Between the wars, Soviet forces placed four four-gun batteries around the Baltic Sea, two four-gun batteries in Sevastopol and two six-gun batteries in Vladivostok. Some guns from the "Imperator Aleksandr III" were later captured by the Germans in World War II and used in the Batterie Mirus in Guernsey during the German occupation of the Channel Islands. During the Second World War, the Soviet Separate Coastal Army maintained four of the guns in the Maxim Gorky Fortresses in Crimea. When an advancing German Army laid siege to Sevastopol, the coastal batteries were used extensively in the defense of the city. Both batteries were eventually knocked out of action.