Soviet Destroyer Tashkent
A footnote to the history of WWII but an interesting one.
In the late 1930s the Soviet Navy consisted of three old battleships, seven cruisers 4 of which were up to the minute ships and a number of destroyers. There was a shortage of modern destroyers which led to the building of the Tashkent.
In the late 1930s the Soviets decided to build some large destroyers capable of very high speed based on Italian and French ideas. The Italians were contracted to build the first ship of the class. Like a lot of other super ship designs she was a one of, similar to the Japanese destroyer Shimikaze. She was designed as a fleet escort with six high velocity 5.1" guns and a variety of light guns including, in her final form, six of the excellent Soviet designed 37mm auto cannons. Did I mention she was fast? How about 43 knots ( just a skosh under 50 mph) in actual service (slightly higher than her design speed.) Due to the blue tint of her Italian paint job she was called "the blue beauty" by those who served on her.
The ship was delivered just in time for the start of WW II and was assigned to the Black Sea Fleet. She spent her entire, and quite short career involved in the defense of the black sea port cities, especially Sevastapol. In this function she transported up to 1,000 reinforcement troops and/or hundreds of tons of supplies and ammunition on each trip in. After delivery she blazed away with her main armament at the Nazi troops, expending a career total of a bit over 1,900 rounds total from her main armament. On the way out she evacuated wounded troops. The Nazi's had air superiority so the Tashkent was constantly subject to air attack (she shot down at least two bombers) but her high speed and excellent maneuverability along with very tough construction kept her in service longer than one might think. On the 30th of August, 1941 Nazi bombers attacked her and damaged her badly with near misses putting her in the yard and out of action until November. She was then back in action at her original duties in support of Sevastapol. She was the last ship out of Sevastapol before the city fell in June 1942, evacuating 2100 wounded troops along with some big shots. she was caught underway and again damaged badly by near misses. She was then caught in a dockyard where she couldn't run and was wrecked by direct hits by bombers. She was eventually judged beyond economical repair. Her armament was salvaged and installed on other ships.
Sometimes a ship doesn't have to have a long career to justify its cost.
This is a pretty good video on this obscure but very effective ship.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Z6Mhlv4QLA
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Originally Posted by dryheat
