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Baltic Fleet
The Baltic Fleet (Russian: Балтийский флот, in the Soviet period - The Red Banner Baltic Fleet - Краснознамённый Балтийский флот) is located at the Baltic Sea and headquartered in Kaliningrad, the other major base is at Kronstadt, located in the Gulf of Finland. The Fleet was part of the former Soviet Navy and is now part of Russian Navy.
The breakup of the Soviet Union deprived the former-Soviet and Russian Baltic Fleet of key bases in Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia, leaving Kaliningrad Oblast as the Fleet's only ice-free naval outlet to the Baltic Sea. However, the Kaliningrad Oblast between Poland and Lithuania is not contiguous with the rest of national territory of the Russian Federation.
As of 1996 operational forces included nine submarines, twenty-three principal surface combatants, three cruisers, two destroyers, and eighteen frigates, and approximately sixty-five smaller vessels.
As of mid-2000 the Baltic Fleet included about 100 combat ships of various types, and the Fleet's Sea Aviation Group units were equipped with a total of 112 aircraft.
Baltic Fleet - History
Image:Baltica.jpg
Baltic Fleet - Russo-Japanese War of 1904–1905
In September 1904, the Baltic Fleet under the command of Admiral Rozhdestvenski was sent around Africa - stopping in French and German colonial ports Tangier, Dakar, Gabon, Great Fish Bay, Angra Pequena, and Nossi Be (Madagascar), then across the Indian Ocean to Kam Ranh Bay in French Indochina and then northward to its doomed encounter with the Japanese fleet at the Battle of Tsushima. The German Hamburg-Amerika Line provided 60 colliers to supply the Baltic Fleet on its epic journey. The decision to send the fleet to the Baltic was made after Russia had suffered a string of defeats at the hands of the Japanese Army in Manchuria. This historic naval battle broke Russian strength in East Asia and set the stage for the unsuccessful Russian Revolution of 1905, setting in motion the decline that would see the monarchy brought down in 1917.
Baltic Fleet - First World War
In 1918 the Ice Cruise of the Baltic Fleet took place.
Baltic Fleet - Second World War
In the beginning of the Great Patriotic War the Baltic Fleet had 2 battleships, 2 cruisers, 2 flotilla leaders, 19 destroyers, 48 MTBs, 65 submarines and other ships, and 656 aircraft. During the war the Fleet, commanded by the vice-admiral Vladimir Tributz, defended the Hanko Peninsula, Tallinn, several islands in Estonia, participated in the break through breach of the Siege of Leningrad, etc. 137 sailors of the Baltic Fleet were awarded a title of the Hero of the Soviet Union.
Battle of Gangut, Battle of Svensksund
Baltic Fleet - Ships
Dreadnaughts of the Gangut class in the Fleet by September 14, 1918:
- "Gangut"
- "Poltava"
- "Petropavlovsk"
- "Sevastopol".
Ships and submarines commissioned to the fleet are Soviet submarine M-256, a Project 615 short-range attack diesel submarine of the Soviet Navy.
Baltic Fleet - Commanders
- Fyodor Apraxin (1723-1726)
- admiral Nikolay Essen (1909-1917)
- rear-admiral Dmitriy Verderevskiy (1917)
- V. A. Kanin
- A. I. Nepenin
- A. S. Maximov
- A. V. Razvozov
- Alexander Zelenoy
- Mihail Viktorov
- Alexander Vekman (1924-1926)
- Leo Galler (1932-1937)
- A. K. Sivkov
- Ivan Isakov (1937-1938)
- Gordey Levchenko (1938-1939)
- Vladimir Tributz
- V. A. Andreev
- Fyodor Zozulya (1947-1950)
- Arseniy Golovko (1952-1956)
- Vladimir Kasatonov (1954-1955)
- Nikolay Harlamov (1956-1959)
- Vladimir Mihaylin
See also
- Battle of Gangut
- Battle of Svensksund
Other related archives1904, 1917, 1918, 1996, 2000, Admiral Rozhdestvenski, Alexander Zelenoy, Angra Pequena, Arseniy Golovko, Baltic Sea, Battle of Gangut, Battle of Svensksund, Battle of Tsushima, Dakar, Dreadnaughts, East Asia, Estonia, Fyodor Apraxin, Gabon, Gangut, Gangut class, Gordey Levchenko, Great Patriotic War, Gulf of Finland, Hanko Peninsula, Hero of the Soviet Union, Ice Cruise of the Baltic Fleet, Image:Baltica.jpg, Indian Ocean, Kaliningrad, Kaliningrad Oblast, Kronstadt, Latvia, Lithuania, M-256, MTBs, Madagascar, Manchuria, Nossi Be, Poland, Red Banner, Russian, Russian Federation, Russian Navy, Russian Revolution of 1905, Russo-Japanese War, Siege of Leningrad, Soviet, Soviet Navy, Soviet Union, Tallinn, Tangier, Vladimir Tributz, battleships, breakup, commissioned, cruisers, destroyers, diesel, flotilla leaders, frigates, ice-free, submarine, submarines, vice-admiral
 Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Baltic Fleet", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki |
