![]() One of the reasons was, as a result of Albert Speer's decision, sections were made by companies having little experience in shipbuilding. This new method could have pushed construction time below six months per vessel, but in practice all the assembled U-boats were plagued with severe quality problems that required extensive post-production work to fix. Each hull was constructed from eight prefabricated sections with final assembly at the shipyards. The Type XXIs also had better facilities than previous U-boat classes, including a freezer for food.īetween 19, 118 boats were assembled by Blohm & Voss of Hamburg, AG Weser of Bremen, and F. The class also featured a very sensitive passive sonar for the time. The Type XXI could fire 18 torpedoes in under 20 minutes. They also featured a hydraulic torpedo reloading system that allowed all six bow torpedo tubes to be reloaded faster than a Type VIIC could reload one tube. The new hull design also reduced visibility by marine or airborne radar when surfaced whether this was a goal of the design or coincidence is still debated. This often revealed a boat's location, especially after aircraft became available for convoy escort. Older boats had to surface to sprint into position. It also gave the boat a 'sprint ability' when positioning itself for an attack. ![]() ![]() The ability to outrun many surface ships while submerged, combined with improved dive times (also a product of the new hull form), made it far harder to chase and destroy. The Type XXI's streamlined and hydrodynamically clean hull design allowed high submerged speed. The Type XXI was also far quieter than the VIIC, making it harder to detect when submerged. They could travel submerged at about 5 kn (5.8 mph 9.3 km/h) for two or three days before recharging batteries, which took less than five hours using the snorkel. This gave these boats great underwater range, and dramatically reduced the time spent on or near the surface. The key improvement in the Type XXI was greatly increased battery capacity, roughly triple the Type VIIC. Type XXI U-boats, also known as " Elektroboote" (German: "electric boats"), were the first submarines designed to operate primarily submerged, rather than as surface ships that could submerge as a means to escape detection or launch an attack. Scuttled on in position 55.09N, 11.08E at 0512 hrs. Badly burning, the boat was beached off Ömo with the remaining crew landed ashore. It was hit at least by one rocket, causing severe damage in the CT area and killing several of the crew including the CO. ![]() The boat was on its way to Norway on 3 May 45 when it was caught on the surface by Beaufighters of the Banff Strike Wing (236 and 254 Sqdn RAF) while in the Great Belt near Ömo Light Tower. Karl-Jürg Wächter ( German Cross in Gold) ![]()
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