World War II Database

Contributor: C. Peter Chen

ww2dbaseLight cruiser Voroshilov was assigned to the Black Sea Fleet in mid-1940. Between 14 and 20 Jun 1941, she participated in fleet maneuvers. On 23 Jun, after the Axis invasion of the Soviet Union began, she shelled Constanza, Romania with other ships, and that action resulted in the loss of Russian destroyer Moskva. On 19 Sep, she shelled German troops near Sevastopol in southern Ukraine. On 2 Nov 1941, she was hit by two 250-kilogram bombs, with the first bomb flooding turret 3's magazine and jamming the rudder and the second bomb blowing a hole above the waterline and starting a fire in turret 3's magazine (which was extinguished by flooding caused by the first bomb); she was repaired between 4 Nov 1941 and 18 Mar 1942. On 2 Apr, she bombarded Feodossiya. On 10 Apr, she was lightly damaged by near misses during a German aerial attack by Ju 88 aircraft. On 8 and 11 May, she bombarded German troops near Tash-Alchin. On 27 May, she transported troops of the Russian 9th Naval Infantry Brigade to Sevastopol, and was attacked by aircraft; she claimed two He-111 aircraft, but was damaged, requiring being taken out of service for repairs that lasted through 24 Jul. On 29 Nov, she shelled Feodonisi and was damaged by mines, putting her out of commission again for repairs between 10 Dec 1942 to 30 Jan 1943. On 31 Jan, her gunfire supported Russian troops near Novorossiysk. She saw no further action for the remainder of the war, partly due to Joseph Stalin's order which forbade large warships from entering action. Voroshilov received the Order of the Red Banner on 8 Jul 1945. In Apr 1954, she began a major refit, but in the middle of the refitting work naval leadership decided that it was not worth it to modernize her. On 17 Feb 1956 she was reclassified a testing vessel for missile weaponry, which completed in mid-1961, leading to her recommissioning as OS-24 on 31 Dec 1961. Between 11 Oct 1963 and 1 Dec 1965, she was modernized once again. On 6 Oct 1972, nearing obsolescence, she was converted into a floating barracks ship by the name of PKZ-19. She was sold for scrap in 1973.

Photographs

Voroshilov Operational Timeline