How did Stalin's purges effect the combat reediness of the Soviet Navy from the late 1930s through 1945?

by dickbroom

Were some fleets worse off than others? Baltic vs Black vs Pacific vs Northern...

PerfectDD

Well, I think that admirals or officers of the Red Navy wasn't so good - Russian Imperial Navy was lagging behind (remember Tsushima) and sailors were notorious in pre-coup Russia in 1917-1918 for killing their officers. Thus I suspect that Red Navy officers were getting hard time getting decent Navy education - most of the previous generation's officers were killed and they can't 'import' foreign high-ranking officers (like Imperial Russia did) due to isolationist Soviet politics.

As for fleets:

  1. Pacific fleet mostly didn't saw much action - up to 1945 Japan was a non-target and when USSR attacked them, most of the attack was on land.

  2. Northern fleet was one of the busiest - it received a lot of leased ships and from 15 submarines and 8 destroyers in 1941 grow up to have 1 battleship, 1 cruiser, 17 destroyers and 42 submarines. This fleet mostly protected convoys and at the end of war performed landing operations.

  3. Baltic fleet - formidable Soviet fleet and most feared by Hitler. Was almost totally blocked by 'mine soup' in the Baltic Sea therefore up to 1944 only Soviet submarines are able to attack German and Finnish Navies. Most known achievement: sinking of German 'Gustloff'. Worst achievement: losing about 15.000 men and 62 ships in Tallinn evacuation.

  4. Black Sea fleet. Biggest Soviet fleet at this time: 1 Battleship, 5 cruisers, 18 destroyers, 43 submarines. Their opponents had in total 4 destroyers and 10 submarines (due to Turkey's neutrality, no warships can be passed through Bosphorus). But despite a good start (Black Sea fleet was first to shoot at German bombers) consequences were grave. Soviets lost 1 cruiser, 14 destroyers and 32 submarines - mostly to mines and German planes. As the result Stalin was so outraged that in 1943 he prohibited all warships from operating without direct order from Moscow. After that Black Sea warships never saw major combat in WW2.

Sources:

  • Jackson, Robert – Battle of the Baltic.
  • Harrison E. Salisbury - The 900 Days: The Siege of Leningrad.
  • Ruge, Fredrich - The Soviets as Naval Opponents, 1941-1975.
  • Axworthy, Mark; Scafeș, Cornel; Crăciunoiu, Cristian - Third Axis. Fourth Ally. Romanian Armed Forces in the European War, 1941–1945.
dickbroom

And yes I misspelled readiness. Damn you autocorrect.