The Soviet Red Fleet: the first years

[TheOtherPoster]

And then it happened...

Coastal defence needs improving urgently. Particularly in the Baltic States, closer to Germany. But really, everywhere too.

By the way, exemplary actions inside the People’s Commissariat of Defence are having the right effect: our budget has risen to a more healthy 154,320 gold roubles: 11% rise in one year. I guess this compensates for 1920 and makes an average 5.9% rise per year.

And then it happened: the most reactionary elements in Germany decided that a war against us would be the best way to unite the country under their leadership and at the same time destroy the workers movements that are fighting for a socialist revolution in Germany.

[TheOtherPoster]

The good news is that after Versailles they are still some time away from becoming a great naval power again. They already have the money. But building a navy takes time.

Fighting Germany means that the Baltic Fleet, our main force is blockaded by coastal guns, mines, subs, destroyers and naval aviation. We cannot safely access the Atlantic. We will have to limit ourselves to fight them in the Baltic and use the few forces we have in the Atlantic against their merchant navy.

[TheOtherPoster]

And then by the spring of 1923 it was all over

The success in the naval war was never in doubt, although the war lasted a bit until the Red Army managed to overcome the German Reichswehr.

At sea, all quite unremarkable. The Reichsmarine, the German navy, kept avoiding fighting most of the time (well I don’t blame them: if the war at sea is already lost for them, avoiding fighting is the best way of keeping your fleet for the future. But it gave me VPs and by the time the war ended in the spring of 1923 we had 10 times more VPs than the Germans)

So the naval war was just a series of low key skirmishes. Hardly any loss. No the "splendid little war" we wanted.

Victory in war has somehow hidden the mistakes we made.
The painful true is that we weren’t ready when war came. We saw it coming but started too late to make preparations. I think we were lucky the war was not against the US, or even France. For example most of the fleet was still working up when war broke out. And the special training on gunnery and damage control we had set up didn’t have any effect until half way through the war. We need to make sure these things don’t happen again and we have all our ships and men ready from day one. This time I’ve avoided the attention of the Politburo. But I may not be so lucky next time.

[TheOtherPoster]

MANAGING THE FLEET 1922-23

Even during the war other things were happening.
Research and events:
In March 1922 we successfully researched torpedo tubes on all ships.

In June 1922 Docks were completed. We can now build ships up to 35,500tm. A new dockyard expansion was ordered.

And by September 1923 we had developed the ability to build 2000t DDs

Building:
One of the good things about this war was that it raised our budget a few times. So even after the budget cut once the war was over, we still get
269,820 gold roubles per year. And so we have decided to get the second BB Sovietsky Soyuz building. In August 1923 we also ordered 2 new CL from the US.

Americans are so much advanced! Our naval engineers have not even yet figured out how to install twin turrets in slim fast light cruisers. Once delivered the ships will be carefully examined and hopefully will help us to advance our naval research.

Also we are building another 5x1500t DDs (15 in total). On the other hand, our 900 and 600 DDs, from 1912, were already old and needed a big refit, including new engines. So we got the opportunity to give them minesweeping capability. We hope they can be used in secondary tasks like minesweeping and to increase the number of ships on TP
Very important, we have started to reinforce our coastal defences. We scrapped the weak 4” guns and we added a whole series of new batteries from 6” to 12” and also MTBs.
Our submarine fleet also badly needs expanding: for now we are ordering: 2 long range subs (alongside the other 2 already ordered), 4 minelaying subs and 8 medium submarines.

We've started to decommission the old 4800t CL from 1911. We think the new CL designs are so much better that it’s not point trying to update these old designs: they will be sunk any time they encounter an enemy. We will save on maintenance and that will help to fund the new CLs.

[TheOtherPoster]

1924
The 1920-24 Five-Year program of Naval Construction is going too slowly on regards of the new battleships and cruisers.

5 Year Naval Plan, 1920-24:
To maximise technology research, as explained above.                       √
To improve skills and training of officers and crews.   √
To expand naval base in Northern Europe    √
To build airbases in Northern Europe and Far East   √
To increase docks size for future shipbuilding   √
To commission into the navy all ships now in construction.  √
To modernize 1st BC Sq. (Voroshilov Class)       X
To build a 2nd BB Sq. to complement 1st BB Sq. Svobodnaya Rossiya X
To convert a CA into CVL and add it to the fleet. √
To increase the submarine fleet, adding minelaying and long range subs√
If possible, to increase light forces and coastal defences   √
To modernize those old units we judge can still serve for a few more years

BB Sovietzky Soyuz will just miss the deadline and will be handed to the Red Fleet in early 1925. But BB Parizhskaya Kommuna will still be in the docks for another year until spring 1926. Also, due to lack of funds we haven’t yet been able to order the modernisation of the battlecruisers either. Likewise, the light cruisers ordered in the US will not enter service until 1925.
It looks now that he First Five-Year Program was a bit overambitious, particularly on view of the funds allocated to the Navy during the first 2 years.

On the other hand, submarine and coastal defence construction is going according to plan. During this year we will finish construction of 14 submarines and all coastal guns and MTBs planned.


Events and research 1924
Two important research breakthroughs in March 1924: we developed all-forward main armament to save weight and cost and also catapults for all ships.

And in April the effects of the New Economic Policy showed an increase in the economic output of the Soviet Union.

[TheOtherPoster]

As foreseen by Lenin, the capitalist states will cut individual freedoms and start moving towards more extreme political regimes to better fight the working class and communist revolution: in May a fascist coup took place in Japan.

At last works on our new airbase in the Baltic States have been completed in May too. Libau airbase, closer to the German border, is now operational.

In June the Philadelphia shipyard William Cramp & Sons came forward and offered to build for us a third Komsomolets cruiser in 20 months with a 10% discount. We quickly agreed. We actually need more cruisers.


New docks were completed in June. We can build now ships up to 38500t displacement.

Naval Staff ordered a draft design for a future battleship that would take advantage of the recent achievements of the soviet republic: all-forward main guns and 38500t yards:

Still, nothing has been decided yet. Our scientist are working hard and close to a breakthrough on a better TP system (at the moment still level 2). We will take a decision in the new year.

In October the brave Finnish comrades, helped by our GPU agents, raised against their oppressor capitalist state and called for help. Finland is now under our protection and has become a new Soviet Socialist Republic inside our union.

In December, responding to the events in Finland, France and Britain signed a military alliance. That’s not good at all: now Britain is allied both with France and the US. A war against any of those countries could bring them all three against us and be disastrous for the Revolution.

[TheOtherPoster]

THE SITUATION IN JANUARY 1925

The Fleet

Building

[TheOtherPoster]

Coastal guns and airbases

Checking up the navied or the capitslist states. Still too powerful. The next war will be much more difficult.
France has invested a lot on aircraft and we start to lag behind. We should start increasing our naval air forces too.

[TheOtherPoster]

BATTLECRUISERS

I have ordered a study on how to better modernise our old battlecruisers: 2 Voroshilov class commissioned in 1913, 20,800t, 9x12” guns, 28 knots but only 8” protection. We are using them as heavy scouts for the fleet and they still can take on any enemy CA.

If we rebuild them in Germany we could upgrade them with better 12” (1) guns. Of course that will take time so we would also use that time to make bigger upgrades: install a new engine (oil+turbine), bulges, and additional armour deck. Also better AAA. Increasing their speed to 31 knots means that actual speed with bulges would still be 28 knots. All in all, a good but expensive rebuild: 78,000 gold roubles. For comparison, the new design we looked at earlier (9x16” almost twice their displacement and much better protected) had an estimated cost of 151,000 gold roubles.
Another option was to replace the triple turrets with 6x16” guns in twin turrets. In this case speed would be reduced to 29 knots (but because of the use of bulges actual speed would be just 26 knots). This option would cost 49,000 gold roubles. More powerful and cheaper but a bit too slow (we don’t have enough free weight to install more powerful engines).

The third option was just a minor 3 month refit: better fire control and AAA. Only 6,500 gold roubles. One thing on favour of this latter option is that the original engines were strongly built to improve reliability, what seems to pay now: after more than 10 years in service, the ships are still able to keep their original 28 knots max speed. But for how long, nobody knows.

[TheOtherPoster]

Second Five-Year Naval Plan

The Red Fleet is slowly taking shape as we intend it.
The Second Five-Year Naval Plan 1925-29 is much simpler and straight forward than the first one:

I). We will continue with our aim to build a strong battleship force. The next target is to achieve a force of 6 battleships:
2 Svobodnaya Rossiya, 28,700t, 10x14”
2 Sovietsky Soyuz, 32,500t, 8x16” (now building)
And the new 2 battleships now being designed: about 38000t, 9x16”
We also need to decide if we’ll rebuild or just give a quick refit to our 2 old Voroshilov battlecruisers (20,800t, 9x12”)
II). We will also need to build more cruisers, fleet destroyers and submarines.
III). Aircraft have greatly improved since 1920 and they will carry on getting better and more effective. We will increase our airbases and aircraft and also build a new carrier.
IV). We will add some coastal defences to protect newly acquired Finland.

[TheOtherPoster]

YEAR 1925

I have ordered the Naval Research Bureau to focus on turrets and gun mountings. It’s very disappointing that we cannot install twin gun turrets in our home built light cruisers yet.

We have ordered the new generation of fast battleships, the Novorossiysk class: 38500t, all-forward main guns, 9x16” guns, 12” belt, 4.5” deck, 13” turrets, 27 knots. Still there’ll be a couple of months before actually starting the construction of these ships while the engineers finish the blueprints and the yards make the required preparations.

Still TPS level 2. There were some calls to build them overseas to get TPS level 3 but the Politburo decreed that we should look after the Soviet workers in the dockyards first, so they will be built domestically. We discussed with High Command to maybe delay them to see if our scientist develop a better TPS but given the dangerous political situation (Britain, the US and France sort of allied) we decided to proceed and order their construction at once. We cannot trust capitalist regimes. For sure they will attack us if they see the opportunity. Only the working class in those countries is stopping them from an aggression against the Soviet Union.

Regarding the battlecruisers, we’ve decided to give them just a 3-month refit. A major reconstruction would be far much more expensive (easily half the cost of a new battlecruiser) and it would not make a ship equal to the latest designs. If we were limited to our ships by a naval treaty then yes, it would make more sense. But we are not and remain free to build new battlecruisers in the future. To this, during the discussions, Admiral Poplavsky warned that there’s some talk from leading capitalist nations to establish a worldwide naval limitations treaty in the near future. That could endanger any capital ship still building. We should try to speed up, not only the battleships but also new battlecruisers. It’s a fair point but we will have to use our funds on other things now and risk it. The battlecruisers will have to wait.

The next project is a new aircraft carrier. We will build a 16,000 carrier to take over the experimental Kalinin (converted from a cruiser, 17 a/c, 25 knots). The new ship, already named Kazan, will be able to carry 34 a/c and have a speed of 30 knots.

We are building also a medium coastal battery for Finland and a new naval base there that will give us a better control over the Gulf of Finland.

[TheOtherPoster]

Research and events

With tensions high, in February we tried to forge an alliance with the US but it didn’t work.

In March at last our first BB Sovietsky Soyuz class (32500t, 8x16”) was finally handed over to the Red Fleet by the builder.


The political situation is getting worse and worse. Capitalist powers keep building alliances that are very dangerous for the survival of the Soviet Union and the Revolution. In March Italy and Germany signed an alliance.

7 tension level with the British Empire (allied to France and the US) and also with Germany (allied to Italy).

[TheOtherPoster]

By May, tensions had eased a bit and we finished the airbase in Hango (Finland)

In July we’ve decided it was time to increase our land based air force: 3 airbases will be expanded to accept up to 40 aircraft each: Nachodka in the Far East, Hango in the Gulf of Finland and Libau near the German border.

In October 1925 there was a nationalist revolt in Dalmatia against the imminent Italian Invasion. We tried to intervene in favour of the communist party there (and also because getting a base in the Mediterranean would be very useful) but nothing came out of it, other than higher tensions with Italy.

Our engineers’ greater focus on turrets this year (and a careful look at the cruisers we bought in America) has allowed to get an important breakthrough and in October the Naval Design Bureau announced that they were able to design light cruisers with triple turrets. We must take advantage of this at once to increase our cruiser force.


As expected, the new Slava class is heavily indebted to the Komsomolets class we ordered from America, but with 3 triple turrets instead of 4 twin.

Designing the light carrier Kazan has helped our naval engineers and by November they declared they were capable of designing and building large carriers too. As we are just starting building CVL Kazan, larger carriers will have to wait.

[TheOtherPoster]

YEAR 1926

The Fleet

Mostly in the Baltic. We should start thinking of building up our forces in the Far East, including some submarines, although at the moment there are no tensions with China or Japan. 

Coastal Defence

I think we have a good system of coastal guns protecting our coasts. It could be improved, though, when we have time and money.
We have completed the expansion of some of our airfields and we are also improving our docks.

[TheOtherPoster]

Building

We have ordered a quick 3-month refit for our battlecruisers (new fire control, increased elevation for main guns, 4” AA battery and a couple of scout seaplanes and a catapult). A bigger rebuild with new guns and engines would take and cost easily half as much as a new modern one but it'd be much inferior.
We are planning to split our fleet in two: our main striking force made up with our newest and more powerful ships and a reserve one with the older ones. After refit, we will assign these battlecruisers to the reserve squadron.
That means that we need new more modern battlecruisers to act as heavy scouts and support our main battle force.

We have set on 6x16” guns in 3 twin turrets, 30 knots and protection closer to a battleship.

The fine lines of the battlecruiser pleased newly elected Secretary General comrade Josef Stalin very much and Chief engineer Bulgakov received the Order of Lenin for it.

As previous designs, these ships have a secondary battery of medium guns in twin turrets. We still have not mastered DP 5”(even less in twin turrets) and as our naval engineers have recognised, that’s still years away. In this design the secondary battery is made up of powerful 6” guns in twin turrets. AAA is made up of a few 4” pieces and other of smaller calibre. Some officers insist that the AAA should be twice or three times more powerful. But foreign designs have even weaker AAA and aircraft are not yet that dangerous. Still, in a future rebuild in the 1930s we may delete the 6” battery and give them instead 5” DP, if they have been developed by then.

Slava-class, the new CL design has been delayed by political interference. The Party wanted to have a look at the design before approving the funds. As if they had a clue what they were looking at! These apparatchick from the Party seem to measure their own self-importance by how good they are at slowing down and complicating anything to others. The aims and hopes of the Revolution seem fading already. As the latest slogan goes: “The revolution is over. Now is time to consolidate the Socialist State”. I guess they mean more useless bureaucrats by that. Anyway, let's hope they return the blueprints next month and we will be able to order 2 or 3 of them.

We still have 4 old (from 1912) CL of the Krashnyy Krim class in service. 15 years is a reasonable age to decommission light cruisers, although we are thinking to give them a cheap quick 3-month refit and keep them for secondary tasks like trade protection for a few more years.