U-boat
U-boats were naval submarines operated by Germany, particularly in the First and Second World Wars. The term is an anglicised version of the German word U-Boot [ˈuːboːt] ⓘ, a shortening of Unterseeboot (under-sea boat), though the German term refers to any submarine. Austro-Hungarian Navy submarines were also known as U-boats.
Not to be confused with British U-class submarine.
U-boats are most known for their unrestricted submarine warfare in both world wars, trying to disrupt merchant traffic towards the UK and force the UK out of the war. In World War I, Germany intermittently waged unrestricted submarine warfare against the UK: a first campaign in 1915 was abandoned after strong protests from the US but in 1917 the Germans, facing deadlock on the continent, saw no other option than to resume the campaign in February 1917. The renewed campaign failed to achieve its goal mainly because of the introduction of convoys. Instead the campaign ensured final defeat as the campaign was a contributing factor to the entry of the US in the First World War.[1]
In World War II, Karl Dönitz, supreme commander of the Kriegsmarine's U-boat arm (Befehlshaber der Unterseeboote), was convinced the UK and its convoys could be defeated by new tactics, and tried to focus on convoy battles.[2] Though U-boat tactics initially saw success in the Battle of the Atlantic, greatly disrupting Allied shipping, improved convoy and anti-submarine tactics such as high-frequency direction finding and the Hedgehog anti-submarine system began to take a toll on the German U-boat force. This ultimately came to a head in May 1943, known as Black May, in which U-boat losses began to outpace their effect on shipping.
Twenty-four small 250-ton Type II U-boats
Ten medium 500-ton Type VII U-boats
Two large 750-ton U-boats, based on the design of the Spanish submarine.
Type I
: first design for a large 750-ton U-boat. Only 2 built as the design was not very successful.
Type I
: small coastal submarines used mainly for training purposes. The latest subtype IID had saddle tanks which gave it a range to operate in the Atlantic, which it did until 1941.
Type II
: the "workhorse" of the U-boats with 709 completed in World War II
Type VII
: these long-range U-boats operated as far as the Indian Ocean with the Japanese (Monsun Gruppe), and the South Atlantic
Type IX
: long-range minelayers but mainly used to resupply other U-boats
Type X
: unarmed U-boat, used to resupply other U-boats; nicknamed the Milchkuh ("Milk Cow")
Type XIV
Type XVII: small experimental coastal submarines powered by experimental hydrogen peroxide propulsion systems, not put into service
: known as the Elektroboot. The design was taken into mass-production, but only 2 set out for a war patrol before the end of the war.
Type XXI
: smaller version of the XXI used for coastal operations. operated on a small scale during 1945
Type XXIII
Uncompleted U-boat projects
List of U-boats of Germany
List of U-boats never deployed
List of successful U-boats
, 1981 German U-boat film
Das Boot
, 2020 American war film
Greyhound
Decoys
Bold (decoy)
Karl Dönitz
List of Knight's Cross recipients of the U-boat service
contains an example of a U-boat radio
Orkney Wireless Museum
Japanese equivalent
I-boat
Möltenort U-Boat Memorial
Bekker, Cajus (1971). Verdammte See (in German). Oldenburg: Gerhard Stalling Verlag. 3-548-03057-2.
ISBN
Berg Bentzrød, Sveinung (3 February 2017). [The Armed Forces are purchasing new submarines from Germany]. Aftenposten (in Norwegian). Oslo: Aftenposten AS. Retrieved 9 March 2019.
"Forsvaret kjøper nye ubåter fra Tyskland"
Blair, Clay (1998). Hitler's U-Boat War: The Hunters 1939–1942. Vol. 1. Cassell. 0-304-35260-8.
ISBN
Breyer, Siegfried (1996). Wunderwaffe Elektro-Uboot Typ XXI (in German). Podzun-Pallas-Verlag. 3-7909-0587-9.
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Brennecke, Jochen (1984). Die Wende im U-Boot Krieg. Ursachen und Folgen 1939–1943 (in German) (2nd ed.). München: Wilhelm Heyne Verlag. 3-453-03667-0.
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Chaffin, Tom (2010). . Macmillan. ISBN 978-1429990356. Retrieved 14 July 2016.
Bauer's boat made a promising start, diving in tests in the Baltic Sea's Bay of Kiel to depths of more than 50 feet. In 1855, during one of those tests, the boat malfunctioned. The Brandtaucher plunged 54 vertical feet and refused to ascend from the seafloor. Bauer and his crew – leaving their craft on the bottom – barely escaped with their crewmates' lives.
The H. L. Hunley: The Secret Hope of the Confederacy
Churchill, Winston (1948). The Second World War, Volume 2: Their Finest Hour. Houghton Mifflin.
Clodfelter, Micheal (2017). Warfare and Armed Conflicts: A Statistical Encyclopedia of Casualty and Other Figures, 1492–2015 (4th ed.). McFarland.
Costello, John; Hughes, Terry (1977). The Battle of the Atlantic. London: Collins. 0-00-635325-8.
ISBN
Fischer, Bruno (1960). Ehrenbuch des Orden vom Militär-Verdienst-Kreuz e.V. und die Geschichte der Ordens-Gemeinschaft, Die Ordens-Sammlung (in German).
Gannon, Michael (1998). Black May. The epic story of the Allies' defeat of the German U-boats in May 1943. Aurum Press. 1-85410-588-4.
ISBN
Haskell, Winthrop A. (1998). Shadows on the Horizon. The battle of Convoy HX-233. London: Chatham Publishin. 1-86176-081-7.
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Humble, Richard (1974). De Duitse Kriegsmarine (in Dutch) (2nd ed.). Antwerp: Standaard Uitgeverij. 90-02-12787-1.
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King-Hall, Stephen (19 May 2021). . London: Newnes – via Internet Archive.
"A North Sea diary, 1914–1918 / Commander Stephen King-Hall"
Mason, David (1994). Duikbootoorlog. Onderzeeboten tegen konvooien (in Dutch). Antwerp: Standaard Uitgeverij. 90-02-18166-3.
ISBN
Paterson, Lawrence (2005). U-564 auf Feindfahrt – 70 Tage an Bord (in German) (3rd ed.). Stuttgart: Motorbuch Verlag. 978-3-548-26664-0.
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(2005). Chronology of the War at Sea, 1939–1945: The Naval History of World War Two. Annapolis: US Naval Institute Press. ISBN 978-1-59114-119-8.
Rohwer, Jürgen
Showell, Jak Mallmann (2006). The U-boat Century: German Submarine Warfare, 1906–2006. Naval Institute Press. 1-59114-892-8.
ISBN
Abbatiello, John (2005) Anti-Submarine Warfare in World War I: British Naval Aviation and the Defeat of the U-Boats
Buchheim, Lothar-Günther. Das Boot (original German edition 1973, eventually translated into English and many other Western languages). in 1981, directed by Wolfgang Petersen
Movie adaptation
Gray, Edwyn A. (1994) The U-Boat War, 1914–1918
Hans Joachim Koerver (2010) German Submarine Warfare 1914–1918 in the Eyes of British Intelligence, LIS Reinisch, 978-3-902433-79-4
ISBN
Kurson, Robert (2004) Shadow Divers: The True Adventure of Two Americans Who Risked Everything to Solve One of the Last Mysteries of World War II. Random House Publishing. 0-375-50858-9
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Möller, Eberhard and Werner Brack (2006) The Encyclopedia of U-Boats: From 1904 to the Present, 1-85367-623-3
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O'Connor, Jerome M. (June 2000) "Inside the Grey Wolves' Den". Naval History. The US Naval Institute Author of the Year feature describes the building and operation of the German U-boat bases in France.
Preston, Antony (2005) The World's Greatest Submarines.
Stern, Robert C. (1999) Battle Beneath the Waves: U-boats at war. Arms and Armor/Sterling Publishing. 1-85409-200-6.
ISBN
van der Vat, Dan (1988) The Atlantic Campaign. Harper & Row. Connects submarine and antisubmarine operations between World War I and World War II, and suggests a continuous war.
Georg von Trapp and Elizabeth M. Campbell (2007) To the Last Salute: Memories of an Austrian U-Boat Commander
Westwood, David (2005) U-Boat War: Doenitz and the evolution of the German Submarine Service 1935–1945, 1-932033-43-2
ISBN
Werner, Herbert. , ISBN 978-0-304-35330-9
Iron Coffins: A Personal Account of the German U-Boat Battles of World War II
at Dartmouth College Library