Frunze
Contents
Description
The Novik-class, Frunze, 1940 is a rank I Soviet destroyer with a battle rating of 3.3 (AB/RB/SB). It was introduced during Update 1.79 "Project X" when the Soviet fleet was implemented into the game.
As a World War I Imperial Russian destroyer with some slight Soviet modernisation, the Frunze's performance leaves much to be desired. The ship suffers from a certain legacy design that limits her effectiveness, especially her poor protection, though this is offset by decent accuracy and great agility. Due to this, the Frunze primarily excels at providing fire support, capable of dealing significant damage to the enemy fleet if left unchecked.
General info
Survivability and armour
Being a Great War destroyer design, the Frunze has no meaningful protection to speak of. The only armour it has is a comically small gun shield on the 102 mm gun mounts, which will not help to protect its gunners even from machine guns. To make matters worse, the Frunze's engines do not have any encased fuel tanks around them to absorb any incoming damage, essentially making it a juicy target for those who want to reduce the already low crew count of 168 even further.
Mobility
In RB, the speed of the Frunze is average at best. A fully upgraded ship is capable of reaching 59 km/h at around 29 seconds. As for turning, doing a full circle will require 1 minute and 30 seconds approximately, however you will be able to do that while maintaining a speed of 41 km/h. As for braking from max speed, it will take 35 seconds while using the HALT feature.
| Mobility Characteristics | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Game Mode | Upgrade Status | Maximum Speed (km/h) | |
| Forward | Reverse | ||
| AB | |||
| Upgraded | 72 | 26 | |
| RB/SB | |||
| Upgraded | 59 | 22 | |
Modifications and economy
| Seakeeping | Unsinkability | Firepower | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
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As a reserve ship, the Frunze has most of its essential modifications unlocked. Due to the ineffectiveness of the shrapnel round and 45 mm armaments, you can either focus on the other seakeeping modifications to increase her mobility and survivability, or researching "armament targeting" to increase their traverse speed.
Armament
Primary armament
The Frunze has 4 x 102 mm cannons as the main weapon. These guns have decent firepower, accuracy, and rate of fire, but suffer from terrible traverse speed. As such, the Frunze 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 Frunze has two shell options. First, a base fuse HE shell that is similar in function to the ground vehicle's APHE shell (requires the shell to penetrate the armour to explode); while not as efficient at taking out external modules such as gun mounts or torpedo tubes compared to a regular HE shell, it can still deal considerable internal damage to the enemy ship if the shot penetrates. The other is a unique shrapnel shell that, in real life, was designed to explode and disperse shrapnel. Unfortunately, the shell is completely useless in-game as it functions like a time fuse shell (will explode upon a timer just nearby the enemy), combined with how the only crew who stay outside are those manning the guns, the shrapnel will quickly disperse and deal minimal damage. To add more insult to injury, these shell have no incendiary properties, which means it cannot set any enemy ship on fire.
Due to the lack of a usual HE shell (that explodes on contact), the gun cannot hull break any PT boats (its greatest threats) 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.
Secondary armament
In addition to the 102 mm cannons, the Frunze has a 76 mm and a 45 mm cannon. These guns fire HE shells and are essentially the only defence the ship has against aircraft, and even in doing so are sub-par. They aren't particularly good at tackling small and manoeuvrable patrol boats either.
Anti-aircraft armament
Simply put, the Frunze is a sitting duck for any planes with any kind of bomb or torpedo. There are two DShKs on each side of the bridge, but the firing arc of these guns make them unusable in almost all conceivable situations. The main weapons that are used as anti-aircraft are the 76 mm and 45 mm guns on the back of the Frunze, and unfortunately, these guns are sub-par at tackling mobile targets.
Additional armament
The Frunze has nine 450 mm 45-36NU torpedoes launched from three triple launchers. Two launchers are located around the first funnel while the third one is placed behind the third funnel, and thus can only attack when pointed at the sides, and cannot fire directly forward. The torpedoes themselves are reasonably effective for its BR range, with the top speed of 76 km/h and 284 kg of TNT warhead. However, its usage is limited to close range combat due to its short travel distance at only 3 km, which can be partially remedied using the "Torpedo Mode" modification, which extends the range to 6 km at a cost of having its top speed reduced to 57 km/h.
Usage in battles
Due to the placement of the main guns and poor protection, the Frunze has rather poor offensive capabilities. Combined with the clunky yet accurate guns, the Frunze is best played as a support ship at long range or with a pack of friendly ships. While having a relatively short range, the Frunze's torpedoes can be effective against a distracted enemy at close range. The Frunze's greatest threats are small PT boats and enemy aircraft, as she does not have any good counter against them. As such, stay close to your allies who have better secondary coverage and avoid being left alone outside of friendly cover.
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
- Reasonably effective torpedoes for close-range barrage
Cons:
- Non-existent armour protection
- Only one gun at the bow of the ship, forcing her to do boardsides to utilize all guns an expose the vulnerable engine in the process
- Has terribly slow main gun traverse, making it hard to shoot faster and agile targets
- Does not have an access to the HEF shell, instead using a base fuse HE and terrible shrapnel shell, both of which cannot hull break PT boats
- Gun crew is unprotected, even small-calibre machine guns can take them out
- Terrible secondary and AA armament; very vulnerable against PT boats and planes
History
The Frunze (or Bystryri) was a ship of the Novik-class series of destroyers. Originally built for the Imperial Russian Navy in 1913, the ship changed hands several times before ending up with the Soviet Navy in 1920. The ship was sunk during the opening months of Operation Barbarossa in 1941 by raiding German dive bombers.
Construction and early services
On October 1911, Frunze was commissioned by the Imperial Russian Navy under the name Bystryri as a part of the Novik-class series of destroyers and was assigned to the Black Sea Fleet. The ship was laid down at the Metal plant in St. Petersburg in August 1912 before being relaid at A. Vadon plant in Kherson in October 1913. After testing and evaluation, Bystryi was accepted into the 2nd Minelayer Brigade of the Black Sea Fleet.
Along with her sister ship Shchastlivyi, Bystryi went on her first combat on April 25, 1915 during World War I. By the end of that year, the ship, along with her squadron, had made six sorties around the coast of the Ottoman Empire to disrupt their supply lines and communications. During these sorties, the squadron sank 26 sailing ships and 3 steamers.
In 1916, Bystryi made ten sorties to shell the Turkish and Romanian coasts, carrying out minelaying and escorting battleships and aircraft. After a collision with a minelayer on Febuary 1917 which critically damaged her bow, Bystryi was sent back for repair until June. After the repair, she conducted four sorties from August to October. During her sortie on October 18, she sank the Turkish destroyer Hamidabad, 2 steamships, and damaged 3 Turkish minesweepers. As the October Revolution and the Russian Civil War erupted, Bystryi stayed in port for the rest of the year.
During the Civil War
Shortly after the October Revolution in December 1917, the newly-established Russian Socialist Republic assigned Bystryi under the Red Black Sea Fleet and she was sent to Sevastopol for repairs in January 1918. However, after the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk that forced the Russia to concede a large amount of territory to Germany to withdraw from the war, the German Army later occupied Sevastopol and captured Bystryi in May 1918 and in August pressed it to the German services under the name "R 02". The ship's turbines were dismantled prior to German capture however, and the ship never saw any action under the German flag. After the Armistice on October, the ship was transferred to British command in December as a reparation. On January 1919, the British sent Bystryi to the royalist (White Army) All-Russian Union Socialist League to aid in their Civil War effort. However, she was never used for active service and her guns were dismantled. As the White Army did not have any means to evacuate the ship from Sevastopol, she remained there until 1920 when she was captured by the Red Army.
Service under the Soviet Union
The ship remained at Sevastopol storage until 1923 when the ship received her first modernization. The ship received a fourth 102 mm gun, four 7.62 Maxim machine guns, and the two 45 mm Hotchkiss gun were replaced with a 76 mm Lender AA gun and 37 mm Maxim autocannon. During this time, the ship was renamed as "Frunze" and officially entered the Soviet Black Sea Fleet on December, 1927.
Between May-June 1928, Frunze paid a friendly visit to the port of Istanbul, and in the next year on September, the port of Naples. On June 8, 1931, Frunze collied with the No.16 (AG-21) submarine near Sevastopol, resulting in the sinking of the latter. Between 1936-40, Frunze received another modernization, replacing the 37 mm with a 45 mm 21-K semi-automatic cannon and two 12.7 mm DShK machine guns replacing the Maxim machine guns.
During the opening stages of Operation Barbarossa on June 1941, Frunze was assigned to the 1st Destroyer Division of the Black Sea Fleet. Between June-July, Frunze participated in an escort and minelaying operation, before participating in the defense of Odessa.
On September 21, 1941, while leaving Sevastopol to Odessa at the Tendovskaya Split, the Frunze was attacked by nine Ju 87 dive bombers from the StG 77 squadron while attempting to rescue the sinking gunboat Krasnaya Armeniya that had been attacked prior by the Stukas. The ship was hit by five 250 kg bombs, plunging into the water on its port side, and sank at the depth of 6 metres. The sinking claimed the lives of 50 crew members. However, the majority of the crew survived by clinging on the ship's superstructure and smokestacks which remained above the water. The Frunze was stuck from the Soviet Navy fleet on October 6, 1941.
Devblog
The Novik-class series, which includes the Frunze, comprised of the most modernized destroyers among their class in the Imperial Russian Navy. This combat ship was laid down in Kherson in 1913 and received the designation "Bystry." Following six months of construction, the destroyer was finally launched and soon allotted to the Black Sea Fleet. In 1918, the destroyer was captured during the German occupation and later, passed into the hands of the Anglo-French interventionists. She was then taken out of commission during a retreat and was only able to join the armed forces ranks under the Soviet flag in 1927. The destroyer joined the Second World war under the designation "Frunze." In the war's summer of 1941, the ship was tasked with setting up minefields in the Black Sea and escorting convoys of transport ships. She also defended Odessa during its siege. On September 21st, the Frunze was attacked by the seasoned I Group pilots of the StG 77 wing during her attempt to rescue the Krasnaya Armenia gunboat bombed by Junkers aircraft. The Stukas performed numerous group raids on the destroyer, which resulted in the ship getting hit by several 250 kg bombs and consequently sinking.
Media
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See also
External links
| 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 |
