Soviet submarine L-21

Career (USSR)
Name: L-21
Laid down: 15 June 1938
Launched: 14 July 1940
Commissioned: 31 August 1943
Decommissioned: 29 December 1955
Fate: Scrapped.
General characteristics
Class and type:Leninets-class
Displacement:1,108 tons surfaced
1,400 tons submerged
Length:85.3 m (279 ft 10 in)
Beam:7 m (23 ft 0 in)
Draft:4.05 m (13 ft 3 in)
Propulsion:Diesel-electric
2 × diesels
2 × electric motors
2 shafts
Speed:18 knots (33 km/h) surfaced
9 knots (17 km/h) submerged
Range:10,000 nmi (19,000 km) at 10 kn (19 km/h) surfaced
150 nmi (280 km) at 2.5 kn (4.6 km/h) submerged
Test depth:80
Complement:56
Armament:1 × 100 mm (3.9 in) L/68 gun
1 × 45 mm (1.8 in) gun
8 × 533 mm (21 in) torpedo tubes (6 bow, 2 ext aft)
18 × torpedoes
20 × mines
Service record
Part of: Baltic Fleet

The World War II Soviet submarine L-21 belonged to the L-class or Leninets class of minelayer submarines. She was part of the last series (Group 4) of her class, having some improvements including more torpedo tubes.[1][2] The commander during the war was Sergey S. Mogilevskiy [3]

Service history

Before completion, L-21 was sunk by German aircraft in Leningrad on 24 May 1942. L-21 was later raised, completed and commissioned, making both torpedo attacks and mine-laying. Among her victims was the Hansa, a neutral passenger ship. L-21 also managed to sink a number of German warships.

Ships sunk by L-21[4]
Date Ship Flag Tonnage Notes
23 November 1944 Eichberg Nazi Germany 1,923 GRT freighter (mine)
24 November 1944 Elie Nazi Germany 1,837 GRT freighter (mine)
24 November 1944 Hansa Sweden 563 GRT passenger ship (torpedo)
22 December 1944 Eberhard Nazi Germany 749 GRT freighter (mine) (possibly)
14 March 1945 T-3 Nazi Germany 839 GRT torpedo boat (mine)
14 March 1945 T-5 Nazi Germany 839 GRT torpedo boat (mine)
16 March 1945 U-367 Nazi Germany 769 GRT submarine (mine)
23 March 1945 V 2022/E Colzmann Nazi Germany 581 GRT patrol boat (torpedo)
24 March 1945 Erni Nazi Germany 105 GRT tug (torpedo)
Total:8,205 GRT

One of her mines heavily damaged the German destroyer Z-43.[4]

References

  1. "Л-20 <L-20> submarines (series XIII-1938, 1941-1943) - Soviet Navy (USSR)". navypedia.org.
  2. "Series XIII-1938" minelaying submarines". navypedia.org. Retrieved 3 August 2014.
  3. "M". town.ural.ru (in Russian). Retrieved 3 August 2014.
  4. 4.0 4.1 "Allied Warships L-21 Submarine of the L (Leninec) class". uboat.net/. Retrieved 3 August 2014.