Although the Soviet Union had the fourth largest coastline in the world (approximately 37,000 kilometers or 23,000 miles) they were not an open sea faring nation. Most of their coastline bordered the Arctic Ocean which was land locked a major portion of the year limiting Soviet naval operations. Therefore, the Soviets developed a submarine and littoral navy with emphasis on the Black and Baltic Seas. Of the five major World War 2 belligerents the Soviet Union had the smallest navy. For the Soviet Union WWII was a land war which even their air force almost exclusively was used to support land operations.
Note: Availability does not equal number produced during the year. How to calculate: Number available on Jan1 of a given year = number available on Jan 1 of the preceding year + number received in the preceding year – number loss in the preceding year. See either ‘Data” or ‘Transposed Data” downloads below for actual data.
Table of Contents
Soviet Fleet
The Soviet fleet in 1939 was the seventh largest by tonnage in the world after Germany’s Kriegsmarine. Counterintuitively, the Soviet Union had the largest prewar submarine fleet in the world with 212 submarines available January 1, 1941. During the war the Soviet Union procured an additional fifty-one submarines but lost 102. With such a low procurement rate the Soviets were quickly surpassed by the German Kriegsmarine which in 1941 alone produced 199 U-boats. The Kriegsmarine would go on to exceed their 1941 production number in each year from 1942-44. In all the Soviet Union received an additional 2,588 vessels and lost 1,014 vessels during the war years.
Priorities
During the war Soviet naval budget allocations fell from 11.5% in 1941 to 6.6% in 1944 highlighting their priority versus the other military branches. Lend-Lease provided additional small surface ships. “The United Kingdom and the United States traded the Royal Navy battleship HMS Royal Sovereign (renamed Arkhangelsk) and the United States Navy cruiser USS Milwaukee (renamed Murmansk) in exchange for the Soviet part of the captured Italian navy.” (1) Additionally, the Soviet Union captured eleven Romanian, Latvian and Estonian and integrated them into their fleet. Also, four British submarines were received and renamed V1 to V4.oviet
(1) Wikipedia, “Soviet Navy”, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soviet_Navy, accessed on March 7, 2023.
Operation Barbarossa saw Soviet Navy personnel participating in land battles as the regular Soviet Army forces were overrun. Sea port towns such as Leningrad and Sevastopol were two of several cities where Soviet sailors battled as land forces. Soviet submarines were the most capable naval force projection capability and even those were limited due to German mining operations and ineffectual leadership due to the purges of the 1930s.
Due to the geography the Soviet vessels served in many of their losses came from German land forces. Soviet naval forces were highly criticized by the UK and US for their ineffectiveness especially regarding the convoy protections needed for shipments into Murmansk and Arkhangelsk.
Soviet Naval Vessel Availability 1941-45 Data
The above graph can be downloaded as an image.
To download the data shown below from which the graph was developed click on the icon below corresponding to you desired format. Note: to ensure all data is downloaded choose the ‘All’ selection in the Show Entries dropdown list. Otherwise only the data visible on the screen will download.
Soviet Naval Vessel Availability 1941-45 Chart Data
Source: “Soviet Causalities and Combat Losses in the Twentieth Century”, Greenhill Books, London, Stackpole Books, Pennsylvania, 1997, Table 95 Section V Ships, Page 256, (Selected data) Edited by Colonel General G.F. Krivosheev
Soviet Naval Vessel Availability 1941-45 Data
Source: “Soviet Causalities and Combat Losses in the Twentieth Century”, Greenhill Books, London, Stackpole Books, Pennsylvania, 1997, Table 95 Section V Ships, Page 256, Edited by Colonel General G.F. Krivosheev
Soviet Naval Vessel Availability 1941-45 Data, Transposed Format
wpDataTable with provided ID not found!Source: “Soviet Causalities and Combat Losses in the Twentieth Century”, Greenhill Books, London, Stackpole Books, Pennsylvania, 1997, Table 95 Section V Ships, Page 256, Edited by Colonel General G.F. Krivosheev
Other Soviet Availability Data
Soviet Light Arms Availability 1941-45
Soviet Armored Vehicles Availability 1941-45
Soviet Artillery Availability 1941-45
Soviet Military Aircraft Availability 1941-45
Soviet Motor Vehicle Availability 1941-45
Soviet Radio Sets Availability 1941-45
This website, ww2data.com, has no responsibility for the persistence or accuracy of URLs for external or third party internet websites referenced. Nor does ww2data.com guarantee that any content on such websites are accurate or will remain accurate.
Leave a Reply