Soviet submarine L-21

History
Soviet Union
Name	L-21
Laid down	15 June 1938
Launched	14 July 1940
Commissioned	31 August 1943
Decommissioned	29 December 1955
Fate	Scrapped.
General characteristics
Class and type	Leninets-class
Displacement	1,108 tons surfaced 1,400 tons submerged
Length	85.3 m (279 ft 10 in)
Beam	7 m (23 ft 0 in)
Draft	4.05 m (13 ft 3 in)
Propulsion	Diesel-electric 2 × diesels 2 × electric motors 2 shafts
Speed	18 knots (33 km/h) surfaced 9 knots (17 km/h) submerged
Range	10,000 nmi (19,000 km) at 10 kn (19 km/h) surfaced 150 nmi (280 km) at 2.5 kn (4.6 km/h) submerged
Test depth	80
Complement	56
Armament	1 × 100 mm (3.9 in) L/68 gun 1 × 45 mm (1.8 in) gun 8 × 533 mm (21 in) torpedo tubes (6 bow, 2 ext aft) 18 × torpedoes 20 × mines
Service record
Part of:	Baltic Fleet

The World War II Soviet submarine L-21 belonged to the L-class or Leninets class of minelayer submarines. She was part of the last series (Group 4) of her class, having some improvements including more torpedo tubes. The commander during the war was Sergey S. Mogilevskiy.^[1]

Before completion, L-21 was sunk by German aircraft in Leningrad on 24 May 1942. L-21 was later raised, completed and commissioned, making both torpedo attacks and mine-laying. Among her victims was the Hansa, a neutral Swedish passenger ship travering from Nynäshamn to Visby. 84 innocent people were killed in the attack, which is commemorated by a memorial plaque in Visby Cathedral on Gotland, where the ship's bell is also preserved.^[2] L-21 also managed to sink a number of German warships, including two torpedo boats and a submarine.

Ships sunk by L-21^[3]

Date	Ship	Flag	Tonnage	Notes
23 November 1944	Eichberg		1,923 GRT	freighter (mine)
24 November 1944	Elie		1,837 GRT	freighter (mine)
24 November 1944	Hansa		563 GRT	passenger ship (torpedo)
22 December 1944	Eberhard		749 GRT	freighter (mine) (possibly)
14 March 1945	T3		839 t displacement	torpedo boat (mine)
14 March 1945	T5		839 t displacement	torpedo boat (mine)
16 March 1945	U-367		769 t displacement (surfaced)	submarine (mine)
23 March 1945	V 2022/E Colzmann		581 GRT	patrol boat (torpedo)
24 March 1945	Erni		105 GRT	tug (torpedo)
Total:			8,205 GRT

One of her mines heavily damaged the German destroyer Z43.^[3]