The question that I will try to consider here is inspired by the previous article ("On the role of the Soviet Navy in the Great Patriotic War").
Yes, the answer to the question "And if" lies in the realm of fantasy, and often not even scientific. Nevertheless, it makes sense to consider the Red Army and the Kriegsmarine Navy in a hypothetical confrontation. Moreover, this could easily have been the case.
And that's where we'll start. And indeed, where could the German and Soviet ships compete?
First of all, in the Baltic. Moreover, the ships of both countries took part in the battles in the Baltic as floating batteries. Let me remind you that the Second World War began precisely with the shots of the "Schleswig-Holstein", the battleship that still served in Kaiser's Germany, at the Poles. And he ended the war with shots at the advancing Soviet troops "Prince Eugen".
Of course, ours responded in kind, regularly sending "greetings" (including those of German production) to the soldiers of the Wehrmacht when the war reached us.
However, this was done sporadically. Ours - around and near Leningrad, the Germans - in East Prussia and further to the west.
Why - the answer is known. The Baltic Sea, in particular, the Gulf of Finland, was not in vain then called "soup with dumplings". It was mined by ours, Germans, Finns, moreover, part of the barriers remained from pre-war times, and part was "fresh". Plus, the Germans also added networked submarine barriers.
On the whole, the mine blocking operation of the Baltic Fleet was very successful. That only confirmed the losses on mines at the BF in the early days of the war. Despite the fact that the Germans were laying mines without hiding.
And everyone was happy with everything. The Germans and Swedes dragged iron ore across the sea to meet the needs of the Reich, the Finns waged their strange war, ours sat in Kronstadt and waited for the Luftwaffe to raid.
If suddenly our admirals decided to cut off the oxygen (more precisely, iron) to the Germans, for this it was necessary to really try and wipe the barriers so that both surface and submarine ships could be brought into the operational space.
And it was real. Remove the Porkkala-Udda barrier - and it would be possible to do things in the Baltic pool in full.
At the beginning of the war, the Baltic Fleet had 24 minesweepers. In general, enough for clearance.
But the minesweepers would need cover, both ship and air. For this, BF had everything. Both ships and planes.
In terms of composition: 2 battleships, 2 light cruisers, 2 leaders of destroyers, 19 destroyers (12 "sevens" and 7 "Noviks"), 68 submarines and 95 boats.
In addition, the aviation of the fleet was also quite confident in such an education. 725 aircraft, 188 torpedo bombers and bombers, 386 fighters and 151 seaplanes.
This is power? This is power. Especially if you imagine how to hit her. In our case, the fleet was not a fleet, but a squadron to accelerate shipping on the route "Sweden - Germany" was easily recruited. And then the Germans would have had to react in full.
And what could the Nazis expose?
In numbers, everything is very confident. We immediately remove the drowned, that is, "Bismarck", "Blucher", "Admiral Count Spee", "Karlsruhe" and "Konigsberg", because at the time of 1941-22-06 they were successfully rusted in some places, but below the level of the World Ocean.
But what was left would be enough to try to interfere.
3 battleships, 4 heavy cruisers, 4 light cruisers, 2 battleships, 19 destroyers, 57 submarines.
All aviation (except for seaplanes) was under the jurisdiction of Goering. Herman could have been generous, or he might not have given as many aircraft as it would have taken to counter the BF aviation. Politics…
As you can see, in numbers the Kriegsmarines seem to look cooler, but … This is the ENTIRE composition of the German fleet!
Yes, of course, the German Navy looks more impressive in numbers than the Baltic Fleet. And it is clear that the German battleships were head and shoulders above the ancient "Sevastopoli" BF. Alas, but "Marat" and "October Revolution" were only old battleships of pre-war construction.
Only the war was World War I, not World War II. That is, in fact, these were nothing more than floating batteries (and Rudel and the company also retrained the Marat as non-self-propelled), with scanty air defense, of course, without a radar.
Plus, the 305-mm guns of the Russian battleships fired 7 km closer than the 380-mm guns of the Tirpitz and 283-mm guns of the Scharnhorst.
Speed, armor, radars, firing range - everything is on the side of the Germans and there is no prospect?
Move on.
We did not have heavy cruisers at all, the Germans had 4 light cruisers against 2, but here the question is who was worse: our projects 26 or the German "Cologne", "Leipzig" and "Nuremberg". I will immediately move the Emden aside; this old trough could only be considered a cruiser.
And here I would definitely bet on our "Kirov" and "Gorky", since they were armed more powerful than the Germans, and on occasion the alignment could be sad for the German cruisers.
Alas, the advantage in the form of "Hipper", "Scheer", "Eugen" and "Deutschland" has not been canceled.
The destroyers are equally divided, the German "1936" had some advantage, but not critical.
Submarines - wow, these are the forces on the side of the BF.
The whole problem with the Kriegsmarine is that the Germans fought on three fronts at once. It was necessary to fiddle with the British, and this is basically a disruption in the supply of the metropolis with colonies and an ally of the United States. Both in the Atlantic and elsewhere. Then the North was added in full.
As a result, what could the Germans put up in the Baltic? Especially considering that the BF had more submarines at the start of the countdown than all the Kriegsmarines? Yes, the Germans built more than a thousand boats during the war, but that was all after. And the boats were supposed to sink ships that carried everything to the British, from steel to meat.
And now, little by little, a picture is drawn of what could have been, but what did not happen.
Instead of self-isolation in Kronstadt, the Baltic Fleet goes to mine obstacles, especially since many mines have already been found during the Tallinn campaign.
The minesweepers begin their work under the cover of destroyers, cruisers and battleships loom in the distance. Just in case, because everything that the Germans can quickly transfer from Polish ports is the old Schlesien and Schleswig-Goldstein troughs in Polish ports. Which are quite the same age as "Oktyabrina" and "Marat" (the latter is still on the move, as it were), which means that 8 x 280 mm versus 24 x 305 mm do not look very good. And the German 150-mm guns of cruisers and battleships are not a very big counterweight to the 180-mm and 130-mm guns of Soviet ships.
Of course, if such a real threat as demining with the subsequent release of ALL submarines of the Baltic Fleet to hunt for ore carriers was discovered, the Germans would have stirred like turpentine. It's clear.
Another question is that hunting for such an underwater squadron is not the greatest pleasure. Too many ships would have to be sent to guard ore carriers, to form convoys, and so on. That is, to do everything that the Allies did for the Soviet Union.
Yes, a well-protected convoy is a tough nut to crack. Proved, by the way, by the same Scharnhorst, whose commander was very zealous about the idea of smashing the JW-55 convoy to pieces. But the British navy could afford such things as escorting the convoy with a battleship and three cruisers, which broke off the Scharnhorst's horns until she was completely destroyed.
Could the Germans afford this?
Purely theoretically. Without our own aviation in sufficient quantities, without having any advantages over the enemy, and, as you can see, there were none, moreover, one should not forget about the war on at least two fronts.
Hence, the convoys are not a German business. Accordingly, it would be necessary to destroy the problem in the bud, that is, to arrange Moonzund the other way around. Gather a squadron and try to stop demining.
And here Her Majesty Aviation enters the scene.
The artillery duels of the First World War are, of course, fascinating and beautiful in their grandeur.
The Second World War took place in a completely different scenario. The Battle of Narvik is rather an exception, as is the Battle of Savo Island between the Japanese and the Americans, which are united by the fact that they took place without the participation of aviation. As well as the mockery of "Scharnhorst" and "Gneisenau" of "Glories". Normal exceptions, but exceptions.
In our case, when both sides had plenty of airfields and aircraft, the only question was in the capricious Baltic weather, which could really land both our aces and the Germans.
Figures for the BF aviation are there, what was the Luftwaffe on the Eastern Front?
German aviation on the Eastern Front was represented by the 2nd Air Fleet, consisting of 954 bombers (Ju.88 - 520, He111 - 304, Do.17 - 130), 312 Ju.87 dive bombers. Fighter aircraft - 920 Bf 109 of all modifications and 90 Bf 110, that is, 1100 units.
Yes, our sailors have everything more modest, 725 planes (188 torpedo bombers and bombers, 386 fighters and 151 seaplanes). But who said that ground aviation could not be involved? It was quite possible to use, yes, the land pilots did not have such experience of flying over the sea, but who said that all the Germans were docked in this?
And then, the figure for the Germans is almost ALL Luftwaffe aviation on the Eastern Front. Yes, it was possible to add 5 of the air fleet from Norway, and there was also the 1st air fleet in the north, small in composition, which was logically transferred later to the command of "Courland". Three squadrons on Ju.88 and one on Bf.109F (Green Hearts, JG54). That is, about 300-400 more bombers and 120 fighters.
In turn, the Air Force of the Leningrad Military District from the number of air divisions located near the region, for example, 39 IAD (Pushkin), 54 IAD (Levashovo), 41 BAA (Gatchina), 2 SAD (Staraya Russa), numbering another 848 fighters and 376 bombers, it was possible to allocate something to help the fleet.
And an air battle could well have occurred, not inferior in intensity and massiveness to air battles in the Kuban in 1943. And it is not a fact that success would have been on the side of the Germans, the difference in numbers was clearly in favor of the Red Army Air Force. The only question was management and command.
That is, in the event of flying weather, the side which aircraft would have acted more efficiently actually won.
The Germans, from my point of view, were masters of creating superiority in a separate sector of the front with aviation. And they made a very beautiful transfer. The variant of such a transfer is quite possible in our case, but all this would be at the expense of other sectors of the front. That is, to our advantage.
But nevertheless, creating a grouping of aircraft to cover a large squadron is troublesome. The more ships, the more targets. And don't say that there are more anti-aircraft artillery barrels, the Prince of Wales and Repulse also thought so, but that's how it came out …
Another issue is that the quality of the Red Army's mine and torpedo aviation was highly questionable. In fact, there was no practice, the war showed that our torpedo bombers, to be honest, are very far from ideal. By ideal, I mean pilots capable of hitting a ship with a torpedo.
Yes, throughout the war our pilots tried to hit some steamers with torpedoes of very modest displacement. As if there were no other goals, there is nothing to be done about it. Nevertheless, it would certainly not have been necessary to count on successful torpedo attacks at the beginning of the war.
On the other hand, Soviet fighter aircraft, with proper control, could well repulse the Luftwaffe and protect the airspace from German bombers. Accordingly, to enable the BF ships to complete the demining task.
So, we have two factors that can neutralize the work of the Luftwaffe. This is the most capricious Baltic weather and our own aviation. Both factors are quite myself, I personally have the highest opinion of both. And the weather could be selected for the operation with the highest level of abomination, and the aviation could work pretty well. In theory.
But there is also a nuance here.
Well, rain, fog, low clouds, the Luftwaffe and ours are sitting at the airfields, the ships go out for mine clearance, the Germans have no choice but to crawl out too.
And here such a nuisance is drawn. Yes, the absence of the Luftwaffe is good. Especially in 1941. But there is also a more unpleasant absence. I'm talking about radar on Soviet ships.
Okay, if the ancient Germanic battleships converge with the no less ancient Soviet dreadnoughts. It will be peculiar, but not very fatal. Throwing suitcases "to whom God will send" in the fog and that's it. They fought, covered, resisted.
What if Scharnhorst and Gneisenau? Admiral Scheer? I simply don’t believe in "Tirpitz" in the Baltic, it’s narrow, too small, and then, should someone scare the British on the other side? But also three named gentlemen above the roof, to spoil the mood, because with radars on them there is complete order.
That is, in the conditions of disgusting weather, the Germans will shoot at radars, fortunately, they have already learned, but we … And we will shoot at the level of the First World War, that is, by visual detection.
Here's the script turned out to be very so-so. Good weather is bad, for the Luftwaffe can do things. Bad weather is also not very good, because there are more heavy ships on the side of the Germans, and these ships are better equipped technically.
The long firing range of the German 380-mm and 283-mm guns generally puts the whole venture in jeopardy. And even more so with radars. 7 kilometers difference is a lot.
Of course, it is difficult to guess on the coffee grounds how the German command would react to such an operation. As well as fantasizing about how real such an operation would be.
In fact, the Baltic Fleet was completely isolated at its base in Leningrad and in fact only submarines and boats participated in the war. By the way, the losses of submarines in the Baltic were significant: 27 out of 68. This is a lot, considering that most of the submarines were killed by mines.
Could you carry out an operation to release the fleet? Can. Could she be successful? I could. But only with good elaboration and command. Could the Germans organize a strike detachment of ships and disrupt the operation? They could. But only if the intelligence knew everything in advance.
The fact is that from the main naval base of the German fleet Wilhelmshaven to the site of this hypothetical operation about 2,000 kilometers. Through the Danish straits, where you can't really accelerate.
And here there is such a consideration that the Germans could not have time to start the operation or even come to its end. 2,000 km - cruising for almost three days. And to go cruising, since fuel will be needed for maneuvering and combat, and somehow you should not be distracted for refueling, because the enemy will not wait.
It is clear that reconnaissance flights have not been canceled, nor have the Finns. And the exit of a large detachment of ships would hardly have gone unnoticed. But what could be opposed to him, besides aviation?
It turns out that nothing special. It is clear that the German fleet did not stand all in Wilhelmshaven with full tanks and cellars and did not wait for the command to go east. Some ships are on campaigns, some are under repair, and so on. It is difficult to say how many and whom could be disrupted by alarm, although, having shoveled a bunch of documents, it could be calculated.
But the ships must be prepared, they are not cavalry after all. And three days on the road. And it would be quite possible to sail in the literal sense of the word to a nodding analysis. And see the Soviet ships leaving back. And just imagine in terrible dreams submarines and surface ships creeping across the entire Baltic Sea, which now would have to be caught and drowned by all possible methods.
It could have turned out to be a very interesting scenario. But history was completely different, and the Baltic Fleet remained passively from 1941 to 1944 at the berths. Alas.
For my part, I perfectly understand the Soviet admirals. The events of that war showed the degree of absolute unpreparedness of the command of the Baltic Fleet, in particular, since we are talking about it.
The passage along completely undiscovered routes during the evacuation of the fleet from Tallinn, accompanied by huge losses, fear of a mine threat and fear of the Luftwaffe did their job: the fleet was blocked by the admirals themselves, and for three years not a single attempt was made to somehow change the situation.
It would be possible to carry out an operation to block the ore carriers in the Gulf of Bothnia, but … History does not know the subjunctive moods, because the Baltic Fleet stood idle throughout the war, and German and Swedish ore carriers regularly carried the finest and richest ore from the Kirunavara deposits to Germany.
Although the scenario could take place in real life. But this is already a question for the command of the fleet.
