L-3 was one of six Series II double-hulled Leninets or L-class minelayer submarines built for the Soviet Navy 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, 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 of , a beam of , and a mean draft 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 engines, 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 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 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 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 mounted on the front of the conning tower, 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 on 6 September 1929 by the Baltic Works in Leningrad 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, though the monument was relocated to Moscow in 1994.Budzbon, Radziemski & Twardowski, p. 146
Claims + Ships sunk by L-3 Date Ship Flag Tonnage Notes 1 October 1941 Kaija 1876 GRT freighter (mine) 19 November 1941 Henny 764 GRT freighter (mine) 22 November 1941 Uno 430 GRT tanker (mine-unconfirmed) 26 November 1941 Engerau 1142 GRT freighter (mine) 18 August 1942 C.F. Liljevalch 5492 GRT freighter (torpedo) 25 August 1942 Franz Bohmke 210 GRT freighter (mine) 17 November 1942 Hindenburg 7880 GRT freighter (mine) 9 December 1942 Edith Bosselmann 952 GRT freighter (mine) 5 February 1943 Tristan 1765 GRT freighter (mine – probably) 5 February 1943 Grundsee 866 GRT freighter (mine – probably) 30 March 1943 U-416 769 GRT submarine (mine – later recovered) 20 November 1944 T-34 1294 GRT large torpedo boat (mine) 29 January 1945 Henry Lutgens 1141 GRT merchant (mine) 23 March 1945 M-3138 112 GRT auxiliary minesweeper (mine) 30 March 1945 Jersbek 2804 GRT merchant (mine – possibly) 17 April 1945 Goya 5230 GRT transport ship (torpedo)Total:32,730 GRT
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