LOGGED AND CONFIRMED ACTIVITIES ON
U-BOAT M 96 and CAPT MARINESKO

Maljutka Class assigned to the VI and VI-bis series of the submarines. (Maljutka can be loosely translated as "baby" in Russian. M 96 was a small coastal U-boat model. The XII and XV Series were officially named "Malaya" (meaning "Small") (feminine), but were often referred to as "Maljutka".

During the period 1939 - 1941 the M 96 remained at the Kronstadt U-boat Base and partipated in no operations.

1941 Capt. Marinesko received his first assignment as commander of the M 96.

In August 12 1942, the following U-boats came out of the well-guarded Gulf of Finland; M 96, SC 309, L 3, S-13, M 102, SC 323 and the SC 407

On August 12th, 1942, the M96 departs from it's base located at Lavansaari in the Gulf . At 11:17 hrs, on August 14th, Marinesko attacked a convoy consistuing of one cargo ship and three schooners escorted by three subchasers. The cargo ship :Helen" (1850 reg tons) was sunk.

He could not, as I had earlier reported, have fired 3 torpedoes as submarines of the VI, VI-bis and XII Series had only two torpedo tubes without reserve torpedoes. M-96 returned into base on August 22nd, 1942

Kronstadt Base sent out a last group of 16 U-boats for 1942 in early November. The last boat to come out in the Gulf on November 8th was the M 96 with Marinesko in command. The raid was unsuccessful - without any attack. M 96 was given a new captain. Captain-lieutenant Nikolai Kartashev became a commander of M-96 in March 1943. Soon after, M-96 was lost with all hands.

Captain Marinesko remained at the Base until he became the new master of S-13 on April 18th, 1943.

He had one attack on October 9th, 1944, North off Hela. At 05.08 and 05.10 he fired 3 and 1 torpedoes correspondingly on the training ship "Nordpol" (363 reg tons) (according to other sources, it was the cargo ship "Siegfrid" of 563 reg tons) - all missed, and some minutes later sank her by a gunfire.

As can be seen from the above record, Captain Marinesko, before sinking the Gustloff and the General Stueben only had one small trawler on his tonnage account (at the cost of six torpedoes) which counteracts published information that he already was the ace of the USSR Baltic U-boat Fleet by the end of 1944

11. Baltic aces at the end of 1944 (by a REAL number of victories)

Nikolai Mokhov (SHCH-317) 5 vessels - 10997 reg tons. (submarine was sunk on 12/15th July 1942);

Sergei Lisin (Hero of Soviet Union) (S-7) 4 vessels - 9164 reg tons. (submarine was sunk on 21st October 1942) Lisin was captured by Finns);

Evgeny Osipov (Hero of Soviet Union) (SHCH-406) 4 vessels - 9060 reg tons. (submarine WAS sunk on jUNE 1ST, 1943);

Samuil Bogorad (Hero of Soviet Union in 1945) (SHCH-310) 4 vessels - 7346 reg tons.

They had all the rights of being called Morskoi Volk (Sea Wolves), all with heavy tonnage accounts in a number of years at sea.

RECORD FOR U-BOAT S 13

S-13 was commissioned on 14.08.1941. S-13 was commissioned on August 14th, 1941.The master was a young, inexperienced captain, Captain Pavel Malantjenko. He received assistance from his superior, Chief of the U-boat division, Jevgenig Junakov who followed the ship on its first voyage in the Gulf of Botnia.

On Sept 11th, the S-13 made her first hit on the Finnish vessel, the s/s Hera of 1379 grt. It was sunk at at 23.34 hrs by two torpedoes (the first torpedo, fired at 22.53 hrs had missed).

The s/s Hera carried a cargo of coal. After the vessel was set on fire, S-13 succeeded to shoot down one of Hera's lifeboats full of people. The other lifeboat escaped on some small island on the same morning

S-13 met her second victim, the Finnish s/s Jussi of 2373 grt which was sent to the bottom with 2 torpedoes fired at 03:48 hrs and 03:57hrs respectively.. The ship went down in minutes and only 6 of the crew was saved.

On Sept 15th, S-13 met her third victim, the German M/s Anna of 290 grt, which was set on fire by S-13's large 100 mm deck cannon.

The S-13 was called back to base at Kronstadt on October 12th, 1944.

While charging her batteries at Ruuski, Finland, during the night of October 15, she was sighted by the Finnish Torpedoe boats VMV 13 & VMV 15. Instead of meeting the attack with her heavy 100 mm deck gun she made an emergency dive and severely hit the ground at a depth of 65 meter. The vertical rudder became jammed in position, the electrical steering engine burned out, lights went out and the hull started leaking. Seven depth charges delivered from the surface vessels then shook the U-boat badly. The S 13 made her escape at periscope level and at a speed of 3 knot. It ended a successful 43 day voyage.

While back in Kronstadt, the S-13 saw her damages repaired and later changed captain . The new captain was Captain Alexandr Marinesko.

S-13 was decommissioned in 1954. The tonnage account was finally:

S/s Hera

S/s Jussi

M/s Anna

S/s Siegfrid

M/s Gustloff

S/s General Steuben

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