The submarine class XXXIV was a planned micro submarine for the German Navy during the Second World War , which was completed in the winter of 1944/1945. The project was then presented to the head of the Small Ordnance Office for approval, but was not implemented before the end of the war. No prototypes were made either .
Development history
The development of the submarine class XXXIV took place under the necessity of providing new types of sea weapon systems for the "small combat units of the Kriegsmarine". The catalog of demands of the High Command of the Navy (OKM) included the following demands:
complete independence from overwater travel by snorkeling
short-term high underwater speed by means of circulation operation
smallest possible dimensions
Simplest construction method to shorten the construction time and the construction costs
Duration of use 7 days at 1200 nm driving distance (at 10 kn snorkeling trip)
Crew strength 3 men (to allow a change of guard)
The boat that meets these requirements should have an outer skin 8.5 mm thick and frames spaced 300 mm apart to stabilize the pressure hull. The pressure hull itself should consist of four parts - a bow, two middle and a stern part - which should be screwed together with rubber seals. This should speed up any maintenance and repair work on the boat. The operating resources were calculated with 570 liters of fuel and 560 liters of liquid oxygen . As armament were four torpedoes of the type G7 provided, which should be housed in free-flooding compartments in the bow in the running rails. They should be shot down from the headquarters. The height of the boat was so low that it was not possible to install a standard rigid sea pipe, so it was decided to install a foldable variant.
The project was abandoned in order to provide the resources that were still available to existing submarine types.
literature
Harald Fock: Naval small weapons. Manned torpedoes, small submarines, small speedboats, explosives yesterday - today - tomorrow. Nikol, Hamburg 1996, ISBN 3-930656-34-5 , pp. 77-78.