Soviet destroyer Slavny (1939)

Slavny (Славный) was one of 18 s (officially known as Project 7U) built for the Soviet Navy during the late 1930s. Although she began construction as a Project 7, Slavny was completed in 1941 to the modified Project 7U design.

Entering service with the Baltic Fleet just before the beginning of Operation Barbarossa, she participated in minelaying operations and conducted shore bombardments from late June to early August. She was damaged by a mines during the Evacuation of Tallinn, returning to Leningrad for repairs that lasted for most of September. After a month of shore bombardments during the Siege of Leningrad, the destroyer participated in the evacuation of Hanko Naval Base in November and December, suffering damage that forced her to put in for repairs twice. Seeing little action in 1942 and 1943, the destroyer conducted her last shore bombardment during the Vyborg–Petrozavodsk Offensive in 1944. She continued to serve with the Baltic Fleet postwar and spent the late 1940s and early 1950s under refit and modernization. Converted to a target ship in the early 1960s, she was scrapped between 1964 and 1965.

Design and description
Originally built as a Gnevny-class ship, Slavny and her sister ships were completed to the modified Project 7U design after Joseph Stalin ordered that the latter be built with an en echelon boiler arrangement instead of the linked arrangement of the Gnevnys so that a ship could still move even if one or two boilers were disabled.

Like the Gnevnys, the Project 7U destroyers had an overall length of 112.5 m, a beam of 10.2 m, but had a draft of 3.98 m at deep load. The ships were slightly overweight, displacing 1727 MT at standard load and 2279 MT at deep load. The crew of the Starozhevoy class numbered 207 in peacetime, but increased to 271 in wartime as more personnel were needed to operate additional equipment. The ships had a pair of geared steam turbines, each driving one propeller, rated to produce 54000 shp using steam from four water-tube boilers which the designers expected would exceed the 37 kn speed of the Project 7s because there was additional steam available. Some fell short of it, although specific figures for most individual ships have not survived. Variations in fuel oil capacity meant that the range of the Project 7Us varied between 1380 to 2700 nmi at 19 kn, that upper figure demonstrated by Storozhevoy.

The Project 7U-class ships mounted four 130 mm B-13 guns in two pairs of superfiring single mounts fore and aft of the superstructure. Anti-aircraft defense was provided by a pair of 76.2 mm 34-K AA guns in single mounts and three 45 mm 21-K AA guns as well as four 12.7 mm DK or DShK machine guns. They carried six 533 mm torpedo tubes in two rotating triple mounts amidships. The ships could also carry a maximum of 58 to 96 mines and 30 depth charges. They were fitted with a set of Mars hydrophones for anti-submarine work, although these were useless at speeds over 3 kn.

Modifications
During repairs after she was hit by a shell in May 1943, Slavny was fitted with Asdic sonar.

Construction and World War II
Slavny was laid down at Shipyard No. 189 (Sergo Ordzhonikidze) in Leningrad as yard number 293 on 31 August 1936 as a Gnevny-class destroyer. She was relaid down as a Project 7U destroyer on 31 January 1939, and launched on 19 September. Accepted by a state commission on 31 May 1941, she joined the 5th Destroyer Division of the Baltic Fleet on 19 June when the Soviet naval jack was raised aboard her, based at Kronstadt. When Operation Barbarossa, the German invasion of the Soviet Union, began on 22 June, Slavny was at sea near the Hanko Peninsula. She participated in minelaying operations on 27 and 29 June, then escorted the battleship SOVIET BATTLESHIP Oktyabrskaya Revolutsiya from Tallinn to Kronstadt with her sister SOVIET DESTROYER Svirepy on 1 July. During these operations the destroyer discovered submarines four times, attacking them without result with diving shells.

Remaining at Kronstadt until 16 July, Slavny was based at Tallinn between 18 July and the Evacuation of Tallinn on 28 August. The destroyer fought in the defense of Tallinn, regularly conducting shore bombardments and providing anti-aircraft fire, receiving minor damage from a close bomb explosion on 26 August. During this period, she expended 416 130 mm, 153 76 mm, and 228 45 mm shells as well as more than a thousand 12.7 mm rounds. The destroyer departed Tallinn for Kronstadt late on 28 August with the covering force, fighting off two German air attacks that day. She drove off German S-boats at 18:47 with 39 130 mm shells, but two mines exploded in her paravanes ten to fifteen meters from the hull at 20:23 and 21:35. These explosions pressed inward and opened seams, causing the flooding of the central artillery post, two gun compartments, and the double bottom tanks of the forward boiler room. Both rangefinders were disabled along with auxiliary mechanisms and electronic navigation devices. Slavny anchored and resumed the voyage at 06:00 on the next day, arriving at Kronstadt on the evening of 29 August after escaping from three air raids along the way. She expended 140 76 mm and 166 45 mm shells in addition to 744 12.7 mm rounds during the evacuation.

After repairs, Slavny returned to duty by 21 September, evading one German air raid by maneuvering in the Kronstadt roadstead. During a second raid, a nearby bomb explosion sent splinters that punctured a superheated steam pipe in a boiler room, wounding three sailors, one of whom died of burns. In addition, three others were wounded by splinters. The raids continued until 4 October; she expended 556 76 mm and 825 45 mm shells against them in addition to 1,905 12.7 mm rounds and was credited with downing one bomber. The destroyer suffered no further bomb damage but was hit by fragments from a long-range shell that exploded in the water on 2 October. During October, she made 33 bombardments of German troops from the Kronstadt roadstead, expending 409 130 mm shells.

From November to early December, the destroyer participated in the evacuation of the Hanko Naval Base. She made a voyage to the base with her sister SOVIET DESTROYER Stoyky and the minelayer SOVIET MINELAYER Marti on 1 November, evacuating 657 troops with weapons and equipment to Leningrad on 4 November. On the return voyage she mistook the subchaser MO-112 for a Finnish torpedo boat and sank the latter. The destroyer caught her left screw in anti-submarine net at Kronstadt on 11 November, which forced her to be docked for repairs. She later escorted transports to Gogland, and on 29 November returned to Hanko for the second time, loading 856 troops under enemy fire. On the night of 3 December Slavny attempted to assist the transport Iosif Stalin after the latter struck two mines, but another explosion broke off the transport's bow, she turned efforts over to a tug. The wheel of the destroyer soon jammed after a Gall chain broke, reducing the ship to a speed of three to four knots. Fired upon multiple times by Finnish batteries, Slavny arrived at Kronstadt on the evening of 5 December. After relocating to Leningrad on 16 December, the destroyer was put in for repairs at Shipyard No. 196. In six months of combat, she had steamed 3,707 nautical miles in 67 running days, expanding 966 130 mm and 1,003 76 mm shells.

During 1942 and 1943, Slavny did not directly participate in hostilities except for anti-aircraft fire during several air raids. She was hit by two German shells that started a boiler room on 1 May 1942, and soon moved to Kronstadt. Forecastle equipment was damaged on 25 October when a German 8-inch shell struck the capstan compartment. Relocating to Leningrad in early November, the destroyer remained there for the next year. Seven sailors were killed and three wounded when a German shell struck the superstructure near the third boiler room on 1 May 1943, after which she was repaired. During 1942 and 1943 a hundred 130 mm shells were expended in gunnery training. Her guns opened fire for the last time on 10 June 1944 during the Vyborg–Petrozavodsk Offensive.

Postwar
Postwar, Slavny became part of the 4th Fleet from 25 February 1946 to 4 January 1956 when the Baltic Fleet was split. She was refitted and modernized at Shipyard No. 890 in Tallinn between 10 July 1947 and 6 July 1955. The destroyer was removed from the combat fleet and reclassified as the target ship TsL-44 on 6 February 1960, and on 30 June 1961 as the floating target SM-20. Struck from the navy on 4 March 1964, she was scrapped at Liepāja between 1964 and 1965.