WWII Soviet Tender & Landing craft

The term “tender” ,used  by the Russian Navy in the 19th century, refers to a  small auxiliary  warship operating close to the shore with displacement between 15 -60 tons.

During the siege of Leningrad in 1942 Russians decided to build a large number of small and simple maneuverable vessels designed to carry people and supplies across the Lake Ladoga and able to land at any kind of shore, not only at port. The small size of the vessels significantly reduced the risk of sinking and any accidental loss would not have affected the total volume of shipments.

The construction of these tenders was based on an old design of a landing pontoon made before the War in Talin. Tenders built in different factories variedy in size and shape of the hull but all  other elements were completely unified.

Displacement: 13,56 tons
Length 10 – 14,3 m ; Width 3,8 – 3,6 m
Maximum height from the water level - 1,5m – 2,3m
Draft: designed - 0.37
Speed 5-6 knots
Armament: 1 x  DshK
Landing capacity 35 -60 people

During the siege of Leningrad 118 tenders were used / deployed. They made  10048 raids, evacuated 250 000 civils from the city and carried more than 100 000 tons of supplies.

Tenders participated in major amphibious operations on Lake Ladoga and in the Gulf of Finland, during the liberation of Estonia. In 1943, a detachment of tenders was relocated to the Black Sea and participated in the liberation of Kerch.

All joint operations of the campaign of 1944, related to the landing, and the rapid movement of troops and equipment were carried out with the participation of tenders.

None of the 118 ships were sunk by the enemy.

From information provided by David Reasoner (Moonlite Modelwerks).