Soviet submarine D-2 (my pics, 56k warn!)

[CCIP]

Well, better late than never - I took these on my visit to St. Petersburg last year and somehow put off posting them until now. So, here's a solid tour of it for ya - sorry for my crappy camera, though!

Today D-2 is on display at the historic St. Petersburg Hafen, near the corner of Nalichnaya Street and Shkiperskiy Protok ("Skipper's Creek") on the Vasilievsky Island. Admission was a measly 50rub (~$2) when I went there, with a full 1-hour guided tour (!) conducted by a real retired diesel sub captain (!!). He was an excellent guide, sorry I didn't get any pictures of him. You could tell he really enjoyed the job, and kept relating stories from his own career during the tour. You could tell by the way he talked and moved about the sub that he was a true submariner through and through



Some background - D-2 "Narodnovolets" is possibly the oldest war veteran sub (that is, a sub that went on combat patrols, sunk enemy ships and returned home safely) on display today. She belongs to the D ("Dekabrist") class of submarines, which are the first very Soviet design, built in the later 1920s. All 4 subs, of which this one is the 2nd, were named after famous revolutionary movements - the class' lead ship was named after the December uprising in 1825, and "Narodnovolets" was named after the "People's Will" movement, responsible for the assasination of the Tzar in 1881.

D-2 originally served with the Northern Fleet, but at the start of WWII transfered to the Baltic. In the shallow and heavily-patrolled waters there - the survival rate of Soviet subs in '41-'43 was about the same as U-boats in the Atlantic in '43-'45 - she made several successful patrols and sunk 4 German freighters. While Soviet subs in the Baltic are often subject to controversy for their role in the death of many German civilians that evacuated by sea in '44-'45 - D-2 is not subject to this, as all her successes occured in the early part of the war when the scales were decidedly against the Soviets.



And before I get into the sub interior pics - just a few of her neighbour at the waterfront nearby - a PT boat!





I lived the first 14 years of my life just a half hour's walk from these two ships, but somehow I never toured the D-2 before. On the other hand I used to play with other kids on that PT boat (noone seemed to mind for some reason, I guess it wasn't looked after...). Both of them are in really good shape now though!

To be continued...