It wasn't only around the cold Baltic waters that the Naval Infantry preformed like heroes. The Black Sea divisions had been operating in the Southern Front for well over a year, gaining the nickname of Black Deaths, the color coming from their old uniforms, and Death being what they forced on countless German soldiers.
The month of July saw these divisions finally break out of Ukraine, as part of massive offensives, driving the broken Nazi armies into Poland.
Up North, General Vlasov, with huge naval support, attempted to secure Copenhagen by forcing the Germans into a defensive position. He had little difficulty crushing the ill-named 6th Army.
But as strong, heroic and glorious as the Naval Infantry is, a Navy is first and foremost about it's ships. Admiral Golovko's Black Sea fleet, once forced into a rushed defense of the Crimea Peninsula, was now called to support a second push into Romania.
All this pleased Admiral Kuznetsov, patrolling the few harbors Germany still had on the Baltic.
Still, he had no time to relax. He was expecting a message at any hour, as the Soviet troops closed in on Kiel. All intelligence reports hinted at Kiel still holding the bulk of the kriegsmarine's combat force, and Kuznetsov knew Raeder wouldn't just sit and wait for the infantry to arrive. In fact, if the Großadmiral was paying any attention to the war, he should have a plan for this situation.
sure enough, at exactly 10am of July the 27th, the radio operator of the
Sovietsky Soyuz warned the whole Navy - the Germans were launching a head-on attack, under a clear sky and with a hell of a submarine entrapment.
The enemy only brought two Battleships, but with the submarines limiting the Soviet maneuvers, the battle was truly balanced.
In fact, German positioning was such that both their ships started firing as soon as they were in range. The
Tripitz attempted to limit the Baltic Fleet's positioning ever further, by splitting the destroyer escorts, while the
Friedrich der Große went with all his guns for the
Sovietsky Soyuz.
Raeder's idea was obvious. Sink the flagship of the USSR, sink the very name of the Union that was so brutally crushing Germany, and with that sink the Soviet fighting spirit. And I good idea it was - after all, it worked on the
Bismarck.
The radio operator still received Kuznetsov's order - don’t let the flagship sink, and don't retreat - but shortly after he was silenced...
In his place, the
Karl Marx operator took over, but he didn't have much good news. The
Soyuz was burning bad, and because of their positioning, no Red ship could target the
Friedrich. Despite heavy damage, the
Tripizt kept on floating.
Great relief was shared by all once the euphoric report came - the
Tripitz was sinking! Just in time, the
Gangut managed to position itself correctly and fired a salvo at the hated enemy ship. Already weakened by hours of combat, the flagship of the Kriegsmarine started it's descent to the bottom of the sea!
Probably fearing for his own life, Raeder called off the attack and retreated to Wilhelmshaven.
Damaged beyond any effective combat capability, the
Sovietsky Soyuz still survived the epic battle. Probably no other ship in the World could have resisted so many hits from such powerful guns, but then again, no other ship in the world was such a testament to Soviet Engineering as the symbol of the Dream of the People.
For a second time, the Naval Commissar had to call of a blockade, but this time he did it so gladly. His fleet needed repairs and the Germans were almost dead as a Naval force.
The very next day to the battle, in one of the American "help" shipments, a spy was caught. The Yankee government denied it was one of their agents, but they fooled no-one. The later discovery of a British spy that had arrived with the same shipment only reinforced the notion that other Great Naval Powers had an increasing fear of the Red Fleet.
That distrust, though, seemed contained within the higher levels of government of the Soviet "allies". For the populations of the World, the USSR was a great Hero, defeating the seemingly invincible Fascist war machine, closing in on Warsaw on one front and taking Hamburg on another. The spectre of a Nazi defeat was materializing.
Trusting his Motherland, his mighty ships and his brave men, Admiral Kuznetsov sailed back to Copenhagen, temporarily suspended the 17th fleet, and personally took command of a strengthened Baltic Fleet. Fearless, he sailed with it back into the North Sea, taking with him even the
Marat "Hipperslayer". There was no escaping now for the Kriegsmarine. Plus he had the chance to show off to the British!