On the island of Koivisto, the western choke point of the Karelian Isthmus, the Finnish army built three large and small fortifications on the side of the island facing the Gulf of Finland, and also built new shore defense artillery positions in the woods. Pen ~ fun ~ pavilion www.biquge.info

Due to the flexible angles of fire of the new heavy artillery positions on the island, the Red Army attacking the western side of the isthmus would be threatened by artillery groups on Koivisto Island as soon as they advanced to the area around Kuolemajervi, and the task of the "October Revolution" and "Marat" was to destroy the Finnish fortresses and artillery positions on Koivisto Island, eliminate the threat of attacking the flanks of the isthmus troops, and create favorable conditions for the Red Army to occupy the island in the future (Koivisto Island is less than 1.5 km from the Karelian Isthmus).

Ivan Stepanovich Isakov stepped out of the armored bridge of the flagship "October Revolution" and stood in the corridor outside the command tower: the fleet was heading to the predetermined position at a speed of 14 knots, completely unafraid of the cold Baltic Sea breeze and the ice floe mixed with the sea. There are still 20 days left in the Gulf of Finland for fleet operations at most, and as the temperature drops, the ice will become more and more severe, and by late December even the battleships at the head of the icebreaker will not be able to be dispatched.

As the commander of the Red Banner Baltic Fleet, Isakov knew the Kremlin's plan for the operation against Finland this time, and his fleet should have enough time for these 20 days. Half a month ago, he had already sent all the ships of the fleet with minesweeping functions to clear the obstacles for the fleet under the noses of the Finns, and the battleship was the first combat mission after the civil war, and the thought of this made his calm heart can't help but get excited.

The "Marat" was 0.5 nautical miles away from the stern of the "October Revolution," and the five destroyers were divided into two groups to escort the battleship formation in front and behind. As for the "October Revolution" under his feet, Isakov has a deeper affection for the "Marat" behind him, and two years ago, when he was still the chief of staff of the Red Banner Baltic Fleet, he took the "Marat" to Britain to participate in the coronation parade of King George VI. Because the October Revolution has a newly designed armored conning tower and a relatively more advanced sighting system, it became the new flagship of the Baltic Fleet last year.

Speaking of advancement, Isakov's thoughts couldn't help but drift to the distant Barents Sea, where he already knew about the service of the two Soviet-class ships, and now the captains of the two battleships in the formation were the deputy captains of last year, and the comrades in the captains had already gone to the north a year ago to familiarize themselves with and command the new ships.

Compared with the Soviet-class, the battleships under the feet are outdated, but the central government does not plan to use new battleships now, and the charge has to rely on these old ships. "Old ship, hehe." He suddenly thought of the "Frunze", which is now in the Black Sea Fleet, the old ship that was burned with heavy losses for more than ten years, and has been in service several times and entered the shipyard, and now it has become the "Paris Commune" class (that is, "Sevastopol", but the name has been changed. The most modern one. The new power system and advanced command system are one less turret, leaving only 9 main guns, and the price is to get a greatly increased speed, which has become the "personal bodyguard" of the aircraft carrier of the Black Sea Fleet, but this also makes it impossible for it to form a comfortable formation with the "Paris Commune".

"Comrade commander, in ten minutes we will be in the shelling position."

The captain of the "October Revolution", Colonel Moskalenko, walked out of the command tower and reported to Isakov.

Visibility on the sea was excellent, and the two battleships made a nice turn to take advantage of the standard T-head as if they were in a naval battle, allowing them to use the firepower of all four turrets. As a result of the anti-shore shelling, the fleet adopted the metric distance calculation method, maintaining a speed of 4 knots at a distance of 22 km from the island of Koivisto.

"The distance is 22,000 kilometers, the shelling calculation is complete, and the turrets are ready!"

The call of the gun commander sitting at the top of the shelling observation post could be heard from the loudspeaker.

"Let's get started." Isakov gave the order to the captain of the ship, Moskalenko.

"I'm Captain Moskalenko, salvo of the whole ship!"

The momentum of the salvo of the 12 main guns was like turning the world upside down, the high muzzle spit out a blazing fireball, and the huge muzzle storm swept everything, and the recoil force generated in an instant even pushed the hull of more than 26,000 tons back by half a meter!

The sound of the high-speed flight of the cannonballs was like the roar of a high-speed passing train, only louder and more terrifying, and the loud sound of the shelling fire mixed with the sonic boom made the blood of the entire fleet boil, and the adrenaline was extremely intense.

Isakov carefully observed the Finnish fortress 22 kilometers away through high-powered binoculars installed in the control tower, and after a few dozen seconds, he saw clouds of smoke and huge clouds of smoke rising.

Twenty-four armor-piercing shells of the М-11 type, weighing 470.9 kg, accurately hit the target area, leaving huge craters in the reinforced concrete structure of the fortress and the ground around it.

The commands given by the gun commander on the top of the bridge were simultaneously transmitted to the command tower, and now everything has been handed over to the gun commander, and Isakov and Moskalenko no longer interfere with the command of the gun commander.

The reloaded main gun raised its muzzle again, and the sound of the barrel raising and the slight rotation of the turret could be clearly heard in the command stand, all of which meant that the next round of shelling was about to begin.

There was another shocking loud bang, which sounded a little dull in the command tower through the thick armor, and the huge recoil made everyone clearly feel the trembling of the battleship, and the cannonballs whistled towards the fortress.

"The Finn shore defense artillery position was discovered, eight hundred meters to the right of Fortress No. 1, which is shelling us!"

Through the binoculars, you can see the smoke rising from the trees on the island, which is the trace of a salvo of artillery.

"The fleet accelerates to 14 knots, and the entire crew is ready for the impact!"

Isakov, as the commander of the fleet, gave a loud order to everyone to be ready for shells (ramming is not going to hit something).

A huge column of water appeared half a nautical mile away on the starboard side, and the people in the bridge could clearly see that there were five impact points, "Finn 254mm fortress guns." ”

"Turn the muzzle and destroy the Finnish fortified artillery position!" Isakov gave the order again, apparently the Finns either miscalculated or, as the information says, the shore artillery did not have enough range.

The two battleships had a joint artillery command device, and the "Marat" was able to carry out joint shelling according to the parameters given by the flagship. The Finns apparently concealed their shore artillery positions in the woods, and the commander of the guns replaced all the main guns with blasting shells, and 40 seconds later the 24 naval guns again let out an earth-shattering roar.

Tens of seconds later, Isakov saw no longer smoke and dust, but huge red-black fireballs, and even tree trunks and debris that had been blown up high by shells.

After two rounds of shelling, the picture from the top rangefinder was that the Finnish shore artillery positions had been destroyed, and that the five 254-mm shore guns had been muted after the first round of shelling.

"Comrade commander, I suggest that the fleet take close shelling."

Hearing the captain's suggestion, Isakov agreed with the instructions after a brief thought: the accuracy of close shelling was much higher, and the fire of the secondary guns could be used, and with the dumb fire of the Finnish coastal defense guns, the Finns had no more cannons that could pose a substantial threat to the battleship.

The two battleships had a total of 30 50-caliber 120-mm secondary guns (16 for the "October Revolution" and 14 for the "Marat"). ), the rate of fire reached 8 rounds per minute, and the maximum range was 14500 meters. The М-07 and M-11 grenades fired from the 120-mm secondary gun weighed 20.5 kg, although the charge was different, the former was 2.6 kg, the latter was 3.7 kg, and it still had considerable destructive power against general targets.

The 305 mm guns had a limited rate of fire, with a maximum rate of 1.7 rounds per minute, and once the battleship was within range of the secondary guns, the 15 120 guns on one side of the two ships could use the gap between the main guns to destroy the general fortifications of the Finns at a very high speed (the emplacements of the contoured secondary guns were located directly below the main turret, so when the main guns fired a galley salvo, the huge muzzle smoke and violent recoil made it impossible for the secondary guns to aim and fire at all). ）。

The flotilla changed course under the command of the "October Revolution" and began to approach the island of Koivisto at a speed of 14 knots. The powerful main guns were not idle, shelling the Finn fortresses one by one at a rate of one shot per minute. The fleet regained control of its speed at 4 knots at 14,000 meters, and all the destroyers and battleship secondary guns shelled the targets on the island for 15 minutes.

At 2 p.m., the fleet withdrew from the coast of Koivisto Island and again went north to shell the Finnish fortress on Timashio Island before dark, completely eliminating the threat on the western side of the isthmus.

"Comrade Commander, order of the command of the Navy." The fleet communications officer handed Isakov a telegram that had just been received.

"After destroying the original target of the shelling, two destroyers were immediately dispatched to Lavan Island in conjunction with the "Marat" to support the landing operation, and the "October Revolution" and other ships blocked the exit of Vyborg Bay to prevent the Finnish naval ships in the bay from escaping, and destroyed the Finnish coastal fortifications near Ulas. ”

This order was not much different from the original plan, and the fleet immediately divided into two separate lines, and Isaac even felt a little sorry, because the Finnish navy was not worth mentioning compared to his own fleet, and their two most powerful armored ships were not near Vyborg, and even if they did, they would never dare to confront the "October Revolution", and it was estimated that the probability of a real naval battle was zero! (To be continued.) )