HMS L55
Encyclopedia
HMS L55 was a British L class submarine
British L class submarine
The British L class submarine were originally planned under the emergency war programme as an improved version of the British E class submarine. The scale of change allowed the L class to become a separate class....
built by Fairfield Shipbuilding and Engineering Company
Fairfield Shipbuilding and Engineering Company
The Fairfield Shipbuilding and Engineering Company, Limited was a British shipbuilding company in the Govan area on the Clyde in Glasgow. Fairfields, as it is often known, was a major warship builder, turning out many vessels for the Royal Navy and other navies through the First World War and the...
, Govan
Govan
Govan is a district and former burgh now part of southwest City of Glasgow, Scotland. It is situated west of Glasgow city centre, on the south bank of the River Clyde, opposite the mouth of the River Kelvin and the district of Partick....
, Clyde
River Clyde
The River Clyde is a major river in Scotland. It is the ninth longest river in the United Kingdom, and the third longest in Scotland. Flowing through the major city of Glasgow, it was an important river for shipbuilding and trade in the British Empire....
. She was laid down on 21 September 1917 and was commissioned on 19 December 1918.
British service
HMS L55 was sunk in the BalticBaltic Sea
The Baltic Sea is a brackish mediterranean sea located in Northern Europe, from 53°N to 66°N latitude and from 20°E to 26°E longitude. It is bounded by the Scandinavian Peninsula, the mainland of Europe, and the Danish islands. It drains into the Kattegat by way of the Øresund, the Great Belt and...
in 1919. She was based at Tallinn
Tallinn
Tallinn is the capital and largest city of Estonia. It occupies an area of with a population of 414,940. It is situated on the northern coast of the country, on the banks of the Gulf of Finland, south of Helsinki, east of Stockholm and west of Saint Petersburg. Tallinn's Old Town is in the list...
, Estonia
Estonia
Estonia , officially the Republic of Estonia , is a state in the Baltic region of Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland, to the west by the Baltic Sea, to the south by Latvia , and to the east by Lake Peipsi and the Russian Federation . Across the Baltic Sea lies...
as part of the Baltic Battle Squadron
British Campaign in the Baltic 1918-19
The British Campaign in the Baltic 1918-19 was a part of the Allied intervention in the Russian Civil War. The intervention played a key role in enabling the establishment of the independent states of Estonia and Latvia but failed to secure the control of Petrograd by Russian White forces, one of...
. L55 attacked two 1,260 ton Bolshevik
Bolshevik
The Bolsheviks, originally also Bolshevists , derived from bol'shinstvo, "majority") were a faction of the Marxist Russian Social Democratic Labour Party which split apart from the Menshevik faction at the Second Party Congress in 1903....
minelaying destroyers - the Gavril
Orfey class destroyer
The Orfey-class destroyers were built for the Baltic Fleet of the Imperial Russian Navy. They were modified versions of the Novik and the Derzky-class destroyers. These ships were larger, had triple torpedo tubes and an extra gun. Fourteen ships were completed in 1914 - 1917 and fought in World...
and Azard
Orfey class destroyer
The Orfey-class destroyers were built for the Baltic Fleet of the Imperial Russian Navy. They were modified versions of the Novik and the Derzky-class destroyers. These ships were larger, had triple torpedo tubes and an extra gun. Fourteen ships were completed in 1914 - 1917 and fought in World...
. HMS L55 missed her targets and was forced into a British-laid minefield. Soviet sources stated that she was sunk by gunfire of the destroyer Gavril. This happened on 9 June 1919 in Caporsky Bay
Koporye Bay
The Koporye Bay is a 12 km-long bay on the southern coast of the Gulf of Finland. It is up to 26 km wide and 20 meters deep. The shore is low and rocky; the hinterland is woody. It is part of Russia's Leningrad Oblast. The only major settlement is the town of Sosnovy Bor. The...
in the Gulf of Finland
Gulf of Finland
The Gulf of Finland is the easternmost arm of the Baltic Sea. It extends between Finland and Estonia all the way to Saint Petersburg in Russia, where the river Neva drains into it. Other major cities around the gulf include Helsinki and Tallinn...
. If she was sunk by gunfire, L55 would be the only British submarine to be sunk by hostile Soviet vessels.
Salvage
The wreck was found by Soviet minesweepers in 1927. The Soviets raised her on 11 August 1928. The remains of 34 crew members were returned on the British merchantman Truro before transfer to because the Russians refused to allow any British warship into their waters. The crew was buried in a communal grave at HaslarHaslar
Haslar is place in England, at the southern tip of Alverstoke, on the Gosport peninsula, Hampshire. It takes its name from Anglo-Saxon hæsel-ōra = "hazel - landing place"...
Royal Naval Cemetery in Portsmouth
Portsmouth
Portsmouth is the second largest city in the ceremonial county of Hampshire on the south coast of England. Portsmouth is notable for being the United Kingdom's only island city; it is located mainly on Portsea Island...
on 7 September 1928.
Soviet service
The boat was rebuilt by Baltic Works, Leningrad, the reconstruction cost of 1 million roubles being financed by a public fund as 'an answer to Chamberlain'. She was recommissioned as a Soviet submarine with the same number (Л-55) on 7 August 1931. She was later named Bezbozhnik ("Atheist") and was used as the basis of design for the Soviet L class submarineLeninets class submarine
The Leninets or L-class were the second class of submarines to be built for the Soviet Navy. They were minelaying submarines and were based on the British L-class submarine, HMS L55, which was sunk during the British intervention in the Russian Civil War. Some experience from the previous...
. L55 was used for training until the beginning of World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, when she was damaged in an accident in early 1941. She was scrapped in about 1953 or 1960.