But the purpose of the thread was to answer the question "What do we do with our wortheless CDS"?
Patrol? Raider? Subhunter? Interceptor? Pocket BB? Something else?
Left picture - Finnish CDS Ilmarinen. Right picture - Ilmarinen's sister ship, Finnish CDS Väinämöinen camouflaged at the Finnish coast. Both pictures: SA-kuva.
Ilmarinen was the flagship of the Finnish Navy from 1933 until her sinking in 1941. Both ships, Ilmarinen and Väinämöinen are still the largest ships of all the time in the Finnish Navy.
The two ships were named after mythological heroes presented in the Finnish national epic and both the ships had a purpose in the Finnish coastal defense, especially at the Finnish coast in the Gulf of Finland. In relation to their size, the ships were heavily armed, but they were slower and smaller than normal cruisers during the era. Having a small draft, heavy gun-batteries, and tall towers, Ilmarinen and Väinämöinen were not so well qualified or seaworthy for open-water-operations, but the both ships were considered and prepared as a mobilized extension for the Finnish coastal gun-batteries standing still on the ground.
Ilmarinen disaster is the worst catastrophe of the Finnish Navy during peace or war. The 1941 Operation Nordwind was a Finnish-German distract co-operation to make the Soviets to believe a Finnish-German invasion would happen at the Estonian islands during the German attack to the Baltic States. 15 vessels - including Ilmarinen - set sail from the Finnish coast with an intention to be captured by the Soviet observation and sell the hoax about the fake-invasion, but the task force would turn back home at the midpoint before reaching the Estonian coast. However, after reaching the midpoint, Ilmarinen's captain decided to carry on the mission, thinking if he now would turn back to home, the Soviets wouldn't never "buy" the fake-operation. But this sea area wasn't cleared of the minefields - Ilmarinen ran into a minefield, a mine got stuck into the ship's paravane cable and the crew couldn't get loose of the mine, still Ilmarinen resumed on the mission. While dusk arrived, CDS Ilmarinen took a careful maneuver turning back to home. Despite of the security manners the stuck-on mine hit Ilmarinen's broadside or bottom, the explosion blew a large hole, which developed first a strong listing and then keeling over and Ilmarinen sank very quickly.
Operation Nordwind was a failure. The Finnish Navy lost its flagship, the Soviet intelligence never notified the task force, but later in the same autumn the Soviet news agency, TASS claimed that the Soviet Baltic Fleet sank Ilmarinen.
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