ORLIK - BKA 1125 (Nr 064)

[B-Manic]

Just arrived from Orlik - Kuter rzeczny, BKA 1125.

Only one week for delivery and included a free copy of Orlik's Release Nr. 3 the BZ-1 "Gil".

The BKA 1125 kit is 1:50 scale, colour and registration are excellent. There are two pages of written instructions and history, two pages of colour diagrams, four pages of card stock parts, and two pages of normal paper for formers and flags.

The kit is a very nice size. At 1:50 it looks like it will be about 15 - 18 inches long when built. It appears to have a nice level of detail with plenty of opportunities to do some kitbashing.

I am very happy with the kit. Cost was about $15.00 (Canadian including airmail delivery) and included a bonus very interesting looking kit.

Thank-you Orlik!!

[B-Manic]

Bronekater WWII Armoured River Monitor

"As with the Red Army’s armored trains, the Red Navy’s river flotillas fell into disrepair in the late 1920s and early 1930s as older vessels were scrapped and requisitioned civilian boats returned to their designed uses. In 1934 the Navy issued a request for a new river monitor suitable for mass production, using as many common components as possible with the tanks of the 1931 program. The new vessels should have two turrets, armor protection for their vitals (engine, magazines, fuel) and a very shallow draft — only 0.5 meters.

BK-241, a type 1125.The chief engineer assigned to the task, Yuliy Benoit, said it was impossible to create a two-turret armored boat only drawing a half-meter. But, he believed, a smaller vessel could be built with only one turret that would meet the shallow-draft requirement. The Navy approved his suggestion, and two designs emerged from Benoit’s bureau. The bigger boat, known as BKA (bronirovannyie katera, or armored cutter) 1124, had two turrets initially taken from T-26 tanks and mounting 45mm guns. The boat displaced 42 tons, was 25 meters long and had 12mm of armor on its “citadel” protecting the engines and other vitals. While drawing more water than a half-meter, it still could operate in very shallow waters as it only drew 0.80 meters.

The smaller version, known as BKA 1125, only drew 0.5 meters and displaced 29 tons. These were only slightly shorter (22.6 meters) but had less armor protection.

When series production began in 1935 at small shipyards along the Soviet Union’s inland rivers, the T-26 turret was replaced by the 76.2mm short-barrelled gun and turret used in the T-28 medium and T-35 heavy tanks. Since this gun had no anti-aircraft capability, each boat received two machine guns in anti-aircraft mounts (12.7mm in the 1124, 7.62mm for the 1125). A slightly modified version of the 1125 was also produced for the NKVD’s border guard units.
By the time of the Hitlerite invasion, 85 boats had been delivered with 68 more under construction. They went into action very early, with boats of the Danube flotilla inflitrating Romanian defenses to land troops on 24 June and routing Romanian marines defending the Danube delta. On the 26th, boats of the Pinsk flotilla took part in the Soviet 21st Army’s counter-attacks against the German bridgehead over the Berezina River.

Though the navy’s river crews fought very hard, they often could not retreat as easily as their comrades on land and had to destroy their boats. Replacements at first proved hard to come by, despite the large number of uncompleted hulls in Soviet shipyards and a design prepared specifically for rapid construction. Tank turrets could not be diverted from the new T-34/76 program, and the older turrets were out of production. During much of 1941, new boats could only be fitted with alternative weaponry — usually 76mm anti-aircraft guns taken from Soviet “blue water” warships and installed in open mounts.

Admiral Nikolai Kuznetsov pressed hard for greater allocations of turrets and guns from the tank factories, but at first found little success. “I can help only in case of overproduction,” answered Vyacheslav Malyshev, people’s commissar for tank production. “I am responsible for the tanks with my head.” Yet despite threats from Stalin, Malyshev appears to have consciously rigged production goals to result in a turret surplus, and soon the Navy was getting its guns. Malyshev also diverted powerful American-made Packard engines to the gunboat program, preferring to use native-made engines in his tanks.

As the war progressed, the gunboats gave up their shallow draft for greater armament, as official upgrades added more machine guns and 37mm anti-aircraft guns, and crews unofficially added more of their own and sometimes 82mm rocket-launching rails as well. The crews often installed electric heaters and strengthened the boat’s prows for ice-breaking, but neither of these was an official upgrade until the 1944 model was designed, a version that did not enter service until after the war’s end.

The Volga Flotilla made the Red Army’s greatest victory possible, keeping open supply lines to the troops fighting for their lives in the ruins of Stalingrad. Gunboats armed with 76mm anti-aircraft guns fought off German Stuka attacks throughout the siege, and those with tank turrets hove close to the riverbanks to provide fire support for the troops ashore. Every night, they ferried reinforcements and ammunition across the river, and brought back the wounded to safety.

“About the role of the sailors of the fleet and their exploits,” wrote Vasiliy Chiukov, the Soviet commander in Stalingrad, “I would say briefly that had it not been for them the 62nd Army might have perished without ammunition and rations, and could not have carried out its task.”

When the Red Army began its great counter-offensives to free the Soviet Union of the invaders, the river gunboats went along. They played a key role at the battles along the Vistula and Oder, helping force the way across to the Kustrin bridgehead in the last battle for Berlin."

~ Avalanche Press

BKA 1124 design I am still working on

thread -> link BKA-1124, Russian WWII River Monitor


photo of nonpaper 1125 model from Armaments In Miniature -> link ENTER

[Don Boose]

Nice work as always, Douglas!

I am fascinated by those Russian monitors with tank turrets. As you well know, the British also mounted tank turrets in some of their amphibious support craft, especially LCTs.

Don

[Wyvern]

Fascinating vessel- I look forward to seeing this built-up.

Wyvern

[SJPONeill]

I have a 1125 in the post from Orlik as well - the plan is to resize it to 1/72 to go with the other two monitors (Udarnyj and Zhelezniakov) on the list but this will probably be a winter 2010 build as it is now coming into summer here so 1:1 building tasks will take precedence again (it's not like I have any say in the matter!!).

I will be looking forward to your build for perils and pitfalls...

[B-Manic]

Thanks Don I have to finish the 1124 one of these days.
Simon I think this will build up very nicely at 1:72. The fiddly bits will be much easier at that scale.
I don't know when I will finish the V-108 build but as soon as I do, this one starts. I'm trying to limit myself to 4 models at a time.

[SJPONeill]

Rather than start another thread for my freshly unpacked BKA 1125, I'll just tag on the end of Douglas' one, if that's OK.

This was part of an order I placed in October to optimise postage for a paper model I ordered for my brother-in-law for Christmas - the package only arrived last week.

I've already had a good look through the parts and plans which confirm that this should make a good little build in 1/72 to go with the rest of the fleet but as above, not a build that will kick off til at least mid-year.

There don't appear to be any great mysteries in construction but it would have been nice to have the full range of armament options listed in the history section of the instructions; and it is disappointing that the rockets for rocket launcher are not provided even though they are quite prominent pre-launch; nor is the 7.62mm AA MG provided. Easy enough to fix from the spares box...

[B-Manic]

Hi Simon - I plan to scan the model and build it with two turrets (subject to change without notice). My research indicates that these and the larger 1124 were armed with a variety of weapons often scavenged from the field of battle or what ever the production commisars were able to come up with. This is particularly evident with the vessels involved in blockade running into besieged Stalingrad.

I think you could safely stick on a few 37mm 61-K or 70-K AA guns or just about any German or russian MG from the period. I have even seen pictures of 1124s with open 76mm AA guns mounted forward. Many of them had T-28 turrets.

It would be nice to have the rockets though it would not be very difficult to scratch build them. One of the Russians favourite tactics, in Stalingrad, was to use small units ashore lure German units close to the river then have the boats open up on them with Lenin's organ.

[SJPONeill]

I want to complete my 1125 as the version with the rocket pack on the stern but the paper parts seem like a bit of an afterthought so I picked up this on a stopover in Singapore to strip for more detailed parts and rockets (which are missing from the Orlik kit...

[Foxbat]

very interesting combination between boat, tank and rocket launcher
surprise for the Nazi