Kerch (destroyer)

This page is about the premium Russian destroyer Kerch. For the Soviet light cruiser, see Kerch (cruiser).

Kerch

Kerch

USSR

I Rank

Battle rating:

AB	RB	SB
3.3	3.3	3.3

Class:

PREMIUM

Destroyer

Purchase:250

Show in game

Description

The Fidonisy-class, Kerch, 1917 was a Fidonisy-class destroyer built for Imperial Russian Navy. The Fidonisy-class was improvement of previous Derzky-class destroyers. Kerch was laid down on 29th October 1915 and comissioned on 27^th June 1917. After the Russian revolution, she joined the Bolsheviks and conducted several shore bombardments along the Crimea. On 29^th April 1918, she sailed to Novorossiysk to avoid capture by advancing German forces. On 18^th June, she scuttled Imperatritsa Mariya-class battleship Svobodnaya Rossiya and Kerch´s sister, Fidonisy to avoid being handed over to Germans as a result of Treaty of Brest-Litovsk. Kerch herself was then scuttled for same reason off the harbour entrance at Tuapse. In 1929 the Soviets tried to refloat her, but the wreck broke apart. In 1932 they raised her engine room and used them as source of energy in the Tuapse power plant.

Kerch was introduced in Update "New Power" as a GE premium. As a destroyer from the Imperial era, Kerch is very similar to the reserve Frunze, mainly differing in its secondary weapons, where it has a somewhat more usable secondary battery but far worse torpedoes.

General info

Survivability and armour

Armourfront / side / back

Main fire tower38 / 0 / 0 mm

Hull16 mm (steel)

Superstructure4 mm (steel)

Number of section7

Displacement1 700 t

Crew168 people

As with other destroyers, Kerch is barely armoured. It mainly relies on its relatively small size and crew count to survive.

Mobility

Speedforward / back

AB72 / 26 km/h

RB59 / 22 km/h

The mobility of the destroyer Kerch is not that good compared to its contemporaries, but it's quite manoeuvrable.

Mobility Characteristics
Game Mode	Upgrade Status	Maximum Speed (km/h)		Turn Time (s)	Turn Radius (m)
		Forward	Reverse
AB	Stock	___	___
	Upgraded	72	26
RB/SB	Stock	___	___
	Upgraded	59	22

Modifications and economy

Repair cost

AB309

RB358

Total cost of modifications5 160

520

Crew training150

Experts1 000

Aces20

Research Aces145 000

Reward for battleAB / RB / SB

2 × 40 / 60 / 50 %

2 × 75 / 75 / 75 %

Modifications

Seakeeping	Unsinkability	Firepower
Dry-Docking Research: 450 Cost: 45 50 Rudder Replacement Propeller Replacement Engine Maintenance Research: 960 Cost: 95 110	Damage Control Division Fire Division Smokescreen Research: 330 Cost: 35 40 Shrapnel Protection Research: 450 Cost: 45 50 Ventilation Research: 450 Cost: 45 50 New Pumps Ammo Wetting Research: 960 Cost: 95 110	Anti-Air Armament Targeting Research: 450 Cost: 45 50 40mm_qf_mkxv_he_ammo_pack Research: 450 Cost: 45 50 Auxiliary Armament Targeting 40mm_qf_mkxv_ap_ammo_pack Research: 330 Cost: 35 40 102mm_ussr_navy_shrapnel_ammo_pack Research: 330 Cost: 35 40 Primary Armament Targeting Improved Rangefinder

Armament

Primary armament

4 х Turret102 mm/60 Pattern 1911 naval gun

Ammunition160 rounds

Vertical guidance-10° / 30°

Kerch has 4 x 102 mm cannons as the main weapon. These guns have decent firepower and fire rate but are far from the best brawling weapons. The greatest advantage of these guns is the high accuracy which they have. As such, Kerch should be played as a sniper destroyer more so than a close-range brawler. The accuracy of these guns at long range far surpasses the other equivalent destroyers of other nations and can be used to shell enemies from far range with impunity from more inaccurate enemy fire.

Kerch also has the option of loading a unique shrapnel shell. While it is quite effective against any destroyer it might face due to increased fragmentation damage, it cannot set the enemy on fire (thus near useless against any destroyers that utilise anti-fragmentation armour), as well as cannot hull break any lightly-armoured PT boats (its greatest threats) it hits due to the shell over-penetrating and dealing little to no damage at all.

Another point worth mentioning is the fact that the arrangement of the guns is not exactly the best, with a single gun at the front and the 3 others all at the back. This means that you can only use a single gun against a target directly in front of you.

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
102 mm HE	HE	51	42	29	26	26	26
102 mm shrapnel	Shrapnel	5	5	5	5	5	5

Shell details
Ammunition	Type of warhead	Velocity (m/s)	Projectile mass (kg)	Fuse delay (s)	Fuse sensitivity (mm)	Explosive mass (TNT equivalent) (g)	Ricochet
							0%	50%	100%
102 mm HE	HE	823	17.5	0.035	5	2,100	79°	80°	81°
102 mm shrapnel	Shrapnel	768	17.7	0	0.1	218	62°	69°	73°

Secondary armament

2 х Turret40 mm 2pdr QF Mk.IIc automatic cannon

Ammunition2240 rounds

Belt capacity56 rounds

Fire rate200 shots/min

The biggest difference between Kerch and the Frunze is that it's using two 40 mm Pom-Pom autocannons instead of a manually loaded 76 mm and 45 mm as secondary armaments. Despite only featured two single mounts at the aft and stern, these guns are quite reliable for AA defence due to wide coverage, and it's able to fend off PT boats at close distance.

• Universal: HEF · AP-T · HEF · AP-T
• 40 mm HE: HEF · HEF · HEF · AP-T
• 40 mm AP: AP-T · AP-T · AP-T · HEF

Penetration statistics
Ammunition	Penetration @ 0° Angle of Attack (mm)
	10 m	100 m	500 m	1,000 m	1,500 m	2,000 m
HEF	3	3	3	3	3	3
AP-T	60	57	48	39	32	26

Shell details
Ammunition	Velocity (m/s)	Projectile mass (kg)	Fuse delay (m)	Fuse sensitivity (mm)	Explosive mass (TNT equivalent) (g)	Ricochet
						0%	50%	100%
HEF	701	0.82	0	0.1	71	79°	80°	81°
AP-T	701	0.91	-	-	-	47°	60°	65°

Anti-aircraft armament

2 х Turret7.62 mm Maxim machine gun

Ammunition1500 rounds

Belt capacity1000 rounds

Fire rate600 shots/min

Anti-air armaments of Kerch consisted of two severely outdated 7.62 mm Maxim machine guns that are pretty much useless except for spooking inbound aircraft to dodge relatively harmless shots.

Additional armament

Setup 114 x 450 mm wet-heater torpedo pattern 1910

Although Kerch has three more torpedo tubes than the Frunze, it utilizes incredibly weak torpedoes with only 100 kg of explosive (less than half of Frunze's). This means it often requires more than one hit to destroy enemy ships. Other than that, its range is also awfully short at only 3 km, so it cannot attack enemy ships other than at near point blank range. Interestingly it also has two spare torpedoes, a rarity in Russian vessels.

Usage in battles

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Pros and cons

Pros:

• Main cannons are very accurate
• Good crew count for reserve ship, can soak up a little more damage than some other reserves
• Easy to control and manoeuvrable
• Small superstructure makes it harder to hit
• Pom-Pom autocannons are useful for fending off aircraft and boats

Cons:

• Cannons are mostly unprotected, even small-calibre machine guns can easily take them out
• No access to contact-fuze HE shells, instead has a shrapnel shell that cannot set ships on fire
• Horrible torpedoes with tiny warhead and short range
• AA machine guns are mostly useless
• Slow reserve destroyer

History

Describe the history of the creation and combat usage of the ship in more detail than in the introduction. If the historical reference turns out to be too long, take it to a separate article, taking a link to the article about the ship and adding a block "/History" (example: https://wiki.warthunder.com/(Ship-name)/History) and add a link to it here using the main template. Be sure to reference text and sources by using <ref></ref>, as well as adding them at the end of the article with <references />. This section may also include the ship's dev blog entry (if applicable) and the in-game encyclopedia description (under === In-game description ===, also if applicable).

Kerch was a Fidonisy-class destroyer laid down in 1915 for the Imperial Russian Navy. The class was the third series of the Novik-type ships. Kerch was only completed in 1917 and commissioned in the Black Sea Fleet, but took little part in the First World War, as only months later the Russian Civil War broke out. Kerch joined the Bolsheviks, and supported them in their attempt to control Crimea by bombarding White Russian forces. As the invading Germans advanced into Ukraine, Kerch retreated to Novorossiysk and was later scuttled to prevent it from being turned to the Germans after the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk. In 1929, the Soviet Navy attempted to raise the ship, but it broke apart and only the midship was salvaged, with its engines used in a power station at Tuapse.

Media

Skins

• Skins and camouflages for the Kerch (destroyer) from live.warthunder.com.

See also

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External links

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• other literature.

Black Sea Shipyard (Черноморский судостроительный завод)
Destroyers
Derzkiy-class	Frunze
Fidonisy-class	Kerch
Project 1	Moskva
Light Cruisers
Project 26	Voroshilov
Project 68A	Mikhail Kutuzov

USSR destroyers
	Imperial Russia
Derzky-class	Frunze
Fidonisy-class	Kerch
	Soviet Union
Pr. 1	Leningrad · Moskva
Pr. 45	Opytny
Pr. 7	Besposhchadny · Ryany
Pr. 7U	Soobrazitelny · Stroyny
Pr. 20	Tashkent
Pr. 30	Ognevoy
Pr. 30-bis	Smelyi · Bezuprechny
Pr. 41	Neustrashimy
Pr. 56	Spokoinyy · Blagorodnyy · Bravy
Trophies	Romania
Regele Ferdinand-class	Letuchiy

USSR premium ships
Motor torpedo boats	G-5 (ShVAK) · Pr.123K (A-10bis)
Motor gun boats	TKA-412 · Pr.183 BM-21 · Ya-5M
Motor torpedo gun boats	MPK Pr.12412P
Armoured gun boats	MBK-161 early · MBK pr.186 (MK 85) · Pr.1124 MLRS · Pr.1204
Sub-chasers	MPK Pr.122bis
Frigates	Rosomacha
Destroyers	Kerch · Ryany · Leningrad · Stroyny · Smelyi · Neustrashimy · Blagorodnyy
Light cruisers	Murmansk · Kerch · Zheleznyakov
Battleships	Marat