German Type XXI submarine
 |
|
| Class overview | |
|---|---|
| Name: | Type XXI U-boat |
| Completed: | 118 |
| General characteristics | |
| Class and type: | Submarine |
| Displacement: | 1,621 tonnes standard 2,100 tonnes full load |
| Length: | 76.7 m (251 ft 8 in) |
| Beam: | 8 m (26 ft 3 in) |
| Draught: | 5.3 m (17 ft 5 in) |
| Propulsion: | Diesel/Electric 2× MAN M6V40/46KBB supercharged 6-cylinder diesel engines, 4,000 PS (2.9 MW) 2× SSW GU365/30 double acting electric motors, 5,000 PS (3.7 MW) 2× SSW GV232/28 silent running electric motors, 226 PS (0.166 MW) |
| Speed: | Surfaced: 15.6 kn (28.9 km/h) (diesel) 17.9 kn (33.2 km/h) (electric) Submerged: 17.2 kn (31.9 km/h) (electric) 6.1 kn (11.3 km/h) (silent running motors) |
| Range: | Surfaced: 15,500 nmi (28,700 km) at 10 kn (19 km/h) Submerged: 340 nmi (630 km) at 5 kn (9.3 km/h) |
| Complement: | 57 officers and men |
| Armament: | 6 × torpedo tubes 4 x 20 mm cannon |
Type XXI U-boats, also known as "Elektroboote", were the first submarines designed to operate entirely submerged, rather than as surface ships that could submerge as a temporary means to escape detection or launch an attack.
Contents |
Description
The key improvement in the Type XXI was greatly increased battery capacity, roughly three times that of the Type VIIC. This gave these boats enormous underwater range, and dramatically reduced the time spent near the surface. They could travel submerged at about five knots (9 km/h) for two or three days before recharging the batteries, which took less than five hours using the snorkel. The Type XXI was also much quieter than the VIIC, making it more difficult to detect when submerged.
The Type XXI's streamlined and hydrodynamically clean hull design allowed high submerged speed. The ability to outrun many surface ships while submerged, combined with improved dive times, made it much harder to chase and destroy. It also gave the boat a 'sprint ability' when positioning itself for an attack. Older boats had to surface to sprint into position. This often gave a boat away, especially after aircraft became available for convoy escort.
The Type XXIs had better facilities than previous classes, including a freezer for foodstuffs. Conveniences for the crew included a shower and a washbasin – crews on other boats spent weeks without bathing or shaving. The Type XXI featured a hydraulic torpedo reloading system that allowed all six torpedo tubes, located in the bow, to be reloaded faster than a Type VIIC could reload a single tube. The Type XXI could fire 18 torpedoes in under 20 minutes. The total warload was 23 torpedoes, or 17 torpedoes and 12 sea mines. The XXI featured an advanced sonar system which allowed aiming torpedoes without using the periscope, increasing stealth.
Between 1943 and 1945, 118 boats of this type were assembled by Blohm & Voss of Hamburg, AG Weser of Bremen, and F. Schichau of Danzig. The hulls were constructed from 8 prefabricated sections with final assembly taking place at the shipyards. This new method could have pushed construction time below six months per vessel, but in reality all the assembled U-boats were plagued with severe quality problems that required extensive post-production work to fix. One of the reasons is that the sections were made by inland companies (result of Albert Speer's decision), even though these had little experience in shipbuilding. The result was that out of 118 assembled XXIs, only four were rated fit for combat before the war ended in Europe.[1]
Postwar
U-2511 and U-3008 were the only Type XXIs to go on wartime patrol, and both failed to sink any ships. U-2511 commanded by Korvettenkapitän Adalbert Schnee, evaded the heavy escort screen of the Royal Navy heavy cruiser HMS Norfolk and had the vessel in his sights; however the surrender signal had been received from Germany that day and Schnee dived under the cruiser before returning to Germany.
Most boats were scrapped or scuttled after the war, but eight were taken by the Allies for evaluation and trials. The United States received U-2513 and U-3008, which were commissioned into the United States Navy. U-3017 was commissioned into the Royal Navy as HMS N41, and U-2518 became French submarine Roland Morillot, which served until 1967.
Soviet Union
Four Type XXI boats were assigned to the Soviet Union by the Potsdam Agreement; these were U-3515, U-2529, U-3035, and U-3041, which were commissioned into the Soviet Navy as B-27, B-28, B-29, and B-30, later B-100 respectively. However, Western intelligence believed the Soviets had acquired several more Type XXI boats; a review by the U.S. Joint Intelligence Committee for the Joint Chiefs of Staff in January 1948 estimated that at the time the Soviet Navy had 15 Type XXIs operational, could complete construction of 6 more within 2 months, and could build another 39 within a year and a half from prefabricated sections, since several factories producing Type XXI components and the assembly yard at Danzig had been captured by the Soviets at the end of WWII. U 3538 — U 3557 (respectively TS-5 – TS-19 and TS-32 – TS-38) remained uncompleted at Danzig and were scrapped or sunk in 1947. The four boats assigned by Potsdam were used in trials and tests until 1955, then scuttled or used for weapon testing between 1958-1973. The Type XXI formed the basis for the Project 614, essentially a copy of the Type XXI, and many of its characteristics were also incorporated into the Project 613 submarine (known in the West as the Whiskey class).[2]
West Germany
A ninth XXI also saw service after the war: U-2540, which had been scuttled at the end of the war, was raised in 1957 to become the research vessel Wilhelm Bauer of the Bundesmarine. It is the only restored Type XXI and became a museum ship as part of the German Maritime Museum in Bremerhaven, Germany.
In 1985 it was discovered that the partially-scrapped remains of U-2505, U-3004, and U-3506 were still in the partially-demolished "Elbe II" U-boat bunker in Hamburg, Germany. The bunker has since been filled in with gravel for safety reasons and lies beneath a car park and the wrecks are completely inaccessible.[3]
Influences
The Type XXI design directly influenced USS Nautilus, the world's first nuclear submarine, USS Albacore, the first submarine with a teardrop hull, the French Narval-class, the British Porpoise-class, and the Soviet submarine classes known by the NATO reporting names Zulu and Whiskey, although the Whiskeys were smaller and less sophisticated.
 Type XXI submarine diagram |
 U-2540 as a museum |
See also
Media related to Type XXI submarines at Wikimedia Commons- List of Type XXI Submarines
- Zulu class submarine (the Soviet Project 611 submarine class derives from the Type XXI boats)
Notes
- ↑ Tooze, Adam (2006). The Wages of Destruction. London, UK: Penguin Books. pp. 616–618. ISBN 978-0-141-00348-1.
- ↑ Polmar, Norman; Kenneth J. Moore (2004). Cold War Submarines: The Design and Construction of U.S. and Soviet Submarines. Brassey's. pp. 23–24. ISBN 1574885944.
- ↑ "3 Type XXI boats in the Elbe II in Hamburg". uboat.net. http://uboat.net/history/hamburg_elbe2.htm.
References
- Kohl, Fritz; Eberhard Rossler (1991). The Type XXI U-boat. Conway Maritime. ISBN 0-85177-9222-0.
External links
- U-Boot Type XXI in Detail with lots of pics.
- Type XXI on www.uboat.net
- Type XXI on www.uboataces.com
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||