Valentin Drozd

Valentin Petrovich Drozd (Russian: Валентин Петрович Дрозд; 16 September [O.S. 3 September] 1906 – 29 January 1943) was a Belarusian Soviet Navy vice admiral killed in World War II.

Drozd served in the Soviet Navy from the mid-1920s, commanding the destroyer Volodarsky during the 1930s. After serving as an advisor to the Spanish Republican Navy during the Spanish Civil War, Drozd commanded the Baltic Fleet Destroyer Brigade and then the Northern Fleet during the late 1930s. He commanded the Baltic Fleet Light Forces Detachment from early 1941 and following the beginning of Operation Barbarossa led it during the August Evacuation of Tallinn. Rewarded for his performance with a promotion to vice admiral and the command of the Baltic Fleet Squadron in September, Drozd led the latter during the evacuation of Hanko Naval Base and the Siege of Leningrad. He was killed in late January 1943 when his car fell through ice after an artillery shell exploded near it.^[1]