This ship, moored at a pier in the Gothenburg's port, is destroyer Småland.
She was built after World War II, but it was the destroyers of her class
that became the first ships in the world to receive a new generation of weapon—
anti-ship guided missiles.
In order to preserve neutrality, a country needs a strong army and navy—
this was one of the core principles of Swedish politics
throughout the entire 20th century.
The naval shipbuilding program that had been adopted in 1938
progressed unaffected,
even as World War II raged across the rest of the world.
Once the war was over, it turned out that the Swedish Navy in the Baltic Sea
was on par with the might of the Soviet Navy.
By the mid-20th century, the naval doctrine of this Scandinavian kingdom
basically remained the same.
From the 1960s until the very end of the Cold War,
Sweden had an outstanding defense system—
a combination of warships, submarines, and aviation.
Its purpose was to discover enemies in the Baltic Sea as early as possible,
far away from the Swedish border.
Of course, today you can say it openly (back then you couldn't)—
the Soviet Union and possible troop landings
were considered to be the main threat.
Experience from the war set exact priorities: powerful AA defenses,
efficient fire control systems, hydroacoustics, and radar.
The new generation of destroyers was required to oppose aerial, surface,
and underwater threats with equal efficiency.
At the same time, their traditional role—
delivering torpedo strikes in battles—basically faded away.
Ships like these were designed in Europe
at the end of the 1940s and beginning of the 1950s—
the Daring-class destroyers in Great Britain;
the Surcouf class in France,
which were direct successors of the pre-war destroyer leaders;
the anti-submarine Friesland-class destroyers in the Netherlands;
and Project 41 in the U.S.S.R.
Swedish destroyer Småland was part of that generation.
They were created as flotilla leaders for surface ships.
That's why they needed to have both the armament and operational range
that would allow them to complete missions across the entire Baltic region.
Two destroyers of this class—Halland and Småland—clearly demonstrated
that technical innovations at the beginning of the 1950s
were not limited to NATO countries and the U.S.S.R.
Welcome aboard destroyer Småland.
She was launched in 1952, here, in Gothenburg,
and commissioned into the Swedish Navy in 1956.
This ship was built
with the experience gained in World War II taken into consideration,
both in terms of AA defenses and protection against nuclear weapons.
Specifications of destroyer Småland.
Length: around 121 meters. Beam: over 12 meters.
Draft: 5.5 meters. Total displacement: 3,740 tons.
We are on the forecastle of destroyer Småland,
and from here you can see all the artillery armament that we have on board.
Artillery armament:
two twin mounts Bofors М50, caliber: 120 mm,
one twin mount Bofors М40, caliber: 57 mm,
six automatic cannons Bofors М48, caliber: 40 mm.
They are all produced by Bofors and are completely automatic.
Even the 120 mm guns are loaded directly from the hold,
then fired in the traditional way.
Missile armament: anti-ship missiles Rb 315, later—Rb 08.
…Robot 08—their range is 75 km,
and they are equipped with a target-seeking head,
i.e. they are able to home in on their target.
Anti-submarine armament: two quadruple 375 mm anti-submarine rockets m/50.
They are controlled from the anti-submarine post,
which also has hydrophone sensors— sometimes also called sonar.
When a submarine is discovered, these eight missiles are launched:
four like this, and four like this.
After they dive underwater,
the first four missiles position themselves below the target,
and the remaining ones, above the target.
If everything goes smoothly, they create what’s known as the “sandwich effect.”
Torpedo Armament: one triple-tube and one quintuple-tube torpedo launcher
with a caliber of 533 mm.
It could fire either standard torpedoes or special anti-submarine torpedoes.
In total, we have eight torpedo tubes, capable of firing from both sides.
The torpedoes are long—7.5 meters, and each weighs over one ton;
their caliber is 533 mm.
The Swedish Royal Navy uses their own model of torpedoes,
unlike the navies of many other countries
that have to import their torpedoes from abroad.
Power plant: two De Laval turbines and two Penhoët 40 water tube boilers
Power: 58,000 horsepower hp. Maximum speed: 35 knots.
We are now in the second boiler room—one of two on this ship.
This room is special because it has automatic electric burners installed.
It means that the boilers don't need to be lit and operated manually.
So, all these burners are completely automatic
and can easily be tuned to produce the necessary volume of steam.
Range—3,000 miles at a speed of 20 knots.
If you compare the specifications of Småland
to those of other European destroyers from the first post-war generation,
the Swedish ship is arguably the most balanced.
The French Surcouf and Dutch Friesland were built as specialized ships:
the French— for anti-aircraft defense
and the Dutch— for anti-submarine defense.
That's why Friesland was the first destroyer without torpedo tubes
and Surcouf had as many as six 57 mm guns
in her automatic anti-aircraft mounts.
Three other ships of this type were constructed as versatile destroyers:
British Daring, Soviet Project 41, and Swedish Småland
could be easily classified as light cruisers by pre-war standards.
The Soviet ship looked stronger on paper,
but serial production of Neustrashimiy-class destroyers
was canceled in favor of a newer project.
At the same time,
the Swedish ships turned out to be the most advanced in Europe—
Halland and Småland carried anti-ship missiles and automated artillery mounts.
Halland-class destroyers were so balanced and sophisticated
that the Columbian government ordered two similar ships
for their navy from Sweden, although a simpler variant.
Their powerful and versatile armament
was the reason why these destroyers were in demand.
In 1978, the Halland-class ships underwent modernization
and received a new generation fire-control system…
and was considered the best AA defense system in the world.
It's curious that such state-of-the-art equipment
was successfully installed on quite an old ship.
We are in the combat information center of destroyer Småland.
This was my workplace.
We sat at this table: the artillery officer; me—the flotilla adjutant;
the AA defense officer; and an operator.
All the ship's artillery was controlled from here, as well as the AA guns
and sometimes even the entire AA defense system of a flotilla.
The radar operator sat behind me.
He was responsible for surveying the surface situation,
while the second radar operator tracked air targets.
The position finder is located over there.
The crew of destroyer Småland consisted of 290 people.
The sailors had their own mess room with a TV.
While the berthing spaces weren't that comfortable,
they were practical and convenient, as you would expect from Scandinavians.
That's how around 200 crew members lived—
sailors and petty officers, to be precise.
At that time, we had mess rooms, berthing spaces, the galley here—
in short, everything you might need.
Sailors slept on two-tier bunks, and sometimes even in hanging bunks.
The sailors ate right here.
In a group of 8–10 people,
one was responsible for bringing the food down from the galley.
The sailors mostly worked here, downstairs.
We are in the cabin intended for a task force's commander,
as the destroyer sometimes had the flotilla command aboard,
in addition to her usual crew.
It's noteworthy that his cabin was used
when the King and Queen would embark on state visits on board the ship.
An interesting fact: in such cases,
this single bed was replaced with another one.
It was delivered by a well-known Swedish furniture company,
and used when the King and Queen would sail on state visits to Finland.
Småland and Halland turned out to be
too expensive for the kingdom's military budget,
and the construction of two more ships of this class was canceled.
Instead, the Swedish Navy ordered
four cheaper-and-less-complex destroyers of the Östergötland-class.
As for the Halland-class ships,
they remained the largest and most complex destroyers ever built in Sweden.
Småland served in the Royal Swedish Navy until 1978,
then she was decommissioned and turned into a museum.
The reason why the ships of this class were decommissioned
was a combination of economic factors
and difficulties with maintaining them in full combat readiness.
Furthermore, they were almost 30 years old by that time.
So, Småland arrived here, in Gothenburg, in 1986, and became a museum.
The reason probably being that she was built here,
and that Gothenburg's port is the largest in Sweden,
and even in Scandinavia as a whole.