1941 Built as river armoured craft at the yard at Zelenodolsk, Tartarstan and launched in the summer of 1941 as the BKA-32.
Displacement: 49.75 standard, 52.16 full load, dim. 25.3 x 4.04 x 0.87m (draught).
Powered by engines of 1,800 hp, maximum speed 37.4 km/h, economical speed 23 km/h.
Range up to 680 km.
Armament 2 – 76.2mm guns, 2 – 12.7 and 2 – 7.62mm MG.
Crew 17.
December 1941 completed.
07 January 1942 a unit of the Volga flotilla. And took part in the defence of Stalingrad in the 3rd Brigade of river ships of the Volga Flotilla, when in the end of April 1942 the situation on the front changed she was ordered to join the Onega flotilla. From 30 April till 18 August 1942 was a unit of the Onega flotilla, then again on 18 August to the Volga Flotilla at that time she was under command of Lieutenant A.P. Kalchenko and was renamed in BKA 75.
It is a very difficult summer for the Soviet forces, Sevastopol fell and the Soviet troops had abandoned Rostov. The launch of a counter offensive by the Soviet army at Kharkov ended in a failure. The German forces of the 4th Panzer and the 6th Infantry Army troops with air support from the German air-force proceeded fast through the steppe to Stalingrad.
23 August the BKA 75 joined the first battle, supporting artillery fire of the 124th Russian Infantry Brigade in the operation north of Stalingrad.
During the night she was breaking the German flanks and attacked enemy infantry and tanks, and came under fire of artillery and mortar batteries. More as three weeks she provided fire support for the Soviet 451st Infantry Division and part of the 66th Army on the Don front
13 September when the German forces began to attack Stalingrad the BKA-75 came under command of the 62nd Russian Army.
She then provided fire support to the 124th and 194th Infantry Brigade.
Till the late fall she and other ships of the squadron disrupted attempts of the German forces to destroy Soviet forces around the Volga River.
She received many times damage of German shells but always returned to service.
When the Volga got frozen she went to Saratov for the much needed repair of hull and the worn out engines.
When the front line moved from the Volga River in February 1943 in westerly direction the Volga Flotilla got new orders to protect the safe transport of military cargos along the main arteries of the Soviet country.
September 1943 the squadron got orders to join the Azov flotilla, to get there she was taken out of the water loaded on a railway wagon, arrived 2 October on the shores of the Azov Sea.
02 October 1943 was she a unit of the Azov flotilla BSF.
Took part in the Kerch-Eltigen landing operation from 31 October 1943.
2 November she left Temruk and headed to the Kerch Peninsula, the weather was not so good a strong wind battered the BKA-75.
When she arrived at her position she was one of the first to open fire on the enemy positions and destroyed enemy artillery and machine-gun positions before the Soviet troops landed
After the first troops had landed,for several days transported new troops of the 55th Guards Division to the landing place.
08 November the BKA-75 during bad weather got a large crack in her flat bottom and quickly began to fill with water, to save his craft the commander beached her on the coast.
She was severely damaged and first it was thought she should take out of active service.
Much work was done by her crew and the help of the workers of the Rostov plant she was fully repaired .
End January 1944 the repair were finished and now fitted with a 76.2mm tank gun she was send to the Danube Flotilla, and took part in the liberation of Romania, Bulgaria, Yugoslavia, Hungary, Czechoslovakia and Austria.
She took part in the break through of the Dniester estuary and the landing of the troops in Zhebriyany and other villages in the mouth of the Danube River.
Took part in the Red Army river crossing in Cernavoda.
Mid-October together with three other armed river boats destroyed three railway trains, two artillery batteries and other enemy armed positions.
28 September till 20 October 1944 took she also part in the offensive operations and liberation of Belgrade in Yugoslavia.
After the war she was taken out of the water and used at a monument at ?, can not find that she still exist.
Russia 2013 15p sg?, scott?
Source: Info received from Genadiy Sitnikov and various web-sites.