Soviet submarine S-1

When the Winter War started with Finland in November 1939, S-1 was stationed in Tallinn with the 13th Submarine Squadron, and was commanded by Captain-lieutenant Alexander Tripolsky. On the first day of the war S-1 was located at the entrance to the Gulf of Finland. When the submarine received the signal "Torch" that signified the start of a war with Finland, it was not understood by its commander because he did not have the document explaining the meaning of signals. On 2 December 1939 S-1 was called back to its base in Tallinn. On the evening of the 3rd, it departed on its first war patrol, in the waters near Rauma on the Gulf of Bothnia. This patrol was mostly uneventful except for the sinking of one transport on 10 December 1939, the German steamer Bolheim. S-1 fired torpedoes at the transport, but they missed, so the submarine surfaced and used its deck gun to sink the vessel. S-1 returned to Tallinn on 12 December.^[1][5]

S-1 left on its second patrol on 22 December 1939 to a position north of the Åland Islands. It ran aground near the island of Märket on the 24th, in the strait of South Kvarken, and was almost rammed by either a Swedish or Finnish vessel. But the submarine managed to move at the last moment and get away. During the patrol S-1 only encountered one convoy and was not able to catch up to them. It began returning to Tallinn on 16 January 1940. On its way back the boat had to maneuver in between pieces of ice and sometimes below the ice. At one point, S-1 was attacked by two Finnish aircraft, and according to the crew they shot down one of them using one of their deck guns. S-1 reached ice-free water on 19 January and returned to Tallinn on the following day. The submarine sustained significant damage from the ice, including to its hull. For this patrol the entire crew of S-1 was awarded the Order of the Red Banner on 7 February 1940 and Captain-lieutenant Tripolsky became a Hero of the Soviet Union. He was made the commander of the 13th Submarine Squadron later that month, and Captain 3rd rank Ivan T. Morskoi was made the new commanding officer of S-1.^[1][5]

In the next few months S-1 was involved in training exercises, before participating in the blockade of Riga in June 1940 when the Soviet Union annexed Latvia and the Baltic states. Afterwards S-1 underwent repairs in Libava (Liepāja), and was reassigned to the 1st Submarine Squadron of the Baltic Fleet. S-1 was in the shipyard being repaired when Operation Barbarossa began on 22 June 1941, and on the 23rd the submarine was scuttled by its crew to prevent its capture by the Germans. The crew then left the city on another submarine, S-3. The Soviet Navy struck S-1 from the naval list on 27 July 1941.^[1][5]

But S-1 was still mostly intact despite being scuttled. It was raised by the Germans and taken to Kiel to be used for weapons testing by the Kriegsmarine, though sources indicate that it was never commissioned into their fleet. S-1 was sunk during one of these tests on 7 August 1943.^[1][5]

Ships sunk by S-1^[1][5]

Date	Ship	Flag	Tonnage	Notes
10 December 1939	Bolheim		3,324 GRT	Deck gun
Total:			3,324 GRT

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• Budzbon, Przemysław; Radziemski, Jan & Twardowski, Marek (2022). Warships of the Soviet Fleets 1939–1945. Vol. I: Major Combatants. Naval Institute Press. ISBN 978-1-68247-877-6.
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