№ II, March-April

'Submersible Destroyers' !

110 Years of Russia’s Submarine Prowess

 

Vladimir “Vovick” Karnozov

 

Twenty submersible “destroyers” became “submarines” on March 6, 1906 when Emperor Nicholas the Second applied his signature to the Order on classification of the Russian navy warships. (The document was dated following the old-style Julian calendar, which corresponds to 19 March 1906 in the modern Gregorian calendar). From that day forward, the submarine force has been a properly recognized and indispensable part of the Armed Forces of the world’s largest country, whose sea borders are washed by waters of three oceans.

Modern Russia is considered a superpower not least due to the fact that her navy’s nuclear-powered, missile-carrying underwater cruisers can annihilate any country or military block in case of an all-out war.

That sort of capability has become available through a long way of evolution. Today, it is hard to tell when exactly first submersible vessels were built in this country. For centuries enthusiasts and inventors worked on dozens of designs that, as they thought, should be good enough for military use.

Perhaps the first of them who approached this business on a firm ground of then-contemporary science and technology was Carl Shilder. A military architect, a fortress builder, and an Adjutant General, Shilder built a hand-cranked submarine in 1834.

On September 23, 1840, she successfully dived and spent three hours under water before emerging again on surface of a river running through St. Petersburg. Today, this city is home for two major design houses specialized in submarines, Rubin and Malachite, as well as the Admiralty Shipyards, which makes the Kilo class and exports it worldwide.

Looking from the height of today’s Russian navy, it is rather remarkable that Shilder’s submarine was a missile-carrying ship! More than that, Shilder offered to fire at sea-going targets with these missiles from submerged submarine and succeeded in making this option available. Missiles running on powder were kept in long, sealed tubes attached externally to the hull, and set at an angle to its main axis. Launch system was triggered on electrically, making it possible to fire the missiles in the direction of an enemy vessel had it attempted to come close to a naval base such submarines would operate from.

Next step forward was made by Ivan Aleksandrovsky with a 350-tonne submarine. She was able to stay submerged for hours, and move relatively fast underwater using pneumatic machines fed by compressed air from two hundred iron bottles.

Even though several countries had successfully tested their submersibles in the 19th century, Russia was the first to build a series to a common project. Fifty copies of man-powered submarines were constructed in 1884 to the design of Stepan Dzhevetsky (Stefan Drzewiecki).

That many were necessary to protect ports in the Baltic and, more importantly, the Black sea at a time when Russian surface warships were heavily outnumbered by those of the neighboring countries and their allies. These miniature subs were meant to act in the manner of H. L. Hunley submarine which attacked and destroyed the Housatonic warship during the American civil war in 1864.

Their active service was short, and yet it brought invaluable contribution to the Russian navy: a group of naval officers mastered them and became inspired of submarines. Later, surviving hulls were modified through installation of electric motors (first in 1884, 1-2 hp). From that moment onwards, the electric power, rather than men’s muscles, propelled the submarine.

Drzewiecki was also first to propose “optical navigation pipe” which later evolved into periscope. Using surviving hull and mechanisms, lieutenant Yanovich built “motor boat of low visibility” with an internal combustion engine (ICE). This semi-submersible boat, called Keta, was employed in defense of the strait separating the island of Sakhalin from the Asian mainland. She even mounted an attack on invading Japanese ships, but ran aground before coming close enough for torpedo launch.

Destroyer #150

Russian naval history reached another milestone on December 19, 1900 with foundation of the Commission for development of submersible vessels as an independent structure under supervision of the Marine Department.

The Commission had three members: Ivan Bubnov (in the capacity of a senior assistant to the [chief] shipwright), Ivan Goryunov (a senior mechanical engineer) and Mikhail Beklemishev (a Russian navy officer). Later, it evolved into a proper design house. The one is now known as the Central Design Bureau for Marine Engineering “Rubin”, the oldest Russian organization specializing in development of submarines.

The electric motor, the internal combustion engine, the torpedo and the periscope had already been invented and tried on earlier submarine designs. So, the Commission’s job was to put together all these and other inventions in otherwise an all-new project. Work on the Destroyer #113 began in 1901. Later that year the drawings were approved and handed over to the Baltic Plant for materialization into what became the Destroyer #150 and, later, the Delfin.

Trials in the Baltic completed on October 14, 1903 with a positive conclusion. This prompted the navy to place order for a series of six larger Kasatka class vessels.

Bubnov’s Delfin and Kasatka provided Russia with a prominent place among other economically developed, sea-fairing nations as they transited from construction of experimental to serial, combat worthy submarines. In 1903, France had 34 submarines, England 18, United States 9, Sweden seven and Italy two. Best foreign designs had much in common with Bubnov’s, the most important of common points being ICE for propulsion on water surface and for charging of the accumulator battery that fed the electric current to the electric motor to propel the submarine under water.

Mikhail Beklemishev acted Delfin’s first commander. He provided immense contribution into development, trials, modernization and operational use of many submarines of the Russian Imperial and Soviet navies.

First encounter

Russo-Japanese war broke out in January 1904. The enemy enjoyed numerical superiority in battleships and armored cruisers over Russian navy’s First Pacific squadron. This made Tsar’s high office look for emergency solutions to strengthen his forces in the theater. In April, the navy began enlisting crew teams for 21 submarines – each of two officers and ten sailors – under a common umbrella of Eighth Fleet Crew. “Forming a crew team is most important for the submarine, as well as any other warship. No crew - no submarine”, wrote Admiral Eduard Schensnovich, a war veteran and a seasoned commander who played an important role as the head of the submarine force in the Baltic.

In August 1904, Russia launched a very special operation on transportation of submarines from the Baltic shores to the Pacific coast. They went by railways. First to go was the Forelle. For almost half-a-year this 18-tonne, 15-meter-long vessel acquired from Germany was the only formally operational submarine in Vladivostok. In November, when special rail transporters were completed for carriage of much heavier loads, Russia began transportation of larger submarines: five Bubnov’s (Kasatka, Skat, Nalim, Sheremetiev, Delfin) and one purchased from the United States (Som, ex-Fulton). This was the first case in history when a group of submarines was transported by rail from one continent to another, almost nine thousand kilometers.

In January 1905, seven submarines were in Vladivostok and formed “Independent detachment of destroyers of Vladivostok port” under supervision of Alexander Plotto, commander of the Kasatka. This was the first complete submarine squadron to have ever been deployed in the Pacific. The detachment was given combat task “to be on lookout for enemy ships, carry out reconnaissance and protection of the coastline in the vicinity of Vladivostok naval fortress”.

Russian submariners ventured into Pacific waters as they carried out sea trials and performed combat duties. Some 70 miles off Vladivostok on April 29, the Som sighted two destroyers approaching. She dived and closed-in at high current to the electric motor. Having extended the periscope, commander Vladimir Trubetskoi watched the destroyers running away at full speed. This was his first and only encounter with Japanese warships during the entire conflict.

By the time the Treaty of Portsmouth was signed, Russia had increased the number of submarines in the theater to thirteen (manned by 32 officers and 220 sailors). These included five by Bubnov designs, two by John Holland’s and five by another U.S. inventor Simon Lake’s. Except for the Forelle, Som (ex-Fulton) and Osyetr (ex-Protector), these ships were assembled in Russia.

The Russo-Japanese war revealed that the submarines of the time fitted poorly into realities of naval warfare in the Pacific. But the very fact of Vladivostok being home port for a complete detachment of submarines produced a moral influence on the Japanese, who chose not to conduct offensive operations in the area despite their superiority in capital ships.

Preparations to European war

After the Treaty of Portsmouth, Russia turned attention to the European theatre. Like other industrially developed nations, it strived to develop principally new sorts of naval weapons to rule at sea. This ensured the future of the submarine as a game-changer in naval warfare.

Russia chose to cultivate the national school of shipbuilding, while buying examples of foreign make for comparative assessment. It acquired four submarines from Germany in 1904-1908, and one from Italy in 1917. Direct purchase of two submarines from the United States in 1904 was part of larger deals with their manufacturers: the Fulton and the Protector were specimens for production under license using imported parts and mechanisms. Domestic industry built nine submarines to Simon Lake designs and twelve to John Holland’s in 1904-1914.

When the European war broke out, Russia ordered five Holland 602Fs in kits and assembled them in 1915. Six more kits delivered under a follow-on order; their completion took place after WW1.

License production ensured localization and transfer of technology (ToT). Import was important, but never primary source of warships for the Imperial navy. Rather, it provided access to advanced technologies and stimulated the national industry.

The navy often supported gifted inventors when they came up with promising designs. Drzewiecki engineered the Pochtovy (in naval service 1908-1913). She featured a unified propulsion system (employing ICE fed with compressed air) to propel the boat in both surfaced and submerged modes. This was an early attempt to produce Air Independent Propulsion (AIP).

Besides, the navy provided funds for railways technician Mikhail Nalyetov to build the world’s first submersible minelayer. In 1915-1916 the 533/722-tonne Krab with sixty bottom mines of special design onboard performed three missions in close vicinity of the Bosphorus strait, a very dangerous task no other ships could manage.

The majority of Imperial navy submarines were built to designs of Ivan Bubnov. Six Kasatka vessels (1904-1905) were followed by the Minoga (commissioned in 1908) and the Akula (1911) - first diesel-electric submarines designed and built in Russia. Replacing engines running on petrol with diesels considerably reduced the risk of inner explosion caused by a mix of fuel vapor, gases from accumulator battery and oxygen from outside air. Having come through a long way of evolution, Russian diesel-electric submarines continue in production under orders of local and overseas customers.

Finest hour

Bubnov’s career as naval architect reached finest hour with the series of twenty three Bars class vessels commissioned in 1914-1918. These submarines proved their merits in WW1.

The Morzh, Tyulen and Nerpa formed a first batch for the Black Sea fleet and acted successfully against Turkish shipping. They were responsible for sinking or capturing 13 steamers and 52 smaller vessels. The Tyulen contributed 8 and 33, respectively, her performance being partly due to the more powerful artillery (one 76-mm and one 57-mm cannons).

By comparison, best-performing submarines of foreign design – the Narval, Kit and Kashalot of Holland 31A class built under license and commissioned about the same time (1915-1916) - claimed 7 steamers and 24 smaller vessels.

Together with British submariners operating out of Russian bases in 1914-1917, the Baltic Sea Fleet made far larger German forces substantially limit their activity in the basin. Most successful submarine – the Volk - claimed four steamers of 9,626 reg. tons, three of which having fallen victims to her torpedoes in May 1916.

Admittedly, Bubnov’s submarines did not sink that much as the German U-boats did in the Atlantic. This is due to the fact that operations of the Russian navy were largely confined to the Baltic and Black seas, where activities of the opposing forces were much lower, and merchant shipping only a fraction of that in the Atlantic.

In all, there were 32 submarines built to Bubnov designs: Delfin 1, Kasatka 6, Minoga 1, Akula 1, Morzh 3 and Bars 20 (Morzh is often attributed to the Bars type). Four more were not completed, and went for scrap after the October Revolution. The whole line is sometimes referred to as “submarines of the Russian type” since they were members in an unbroken chain of the evolving design. In the process, their displacement increased by six times, length by over three times, underwater and surface speed by two times. The number of torpedo tubes went from two up to twelve, and artillery pieces appeared onboard.

Technically, these submarines were “sectionless” (no watertight bulkheads running across the pressure hull), a peculiar feature of all Bubnov designs till 1915. The pressure hull (strong casing) was made of nickel-alloy steel. Water tanks of the main (diving) ballast were set in the nose and in the rear outside the pressure hull.

These and other design features set Bubnov designs apart from then-contemporary submarines of foreign make. And yet you may read in certain books published in the West that the Delfin was modelled after John Holland designs. In fact, Bubnov did inspect the Fulton (Holland’s model 7) during this trip to the U.S. in summer 1901, but this happened after he had submitted his drawing to the Baltic Plant for materialization in metal.

Naturally, Bubnov met with Holland (and Lake) met on a number of occasions to discuss license production and other issues. They must have been sharing ideas and experience. At the same time, Russia exercised more caution demonstrating submarines of local make than the U.S., and not exported them until after WW2.

For the military, early Bubnov submarines proved a good investment. The Delfin stayed in service from 1903 till August 1917, being written off because of “complete wear and tear”. The Kasatka series went for scrap in the middle of 1920s. Holland designs were a good investment, too. The Fulton (Som) fell victim of a Swedish steamer which rammed her in May 1916. Her sister ship – the Shuka – forced a German steamer to ran aground on Swedish shore in November 1915 before quitting service with other surviving boats of the class in 1918. Lake designs did not have that sort of longevity. The Protector (Osyetr) served Russian for only nine years, having been withdrawn in summer 1913. All of her sister ships were written off within a year. Four U-boats acquired from Krupp did not last either.  So, the Russian navy learned early that foreign label is not always a testimony of a good product and that local make can be better. At the same time, all of the aforementioned early types were handful for training: hundreds of Russian offices and sailors got to know the ropes of underwater warfare inside their hulls.

Concluding thoughts

Having suffered serious defeats in a chain of naval battles with the Japanese in 1904-1905, the Russians managed to save their major “naval fortress” in the Pacific - Vladivostok - from being captured by the Japanese thanks to a mere presence of submarine detachment in that base. In ten years that followed Russia built a potent force of modern submarines that proved its merits during the great European war.

Regime changes in the course of February and October 1917 Revolutions brought about many perturbations. And yet the Soviet period of the Russian submarine history was not about “reinventing the wheel”. Much rather, submarine development went further forward as a logic continuation to what Ivan Bubnov and this team had done. A few Bars type submarines served with the Soviet navy and some even survived WW2, thereby spending over thirty years on active duty. This sets a good example for the new generation of shipwrights in this country who strive to be worthy of their predecessors.

The Imperial period of the Russian submarine history provides a good example of how persistent efforts can lead to positive results as far advanced weapons systems for the navy are concerned. The policy of purchasing examples of foreign make, localization of them, production under license and technology transfer, coupled with consistent development of the local industry, encouragement and support for gifted inventors and engineers – this policy did work last century. There is no reason it will not work today.