In the first half of September 1942, under Malanchenko's command,
S-13 sank two Finnish ships,
Hera and , and a German ship
Anna W, totaling 4,042 tons. When S-13 sank the freighter
Hera, she fired on the ship's lifeboat but failed to hit it. On 15 October 1942, caught on the surface while charging her batteries,
S-13 was attacked by the
Finnish submarine chasers
VMV-13 and
VMV-15. During her
crash dive, the submarine hit the bottom, severely damaging her rudder and destroying her steering gear. The following
depth charge attack worsened the damage, but
S-13 escaped and made it back to
Kronstadt. During the next three years, Malanchenko was relieved by
Alexander Marinesko and
S-13 was repaired and returned to sea. Under the command of Marinesko, then 32, on 30 January 1945, at
Stolpe Bank off the Pomeranian coast,
S-13 sank the 25,484-ton German armed transport ship under
Kriegsmarine ensign, overfilled with civilians and military personnel, with three
torpedoes. Recent calculations estimate more than 9,000 people were killed, the worst loss of life in maritime history. On 10 February 1945,
S-13 sank the German wounded transport ship with two torpedoes off the Stolpe Bank just before midnight. Of the 4,267 wounded and refugees on board, 3,608 perished and 659 survived. Marinesko was posthumously awarded the title
Hero of the Soviet Union in 1990.
S-13 was decommissioned on 7 September 1954 and stricken on 17 December 1956.
S-13 also shelled and damaged the German fishing vessel,
Siegfried (563 GRT), which was damaged but escaped. == References ==