Russian submarine id

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Dekabrist D Class
There were six of these made in the prewar years. The first one was named Dekabrist and it was commisioned in 1934. They were double hull constuction with seven compartments.
Length was 249 ft. Beam was 21 ft. It was powered by two diesels and two shafts , turning three bladed propellors. Test depth was 295 ft. It could make 14 knots on the surface and 9 knots submerged. It was armed with eight 21" torpedo tubes. Of the six that were made, only two survived the war, one of which, Navrodolets is a museum boat that many of these pictures were taken from. Navrodolets, which was the second of the Dekabrist class had a different conning tower from the first boat.
Dekabrist

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Leninets L Class
These were minelaying submarines that were based on the British L55 that the Soviets recovered and copyed. It was a saddletank design with the mine compartments located in the stern. Twenty five were built. They were 273 ft. long and 23 ft. in beam. Two diesels and two shafts. 18 knots on the surface and 10 knots down below. They were very much disliked by there crews as they were very unstable. Leninet was the name of the first boat of this class. As usual, many variations occured during production.

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Shchuka(Pike) sometimes referred to as SC
There were 88 built and 35 lost during the war. There were three main types.They were all 57 meters long with a beam of 6.2 meters. They all used two diesels for propulsion on the surface with two shafts. They could make 12.5 knots on the surface and 6.3 knots down under. Not as fast as some boats. They had a 300 ft. test depth and were equipped with four torpedo tubes up front in the bow and two in the stern. After the war two were transferred to China.

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Pravda(Truth) or P class
Three were built in the mid 1930s originally to operate with a surface fleet. After it was realized that they could not keep up with a surface fleet they were then relagated to transport duties. They had double hulls with eight compartments. Because of equipment shortcomings they were the least succesful of the Russian WW2 types. They were considered very slow as well as slow divers, and very rough riders, making their crews very uncomfortable all the way around. It required 20 hrs. to fully recharge there batteries. The two surviving subs had their conning towers rebuilt to look like the later K class. They were 90 meters long with a beam of 8 meters. Test depth was 260 ft. I apologise in advance for the pictures that I am about to post. Good pictures but way too small.

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Malyutka(mite) Also known as little one or baby. Also known as M class
There were 111 units built in 4 classes. Most had a crew of 16 to 19 men and most were 37 meters long. The XVs were bigger but only four were made. The idea behind this design was that a small submarine could defend a harbour and coastal area and could be easily disassembled and transported by rail from theatre to theatre. Most had one diesel and shaft. There were 33 lost during the war.

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Sorry about the little pictures.

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S Class unofficially called Stalinettes( follower of Stalin)
The most succesful of all Russian Submarines as a class. They sank 82,770 gross tons of merchant shipping and seven warships which makes up a full 1/3 of all the sinkings by Russian submarines during WW2. There were completed 56 units. These boats were a colaboration between German and Russian designers before the war. the dimensions were 77.8 meters long and a beam of 6.4 meters. Two diesels and two shafts. Four tubes up front and two in the stern. 100 meter test depth.

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Nice sleek looking boat.

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K class(katjusa) Long Range cruiser(Kreyser) submarine
These were the best operating submarines that the Russians produced. They had seven compartments from inside a double hull. There were twelve built with five lost. Dimensions were 97.65 meters long and 7.4 meters beam. Powered by two 4200 h.p. diesels and two shafts. They could make almost 23 knots on the surface and a solid ten knots below the waves. 230 ft. was there test depth and they packed six bow tubes and two stern tubes.
K-21 was inspected in 1944 by a group of american naval engineers. They found her to be inferior in technology to existing Gato class submarines. Diving time was given as 60 sec. Pictures will be contained in the next post.

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