Stolen from Reddit:
"This is a WW2 Soviet Patrol Boat from the Project 1124 Armored Gun Boat series, a 41-48 ton 'Riverine tank' built between 1935 and 1945- this particular example is Boat 163.
The central turret is for air-defence/ HMG use, with the primary armament of a T34 turret on the aft and stern of the boat itself, converted from an originally civilian vessel. Both turrets are fully functional with both the main cannon and the coaxial MG working, and the ship had a crew of 13-20 men. Armour was added around the converted original vessels, particularly around the prow for use in ramming attacks on enemy vessels.
These boats were used for fighting near rivers and were particularly useful when the enemy was using pontoon bridges, and these patrol boats occasionally were used for 'Taran' ramming attacks (August 1941, August 1944 recorded) as they had substantially heavier armour than smaller vessels. They were also used in the Baltic and Black seas, not just rivers, and they resemble other riverine assault vehicles like the American Monitor, but are more improvised in nature and pre-date them.
Soviet gunboats BK-213 and BK-322 took part in a battle against a group of 4 German auxiliary minesweepers on Peipus Lake (now the border between Estonia and Russia) on August 13th, 1944.
During the fight, the two Soviet armored boats managed to split the enemy vessels: the German minesweeper KM-19 managed to escape despite being damaged by fire from the Russian vessels, however minesweeper KM-08 was surrounded by the two BKs.
The German boat suffered direct hits from the Soviet T-34 turrets on the patrol boats, before finally BK-213 accomplished a "taran" (ramming) attack and the KM-08 was wrecked against the shore of the lake. Of the crew of 11 Germans on KM-08, 2 managed to hide themselves and escape capture, returning to their own lines, 5 were killed in action and the other 4 were captured (two later dying of wounds) by Russian boarders from BK-213. BK-213 suffered little damage to the ship itself and two of the crew were wounded.
The German Luftwaffe later further destroyed the wreck of minesweeper KM-08 with an air raid to prevent recovery of the vessel by Soviet forces.
BK-213 also saw recorded combat earlier in the war, on August 28th, 1941, where it, alongside another Soviet vessel, raided the Finnish coast and intercepted a convoy of Finnish motorboats towing pontoons. The two Soviet commanders decided to not open fire with their main guns, to not alert Finnish patrol boats, and the pair started a series of "taran" (ramming) attacks. In a short period of time, 4 Finnish motorboats were sunk alongside 2 pontoons, while other 2 pontoons were destroyed. No Finnish infantry or vehicles were on the pontoons when they were destroyed.
Finnish sources confirm such losses (Soviets actually claimed a bit more: 10 targets sunk), and the two Soviet vessels suffered 3 crew killed in action and 4 crew wounded."
A couple remain as memorials:
Slick lookers.
