KALEV submarines (1937/1940)

Lembit 1941

Name	No	Yard No	Builder	Laid down	Launched	Comp	Fate
Калев [Kalev] (ex-Kalev)		705	Vickers-Armstrong, Barrow, UK	5.1935	7.7.1936	3.1937 // 8.1940	lost 11.1941
Лембит [Lembit] (ex-Lembit), 1.1946- У-1 [U-1], 6.1949- С-85 [S-85]		706	Vickers-Armstrong, Barrow, UK	5.1935	7.7.1936	4.1937 // 8.1940	hulk 6.1955

Displacement standard, t
Displacement normal, t	665 / 853
Length, m	59.5
Breadth, m	7.24
Draught, m	3.50
No of shafts	2
Machinery	2 Vickers diesels / 2 electric motors
Power, h. p.	1200 / 790
Max speed, kts	13.5 / 8.5
Fuel, t	diesel oil 31
Endurance, nm(kts)	4000(8) / 80(4)
Armament	1 x 1 - 40/43 Škoda, 4 - 533 TT (bow, 8), 20 mines
Electronic equipment	presumably type 129 sonar
Complement	38
Diving depth operational, m	75

Project history: Former Estonian Kalev and Lembit. Submarine minelayers, built under original design, ordered 12.12.1934. Part of amount on building has been obtained from sale of two destroyers to Peru and a part was collected on a subscription among the population.
Submarines had saddle-tank construction with side bulges in which ballast tanks and the mine tubes took places. Light hull on waterline was strengthened for ice navigation. Mines were carried on two in 10 vertical tubes (on 5 aside). The 40mm MG in submerged position was retracted into watertight trunk. TTs had special brasses for usage of 450mm of torpedoes. As a whole submarines differed by good performance parameters, from lacks the shallow diving depth was marked.
With occurrence of Estonia into USSR 19.8.1940 both entered Red Navy.

Modernizations: None.

Naval service: Kalev was lost between 30/10 and 11.11.1941, presumably on mines in Gulf of Finland. Lembit since 1985 preserved as a museum in Tallinn.

Kalev 1937

Many thanks to Wolfgang Stöhr for additional information on this page.

SOVIET NAVY (USSR)

SUBMARINES

KALEV submarines (1937/1940)