''L-3'' was one of six Series II double-hulled ''Leninets'' or ''L''-class

minelayer A minelayer is any warship, submarine, military aircraft or land vehicle deploying explosive mines. Since World War I the term "minelayer" refers specifically to a naval ship used for deploying naval mines. "Mine planting" was the term for ins ...

submarines A submarine (often shortened to sub) is a watercraft capable of independent operation underwater. (It differs from a submersible, which has more limited underwater capability.) The term "submarine" is also sometimes used historically or info ...

built for the

Soviet Navy The Soviet Navy was the naval warfare Military, uniform service branch of the Soviet Armed Forces. Often referred to as the Red Fleet, the Soviet Navy made up a large part of the Soviet Union's strategic planning in the event of a conflict with t ...

during the early 1930s. ''L-3'' had initially been named ''Bolshevik'' and had been renamed ''Frunzovets'' while under construction in 1931. Commissioned in 1933 into the

Baltic Fleet The Baltic Fleet () is the Naval fleet, fleet of the Russian Navy in the Baltic Sea. Established 18 May 1703, under Tsar Peter the Great as part of the Imperial Russian Navy, the Baltic Fleet is the oldest Russian fleet. In 1918, the fleet w ...

, she was renamed ''L-3'' when the navy decided to use alphanumeric names for submarines in 1934.

Design and description

The Soviet Navy decided in the early 1920s that it wanted both patrol and minelaying submarines, with the latter derived from the former. Construction of the minelayers was postponed until the submarine design bureaus had time to learn the lessons from building the Dekabrist-class patrol submarines and the British submarine which had been salvaged in 1928. The boats displaced surfaced and submerged. They had an

overall length The overall length (OAL) of an ammunition cartridge is a measurement from the base of the brass shell casing to the tip of the bullet, seated into the brass casing. Cartridge overall length, or "COL", is important to safe functioning of reloads i ...

of , a beam of , and a mean

draft Draft, the draft, or draught may refer to: Watercraft dimensions * Draft (hull), the distance from waterline to keel of a vessel * Draft (sail), degree of curvature in a sail * Air draft, distance from waterline to the highest point on a v ...

of . The boats had a diving depth of . Their crew numbered 53 officers and crewmen.Budzbon, Radziemski & Twardowski, p. 145 For surface running, the ''Leninets''-class boats were powered by a pair of 42-BM-6

diesel engine The diesel engine, named after the German engineer Rudolf Diesel, is an internal combustion engine in which Combustion, ignition of diesel fuel is caused by the elevated temperature of the air in the cylinder due to Mechanics, mechanical Compr ...

s, one per propeller shaft. The engines produced a total of , enough to give them a speed of . When submerged each shaft was driven by a PG 84

electric motor An electric motor is a machine that converts electrical energy into mechanical energy. Most electric motors operate through the interaction between the motor's magnetic field and electric current in a electromagnetic coil, wire winding to gene ...

for . The boats had a surface endurance of at and at submerged. For submerged cruising the ''Leninets'' class were equipped with a pair of electric motors. As completed the boats had problems with stability, excessive diving times (up to three minutes), noisy auxiliary machinery, and poor-quality batteries. These produced excessive amounts of explosive

hydrogen Hydrogen is a chemical element; it has chemical symbol, symbol H and atomic number 1. It is the lightest and abundance of the chemical elements, most abundant chemical element in the universe, constituting about 75% of all baryon, normal matter ...

gas which could lead to fires. By the end of 1934 the battery compartments had been rendered gas-tight and the ventilation had been improved. They were armed with six

torpedo tubes A torpedo tube is a cylindrical device for launching torpedoes. There are two main types of torpedo tube: underwater tubes fitted to submarines and some surface ships, and deck-mounted units (also referred to as torpedo launchers) installed aboa ...

in the bow, each with one reload. A pair of horizontal tubes for a total of 20 PLT-10 mines ran inside the pressure hull to the extreme stern where they would be ejected after the tubes had been flooded. The mines could be laid down to a depth of while the boats cruised at a speed of and depths of . They were also initially equipped with a B-2

deck gun A deck gun is a type of naval artillery mounted on the deck of a submarine. Most submarine deck guns were open, with or without a shield; however, a few larger submarines placed these guns in a turret. The main deck gun was a dual-purpose w ...

mounted on the front of the

conning tower A conning tower is a raised platform on a ship or submarine, often armoured, from which an officer in charge can conn (nautical), conn (conduct or control) the vessel, controlling movements of the ship by giving orders to those responsible for t ...

, although this was replaced by a B-34 gun of the same size and moved to a position forward of the conning tower. At some point during the 1930s, a 21-K anti-aircraft (AA) gun was added on the rear of the conning tower.Polmar & Noot, p. 250Budzbon, Radziemski & Twardowski, pp. 145–146

Construction and career

''L-3'' was

laid down Laying the keel or laying down is the formal recognition of the start of a ship's construction. It is often marked with a ceremony attended by dignitaries from the shipbuilding company and the ultimate owners of the ship. Keel laying is one ...

on 6 September 1929 by the Baltic Works in

Leningrad Saint Petersburg, formerly known as Petrograd and later Leningrad, is the List of cities and towns in Russia by population, second-largest city in Russia after Moscow. It is situated on the Neva, River Neva, at the head of the Gulf of Finland ...

with the name ''Bolshevik'' and was launched on 8 July 1931. She was renamed ''Frunzovets'' on 21 November and completed on 5 November 1933. The ship was commissioned into the Baltic Fleet four days later and renamed ''L-3'' on 15 September 1934. After the dismantling of the submarine, part of it was used as the monument in

Liepāja Liepāja () (formerly: Libau) is a Administrative divisions of Latvia, state city in western Latvia, located on the Baltic Sea. It is the largest city in the Courland region and the third-largest in the country after Riga and Daugavpils. It is an ...

, though the monument was relocated to Moscow in 1994.Budzbon, Radziemski & Twardowski, p. 146

Claims

References

Bibliography

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:L03 World War II submarines of the Soviet Union 1931 ships Leninets-class submarines Museum ships in Russia