At the outbreak of the World War I, the Baltic Fleet underwater forces consisted of submarines brigade 98 ships) and underwater training vessels unit (3 ships) mainly equipped with outdated and obsolete submarines.
In 1915-1916, the Baltic Fleet received 7 submarines of Bars type (the Bars/Ounce, the Vepr/Wild Boar, the Volk/Wolf, the Lvitsa/ Lioness, the Panther, the Rys’/Lynx and the Tiger) and 5 submarines of AG type (AG-11, AG-12, AG-14, AG-15, AG-16) bought in America and assembled in Russia. Apart from them, allied England sent to the Baltic Sea ten (two of them were destroyed during the voyage) submarines of “E” and “S” types (E-1, E-8, E-9, E-18, E-19, S-26, S-27, S-32) together with a mother ship the Amsterdam.
Soon, the brigade was re-organized in a submarine division. By the beginning of 1917, it included 7 flotillas with 4-5 ships in each, not to mention English submarines. The first three flotillas were completely equipped with “Bars”-type submarines, while the fourth one – with “AG”-type submarines. Total strength of this division was 40 submarines and a mother ship Tosna.
Thus, submarines as one of the Navy arms demonstrated their might during the WWI. By its end, the Russian underwater forces had more or less established structure as well as operational strategy and tactics.
With the purpose of the German and Turkish ships and transports destruction, Russian submarines actively used torpedo weapons and seldom artillery. Mainly they applied single-torpedo aimed fire method. The first submarine that successfully applied torpedo salvo method was the Gepard (“Cheetah”). 10 August, 1915, off the western coast of Ezel Island, she attacked the German cruiser Lubeck which was escorted by five destroyers and succeeded in destroying her with one of the five torpedoes fired at intervals of several seconds. The Gepard’s crew submerged 20 meters deep after the attack heard a loud explosion.
30 April, 1915, another submarine the Dragon (captain-lieutenant N. Iliinskiy) spotted a German cruiser escorted by several destroyers. The submarine was detected by the enemy and underwent heavy bombardment after which she was chased by the enemy guard-ships. Despite all these, the Dragon’s captain managed to skillfully dodge the fire and set course for approaching and attacking the main target. Having taken up the most advantageous firing position, the captain fired a torpedo and submerged 20 meters deep. The crew of the Dragon clearly heard an explosion. Some time later, on surfacing the periscope depth, Iliinskiy spotted another cruiser, attacked her and forced her to hastily leave the district.
The Russian submariners’ actions made the enemy introduce a convoy system which usually consisted of 12-14 transports; auxiliary vessels, torpedo-boats and armed trawlers were used as guard-ships. Although anti-submarine protection was all-round, our submarine captains, even under such difficult conditions, achieved impressive results. For example, 17 May, 1916, submarine the Wolf (captain-senior lieutenant I. Messer) while operating near the Norchepinsk Bay, sank three German transports of 8 800 tons total tonnage.
During 1915 campaign alone, courageous Russian submariners conducted 78 operational cruises, destroyed 2 enemy cruisers and 16 transports, while the tonnage of the warships and transports, sank by them over two war years, totaled 105 000 tons.
Assessing the Russian submarines operational activity during the World War I, one should bear in mind that the underwater fleet, back in those days, was taking its first steps, but those first steps were already decisive and very promising.
After the Arctic cruise termination, there remained only 12 submarines of “Bars” type, including the famous Panther, in the Baltic Sea Fleet.
On 31 august, 1919, this submarine under the command of A.N. Bakhtin put out to sea in order to conduct operations against the interventionist ships. On reaching the berthing site of the English ships near the Seskar Island from the sunny side, Bakhtin approached the enemy destroyer Vittoria and, firing a double-torpedo salvo, sank her. Having submerged, the captain broke off from the English chase, thus having spent more than 24 hours under water. During this period, the Panther had sailed 75 miles and set up a record for all submarines of that time.
The Panther, commissioned in 1916, can be considered a ship-long-liver. After the 1st of December 1922, she was renamed in the Commissar. Until 1936, she was registered in the Baltic Sea Fleet, and later she was re-qualified into a training vessel. In 1942, she was re-organized into a charging station. In 1955, the Panther was written off from the Navy stock as an obsolete ship.
The formation of the Soviet underwater fleet, as I have already mentioned, began from the construction of the first six submarines of “Decabrist” type which were included in the 1st naval shipbuilding programme of 1926/27-1931/32. The Decabrist was designed in the naval design bureau headed then by a talented constructor B.M. Malinin, a student of prominent naval engineers K.P. Boklevskiy and I.G. Bubnov. Many other outstanding scientists and shipbuilders like A.N. Krylov, P.E. Papkovich and Y.A. Shimansky participated in the process of her construction.
Unlike pre-revolution “Bars”-type submarines, submarines of “Decabrist” type which came to take their place were double-hull just like all the next types of Soviet submarines. Their tactical-technical characteristics were the same as those of foreign analogues. With the displacement of 941/1288 tons, their major dimensions were 76,6 õ 6,4 õ 3,81 m. Diesel-electrical power installation of 2200/1050 horsepower. allowed them to develop a speed of 14/9 knots while their endurance was 3440/135 miles. Submarines of this type were armed with eight 533-mm torpedo-tubes (six were placed in the bow and two in the stern), one 100-mm and one 45-mm guns. Her complement numbered 53 seamen. Subs of “Decabrist” type were commissioned in 1930-1931. In 1933, Soviet shipbuilding industry supplied the fleet with underwater vessels of series II (type L/Leninist”). Apart from powerful torpedo armament, they were equipped with special tubes for laying obstacle mines, thus becoming the first Soviet underwater mine-layers. Their tactical-technical characteristics were similar to those of Decabrist-type submarines with the exception of endurance surfaced (7-11 000 miles). In 1933, the fleets started being equipped with submarines of “Sch” type (“Schuka”/”Pike”), and by 1941 their number increased up to 84 units. The “Schukas” were built and commissioned in series: 1933 – series III (4 units); 1933-1934 – series V (12 units); 1934-1935 – V-bis – 1st series (14 units); 1935-1936 – V-bis-2nd series (13 units); 1936-1939 – series X (32 units) and 1941 – X-bis series (9 units). Their project was worked out by a design bureau headed by B.M. Malinin. Their performance characteristics were gradually changed from series to series in the direction of diesel engines capacity increase, endurance decrease and submerged speed increase. Their armament (four torpedo-tubes forward and two torpedo-tubes aft, two 45-mm guns) remained unchanged. The last series of “Sch”-type submarines was of 584/700 tons displacement; their major dimensions were 58,8 õ 6,4 õ 4,0 m; power installation capacity was 1600/800 h.p.; speed reached 14/8 knots and endurance of 4500/100 miles.
The most popular and widely-spread submarines in the Navy were those of “M” type –“Malyutka” series VI and VI-bis – which were built under the direct leadership of constructors A.N. Asafiev and P.I. Serdyuk.. Their construction started in 1934. In 1940, they were replaced by subs of “M” type (“Malaya” series XII and XV). The last subs of series XV were put into operation in 1944. In comparison with “malyutkas”, their displacement increased twice and reached 283/350 tons which helped to install four torpedo-tubes instead of two as it used to be on the submarines of the first series. Their power installation capacity was 920/960 h.p. while their speed was increased by 15.5./9 knots with endurance of 3000/85 miles.
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