Shch-213 (1937)

Shch-213

Ship data flag  Soviet Union Ship type Submarine class Shchuka- class Shipyard No. 200 "61 Kommunara", Nikolajew, Soviet Union (today: Mykolaiv , Ukraine ) Keel laying 4th December 1934 Launch April 13, 1937 Commissioning October 31, 1938 Whereabouts Sunk near Constanza in mid-October 1942 , presumably from a mine hit (43 dead)

Ship dimensions and crew length 57.00 m ( Lüa ) width 6.22 m Draft Max. 3.96 m displacement surfaced: 607 ts submerged: 709 ts   crew 43 men

Machine system machine Above water: 2 × 38K8 diesel engines Underwater: 2 × PG5 electric motors Machine performance Above water: 1,600 HP, underwater: 800 HP propeller 2

Mission data submarine Radius of action 4,500 nautical miles at 8.5 kn (surfaced) 100 nautical miles at 2 kn (submerged) sm Immersion depth, max. ~ 120 m Top speed submerged 6.7 kn (12 km / h) Top speed surfaced 12.5 kn (23 km / h)

Armament 4 × bow torpedo tubes ∅ 53.3 cm 2 × stern torpedo tubes ∅ 53.3 cm 2 × 4.5 cm deck guns 1 × 7.62mm machine gun Number of torpedoes carried: 10

Shch-213 ( Russian Щ-213 ) was a Soviet Shch- class (also Shchuka- class ) submarine ofthe Soviet Black Sea Fleet from World War II . The submarine was laid on December 4, 1934 at shipyard No. 200 "61 Kommunara" in Nikolajew and was launched on April 13, 1937. The commissioning took place on October 31, 1938.

Mission history

After the German attack on the Soviet Union, the submarine was used from September 1941 off the Romanian coast, mainly in the area in front of Constanza , to operate against Romanian and Bulgarian shipping and Italian and German oil transports in the direction of the Bosporus . On the first three patrols between October 1941 and January 1942, the submarine could not achieve any success.

On the fourth patrol under the command of First Lieutenant DM Deneschko, the submarine was successfully sunk against smaller and older coastal vehicles in February 1942. On February 23, 1942, the Turkish motor sailer Çankaya (464 GRT ) was sunk by gunfire about 18 nautical miles northwest of the Bosphorus after a torpedo attack had previously been unsuccessful. One day later, on February 24, 1942, the Panamanian flagged Bulgarian motor ship Struma (469 GRT) was sunk by a torpedo about 14 nautical miles northeast of the Bosporus. There were 782 Jewish refugees from Romania and ten crew members on board. Only one passenger survived the tragedy.

In June and July 1942, Shch-213 undertook two more enemy voyages, on which no successes could be recorded. At the end of June a Bulgarian minesweeper was just missed with a torpedo off Ahtopol .

loss

The boat has been missing since October 17, 1942. With Shch-213 the entire crew of 43 men went down. The exact cause of the loss and the time of the sinking are not known. Possible causes are assumed to be either a depth charge by the German submarine hunter UJ 116 (which the submarine had previously unsuccessfully attacked with a torpedo) on October 14, 1942 off Tulcea or a mine hit on October 16, 1942 off Constanza.

wreck

In August 2010, the wreck of a Soviet Shchuka- class submarine was found off Constanza in about 30 meters of water . If it were the wreck of Shch-213 , it would support the theory of the mine hit.

literature

• Franz Kurowski: war under water. Submarines on the seven seas 1939–1945. Düsseldorf / Vienna 1979, p. 189f.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ The spelling of the identification of submarines of this class varies due to the different transcription systems from Cyrillic into the respective language; the scientific transliteration to be found in various publications is ŠČ-213 , the English transcription ShCh-213 .

Web links

Commons : Shchuka class  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

• Entry of ShCh-213 at uboat.net (English).
• Loss database of the Soviet submarines in the Chronicle of the Naval War 1939–1945 of the Library for Contemporary History of the Württemberg State Library (German).