Seal (submarine)
 |
||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||
.svg){kind=small}
The Seehund (Type XXVII B, later "127") was a series of small German submarines with a crew of two from the last two years of World War II and represented a further development of the Hecht micro submarine . It followed production of the one-man submarine Newch .
Development and construction
After various successive drafts from XXVII B1, XXVII B5 was released for development.
In April 1944, the first construction contracts for boats of the submarine class XXVII B were awarded to various shipyards and were given construction numbers and submarine numbers there, although the final construction plans were not yet available. The first three prototypes were delivered by Howaldtswerke in Kiel in September 1944. In June a total of 1000 boats was set, later reduced to 600. Allied air strikes caused delays and material shortages, especially for the batteries. By the end of the war, 285 examples of the seal had been completed, 93 boats were still unfinished in the production halls:
- U 5001 - U 5003 , Howaldtswerke AG, Kiel
- U 5004 - U 5100 , Germania shipyard , Kiel
- U 5251 - U 5350 , Schichau shipyard , Elbing
- U 5751 - U 5800 , Klöckner, Ulm
- U 6172 - U 6200 , Cantieri Riuniti dell'Adriatico (CRDA), Monfalcone , Adriatic Coastal Operation Zone
- U 6251 - U 6252 , Schichau shipyard, Elbing
commitment
Due to the narrow silhouette and the quiet electric machines, the boat was difficult to detect with the tracking devices of the time. The boats operated mainly in the German Bight and the English Channel and proved to be a very powerful weapon system. With a few exceptions, the mission trips took up to seven days.
The first deployment took place on December 31, 1944 from IJmuiden in the Netherlands ; of 18 boats only two returned, the others sank in a severe storm. The first sinking of a freighter at Great Yarmouth was in February 1945. The seals mainly attacked shipping between the Thames and the Scheldt . The boat of Leutnant zur See Klaus Sparbrodt possibly sank the Free French destroyer La Combattante . The type XXVII B boats sank a tonnage of 93,000 GRT .
The last missions served to supply the German troops trapped in Dunkerque ; instead of torpedoes, food was transported in containers. The Allies were forced to use sea and air resources for submarine hunting.
35 submarines were lost in 142 missions. Around 30 percent of the crews were captured or died during their operations. It is reported that many crews by carbon monoxide intoxications, caused by the design of the engine ventilation, or lung cracks were killed.
In order to get along without sleep during the multi-day missions, the crew members took Pervitin .
After the war, the French Navy took over some of the boats.
technology
The seal offered good seaworthiness and maneuverability, and was able to perform fast dynamic diving with the diesel engine . The boat was designed for a diving depth of 30 m, and up to 70 m were reached in use. The normal range of 270 nm could be increased to 500 nm by taking external fuel tanks.
Navigation was carried out with two compasses , the listening device or the periscope. The periscope was 3.28 (type C15) or 3.78 (type C16) meters long from the lower edge of the Kiel to the end of the periscope.
Technical specifications
| Diesel engine: | 44 kW (60 PS), 1400 rpm, 6-cylinder truck engine Büssing NAG LD 6 |
| E-machines: | Generator 11 kW, drive motor 18 kW, 1040 / min, (90 V) AEG-E motor |
| Battery: | 8 troughs of the type: 8 MAL 210 or 7 MAL 210 (8 T 210?) From AFA E-capacity max. 1600 Ah |
| Range e-machine: | 15 nm @ 6 kn / 60 nm @ 2.2 kn |
| Range diesel: | 270 nm @ 7.7 kn |
| Breathing air: | 45 minutes for 2 men |
Further developments
Based on the properties of the seal , which promised more success in offensive use than the Biber and Molch models, some of which were developed and produced in parallel , further developments of the Type XXVII were designed, but none of them were produced anymore.
Submarine class XXVII F
In the summer of 1944, under the type designation XXVII F , a small submarine was designed in the main office of warship construction, which was to be equipped with a Walter turbine system. The boats of this submarine class were supposed to transport a torpedo in a bulge below the hull.
Technical specifications
| Length : | 11.2 m |
| Width : | 1.0 m |
| Drive : | 1 × 200 HP Walter turbine |
| Speed : | 22.6 kn (submerged) |
| Armament : | 1 torpedo |
| Crew : | 1 |
Since the Walter turbine with seawater injection planned for this submarine class was still a long way from being ready for series production at this point in time, the project was initially postponed and finally ended.
Submarine class XXVII K
On April 28, 1944, the Kriegsmarine commissioned three XXVII K type submarines from Kiel's Germania shipyard . The boats had the construction numbers 938 to 940 and were given the boat numbers U 5188, U 5189 and U 5190 . The three XXVII-K small submarines were not completed by the end of the war.
Technical specifications
| Length : | 13.9 m |
| Width : | 1.7 m |
| Propulsion over water : | 1 × 100 HP diesel engine, 80 HP in circuit |
| Propulsion under water : | 1 × 8 HP Schleich electric motor |
| Speed : | 9.5 kn (10 kn submerged) |
| Armament : | 2 torpedoes |
| Crew : | 2 |
Museum reception
A seal is exhibited as a cutaway model in the Defense Technology Study Collection in Koblenz .
literature
- Erminio Bagnasco: U-Boats in World War II. Motorbuch Verlag, Stuttgart 1994, ISBN 3-613-02987-1 .
- Erich Gröner : The ships of the German Navy and Air Force 1939–1945 and their whereabouts. Bernard & Graefe, Bonn 2000, ISBN 3-7637-6215-9 .
- Bodo Herzog : 60 years of German submarines 1906–1966. Pawlak, Herrsching 1994, ISBN 3-88199-687-7 .
- Paul Kemp: Manned torpedoes and small submarines. Motorbuch Verlag, Stuttgart 1999, ISBN 3-613-01936-1 .
- Klaus Mattes: The seals. Small submarines. Last German initiative in naval warfare 1939–1945. Mittler, Hamburg et al. 1995, ISBN 3-8132-0484-7 .
- Werner Schulz: In the smallest submarine. From the estate of a "seal" driver. Brandenburgisches Verlag-Haus, Berlin 1995, ISBN 3-89488-085-6 .
- Preliminary operating information for type 127 submarines.As of September 29, 1944.
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d e f Mark Stille: Axis Midget Submarines: 1939–1945. Verlag Osprey Publishing , 2014, ISBN 978-1-4728-0122-7 , p. 27 [1]
- ↑ Seehund "(" XXVIIB ") type midget submarines (1944-1945) (English) accessed on February 26, 2018
- ^ German Naval Museum, Wilhelmshaven
- ↑ TV show Schlaflos im Krieg , on ARTE October 16, 2010
- ^ A b Eberhard Rössler : History of the German submarine building. Volume 2: Development, construction and characteristics of the German submarines from 1943 until today. Bernard & Graefe Verlag, Bonn 1996, p. 540.
- ↑ Harald Busch, Hans Joachim Röll: The U-Boat War 1939-1945. Volume 2: The submarine construction in German shipyards. Publishing house AS Mittler & Sohn, Hamburg u. a. 1997, p. 205.
