Surrendered and modernised post war u-boats.

[u-33]

At war's end, some surrendered U-boats were taken over by foreign navies. Now am I imagining this, or were some of those U-boats converted/modernised, call it what you will, with more streamlined conning towers as experimental boats? I'm sure I've read about this somewhere, but for the life of me I can't think where I saw it.


Rich

[PaulC]

Re: Surrendered and modernised post war u-boats.

The US received two Type XXI boats after the war.

U-3008 was overhauled and modified at Portsmouth in 1946 (the US crew that took her over from the Germans found the boat so filthy they dubbed her the "Dirty-Oh-Eight"). Her conning tower was streamlined, turrets removed, and a large radar mounted forward of the bridge.

The U-2513 had her turrets removed and the radar installed. Her conning tower retained her original silhouette. Both boats were tested in Key West and then disposed of in the early 1950's.

Navsource has some excellent images of them:

U-3008 http://www.navsource.org/archives/08/08359.htm
U-2513 http://www.navsource.org/archives/08/08358.htm

[JWLaRue]

Re: Surrendered and modernised post war u-boats.

To add to Paul's list.....

Both the French and Spanish navies obtained a number of U-boats, especially Type VIICs, where they served as front line boats for quite a number of years.

One Type XXI, the U-2540, was raised after the war and put into service by the German Bundesmarine as a research vessel. She was renamed the Wilhelm Bauer, after the German submarine pioneer. Upon retirement in the early 1980's, she became a museum ship and the original WW2 configuration was restored.

The Soviet Navy also obtained a number of all classes of U-boats, many of which served into the 50's. Take a look at a Foxtrot...and you'll see what is essentially a Type XXI U-boat.

Finally, the Norwegian Navy operated the U-995 (and a few others) for many years until returning her to Germany where she is open to the public as a museum ship as part of the Laboe Naval Memorial.

-Jeff

[skip asay]

Re: Surrendered and modernised post war u-boats.

I haven't got the time to research this properly but, unless I'm seriously mistaken, Rossler stated that the Norwegians had at least 2 Type VIIs, one being the U-995 and the other (don't know the number) was modified with a streamlined tower which supposedly made a significant improvement to depth keeping. Maybe someone can look through The U-Boat to verify?

Skip Asay

[JWLaRue]

Re: Surrendered and modernised post war u-boats.

Skip,

Right on target.....the Royal Norwegian Navy had three Type VIICs:

• - KNM Kya, ex-U-926
  - KNM Kaura, ex-U-995
  - KNM Kinn, ex-U-1202

...nothing easily found about possible post-war modifications...though I do see something in Danish(?) that appears to reference a forward casing modification to the KNM Kinn.

-Jeff

[skip asay]

Re: Surrendered and modernised post war u-boats.

Thank you Jeff. Looking up Kya in Rossler's book gave the following:

"Using the reshaped bridge style of the Walter U-boats, instead of the usual VIIC bridge (minus "wintergarden", the AA platform behind the bridge, and armament), only an insignificant increase in speed (38 revolutions per knot as opposed to 40 revolutions per knot) resulted, but the depth keeping properties were greatly improved".

The U-Boat, page 160

Skip Asay

[u-33]

Re: Surrendered and modernised post war u-boats.

Thanks for your time and your assistance guys, much appreciated.


Rich

[cporc]

Re: Surrendered and modernised post war u-boats.

Here is a list of the u-boats France got after the war and their fates:


http://translate.googleusercontent.com/ ... ZD0AqSr7OQ

[u-33]

Re: Surrendered and modernised post war u-boats.

That makes for interesting reading, I'm surprised to see that some of those boats actually lasted until comparatively quite recently. Such a shame we never preserved a few more.

Thanks for that, much appreciated.

Rich