PIGMEI VANISHED WITHOUT A TRACE

Konstantin Strelbitsky,
Vice President of Moscow Navy History Club
 

It is no secret that the Russian Navy operates midget submarines. One can find their detailed descriptions, as well as tactical and technical characteristics, in circulating magazines and reference books. If you want to see a midget submarine, you do not need to enter a secret naval base, just watch a new Russian movie The Specifics of Russian Fishing. However, few people know how today’s midget submarines, called Piranha, came into being.
According to a historiographer of the 11th Squadron, this submarine became «a sort of a sensation» to the Italians «who considered Italian naval designs unequaled in the world.»

The first Soviet midget submarine built was code named Project APSS (special-purpose autonomous submersible vessel). In other documents and publications this submarine was called a «telemechanical submarine», «radio-controlled TV-equipped submarine» and even a «telecontrolled self-propelled vehicle.» The APSS project was developed in 1934 - 1935 by the 1st Division (the Submarine Division) of the famous Leningrad Ostekhbyuro (The Special Bureau of Unique Military Designs) headed by Chief Designer Fyodor Shchukin. The APSS was his first submarine. A famous defense-industry engineer, V. Bekauri, who was Head of Ostekhbyuro at that time, and the Naval Communications Research Institute, took part in the APSS development work.

APSS was a midget submarine with a surface displacement of 7.2 tons and underwater displacement of 8.5 tons. The submarine was armed with one forward mounted torpedo tube, and could be operated in two basic modes: standard mode (by one man) and remote-control mode. In the latter mode, the possibility of controlling the submarine from surface ships and aircraft (the so-called «drivers») was studied. A «wave control» was supposed to be accomplished via a Kvarts system, developed for the purpose by Ostekhbyuro, and installed on board the «drivers.» In the telemechanical mode, the APSS carried a 500-kg explosive charge instead of a torpedo.

In 1935, the submarine design stage was completed and the APSS construction began at the Sudomekh Shipbuilding and Mechanical Plant in Leningrad. Two prototypes were built which underwent manufacturer’s trials in 1936.

However, Ostekhbyuro’s bold technological ideas could not be implemented at that time. An official report on the APSS project stated that «the problem of the submarine remote control was far from being solved.» Although Ostekhbyuro had a whole «fleet» of these ships (the Konstruktor destroyer, the Inzhener and Mikula mine sweepers, the Bystry torpedo boat) as well as aircraft (MBR-2 flying boats) to carry out various experiments, the APSS project was never tested with these ships and aircraft used as «drivers» of these midget submarines. Both submarines were dismantled in 1936.

The second midget submarine designed by Ostekhbyuro was designated APL (autonomous submarine) and called Pigmei (Pygmy).

Initially, this miniature submarine was concieved by Ostekhbyuro as an «autonomous undersea vehicle controlled from an aircraft,» but later the design work was focused on a project of a manned midget submarine. As in the case of the APSS project, the work on the manned midget submarine was done by Ostekhbyuro’s 1st Division headed by Fyodor Shchukin. On June 27, 1936, the design project was approved by I. Ludri, Flag Officer 1st Rank and Deputy Chief of the Red Navy. Following his approval, a prototype of the Pigmei midget submarine was built in Leningrad.

The submarine was transported by rail to the Ostekhbyuro’s base in Sevastopol on the Black Sea. In October 1936, Pigmei went through a whole range of experimental trials. For the sake of security, the vehicle was officially called «Ostekhbyuro’s submarine.» Konstantin Shchukin, Chief Designer of Ostekhbyuro’s 3rd Division, namesake of Pigmei’s developer, was responsible for the commissioning of the submarine. During the trials the experimental submarine was piloted by senior lieutenant Boris Uspensky, a 29-year-old naval officer from the Black Sea Fleet. Before the appointment he was deputy commander of an A-3 attack submarine.

Despite the fact that Pigmei’s trials «revealed shortcomings which prevented it from being commissioned», the Red Navy leaders nevertheless decided to build a fleet of ten Pigmei-type midget submarines. The first six boats were to be completed by the end of 1936, while the entire fleet was supposed to enter service in 1937. The construction of several Pigmei submarines was launched at the Sudomekh plant in Leningrad but not a single boat was made «combat ready» and later all of them were probably taken apart. Consequently, not a single production-version Pigmei-type midget submarine entered service with the Navy because it had some design drawbacks and, as was said in an official statement, due to the «objective complexity of fundamentally new technological problems.» There was another reason which we shall speak about below.

Finally, there was only one experimental Pigmei midget submarine in the Navy. It was 16 m long and 2.62 m wide and had a standard surface displacement of 18.6 tons. It could develop a maximum surface speed of 6 knots and a maximum underwater speed of 5 knots. The boat’s full-speed range amounted to 290 miles on the surface and between 18 miles (full speed) and 60 miles (economical speed) underwater. The boat’s maximum diving depth was limited to 30 m and its maximum endurance was about three days. Pigmei’s main armament included two 450mm 45-15 type torpedoes fired from side rack-type launchers. In addition to it, the submarine’s four-man crew was armed with a 7.62mm machine gun.

When World War II broke out, Pigmei was listed by the People’s Commissariat of the Navy (NK VMF) as an experimental submarine. It was neither officially commissioned into service, nor assigned to any fleet. It was kept ashore. According to some sources, Pigmei was left at the former Sevastopol Ostekhbyuro’s base in Balaklava, while other sources say that it was transferred to Feodosia and kept at the NK VMF’s naval armament test base. In summer 1942, Pegmei was captured by the Germans and nobody can say where the boat is now.

As we have already said, in August 1942, Pigmei was shown to Italian submariners who made its description later and attracted the attention of naval historiographers. «It was the newest unit in the final outfit stage. Its dimensions did not differ much from those of the Italian CB-type submarine, but its hull was better proportioned and longer. The submarine’s trapezoidal house was rather large but narrow. There were two long recesses at the boat’s hull mid-height which served to accommodate torpedoes.»

What happened to the only autonomous submarine later is not known. Since after the liberation of the Crimea and the rest of Russia’s Black Sea region there were no reports about the submarine found either ashore or sunk at sea, we can assert that the Germans had tried to transport it from the Crimea to Germany since they were actively involved in the development of their own midget submarines at that time and, therefore, the Russian project was a valuable acquisition. However, the absence of any records that German shipbuilders inspected the captured Soviet midget submarine indicates that Pigmei did not reach the territory of the Third Reich and was lost by its new owners somewhere on the European railways. But again, this is only our assumption.

Following the APSS and Pigmei, the designers of the 1st Division of Ostekhbyuro headed by F. Shchukin produced a new design of a small submarine with a standard surface displacement of 60 tons. But by that time, the VI-series (Malyutka) small submarines, with a standard displacement of 158 tons, had been serially produced for several years already and surpassed the 60-ton Ostekhbyuro’s submersible vessels in terms of seaworthiness and habitability (although these characteristics of Malyutka itself were far from being perfect). Therefore, Ostekhbyuro’s third «underwater» project, unlike the first two, remained on paper.

It goes without saying that Ostekhbyuro might have continued working for the Soviet undersea fleet and the entire Armed Forces, but the bureau as a whole, and many of its specialists, fell victim to «large terror.» In the period from 1937 to 1938, Ostekhbyuro’s leading specialists, including V. Bekauri, Head of the Bureau, were arrested by the NKVD security police, sentenced to death and executed. A charge fabricated against Fyodor Shchukin, Chief Designer of the APSS and Pigmei midget submarines, by A. Grunsky, an officer of the NKVD special division at Ostekhbyuro, said that the accused «conducted subversive activities by intentionally producing inadequate designs of new types of submarines intended for the Red Navy. This led to the situation where the designed submarines remained unfit for service with the Red Navy.» This «document» was approved on February 20, 1938, and three days later this «enemy of the people» was executed. In 1939, Ostekhbyuro itself ceased to exist.

In 1941, the Soviet Navy entered World War II without any midget submarines in its inventory. And it so happened that the first midget submarines officially commissioned into service with the Soviet Navy in 1945 were German Seahounds captured by the Soviet Army. These were midget submarines developed by German engineers who might have used the experience of Ostekhbyuro’s Pigmei to produce a more advanced design.

Photos used in this article are the only known pictures of Pigmei. The photos were taken by Ernst Frohling on July 1, 1942, in the Crimea and were discovered by Navy historiographers: engineer Rene Greger and French Navy Capitaine de Vasseau (R) Claude Huan. These photos were made available to the author through the assistance of Finnish military historiographer, Carl Fredrik Geust. The author expresses deep gratitude to his colleagues for their assistance.