Post subject: Soviet hospital ships - "Abkhazia" type
Tiornu!
Thank you very much for the references.
I hope I will find some info about Soviet transport ships of WWII with your help! That is really quite hard – to find it.
I also would like to note that because we discuss the topic about Soviet civil ships, were mobilized during the war, many people lives should be remembered – the thousands lives of Soviet infantry and marine infantry soldiers, landed from unadapted to landing operations liners and bottoms under the strongest fire; the lives of thousands civilians and wounded men, as well as lives of medical staff, were evacuated by hospital ships under German bombs; the lives of unknown political prisoners, were transported in holds of cargo ships to Far-eastern ports and the lives of many Soviet civilian sailors, served on cargo ships and tankers, which made dangerous transport navigations separately or in convoys during the war! Also the lives of British, American, Polish and other sailors, served on transport ships and delivered the military cargos in convoys to North Russia during the war should be remembered!
During the last weekend I found in my sources the information about Soviet mail-freight-passenger ships of “Abkhazia” type (displacement 5770 t; carrying capacity 1100 t freight + 522-980 passengers; crew 76 men; length 112,1 m; 2 x 2000 hp diesels; speed 14,5 knots).
Those ships were built by Soviet Baltic Shipyard in Leningrad (“Abkhazia”, “Adzharia”, “Armenia”, “Ukraina”) and Deutsche Werft in Hamburg (“Gruzia”, “Krym”) in 1926-1931. The Soviet project was very successful, so Deutsche Werft built two additional identical passenger ships for Spain (“Canarias” and “Balearis”). Also two quite similar, but smaller ships were built in USSR for Caspian Sea (“Daghestan”, “Turkmenistan”).
All six comfortable liners (the best Soviet passenger ships of 1930s) were used on Black Sea (Crimea-Caucasus resort route: Odessa-Batumi) and on Mediterranean Sea before WWII, but in first days of the war they were mobilized, equipped as military transports and armed with AA guns and machine-guns. They participated in heroic evacuation of Soviet Seaside Army from Odessa under heavy bombing as the military transports of Black Sea Navy, carrying cargos, wounded men and civilians.
“Adzharia” (military transport ship of Black Sea Navy since June 1941) was sunk on 23 July 1941 at Odessa port during the unloading by German bombers (2 attacks) despite the flood control by its crew and the help of two rescue vessels. 4 men were killed. During the next 10 days Soviet divers could raise almost all military cargos. The ship was raised after WWII, probably.
“Armenia” was the main hospital ship of Black Sea Navy during WWII, having 119 men of medical staff in addition to the regular crew. It made near 15 runs and evacuated more than 15000 people. “Armenia” was sunk on 6 November 1941 near Aj-Todor cape (depth 450 m). Approximately 7000 wounded men, civilians and almost all evacuated medical staff of Black Sea Navy were killed during the bombing of “Armenia” by German bombers – that was the largest catastrophe on Black Sea , only 8 men survived. That was a very mysterious catastrophe – despite the fact that there were several another hospital ships in the port, the captain of “Armenia” received the order to take all medical staff (!) from the hospitals of enclosed Sevastopol, also many officials from the evacuated organizations in addition to thousands wounded men. Destroyer and many patrol ships should escort the overladen “Armenia” for good AA defense, but at the last moment the captain of “Armenia” received the order to start on its last journey only with two small patrol boats………………….
“Gruzia” (hospital ship) was sunk on 13 June 1942 near Sevastopol, carrying 1300 t of ammunition and 4000 soldiers. At first it was heavily damaged by German bombers, but could reach Sevastopol with the help of escorting destroyer. Near the harbor it was attacked again and was sunk after 2 hits of bombs and ammunition detonation. The majority of the crew and infantry soldiers were killed. When it was raised in 1949, the rescuers found many gas (yperite) shells and bombs in the stern hold, evacuated in 1942 from the naval depots. So the dangerous ship was sunk again. In 1956 the Soviet divers tried to raise the “Gruzia” ones more and to utilize all chemical weapon, but the heavily damaged ship broke in two parts during the raising. So many gas ammunition still located at the Black Sea floor.
“Ukraina” (hospital ship during the WWII) was sunk together with several other civil ships and warships on 2 July 1942 during the massive attack of 54 Ju-88 of Novorossiysk port. It was raised in 1947 and utilized in 1950.
“Krym” transported the soldiers of Soviet 157th infantry division to Odessa during the landing operation in 1941. It was heavily damaged by bombs and torpedoes in July 1942 and was towed to Batumi. “Krym” was repaired after WWII and used as passenger ship on Black Sea and Odessa-Beirut Middle East route, since 1970 it was used as floating hotel.
“Abkhazia” as the navy hospital ship made near 35 dangerous and desperate runs (transported 32355 wounded men, 9500 were operated on board + 65000 civilians), despite the daily pursuits of German bombers. German pilots nicknamed “Abkhazia” as “difficult to catch ship”. It was sunk by 9 direct hits of heavy bombs from Ju-87s on 10 June 1942 at Sevastopol berth during the loading.
The similar liner “Daghestan” was used as military transport ships together with another 18-20 ships on Caspian Sea during the Soviet landing operation of 105th mountain infantry regiment with 563th artillery division (first Soviet big landing operation in WWII) to Iranian port Hevi on 25 August 1941. “Turkmenistan” was used as military transport ship (transporting soldiers, ammunition, tanks and Lend-Lease cargos from Iran) on Caspian Sea during the whole WWII.
I found also the info that German bombers also attacked the hospital ships “Chekhov”, “Kotovskij”, “Dnepr”, “Lvov” on Black Sea in 1941. “Dnepr” (12589 t) was sunk by one of six air torpedoes on 3 October 1941 (“Abkhazia” could avoid the same attack at that moment), 40 men were killed, 163 survived.
“Lvov” (2468 t, 76x11.1 m, two diesels 1500 hp total, 12.5 knots, 4650 miles range, 108 men crew, previous Spanish ship, was built in 1933) avoided 900 attacks of German bombers (730 bombs + 26 torpedoes !) and destroyed several of them with its 7 light AA guns and several MGs during the dangerous 125 raids in 1941-1944. "Lvov" was the single Soviet mobilized civil ship, decorated with Red Banner Order during the WWII. It is used until now as the base ship of yacht-club.
The picture of hospital ship "Lvov" (during combat with German bombers):
http://shipandship.chat.ru/foto/k/102.jpg
When the Soviet sailors realized that large red crosses on white sides and deck of hospital ships mean nothing for the German pilots , all ships were repainted to masking colors.
Photos of the cargo-passenger ships of “Abkhazia” type:
http://www.bz.ru/images/shukrain.jpg (“Ukraina” before WWII)
http://www.bz.ru/images/shabhaz.jpg (“Abkhazia” before WWII)
http://www.artabkhazia.info/foto_notes/ ... /ship8.jpg (liner "Abkhazia" in 1930s)
http://www.artabkhazia.info/foto_notes/ ... /ship9.jpg ("Abkhazia" at Sukhumi port)
http://www.bz.ru/images/sharmen.jpg (“Armenia” during the launching)
http://www.riverstar.ru/albums/album15/ ... .sized.jpg (“Armenia” before WWII)
schlesieni kohta kirjutab ta viimases flotomasteris (2/2006), see peaks tallinnas kättesaadav olema ?
