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Gangut class battleships

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The GTC covers the first class of Russian dreadnoughts. They were built for service in the Baltic Sea and delivered during World War I. They had a quiet war, but joined the Soviets during the February 1917 Revolution and fought in the Russian Civil War. One ship was transferred to the Black Sea Fleet in 1930 and another was badly damaged by fire when it was mothballed, so that only two ships were assigned to the Baltic Fleet when the Winter War of 1939 began. The ships could do little as the ice began to form not long after the start of the war. They were trapped in Leningrad after the Germans invaded in 1941 and one had its bow blown off, but was refloated and used as a floating battery. The one ship in the Black Sea provided fire support during the early stages of the Siege of Sevastopol, but was withdrawn from combat in early 1942 as it was too valuable to risk.--Sturmvogel 66 (talk) 03:55, 12 October 2010 (UTC)[reply]