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Ice Cruise of the Baltic Fleet (Russian: Ледовый поход Балтийского флота) was an operation which transferred the ships of the Baltic Fleet of the Imperial Russian Navy from their bases at Tallinn (known as Reval (Russian) or Revel (German) at this time) and Helsinki to Kronstadt in 1918, caused by the possible threat to those bases from the final German offensives against Russia during World War I.
When on 25 February 1918 the German troops entered Reval, a significant part of the ships escorted by the icebreakers had already been moved. On 5 March, all ships except one submarine—crushed by ice—reached Helsinki. The Baltic fleet was commanded by Alexei Schastnyy.
On 12 March, another group of ships with the icebreakers Yermak and Volynets had done 330 km (180 nmi; 210 mi) through the heavy ice, and after five days reached Kronstadt. In all, six battleships, five cruisers, 59 destroyers and torpedo boats, 12 submarines and several other ships were moved to Kronstadt.
In Finland, Russian sailors scuttled four submarines in the harbor of Hanko on 3 April, just before the 10,000-strong German Baltic Sea Division landed in support of the White side in the Finnish Civil War. The 335 t (330 long tons) submarines—AG 11, AG 12, AG 15 and AG 16—were made by Electric Boat Co. in the United States.[1]
References[]
In Russian[]
- Н. С. Кровяков. "Ледовый поход" Балтийского флота в 1918. Moscow, 1955.
- В. И. Сапожников. Подвиг балтийцев в 1918. Moscow, 1954.
The original article can be found at Ice Cruise of the Baltic Fleet and the edit history here.