In 1940 the Germans captured a Dutch training vessel named Gelderland that they converted over to a naval Flak ship, re-named Niobe. She was meant to augment the small Finnish Navy that had a small coastal battlship named Väinämöinen that was spotted in the Kotka harbor. The Soviets mistook Niobe for the other ship and sent 131 aircraft to attack her which included IL-2s, LAGGs, Yaks, Pe-2s, and Havocs. In 11 minutes there was a fierce battle with the Kriegsmarine gunners and the attacking force that scored 9 direct hits on Niobe, only 2 of which proved fatal. The Germans shot-down 9 aircraft but were overwhelmed by sheer numbers. Luftwaffe support was not there but over Helsinki while FAF units did not have operating Bf 109Gs near the area. As she sunk, the Niobe continued to fire but was lost. But the Soviets later learned that they did NOT get the Finnish coastal battleship at all! It was sold to the USSR as war reparation in 1947, renamed Vyborg, and used as an artillery training ship until 1960. She was obsolete and was scrapped in 1962. One of the big questions remains that of air support. Had the German and FAF units showed up with between 30-40 Me Bf 109Gs then the Soviets probably would have lost. Germans were armed with Bf 109G-6/R6 with 3 cannons and 2 MGs while the FAF units operated G-2s minus the wing cannons.

http://rafiger.de/Homepage/Artgallery/Historic02/Niobe.jpg http://rafiger.de/Homepage/Artgallery/Historic02/sunkNiobe.jpg