Tuesday, 17 September 2013

Russian Predreadnought Battleships 1904

Been thinking about getting my naval wargaming going again so I pulled out one of the trays of Russian warships for the Russo-Japanese War (RJW) (1904-5) and took some pictures.

Here we have the 1st and 2nd Sub-Divisions which formed part of the Battleship Division of the Battle Squadron of the Russian Pacific Fleet in 1904 (Navwar codes shown in ()):


At the front we have the 2nd Sub-Division consisting of the (Left to right) Retvizan (N7019), Pobieda (N7113) and Peresvyet (N7113). At the back is the 1st Sub-Division consisting of the Poltava (N7110), Sevastopol (N7110) and Tsesarevitch (N7108).

The 1st Division also contained the Petropavlovsk but she was lost in April 1904 when she hit 2 mines outside of Port Arthur, unfortunately as fleet flagship she was carrying Vice-Admiral Makarov whose loss was a severe blow to the Russian war effort. I think I have the model for this ship somewhere. The Poltava and Sevastopol are of the same class as the Petropavlovsk. The Pobieda (N7113) and Peresvyet are also of the same class.

Note that Russian (and Japanese) navies did not use a prefix like the Royal Navies HMS.

There is a really detailed pdf of both the Japanese and Russian Fleet make up at the beginning of the war here. The website where this document comes from is well worth a look of you're interested in this period.

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2 comments:

  1. Nice looking models Richard. I like those old Victorian era pre-Dreadnaughts. Much prettier than the dull grey of more modern ships - always gives the impression these were going to have a stand up fight and be counted.

    Cheers

    Andy

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    Replies
    1. Thanks Andy. Yes they do tend to be more colourful than later ships, that said my Japanese are in light grey so it's not true of all fleets. The Russians tried a combination of Olive Drab hulls and Khaki upper works to try and camouflage them against the Port Arthur skyline.

      Cheers

      Richard

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