TheSubReport.com Editor’s Blog

by: Raul Colon  

The Soviet Union was once renowned as one of the world’s most prolific submarine design and development power. Their massive boats, such as the “Akula” and the Delta Classes are well known to many. But the first Soviet-design submarine is much lesser known. Developed out of Russia’s Great War experience, the Dekabrist class of ocean going submarines was the USSR’s first domestically designed submarine. Spearheaded by a brilliant engineer named Boris Malinin and following a longstanding Soviet tradition, a small group of engineers and designers, some rumored to be Italians, began to craft the blue prints of the Dekabrist in the summer of 1925. The new class was the first Soviet-operated boat to be fitted with watertight bulkheads and riveted hulls of high strength steel, plus forty-five percent reserve buoyancy. The hull of the lead boat of the class, the Dekabrist or D-1, was laid down on March 5, 1927. All six boats of the class had the same hull measurements.

Length                                                           251’-2″

Beam                                                                20’-9″

Total Surface Displacement `                          940 tons

Submerge Displacement                                1240 tons

Maximum Dive Depth                                         295’-0″

The first two Dekabrist class boats were powered by a MAN 1100 horse power engines supplemented by a 525hp electrical engine for underwater operations. The rest of the class was powered by a 42B6 1100hp diesel engine. They all used the 525hp electrical engine. This combination gave the Dekabrist subs a top surface speed of 15.3 knots. Submerge speed was 8.7 knots. Operational surface range, at a 9 knot clip was 8950 nautical miles. Underwater range was 158nm at a speed of three knots. All of the six boats were armed with six 21″ bow torpedo tubes augmented by two 21″ stern tubes. Two fixed deck guns, one four inch B2 gun and a forty-five mm 21K anti-aircraft gun. The boats were managed by a crew of fifty-three officers and men.

The Dekabrist proved the designer’s wisdom. They were maneuverable and fast-diving boats. An although they were around ten years behind anything the West, Germany and even Japan, were able to deploy at the time; they proved to be a good stepping stone for the Soviet next submarine class, the Leninetz. The Dekabrist class boats suffered from poor maintenance and were slow to incorporate new technology such as the British-designed Asdic-129 sonar system. The “D” class, as these boats often are referred to, had a checker service life. The first boat, D-1 was commissioned on November 18 1930. She was lost during exercises in the Baltic Sea in November 1940. The cause was a negative buoyancy tank flood. Next was the Narodovoletz (D-2), commissioned on October 11 1931. The D-2 was severely damaged during a German air raid in August 1941. She survived the war and eventually was taken from the active duty force on August 1956. It took more than five decades after the boat was commissioned, March 3 1987, for the Soviet Navy to officially decommission the D-2. Now, the venerable boat sits on the Russian Central Navy Museum. The Krasnogvardeyetz (D-3), which was the last of boast of the Dekabrist class to be constructed at the famous Soviet Plan 189 in the Leningrad Shipyard, was commissioned on November 11 1931. In 1935 she sank on the Baltic during exercises. It was raised and re-commissioned into the active fleet. She was lost off the coast of Norway during operations in June 1942.

The next three boats were built in the Mati Yard on the Black Sea coast. Revoltusioner (D-4) was commissioned on January 1 1931. She was sunk by a German surface raider on December 4 1943. The Spartakovetz (D-5), commissioned on May 17 1931, did not saw major combat operations during World War II, she was decommissioned on 1955 and scrapped on the fall of 1957. The Yakobinetz (D-6) was commissioned on June 12 1931, was completely destroyed during a Luftwaffe raid over Sevastopol in November 12 1941. @

Raul Colon
e-mail:rcolonfrias@yahoo.com
Telephone / Fax 787-748-7312-Mobile 787-297-1593
PO Box 29754

by: Raul Colon 

The incredible U-19 class of submarine was one of the first true modern sub platforms to take to the seas. It was the first design to incorporate diesel supplied engines for longer endurance on the surface. The U-19 was also the first boat to be completely designed by Germany to be employed as a surface raider. For this purpose, the U-19s were fitted with a massive 88mm fix deck gun. The high caliber of the gun was needed because despite the hull’s size, considerable large than any previous submarines, the U-19 were only able to carry a small torpedo complement. Beside the diesel engines, the 19 was the first submarine to be installed with “jumping wires” and net cutters for penetrating net defenses. It also possessed boom defenses for protection against naval anchors.
 

The sub was also fitted with four watertight bulkheads on the hull for damage control. The 19’s main rudder was also new. It was placed abaft the propellers. The U-19 hull measured 210’-5” with a beam of 20’-5”. The new German sub displaced 650 tons on the surface and 837 underwater. Her two massive 850 horse power diesel engines gave her a top surface speed of 16.5 knots. For underwater operations, the U-19 was fitted with two 600 hp electrical motors powering a two shaft alignment. For dive maneuvers speed was a very impressive 9.5 knots. Surface operational range, at an eight knot clip, was 7600 nautical miles. Undersea range was 80 nm at a five knot speed.
 

The class was four strong with the lead boat, U-19 launched on the 10 of October 1912. She was commissioned on July 6 of the next year. She and U-22, which was commissioned on November 25, 1913, were the only boats to survive the Great War. Both surrender to the Royal Navy after the Armistice was signed on November 1918. The other two subs, U-20 and 21 meet the faith of war head on. U-20 had the distinction of being the U-boat that sunk the famous British sea liner RMS Lusitania, south of the Ireland coast, on the afternoon of May 7, 1915. Above 1,200 men, women and children, including 128 Americans, died on one of history’s most famous sinking. She made several more patrols until she was stranded on the west coast of Jutland. There, her crew scuttled it on the morning of November 5, 1916.
 

The other boat of the class was more successful, by naval warfare standards. U-21, which was the first German submarine to fire a torpedo in anger when she engaged the British Royal Navy’s light cruiser HMS Pathfinder on the afternoon of September 5, 1914. After the action she was ordered to assist Turkish forced holding up the Allied invasion of the Gallipoli Peninsula on the Dardanelles. There, on May 25 1915, she attacked and sunk the battleship Triumph. Two days later, U-21 sunk the Majestic. In all, U-21 made twenty one successful combat patrols during the war. She was credited with the sinking of 36 ships, an impressive total by any standard. She was sunk en route to surrender after the Armistice on February 22, 1919.
 

In all, the four strong class of U-19 was the first true ocean going submarine developed by Germany. And although today, few items, let along history of these boats remains, their contribution to the development of the submarine as a first class weapon platform is undeniable.@