A U-boat is a military submarine used by Germany. The ‘U' stands for Unterseeboot, meaning ‘undersea boat'.
In English, the term "U-boat" refers exclusively to the German vessels used during the World Wars. In German, however, "U-Boot" refers to any submarine, including modern and foreign ones.
Germany's first U-boat, U-1, was 139 ft long and was launched on August 4, 1906. But by 1914 and the beginning of World War I, it was deemed obsolete and never saw active service. Retired in 1919, it remains on display at the Deutsches Museum in Munich.
Germany built 360 U-boats during the First World War, which destroyed more than 11,000,000 tons of Allied shipping.
On May 7, 1915, SM U-20 sank the liner RMS Lusitania off the West of Ireland. The sinking claimed 1,198 lives, 128 of them American civilians and was an important factor in the USA's decision to join the Allied cause.
UB-122 entered service in March 1918. It had a crew of 34 and could travel at 16 MPH (26 kph) on the surface or 9 MPH (14kmh) submerged and dive 250 feet in 30 seconds. It made two patrols but failed to sink any targets.
The U-1206 submarine was lost on April 14, 1945 due to a toilet malfunction: the leak flooded the submarine's batteries causing them to release chlorine gas, leaving the commander with no alternative but to surface. Once surfaced, U-1206 was discovered and bombed by British patrols.
U-boats were used in both world wars by Germany in an attempt to cut Britain's North Atlantic lifeline to America. They hunted in groups known as 'wolf packs.'
The primary targets of the U-boat campaigns in both wars were the merchant convoys bringing supplies from Canada and other parts of the British Empire, and the United States to the United Kingdom and (during the Second World War) to the Soviet Union and the Allied territories in the Mediterranean.
In the spring of 1942, German U-boats terrorized the east coast of the USA sinking fuel tankers and cargo ships with impunity and often within sight of shore. In less than seven months they destroyed 22 percent of the tanker fleet and sank 233 ships killing 5,000 ...more than twice the number who perished at Pearl Harbor.
U-1206 was one of the late-war boats fitted with new deep water high-pressure toilets which allowed them to be used while running at depth. Flushing these facilities was an extremely complicated procedure and special technicians were trained to operate them. Incorrectly opening valves in the wrong sequence could result in waste or seawater flowing back into the hull. On April 14, 1945, the toilet was flushed incorrectly, causing the U-boat to flood with seawater. The U-boat was forced to surface in view of the British who then attacked, resulting in the vessel's destruction, Four Nazi were killed, and 46 captured.
Patrols could take up to six months and crews were not able to change their clothes apart from a single change of underwear and socks.
With limited space, crews often resorted to what bunkering – as soon as one person crawled out, the next would crawl in.
In July 2006, Germany commissioned its newest U-boat, the U-34, a Type 212.
The producers of the 1981 movie Das Boot used a life size mock-up of a U-Boat for the exterior shots. One morning the crew woke up to find it missing, only to later learn that Steven Spielberg had rented it for his Raiders of the Lost Ark film, and no one had told them
Source Daily Mail
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| Pixabay |
In English, the term "U-boat" refers exclusively to the German vessels used during the World Wars. In German, however, "U-Boot" refers to any submarine, including modern and foreign ones.
Germany's first U-boat, U-1, was 139 ft long and was launched on August 4, 1906. But by 1914 and the beginning of World War I, it was deemed obsolete and never saw active service. Retired in 1919, it remains on display at the Deutsches Museum in Munich.
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| The German Submarine U 1 (Imperial Navy) |
Germany built 360 U-boats during the First World War, which destroyed more than 11,000,000 tons of Allied shipping.
On May 7, 1915, SM U-20 sank the liner RMS Lusitania off the West of Ireland. The sinking claimed 1,198 lives, 128 of them American civilians and was an important factor in the USA's decision to join the Allied cause.
UB-122 entered service in March 1918. It had a crew of 34 and could travel at 16 MPH (26 kph) on the surface or 9 MPH (14kmh) submerged and dive 250 feet in 30 seconds. It made two patrols but failed to sink any targets.
The U-1206 submarine was lost on April 14, 1945 due to a toilet malfunction: the leak flooded the submarine's batteries causing them to release chlorine gas, leaving the commander with no alternative but to surface. Once surfaced, U-1206 was discovered and bombed by British patrols.
U-boats were used in both world wars by Germany in an attempt to cut Britain's North Atlantic lifeline to America. They hunted in groups known as 'wolf packs.'
The primary targets of the U-boat campaigns in both wars were the merchant convoys bringing supplies from Canada and other parts of the British Empire, and the United States to the United Kingdom and (during the Second World War) to the Soviet Union and the Allied territories in the Mediterranean.
In the spring of 1942, German U-boats terrorized the east coast of the USA sinking fuel tankers and cargo ships with impunity and often within sight of shore. In less than seven months they destroyed 22 percent of the tanker fleet and sank 233 ships killing 5,000 ...more than twice the number who perished at Pearl Harbor.
U-1206 was one of the late-war boats fitted with new deep water high-pressure toilets which allowed them to be used while running at depth. Flushing these facilities was an extremely complicated procedure and special technicians were trained to operate them. Incorrectly opening valves in the wrong sequence could result in waste or seawater flowing back into the hull. On April 14, 1945, the toilet was flushed incorrectly, causing the U-boat to flood with seawater. The U-boat was forced to surface in view of the British who then attacked, resulting in the vessel's destruction, Four Nazi were killed, and 46 captured.
Patrols could take up to six months and crews were not able to change their clothes apart from a single change of underwear and socks.
With limited space, crews often resorted to what bunkering – as soon as one person crawled out, the next would crawl in.
In July 2006, Germany commissioned its newest U-boat, the U-34, a Type 212.
The producers of the 1981 movie Das Boot used a life size mock-up of a U-Boat for the exterior shots. One morning the crew woke up to find it missing, only to later learn that Steven Spielberg had rented it for his Raiders of the Lost Ark film, and no one had told them
Source Daily Mail
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