Dmitriy Liadov and his comrades knew the Germans were coming. They even knew they should have expected to see the
Bismarcks. But they still weren't expecting this many targets. It seemed as if every single ship the enemy had was present.
Most of all though, the sailors and their Admiral weren't expecting such a tenacious attack on their blockade. Dmitriy might not have studied at the Naval Academy, but even he could tell the Germans had a plan. It was the first time he had seen the enemy use escorts effectively, and they were very effective at that, completely screening the big capital monsters behind a wall of smoke and ships.
From his position at the forward cannons Dmitriy could only wonder why Admiral Smirnov wasn't reacting to the German Admiral's manoeuvres. The word around with the other sailors was that he was waiting for positive identification of the Kriegsmarine's guns.
The time lost in this research allowed the enemy to position itself in equal terms to the Baltic Fleet, despite their much larger numbers. Not only that, but they were also the ones initiating the battle, when the by-then-identified
Tripitz fired a broadside at the
Sovetskiy Kazahstan, causing a frightening explosion.
This explosion seemed to either coincide with, or cause, Admiral Smirnov's decision to leap into action, and Dmitriy's gun finally received the order to fire.
Unable to target any of the capital ships, the
Sovietsky Soyuz turned it's massive canons to the German light cruisers.
He couldn't really pay attention to the other ships, but it seemed no-one else had a clear shot at the Kriegsmarine's mightiest ships, and all Soviet guns were aimed at cruisers and destroyers.
One hour into the battle, the German Admiral's strategy was proving superior, with the Red Fleet still unable to reliably fire on even the Heavy Cruisers, while the
Bismarcks kept hiting the Soviet battleships, even for little result.
And then, out of the battle chaos, a shell hit next to the
Sovietsky Soyuz aft guns. The explosion rocked the whole ship, but as everyone in it still alive 3 seconds after could see, the armour had held up and protected the ammunition.
Just the the first explosion on the
Sovetskiy Kazahstan, this one also seemed to coincide with Smirnov's change of plans. Possibly realising he was losing the battle, but determined not to retreat, he ordered all ships to close in on the German capitals.
That order was quickly annulled when out of the surf rose countless enemy submarines, greatly limiting the Red Fleet's movement options.
Changing targets again, from the sinking remnants of a light cruiser to several destroyers, Dmitriy and the rest of the crew at the forward cannons had to move very fast, while watching their step because of all the empty shells.
It was one of those shells that betrayed Dmitriy while looked, for just a second, to one of the small aircraft from the
Leningrad, returning from a heroic, but futile bombing, run. He tripped and hit his head on the floor, hardly having time to curse once before losing conscience.
Almost night it was, when the sailor woke up to the shouts of joy from his comrades, running out of the ship's infirmary with a terrible headache and tremendously worried.
He had little reason for it. The Kriegsmarine was retreating towards the south-west, a dozen ships lighter, and with no Soviet loses to report. It seemed in the end, plain simple superior armour had done the trick for the Red Fleet, taking as many hits as it gave, but resisting them a whole of a lot better.
The superiority of Free Engineers, Free Workers and Free Sailors had done it again!
It wasn't all celebration though. It didn't take a detailed damage report to see that the
Kazahstan had taken heavy punishment, that would have probably sunk any worse-designed ship, and needed somewhat urgent attention. The request from the
Varyag for whatever crew members the rest of the fleet could dispense also suggested that light cruiser's original crew had worked to exhaustion to protect the rest.
Kuznetsov seemed to be happy with the Baltic Fleet's performance. Or perhaps he worried that it wouldn't survive another such attack? In either case, a return to Leningrad was ordered, for repairs and rest. The 17th, previously helping the Army near Königsberg, was sent to take Smirnov's blockading position.
3 days after the Large Battle, as it was now known amongst sailors, Dmitriy Liadov and other just-landed crew members were at the Naval Commissariat Offices to receive a speech by Kuznetsov, when news comes to that the 17th Fleet had found a single Heavy Cruiser trying to break the blockade. It was the
Admiral Hipper, leading ship of her class, and the 17th was giving chase.
The Commissar felt this could boost morale, and decided to let everyone listen into the radio reports, which were quite trilling, telling for ever increasing approximation to well-escorted by vastly out-gunned German cruiser.
But then something went wrong.
The
Karl Marx communications officer reported a sharp turn by the
Hipper, that couldn't be matched because of the way it's apparently exhausted and thus ignored screens had positioned themselves.
And then the sentence that filled everyone with fear:
- "
It's going for the Oktyabrskaya! She's too slow! She can't get away!"
As the assembled sailors, officers and office workers felt an ever greater urge to know more, the radio reports became ever fewer and more nervous.
- "
We're focusing the forward cannons on the Hipper but it's just not enough, and the destroyers are still stopping us from using the aft. The Marat's guns can hardly hit it either."
The reports continued, expressing the mounting frustration of not being able to do more...
- "
She's burning! There's fire and smoke everywhere! It was a huge explosion, they must have it the magazines. It doesn't look like she'll last much longer!"
-
The Hipper is runing away! It's runing away!
The sound from the radio sent a wave of relief to all of the room.
-
But it's too late. It's too late, she's going under. Yes, too late.
A stunned audience heard about the rescue of survivors, of wich it seemed there were quite a few, of how the rescue had meant letting the
Hipper escape, and other details, but it mattered little. The
Oktyabrskaya Revolutsiya was lost. The first major loss of the Red Fleet - the first Battleship sunk anywhere since the Great War - and it was the old Soviet flagship. The one named after the very birth of the USSR. It was national shame.
One of the many drawings representing the ship and crew's Heroic Sacrifice,published in the weeks following the battle