Monkfish (submarine)
_Seitenprofil.jpg) Simplified side profile of the monkfish
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The small submarine Seeteufel , also known as the elephant or the Lödige project for short , was a project of the German navy towards the end of the Second World War .
Development history
The aim of the project was to build a miniature submarine with amphibious capabilities. For this purpose, crawlers were attached to both sides of the underbody, which allowed the monkfish to drive directly into the water from a 35-t standard low-loader trailer with its own power. Due to the off-road suitability, every flat sea access could be used without having to resort to the usual aids (crane ships, railway or port cranes, port facilities). This gave the operational planning team extensive freedom in choosing the location. Another advantage was that the anglerfish could drive or be dropped on the sea floor.
The concept of the monkfish goes back to the graduate engineer Alois Lödige, who in the summer of 1944 needed only four months with his planning staff to go from the drawing to a prototype at the Eckernförde torpedo testing facility . The subsequent testing in Eckernförde Bay was carried out by the test command 456 of the small combat units of the Navy .
The sea trials showed that the monkfish , despite its weight of 18 t (operating weight 20 t), basically fulfilled the expectations placed on it. During a test drive, the anglerfish reached a diving depth of 21 meters; the planned maximum diving depth of 25 meters could not be tested in Eckernförde Bay. It was extremely agile and maneuverable in the water. Its responsive depth rudder enabled simple depth control as well as dynamic descent and ascent. The anglerfish was steered in all directions with a joystick like an airplane. A breakwater made of Plexiglas was also revolutionary, ensuring optimal visibility for the pilot. In addition, the boat had a magnetic compass attached to the snorkel mast, which was readable via mirrors in the control center. The primary armament consisted of two torpedoes of the type G7 . The monkfish was able to use the only midget submarine that these torpedoes at full reach (1.8 km T-5, 3 km G7e, 3 to 12.5 km G7a) because he negative buoyancy cells to compensate for the lower drive of Torpedoes of 300 kp each per torpedo (together 600 kp). As an alternative armament, four sea mines could be attached to the side of the boat. A machine gun or flamethrower was used for self-protection .
However, the mini submarine was not all about strengths. The main weak point was its motorization. A 200 hp diesel engine and a 100 hp electric motor for underwater travel were planned; in fact, however, only an 80 hp diesel and a 24 hp electric motor were available. The narrow tracks turned out to be a further disadvantage. The increased ground pressure caused the monkfish to sink deep into wet mud or sand at the sea entrance, which made it even slower. There was even a risk of getting stuck. They wanted to avoid this by using wider crawlers that should reduce the ground pressure. The last major problem was the enormous weight of the anglerfish , which earned it the nickname elephant . Since Lödige and his team were not marine technicians in the strict sense, the boat turned out to be too heavy, although the OKM recognized weight savings.
All these problems should be resolved before series production, for which the Borgward works in Bremen were intended. Initially, three boats were commissioned and another twenty with increased propulsion. By the end of the war, however, not a single one of these boats had been completed. Shortly before the end of the war, the prototype was brought to Lübeck - Schlutup ( code name Blaukoppel ) by units of the K-formations and was blown up there at the end of the war. Further versions for wire-controlled torpedoes (type grille) and combat diving missions were planned, but were no longer implemented.
literature
- Eberhard Rössler : History of the German submarine construction. 2nd Edition. Bernard & Graefe Verlag, Bonn 1996, ISBN 3-86047-153-8 .
- Richard Lakowski: German U-Boats secret 1935–1942. With 200 previously unpublished documents from the files of the Office of Warship Building 3rd edition. Brandenburgisches Verlagshaus, Berlin 1997, ISBN 3-89488-030-9 .
- Hans H. Hildebrand, Albert Röhr, Hans-Otto Steinmetz: The German warships. Biographies, a mirror of naval history from 1815 to the present. Mundus Verlag, Ratingen 1995, ISBN 3-88385-028-4 .
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Harald Fock: Naval small weapons. Nikol Verlagsvertretungen, 1997, ISBN 3-930656-34-5 , pp. 80–85.