RUSSIANS’ NEW BATTLESHIP

Press, Volume LXXXVI, Issue 26220, 18 September 1950, Page 7

RUSSIANS’ NEW BATTLESHIP

REPORTED TRIALS IN BALTIC

(Rec. 9 p.m.) STOCKHOLM, September 16. Naval sources say that the first of Russia’s new 35,600-ton battleships, the Sovietsky Soyuz (Soviet Union), is undergoing trials in the Eastern Baltic this month.

Fifteen years m building, she was originally intended to carry 12 40.6 centimetre (about 16in) guns in four turrets, 14 15-centimetre guns, 14 46millimetre and 10 20-millimetre guns. After consultations with German naval experts taken from prisoner-of-war camps, plans were made to, strengthen her fire power. The vessel now has six 40.6 centimetre guns in two turrets, 20 15-centi-metre guns, 24 45-millimetre guns, 40 20-millimetre guns, and two batteries of rockets. It is also believed that the ship has two reconnaissance aircrait and six torpedo tubes on either bow. Two sister-ships, the Tretij International and Sovietskaya Ukraina, were also laid down in 1935. The Tretij International, launched in 1950, is still being fitted out, and the Sovietskaya Ukraina is still on the stocks. Details of the Sovietsky Soyuz are reported to be: length, about 790 feet; beam, about 108 feet; draught, about 36 feet; armour plating, 10 to 18 inches thick; speed, 32 knots; estimated cruising range at 14 knots, about 8000 miles; crew, about 1850.