Submarines and their Weapons - Aircraft of World War II

TYPE XXIII
Type: Coastal submarine
Displacement: 233 tonnes
(230 tons) surfaced; 260 tonnes
(256 tons) submerged
Length: 34.7m (113.75ft)
Submerged speed: 22 knots
Above: The other 'Electro-boats' were the much smaller
Type XXIIIs, intended for coastal operations. Even with a
complement of just 14, they were cramped, much of the
interior being given over to batteries.
thanks to the increasingly effective airborne anti-submarine
patrols mounted by the RAF and the USAAF.
If they were to continue to wage war effectively, they
would have to be provided with boats which could
stay submerged for extended periods and perform
more effectively under water, and it was along these
lines that the bulk of research was carried out. More
'Walter' boats were built or at least were in the course
of construction when the war ended. The two Type
XVIIB boats which were successfully salvaged after
having been scuttled in Hamburg harbour were later
transferred to the US Navy and the Royal Navy, who
operated them experimentally, but the powerplant
required massive quantities of fairly exotic fuel and
was most temperamental. It would perhaps become a
valid solution in the fullness of time, but that was
something the Kriegsmarine did not have, and it was
essential to look at other suggestions.
THE TYPE XXI AND TYPE XXIII
The off-the-cuff remark to Walter about using the
lower-deck space of his two-deck submarine for batteries
was to have far-reaching consequences, and to
lead to the construction of two classes of submarines
which were actually faster submerged than they were
on the surface: the ocean-going Type XXI; and the
smaller, coastal Type XXIII. They were not the first to
so perform; right at the end of World War I, the British
constructed a class of 'hunter-killer' submarines, the
'R' class, with the 220-volt batteries taken from the
much bigger T class, combined with a spindle-form
SUBMARINES AND THEIR WEAPONS
Submerged range: 325km
(202 miles) at 4 knots
Armament: 2 x 533mm (21in)
torpedo tubes
Crew: 14
hull from an earlier era, with a speed on the surface of
9.5 knots and 15 knots submerged. They proved to be
difficult to control, and were stricken prematurely,
though R4 stayed in service until the early 1930s.
The two types of German combat submarines were
quite different in character. The Type XXI11 was
strictly for local deployment in coastal waters, if only
by virtue of its size. It displaced 233 tonnes (230 tons)
on the surface, was 34.7m (113.8ft) long and 3m
(9.8ft) abeam, and had a crew of just 14. Its biggest
weakness as a warship was that it carried just two
533mm (21 in) torpedoes, pre-loaded into two bow
tubes, and no re-loads. Almost 500 were scheduled to
be built at yards in Germany (Kiel and Hamburg),
France (Toulon), Italy (Genoa and Montefalcone),
and Russia (Nikolaev), but only the German yards of
Deutsche Werft and Germaniawerft actually launched
any boats, the German Army having been driven back
out of occupied territory before any could be completed.
The first boat, U2321, was launched at
Hamburg on 17 April 1944 and a total of 63 had been
completed by the time the war ended. However, problems
of commissioning meant that only 10 operational
patrols were made from March to May 1945;
six merchant ships were sunk, two of them, by
U2336, off Scotland on 7 May, being amongst the last
sinkings of the war.
As its powerplant, the Type XXIII had a single
580bhp MWM diesel engine which drove two electric
motors either directly or via the extensive batteries.
The principal electric motor produced 580shp and
could produce a submerged top speed of 22 knots; the
secondary, 'creeping', motor produced just 35shp for
a speed of 5 knots, but in almost complete silence.
Using the secondary motor alone, the submarine
could stay submerged, making a speed of 4 knots, for
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