Part 3
PL "PANTERA" OPENS A BATTLE ACCOUNT
After the surrender of Germany, a British battle squadron appeared in the Gulf of Finland. It was clear that with the beginning of navigation in 1919, the interventionists would undertake military provocations in the Baltic.
On November 15, 1918, a bunker was created (an active detachment of the Baltic Fleet), which included 2 battleships, one cruiser, 4 destroyers and 7 submarines - "Panther", "Tiger", "Lynx", "Vepr", "Wolf", Tour and Jaguar.
The submarine, despite the stormy weather and low air temperature, which caused icing of the hulls, the failure of periscopes, and often weapons, conducted systematic reconnaissance operations.
The first such trip was made by submarine "Tur" (commander N. A. Kol, commissar I. N. Gaevsky). At dawn on November 28, she secretly penetrated the Revel roadstead and was there in a submerged position until 11 o'clock in the afternoon. The submarines "Tiger" and "Panther" also went to sea with reconnaissance purposes. However, severe frosts every day more and more frozen the eastern part of the Gulf of Finland. Swimming was getting harder and harder. In December, for three days, the icebreakers took the submarine "Tur" from Petrograd to Kronstadt, which was supposed to be sent for long-range reconnaissance to Libava. The submarine "Jaguar" and the minesweeper "Kitboy" were covered with ice in the Morskoy Canal.
On December 30, she got stuck in the ice at the Bolshoi Kronstadt roadstead of the Tiger submarine. More than 20 steamers and even icebreakers turned out to be covered with ice on the Neva and in the Morskoy Canal. Therefore, the submarine's outings to the sea were temporarily suspended. In January 1919, the Panther submarine sailed into Narva Bay. This was the last winter campaign of the submarine.
In the spring of 1919, the Entente and the Russian counter-revolution launched a new campaign against Soviet Russia, in which the main role was assigned to the White Guard armies. In May, the offensive of General Yudenich's troops began on Petrograd: on May 15, Gdov was captured, on May 17 - Yamburg (Kingisepp), on May 25 - Pskov.
At a meeting of the Council of Workers 'and Peasants' Defense on May 19, Lenin signed a draft resolution on urgent work to repair ships of the Baltic Fleet.
The active detachment, formed by 15 mats, included 3 battleships, one cruiser, 10 destroyers, 7 submarines, 3 minelayers, 6 patrol ships and transports. On April 11, another submarine, the minelayer "Yorsh", entered the bunker. But some of these ships were still under repair.
They entered service only a few months later. In early July, the Red Army launched an offensive near Petrograd. He was tried to prevent the British warships, which carried out systematic shelling of the coastal flank of the Red Army troops. Submarines took an active part in the hostilities against the interventionists. Baltic Fleet.
On July 10, submarine "Volk" (commander N. M. Kitaev, commissar A. A. Dobrozrakov) set off for Koporsky Bay. When leaving Kronstadt, one of the rowing electric motors burned down on it. BUT the commander and commissar decided to continue the military campaign. In the bay, the submariners found 3 enemy destroyers. Two ships were sailing. The sub was unable to attack them with one propeller motor running. The third destroyer was standing under the coast, and it was also not possible to get close to it due to shallow water in a submerged position at a distance of a torpedo shot. At midnight the submarine "Volk" left the Koporsky Bay.
The most active in those days was the Panther submarine (commander A. N. Bakhtin, commissar V. G. Ivanov). On the morning of July 24, she, following under the periscope, found two British E-class submarines in Koporsky Bay, which were on the surface. A. N. Bakhtin, deciding to attack both submarines at the same time, sent the "Panther" between them. When the distance to one of the enemy's submarines was reduced to 6 cables, "Panther" fired a shot from the right stern torpedo tube, and 4 minutes later, turning 20 degrees to the right, fired a torpedo from the left stern apparatus into the second submarine. But for some reason no explosions followed. One of the British submarines started, the other remained in place. Having described the circulation to the left under water, the Panther submarine fired at a stationary target two torpedoes from the bow devices. The torpedoes were going well, but the enemy noticed their trail. The British submarine set in motion, turned around, and both torpedoes passed by.
At that moment, another British submarine managed to fire a torpedo, which passed along the side of the Panther submarine. The Soviet boat, turning to the right, went deep.
This was the first torpedo attack. Completed by the submarine of the Baltic Fleet during the Civil War. She showed the enemy that Soviet submariners pose a very real and serious threat.
At midnight on July 27, the Vepr submarine (commander G. L. Bugaev, commissar I. S. Savkin) sailed into the Koporsky Bay. About noon the next day, she found several enemy ships in the bay, maneuvering an anti-submarine zigzag. Submarine "Vepr" went to rapprochement with them. The bow and stern torpedo tubes were ready to fire, the command "Tovs!" Followed, but at that moment diving shells began to burst near the submarine. One of the British destroyers rushed to the ram. "Vepr" quickly went deep. And the shells exploded closer and closer, shaking the hull of the boat. The lights went out in the compartments. Another burst laid down the periscope, and water began to flow through its oil seals. From the short circuit, the electric motor of the periscope caught fire. The submarine, quickly becoming heavier from the incoming water, sank. When she, breaking away from the enemy, surfaced, the conning tower could not be opened - it turned out to be skewed.
At 20.45, the Vepr submarine entered Kronstadt and moored at the Pamyat Azov floating base. A thorough examination of the submarine showed that the lambs of the neck of the bow ballast tank were torn off, the superstructure was damaged in several places, and the battery vent valve was jammed. The charging compartment of one of the torpedoes turned out to be dented. On the morning of August 31, 1919, the Panther submarine set off for another military campaign. On the traverse of the Tolbukhin lighthouse, she sank. At 15.-POL arrived in the designated area. At 19.15 A. G. Bakhtin discovered through the periscope two British destroyers anchored off the southeastern part of Seskar Island (Lesnoy).
A battle alarm sounded in the boat. Submarine "Panther" came closer to the island, and then turned to the left by almost 90 degrees. At this time, the sun was sinking in the northwest over the horizon, spreading a golden-orange sparkling path across the water. It blinded the eyes of signalmen on British ships, making it difficult to detect the periscope. In addition, the submarine approached the enemy destroyers from the side of the island, from where it was least expected. This allowed it, after an attack on a shallow reach (15 - 25 meters), to quickly move towards great depths.
The watch was carried on horizontal rudders by an excellent specialist F. M. Smolnikov, an experienced machine driver F. V. Sakun was at the torpedo firing control devices. Commissioner "Panther" VG Ivanov went to the bow of the boat. Boatswain DS Kuzminsky, who headed the Panther party organization, was in the stern. The clock showed 21.05. The commander ordered to open the front covers of the bow torpedo tubes. After 11 minutes a new command followed: "Nasal apparatus - tovs!" Until the British ships were no more than 4 - 5 cables. At 21.19 A. N. Bakhtin commanded: "The right apparatus - pli!" Half a minute later, "Panther" fired a shot from the left torpedo tube. The commander, leaning against the periscope, saw two air bubbles splashed out from under the water - torpedoes rushed at the enemy. Lightened after a torpedo salvo, "Panther" was thrown to the surface. "All free in the nose!" - commanded the assistant commander A. G. Shishkin. The sailors rushed to the bow of the submarine. At the same time, the bow trim tank was filled with water. "Panther" quickly went diving. After a few seconds, a violent explosion was heard. But the submariners could not see how a column of fire, water and smoke shot up at the side of the British destroyer - the periscope was already lowered. Artillery volleys rumbled. "Panther", abruptly changing course, hastened to leave the area of attack. She walked, almost touching the bottom of the ground. And the depth increased very slowly - 18 … 20 … 25 m. Artillery shots were still heard behind the stern.
"Panther" farther and farther went east. A new day has come.
On September 1, at 01.10 am, the Panther submarine surfaced. The commander opened the hatch and, together with the commissar, climbed onto the bridge. The night was dark. When they began to ventilate the boat, a searchlight flashed in the Seskar area. Its bright beam slid across the water, approaching the Panther. The submarine quickly sank and lay down on the ground at a depth of 30 meters.
At 05.45, the Panther surfaced to periscope depth. At 06.30 the Shepelevsky lighthouse appeared. Having decided, "Panther" headed for Kronstadt. Barely passed the lighthouse, the commander noticed the periscope of an unknown submarine. But soon the periscope disappeared. Apparently, the submarine, having discovered the "panther", preferred to go to the depths. When the "Panther" was already laying down on the approaching target, a screeching sound was heard - her left side touched either the minerail or the navigational landmark that had fallen off after the 1918 campaign and cut off by ice. The commander of the submarine reported that this incident occurred even abeam the Tolbukhin lighthouse, when the submarine was under water. At 11.20 the Panther surfaced. A gloomy haze hung over the sea. On the left, along the course, the silhouette of the Tolbukhin lighthouse was distinguished. Breaking away from the enemy, the Panther submarine stayed under water for 28 hours and covered 75 miles. It was a record at that time. The pressure inside the submarine increased so much that the barometer needle went beyond the scale (over 815 mm). The battery was almost completely discharged. At 13.00 "Panther" moored "in the Kronstadt harbor.
The torpedo attack of the Panther submarine was successful - the newest, launched only in 1917, the British Navy destroyer Victory with a displacement of 1,367 tons went to the bottom. For the valor shown in this campaign, the commander of the submarine "Panther" A. N. Bakhtin was later awarded the highest government award at that time - the Order of the Red Banner. The Revolutionary Military Council of the Baltic Fleet, by its decree of December 3, 1919, awarded 18 sailors of the Panther submarine with personalized watches. A combat account of Soviet submariners was opened, which was then continued and multiplied many times in battles against Germany during World War II. The heroic campaign of the Panther submarine was the last combat mission to the sea by the submarine of the Baltic Fleet during the Civil War and foreign military intervention.
By 1921, the Soviet Republic, apart from the Baltic Fleet, had almost no naval forces in the Black Sea, in the North and in the Far East. Submarines were available only in the Baltic, in the Black and Caspian Seas.
The flotilla of the Arctic Ocean was plundered by the American-British invaders.
During the Civil War and foreign intervention, the Russian submarine fleet suffered huge losses - 32 submarines of various types (61.5% of its number on the eve of the revolution), of the bottom 25 submarines were destroyed or captured by the interventionists and White Guards.
By the end of the Civil War, the submarine fleet of Soviet Russia consisted of only 23 submarines of the types "Kasatka", "Lamprey", "Morzh", "Bars" and "AG". Of these, 10 submarines were in service (9 submarines of the "Bars" type and one of the "AG" type), under construction, in assembly and overhaul - 6, in reserve - 7 submarines.
As part of the RKKF there was only one submarine formation - the division of the submarine of the Baltic Sea (the head of the division was a naval sailor Y. K. Zubarev, the commissar was the former machine sergeant major of the submarines "Unicorn" and "Leopard" MF Storozhenko). The formation consisted of 3 divisions.
The first division consisted of submarines "Panther", "Leopard", "Wolf", "Tour" and the floating base "Tosno".
In the second division - submarines "Lynx", "Tiger", "Jaguar", "Ruff", "Snake", floating base "Voin" and the training ship "Verny".
Submarines "Vepr", "Cougar" and "Eel" made up the reserve division.
In addition, the division had the Volkhov rescue ship. Almost all ships of the formation were based on Petrograd. The division lost 13 submarines during the Civil War. She experienced an acute shortage of command personnel. Submarine mechanisms and weapons were worn out to the limit. The vast majority of ships needed major repairs. Their condition can be judged by the following fact: on March 27, 1920, the submarine "Eel" sank on the Neva. In winter, she was supported afloat by ice, which melted under the rays of the spring sun, and the boat sank to the bottom.
In October 1920, for the first time after the Civil War, 5 submarines made a joint 6-day campaign in the Gulf of Finland under the flag of the division chief. On November 28, the Baltic submariners solemnly celebrated the holiday of their union. On the Neva, with a huge crowd of people, a parade of submarines took place, and one of them - "Tour" - plunged and passed along the river under a periscope.
In May 1922, the submarine division of the Baltic Fleet was reorganized into a separate division, which included two groups of ships: one consisted of 5 submarines and transport "Tosno", the other - 4 submarines and ships "Verny" and "Volkhov". The floating base "Voin", 3 submarines of the reserve division, as well as the unfinished submarines "Yaz" and "Trout" were withdrawn from the combat composition of the Baltic Sea Naval Forces. On June 13, 1922, the Vepr and Cougar submarines were transferred to the diving school, created to replace the Diving Training Squad.
The organization of the service for the new states was getting better, the charter order on the ships was strengthened. Combat training was hampered by the length of repair work and the late entry of the submarine into the campaign.
Torpedo firing in 1922 could be performed only by 4 submarines (the division had only one set of torpedoes, which the ships passed to each other). Nevertheless, 3 submarines took part in the cruise of the ships of the Baltic Fleet to the Reval meridian, which was first carried out after the end of the Civil War.
Much work was done to summarize the combat experience of using submarines in the First and in the Civil War. In 1920 in the Baltic Sea, the Rules of Service on Submarine Vessels were developed. "On April 20, 1922, Ya. K. Zubarev reported to the Chief of Staff of the Baltic Sea Naval Forces:" For the first time, the work of the division personnel has been released, embracing all the information and instructions on the underwater specialty A. N. Bakhtin, A. I. Berg, G. V. Vasiliev, B. M. Voroshilin, N. N. Golovachev, A. A. Zhadn-Pushkin, N. A. Zhimarinsky, N. A. Zhukov, N. A. Ignatov, A. A. Ikonnikov, A. N. Lebedev, N. A. Petrov, V. A. Poderni, V. N. Selyanin, G. M. Trusov and other submarine commanders.
On November 22, 1922, on the day of the divisional holiday, 59 Baltic submariners received certificates of "Hero of Labor of the Baltic Sea Submarine Division" for their special merits in the restoration of the Soviet submarine fleet.
By order of the RVS of the Baltic Sea Forces of January 17, 1923, the submarine of the division was given new names: "Bolshevik" ("Lynx"), "Commissar" ("Panther"), "Krasnoarmeets" ("Leopard"), "Worker" ("Ruff"), "Red Navy" ("Jaguar"), "Kommunar" ("Tiger"), "Comrade" ("Tur"), "Proletarian" ("Snake"). Submarine "Wolf" was mistakenly omitted in the order and received a new name "Batrak" a little later.
The transport "Tosno" was renamed to the floating base "Smolny", the training ship "Verny" - to the floating base "Petrosovet" (later "Leningradsovet"), the rescuer "Volkhov" - to "Kommuna".
By the beginning of 1925, a separate submarine division was transformed into a two-division brigade. This brigade was commanded by Ya. K. Zubarev, OI Spalvin was the commissar (from October 1926), submarine divisions were headed by A. A. Ikonnikov and G. V. Vasiliev.
In 1925, the brigade first entered the campaign in full force - all 9 submarines were in service. This was facilitated by the active participation of submariners in the repair of their ships: they completed more than 50% of the repair work. In 1924, new storage batteries were installed on almost all submarines. Submarine crews persistently increased their combat skills.
In the 1928 campaignthe duration of the training trips of the submarine of the Baltic Sea increased to 53 days, and the time of continuous stay on the ground - up to 43 hours. The maximum diving depth was 125 meters. The ships of the brigade made 2 voyages to the southern part of the Baltic Sea, practicing actions on communications.
In the Black Sea, submarine forces were essentially re-created. Almost the entire submarine brigade of 19 units, which the Russian fleet had on the Black Sea in 1917, was destroyed by the interventionists and the White Guards. In Odessa, they flooded the submarines "Lebed" and "Pelican". In the Sevastopol area, the British flooded 11 submarines: "Salmon", "Sudak", "Kashalot", "Kit", "Narwhal", "Gagara", "Orlan", "Skat", "Nalim", "AG-21" and the world's first underwater minelayer "Crab".
The troops of Baron Wrangel took 157 captured ships to Bizerte (Tunisia), including the Ag-22, Seal, Petrel and Duck submarines.
Restored shipbuilding and ship repair plants in Nikolaev and Odessa. At the plant "Rassud" the hulls and mechanisms of two submarines of the "AG" type were preserved - the "AG-23" was on the slipway almost in full readiness (it was laid down in May 1917), the submarine "AG-24" was in assembly. Details of two more submarines continued to lie unpacked in the boxes in which they arrived in Russia from the United States.
Here the submarine "Nerpa", the only submarine of the "Morzh" type, which remained in the Black Sea, was moored, which was to undergo a major overhaul.
In addition, in the Northern Bay of Sevastopol, the British flooded a submarine of the Karp type (type K), which was excluded on March 28, 1917 from the lists of the Black Sea Fleet. Subsequently, in the period from 1926 to 1935 submarines "Orlan", "AG-21", "Sudak", "Burbot", "Salmon", "Whale" and "Crab" were raised. However, only the AG-21 submarine was restored and put into operation.
The formation of the submarine division was headed by A. A. Ikonnikov, who arrived from the Baltic in Nikolaev in April 1920. The communist V. E. Golubovsky was appointed commissar of the division, who led the mine foreman of the submarine "Lamprey". A party cell was created at the AG-23 submarine, which played an important role in speeding up the work.
On June 1, 1923, the AG-23 submarine was launched. On the same day, the AG-24 submarine named after Lunacharsky was laid down. A month later, construction began on the AG-25 submarine. Work on the submarine was in full swing, but there were not enough specialists. Therefore, by decision of the Soviet government in the Caspian, submarines who arrived in 1918 - 1919. were transferred to the reserve. 12 people were left to serve them, the rest of the submariners departed for the Black Sea.
On September 17, the Caspians, led by the head of the division, Yu. V. Poare, arrived in Nikolaev. Eight people were assigned to the crew of the AG-23 submarine, the rest were assigned to the submarine under construction.
On September 22, 1920, the naval flag was raised on the AG-23 submarine. She became the first Soviet submarine as part of the Naval Forces of the Black and Azov Seas.
By October 21, the formation of the Black Sea submarine division was completed.
On October 4, 1923, the Ag-23 submarine under the command of A. A. Ikonnikov embarked on her first military campaign. The appearance of a Soviet submarine in the northwestern part of the Black Sea seriously alarmed the British government. As early as September 26, 1920, the British ships were ordered to attack it when they met with the AG-23 submarine.
At the end of October 1920 the AG-23 submarine was visited in Odessa by the Chairman of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee Mikhail Kalinin. On October 28, 1920, units of the Red Army went on the offensive and broke into the Crimea. On November 15, Sevastopol was taken. In November, all of General Wrangel's troops were driven out of the Crimea. At this time, the fourth submarine was laid down - "AG-26" named after Kamenev.
On July 16, 1921, the Soviet naval flag was raised on the AG-24 submarine, on May 27, 1922, on the AG-25 submarine, and a week later, on June 3, 1922, on the Nerpa submarine. On July 11, 1923, the AG-26 submarine division entered service.
Georgy "was renamed" Berezan ". The submarine was commanded by BM Voroshilin, N. A. Gornyakovsky, A. P. Rakhmin, who arrived from the Baltic, G. A.
Submarine crews for 70% consisted of sailors who did not have special underwater training. After the redeployment of the submarine division of the Black Sea Fleet to Sevastopol, active combat training began on the ships.
The training detachment on December 22, 1922 was transformed into the Diving School. Its first boss was S. P. Yazykov. The school became part of the Baltic Sea Training Detachment, organized in January 1922.
On October 16, 1922, the Komsomol took over the patronage of the Red Fleet. Almost 89% of those drafted into the fleet that year were Komsomol members. In March 1923 g.130 Komsomol recruits were sent to the Diving School, and 280 in May of the same year.
In 1924, graduates of the School of Komsomol recruitment joined the ranks of the Baltic and Black Sea submariners.
14 submarines of the "Bars", "Morzh" and "AG" types (9 in the Baltic and 5 in the Black Sea) were in service - this was the Soviet submarine fleet by the end of the 1921-1928 recovery period.
Taking advantage of the difficult position of Soviet Russia in the 1920s, various foreign companies offered it their submarines. Italian "Ansaldo" and "Franco Tozigliano", British "Vickers", it seemed, only yesterday supplied tanks to the White Guards. The French "Augustin Norman" from Le Havre reported that it was "one of the oldest and most experienced firms specializing in the construction of destroyers and submarines." Even the Dutch, represented by Fidschenort, were willing to help the Bolsheviks. These proposals were not explained by an ardent love for the young state of workers. The capitalists understood that the USSR was not yet in a position to create its own submarines, but they were very much needed and, therefore, the Kremlin would have to fork out without bargaining too much. The situation seemed to bode well for Western businessmen. But surprisingly to everyone, the Kremlin did not want to accept the enslaving offers, was in no hurry to open its arms to Western arms manufacturers.
There were many reasons for this. And a huge role, in particular, was played by Zarubin, who received Western proposals on his table. Nikolai Alexandrovich subjected them to murderous criticism. Here is just one document for that - an analysis of the project of the Franco Tozigliano plant: Do the boats we are considering in this proposal are of such great interest and novelty that it would be necessary to raise the issue of acquiring blueprints in the form of Russia's acquisition of building rights? Let my answer not be considered for chauvinism, but I will say no and no. In my opinion. These boats are only the next step after the typical boats of the last war. None of the proposed types were implemented …. For Russia, which is very backward in technical terms from the West and economically very poor, in some cases it is necessary to go in questions of technology not by evolution, but by leaps and bounds.
The types I have considered for Western European technology are one of the theoretical stages in the development of underwater shipbuilding. Technically, they had higher standards than Russia, we have not yet experienced these stages, and I repeat, we cannot follow the path of gradual development, but we need to make a leap, sometimes even a very large one.
The PL, as I said in my previous reports, passed a turning point in its development with the last war; where this path will lead, we do not yet know. Each country tries to find this path in its own way. British, French, Americans, etc. all follow their own paths, and their paths apply to potential theater and potential adversary. In the same way, i.e. Russia must follow the national path. The development of the Russian type submarine is very peculiar and does not look like a foreign one. It is interesting that the foreign type of submarine, transferred to Russian soil, is now changing and adapting to Russian requirements …
Returning to the report, I will say it again: Russia does not have the means to carry out expensive experiments. From the presented reports it is clear that, on the whole, this is all outdated, and the technique of war requires something new. There is nothing exciting about the proposed projects. Chief submariner N. Zarubin.
Analyzing the Dutch proposal, Zarubin in September 1923 makes the following conclusion: "The tactical tasks of the proposed submarine are very poor: speed, areas, machine power, etc. - all this is much lower than the minimum requirements that we intend to impose on our future submarines." … Then comes the refusal of the Italian company Ansaldo: "The submarine projects are not new."
His superiors agree with Zarubin's opinion, forwarding a response upstairs with the following Letter: “I completely agree with the opinion expressed in the review about the need to submit orders to our factories and only in extreme cases to transfer the order abroad. unnecessary abroad, and therefore we especially need to be careful and discerning … our maritime experts should watch all this closely."
"junk" is a very precise definition in this case. Junk. And Zarubin is one of those who prove this very convincingly.
The case with the construction of submarines is gradually moving from a dead point of view. As soon as the economy begins to improve, the party takes the maximum possible measures to strengthen the country's defense capability. New artillery systems and small arms are being developed, the foundations of the tank and aviation industries are being laid, and the fleet is being revived.
So, the purchase of submarines abroad did not take place. But another opinion appears. Some propose to take as a basis the submarine of Ivan Grigorievich Bubnov, in particular, the famous for its time “Bars”, and copy them without further ado. This point of view has many adherents, since the proposal, at first glance, is tempting: without breaking into the open doors of the new and unknown, go the beaten path - the old is easier to repeat. And there are blueprints and people who built the Bars-class submarine. The apparent attractiveness of an idea is its danger. Zarubin calls this "hypnosis" of the "Bars", strong hypnosis, since, apart from the Bubnov submarines, there is nothing in the Baltic. And with the “Bars” things are bad. They are in serious condition - remember the documents given above, and, most importantly, they are hopelessly outdated.
In October 1925, the autumn campaign of the Baltic Fleet took place, after which, as expected, the submariners summed up the results. And in the report it was written: "Regarding the submarine, the campaign confirmed once again the low suitability and low value of the Bars-class submarine. Replacing the boats with a more suitable type is ripe in full and is the next task."
Resolution of the Chief and Commissioner of the Naval Forces of the Red Army: "Extra proof that we need to start our own submarine shipbuilding."
Having dealt with foreign proposals, Zarubin is now fighting off the “Bars”, here are his arguments: “Many very respectable technical authorities of diving from the composition floating on the submarine are ridiculously hypnotized by the submarine“Bars”and its mechanisms and any judgment about any suggestions and criticism the new mechanism for submarines is not based on the modern technology of 1922 or 1923, but on the mechanisms of the submarine "Bars", ie 1912 - 1913. This conservatism sometimes becomes even funny … The shortcomings and obsolescence of the "Bars" are so well known that Such a statement should be considered superfluous. Noteworthy is the case of submarine No. 1 (Kommunar (with a 10-year service life), which lost its stern horizontal rudder in fresh weather."
Zarubin, of course, is not alone. The report of Konstantin Nikolayevich Griboyedov, commander of the underwater minelayer "Rabochiy" (formerly "Yorsh" - from the "Bars" family), which records the misadventures of one campaign, has been preserved. In the report, Griboyedov explains to the commander of the submarine brigade why he was late for the meeting point: This campaign revealed their final complete unsuitability: It took 3 hours to disconnect the left clutch, but the right clutch did not disconnect. Urgent immersion and a long underwater run revealed the complete unsuitability of the ship's ventilation in the engine and stern compartments. …
Bad Barça, bad. It is almost impossible to swim on them. The fate of the old submarines becomes a matter of concern for the Workers 'and Peasants' Inspection. She conducts a scrupulous examination.
The report of the Rabkrin about its results took place on August 4, 1925. Among those present were N. Zarubin and A. N. Bakhtin, the former commander of the famous Panther submarine, who sank the British destroyer Victory in 1919. Bakhtin's opinion about the "Bars" has been known for a long time: "The sailing area is small. Life is inconvenient."
The report of the Rabkrin commission sounds like a sentence to old boats: The combat experience of the First World War made the final leveling in the types of submarines. Some of them were swept away at the very first shots and since then they should be considered buried.
Among these "dead" types are single-hull boats - between them the "Bars" type. The low quality of the tactical elements of the Bars-class submarines, the major shortcomings of their type and design, negatively resolve the issue of compliance of the Bars-class submarines with modern war requirements.
The Rabkrin thinks wisely: the boats of the past war are hardly suitable for future wars. And therefore, with the "leopards", having paid tribute to the memory of their designer IG Bubnov, we must end.
The significance and role of Ivan Grigorievich are once and for all determined by the history of domestic shipbuilding: an outstanding theorist and prominent designer, the founder of Russian submarine shipbuilding. Everything that has been done in Russia in this direction before Bubnov is nothing more than experiments, sometimes naive. Ivan Grigorievich gave Russia the first combat-ready submarines of the type that went down in history under the name "Russian" - Zarubin wrote with a capital letter, this is how it should be written today. But now, in the 1920s, there could be no question of "leopards" as objects for copying. The use of individual successful nodes is the business of future designers.
Constructors…. The people in charge of the country's defense also thought about the designers. In the spring of 1925, the submarine brigade of the Baltic Fleet was visited by MV Frunze, People's Commissar for Military and Naval Affairs. He said that the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks) and the Council of People's Commissars decided to start building a new fleet, including an underwater one. It was supposed to build the first 3 submarines in the Baltic, 2 others - for Cherny, Boris Mikhailovich Malinin could not help but be at the meeting.
COOPERATION WITH THE GERMAN FIRM "DESHIMAG"
IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF SUBMARINE TYPE "C"
The first countries with which the Soviet Union established trade and economic ties in the field of military shipbuilding were Germany and Italy. The first trade deal with Germany in the field of shipbuilding was the sale by the Soviet Union for scrap, among other ships, and three hulls of the Izmail-class battlecruisers, which were of interest to German firms not only as high-quality metal. A special technical commission carefully studied the features of the structural hulls of the recruitment system, new for German specialists, in which the experience of building battleships of the "Soviet Union" type was further developed.
The analysis of the shipbuilding innovations of Russian battle cruisers turned out to be very valuable for German shipbuilders in the design and construction of large warships in the future.
The next contacts with Germany on shipbuilding dealt with deliveries in 1926 of German equipment for the Experimental Basin in Leningrad.
Since 1934, to study foreign experience and acquire individual projects of ships, their weapons and mechanisms, the Soviet leadership of the shipbuilding industry and the fleet practiced business trips abroad for groups of specialists.
During these missions, for example, in France, our specialists got acquainted with the project of the leader of the "Fantask" type. Switzerland ordered the main turbines for the Project 23 battleship. The purchase of a number of auxiliary mechanisms for this battleship, as well as for the heavy cruiser of the project "69" and the destroyers of the project "7" was carried out in Great Britain.
Cooperation with the German company Deshimag turned out to be fruitful, which developed a project for an average submarine with a displacement of 828/1068, 7 tons in accordance with the terms of reference of the Central Design Bureau for Shipbuilding (TsKBS-2).
In the spring of 1934a complete set of blueprints for the new project came to the disposal of the Leningrad designers, and on December 25, the laying of the head submarine of the IX series took place. She received the letter-digital designation "N-1". Launched in August 1935, this submarine was presented a year later for acceptance tests by the state commission chaired by 2nd rank military engineer N. I. Kyun.
Three submarines "S-1", "S-2" and "S-3" (series IX) were built according to the drawings of the German company "Deshimag". The designation was changed from "H2 to" C "in December 1937.
Since January 1936, construction of the IX-bis submarine began on their basis.
