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TL;DR:
Coastal vessel, very slow paddle boat with 2 100mm guns.
History:.
A series of river steam tugs, Project SB-15 was a civilian ship type designed by the Leninskaya Kuznitsa shipyard in Kiev, and the largest of their side paddle tug designs at 400 tons. Four series of boats were built from 1933-1936 at the Leninskaya Kuznitsa plant, the Krasny Metallist plant in Zelenodolsk, the Krasnoye Sormovo plant in Gorky, and the Permskaya plant in Perm.
After the German invasion, 7 of these tugs were mobilized by the Red Army and formed the core of the Volga River Flotilla. The boats were refitted into gunboats with their rear deckhouse removed, and generally armed with 2 100mm cannons and some variety of machine gun and small cannons. They were commissioned in December 1941 and fought through the Battle of Stalingrad. In July 1943 as the Germans were pushed back from the Volga, the ships were disarmed and released back to civilian service, with the exception of 3 which were retained as armed tugs for a few months more until November 1943.
Usyskin, named after a scientist, was built in 1934 at Zelenodolsk. During the Battle of Stalingrad it was the flagship of its ship detachment and provided fire support. It was damaged by a mine in May 1943, and because of the damage it was part of the group decommissioned in July. It was awarded the Order of the Red Banner for its service. Again in civilian service, it would serve many more years as a tug and was scrapped only in 1961. It should not be confused with its sister Gromov, which was renamed to Usyskin in 1943 after Usyskin’s decommissioning.
Specifications:
Armament:
2x1 100 mm B-24BM in B-13 mounts
2x1 45 mm 21-K
1x2 12.7 mm DShK in DShKM-2B turretArmour: (RHA)
5-6mm belt
8mm conning tower
7mm gun shieldsDisplacement:
~400 tons standardLength: 56.4m
Beam: 8m-17m
Draft: 1.25m
Propulsion: 1 double expansion steam engine with 1 Yarrow boiler, 480 hp, driving 2 side paddle wheels
Speed: 9 knots (16.7 km/h)
Range: 1512 nmi
Crew: 76
Systems:
1x 1.5m DM-1.5 rangefinder
Images:
Sources:
Budzbon, P. Radziemski, J. Twardowski, M. (2022). Warships of the Soviet Fleets 1939–1945 (Kindle Edition. pp. 241-242). Pen and Sword.
Shirokorad, A. B. (2002). Dinayskaya Voyennaya Flotiliya. In Korabli i Katera VMF SSSR 1939-1945 gg.: Spravochnik (pp. 644-646). Kharvest.