Soviet destroyer Stremitelny (1937)

Stremitelny (Стремительный) was one of 29 Gnevny-class destroyer (officially known as Project 7) built for the Soviet Navy during the late 1930s. Completed in 1938, the ship was assigned to the Baltic Fleet and played a minor role in the 1939–1940 Winter War against Finland. Stremitelny was transferred to the Northern Fleet in mid-1940. After the start of the German invasion of the Soviet Union (Operation Barbarossa) in June 1941, she covered an amphibious landing along the Arctic coast. The ship was attacked and sunk by German dive bombers the following month in Polyarny with the loss of 111 crew and passengers. Her wreck was partially salvaged the following year.

Design and description
Having decided to build the large and expensive 40 kn Leningrad-class destroyer destroyer leaders, the Soviet Navy sought Italian assistance in designing smaller and cheaper destroyers. They licensed the plans for the Folgore-class destroyer and, in modifying it for their purposes, overloaded a design that was already somewhat marginally stable.

The Gnevnys had an overall length of 112.8 m, a beam of 10.2 m, and a draft of 4.8 m at deep load. The ships were significantly overweight, almost 200 MT heavier than designed, displacing 1612 MT at standard load and 2039 MT at deep load. Their crew numbered 197 officers and sailors in peacetime and 236 in wartime. The ships had a pair of geared steam turbines, each driving one propeller, rated to produce 48000 shp using steam from three water-tube boilers which were intended to give them a maximum speed of 37 kn. The designers had been conservative in rating the turbines and many, but not all, of the ships handily exceeded their designed speed during their sea trials. Others fell considerably short of it. Stremitelny reached 38.3 kn during her trials in 1938. Variations in fuel oil capacity meant that the range of the Gnevnys varied between 1670 to 3145 nmi at 19 kn. Stremitelny herself demonstrated a range of 3055 nmi at that speed.

As built, the Gnevny-class ships mounted four 130 mm B-13 guns in two pairs of superfiring single mounts fore and aft of the superstructure. Anti-aircraft defense was provided by a pair of 76.2 mm 34-K AA guns in single mounts and a pair of 45 mm 21-K AA guns as well as two 12.7 mm DK or DShK machine guns. They carried six 533 mm torpedo tubes in two rotating triple mounts; each tube was provided with a reload. The ships could also carry a maximum of either 60 or 95 mines and 25 depth charges. They were fitted with a set of Mars hydrophones for anti-submarine work, although they were useless at speeds over 3 kn. The ships were equipped with two K-1 paravanes intended to destroy mines and a pair of depth-charge throwers.

Construction and service
Built in Leningrad's Shipyard No. 189 (Ordzhonikidze) as yard number 291, Stremitelny was laid down on 22 August 1936 and launched on 4 February 1937. Completed on 18 November 1938, she was commissioned into the Baltic Fleet on 29 November. The ship served on patrol and escort duty during the Winter War, aside from bombarding the coastal artillery positions on the Finnish island of Russarö on 1 December 1939 with her sister ship SOVIET DESTROYER Smetlivy and the light cruiser SOVIET CRUISER Kirov. Stremitelny was transferred to the Northern Fleet on 9 May 1940.

When Operation Barbarossa, the German invasion of the Soviet Union, began on 22 June 1941, the ship was based in Polyarny. Together with her sisters SOVIET DESTROYER Gromky and SOVIET DESTROYER Gremyashchy, Stremitelny covered the landing of troops on the western side of the mouth of the Zapadnaya Litsa River on 14 July during Operation Platinum Fox, the German attempt to capture Murmansk. Six days later, she was attacked by Junkers Ju 87 "Stuka" dive bombers while docked in Polyarny and was struck by four bombs amidships. They detonated in the boiler and engine rooms, killing all the crewmen in those compartments and breaking the ship in half. The stern section sank in a few minutes, but the bow section took 20 minutes to sink. A total of 111 people were killed, including several entertainers who were giving a performance aboard when the aircraft attacked. Her wreck was partially salvaged in April 1942 and her stern was used to repair her sister SOVIET DESTROYER Razumny.