Nezamozhnik (Russian and , Nezamozhnyk, ) was one of eight Fidonisy-class destroyers built for the Imperial Russian Navy during World War I. Originally named Zante (), the ship was left unfinished during the Russian Revolution in 1917 and later captured by Ukrainian and White forces. The mostly complete destroyer was towed from her shipyard by retreating White forces and wrecked during a storm in 1920. She was refloated by the Soviets following their victory in the Russian Civil War and completed in 1923 as Nezamozhny ().
Serving with the Black Sea Fleet, she was renamed Nezamozhnik and made several international port visits. Refitted twice during the interwar period, the destroyer served in the Black Sea during World War II, helping to evacuate Odessa, supply besieged Soviet forces in Sevastopol, and support several amphibious operations during the Kerch–Feodosia Offensive and the Battle of the Caucasus. The ship saw no combat after October 1943 after three destroyers were sunk by German aircraft in a single action. She received the Order of the Red Banner for her actions during the war. Nezamozhnik was converted into a target ship at the end of the 1940s and sunk during the early 1950s.
Design and description
In early 1914, several months before World War I, the Naval Ministry proposed the construction of a third series of eight destroyers, based on Novik, for the Black Sea Fleet. These ships were to be built in response to a perceived strengthening of the Ottoman Navy. This was approved by Nicholas II on after the destroyers had received names on in honor of the victories of Russian Admiral Fyodor Ushakov. Among these was Zante, the Italian name for Zakynthos, named in honor of Ushakov's 1798–1799 campaign in the Ionian Islands. The eight destroyers were ordered on when the Naval Ministry concluded a contract with the Society of Nikolayev Factories and Shipyards for construction at a cost of 2.2 million rubles each.Verstyuk & Gordeyev, p. 100
As a Fidonisy-class destroyer, Zante displaced at standard load and at full load by 1943 with an overall length of , a beam of , and a draft of . She was propelled by two Parsons steam turbines, each driving one propeller, designed to produce a total of using steam from five 3-drum Thornycroft boilers for an intended maximum speed of . During her sea trials, the ship reached a speed of from . Her crew initially numbered 137, but after 1941 increased to 172. The ship carried enough fuel oil to give her a range of at .Verstyuk & Gordeyev, p. 116
As built, the Fidonisy-class ships mounted a main armament of four single Pattern 1911 Obukhov guns, one on the forecastle and three aft; one of these latter guns was superfiring over the other two. Anti-aircraft (AA) defense for Nezamozhnik and her sisters that were completed after the war was provided by a single Lender gun on the stern, a Maxim cannon, and four M-1 machine guns. The destroyers mounted four triple above-water torpedo tube mounts amidships with a pair of reload torpedoes and could carry 80 M1908 naval mines. The destroyer was also fitted with a Barr and Stroud rangefinder and two searchlights.
Modifications A second 76.2 mm gun was added on the stern during her 1928–1929 refit and she was equipped to carry 60 M1926 mines. During her 1935–1936 refit, the destroyer received four DShK machine guns on the forward and aft bridges, replacing the 7.62 mm machine guns, in addition to an AM-3 rangefinder. In mid-1941 her anti-aircraft armament was again modernized with the addition of two 21-K AA guns on the forecastle. By 1943 five 37 mm 70-K AA guns had been added with one between the funnels and four among the boats, in addition to two Oerlikon cannons on the aft bridge. These replaced two of the DShKs, while the other two DShKs remained on the forward bridge wings.Verstyuk & Gordeyev, pp. 111–112 During the 1930s, she was also fitted with 42 depth charges and two K-1 paravanes. A pair of depth-charge throwers were added later.Berezhnoy, p. 326Breyer, p. 246; Hill, p. 10
Construction and service
After being added to the Black Sea Fleet ship list on , Zante was laid down in the Russud Shipyard in Nikolayev during May 1916 and launched on . Her construction was halted after the Russian Revolution along with three of her sisters. On 17 March 1918 the shipyard was occupied by Austro-German forces, followed by the Ukrainian People's Army and lastly the White Armed Forces of South Russia in July 1919. A White commission concluded that Zantes hull was 70 percent complete and her machinery 85 percent complete, with all boilers, the forward turbine, and most auxiliary equipment installed, in addition to two torpedo tube mounts. Despite this, work was not resumed,Verstyuk & Gordeyev, p. 101 and the incomplete destroyer was towed to Odessa by the Whites in January 1920 as the Red Army approached Nikolayev, where in early February a storm wrecked her on the rocks at Bolshoy Fontan during the White evacuation from Odessa. The submerged ship was raised by the Soviet government and returned to Nikolayev on 7 September 1920 for completion.
The Main Maritime Technical Directorate and the Supreme Soviet of the National Economy concluded an agreement for her completion at Nikolayev's Andrei Marti yard on 23 December. The destroyer was completed with a design virtually identical to her sisters. On 12 June 1923, the ship was renamed Nezamozhny ()Chernyshev, p. 125 in recognition of a fundraising drive by the Ukrainian Committee of Poor Peasants that had helped provide funds necessary for her completion.Ammon & Berezhnoy, p. 152 Presented for testing on 23 September of that year after long delays, the destroyer was sent to Sevastopol after ten days of machinery tests, where she continued trials until 14 October, when Nezamozhny returned to Nikolayev for boiler cleaning. After being accepted by the Soviet Navy on 20 October, the naval jack was hoisted aboard her on 7 November, when she became part of the Black Sea Naval Forces.
Interwar period Shortly after her completion, Nezamozhny participated in the first Black Sea Naval Forces maneuvers, with Revolutionary Military Council Chairman Leon Trotsky sailing to Batumi aboard her. She was also involved in the 1924 fleet maneuvers between 6 and 11 September. In September and October 1925 Nezamozhny and her sister returned an Italian visit to Leningrad; departing Sevastopol on 18 September, they visited Istanbul, Turkey, then steamed through the Mediterranean to Naples, Italy, where the sailors met writer Maxim Gorky. The destroyers returned to their base on 9 October after steaming .Chernyshev, pp. 127–129
She was again renamed to Nezamozhnik (, the singular form of her previous name) on 29 April 1926. After a refit at Sevmorzavod in Sevastopol between 1928 and 1929, the destroyer departed Sevastopol with the destroyer for another Mediterranean cruise on 31 August. After visiting Naples between 4 and 8 September, they finished the cruise on 12 September. Nezamozhnik towed the submarine to Sevastopol after the latter collided with a cargo ship on 3 April 1930.
In October she cruised to Istanbul (3 to 5 October), Messina, Italy (7 to 10 October), and Piraeus, Greece (11 to 14 October), with the light cruiser and her sister , practicing maneuvering in minefields and repelling attacks from submarines, destroyers, and torpedo boats. During March 1934 tests of the 76 mm (3-K) AA gun were conducted aboard her, but proved unsuccessful when the gun could not be traversed in heavy seas.Chernyshev, p. 65 On 11 January 1935 the Black Sea Naval Forces became the Soviet Black Sea Fleet, and from 1935 to 1936 the destroyer underwent another refit at Sevmorzavod.Apalkov, p. 137
World War II and postwar
Siege of Odessa By 1941, the destroyer was part of the 1st Destroyer Division of the fleet. She was refitting until 15 July, following the start of the German invasion of the Soviet Union, Operation Barbarossa, on 22 June. With the gunboat and three patrol boats, she escorted a floating dry dock with a capacity of towed by the icebreaker Makarov and the tugboat SP-13 from Tendra to Sevastopol between 24 and 26 July during the evacuation of Nikolayev. Nezamozhnik and her sister Shaumyan were assigned to provide naval gunfire support for the defense of Odessa on 6 August – the Novik-class ships were given this mission as the Black Sea Fleet command refused to risk sending new ships within range of Axis artillery or aviation until the end of August as a result of the sinking of the new destroyer leader .Chernyshev, p. 142
She did not arrive at the port until 13 August, when she and Shaumyan unsuccessfully attempted to prevent the Romanian encirclement of the city from the landward side with naval gunfire. Damaged by three near misses from Axis bombs on 14 August while bombarding targets off Ochakov, the destroyer spent the next four days in Odessa under repair. Returning to fire support duty off Ochakov on 20 August, Nezamozhnik covered the garrison's retreat to the islands of Berezan and Pervomaysky the next day. Between 24 and 25 August, she supported the Odessa garrison against increased Romanian attacks alongside Shaumyan and Frunze. Remaining in the roadstead there for four additional days, the destroyer bombarded Axis troop positions in the area of Alexandrovka, Gildendorf, and Voznesenka. She went into Odessa for refueling on 30 August, providing fire support from 31 August, with her commander reporting the suppression of five batteries in the Ilyichevka area, the destruction of a supply train, and the scattering of several Axis units. Departing Odessa on 4 September as the escort for the transport Dnepr, carrying a thousand wounded and four hundred passengers, she arrived in Sevastopol the next day and was repaired at Sevmorzavod between 6 September and 8 October.Chernyshev, pp. 143–144
Returning to Odessa on 13 October escorting three transports for the evacuation of the defenders, she provided air defense alongside her sisters. Her crew helped extinguish fires from two bomb hits aboard the transport Gruziya the following day. Exiting the port at 06:00 on 15 October, the destroyer moved into the Dofinovka Estuary to cover the retreat of the right flank of the defenders. Firing 468 102 mm shells against shore targets, Nezamozhnik was attacked in four air raids. At 20:30 she anchored two to three cable lengths from the breakwater, waiting to load troops who never arrived. The destroyer departed for Tendra at 06:00 on the next morning. With Shaumyan and Gruziya she survived a German air attack and entered Sevastopol on 17 October.Chernyshev, p. 146
Siege of Sevastopol and Kerch–Feodosia operation
The destroyer escorted the battleship from Batumi to Poti on 2 November, and guarded it and the cruiser in the Poti roadstead for two days. Between 4 and 5 November, she moved from Sevastopol to Kerch, transporting the defense commander for the latter, Lieutenant General Pavel Batov. Nezamozhnik, Shaumyan, and their sister Zheleznyakov (formerly Petrovsky) were ordered to remain at Sevastopol on 7 November to support the defenses of the besieged port, but repeated German air attacks quickly forced them to depart for the Caucasus ports. She towed the unfinished destroyer from Sevastopol to Batumi between 8 and 11 November. Late on 12 November, the destroyer left Batumi to search for and assist the minelayer Syzran, which had run out of fuel. After escorting transports from Sevastopol to Batumi between 15 and 17 November, she and Zheleznyakov guarded Parizhskaya Kommuna in her anchorage at Poti. Departing Novorossiysk on 23 November for Sevastopol with ammunition and reinforcements, the destroyer arrived at the base on the next day and escorted the hospital ship Kotovsky back to Tuapse. There, she took a hundred wounded aboard, transporting them to Poti.