Krasny Krym
Contents
Description
The Svetlana-class, Krasny Krym, 1943 (Red Crimea) was a Svetlana-class light cruiser built for the Imperial Russian Navy in 1910s. She was laid down as Svetlana, the lead ship of the class on 7th December 1913 and commissioned on 1st July 1928. The delays were caused by German advance in WWI and later the Russian Revolution during which work on the ship was halted. In the late 1930s, she underwent refit during which she received new fire control equipment, three twin Minizini mounts and four 45 mm 21-K guns, as well as seven 12.7 mm DShK machine guns. Later on, the 45 mm guns were replaced by ten 37 mm 61-K automatic cannons. After the attack on the Soviet Union, Krasny Krym supported defenders of Odessa providing shore bombardment and escorting convoys. During the Siege of Sevastopol, she performed convoy escort duties, ferrying men and supplies into the besieged city and providing naval gunfire support. On 18th June 1942, she was awarded the Guards title for her performance during the Kerch-Feodosiyan Operation. Between August and October 1942, she evacuated troops from Novorossiysk and ferried troops to Tuapse and Gelendzhik. Since October 1943, she was forced to stay in port due to Stalin forbidding deployment of naval forces unless approved directly by him due to an incident in which 3 destroyers were lost to the Germans. Krasny Krym was reclassified as a training ship in 1954, she served in this role until 7th May 1957 when she was redesignated as experimental ship before being reclassified as floating barracks on 18th March 1959. She was sold for scrap in July 1959.
Krasny Krym was introduced in Update 1.85 "Supersonic". It is armed with 15 x 130 mm guns, arranged in single mounts; while on paper this may seem impressive, it can fire only a maximum of 8 guns at one target, which with its low calibre for its type means it won't do as much damage as other cruisers. The Krasny Krym is also very slow: while its counterparts steam at around 50 - 60 km/h, Krasny Krym's max speed is 48 km/h, only 3 km/h faster than HMS Dreadnought. However, where the Krasny Krym does shine is in its survivability. Whilst the armour on the vessel isn't especially thick, the armour layout is quite comprehensive and most of the ship is protected by at least some armour. An inbound shell coming at a random angle is could easily encounter two or three layers of protection. This keeps the ship relatively resistant to explosive fragmentation and the armouring is thick enough to halt a fair amount of the armour-piercing shells that will be thrown your way at its BR. Along with the armour is a sizeable crew of 852 men, which can allow for the Krasny Krym to endure surprising levels of punishment and keep fighting. Like other cruisers of its tier, Krasny Krym has a decent AA battery which can deter incoming aircraft, though may not stop a determined attacker until after they have dropped their ordnance.
General info
Survivability and armour
The Krasny Krym has identical belt armour to the Krasny Kavkaz, with a 25mm above waterline belt plate along the entire length of the ship. Below the waterline, a cemented 75mm plate assists in preventing hull breaches. The Krasny Krym has two layers of 25mm deck armour, providing substantial protection against HE and even destroyer and early light cruiser SAP from a distance. The primary armament has a 76mm front plate, with 25mm on the sides and 15mm on the roof. These turrets however are easily destroyed by overpressure and effectively any direct hit by SAP and AP. The bridge is protected by 125mm of cemented armour around all sides with 75mm on the roof, making the bridge nearly invulnerable to most ships of the same BR.
The crew count of 852 is quite good for an early light cruiser allowing for impressive endurance whilst under constant fire. The numerous turrets results in a large amount of ammunition elevators, making fires a significant threat due to ammunition detonations. The hull armour is able to stop most destroyer and early cruisers rounds whilst angled heavily.
Mobility
When compared to the Krasny Kavkaz, the Krasny Krym is a major downgrade in mobility even when fully upgraded. With a max speed of 48/41km/h in Arcade and Realistic respectively. The ability of the rudder to turn the ship is also significantly worse, making the evasion of torpedos a significant issue. This also makes angling the Krasny Krym quite challenging.
| Mobility Characteristics | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Game Mode | Upgrade Status | Maximum Speed (km/h) | |
| Forward | Reverse | ||
| AB | |||
| Upgraded | 48 | 13 | |
| RB/SB | |||
| Upgraded | 41 | 11 | |
Modifications and economy
| Seakeeping | Unsinkability | Firepower | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
|
|
Armament
Primary armament
The 130 mm cannons can be described in one word - inadequate. Being destroyer calibre guns mounted on an outdated cruiser chassis they should be treated as such. Do not expect to knock out anything you would not be able to with late Soviet destroyers, the shells are not something you will be proud of. They also have quite low velocity, so you will most likely have troubles with accuracy at range, and much lower explosive mass than other cruisers. Aiming whole broadside is also somewhat difficult, since the guns do not share levels of elevation nor horizontal guidance. Let that not scare you however, for they do have some redeeming qualities.
First off, they are quite numerous. A full HE broadside of 8 guns can be quite devastating for anything unarmoured, but do not wish for miracles. When fighting against DDs you can feel relatively comfortable, blacking out a few compartments at once, but facing any cruiser you should try to aim to disable the enemy's armament first, as you do not have the power or reload to overpower them. You will have serious disadvantage against them but you can dish out some pain if you're lucky, especially since you'll be far from the top of the priority target list.
The guns apart from being numerous are quite spaced out and have relatively thick gun shields. You can safely assume that you will be able to return fire from at least a few guns until the bitter end, since the possibility of rendering all of them useless is quite low. Even if after facing a few salvoes one side of the ship is inoperable, you have old-school broadside cruiser at your disposal, you can always turn the other way and respond with the other side's guns.
Also, remember that you have big ammo reserves, 175 shells per gun at full load - you can be liberal with your fire should you want to.
| Penetration statistics | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ammunition | Type of warhead |
Penetration @ 0° Angle of Attack (mm) | |||||
| 1,000 m | 2,500 m | 5,000 m | 7,500 m | 10,000 m | 15,000 m | ||
| Pat.1928 HE | HE | 32 | 32 | 32 | 32 | 32 | 32 |
| Pat.1928 SAP | SAPBC | 179 | 155 | 121 | 91 | 78 | 57 |
| Dist. granade | HE-TF | 31 | 31 | 31 | 31 | 31 | 31 |
| Shell details | ||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ammunition | Type of warhead |
Velocity (m/s) |
Projectile mass (kg) |
Fuse delay (s) |
Fuse sensitivity (mm) |
Explosive mass (TNT equivalent) (kg) |
Ricochet | |||||
| 0% | 50% | 100% | ||||||||||
| Pat.1928 HE | HE | 861 | 33.4 | 0 | 0.1 | 2.71 | 79° | 80° | 81° | |||
| Pat.1928 SAP | SAPBC | 861 | 33.4 | 0.02 | 5 | 1.67 | 48° | 63° | 71° | |||
| Dist. granade | HE-TF | 861 | 33.4 | 0 | 0.1 | 2.64 | 79° | 80° | 81° | |||
Secondary armament
The Krasny Krym has 3 x 100 mm/50 Minizini x 2 cannons, which are mostly useless. The most noticeable feature are the unlockable HE-TF (High Explosive Time Fuse) shells, which are able to bring down aircraft.
| Penetration statistics | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ammunition | Type of warhead |
Penetration @ 0° Angle of Attack (mm) | |||||
| 100 m | 1,000 m | 2,000 m | 3,000 m | 4,000 m | 5,000 m | ||
| 100 mm HE | HE | 53 | 46 | 40 | 34 | 30 | 26 |
| 100 mm anti-air HE | HE-TF | 26 | 26 | 26 | 26 | 26 | 26 |
| Shell details | ||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ammunition | Type of warhead |
Velocity (m/s) |
Projectile mass (kg) |
Fuse delay (s) |
Fuse sensitivity (mm) |
Explosive mass (TNT equivalent) (kg) |
Ricochet | |||||
| 0% | 50% | 100% | ||||||||||
| 100 mm HE | HE | 800 | 15.8 | 0.035 | 5 | 1.24 | 79° | 80° | 81° | |||
| 100 mm anti-air HE | HE-TF | 880 | 13.85 | 0 | 0.1 | 2.06 | 79° | 80° | 81° | |||
Anti-aircraft armament
The main backbone of the AA is the 37mm/67 70-K of which 10 are present on the Krasny Krym and are distributed along the entire vessel. 4 x 45mm/46 21-K are placed behind the forward conning towner. There are several machine guns placed on the rear of the vessel, but provide insignificant protection. Overall the AA armament is very effective for an early cruiser, able to ward off most light bombers and fighters. The Krasny Krym does suffer against high altitude bombers due to a lack of duel purpose cannons.
Additional armament
Unfortunately, Krasny Krym's torpedoes are not very effective. There are only 3 per side, and with only a maximum range of 4 km, they are only useful when you are extremely close to your target where your thick armour is useless or are caught by surprise by a flanking destroyer. It may be wise to not take them at all to eschew the risk of the torpedoes exploding to enemy fire.
Usage in battles
Describe the technique of using this ship, the characteristics of her use in a team and tips on strategy. Abstain from writing an entire guide – don't try to provide a single point of view, but give the reader food for thought. Talk about the most dangerous opponents for this vehicle and provide recommendations on fighting them. If necessary, note the specifics of playing with this vehicle in various modes (AB, RB, SB).
Pros and cons
Pros:
- Surprisingly survivable
- Ship is well armoured for its type
- Massive crew, allows it to take a lot of hits and keep going
- Capable AA armament
- 10 x 37 mm autocannons, effective at shooting down aircraft
- Large ammo reserves, 2625 rounds can last an entire match
- Easily overlooked if there are more dangerous ships on the field
- When facing enemy head-on, slightly angled, most primary guns can be fired
Cons:
- Lacking firepower
- Destroyer calibre guns means less damage against enemy ships
- Reload is about the same as other 152 mm gun-armed cruisers
- Low-range and small amount of torpedoes mean they are only effective when you are far too close to an enemy
- Sluggishly slow, similar to some battleships
- Not manoeuvrable at all, large turning circle makes it somewhat hard to dodge torpedoes, bombs, and enemy fire
History
Krasny Krym was initially laid down in 1913 under the name 'Svetlana', and was the lead ship of her class of four. Svetlana-class light cruisers were intended for the Baltic Fleet of the Imperial Russian Navy and were therefore designed slightly differently in comparison to the closely-related, intended for Black Sea operations, Admiral Nakhimov-class (of which the already familiar Krasny Kavkaz was a part of).
By late 1917, Svetlana was nearing completion. In the meantime however, the Russian Empire was beginning to collapse and the ensuing revolutions, followed by a civil war, halted construction. After the establishment of the Soviet Union, work on the Svetlana continued in 1924, with the ship being renamed 'Profintern'.
Work on the Profintern finally finished in July 1928, with the ship's completed layout closely resembling the original one. Instead of being commissioned into service with the Baltic Fleet as originally planned, Profintern was instead assigned to the ranks of the Black Sea Fleet in 1929.
Throughout the '30s, the Profintern underwent substantial overhaul works, with her auxiliary weapon systems being upgraded and fire control systems improved. Shortly after the outbreak of WW2, the ship was renamed for the second and last time to Krasny Krym in October 1939.
Krasny Krym, similarly to her half-sister Krasny Kavkaz, served the entirety of WW2 as part of various operations in the Black Sea region. Most notably, taking part in the Siege of Sevastopol and the Kerch-Feodosiya Operation. As such, the ship was primarily tasked with escorting various convoys, evacuating and transporting troops as well as bombarding enemy positions with artillery fire. For her performance, Krasny Krym was also awarded with the elite Guards title in June 1942.
Following the end of WW2, Krasny Krym remained in active service for some time, although repurposed on several occasions. July 1959 marked the end of the ship's service, with Krasny Krym being ultimately sold for scrap.
- From Devblog
Media
- Skins
See also
Links to articles on the War Thunder Wiki that you think will be useful for the reader, for example:
- reference to the series of the ship;
- links to approximate analogues of other nations and research trees.
External links
| Baltic Shipyard (Балтийский завод) | |
|---|---|
| Light Cruisers | |
| Svetlana-class | Krasny Krym* |
| Project 26/26bis | Kirov · Maxim Gorky |
| Project 68 | Chapayev |
| Project 68bis | Sverdlov |
| Battleships | |
| Sevastopol-class | Marat · Parizhskaya Kommuna |
| *Laid down at the Russian-Baltic shipyard in Tallinn | |
| USSR light cruisers | |
|---|---|
| Imperial Russia | |
| Svetlana-class | Krasny Krym* · Krasny Kavkaz* |
| * Laid down by Imperial Russian Navy; Finished and renamed by the USSR | |
| Project | Soviet Union |
| Pr.26 | Kirov · Voroshilov · Maxim Gorky |
| Pr.68 | Chapayev · Zheleznyakov |
| Pr.68-bis | Sverdlov · Mikhail Kutuzov |
| Pr.68-bis-ZiF | Shcherbakov |
| Trophies | Italy |
| Condottieri-class | Kerch |
