1941 was marked by a fierce struggle on the South Ukrainian Front. The battle was for Sevastopol, where the Black Sea Fleet was based.
Sevastopol Bay comprises 30 bays that are never covered with ice. Ships of any displacement and draft can stop here. The strategic importance of Sevastopol was obvious. The Caucasus remained unattainable for the Wehrmacht until the Black Sea fleet defended the Sevastopol Bay.
An attempt at lightning capture of the city and the bay failed in the fall of 1941. In winter, the Germans launched another offensive. By the end of December, the German forces had only 2 km to the Sevastopol Bay, and they were intensely preparing for the attack.
At the height of the battle from the sea towards the enemy, a hail of shells of gigantic destructive power fell. The enemy forces were swept away by the artillery of the battleship “Paris Commune”. The assault on Sevastopol by the forces of the German army crashed.
Battleship, or battleship, is a very complex and powerful structure. The size of such a ship can be from two football fields, and the height can be from a multi-storey building. The battleship is armed with a large-caliber long-range double-barreled artillery, and is also protected by armor. All this makes the ship a real floating fortress. Not a single floating object is able to withstand the pressure of a battleship. By 1941, the USSR had three battleships: the Paris Commune (Black Sea), Marat (the Baltic Sea) and the October Revolution (the Baltic Sea). They built battleships in pre-revolutionary times on one project. Several innovative solutions stand out from these ships. First of all, the role of the driving force was performed not by a steam engine, but by 4 steam turbines. The main caliber towers were equipped with not two, but three guns. The towers were located in a line, which made possible the simultaneous release of guns from 12 barrels.
The battleship "Paris Commune" was formerly called "Sevastopol". The displacement of the vessel was 23,300 tons. The armament consisted of three towers with 12 guns and 16 guns in the side casemates. 40 million rubles, or 30 tons of gold, were allocated from the imperial treasury to create this giant. 1220 people - so many people were required to service, maintain and operate such a ship. These were the soldiers and officers of the Paris Commune. It was the most accurate and long-range battleship in the world.
The revolution transferred Sevastopol to the Red Fleet. The ship was called the "Paris Commune". Until 1930, the battleship base was on the Baltic Sea, and then it was sent to the Black Sea, where it was fully modernized. As a result, the ship's displacement and crew size were increased. But despite the difficult conditions of service, the soldiers and officers of the Paris Commune were proud of their ship.
The Black Sea Fleet was called upon to provide the Soviet Union with complete dominance in the Black Sea and destroy any enemy. And it seemed quite real, because the fleet included the Paris Commune ship, 47 submarines, 19 destroyers and 5 cruisers. Under the terms of international treaties, Germany did not have the right to drive ships on the Black Sea. Turkey had only one powerful ship. Only Italy looked like a serious adversary. Her fleet had 4 battleships, 59 destroyers, 22 cruisers and 110 submarines.
The legendary ship met the beginning of the war in a raid, and at midnight it was put on alert. Already at 3 a.m. the battleship repulsed the first raid of fascist aviation.
Later, the Germans sent to destroy the "Paris Commune" their best forces. The ship more than once saved Soviet soldiers on land when the Germans were on the outskirts of Sevastopol. Thanks to the crew of the ship and its excellent weapons, it was possible to repulse attack after attack. After some time, the ship ceased to participate in military operations, since the threat from the aviation side was too great. But his team went ashore and joined the ranks of those fighting on land.
The battleship lowered the flag only in 1957, which ended the great era of artillery ships.