How well would a BK-1124 have fared against a US (un)Civil War River Monitor? Silly question though it is the wildly different levels of technology that make it hard for me to pick a clear winner. (how well does thick layers of iron armor work against tank shells?)😇
Will you one day cover the naval battles in the War of the Triple Alliance? In particular the Ironclads, as I think Brazil’s River Ironclad fleet is extremely underrated.
I've heard of these vessels (and other soviet monitors/gunboats) before and my previous research has mentioned that they were used to great effect, do you have any specific examples of engagements where these Soviet River monitors/gunboats had an impact on the battlefield?
Thank you. Look like tough useful little vessels. Years ago at Gencon in Milwaukee, a group was running a huge WW11 Eastern Front campaign game set to Spring of 1943. People could step in a play for a bit then go off to do other things. I played Soviet side around Leningrad for a few turns. Saw that I had about a half dozen riverine flotilla units. I asked if I could take them through the Gulf of Finland and up the Narva River to Lake Peipus. The guys in charge said yes. On our turn, I staged a raid on all the German airfields along that stretch of water way. I lost a unit to mines in the Gulf but Totally wrecked the Nazi’s air assets in the north. They gave me the medal of Kutszov! Fun day. Nice to see what it was I was using to do the dirty deed.
WW11 its an interesting yet depressive matter I drop some tears when my reading the holo-memories of my great great great grand son when he will infiltrate a Halcyon class battlecruiser on the battle of Mount olimpus on mars to destroy the last remnants fleet of the elon,s musk meta clone when he declared the II nd Über Reich Aeternal káiser. He mentioned an old scify quote from a film in old terra wich was: "In the space nobody can hear your screams" But I. I could, in space every scream sounds when you cant shut off the intercom due to a malfunction , and I....I couldnt, I was listening them till the ship vented all the irradiated air of the fusión reactor on every Chamber, the screamed 8 hours.... And then, all them ceased to scream at the same time, when a Railgun tungsten proyectile set off a nuclear chain reactor. Last thing he will listen was a Danke from the Überkommandant. WW11 its a complex thing to digest. I do not recomend to read the Holomemories of the British Exo- granadiers on the fields of Titan if you are eating. Apparently pure oxígen sets in fire burning inside when wearing an exo suit, and a plasma Bolt pierces the last layers of armor.
When I grew up in the 1970s, this - a rubber-powered wooden BK model - was the cheapest ship model kit available. A few blocks of crudely shaped wood, an extruded plastic propeller and a long coil of rubber line. When an eight-year-old got all of this, it turned out quite ugly. Three blocks of wood nailed together, what do you want. The rubber "engine" sort of worked, but it had a tendency to unwind into a tangled mess. Oh well. Imagine my surprise when the parents finally brought me to a ship modeling club and I saw the same cheapo kit made to hyper-realistic perfection, down to the last rivet. In a year or two I learned some of the tricks of the trade. Today it's amazing that small children were allowed to work with all sorts of hazards (like mixing epoxy or metalworking on a real lathe) almost unattended.
Its still common in europe as we assume children can be capable to the level of an adult and don't cuddle them till they're 17 and then assume they can suddenly function as an adult. I fear for the future of mankind as we continue to treat children like they have some form of retardation until adulthood.
Wonderful to see these vessels detailed. Thanks Drach. One minor correction. “Kater” means boat in Russian vice “korabl” which is the general word for ship.
A boat is anything that floats on oars. A cutter is a boat equipped with an engine A yacht, schooner is a boat under sail A ship, vessel, steamship, motor ship is a large floating craft equipped with an engine. These battleships were also called "river flotilla". In general, only those who have something to do with water try to name everything accurately.
Me at 1:37- "Is that a really tiny warship with T-34 turrets on it?" Yes. Yes it was. And I want one. Would be perfect to cruise along the canal system in New York State USA.
IIRC modern Russian missile corvette also build with river capacity in mind. Because INF treaty only banned "ground-based" intermediate-range missile, not a Buyan or Karakurt slinging cruise missile from the middle of a river deep inland.
One of the biggest reasons that the Russians build their missile corvettes able to use the various river and canal systems is the Bosporus. They Russians can only send a ship assigned to the Black Sea Fleet that way ONCE - if they ever transfer it to another fleet, it can't go back. That means that major surface combatants are pretty much stuck... but missile corvettes that can use the rivers and canals can be transferred as many times as needed.
@@the_Carthaginian1 There's also Caspian flotilla that is only accessible through internal waterways. IIRC, the russians did transfer some ships from there into the Black Sea
Last time I was this early warthunder was still good. Lol We need more videos on PT Boats,MTB's,MTG boats and E-boats and schnell boats and french and Italian PT Boats used in WW2 and WW1.
Russian gunboats are quite problematic to play. Usually sea is not calm and light boat is not stable platform to use those T-34 turrets. So you need to use secondary guns, like 37 mm.
The same goes for German Barges in their branch of the Coastal tree, the SF40s suffer from choppy seas, the light may be better but I haven't properly given it a good run.
This one was well timed. My dad has become addicted to British canal boat videos, and my mind went straight to the feasibility of military applications. I guess when there are no wake rules, it's probably frowned upon to send your fellow boaters to their own.
You can find more about it under the name of VTV-1 (Vartiotykkivene). It was captured in Viipurinlahti in 1941. Requipped and armed even with pair of torpedoes it operated doing mostly patrols (and i think at least once bombarded the island of Someri). Then after 1941 sailing season it was shipped by railroad to lake Onega to have at least one actual purpose build warship there to support the paddlewheel gunboats - and continued patrolling there.
@@владимирвасильев-д7дСу-100Y - экспериментальная самоходка, с орудием Б-13 с эсминца проекта 7У. В данном случае, цифра 100 указывает не как обычно на калибр орудия, а на шасси. Которое самоходке досталось от танка Т-100. Прежде чем пороть хуйню, следует хоть как-то проверять.
Thanks for that facinating insight into a part of history I knew nothing about. It's very interesting to see small boats working in the huge expanse of Russia - you make it very real. Without you Drach, I guess not many people would know about it.
The Russians always did their own thing when it came to design, form and function. Not always poorly either. The BK boats are a fine eample of a simple concept and design, being pushed out to meet a much needed use. Very nice indeed.
Ah yes! A battleship small enough to transit the NYS Barge Canal from Buffalo to Albany -- I want these in the New York State Naval Militia*! *yes, this is a real state military organization 😄
At 5:20 when you are discussing turrets, the photo of three boats moored abeam, it looks like the right one has a T-34/76 turret, whereas the centre and left boats have what look to be KV-1 turrets. Fascinating!
I think it is more a case of the one on the right being an early model T34/76 turret and the two on the left being later models. The KV-1 turrets are larger due to leaving room for a third person inside
No they are all t34 turrets. The turret on the side right side boat is a early t34 1941 the other 2 are from t34 E or t34 1942 they have a more box shaped turret and were simpler to make.
TY Drach, any segments on WW 2 , or WW 1 ,riverine war vessels would be a delight++ , an we forgive the lateness of Black sea warfare during WW 2. Some battles were so bloody, few report remain.
@@American97percent More than anyone knows , a lot of ground action means more coastal too. I read some S-boat flotilla (s) were sent overland/canal wise , also R-boats, W-boats , at least all the common light coastal stuff. Hard to find more history, for Drac too I bet. S-boot flotilla histories are best, if you can find the relevent ones to the Black sea.
In regards to what you said at 6:54, for soviets/russians, a reliable something is something that can be fixed easily. An engine that is easy to fix, with basic tools and basic knowledge, is a reliable engine. It's just nitpicking, though.
oh that tank turret reeks of LAND FORCES EQUIPMENT i am sure no one here is comfortable with that. but i try to tell myself its not a t-34 tank turret that they were using, but the tanks were using a bk -1124 river boat main turret instead.
While just plopping on a bunch of tank turrets as main armament seems like a very Soviet thing, at least in this case, it wasn't a such a bad idea. They had a couple few laying around anyway, lol. I can only imagine the logistical nightmares involved in keeping them running with such a whack a mole type of engine procurement. Well, that and the fact that a mouse could fart a hole through the main armor belt. But I'd imagine having at least a basic set of hand tools, a torch, and a big ass hammer go a long way in these things.
@@jeffreypierson2064 it seems like every pair of jeans I've ever the pocket was too small for anything other than a folding knife, but that does make sense.
Excellent video, I only knew those from War Thunder ;). One thing, Bronekatr literally means "Armoured Cutter" as in russian like in german, small fishing Vessels are called Cutter (Kutter in German)
I've read about these on a Russian military history site with most articles in Russian and English. One of the most popular types seems to have been the variant with a turret bow, heavy machine gun on the roof and rocket rails aft. Imagine cruising a tributary with four or five of those and finding a company or so of Wehrmacht infantry getting a bath.
I really hope Drach covers more riverine warcraft. In particular I feel like the original USS Cincinnati would make a good subject; she was sunk twice and returned to service twice, she and the other Mississippi ironclads had very interesting lives
Hey Drach if you were to do another river gun boat for the next guide, try doing the Austro Hungarian river monitor Bodrog who fired the first shots of WW1
@@Tim.NavVet.EN2 Errr, yes, sorry, the video was talking about 75mm (actually 76.2, but never mind) guns, not 75cm guns (which would be more than twice the size of the guns on Yamato!)
@timkohler The 75 Centimeter was the boat's Draft (how deep in the water the boat 's keel (bottom) is), which allows troops to jump in the water when attacking a position on the shore. The fact that they also had 75mm & 76.2mm guns on them can be a source of this confusion.....
Finland managed to capture one of these boats during the Continuation War, it had the turret from a T-28 tank. That boat, VTV-1 (Vartiotykkivene 1), was made the "flagship" of the lake Onega flotilla in 1942 and was the only ship of that force to be evacuated when the Finns were pushed away from Onega's shores in June 1944. It was the only real warship of that unit, other vessels being a misc. collection of all kinds of civilian boats. After the armistice in September of that year, VTV-1 was handed back to the Soviet Union. I have no idea what happened to it after that. I believe that one pic in this video is from VTV-1 as you can see a Finnish officer next to the T-28 style turret (at 03:59). There were three turrets: two machine gun turrets and one cannon turret (T-28) situated as follows: one mg turret was on top of the roof of the conning tower, the cannon turret was located in front of the conning tower and the second mg turret was in front of the cannon tower. Another neat fact about the lake Onega flotilla, was that most of the survivors of the coastal defence ship Ilmarinen were transferred to that unit, after Ilmarinen was sunk in September 1941. The flotilla mainly conducted convoy duties, but at least one battle was fought between VTV-1 and its two escorting converted civilian gunboats against Soviet steamer and gunboats. The battle itself was inconclusive and no hits were recorded on the Finnish nor Soviet vessels.
I've got a 28mm scale one of these I've been meaning to get painted up for a while now. I've always thought they were neat little boats. Would love to se follow ups on the Hungarian and German answers in the same theater.
3:50 actually the main armaments were 76.2 mm caliber which is oddly exactly 3 inches in diameter. The Soviets had an odd fascination with the numbers Seven Six and Two. It should be noted that the T-35 and early T-28 turrets carried a short KT-28 howitzer, later T-28 turrets had a longer barrel L-10 gun (same caliber). The T-34 turrets carried even longer 76.2 mm guns (designated F-34)
Because .30 caliber rifles and 3-inch artillery were already commonplace in Russia before the revolution, and the Soviets saw no reason to change from that.
BKs were colloquially also called "bukashka" (букашка), meaning "little bug". Interestingly, soviets took over a number of Polish river monitors and other craft after the 1939 campaign. Very few poor quality pictures of those available.
8:53 "simplification", of course, just like production of the T-34 tank was streamlined at places like Factory 183, leaving out things like work hardening, turret seals, half the fuel tankage, some optics, etc.
5:56 You say the early turrets were taken from T-28 tanks, but the Bronekater in this photo seems to be using at least one turret designed for the experimental T-29 tank, intended to be the T-28’s successor but with only half a dozen prototypes made. Fascinating.
Interesting to see the smaller ones loaded onto rail cars. I imagine using aircraft engines would have had to have some form of reduction gear, as spinning a prop at 2000+ rpm wouldn't work well. The Soviet river boats have fascinated me for years.
So cool boats, I love it. It makes me wonder: The waterways has always been the hearth of europe in big rivers like Donau and Rhinen. Has there been any use of waships with canons on those rivers from medieval and up to modern time?
Pinned post for Q&A :)
What do you think of these things
How well would a BK-1124 have fared against a US (un)Civil War River Monitor? Silly question though it is the wildly different levels of technology that make it hard for me to pick a clear winner. (how well does thick layers of iron armor work against tank shells?)😇
Will you one day cover the naval battles in the War of the Triple Alliance? In particular the Ironclads, as I think Brazil’s River Ironclad fleet is extremely underrated.
I've heard of these vessels (and other soviet monitors/gunboats) before and my previous research has mentioned that they were used to great effect, do you have any specific examples of engagements where these Soviet River monitors/gunboats had an impact on the battlefield?
What's the one at 1:25?
Looking forward to coverage of the vessels contending for control of Lake Tanganyika during the First World War.
A yes, the famous operation of the African Queen vs the SMS Louisa
I’d actually like to see a guide for the little motor gunboats
@@mbr5742 Kamchatka - "Torpedoes?"
@@mbr5742 Never mind that fictional ship. SMS Königin Luise/Louisa was inspired by the Goetzen, which has a history worth a movie on its own.
Same here
Thank you. Look like tough useful little vessels.
Years ago at Gencon in Milwaukee, a group was running a huge WW11 Eastern Front campaign game set to Spring of 1943. People could step in a play for a bit then go off to do other things. I played Soviet side around Leningrad for a few turns. Saw that I had about a half dozen riverine flotilla units. I asked if I could take them through the Gulf of Finland and up the Narva River to Lake Peipus. The guys in charge said yes. On our turn, I staged a raid on all the German airfields along that stretch of water way. I lost a unit to mines in the Gulf but Totally wrecked the Nazi’s air assets in the north. They gave me the medal of Kutszov! Fun day. Nice to see what it was I was using to do the dirty deed.
Ah, World War 11, the eleventh world war. I remember it like it was yesterday.
That sounds like an AWESOME game!
Great job thinking outside the box!
And apparently, the Soviets even tried using them in the Baltic IRL 8:11
Gaming a bit and then getting the medal of kutuzov. What a lovely Sunday.
WW11 its an interesting yet depressive matter I drop some tears when my reading the holo-memories of my great great great grand son when he will infiltrate a Halcyon class battlecruiser on the battle of Mount olimpus on mars to destroy the last remnants fleet of the elon,s musk meta clone when he declared the II nd Über Reich Aeternal káiser.
He mentioned an old scify quote from a film in old terra wich was:
"In the space nobody can hear your screams"
But I.
I could, in space every scream sounds when you cant shut off the intercom due to a malfunction , and I....I couldnt, I was listening them till the ship vented all the irradiated air of the fusión reactor on every Chamber, the screamed 8 hours....
And then, all them ceased to scream at the same time, when a Railgun tungsten proyectile set off a nuclear chain reactor.
Last thing he will listen was a Danke from the Überkommandant.
WW11 its a complex thing to digest.
I do not recomend to read the Holomemories of the British Exo- granadiers on the fields of Titan if you are eating.
Apparently pure oxígen sets in fire burning inside when wearing an exo suit, and a plasma Bolt pierces the last layers of armor.
"We need a new river gunboat."
*Knocks back vodka*
"Let's make a tiny battleship with tank turrets!"
Baby's first BB
A battleboat.
To be fair they had a shit load of those turrets
СССР : Я колдую, унификация🪄🪄🪄
1:20 "Thus, once the USSR had settled down to only having a few major purges every decade."
Not inaccurate.
сша проводит чистки не останавливаясь.
@@СергейДавыденко-з1шsay what? Where at, and why wasn't I informed?
Tsars, Secretry Generals and President in the Kremlins all love the smell of a new pogrom in the morning
Don’t recall the Us ever having a purge…not like the USSR and of course the recent rash of government opponents falling out of windows….
When I grew up in the 1970s, this - a rubber-powered wooden BK model - was the cheapest ship model kit available. A few blocks of crudely shaped wood, an extruded plastic propeller and a long coil of rubber line. When an eight-year-old got all of this, it turned out quite ugly. Three blocks of wood nailed together, what do you want. The rubber "engine" sort of worked, but it had a tendency to unwind into a tangled mess. Oh well. Imagine my surprise when the parents finally brought me to a ship modeling club and I saw the same cheapo kit made to hyper-realistic perfection, down to the last rivet. In a year or two I learned some of the tricks of the trade. Today it's amazing that small children were allowed to work with all sorts of hazards (like mixing epoxy or metalworking on a real lathe) almost unattended.
Ageism has become a real problem, agreed.
@@XH1927 So has smart-arseism.
considering adults are known to lose members on lathes, it's a miracle you've got any left
Its still common in europe as we assume children can be capable to the level of an adult and don't cuddle them till they're 17 and then assume they can suddenly function as an adult.
I fear for the future of mankind as we continue to treat children like they have some form of retardation until adulthood.
Thank god kids are hooked to social media these days
Gunboats are fascinating, happy you’re covering them!
Wonderful to see these vessels detailed. Thanks Drach. One minor correction. “Kater” means boat in Russian vice “korabl” which is the general word for ship.
It is derived from english cutter.
" Korabl' " is for warship and " Sudno " for unarmed ship
yes in this situation the translation as "armoured boat" would be better than "armoured ship"
@@Aiwendill "armoured boat" - вы правы это настоящее название .
A boat is anything that floats on oars.
A cutter is a boat equipped with an engine
A yacht, schooner is a boat under sail
A ship, vessel, steamship, motor ship is a large floating craft equipped with an engine.
These battleships were also called "river flotilla".
In general, only those who have something to do with water try to name everything accurately.
Me at 1:37- "Is that a really tiny warship with T-34 turrets on it?" Yes. Yes it was. And I want one. Would be perfect to cruise along the canal system in New York State USA.
Added in War Thunder
IIRC modern Russian missile corvette also build with river capacity in mind. Because INF treaty only banned "ground-based" intermediate-range missile, not a Buyan or Karakurt slinging cruise missile from the middle of a river deep inland.
the Russian Navy even to this day still has a vast number of gunboats just like this one, because the rivers and lakes haven't gone away.
One of the biggest reasons that the Russians build their missile corvettes able to use the various river and canal systems is the Bosporus. They Russians can only send a ship assigned to the Black Sea Fleet that way ONCE - if they ever transfer it to another fleet, it can't go back. That means that major surface combatants are pretty much stuck... but missile corvettes that can use the rivers and canals can be transferred as many times as needed.
@@the_Carthaginian1 There's also Caspian flotilla that is only accessible through internal waterways. IIRC, the russians did transfer some ships from there into the Black Sea
Yep... nothing interesting going on there ATM - but attrition in the Black Sea has been 'somewhat high' for some odd reason. 😉
Intercontinental ballistic Aeroprakts flying into the Caspian Flotilla home port also don't seem to help with attrition
Since I have no experience with vessels of this size, this video brand new content and I found it fascinating
Me looking at the thumbnail "Those look like tank turrets."
Drach "They're tank turrets."
"So, you want new river ships, what should they do? Transport? Beach landing? Artillery?"
"Yes."
Fascinating. Never given much thought to river fun boats, but now I think I can build a mini battleship myself
Last time I was this early warthunder was still good. Lol
We need more videos on PT Boats,MTB's,MTG boats and E-boats and schnell boats and french and Italian PT Boats used in WW2 and WW1.
Russian gunboats are quite problematic to play. Usually sea is not calm and light boat is not stable platform to use those T-34 turrets. So you need to use secondary guns, like 37 mm.
The same goes for German Barges in their branch of the Coastal tree, the SF40s suffer from choppy seas, the light may be better but I haven't properly given it a good run.
E-boats and schnell (S) boats are the same thing.
Those Russian boats in Warthunder used to be deadly (early naval with little to no waves)
Thank you, an unusual subject
I love these little boats. They're adorable.
This one was well timed. My dad has become addicted to British canal boat videos, and my mind went straight to the feasibility of military applications. I guess when there are no wake rules, it's probably frowned upon to send your fellow boaters to their own.
I never knew such a thing existed. These are a fascinating mix of practicality and goofiness
3:59 I immediately noticed the clothes! Those are Finnish soldiers inspecting the boat. I did not know we captured one of those.
You can find more about it under the name of VTV-1 (Vartiotykkivene). It was captured in Viipurinlahti in 1941. Requipped and armed even with pair of torpedoes it operated doing mostly patrols (and i think at least once bombarded the island of Someri). Then after 1941 sailing season it was shipped by railroad to lake Onega to have at least one actual purpose build warship there to support the paddlewheel gunboats - and continued patrolling there.
The SU-100Y is a Tank Destroyer that did the reverse of this by putting a 130mm gun from a Battleship on a tank chassis.
From destroyer actually. What make it kinda language joke in English.
Вообще то 100мм орудие.. а не 130..
@@владимирвасильев-д7дСу-100Y - экспериментальная самоходка, с орудием Б-13 с эсминца проекта 7У.
В данном случае, цифра 100 указывает не как обычно на калибр орудия, а на шасси. Которое самоходке досталось от танка Т-100.
Прежде чем пороть хуйню, следует хоть как-то проверять.
@@владимирвасильев-д7д 122 на ИС-2
Yesss!!! Finally River Gunboats!
My thoughts exactly
That's a particularly interesting gunboat. I had no idea it existed. Thanks!
I actually really like the design. Nice to see something unusual like this pop up
Thank you, Drach! I always wanted to see a Guide on the sea-going T-34 turreted boats. Great job!
Thanks for that facinating insight into a part of history I knew nothing about. It's very interesting to see small boats working in the huge expanse of Russia - you make it very real. Without you Drach, I guess not many people would know about it.
The Russians always did their own thing when it came to design, form and function. Not always poorly either. The BK boats are a fine eample of a simple concept and design, being pushed out to meet a much needed use. Very nice indeed.
There is a lack of combat reports, but I found them and these river battleships were like a sieve.
@@American97percent not surprising really. Russian build quality and thin armour vs German machineguns.
Fascinating! More brown water stuff, please!
"Do you see torpedo boats?"
Swear I saw Japanese torpedo boats off the coast of Europe the other day. Don't know why they were fishing though.........
angry throwing of a binocular.... "KAMSCHATKA!"
Ah yes! A battleship small enough to transit the NYS Barge Canal from Buffalo to Albany -- I want these in the New York State Naval Militia*! *yes, this is a real state military organization 😄
Low bridge, everybody duck!
No, I dont believe this.
Always liked these riverine battleships, especially those that have been customized by their crews. Feels like they don't get a lot of attention.
At 5:20 when you are discussing turrets, the photo of three boats moored abeam, it looks like the right one has a T-34/76 turret, whereas the centre and left boats have what look to be KV-1 turrets. Fascinating!
I think it is more a case of the one on the right being an early model T34/76 turret and the two on the left being later models. The KV-1 turrets are larger due to leaving room for a third person inside
I was hoping to see the KV2 turret 'Stalins Refrigerator' on a ship.
No they are all t34 turrets. The turret on the side right side boat is a early t34 1941 the other 2 are from t34 E or t34 1942 they have a more box shaped turret and were simpler to make.
@onenote6619 I think that might have even more stability issues than on the tank!
@timkohlerno not really a trapezoid shape as what those turrets are is fairly stable because of it’s structural similarities to a triangle
That's a pretty badass micro battleship!
TY Drach, any segments on WW 2 , or WW 1 ,riverine war vessels would be a delight++ , an
we forgive the lateness of Black sea warfare during WW 2. Some battles were so bloody, few report remain.
Were there really that many battles?
The USSR Great Patriotic War archive is classified.
Reports were sent to headquarters daily.
@@American97percent More than anyone knows , a lot of ground action means more coastal too. I read some S-boat flotilla (s) were sent overland/canal wise , also R-boats, W-boats , at least all the common light coastal stuff. Hard to find more history, for Drac too I bet. S-boot flotilla histories are best, if you can find the relevent ones to the Black sea.
Excellent video Drach. It makes sense that a boat like this makes absolute sense considering the terrain and the need for gunfire support
A video on the high speed transport conversions of 4 stack destroyers in WW2 would be interesting.
Drach, thanks for covering riverine warfare vessels. Really interesting content!!
Great video, this is the sort of off the beaten path info I’m here for.
In regards to what you said at 6:54, for soviets/russians, a reliable something is something that can be fixed easily. An engine that is easy to fix, with basic tools and basic knowledge, is a reliable engine. It's just nitpicking, though.
"Can be easy fixed" in Russian means "with a hammer, pliers and lot of swearing."😂
@@zelts “Some kind of mother” - this spell even launched Gagarin into orbit.
Interesting. They managed to get 2 T-34 turrets on a vessel only ~ 10 tons heavier than the T-34 itself. 'Armoured' is hypothetical at best.
oh that tank turret reeks of LAND FORCES EQUIPMENT i am sure no one here is comfortable with that. but i try to tell myself its not a t-34 tank turret that they were using, but the tanks were using a bk -1124 river boat main turret instead.
That is a very interesting story of which I was unaware. Thank you for presenting this video.
I've been thinking about these ships for a while, great video as always!
This may well be the most fascinating topic you've covered yet!
I love me some gunboats. I'm able to wrap my head around them much easier than the big battle wagons. I've never really had a head for battleships.
Fascinating. Didn't expect such craft to be covered, really enjoyed that.
Oh yeah! I love the riverine content.
That's a pretty awesome little boat. Thanks for covering it!
Great use of Tank turrets .
Last time I was this early, the Swedish Navy was still growing in a forest in 1830.
I just learned about these earlier this year. Cool to see Drach do an episode about them. Thanks!
While just plopping on a bunch of tank turrets as main armament seems like a very Soviet thing, at least in this case, it wasn't a such a bad idea. They had a couple few laying around anyway, lol. I can only imagine the logistical nightmares involved in keeping them running with such a whack a mole type of engine procurement. Well, that and the fact that a mouse could fart a hole through the main armor belt. But I'd imagine having at least a basic set of hand tools, a torch, and a big ass hammer go a long way in these things.
Excellent! Looking forward to more coverage of Russian Torpedo boats
this is like a pocket battleship for that little tiny pocket in your jeans thats meant to hold your pocket knife and nothing else.
It was originally a watch pocket. Now, I carry my change in it.
@@jeffreypierson2064 it seems like every pair of jeans I've ever the pocket was too small for anything other than a folding knife, but that does make sense.
They remind me of armored trains. I wonder if there was any commonalities between their designers.
Very cool, neat little boats.
Thank you, Drachinifel.
Excellent video, I only knew those from War Thunder ;). One thing, Bronekatr literally means "Armoured Cutter" as in russian like in german, small fishing Vessels are called Cutter (Kutter in German)
I can perfectly imagine a crew management style game based on this craft, with customizable components based on the real life modifications.
Thanks Drach
I've read about these on a Russian military history site with most articles in Russian and English. One of the most popular types seems to have been the variant with a turret bow, heavy machine gun on the roof and rocket rails aft. Imagine cruising a tributary with four or five of those and finding a company or so of Wehrmacht infantry getting a bath.
this is the best option than meeting PAK- in the bushes, not to mention MG
Drach, thanks for this one very much!Please do more Russian Empire and Soviet ships.
Footnote: бронекатер means armoured fast boat, not armoured ship.
I love that little boat! There's so many interesting soviet ships.
I always had a weak spot for these “river battleships”, and would love to see more of these smaller crafts!
Warm greetings from the Netherlands🇳🇱.
Wow! even more interesting than usual.
Looks like a good boat
Neat, never knew these were a thing!
I like them.
They look cool (in their intended layout).
☮
It seems to a neophyte like me, that the USSR didn't do too well with the big ships but the BK river boats seemed to really fit the ticket.
I really hope Drach covers more riverine warcraft. In particular I feel like the original USS Cincinnati would make a good subject; she was sunk twice and returned to service twice, she and the other Mississippi ironclads had very interesting lives
Thank you for the video
Very informative and interesting 🎉
I had no idea these were a thing. Very much appreciated :)
The guns are 76,2 mm, T34/76 tank turret, not 75 mm
They had many different turrets
@@biteursknbiteurskn none of them were 75mm though
Yes, all three tanks mentioned used 76,2 mm guns (KT-28 in case of T28 and T35, F-34 in case of T34)
But they're all 3 inch at the end of the day haha
Hey Drach if you were to do another river gun boat for the next guide, try doing the Austro Hungarian river monitor Bodrog who fired the first shots of WW1
So that's where my turret went!
Pretty cool boats!
For those of us who live in the US (or other places that still use Imperial Units of length) 75cm = ~29.53 inches
You mean 2.953" - near as damn-it 3"
@timkohler You used the Conversion as if it was Millimeters (mm) .vs. Centimeters (cm). {1000 mm to a meter & 100 cm to a meter)
@@Tim.NavVet.EN2 Errr, yes, sorry, the video was talking about 75mm (actually 76.2, but never mind) guns, not 75cm guns (which would be more than twice the size of the guns on Yamato!)
@timkohler OK, the 75cm was how much their draft was.
If the water was 30 inches or deeper they could maneuver in it.....
@timkohler The 75 Centimeter was the boat's Draft (how deep in the water the boat 's keel (bottom) is), which allows troops to jump in the water when attacking a position on the shore. The fact that they also had 75mm & 76.2mm guns on them can be a source of this confusion.....
Thank you!
I want to know about the barges that supplied the japanese at gautelcanal
Finland managed to capture one of these boats during the Continuation War, it had the turret from a T-28 tank. That boat, VTV-1 (Vartiotykkivene 1), was made the "flagship" of the lake Onega flotilla in 1942 and was the only ship of that force to be evacuated when the Finns were pushed away from Onega's shores in June 1944. It was the only real warship of that unit, other vessels being a misc. collection of all kinds of civilian boats. After the armistice in September of that year, VTV-1 was handed back to the Soviet Union. I have no idea what happened to it after that. I believe that one pic in this video is from VTV-1 as you can see a Finnish officer next to the T-28 style turret (at 03:59).
There were three turrets: two machine gun turrets and one cannon turret (T-28) situated as follows: one mg turret was on top of the roof of the conning tower, the cannon turret was located in front of the conning tower and the second mg turret was in front of the cannon tower.
Another neat fact about the lake Onega flotilla, was that most of the survivors of the coastal defence ship Ilmarinen were transferred to that unit, after Ilmarinen was sunk in September 1941. The flotilla mainly conducted convoy duties, but at least one battle was fought between VTV-1 and its two escorting converted civilian gunboats against Soviet steamer and gunboats. The battle itself was inconclusive and no hits were recorded on the Finnish nor Soviet vessels.
Great video very interesting subject matter. Russian river monitors are not something I knew anything about. Really appreciate the new material.
I've got a 28mm scale one of these I've been meaning to get painted up for a while now. I've always thought they were neat little boats. Would love to se follow ups on the Hungarian and German answers in the same theater.
3:50 actually the main armaments were 76.2 mm caliber which is oddly exactly 3 inches in diameter. The Soviets had an odd fascination with the numbers Seven Six and Two.
It should be noted that the T-35 and early T-28 turrets carried a short KT-28 howitzer, later T-28 turrets had a longer barrel L-10 gun (same caliber). The T-34 turrets carried even longer 76.2 mm guns (designated F-34)
Because .30 caliber rifles and 3-inch artillery were already commonplace in Russia before the revolution, and the Soviets saw no reason to change from that.
With the limited beam and shallow draught - plus all that weight in the turrets and armour - it's surprising these things had any stability.
Great video
Cool little craft. I had no idea these were a thing.
On another note , the T-35 is such a cool beast
BKs were colloquially also called "bukashka" (букашка), meaning "little bug". Interestingly, soviets took over a number of Polish river monitors and other craft after the 1939 campaign. Very few poor quality pictures of those available.
8:53 "simplification", of course, just like production of the T-34 tank was streamlined at places like Factory 183, leaving out things like work hardening, turret seals, half the fuel tankage, some optics, etc.
Even Indefatigable is like "THAT'S all you've got for side protection"?
Even Galena is like "I'll take a whack at it..."
5:00 note the wave breaker. Were they expecting typhoons? Or were there overly optimistic about the speed they could achieve?
5:56 You say the early turrets were taken from T-28 tanks, but the Bronekater in this photo seems to be using at least one turret designed for the experimental T-29 tank, intended to be the T-28’s successor but with only half a dozen prototypes made. Fascinating.
One of my grandfathers was a medic serving on one of the motor gunboats during WW2.
fascinating content. Thanks.
So you'd be fairly safe in the turret, as long as you weren't hit below the waist. Sort of like Ned Kelly.
Interesting to see the smaller ones loaded onto rail cars. I imagine using aircraft engines would have had to have some form of reduction gear, as spinning a prop at 2000+ rpm wouldn't work well. The Soviet river boats have fascinated me for years.
So cool boats, I love it. It makes me wonder: The waterways has always been the hearth of europe in big rivers like Donau and Rhinen. Has there been any use of waships with canons on those rivers from medieval and up to modern time?
Sound like the best features of soviet engineering. Simple, robust(ish), but effective.
😊 how coincidental having just acquired the Osprey publishing nook on Soviet gunboats
Thanks, this is really interesting