Leninets-class submarine
{{Short description|Soviet WW2-era submarine class}}
| {{Infobox ship begin}}
{{Infobox ship image |Ship image=File:L-4 Garibaldiec.JPG |Ship caption=Submarine L-4 Garibaldets }} {{Infobox ship class overview |Name= |Builders= |Operators= |Class before={{sclass|Dekabrist|submarine|4}} |Class after= {{sclass2|Shchuka|submarine|4}} |Subclasses= |Cost= |Built range=1931–1941 |In service range= |In commission range=1931–1971 |Total ships building= |Total ships planned= |Total ships completed=25 |Total ships cancelled= |Total ships active= |Total ships laid up= |Total ships lost=4 |Total ships retired= |Total ships preserved=1 (partially) }} {{Infobox ship characteristics |Hide header= |Header caption={{Citation needed|date=February 2012}} |Ship class= |Ship type= |Ship displacement=*Group 1+2:
|Ship length=*Group 1+2: {{convert|81|m|ftin|abbr=on}}
|Ship beam=*Group 1+2: {{convert|6.6|m|ftin|abbr=on}}
|Ship height= |Ship draft=All Groups: {{convert|4.08|m|ftin|abbr=on}} |Ship decks= |Ship power= |Ship propulsion=*Diesel-electric, 2 shafts
|Ship speed=*Group 1+2:
|Ship range= |Ship endurance= |Ship test depth= |Ship complement=53 |Ship armament=*1 × 100 mm gun
|Ship armor= |Ship notes= }} |
The Leninets or L class were the second class of submarines to be built for the Soviet Navy. Twenty-five were built in four groups between 1931 and 1941. They were minelaying submarines and were based on the British L-class submarine, {{HMS|L55||6}}, which was sunk during the British intervention in the Russian Civil War. Some experience from the previous {{sclass|Dekabrist|submarine|1}}s was also utilised. The boats were of the saddle tank type and mines were carried in two stern galleries as pioneered on the pre-war Russian submarine Krab (1912). These boats were considered successful by the Soviets. Groups 3 and 4 had more powerful engines and a higher top speed.
Ships
{{Further|Submarine warfare in the Black Sea campaigns (1941–42)}}
=Group 1=
File:Shadowgraph Leninets class II mod series submarine.svg
Six ships were built (L-1 to L-6), all launched in 1931. Three were assigned to the Baltic Fleet and three to the Black Sea Fleet, including Soviet submarine L-3.
| class="wikitable" | |
| Number
! Name ! Meaning ! Fleet ! Launched ! Fate | |
|---|---|
| L-1
| Leninets (Ленинец) | Follower of Lenin | Baltic | 28 February 1931 |Sunk by German artillery October 1941, salvaged 1944, scrapped 1949 | |
| L-2
| Stalinets (Сталинец) |Follower of Stalin |Baltic |21 May 1931 |Sunk 14 November 1941 by mine off Keri Island | |
| {{ship|Soviet submarine|L-3 | 2}}
|Frunzenets (Фрунзенец) |Follower of Frunze |Baltic |8 August 1931 |Renamed B-3 in 1949; decommissioned 15 February 1971, conning tower preserved as a memorial |
| {{ship|Soviet submarine|L-4 | 2}}
|Garibaldets (Гарибальдиец) |Follower of Garibaldi |Black Sea |31 August 1931 |Renamed B-34 in 1949; decommissioned 2 November 1954 and scrapped on 17 February 1956 |
| L-5
|Chartist (Чартист) |An adherent of Chartism |Black Sea |5 June 1932 |Decommissioned 25 December 1955 and scrapped in 1956 | |
| L-6
|Carbonari (Карбонарий) |Black Sea |3 November 1932 |Sunk with depth charges near Sevastopol on 18 April 1944 by the German submarine chaser UJ-104[https://wrecksite.eu/wreck.aspx?147594 L-6 (Карбонарий) (+1944) on wrecksite]{{cite web|url=https://uboat.net/allies/warships/ship/4875.html|title=L-6 of the Soviet Navy - Soviet Submarine of the L (Leninec) class - Allied Warships of WWII - uboat.net|website=uboat.net|access-date=16 April 2019}}{{cite web|url=http://www.sovboat.ru/ship/l6.php3|title=Великая Отечественная - под водой|website=www.sovboat.ru|access-date=16 April 2019}} |
=Group 2=
File:Shadowgraph Leninets class XI mod series submarine.svg
Six ships were built (L-7 to L-12) and launched between 1935 and 1936. All were built for the Pacific Fleet by plant 202 "Dalzavod" Vladivostok and plant 199 Komsomolsk-na-Amure.
| class="wikitable" |
| Number
! Name ! Meaning ! Fleet ! Launched ! Fate |
|---|
| L-7
| Voroshilovets | Follower of Kliment Voroshilov | Pacific | 15 May 1935 |Stricken 1958 and later scrapped |
| L-8
| Dzerzhinets |Follower of Dzerzhinsky |Pacific |10 September 1935 |Decommissioned 1959, served as a training vessel until 1970; dismantled in 1973; conning tower preserved as a memorial to L-19 |
| L-9
|Kirovets |Follower of Kirov |Pacific |25 August 1935 |Renamed L-19 in 1945 in honor of the sunken L-19, renamed B-19 in 1949; stricken in 1958 and later scrapped |
| L-10
|Menzhinets |Follower of Menzhinski |Pacific |18 December 1936 |Renamed B-10 in 1949, decommissioned in 1959; served as floating charging station ZAS-18 (later PZS-20), stricken in 1967 and scrapped |
| L-11
|Sverdlovets |Follower of Sverdlov |Pacific |4 December 1936 |Renamed B-11 in 1949; decommissioned and stricken in 1959 and later scrapped; conning tower preserved as a memorial to L-16 |
| L-12
|Molotovets |Follower of Molotov |Pacific |7 November 1936 |Renamed B-12 in 1949, decommissioned in 1959; stricken in 1983; hull entombed in a stone pier in Magadan in 1986 |
=Group 3=
File:Shadowgraph Leninets class XIII mod series submarine.svg
Seven ships were built (L-13 to L-19) and launched from 1937 to 1938. All were assigned to the Pacific Fleet. Considered a new project, the hull was based on the Srednyaya class. They carried 18 mines.
| class="wikitable" | |
| Ship
! Fleet ! Launched ! Fate | |
|---|---|
| L-13
|Pacific | 2 August 1936 |Renamed B-13 in 1949, decommissioned 1956; stricken in 1958 | |
| L-14
|Pacific | 20 December 1936 |Renamed B-14 in 1949, decommissioned 1956, stricken in 1984 and scrapped | |
| L-15
|Pacific | 26 December 1936 |Transferred to the Northern Fleet via the Panama Canal in late 1942; stricken in 1958 and scrapped | |
| id="L-16"
|L-16 |Pacific | 9 July 1937 |Torpedoed by Japanese submarine {{ship|Japanese submarine|I-25 | 2}} on 11 October 1942 near the coast of Oregon while being transferred to the Soviet Northern Fleet{{cite web|url=http://www.researcheratlarge.com/Pacific/L16/|title=Researcher @ Large - Soviet submarine L16 and its loss|access-date=19 December 2014}}{{cite web|url=http://www.researcheratlarge.com/Pacific/L16/LossOfTheL16.html|title=Researcher@Large - The Death of Chief Photographer Sergei Mihailoff, USNR and the Soviet submarine L16|access-date=19 December 2014}} |
| L-17
|Pacific | 5 November 1937 |Renamed B-17 in 1949, decommissioned 1959; served as training ship UTS-84 into the 2000s | |
| L-18
|Pacific | 12 May 1938 |Renamed B-18 in 1949, decommissioned 1958; served as training ship UTS-85 into the 2000s | |
| L-19
|Pacific | 25 May 1938 | Lost on or after 24 August 1945 to unknown cause; probably mined in or off the Le Pérouse Strait |
=Group 4=
File:Shadowgraph Leninets class XIII-1938 series submarine.svg
6 ships were built (L-20 to L-25) and launched from 1940 to 1941. 3 were assigned to the Baltic Fleet and 3 to the Black Sea Fleet. This group added stern torpedo tubes and new, more powerful diesel engines.
| class="wikitable" | |
| Ship
! Fleet ! Launched ! Fate | |
|---|---|
| L-20
| Baltic | 14 April 1940 |Renamed B-20 in 1949, decommissioned 1956; sank on 10 October 1957 in Chernaya Bay during nuclear testing | |
| {{ship|Soviet submarine|L-21 | 2}}
| Baltic | 17 July 1940 |Renamed B-21 in 1949, stricken 1955 and scrapped in 1958 |
| {{ship|Soviet submarine|L-22 | 2}}
|Baltic |23 September 1939 |Transferred to Northern Fleet 1941; renamed B-22 in 1949, decommissioned 1955; participated in nuclear testing in 1957–1958; stricken in 1959 and scrapped |
| L-23
|Black Sea |29 April 1940 |Missing after 1 January 1944; likely sunk 17 January 1944 off Cape Tarchakut by German sub-chaser UJ106 | |
| L-24
|Black Sea |17 December 1940 |Sunk between 15 and 29 December 1942 off Cape Shabla by a mine of the Romanian flanking barrage S-15,Mikhail Monakov, Jurgen Rohwer, Stalin's Ocean-going Fleet: Soviet Naval Strategy and Shipbuilding Programs 1935-1953, p. 266 laid by the Romanian minelayers Amiral Murgescu, Regele Carol I and Dacia;Donald A Bertke, Gordon Smith, Don Kindell, World War II Sea War, Volume 4: Germany Sends Russia to the Allies, p. 323 wreck found in 1991 | |
| L-25
|Black Sea |26 February 1941 |Never finished; sunk while being towed from Tuapse to Sevastopol on 18 December 1944 |
References
{{reflist}}
Sources
- {{cite book|editor1-last=Jordan|editor1-first=John|publisher=Osprey|location=Oxford, UK |year=2020|title=Warship 2020|isbn=978-1-4728-4071-4|last1=Budzbon|first1=Przemysław |last2=Radziemski|first2=Jan|chapter=The Beginnings of Soviet Naval Power|pages=82–101|name-list-style=amp}}
- {{cite book|editor-last1=Gardiner|editor-first1=Robert|editor-last2=Chesneau|editor-first2=Roger|title=Conway's All The World's Fighting Ships 1922–1946|year=1980|publisher=Conway Maritime Press|location=London|isbn=0-85177-146-7}}
- Yakubov, Vladimir and Worth, Richard. (2008) Raising the Red Banner: The Pictorial History of Stalin's Fleet 1920-1945. Spellmount. {{ISBN|978-1-86227-450-1}}