Soviet submarine S-13
S-13 portrayed on a Russian stamp, issued in 1996
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| History | |
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 Soviet Union
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| Name: | S-13 |
| Laid down: | 19 October 1938 |
| Launched: | 25 April 1939 |
| Commissioned: | 31 July 1941 |
| Decommissioned: | 7 September 1954 |
| Struck: | 17 December 1956 |
| Homeport: | Kronstadt |
| General characteristics | |
| Class and type: | Soviet S-class submarine |
| Displacement: |
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| Length: | 77.8 m (255 ft 3 in) |
| Beam: | 6.4 m (21 ft 0 in) |
| Draught: | 4.4 m (14 ft 5 in) |
| Propulsion: |
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| Speed: |
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| Test depth: | 100 m (330 ft) |
| Complement: | 50 officers and men |
| Armament: |
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S-13 was a Stalinets-class submarine of the Soviet Navy. Her keel was laid down by Krasnoye Sormovo in Gorky on 19 October 1938. She was launched on 25 April 1939 and commissioned on 31 July 1941 in the Baltic Fleet, under the command of Captain Pavel Malantyenko. The submarine is best known for the 1945 sinking of Wilhelm Gustloff, a German military transport ship.
In the first half of September 1942, under Malantjenko's command, S-13 sank two Finnish ships, Hera and Jussi H., and a German ship Anna W, totaling 4,042 tons.
On 15 October 1942, caught on the surface while charging her batteries, S-13 was attacked by the Finnish submarine chasers VMV-13 and VMV-15. During her crash dive, the submarine hit bottom, severely damaging her rudder and destroying her steering gear. The following depth charge attack worsened the damage, but S-13 escaped and made it back to Kronstadt.
During the next three years, Malantyenko was relieved by Alexander Marinesko and S-13 was repaired and returned to sea.
Under the command of Marinesko, then 32, on 30 January 1945, at Stolpe Bank off the Pomeranian coast, S-13 sank the 25,484-ton German military transport ship Wilhelm Gustloff, overfilled with civilians and military personnel, with three torpedoes. Recent estimates calculate that over 9,000 people were killed, the worst loss of life in maritime history.
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Wikipedia