With the PT-Boats: Knights of the Sea release approaching, Akela decided to dive into the history of Patrol Torpedo Boats. While the history of PT boats in the US and The British Empire may be widely known, they wanted to write a little about the great history of Russian torpedo boats.

Russian Torpedo Boats in Russo-Turkish War of 1877

Not many people know that in 1877 Russia commenced in earnest to build torpedo boats. Ordering as many as 100 during that year, while England had built just one, called the Lightning, which proving satisfactory, she ordered twelve others.

In the Russo-Turkish war of 1877, out of the nine cases of attacks by Russian torpedo boats, the Turks lost one ironclad and two steamers, while three ironclads were injured.

May 1877. It was one of the many wars between Russia and Turkey. Russian troops concentrated on the left bank of the Danube. Here they would gather to cross the deep and wide river. To prevent the crossing, the Turks would put their military fleet into the mouth of the Danube. By that time the Turkish fleet was a sizeable force. For operations on the Danube, Turkey outfitted a flotilla of 46 ships with 77 guns. Russia, at that time, had only an insignificant force in the Black Sea.

On the night of May 12th, Lieutenants Fyodor Dubasov and Alexander Shestakov sank the monitor Seifi using pole mines. Turkish observers on the monitor noticed some strange silhouettes very close to their ship, which were rapidly approaching. The turks just barely had enough time to fire their rifles when the side of the ship was rocked by a massive explosion, and the ironclad began to take on water and quickly quickly started sinking.

The Turkish commanders were overwhelmed by this event. They did not know who commanded these attacking ships, nor what they were armed with. In fact, these were just ordinary steam boats, which were armed with spar torpedoes made up of a charge of gun powder weighing up to 20 kilograms which were contained in a copper cylinder and attached to a long wooden pole.

Lieutenant Stepan Osipovich Makarov, who was very young and not yet well known, and was destined to become a famous admiral in the future, proposed to deliver the spar torpedo boats on the deck of a steamer that was specially converted for just such a purpose. This steamer, the "Grand Duke Constantine" suddenly appeared before the enemy at night on what was known as the Batumi raid, located in the area of Sukhumi near the mouth of the Danube. Frightened Turkish sailors were in constant fear of these attack boats leading to the restriction of Turkish navy operations.

Torpedo boats and their combat experience came under detailed study not only by Russians, but also in a number of foreign fleets. Representatives of the German Maritime Command made a special trip to the Black Sea with only one goal in mind, to see the "grand Duke Constantine" in person, so they could determine exactly what constitutes a steamer and its mine boats.

First Self-propelled Torpedo attack

In 1865, a Russian marine officer named Alexandrovskiy invented a self-propelled torpedo. The pilot tests exibited very good results. However, while imperial maritime command was slow to decide what to do with the invention, Alexandrovskiy's invention was intercepted abroad, and after some time, the self propelled torpedo, now known as the "Whitehead," appeared in England.

It was not until 1878 that the torpedos of the Whitehead design were installed onto the Russian boats.

On the night of January 14, 1878, two Russian boats entered the Batumi raid and attacked a Turkish patrol boat, releasing one self-propelled torpedoe each, causing the night air to echo with the sounds of the explosions. A guarding ship Pearl disappeared in the sea.

So, for the first time in naval history, a modern-style torpedo attack took place, launched by a new class of torpedo warships with their own tactics. The credit for creating these ships and the military tactics that went along with it, rightly belongs to that of the Russian military mariners.

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During the Second World War, the Soviet Navy met with the enemy face to face in the first days of the fighting.

In Arctics, the Germans had to recognize that the conduct of the war was fully dependent on marine communications. Due to the absence of railways in Northern Finland and Northern Norway, the only way in which the enemy could deliver weapons and food to such a remote theatre of war, was by sea.

Germans were mining and transporting nickel ore from Kirkenes to Petsamo. Therefore, fascist command was forced to bring into its operations a large number of transport vessels.

On a monthly basis, between the ports of Northern Finland and Northern Norway was an average of 25 convoys with a total of up to 150 transports and 300 warships.

The first fight ever held by a Soviet torpedo boat was held on July 13, 1941 with its convoy, which had 48 pennants. Several transport and motor barges, loaded with troops and equipment, became surrounded by a large escort of mine ships, patrol ships, and minesweepers. Four torpedo boats, commanded by Lieutenant Senior VP Gumanenko, launched an aggressive attack on the enemy vessels and succeeded in sinking two of the transports, and a torpedo Boat landing barge.

This battle, where small boats faced far more powerful ships, and in larger numbers, made it all too clear the offensive capabilities the torpedo boats had. It was a serious test of the crews combat training, as well as a test of tactical training for their commanders. And the Soviet navy passed this critical test with honor.

  G-5 Torpedo Boat

A distinctive feature of Soviet boats was their small size, and consequently, they had a small displacement and weak armor. But at the same time, they were able to develop high speed and good maneuverability. Basically this series of boats were the G-5 and Komsomolets. Based on these features, their methods of attack were developed. Observers could conclude that the Soviet boat actions could seem like madness at times, but they acted on the basis of the characteristics of their boats and on a correct assessment of enemy action.

 

Komsomolets Torpedo Boat. Photo: Wikipedia.org (article on PT-Boats in russian)

One night in 1943, fascist transports left from the port of Petsamo under the cover of six patrol vessels. To intercept the convoy, two torpedo boats, the TKA-13 and TKA-14 were dispatched. Despite the enemies superiority in numbers, outnumbering them three to one, the Soviet navy decided to attack.

However, neither the first attempt, nor the second lead to success: each time before firing, the boats had to stand as solid as a steal curtain. Meanwhile, both transports reversed their courses. Guard ships, surrounding the Soviet boats on one side, started to bomb them into a retreat back toward the shore, allowing no break into the sea.

The battle initiative started to move in favor of the enemy. TKA-13 committed a rapid maneuver: fired it's machine guns toward one of guard ships and hid itself in its own smoke screen. A few minutes later, the boat appeared from the smoke attacking other ship escorts and then again hid inside the smoke. Repeating this trick several times, TKA-13 then focused on the fascists. Under the cover of smokescreen, TKA-14 began to gain momentum and surprise its enemies, rapidly squeezing between the enemy guard ships. When the distance to transport dropped to two or three cables, the torpedo launches followed ...

The sudden attack of TKA-14, and the sinking transport all happened to be completely unexpected by the enemy, so the guard ships were unable to make any response in the next few minutes. Also, the captain of TKA-13 took advantage of this fact. Swifltly evaluating the situation, he broke into the fiord and attacked a second ship. All six ships guards blocked the exit from the fiord, and moved towards the boat.

The situation seemed hopeless, but the senior lieutenant found a solution. The only correct one possible in such a situation. He sent his boat toward the shore, where the enemy batteries were shooting from.

Under the hurricane of artillery fire and dense crumble shot splinters, TKA-13 burst out of the gulf. Changing it's course every minute, the captain was not giving the enemy gunners a chance to adjust their fire and find their range. At the same time, German guard ships feared entering into a hot military zone of their own batteries. Thus, the "thirteenth" had escaped from the fiord, surrounded by the fountains of tears from enemy shelling.

Below: Komsomolets torpedo boat model from PT-Boats: Knight of the Sea.