U-boat is an anglicised version of the German word U-Boot [ˈuːboːt] (About this sound listen), a shortening of Unterseeboot, literally "undersea boat".
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One of the most effective uses of magnetic pistols would be to set the torpedo's depth to just beneath the keel of the target. The explosion under the target's keel would create a detonation shock wave , which could cause a ship's hull to rupture under the concussive water pressure. In this way, even large or heavily armored ships could be sunk or disabled with a single, well-placed hit. In practice, however, the depth-keeping equipment and magnetic and contact exploders were notoriously unreliable in the first eight months of the war.
Torpedoes often ran at an improper depth, detonated prematurely, or failed to explode altogether—sometimes bouncing harmlessly off the hull of the target ship. The faults were largely due to a lack of testing. The magnetic detonator was sensitive to mechanical oscillations during the torpedo run, and to fluctuations in the Earth's magnetic field at high latitudes. These were eventually phased out, and the depth-keeping problem was solved by early It was primarily designed to combat convoy escorts.
The acoustic torpedo was designed to run straight to an arming distance of m and then turn toward the loudest noise detected.
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This sometimes ended up being the U-boat itself; at least two submarines may have been sunk by their own homing torpedoes. The Germans, in turn, countered this by introducing newer and upgraded versions of the acoustic torpedoes, like the late-war G7es , and the T11 torpedo. However, the T11 torpedoes did not see active service. U-boats also adopted several types of "pattern-running" torpedoes that ran straight out to a preset distance, then traveled in either a circular or ladder-like pattern.
When fired at a convoy, this increased the probability of a hit if the weapon missed its primary target. Most notable is the Type VII, known as the "workhorse" of the fleet, which was by far the most-produced type, and the Type IX boats, which were larger versions of the VII designed for long-range patrols, some traveling as far as Japan and the east coast of the United States. With the increasing sophistication of Allied detection and subsequent losses, German designers began to fully realise the potential for a truly submerged boat. The Type XXI " Elektroboot " was designed to favor submerged performance, both for combat effectiveness and survival.
It was the first true submersible. The Type XXI featured an evolutionary design that combined several different strands of the U-Boat development program, most notably from the Walter U-boats, the Type XVII , which featured an unsuccessful yet revolutionary hydrogen peroxide air-independent propellant system. The larger hull design allowed for a greatly increased battery capacity, which enabled the XXI to cruise submerged for longer periods and reach unprecedented submerged speeds for the time. Throughout the war, an arms race evolved between the Allies and the Kriegsmarine , especially in detection and counterdetection.
Sonar ASDIC in Britain allowed Allied warships to detect submerged U-boats and vice versa beyond visual range, but was not effective against a surfaced vessel; thus, early in the war, a U-boat at night or in bad weather was actually safer on the surface. Advancements in radar became particularly deadly for the U-boat crews, especially once aircraft-mounted units were developed.
As a countermeasure, U-boats were fitted with radar warning receivers, to give them ample time to dive before the enemy closed in, as well as more anti aircraft guns. However, by early to mid, the Allies switched to centimetric radar unknown to Germany , which rendered the radar detectors ineffective. U-boat radar systems were also developed, but many captains chose not to use them for fear of broadcasting their position to enemy patrols and lack of sufficient electronic countermeasures.
Early on, the Germans experimented with the idea of the Schnorchel snorkel from captured Dutch submarines, but saw no need for them until rather late in the war. The Schnorchel was a retractable pipe that supplied air to the diesel engines while submerged at periscope depth , allowing the boats to cruise and recharge their batteries while maintaining a degree of stealth. It was far from a perfect solution, however. Problems occurred with the device's valve sticking shut or closing as it dunked in rough weather; since the system used the entire pressure hull as a buffer, the diesels would instantaneously suck huge volumes of air from the boat's compartments, and the crew often suffered painful ear injuries.
Waste disposal was a problem when the U-boats spent extended periods without surfacing, as it is today. The Schnorchel also had the effect of making the boat essentially noisy and deaf in sonar terms. Finally, Allied radar eventually became sufficiently advanced that the Schnorchel mast could be detected beyond visual range. The Germans also developed active countermeasures such as facilities to release artificial chemical bubble-making decoys, known as Bold , after the mythical kobold.
Advances in convoy tactics, high-frequency direction finding referred to as " Huff-Duff " , radar, active sonar called ASDIC in Britain , depth charges , ASW spigot mortars also known as "hedgehog" , the intermittent cracking of the German Naval Enigma code , the introduction of the Leigh light , the range of escort aircraft especially with the use of escort carriers , the use of mystery ships , and the full entry of the U.
At the same time, the Allies targeted the U-boat shipyards and their bases with strategic bombing. The British had a major advantage in their ability to read some German naval Enigma codes. An understanding of the German coding methods had been brought to Britain via France from Polish code-breakers.
Thereafter, code books and equipment were captured by raids on German weather ships and from captured U-boats.
A team including Alan Turing used special purpose " Bombes " and early computers to break new German codes as they were introduced. The speedy decoding of messages was vital in directing convoys away from wolf packs and allowing interception and destruction of U-boats. This was demonstrated when the Naval Enigma machines were altered in February and wolf-pack effectiveness greatly increased until the new code was broken.
U was also captured by the British in October ; three sailors boarded her as she was sinking, and desperately threw all the code books out of the submarine so as to salvage them. Two of them, Able Seaman Colin Grazier and Lieutenant Francis Anthony Blair Fasson , continued to throw code books out of the ship as it went under water, and went down with it. Further code books were captured by raids on weather ships. It is now a museum ship in Chicago at the Museum of Science and Industry. Two events in the battle took place in when German U-boats attacked four allied ore carriers at Bell Island , Newfoundland.
When the submarine launched a torpedo at the loading pier, Bell Island became the only location in North America to be subject to direct attack by German forces in World War II. Of the U-boats surrendered, were scuttled in deep water off Lisahally , Northern Ireland, or Loch Ryan , Scotland, in late and early From , the West German Bundesmarine was allowed to have a small navy. Because West Germany was initially restricted to a tonne displacement limit, the Bundesmarine focused on small coastal submarines to protect against the Soviet Union Russian threat in the Baltic Sea. The Germans sought to use advanced technologies to offset the small displacement, such as amagnetic steel to protect against naval mines and magnetic anomaly detectors.
The initial Type was a failure because of hull cracking; the subsequent Type , first commissioned in , was a success, and 12 were built for the German navy. To continue the U-boat tradition, the new boats received the classic U designation starting with the U With the Danish government's purchase of two Type boats, the West German government realized the potential for the submarine as an export. Three of the improved Type boats were later sold to the Israeli Navy , becoming the Gal -class.
The German Type diesel-electric submarine was the most popular export-sales submarine in the world from the late s into the first years of the 21st century. With a larger 1,—1, tonne displacement, the class was very customizable and has seen service with 14 navies with 51 examples being built as of Germany has brought the U-boat name into the 21st century with the new Type The features an air-independent propulsion system using hydrogen fuel cells. This system is safer than previous closed-cycle diesel engines and steam turbines, cheaper than a nuclear reactor and quieter than either.
While the Type is also being purchased by Italy, the Type has been designed as the follow-on export model and has been sold to Greece , South Korea and Turkey. From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. German submarine of the First or Second World War. This article is about German submarines. For the bootloader, see Das U-Boot. For other uses, see U-boat disambiguation. Not to be confused with British U class submarine.
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List of U-boat types
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List of U-boat types - Wikipedia
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This item has not been rated yet. The U-Boat is stored in a secret base off the Transkei Coast so that it can be retrieved by Hitler and the Gestapo when they re-group but the war ends, Hitler is dead and for over half a century the U-Boat and its treasure remains hidden in the secret base … until, Rudi, in a bid to get his younger friend John over the death of his wife, puts together a group of very special people and sets about finding the hidden cave and its contents.
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