March
Thailand declares interest in decommissioned German U-boats
Thailand intends to acquire decommissioned German U-boats, the “Bangkok Post” reports. According to the report, Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjavija has approved a deal. For the first time, Thailand plans to build up an own sub-marine force through six ex-Class “ 206” U-boats of the German Navy at total costs of some 7.7 Mill. Baht (approx. 180 Mill. Euros). The U-boats were built for the Federal German Navy in the 1970ies. The last U-boats of the series were decommissioned in 2010.
The U-boats have a length of 48.6 m, a beam of 4.6 m, and displacement of 498 t submerged, and 8 bow torpedo tubes . They were designed especially for operations in the shallow waters of the Baltic Sea, similar are the conditions in the Gulf of Thailand.
Source:
- Daily Port Report (thb) 3-2011
Pressure dock for U-boats will be taken out of service
NATO´s only submarine pressure dock, “Dock C” of the Kiel Naval Arsenal, will be put out of operation. A few days ago it was used for a last time when the Norwegian submarine Utstein did a routine test for leakage. Now, the dock crew prepares the device in the arsenal for its decommissioning by the 31 March 2011. Main reason: The new German Class 212A U-boats are too big for this 44year old dock.
Source: Daily Port Report (thb) 3-2011
German U-boat found in Netherlands waters
North of the Dutch Island of Terschelling Dutch naval personal discovered the wreck of a German U-boat from WW I. The vessel, that sank there more than 90 year ago, was identified through a brass plaque: It was U-boat SM U 106 of the Imperial German Navy.
According to the Dutch Press Agency ANP the U-boat was discovered during a survey of the seabed in October 2009. The finding has been kept confidential until the German Authorities were able to verify it and the descen-dents of the crew drowned were informed. Initially, the Royal Netherlands Navy was hoping to have discovered the post WW I Dutch submarine O-13, whose fate is still unknown. Further inquiries then confirmed a much greater age of the underwater wreck found.
Source:
- Daily Port Report (thb) 3-2011
Spring auction
Two particular remarkable pieces were on offer at this year´s Spring auction by the auctioneer “Hermann Historica”: First, an original U-boat Diesel engine of 1916 can be bid for, valued at 40,000,- Euros. And, secondly, another original U-boat related piece might reach an opening bid of more than 100,000,- Euros. It is the Knight´s Cross with Oak Leaves and Swords rewarded to Fregattenkapitän (= Lieutenant-Commander) Reinhard “Teddy” Suhren, including the original citation and medal box, all together valued at 105,000,- Euros.
Source:
- Advertisement of auctioneer “Herman Historica”
Russia
After three years in the construction hanger of the “Zvezdochka”-shipyard at Severodvinsk, the strategic submarine of the Russian Navy K-407 Novomoskovk will be relaunched. The Northern Fleet SSBN of the Delta IV-Class was taken into dockyard in mid-2008 for a mid-life-upgrade. The submarine, 1990 commissioned, received a general overhaul nuclear refueling including and at the same time some modernization. Inter alia, its capabilities for detecting enemy surface vessels and submarines were improved as well as its noise level reduced. Part of the modernization programme was also a re-armament for new strategic missiles of the type “Sineva” (RSM-54), a variant of the proven SS-N-23.
Source:
- Marineforum 03/2011
Second submarine Type “209N” delivered
On 22nd of December 2010 a second submarine of the Type “209N” was delivered at Kiel to the Portuguese Navy and commissioned. The submarine NRP Arpão has an Air Independent Propulsion System (AIP) and combines the proven design of the German Export Type “209” with the technological innovation of the latest German export submarine Type “214”. It has a length of 68 m and a beam of 6,3 m, its displacement is 1,840 t and the complement comprises 32 men.
Source:
- Marineforum 03/2011
The sinking of the Laconia
At the end of 2010, a British TV team of “talkback Thames” did two days of research and some filming at the Ger-man U-boat Museum in support of a documentary about the Laconia-incident (12 September 1942 some 300 nm south of the Canaries). The TV documentary has been presented in Britain meanwhile and the interviews with the survivors are of particular interest.
Source:
- German U-boat Museum 3-2011
Whereabouts of Kriegsmarine U-boats being operational at the end of WW II
A close cooperation has developed between the U-boat Archive and rtd. Royal Air Force Commodore Derek Waller, who is a keen Naval historian. Derek Waller has set himself a goal to research and document the fate of those 156 U-boats of the Kriegsmarine, that surrendered to the Allies at the end of WW II at sea and in various ports, still being operational. He has published as early as 1970 a first article about that in the periodical “War-ship International” (“The U-boats that Survived”). Now, he has revisited that article, expanded it considerably as a result of new research, some of it in cooperation with the U-boat Museum.
This led to a new compendium of some 90 pages, where two copies of it are available at the archive. Also, the chapters of that compendium have been published meanwhile by our friends from www.U-boat.net. Thanks to Derek Waller´s extensive research, much new light has been put on the whereabouts of those last operational U-boats of the Kriegsmarine during and after those turbulent days around the day of surrender and in the first years after the war. Many data on those U-boats, taken for granted until now, can be replaced, corrected or complemented based on his findings.
Derek Waller has sought cooperation with the U-boat Archive for another subject of German U-boat history, to com-pile another good paper. This outlines, how the question what to do with German U-boats after the victorious end of war was dealt with at the highest political and military level of the three Allies at war. Waller describes the preparations for and the actual negotiation on the U-boats at the Allied Conference in July/ August 1945 at Potsdam, plus the follow-on work of the “Tripartite Naval Commission (TNC)”, established at Potsdam.
The above work of Derek Waller constitutes a most valuable contribution to the collection of research papers on the history of the Kriegsmarine U-boat Force.
Source:
- German U-boat Museum 3-2011