The battleship "Marat" was laid in 1909, and lowered towater in 1911. Then he was called differently - "Petropavlovsk." About three years were spent on the installation of weapons and equipment, after which the ship was transferred to the existing fleet. It was huge: the length was 181 m, the greatest width was 27 m, the depth of draft was 8.5 m.
The role of the Baltic sailors in world war wasnot very important, the main battle took place on land fronts. Russian ships were locked up in the Gulf of Finland mined by the Germans, their participation was limited to artillery strikes on the enemy.
Most sailors of the Baltic Fleet supported the arrivalto the power of the Bolsheviks, who conducted active propaganda among the personnel. However, in 1921, having understood the policies of the new government, the sailors raised a rebellion in Kronstadt, demanding the creation of advice without the Communists.
The insurgency was crushed, the rebels were shot. To erase unpleasant events for the Bolsheviks from memory, many ships were renamed, including Petropavlovsk.
The battleship Marat (this was the new name) inthe next two decades have been repeatedly upgraded. The basic design of the hull was powerful, its dimensions made it possible to install various weapon systems. The ship’s displacement, which amounted to 23,000 tons in 1914, was increased to almost 26,000, mainly due to the weighting of superstructures, the improvement of the propulsion and energy system (it became possible to use liquid fuel), the installation of artillery and air defense machine guns (in which the need appeared) . A lot was done to ensure that the battleship "Marat" was equipped with modern communications equipment, range finders and fire control devices.
Indicator of the power of any artillery ship -main caliber Back in tsarist times, the Obukhov Plant produced excellent tools for the fleet. Twelve 305-mm gun barrels were located in four artillery towers. The barrage of the battleship Marat could lead from sixteen 120-millimeter Vickers guns with a rate of fire of 7 rounds per minute each. True, their location on the middle deck caused criticism of the sailors, since their low position made it difficult to shoot during a wave, but, as subsequent events showed, this did not matter much.
By the beginning of the war, the USSR had three powerful artillery dreadnought, one of which was the battleship Marat.
The history of 1914 was repeated in the summer of 1941.The Baltic Fleet was blocked in the Gulf of Finland and was deprived of the possibility of reaching the operational space. The value of the ships in such a situation was determined by the ability to shoot far and accurately, they turned into floating artillery batteries, which, in general, was not bad either.
Having experienced long-range work"Twelve", the Germans quickly realized that something must be done to silence them. The real means for solving this problem could only be attack aircraft.
Hans-Ulrich Rudel was instructed to bombsoviet dreadnought. This chief-lieutenant of the Luftwaffe gained combat experience during the European campaigns, proving himself to be one of the most accurate pilots. Before him, many tried to hit the ship, first with 250-kilogram, then with semitone bombs, but only this pilot managed to get into the powder magazine.
A bomb weighing 1000 kg pierced the armored deck and caused the detonation of the ammunition. The whole nose broke off, more than 320 crew members were killed, including the ship’s commander, P.K.
Trying to save the battleship "Marat", personnelshowed courage and resourcefulness. The corps managed to be put on the ground with minimal roll and trim, which allowed, after carrying out rescue operations, to maintain the combat capability of the stern artillery towers, and then to fire from the second bow. In this position, the ship fought until the day of the breakthrough of the Leningrad blockade. In 1943, he again became the "Petropavlovsk". Apparently, the time of Danton-Robesperov is over ...
There was another renaming, in 1950 the battleship was called “Volkhov”. The ship was cut into metal in 1953, young sailors still had time to learn from it.
