Kerch (destroyer)
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Contents
Description
The Fidonisy-class, Kerch, 1917 is a premium rank I Soviet destroyer with a battle rating of 3.3 (AB/RB/SB). It was introduced in Update "New Power".
General info
Survivability and armour
As with other destroyers, the Kerch is barely armored. Several drawbacks from its primitive design including unprotected main and secondary guns as well as uncovered engines hampered its protection. Thus relies on its relatively small size and crew count to survive.
Mobility
| Mobility Characteristics | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Game Mode | Upgrade Status | Maximum Speed (km/h) | |
| Forward | Reverse | ||
| AB | |||
| Upgraded | 72 | 26 | |
| RB/SB | |||
| Upgraded | 59 | 22 | |
Mobility of the Kerch is not that good compared to its comtemporaries, but at least it's quite manuverable.
Modifications and economy
2 × 40 / 60 / 50 % 2 × 75 / 75 / 75 % | Seakeeping | Unsinkability | Firepower | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Armament
Primary armament
The 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, the 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.
The main problem with the Kerch, however, is the fact that it doesn't use the basic HEF shell like other destroyers. Instead, it utilizes a unique shapnel shell as its main ammunition. While it is quite effective against any destoryer it might face due to more fragmentation damage. It cannot set the enemy on fire (thus near useless against any destroyers that utilizes anti-fragmentation armor), as well as cannot hull break any PT boats (its greatest threats) it hits due to the shell over-penetrates and deal 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.
Secondary armament
The main difference between the Kerch and the Frunze is that it's using two 40mm Pom-Pom autocannons instead of a terrible 76mm and 45mm as secondary armaments. Despite only featured two single mounts at the aft and stern, these guns is quite reliable for AA defense due to wide coverage, and it's able to fending off PT boats at close distance.
Anti-aircraft armament
"Anti-air" armaments of the Kerch consisted of two severely outdated 7.92 mm machine guns that is pretty much useless except for spooking inbound aircraft to dodge a relatively harmless shots and get into the range of your Pom-Pom guns.
Additional armament
Although the Kerch has three more torpedo tubes than the Frunze, it's utilizing an incredibly weak torpedoes with only 100 kg of warhead (less than half of Frunze's). Thus requiring more than one hit to destroy enemy ships. Other than that, its range is also awfully short at only 3 kilometers, thus it cannot attack enemy over longer distances.
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:
- Main cannons are very accurate
- Relatively high crew count for reserve ship
- Quite fast and easy to control
- Small superstructure allows it to take lesser crew loss when being hit by small-calibre guns
- Two Pom-Pom autocannons is useful for fending off aircrafts and PT boats
Cons:
- Non-existent armour protection
- Gun crew is unprotected, even small-calibre machine guns can take them out
- No access to usual HEF shells, instead using a sharpnel shell that cannot set the enemy ship on fire and is useless against PT boats
- Horrible torpedoes with tiny warhead and short range
- AA armament is essentially useless
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).
Media
Excellent additions to the article would be video guides, screenshots from the game, and photos.
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
Paste links to sources and external resources, such as:
- topic on the official game forum;
- other literature.
| 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 |
