Manta (submarine)
.jpg) Simplified representation of the Manta
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The small submarine Manta was a project of the German Navy towards the end of the Second World War . The first concepts of the Manta emerged in the spring of 1945 in cooperation with the test command 456 and the Walther works in Kiel . The aim was to design a device that would represent a combination between a small submarine (for the attack) and an amphibious vehicle (for the approach and return). For this it should have four aircraft wheels , which would have allowed the Manta to use every imaginable lake access without port facilities.
Concept ideas
The Manta was designed as a U-shaped device, with components already designed by the Orca project, in particular the pressure hull, being used for the upper rigid middle section . The pressure hull served as the command center for the two crew members. Both of its side panels, on the other hand, should come from the monkfish . This would have meant that the Kriegsmarine would not have lost any time in testing new parts. The drive units should be housed in the two side parts. Additional lateral stabilization of the Manta was to be achieved with lateral keels, which were equipped with stabilizing fins through an aircraft course control system. The armament of the small submarine should therefore consist of four torpedoes running forward or stern. In addition, he had eight submarine hunting torpedoes and, alternatively, 8 to 12 sea mines or, instead, four self-targeting missiles ( rockets ).
Theoretically, the following speeds and driving ranges were possible with the drive units:
- Above water gliding
- Cruising speed 20 kn = 30 h = 600 nm
- Maximum speed 50 kn = 4 h = 200 nm
- Underwater ride
- Cruising speed 10 kn = 50 h = 500 nm
- Maximum speed 30 kn = 4 h = 120 nm
- Maneuvering
- with two electric motors 8 kn = 10 h = 80 nm
The Manta could travel a maximum of 1180 nm at cruising speed and using all resources, at maximum speed this was reduced to 320 nm. Its curb weight was 15 t, the operating weight even 50 t.
Until the unconditional surrender of the Wehrmacht , the Manta only reached the planning stage. In the literature there is the opinion that at the end of the war all construction documents were destroyed in order not to let them fall into the hands of the enemy.
This is opposed by the fact that the newly established German Navy considered in various planning scenarios and meetings to build and use the Manta alongside the seahorse planned by Boeing . The 20-30 manta rays under discussion should be used in times of tension before the German mine barriers. They should wash up there in groups on the sea floor to reduce their locatability. With eight wire-guided torpedoes each, they were supposed to fight targets up to the size of a destroyer, but above all mine clearance boats. It was planned that power and telephone cables for the connection on land and under the mantas would be laid at the target positions . In addition, a study was carried out that dealt intensively with the small weapons seals , seahorses and manta rays, including deployment tactics, known weapon systems that are to be developed. The study recommended the commissioning of a unit of 300 combat swimmers, 66 manta rays , 86 seals and 132 sea horses . If all planning documents had been destroyed at the end of the war, they would not have been described in the studies of 1958 and 1961.
The later development of the submarine class 202 is related to these considerations on small and micro submarines . In the end, however, the young German Navy decided to focus exclusively on the "350t boat", which was realized in the form of class 201 and (enlarged) class 205 .
Individual evidence
- ↑ Harald Fock: Naval small weapons. Manned torpedoes, small submarines, small speedboats, explosives yesterday - today - tomorrow. Nikol, Hamburg 1996, ISBN 3-930656-34-5 , p. 89.
- ^ Johannes Berthold-Nagashima: The Federal Navy 1950 to 1972. Concept and construction. Munich 2006, ISBN 978-3-486-57972-7 .
- ↑ BA-MA BW 8I / 452: Study on the use of small weapons in the Baltic Sea (secret) from May 10, 1961 .
