as an experimental ship and was decommissioned in 1949. She was scrapped in 1955–1956.
References
- Rohwer & Monakov, p. 233
- Hill, p. 45
Bibliography
- Budzbon, Przemysaw (1980). "Soviet Union". In Chesneau, Roger (ed.). Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships 1922–1946. Greenwich, UK: Conway Maritime Press. pp. 318–346. ISBN 0-85177-146-7.
- Hill, Alexander (2018). Soviet Destroyers of World War II. New Vanguard. 256. Oxford, UK: Osprey Publishing. ISBN 978-1-4728-2256-7.
- Platonov, Andrey V. (2002). Энциклопедия советских надводных кораблей 1941–1945 [Encyclopedia of Soviet Surface Ships 1941–1945] (in Russian). Saint Petersburg: Poligon. ISBN 5-89173-178-9.
- Rohwer, Jürgen & Monakov, Mikhail S. (2001). Stalin's Ocean-Going Fleet. London: Frank Cass. ISBN 0-7146-4895-7.
- Westwood, J. N. (1994). Russian Naval Construction, 1905–45. London: Macmillan. ISBN 0-333-55553-8.
- Whitley, M. J. (1988). Destroyers of World War Two: An International Encyclopedia. London: Cassell & Co. ISBN 1-85409-521-8.
- This article incorporates material from Russian Wikipedia