VLADIVOSTOK, January 05, 12:57 /ITAR-TASS/. The Russian Pacific Fleet marks on Sunday the 109th anniversary of its submerged forces.
First Russian submarines appeared in the Pacific ahead of the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-1905, while two years later already 12 submarines were patrolling the Peter the Great Gulf preventing a siege of Vladivostok, the press service of the Pacific Fleet reports.
The Som (Catfish) submarine built in the US in 1901 was the ancestor of Russian Pacific Fleet’s submerged forces. Its submerged displacement was 120 tons, the length was 19 meters and the power of its engine was 160 horse powers. It was armed with a 37-milimeter weapon and a 457-milimeter torpedo mount.
Russian Pacific Fleet’s firstling was first brought to the Baltic Sea from the United States by ship and then was transported to the Far Eastern city of Vladivostok by train. In April 1905 it was baptized by fire being shelled after spotting two Japanese torpedo boats in the Preobrazhenie Bay. Torpedoes failed to hit the submarine which then submerged to the depth of 12 meters and began preparing for an attack. However, the torpedo boats sailed away. Military historians believe that the very sight of the first Russian submarines prompted the Japanese fleet to give up the idea of a siege of Vladivostok.
Festivities marking the anniversary were held on Sunday on Vladivostok’s Korabelnaya Embankment. Veterans and seamen from the Pacific Fleet command put a wreath and flowers to the monument to first submariners.
At the present moment, the Pacific Fleet has nuclear and diesel submarines carrying intercontinental ballistic missiles, anti-submarine and anti-ship weapons.