Kater BK-13, Volgograd

BK-13 is an armored gunboat of the Volga Military Flotilla that took part in the Battle of Stalingrad. In 1994 it was installed as a monument on the Central Embankment of Volgograd.

Great Patriotic WarThe armored gunship BK-13 is one of a series of armored gunships of the Project 1125. It was laid at the Zelenodolsk shipyard named after M. Gorky in 1941. M. Gorky in 1941, was launched in the spring of 1942, on July 10 entered the Volga military flotilla.

From July 24 to December 17, 1942 BC-13 took part in the defense of Stalingrad in the second division of the Volga Military Fleet. For the heroism shown in defense of the city the battalion was given the guards rank. Lieutenant Dmitry Grigorievich Markin, the commander, was awarded the Order of the Red Banner.

On September 14, 1943 the armored boat was transferred to the Dnieper Flotilla and participated in the battles on the Pripyat and Western Bug rivers, as well as in the Belarusian and Berlin offensive operations.

After the war the armored boat continued to serve in the Danube Flotilla. When it was disbanded in 1960, the BK-13 was donated to the Tsaritsyn-Stalingrad Defense Museum.

From 1960 to 1994 the armored boat was in the Volgograd shipyard in Krasnoslobodsk. In 1994 it was installed at the central entrance to the museum-panorama "The Battle of Stalingrad" as a monument, in 1995 it was moved to the pedestal by architect T.P. Sadovsky. In 2013 next to the monument a memorial plaque with the names of the crew was installed.

In Russia and the former Soviet Union at least 12 armored carriers of the 1125 series have been preserved as monuments. In Volgograd, BK-31, an armored boat of this series and its "twin" BK-13, raised from the bottom of the Volga River in 2017, are currently being repaired.

BK-13 is dedicated to the poem "Armored Carrier" by Volgograd poet Pavel Velikzhanin.