This blogpost started when I happened to catch a yahoo article on Submarines....I started digging into it and I learned a lot. Now I want to plan a trip to Bremerhaven in Germany and check the sub out. I got the photo's from "Google" and Wiki was very helpful.
On
May 4, 1945 one of the most advanced submarines in the world crept up
to a British Royal Navy cruiser. U-2511 was one of Germany’s new Type
XXI-class “wonder” submarines, and she was hunting for Allied ships.
She also represented one of the Third Reich’s biggest failures.
More
than 250 feet long and displacing 1,620 tons, the Type XXI packed six
hydraulically-reloaded torpedo tubes capable of firing more than 23
stored torpedoes. This arsenal could turn a convoy into sinking, burning
wreckage.
But
the real improvement lay deep inside the U-boat’s bowels. There rested
an advanced electric-drive engine that allowed the submersible to travel
underwater at significantly higher speeds—and for longer periods—than
any submarine that came before.
It
was perhaps the world’s first truly modern undersea warship. The
engine, which was radical for its time, allowed the boat to operate
primarily submerged. This is in contrast to other war-era submersibles,
which operated mainly on the surface and dived for short periods to
attack or escape.
But
for the fortunate crew of that British cruiser, the war in Europe had
just ended. Adolf Hitler shot himself on April 30. Word of the European
ceasefire had also just reached U-2511. The submarine did not fire its
torpedoes at the cruiser, instead merely carrying out a mock practice
attack.
Neither
U-2511 nor its sister ship U-3008 ever fired a torpedo in anger during
the war. But the Kriegsmarine—the Nazi navy—had put its hopes in winning
the naval war on these Type XXI U-boats.
What
went wrong, and the lessons learned from the submarine program, is also
the subject of new research. It was featured in Adam Tooze’s 2006 book The Wages of Destruction: The Making and Breaking of the Nazi German Economy as an example of what not to do.
Now in a recent article
for the quarterly Naval War College Review, Marcus Jones—an associate
professor at the U.S. Naval Academy—describes the submarine as one of
the preeminent examples of Germany’s “irrational faith in technology to
prevail in operationally or strategically complex and desperate
situations.”
Desperation fuels innovation
The
Type XXI project dates to 1943. Germany was well into a submarine war
in the Atlantic, and aimed to choke and starve the United Kingdom from
its colonies.
Germany’s
goal was to surround the British isles with hundreds of submarines,
preventing anything from getting in or out. Initially, this was
successful. In October 1942 alone, U-boats sank 56 ships … and that was
just in the passage between Iceland and Greenland.
But
these successes turned badly against Germany—and fast. By 1943, new
convoy tactics, radar and anti-submarine patrol planes caused serious
problems with Germany’s predominantly Type VII submarines.
Germany’s
existing submarines were now vulnerable to being detected and sunk in
huge numbers. Their electric engines—used when underwater and recharged
with diesel on the surface—were not capable of holding a charge lasting
more than a few hours.
And
they were slow. Really slow. Many convoys could simply outrun them. If
the Allies detected a sub lurking underwater, they could simply wait it
out. In May 1943 alone, the Allies destroyed 43 U-boats, or 25 percent
of Germany’s entire operational submarine strength.
At
this point, Hitler and Germany’s senior military commanders realized
that “no amount of willpower or doctrinal ingenuity on the basis of
existing boat types could overcome the collective effects of the
countermeasures the Allies employed so well by 1943,” Jones writes.
The result was building a new kind of submarine that—in theory—would fundamentally change the nature of the war at sea.
Designed
by propulsion engineer Helmuth Walter, the Type XXI had a unique
figure-eight interior which allowed for a significantly larger electric
battery. It only had to surface rarely surface and recharge its battery
with conventional diesel fuel.
It
was also fast enough to keep up with convoys. It could run silent for
60 hours at five knots. It could also pick up the pace, traveling for an
hour and a half at a breakneck speed of 18 knots. By contrast the Type
VII could not travel faster than eight knots underwater—and then only
for short periods.
As
Jones points out, the new design also included “sensors,
countermeasures, and other devices understood to be indispensable in the
commerce war.” These devices included active radar and sonar and a more
advanced passive sonar to pick up the sounds of enemy ships.
But everything about the Type XXI was a mistake.
To
put it simply, it wasn’t a war-winning weapon. Worse for Germany, it
didn’t really do anything … and arguably hastened the Third Reich’s
defeat.
For
one, the submarines—only two were ever operational—suffered from
several technical problems that forced engineers to work overtime to
resolve. The hydraulic torpedo loading systems didn’t work at first. The
engines and steering systems were defective. This made the submarines
“decidedly less of a threat than originally foreseen,” Jones writes.
Germany
largely ironed out these problems. But even if the submarines had
worked perfectly at the outset, it’s unlikely they would have had much
of an effect on the outcome of the war.
This is because the submarines were tied to a losing strategy. And in 1945, German naval strategy was a hopeless cause.
Navies
expect their submarine commanders to operate independently. But a
mission as huge as stopping shipping across the Atlantic takes much more
than submarines. The Germans had a severe shortage of both maritime
patrol planes and air bases. In the harsh, rough seas and stormy weather
of the North Atlantic, this meant the Germans were limited by what they
could hear and see from their U-boats.
By comparison, Allied patrol planes were hunting them.
While
technologically advanced for its time, the Type XXI still existed
before the age of nuclear submarines, cruise missiles and nuclear-tipped
ballistic missiles.
These
strategic weapons turned Cold War submarines into the truly decisive
platforms they are today. Submarines during World War II were used
mainly for defending friendly coastlines, harassing enemy warships and
interdicting enemy convoys. The Type XXI was meant to carry out these
same missions, but simply more effectively.
But
in all three areas, Germany had already lost. Germany’s coastlines were
under regular attack by Allied bombers. Allied ground armies were
already closing in on the Rhine. And Allied convoys were so numerous,
Germany would have to build its new submarines by the hundreds to make
much of a dent. This was not physically possible.
As
Germany’s ports were no longer secure, engineers had to construct the
submarines in sections and transport them on a complex system of cranes
and barges to their launch points. This made fixing problems—expected on
new ship designs—much harder to fix.
Another
problem is that putting too much emphasis on wonder weapons distracts
from practical war efforts. In terms of steel committed to the project,
“the program cost the war effort some five thousand tanks, a very
consequential figure, and could be said to have hastened the defeat of
Germany on the Eastern Front,” Jones writes.
This mentality amounted to a “disease”
in German war planning, Jones argues. From V1 and V2 rockets,
super-heavy Tiger II tanks and jet fighters, Germany built radical
weapons that would fail to turn the tide against an inevitable defeat
brought about by larger economic, political and technological
disadvantages.
As
the war turned against Berlin, the Nazi commanders accelerated
development of new weapons, which distracted from other areas. Then the
war worsened, accelerating new weapon development further in a
perverted, vicious cycle.
However,
the Type XXI would last through the Cold War. Some were used for target
practice. Others were captured and commissioned into the Soviet and
French navies. The only surviving vessel of its class today is the
Wilhelm Bauer, which the modern Germany navy converted into a research
vessel. It’s now a museum ship in Bremerhaven.
But
mainly, the Type XXI provides several lessons in how technology—while
important—doesn’t alone win wars. It’s also a lesson in how the
fanatical pursuit of advanced weapons can make winning wars a lot
harder.This was the first U-boat to be constructed of modular components to allow for the manufacture of the various components in different factories and subsequent assembly at the shipyard.
Between 1943 and 1945, 118 boats were assembled by Blohm & Voss of Hamburg, AG Weser of Bremen and Schichau-Werke of Danzig. Each hull was constructed from nine prefabricated sections with final assembly at the shipyards. This new method allowed for a hypothetical construction time of less than six months per vessel, but in practice all the assembled U-boats were plagued with severe quality problems that required extensive post-production work and time to rectify. One of the reasons for these shortcomings was that sections were made by companies having little experience with shipbuilding, after a decision by Albert Speer. As a result, of 118 Type XXIs constructed, only four were fit for combat before the Second World War ended in Europe. Of these, only two conducted combat patrols and neither sank any Allied ships
It was planned that final assembly of Type XXI boats would eventually be carried out in the Valentin submarine pens, a massive, bomb–hardened concrete bunker built at the small port of Farge, near Bremen. The pens were constructed between 1943 and 1945, using about 10,000 concentration camp prisoners and prisoners of war as forced labor The facility was 90% completed when, during March 1945, it was heavily damaged by Allied bombing with Grand Slam "earthquake" bombs and abandoned. A few weeks later the area was captured by the British Army.
The Type XXI design directly influenced advanced post-war submarines, the Greater Underwater Propulsion Power Program (GUPPY) improvements to the United States Gato, Balao, and Tench-class submarines, and the Soviet submarine projects designated Whiskey, Zulu and Romeo by NATO. The Chinese built Romeo-class submarines, and subsequent Ming class, were based on Soviet blueprints.
The only boat to survive intact is Wilhelm Bauer (ex-U-2540). Records indicate that this sub was scuttled by the crew in 1945, salvaged in 1957 and refurbished for use by the West German Bundesmarine until retirement in 1983. It was then modified to appear in wartime configuration for exhibit purposes.
She started the 'revolution' that got us to where we are today.
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