In response to Stalin's proposal to divide the remnants of the German fleet, Churchill made a counter-proposal: "Flood." To which Stalin objected: "Here you drown your half."
Such a legend in its various interpretations is associated with the division of the fleets of the Axis countries.
With the end of the war, a real "trophy hunt" broke out, in which the Soviet side sought to get the maximum of the surviving ships.
Yesterday's allies began the partition with different intentions. For Great Britain and the United States, the German fleet, with the exception of individual samples of submarines, could not be of value. Following Stalin's advice, the Anglo-Saxons immediately used some of the trophies received as targets, the rest were scrapped.
A furious hunt for the remnants of the Kriegsmarine was conducted with the sole purpose of reducing the share of the USSR, as far as possible preventing the most efficient ships from falling into its hands.
In my personal opinion, the Yankees and the British should have been given such an opportunity. Refuse to receive warships in favor of trophies from the German merchant fleet.
There would be more benefits for the country.
Kriegsmarine vs. Regia Marina. Whose ships are worse?
German light cruiser "Nuremberg", Italian battleship of the First World War and another light cruiser "Duke D'Aosta" from the Italian Navy.
Under the terms of the division of the fleets of the defeated countries of the Navy, the USSR received two dozen destroyers, submarines and about a hundred more low-rank units (mainly boats and minesweepers).
Could these vessels really increase the combat potential of the USSR Navy? Or helped open access to the "high technology of the Aryan race"?
What increase in combat capability could there be at all?
Even in their best years, “Nuremberg” and “Cesare” were not considered masterpieces. The war did not add to their beauty, on the contrary, it patted them properly.
By the end of the 1940s. the combat value of the "stubs" was small, and the costs of their restoration (based on the amount of work) were colossal. Does anyone really think that the Nazis handed over ships in good condition?
General ship systems were in poor condition: pipelines, fittings, service mechanisms. Emergency diesel generators did not work. Intra-ship communications, radio communications were almost absent. There were no radars and anti-aircraft artillery at all.
The living conditions of the crew did not correspond to either the climatic features of the Black Sea region, or the organization of the Soviet fleet service. While staying at the base, the Italian crews lived in coastal barracks, and while sailing, their diet consisted of pasta, dry wine and olive oil. At first (before the equipping of a normal galley), food for Soviet sailors was provided by army field kitchens, which smoked around the clock on the upper deck.
They refused to re-equip the battleship with domestic 305-mm guns, it was necessary to organize the production of shells for Italian guns (320 mm).
Even if it was possible to agree on the transfer of the only surviving heavy cruiser to the Kriegsmarine to the Soviet Navy, no benefit from this deal would come of it.
The state of German technology and engineering thought simply did not allow creating an obviously unsuccessful project, although in the case of Hipper-class cruisers such an attempt was nevertheless made.
Initially a mediocre ship, whose technical condition was aggravated by many combat wounds and deliberate sabotage during his internment.
About the importance of obtaining new technologies. What new technologies could there be in Hipper-Eugen? In Leningrad, since 1940, his brother "Petropavlovsk" (formerly "Lyuttsov") was stationed. All that is necessary to know about this cruiser, Soviet experts knew even before the start of the war.
Trophies were needed to get practical training for cadets of naval educational institutions. “Don't tell my Iskander”. What did a pair of rusty vessels and an old battleship mean against the background of the entire Soviet Navy? By the end of the 40s, the fleet had six light cruisers of its own construction (analogs of the Nuremberg and Duke D'Aosta).
For the period from 1947 to 1953. Soviet shipyards "stuck" another 70 brand new destroyers of the 30-bis project. In such conditions, how could the remnants of the fascist fleet be useful?
The trophy fund of warships was too small to dispute over it.
Of the 34 Japanese cruisers by the fall of 1945, only one survived (Sakawa - sunk in 1946 during nuclear weapons tests at Bikini Atoll).
Of the 12 capital ships, the end of the war was also met by one (the outdated “Nagato”: sunk by a nuclear explosion).
None of the aircraft carriers survived.
By chance, the skeleton of the German unfinished aircraft carrier Graf Zeppelin (flooded by the Nazis at the pier in Szczecin, Poland) ended up in the Soviet zone of responsibility. Before leaving, the Germans blew up ship turbines, power generators and aircraft lifts.
In the summer of 1945, the aircraft carrier was raised by the rescue service of the Baltic Fleet. Its mechanisms were beyond repair. The hull had underwater holes. On the starboard side, there were 36 shell hits, and the flight deck was twisted by explosions.
The restoration of the “Zeppelin” was considered impractical, and it was sunk again as a target. In the official documents on the division of the German fleet, this "stub" was not even listed.
The fate of the wreckage of the heavy cruiser "Deutschland" (later called "Luttsov", aka "pocket battleship"), sunk by air bombs and finally burned and blown up by its own crew, was not discussed either. The last of the "pocket battleships" was finally sunk as a target in 1947.
From the black sheep …
Under the indicated conditions, the Soviet representatives did not even need to declare claims for a share of German, Italian and Japanese ships. Instead, to abandon useless military tubs in favor of obtaining civilian ships.
That's where the real trophies were!
In reality, this is exactly what happened. The bulk of the trophies in the division (first of all) of the German fleet fell on the ships of the merchant fleet.
The value of these "rarities" is evidenced by their long and successful service as part of the Black Sea and Far Eastern Shipping Companies (the main operators of trophy equipment), and then everywhere, up to sports yacht clubs.
Here are the facts for comparison:
“Admiral Makarov” (formerly “Nuremberg”) served as a cruiser for less than 11 years and was finally scrapped in 1961.
Destroyer "Pylky" (Z-15 Erich Steinbrik) - decommissioned already in 1949, just 3 years after being enlisted in the Navy. Apparently, the destroyer was excellent.
Their peer - the control ship of the Black Sea Fleet "Angara" (Flottentender Hela, 1938) was decommissioned only in 1996.
German liners made up a significant part of the domestic passenger fleet.
The largest passenger ship in the USSR - "Soviet Union" ("Hansa", 1938) finished work on the Kamchatka line in 1980. One funny story is connected with this ship. Before decommissioning, the turbo ship was renamed “Tobolsk” due to the impossibility of putting the “Soviet Union” into scrap. Before death, ships sometimes change their big names.
The flagship of the marine passenger fleet - the diesel-electric ship "Russia" (Patria, 1938) made voyages in the Black Sea until 1985. The ship had a legendary page in its history - it was on its deck that Gross Admiral Doenitz was captured.
Until 1973, the steamer "Peter the Great" ("Duals", 1938) sailed on the Odessa-Batumi line.
The motor ship Pobeda (Magdalena, 1928) was used on the domestic and foreign lines of the ChMP.
In 1948, a fire on board the ship killed 40 people, including the Chinese Marshal Fei Yuxiang. The ship itself was rescued. 20 years after the tragedy on its deck, Andrei Mironov will sing about the Island of Bad Luck in the movie “Diamond Hand”, where the ship was filmed under the fictitious name “Mikhail Svetlov”.
The comfortable motor ship “Rus” (“Cordillera”, 1933) was sailing on the Vladivostok-Petropavlovsk express line until 1977.
Together with ocean liners, two large German ferries with a passenger capacity of 700 people each, Aniva and Krillon (formerly Deutschland and Pressen), got to the Far East.
Tragically famous cruise liner “Admiral Nakhimov” is from the same series of trophies. Former “Berlin” built in 1925
Passenger ships "Asia", "Siberia" (formerly "Sierra Salvada") - all these are echoes of a distant and terrible war.
The list is far from complete.
In addition to passenger liners and ferries, a significant number of vessels for various purposes were transferred to the USSR for reparations. For example, the largest whaling base in its time "Slava" ("Vikinger").
One of the world's largest floating docks (PD-1) with a capacity of 72,000 tons, where ships of the Northern Fleet have docked for many years. During the war, the Nazis used it to repair their floating fortress - the battleship Tirpitz.
Also seven large tankers, floating cranes, fishing vessels, whalers, tugs, dry cargo ships.
Finally, the sailing boats “Sedov” (“Magdalena Vinnen II”) and “Kruzenshtern” (“Padua”), which have been sailing the seas to this day. Priceless works of art from the sail era.
In total, the USSR received from Germany 614 civilian ships as reparations. Based on the experience of many years of operation and the undoubted benefit for the national economy of the country, it was the German merchant fleet that became the main source of ships for the division of the fleet. What was left of the military component could not be taken seriously.
Ideally, it was worth abandoning the Cesare-Novorossiysk, exchanging this ruin for dry cargo ships and ocean liners. In the list of reparations payments there were still many first-class civil ships: "Monte Rosa", "Thuringia", "Potsdam", which, as a result of the division, went to Great Britain.
