I’ve had a long term interest in the Soviet Navy, and when the first volume of this two-part series was published, I was determined to buy copies … and I have finally managed to do so!

The first volume covers the major combatants (battleships, cruisers, destroyer leaders, fleet torpedo boats, submarines, monitors, gunboats, armoured motor gunboats, armed boats/rocket boats, and motor torpedo boats) as well as chapters that deal with:

• Ship types and classifications
• The Fleets and Flotillas
• Shipyards and constructors
• The warship building programmes 1922-1945
• Mobilisation of civilian tonnage
• Quality of Soviet warship
• Performance
• The composition of the Soviet Navy 1939-1945

The second volume covers escorts and smaller fighting ships. These include:

• Escort ships
• Large submarine hunters
• Small submarine hunters
• Patrol boats
• Floating artillery batteries
• AA defence ships
• Minelayers
• Netlayers
• Minesweepers
• Minesweeping boats
• Landing vessels and craft

Whilst quite a few of the ships covered in the books are reasonably well known, some of the smaller fighting ships (and especially those that have been extemporised from merchant ships) are often rather quirky. For example, there are several paddle wheel gunboats and a class of gunboats that were converted from German-built dredgers.

The third volume will be published in July, and I have already pre-ordered a copy.

WARSHIPS OF THE SOVIET FLEETS 1939–1945: VOLUME I: MAJOR COMBATANTS was written by Przemyslaw Budzbon, Marek Twardowski, and Jan Radziemski, and published by Seaforth Publishing in 2022 (ISBN 978 1 5267 5193 5)

WARSHIPS OF THE SOVIET FLEETS, 1939-1945: VOLUME II: ESCORTS AND SMALLER FIGHTING SHIPS was written by Przemyslaw Budzbon, Marek Twardowski, and Jan Radziemski, and published by Seaforth Publishing in 2022 (ISBN 978 1 3990 2277 4)