Greetings, colleagues! So I decided to take a little break, so to speak, for relaxation, from my main construction project (within the framework of GB Fleet 3) and assemble this wonderful boat from NorthStarModels!

G-5 is the most popular Soviet-built torpedo boat during the Great Patriotic War. Designed at TsAGI under the leadership of A. N. Tupolev (TsAGI index GANT-5). Produced until 1944 in various modifications. A total of 329 units were built.

Small and nimble torpedo boats of the G-5 type dealt inevitable blows to the enemy in the northern fiords and on the foggy Baltic and off the Crimean coast. When necessary, they landed and covered landing forces, fearlessly entered enemy-occupied harbors, launched attacks on fascist ships and port facilities, and quickly left behind a smoke screen. The boat had a length of 20 m, a width of 3.5 m, its draft was only 0.6 m, and its displacement was 17 tons. Two engines with a total power of 1700 hp. With. allowed to reach a speed of about 48 knots. (Performance characteristics vary greatly). The boat carried two 533-mm torpedoes (or depth charges for anti-submarine warfare) and had two heavy machine guns. The torpedo boat's crew consisted of 6 people.

There is a lot of information on G-5 class boats on the Internet. There are even a couple of good films. For example, the film "Farewell" from 1966, and the film "Weapons of Victory. Episode 25. Torpedo boats." (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CCdfMqygtXg).

Kit

The model is produced by NorthStarModels. The kit allows you to assemble a choice of one of three modifications of the G-5:

series AKA (with "Katyusha"), series 10 and series 11 BIS. Before this model gets to your slipway, it lives in this little box the size of a little more than a pack of cigarettes!

The contents of the box include: the boat hull itself, two superstructure options, a handful of spare parts, an etching board, and of course assembly instructions.

The casting quality is very good! The etching set is quite comprehensive (although getting ahead of myself, I’ll say that it wasn’t completely without modifications), detailed and useful, and at first glance does not cause any complaints about the quality of casting. The dimensions of the boat parts themselves and the etching at first caused a slight concern - would I be able to assemble such a small thing! The boat, although in the 350th scale that is familiar to me, is essentially in no way inferior to the 700th scale models.

Assembly

Initially, I decided on the modification of the boat that I would assemble! I chose modification 11 BIS. Although initially, when purchasing, I wanted to assemble the G-5 with Katyusha. Although there are photos on the Internet that show that the boat, similar to the modification 11 BIS, was also additionally equipped with a Katyusha!

Having started the assembly process, I was pleasantly surprised at how easy this model was to assemble! I should note that this is my first experience with a resin model! I liked the material, it’s very flexible to work and process!

The assembly process itself proceeded quite smoothly (there were, of course, a couple of mismatches/inaccuracies in the assembly instructions itself, but not critical), so I won’t dwell on it too much. Perhaps I’ll just note that I’ve never spent so much time on the floor in the “river tick-legged” pose with a magnifying glass and a flashlight in my hands looking for a fallen part, and the spare parts tend to fly away in an unknown direction.

Basically, the set and etching is very detailed. Considering the scale, or rather the size of the model, the guys from NordStar did, I think, almost the maximum possible. But still, I decided to modify the model a little! Not so much out of harm, but out of necessity! So the first thing I replaced were the torpedoes. In principle, you can make candy from what is in the set, but I have completely etched Tamiya torpedoes lying around! So I decided to listen to my laziness and replace the resin torpedoes from the kit, which needed some attention, with etched ones. We also had to shorten the torpedoes a little, since they did not fully fit into the launch tube.

I also didn’t really like the etched DShKs from the set! They are too thin and inexpressive. Therefore, it was decided to replace them with homemade ones! The barrels were taken from the MasterModel kit, everything else was cut out of plastic and a few small etched elements were added (handles, sights). It may not have turned out perfect, but I liked the result better.

Well, on a small note, a small shelf was added to the rear gunner’s stand, which saved the circle, and both “masts” were replaced, the reason for the replacement is the same as with the DShK, they are very thin and literally bend with a light blow! Also, in all the photos that I saw, on the G-5 the mast, which was located on the wheelhouse, had only one horizontal “yard”, and not two, as it was in the kit! I made the masts from stocks/remnants of rails from AMBER.
There were also thoughts to add some zest, to hang mooring tires, but then I abandoned this idea.

Coloring

Oh, it’s been a while since I picked up an airbrush! Anyway! There are quite a lot of paint schemes for G-5 boats! It all depends on what period and location you are targeting!

Having reached the painting process, I think everyone who will assemble this model will have a question: - how to paint the part of the hull below the waterline? I’m already silent about drawing the waterline itself! This question tormented me for a long time; I couldn’t believe that it would be possible to put masks on this boat. There were already thoughts of painting the side below the waterline with a brush. But in the end, I decided to try applying the masks and, surprisingly, it worked out, maybe not perfectly evenly, but definitely better than if I painted with a brush.

After painting, applied glossy

In the 1920s, the Soviet Union relied on the “mosquito fleet” in naval construction. To use modern terminology, this was an “asymmetric response” to future “challenges of imperialism.”

Torpedo boats appeared during the First World War and proved themselves to be the best. Especially strong impression carried out daring raids of English torpedo "mosquitoes" against the Red Fleet in the Gulf of Finland in 1919: in particular, they managed to sink the cruiser "Oleg" and damage the battleship "Andrei Pervozvanny". It is not surprising that the reconstruction of the USSR naval forces began with torpedo boats. In 1923, a group of engineers led by A. N. Tupolev (the future famous aircraft designer) was tasked with designing a high-speed planing torpedo boat with a duralumin hull. The boat GANT-3, which later received the name “Perbornets”, was built in 1927 and was generally considered very successful. It became the prototype of a large series of its fellow types Sh-4 and G-5.

TKA type Sh-4 (at the development stage the project was called GANT-4 and G-4) were mass-produced in 1928-1931; In total, the Workers' and Peasants' Red Fleet received 59 such boats. However, by that time it became clear that the 450-mm torpedoes installed on them were already obsolete. Therefore, we decided to develop new project. In general, the G-5 boat was similar to the Sh-4, but now it carried modern 533 mm torpedoes. During tests in Sevastopol in 1933, the pre-production GANT-5 prototype boat without weapons reached a record speed of 65.3 knots, and with a full combat load - 58 knots. The start of mass production of new TKAs was somewhat delayed due to a shortage of engines, but the problem was solved, and by 1944, 333 boats were built at three factories - they became the most popular representatives of their class in the Soviet Navy.

DESCRIPTION

The boat's hull is made of duralumin, riveted, with a step in the underwater part. Inside it was divided by waterproof bulkheads into 5 compartments.

The power plant is two GAM-34 gasoline engines with a power of 850 hp each. With. The GAM-34 engine was a slightly modified version of the AM-34 aircraft engine; Moreover, sometimes the boats were equipped with engines removed from aircraft and undergone major overhauls. Gasoline or a mixture of gasoline and alcohol was used as fuel.

The armament included two chute tubes for 533 mm torpedoes (types 53-27 or 53-38). Firing torpedoes was carried out as follows: the boat lay down on a combat course, fired torpedoes into the stern with the tail part forward and immediately turned to the side. The torpedo's engine turned on and it moved in the direction specified by the boat. This shooting method, invented by the British during the First World War, had many disadvantages and was considered outdated.

Small arms on G-5 type boats of the first series included two 7.62 mm DA machine guns: on later series - one or two 12.7 mm DShK machine guns. Already during the Great Patriotic War, several dozen boats were equipped with installations for firing 82-mm rockets - 8- or 24-barreled. True, in the latter case, due to overload, the boats went on combat missions without torpedoes. In addition, instead of torpedoes, TKAs could take mines or up to 22 (and in exceptional cases up to 50) landing troops.

PURPOSE AND OPERATION

According to the plan, G-5 type boats were supposed to make rapid torpedo attacks against enemy ships in coastal waters. In accordance with the assigned task, the most important tactical element of the TKA was its speed. For the sake of high speed, the project developers had to sacrifice many other characteristics: seaworthiness, cruising range, and weapons. However, in practice, boats of the G-5 type performed a completely different job: they operated on communications, landed troops, evacuated the wounded from the front line, escorted transports, carried out night raids... That is, they did what they were not originally designed for.

Nevertheless, G-5 type TKAs actively participated in hostilities. During the Great Patriotic War, 84 G-5 type boats were lost, and three of those captured by the enemy were part of the Finnish Navy.

The last example of the combat use of G-5 torpedo boats dates back to the Korean War. On July 2, 1950, in the Chumunzhin area, four North Korean TKAs attempted to attack enemy cruisers - the American Juneau and the English Jamaica, but failed to carry out their plans.

Torpedo boats of the "G-5" type
Project
A country
Manufacturers	plant No. 194
Years of construction	1933-1944
Main characteristics
Displacement	15 tons
Length	19.0 m
Width	3.3 m
Draft	1.2 m
Engines	2 GAM-34 engines
Power	2 × 850 l. With.
Mover	2 three-blade propellers
Travel speed	50 knots
Crew	6 people
Armament
Flak	2 × 7.62 mm machine guns YES or 2 × 12.7 mm DShK
Mine and torpedo weapons	2 × 533 mm stern tubes

Torpedo boats of the "G-5" type- a project of Soviet planing torpedo boats created in the 1930s.

Design history

History of construction

Different series used different GAM-34 models, most often with a power of 850 hp. However, some series used GAM-34F with a power of 1000 hp, which gave a full speed of up to 55 knots. Also on some series, 1000 hp engines were used. foreign production.

Seaworthiness up to 3 (4?) points.

Combat use

On May 1, 1937, on the deck of the Spanish cargo ship "Santo Tome" of the merchant fleet of the Spanish Republic, four torpedo boats of the "G-5" type (with Isoto-Fraschini engines) were delivered from the USSR to Cartagena, which became part of the navy Spanish Republic. The boat was met by N.G. Kuznetsov (Soviet naval attaché in the Spanish Republic). In the history of the USSR this was the first case of transmission foreign country warships. Even then, their low professional suitability became obvious, 2 of them were lost.

Only one G-5 (No. 16) served in the Northern Fleet, which, due to its short range, was transferred from a combat unit to a watercraft.

In other theaters of war, the situation was such that only once during the entire Great Patriotic War did torpedo boats of this type launch an attack on a large formation of German Kriegsmarine ships. The German formation, consisting of the cruisers Leipzig, Emden and the destroyers T-7, T-8, T-11, with the participation of minesweepers from the 17th flotilla, fired at Soviet troops on the Sõrve Peninsula (Saaremaa Island). 4 torpedo boats came out to intercept them. At the end of September, the only attack of the Soviet fleet in the entire war took place on a formation of large surface ships that attacked the Sõrve Peninsula.

When leaving the Irbensky Strait, the boats were attacked by an enemy seaplane, which was driven away by cover fighters, which then repelled an attempt by two more “vultures” to deal with the boats. The German ships, warned by flares from the seaplane, managed to prepare for the attack and hurricane fire was opened on the boats. Ushchev (commander of the boat detachment) ordered the signals to be given - “Smoke”, “Attack”. Under the cover of a smoke screen, two boats hit the cruiser Leipzig, two - the destroyers. At this time the first boat was hit and began to sink. None of the torpedoes hit the target. The boatmen returning to Mynta sank the auxiliary minesweeper M-1707 (ex-trawler Luneburg). The German cruisers, having shot most of their main-caliber ammunition at the boats, were forced to leave. More in shelling Soviet troops they didn't participate..

In the vast majority of other cases combat use torpedo boats were not used for their intended purpose: for landing troops, laying minefields, delivering cargo, shelling the coast, confronting enemy boats and minesweepers, communications, and reconnaissance. The G-5 was actively used to disrupt enemy sea communications.

During the war, 5 G-5 boats also fell into the hands of the enemy - two TKAs (No. 111, No. 163) were captured by German troops in the Black Sea and the Baltic, three (No. 54, No. 64, No. 141) by the Finns. The latter became part of the Finnish Navy (V-3, V-1 and V-2, respectively), but after Finland left the war in 1944, they were returned to the USSR. The most effective of them, as part of the Finnish Navy, was the V-2, which, together with two other Finnish TKAs, sank the gunboat of the Baltic Fleet “Red Banner”.

During the Second World War, the Black Sea Fleet had 2 brigades of torpedo boats (Novorossiysk and Sevastopol brigades). Both took an active part in the fighting. Due to their speed and non-magnetic body, they were used in clearing fields of acoustic mines.

Since May 1942, some of the G-5 torpedo boats were converted into mortar boats by installing a 1 82 mm M-8-M launcher on the wheelhouse. A total of 13 boats were converted, which were actively used on the Azov, Baltic, Black Seas, Lake Onega and the Danube River.

The last operator of G-5 torpedo boats was the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, which received 5 boats of this type from the USSR in the late 40s. On July 2, 1950, a North Korean detachment of 4 G-5 boats tried to attack the allied cruisers Juneau (USA) and Jamaica (Great Britain), which were blocking the coastal waters in the Chumunzhin area, but were discovered by the enemy and almost all were destroyed artillery fire (only 1 boat managed to escape) without firing torpedoes.

Heroes of the Soviet Union who fought on torpedo boats of the G-5 type:

• Gumanenko Vladimir Polikarpovich
• Zhiltsov Vasily Markovich
• Ivanov Ivan Sergeevich
• Kazachinsky Konstantin Vasilievich
• Kananadze Alexander Georgievich
• Kostritsky Sergey Petrovich
• Kotov Sergey Nikolaevich
• Kochiev Konstantin Georgievich
• Kudersky Afanasy Iovich
• Kuskov Viktor Dmitrievich
• Malik Mikhail Grigorievich
• Matyukhin Grigory Ivanovich
• Osipov Sergey Alexandrovich
• Panteleev Lev Nikolaevich
• Pershin Boris Maksimovich
• Pilipenko Vladimir Stepanovich
• Podymakhin Matvey Prokopyevich
• Rogachevsky Georgy Alekseevich
• Sverdlov Abram Grigorievich
• Starostin Vasily Mikhailovich
• Sutyrin Alexander Alexandrovich
• Ternovsky Georgy Vladimirovich
• Tikhonov Viktor Ivanovich
• Ushchev Boris Petrovich
• Chertsov Andrey Efimovich
• Shengur Ivan Petrovich

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Notes

Literature

• Tsarkov A. Boats G-5 (Russian) // “Weapons” magazine. - 2011. - No. 05. - pp. 52-63.

Links

• mkmagazin.almanacwhf.ru/ships/g_5.htm
• base13.glasnet.ru/text/g5/g5.htm

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An excerpt characterizing the G-5 type torpedo boats

“G...”az! Two! T”i!...” Denisov shouted angrily and stepped aside. Both walked along the trodden paths closer and closer, recognizing each other in the fog. Opponents had the right, converging to the barrier, to shoot whenever they wanted. Dolokhov walked slowly, without raising his pistol, peering with his bright, shining, blue eyes into the face of his opponent. His mouth, as always, had the semblance of a smile.
- So when I want, I can shoot! - said Pierre, at the word three he walked forward with quick steps, straying from the well-trodden path and walking on solid snow. Pierre held the pistol outstretched forward right hand, apparently afraid that he might kill himself with this pistol. He carefully put his left hand back, because he wanted to support his right hand with it, but he knew that this was impossible. Having walked six steps and strayed off the path into the snow, Pierre looked back at his feet, again quickly looked at Dolokhov, and, pulling his finger, as he had been taught, fired. Not expecting such a strong sound, Pierre flinched from his shot, then smiled at his own impression and stopped. The smoke, especially thick from the fog, prevented him from seeing at first; but the other shot he was waiting for did not come. Only Dolokhov’s hurried steps were heard, and his figure appeared from behind the smoke. With one hand he held his left side, with the other he clutched the lowered pistol. His face was pale. Rostov ran up and said something to him.
“No...e...t,” Dolokhov said through his teeth, “no, it’s not over,” and taking a few more falling, hobbling steps right up to the saber, he fell on the snow next to it. Left hand he was covered in blood, he wiped it on his coat and leaned on it. His face was pale, frowning and trembling.
“Please…” Dolokhov began, but couldn’t say right away... “Please,” he finished with an effort. Pierre, barely holding back his sobs, ran to Dolokhov, and was about to cross the space separating the barriers when Dolokhov shouted: “to the barrier!” - and Pierre, realizing what was happening, stopped at his saber. Only 10 steps separated them. Dolokhov lowered his head to the snow, greedily bit the snow, raised his head again, corrected himself, tucked his legs and sat down, looking for a strong center of gravity. He swallowed cold snow and sucked it; his lips trembled, but still smiling; the eyes sparkled with the effort and malice of the last collected strength. He raised the pistol and began to take aim.
“Sideways, cover yourself with a pistol,” said Nesvitsky.
“Watch yourself!” even Denisov, unable to bear it, shouted to his opponent.
Pierre, with a meek smile of regret and repentance, helplessly spreading his legs and arms, stood straight in front of Dolokhov with his broad chest and looked at him sadly. Denisov, Rostov and Nesvitsky closed their eyes. At the same time, they heard a shot and Dolokhov’s angry cry.
- Past! - Dolokhov shouted and lay helplessly face down on the snow. Pierre grabbed his head and, turning back, went into the forest, walking entirely in the snow and saying out loud incomprehensible words:
- Stupid... stupid! Death... lies... - he repeated, wincing. Nesvitsky stopped him and took him home.
Rostov and Denisov took the wounded Dolokhov.
Dolokhov, silently, with eyes closed, lay in the sleigh and did not answer a word to the questions that were asked of him; but, having entered Moscow, he suddenly woke up and, with difficulty raising his head, took Rostov, who was sitting next to him, by the hand. Rostov was struck by the completely changed and unexpectedly enthusiastically tender expression on Dolokhov’s face.
- Well? How do you feel? - asked Rostov.
- Bad! but that's not the point. My friend,” said Dolokhov in a broken voice, “where are we?” We are in Moscow, I know. I’m okay, but I killed her, killed her... She won’t stand it. She won't bear it...
- Who? - asked Rostov.
- My mother. My mother, my angel, my adored angel, mother,” and Dolokhov began to cry, squeezing Rostov’s hand. When he calmed down somewhat, he explained to Rostov that he lived with his mother, and that if his mother saw him dying, she would not bear it. He begged Rostov to go to her and prepare her.
Rostov went ahead to carry out the assignment, and to his great surprise he learned that Dolokhov, this brawler, the brute Dolokhov lived in Moscow with his old mother and hunchbacked sister, and was the most tender son and brother.

Pierre in Lately I rarely saw my wife face to face. Both in St. Petersburg and Moscow, their house was constantly full of guests. The next night after the duel, he, as he often did, did not go to the bedroom, but remained in his huge, father’s office, the same one in which Count Bezukhy died.
He lay down on the sofa and wanted to fall asleep in order to forget everything that happened to him, but he could not do it. Such a storm of feelings, thoughts, memories suddenly arose in his soul that he not only could not sleep, but could not sit still and had to jump up from the sofa and walk quickly around the room. Then he imagined her at first after her marriage, with open shoulders and a tired, passionate look, and immediately next to her he imagined the beautiful, insolent and firmly mocking face of Dolokhov, as it had been at dinner, and the same face of Dolokhov, pale, trembling and suffering as it was when he turned and fell into the snow.
“What happened? – he asked himself. “I killed my lover, yes, I killed my wife’s lover.” Yes, it was. From what? How did I get to this point? “Because you married her,” answered an inner voice.
“But what am I to blame for? - he asked. “The fact is that you married without loving her, that you deceived both yourself and her,” and he vividly imagined that minute after dinner at Prince Vasily’s when he said these words that never escaped him: “Je vous aime.” [I love you.] Everything from this! I felt then, he thought, I felt then that it was not that I had no right to it. And so it happened.” He remembered Honeymoon, and blushed at this memory. Particularly vivid, offensive and shameful for him was the memory of how one day, soon after his marriage, at 12 noon, in a silk robe, he came from the bedroom to the office, and in the office he found the chief manager, who bowed respectfully and looked at Pierre's face, on his robe, and smiled slightly, as if expressing with this smile respectful sympathy for the happiness of his principal.
“And how many times have I been proud of her, proud of her majestic beauty, her social tact,” he thought; he was proud of his home, in which she welcomed all of St. Petersburg, he was proud of her inaccessibility and beauty. So this is what I was proud of?! I thought then that I didn’t understand her. How often, pondering her character, I told myself that it was my fault that I didn’t understand her, that I didn’t understand this constant calm, contentment and absence of any attachments and desires, and the whole solution was in that terrible word that she was a depraved woman: said imagine this scary word, and everything became clear!
“Anatole went to her to borrow money from her and kissed her bare shoulders. She didn't give him money, but she allowed him to kiss her. Her father, jokingly, aroused her jealousy; she said with a calm smile that she was not so stupid as to be jealous: let her do what she wants, she said about me. I asked her one day if she felt any signs of pregnancy. She laughed contemptuously and said that she was not a fool to want to have children, and that she would not have children from me.”
Then he remembered the rudeness, the clarity of her thoughts and the vulgarity of expressions characteristic of her, despite her upbringing in the highest aristocratic circle. “I’m not some kind of fool... go try it yourself... allez vous promener,” she said. Often, looking at her success in the eyes of old and young men and women, Pierre could not understand why he did not love her. Yes, I never loved her, Pierre told himself; I knew that she was a depraved woman, he repeated to himself, but he did not dare admit it.
And now Dolokhov, here he sits in the snow and smiles forcibly, and dies, perhaps responding to my repentance with some kind of feigned youth!”
Pierre was one of those people who, despite their outward, so-called weakness of character, do not look for an attorney for their grief. He processed his grief alone.
“She is to blame for everything, she alone is to blame,” he said to himself; - but what of this? Why did I connect myself with her, why did I tell her this: “Je vous aime,” [I love you?] which was a lie and even worse than a lie, he said to himself. I am guilty and must bear... What? A disgrace to your name, a misfortune to your life? Eh, it’s all nonsense, he thought, a disgrace to the name, and honor, everything is conditional, everything is independent of me.
“Louis XVI was executed because they said that he was dishonest and a criminal (it occurred to Pierre), and they were right from their point of view, just as those who died for him were right martyrdom and canonized him as a saint. Then Robespierre was executed for being a despot. Who is right, who is wrong? Nobody. But live and live: tomorrow you will die, just as I could have died an hour ago. And is it worth it to suffer when you only have one second to live compared to eternity? - But at that moment, when he considered himself reassured by this kind of reasoning, he suddenly imagined her in those moments when he most strongly showed her his insincere love, and he felt a rush of blood to his heart, and had to get up again, move, and break and tear things that come into his hands. “Why did I tell her: “Je vous aime?” he kept repeating to himself. And having repeated this question for the 10th time, Molierevo came to his mind: mais que diable allait il faire dans cette galere? [but why the hell brought him to this galley?] and he laughed at himself.
At night he called the valet and told him to pack up and go to St. Petersburg. He couldn't stay under the same roof with her. He couldn't imagine how he would talk to her now. He decided that tomorrow he would leave and leave her a letter in which he would announce to her his intention to separate from her forever.
In the morning, when the valet, bringing coffee, entered the office, Pierre was lying on the ottoman and sleeping with an open book in his hand.
He woke up and looked around in fear for a long time, unable to understand where he was.
“The Countess ordered me to ask if your Excellency is at home?” – asked the valet.
But before Pierre had time to decide on the answer he would make, the countess herself, in a white satin robe, embroidered with silver, and simple hair (two huge braids en diademe [in the form of a diadem] curved twice around her lovely head) entered the room calm and majestic; only on her marble, somewhat convex forehead was a wrinkle of anger. With her all-bearing calm, she did not speak in front of the valet. She knew about the duel and came to talk about it. She waited until the valet had set out the coffee and left. Pierre looked at her timidly through his glasses, and, like a hare surrounded by dogs, his ears flattened, continues to lie in sight of his enemies, so he tried to continue reading: but he felt that it was pointless and impossible and again looked timidly at her. She did not sit down, and looked at him with a contemptuous smile, waiting for the valet to come out.

G-5 - the first Soviet torpedo boat

1On March 4, 1930, the first Soviet torpedo boat ANT-3 Pervenets was launched.

Andrey Nikolaevich Tupolev is known among us as a great aircraft designer, and few people know that not only the first Soviet heavy bomber came out of his drawing board , but also first Soviet torpedo boat.

An order for the design of our country's first glider for river fleets Andrey Nikolaevich Tupolev received back in 1920, and already the following summer, tests of GANT-1, a single-jet planing boat with a displacement of 1 ton and an engine of 160 liters, began on the Moscow River. s., reaching speeds of up to 75 km/h. The first model was followed by a second one - with a propeller, and when, at the beginning of 1923, the People's Commissariat for Maritime Affairs of the RSFSR raised the question of creating domestic planing torpedo boats. The Central Aerohydrodynamic Institute did not have to start from scratch. The groundwork turned out to be such that scientists and designers TsAGI Almost immediately we were able to provide a preliminary design and estimate for construction GANT-3- that’s what the institute called the new boat. For a number of reasons, further development of the boat. stopped. And only on February 2, 1925, the People's Commissariat for Maritime Affairs issued a revised task for a torpedo boat, armed with one machine gun and one torpedo, with a speed of at least 50 knots, a water propeller and seaworthiness up to 3 points. The ship's hull had to have watertight bulkheads and provisions for lifting on board the cruiser. Armor protection on top from small fragments and bullets is also desirable.
Tupolev presented two preliminary designs for consideration - a large seaworthy twin-engine boat with one 533 mm torpedo and a small single-engine boat with one 450 mm torpedo, designed for lifting onto ships. The choice fell on the first, but without bulkheads weighing down the structure and with a temporary device for installing a 450-mm torpedo. July 30, 1925 TsAGI started production GANT-3, called "Firstborn" (100). Delivered by railway to Sevastopol, it was launched on March 17, 1927.
During testing of the boat, which lasted 4 months, a number of design flaws were discovered. Thus, in the aft part of the bottom, a plane was initially installed on hinges, the angle of attack of which was changed by vertical propellers with flywheels. During testing, this plane quickly came off due to impacts with rocks and the bottom, and Tupolev never installed such a device on his boats again. It also turned out that with waves and winds of 3-4 points, the open wheelhouse was heavily flooded with water, and the hull experienced sharp shocks, hitting the bottom with the water. The boat also handled poorly in reverse, and it was almost impossible to shoot accurately from a machine gun at speeds above 30 knots. But on the whole, “Firstborn” met the designers’ expectations: the engines worked flawlessly, as did the control devices, as well as electrical and radio equipment. Handling in forward motion, reverse, torpedo firing and seaworthiness in seas up to 3 could be considered quite satisfactory. Comparing the Firstborn with one of the captured SMVs, we found out that the English boat was inferior to ours in both speed and maneuverability.
On July 16, 1927, the experimental boat was enlisted in the naval forces on the Black Sea.
In accordance with this program, already on December 12, 1926, the Technical Directorate of the People's Commissariat for Military and Naval Affairs proposed TsAGI create a new, more advanced boat than the Firstborn. When designing GANT-4(later called " Tupolev") the designers took into account the shortcomings identified during testing GANT-3. Thus, on the new boat, the stabilizer for adjusting the angle of attack was eliminated, the camber of the bow was increased, the hull was strengthened, measures were taken against corrosion of the chain mail aluminum plating, and the commander’s cabin was made closed. The armament consisted of two 450 mm torpedoes and one machine gun.
GANT-4 built in Moscow, in workshops TsAGI, and launched in Sevastopol on September 3, 1928. And while the prototype was being tested in the Black Sea, intensive preparations were underway in the Baltic for mass production of new boats. The first of them, a boat of the Sh-4 type (101), was launched on October 1, 1928, and on November 21 it was included in the fleet lists. Quite a bit of time passed and the fleet began to quickly be replenished with modern torpedo boats. Over four years, 56 units were produced, and this made it possible to form torpedo boat formations in the Baltic in 1928, in the Black Sea in 1929 and in Pacific Ocean in 1939.

While the industry was mastering the production of serial Sh-4, the Tupolev team at TsAGI began designing a new, more advanced boat with two domestic engines and two torpedo tubes, called G-5(planing No. 5). The task for such a ship was issued by TsAGI on June 29, 1928, and a year later - on June 13, 1929 - they began to build a prototype GANT-5. Since the new boat had almost the same contours as the GANT-4, the hull was produced relatively quickly, but then things stalled: the engine builders failed. We had to urgently purchase thousand-horsepower Isotta-Fraschini aircraft engines, and then adapt them to work in sea ​​conditions. Therefore, the boats were sent to Sevastopol only on February 15, 1933, and the tests dragged on until the last days of December. But the results were outstanding...

The maximum speed without load was 65.3 knots. Maximum speed at full combat load is 58 knots. Seaworthiness was higher than that of Tupolev-class boats. The hull behaves well, there is no vibration, it is stable on course both without a load and with torpedoes and in different sea conditions (tested up to four points)... The commission believes that this torpedo boat is the best we have in terms of armament, both in terms of technical properties, and recommends it for mass production..."
Speed ​​characteristics of boats. that were in the series were more modest, since instead of two 1000 V motors they had. With. there were domestic GAM-34 designed by Mikulin with a power of 850 hp. With. Serial testing G-5 completed in January 1934, after which deliveries of light torpedo boats to the fleet began. During the years of the Second Five-Year Plan (1933-1937), our industry produced 137 of them, and by the beginning of the Great Patriotic War, of the 269 torpedo boats that were in service, the lion’s share fell precisely on G-5, which were built before 1944.
During operation, these boats were continuously modernized, increasing their seaworthiness, strength, survivability and reliability. The methods of their combat use were also improved. If in pre-war years Since torpedo boats were considered an integral part of the striking force of the fleet, designed to destroy enemy surface warships and transport vessels in coastal waters, the war posed many new tasks for the boats. The crews of torpedo boats carried out patrol duty, escorted transport ships, laid active minefields in enemy waters, landed troops, fought against submarines and trawled fairways, bombarding German bottom proximity mines with depth charges. Particularly difficult and sometimes unusual tasks were carried out by Black Sea boats during the Great Patriotic War. They had to escort... trains running along the Caucasian coast. They fired torpedoes at... the coastal fortifications of Novorossiysk. And finally, German and Romanian ships and even airfields were fired at with missiles.

When developing the landing operation in Novorossiysk, the brigade’s torpedo boats were tasked with destroying batteries and pillboxes on the Novorossiysk pier. And so, on the night of September 10, 1943, 1 minute 15 seconds after the first artillery salvo of our ships, Soviet boats fired torpedoes... “The almost simultaneous attack of seven torpedoes on the pier shook it so much,” Protsenko recalled, “that small-caliber automatic cannons and machine guns flew off their tripods and the crazy fascists fell off their feet. And the explosions of torpedoes fired under the base of the most powerful pillbox at the end of the pier destroyed it so that the heavy armor plate crushed the entire crew. The surviving fascists did not have time to come to their senses when our sailors fell on them - machine gunners.
No less interesting and unusual was the combat use of the first missile boats in history, which began to arrive in the brigade in the summer of 1943. These ships did not have torpedoes; instead, they were equipped with launcher with 132-mm rockets suspended from it.
On the night of June 11, 1943, three missile and two torpedo boats went to Novorossiysk to suppress the enemy four-gun battery that was harassing our troops and ships on South Ozereyka. Secretly taking the starting position. the boatmen waited for the pilots to drop flare bombs, then went ashore on full speed ahead two torpedo boats rushed in to draw fire from enemy guns. As soon as the first shots rang out at 2:18 a.m., the missile boats fired a sighting salvo, I lay down at the edge of the shore, and then dozens of orange-red tails from rocket shells streaked the sky. On the shore, pillars of fire shot up to the sky and flames began to flare up. A few days later, a Romanian officer who surrendered said that Katyusha shells fell with great accuracy. Their explosions sent stacks of ammunition prepared for firing into the air. As a result, three of the four guns were disabled and almost all the servants were destroyed.
On the night of August 28, four missile boats carried out a fire raid on the Anapa airfield, and three days later, the same missile carriers, while on patrol, managed to disperse nine enemy boats with the fire of their installations.

G-5 continued to serve after the war. Thanks to their non-magnetic body, they were used in clearing mine fields of magnetic contact mines.

The last operator of torpedo boats G-5 became the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, which received five boats of this type from the USSR in the late 40s.

See also:

Previous days in Russian history:

Torpedo boats of the "G-5" type- a project of Soviet planing torpedo boats created in the 1930s.

Design history

On June 29, 1928, TsAGI, under the leadership of the famous aircraft designer A. N. Tupolev, was given the task of building a planing torpedo boat with two domestic engines and two torpedo tubes. On June 13, 1929, construction began on a prototype GANT-5, the lines of which were exactly the same as those of the Sh-4. The industry was unable to provide the project with the necessary power plant, and therefore it was necessary to purchase Isotta-Fraschini engines with a power of 1000 hp. With.

History of construction

The boat was sent to Sevastopol for testing only on February 15, 1933. During testing, the boat without weapons reached a speed of 65.3 knots, and with a full combat load - 58 knots. However, domestic engines began to be installed on production boats (2 × 850 hp instead of 2 × 1000 hp on the prototype). Testing of the first production boats was completed in January 1934. The construction was carried out by the Andre Marty plant (plant No. 194) in Leningrad. In total, over 300 units of all series were built.

Design

The hull material is duralumin, like the Sh-4 type boats. Box-shaped keel beam, 10 frames - private profiles. The casing was fastened with rivets.

The hull is divided into 5 compartments by 4 transverse waterproof bulkheads: I - forepeak; II - motor; III - control compartment; IV - fuel; V - trench torpedo tubes (TA). The crew consisted of 6 people (almost sometimes it reached 11 people).

Two semi-balanced rudders. The front viewing glass is armored.

Power point

Two AM-34 aviation engines designed by Mikulin, produced at plant No. 24. For operation in marine conditions, the engines were modernized (superchargers were removed) and received the designation GAM-34. Rotation speed 2000 rpm. Three-bladed propellers with a diameter of 680 mm. For silent running, the exhaust could be switched to underwater.

Could support maximum speed for 15 minutes, full - 1 hour, economic - 7 hours.

Fuel - B-74 gasoline or a mixture of 70% B-70 and 30% alcohol.

Electrical installation - two DC dynamos with a power of 250 W each.

On September 1, 1934, the G-6 (enlarged G-5) was laid down in the TsAGI workshops - which was to become the lead boat. But he didn’t go into production.

Combat use

On May 1, 1937, four G-5s arrived on the deck of the Spanish cargo ship Santo Tome in Cartagena, where they were met by N.G. Kuznetsov (then the Soviet naval attaché in Spain). Even then, their low professional suitability became obvious, 2 of them were lost.

Only one G-5 (No. 16) served in the Northern Fleet, which, due to its short range, was transferred from a combat unit to a watercraft.

In other theaters of war, the situation was such that only once during the entire Great War Patriotic War torpedo boats of this type launched an attack on a large formation of German Kriegsmarine ships. The German formation, consisting of the cruisers Leipzig and Emden and the destroyers T-7, T-8, T-11, with the participation of minesweepers from the 17th flotilla, fired at Soviet troops on the Syrve Peninsula. 4 torpedo boats came out to intercept them. Descriptions of the development of further events vary depending on who is describing them. A confirmed fact is that the German ships left and did not take part in shelling Soviet troops on Saarema.

In the vast majority of other cases of combat use, torpedo boats were not used for their intended purpose: for landing troops, laying minefields, delivering cargo, shelling the coast, confronting enemy boats and minesweepers, communications, and reconnaissance. The G-5 was actively used to disrupt enemy sea communications.

5 G-5 boats also fell into enemy hands during the war - two TKAs ((No. 111, No. 163) were captured by German troops in the Black Sea and the Baltic, three (No. 54, No. 64, No. 141) by the Finns. The latter became part of the Finnish Navy (V-3, V-1 and V-2, respectively), but were returned to the USSR after Finland left the war in 1944. The most effective of them, as part of the Finnish Navy, was V-2, which sank together with two other Finnish TKAs, the gunboat of the Baltic Fleet "Red Banner".

During the Second World War, the Black Sea Fleet had 2 brigades of torpedo boats (Novorossiysk and Sevastopol brigades). Both took an active part in the fighting. Due to the speed and wooden body, they were used in clearing mine fields of magnetic contact mines.

The last operator of G-5 torpedo boats was the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, which received 5 boats of this type from the USSR in the late 40s. On July 2, 1950, a North Korean detachment of 4 G-5 boats tried to attack the allied cruisers Juneau (USA) and Jamaica (Great Britain), which were blocking the coastal waters in the Chumunzhin area, but were discovered by the enemy and almost all were destroyed artillery fire (only 1 boat managed to escape) without firing torpedoes.