Type XXI Elektroboat U-Boat

The Type XXI reached the battlefield too late to have a profound effect on the course of the war, but it was one of those weapon systems which had completely revolutionize the face of submarine warfare. Had she been launched two years earlier, it would have caused considerable problems to the Allies in the Battle of the Atlantic.






General characteristics

Class and type:	Submarine
Displacement:	1,621 tonnes standard 2,100 tonnes full load
Length:	76.7 m (251 ft 8 in)
Beam:	8 m (26 ft 3 in)
Draught:	5.3 m (17 ft 5 in)
Propulsion:	Diesel/Electric 2× MAN M6V40/46KBB supercharged 6-cylinder diesel engines, 4,000 PS (2.9 MW) 2× SSW GU365/30 double acting electric motors, 5,000 PS (3.7 MW) 2× SSW GV232/28 silent running electric motors, 226 PS (0.166 MW)
Speed:	Surfaced: 15.6 kn (28.9 km/h) (diesel) 17.9 kn (33.2 km/h) (electric) Submerged: 17.2 kn (31.9 km/h) (electric) 6.1 kn (11.3 km/h) (silent running motors)
Range:	Surfaced: 15,500 nmi (28,700 km) at 10 kn (19 km/h) Submerged: 340 nmi (630 km) at 5 kn (9.3 km/h)
Complement:	57 officers and men
Armament:	6 × torpedo tubes 4 x 20 mm cannon

Before the Type XXI, submarines would have been more accurately termed as submersible boats, as they were surface vessels with the special capability to submerge when threatened. Underwater, they were slow and un-maneuverable and could remain submerged only for limited periods of time. They had to surface to run their diesel engines in order to recharge their batteries and replenish their compressed air supplies.

The Type XXI however, was designed from the beginning as a true submarine, whose natural habitat was in the depths. Almost everything about the submarine was new and out of all proportions, achieved unconventional underwater performance far beyond the capabilities of any submarine then either in service or under development. She was designed to have a faster speed submerged than when running on the surface. Equipped with air-conditioning, she was designed to spend most of her time underwater and could remain submerged for up to 11 days at a time, briefly surfacing for only 3 to 5 hours to recharge her batteries. For this, the Type XXI had a full streamlined outer hull and complete absence of clutter on the deck. The forward hydroplane retracted when not in use, there were no deck guns, the twin 20mm AA flak were mounted in streamlined housings, and all extending devices such as schnorchel, antenna, and DF loop retracted into the superstructure when not in use. Instead of the traditional open conning tower, there were three small openings at the top of the bridge, one for the watch officer and the other two for lookouts. Internally, the cross section of the pressure hull was a figure of eight, with the upper section being of greater diameter than the lower. The batteries were housed in the lower section. She had three times the battery capacity and with her new creep motor, the Type XXI was very silent when running underwater. By comparison, the Type XXI at 15 knots emitted the same noise as a US Navy Balao class boat at 8 knots. Her pressure hull was fabricated from 1 inch thick steel aluminum alloy, which allowed a maximum crush depth of 280 meters (919 feet); the deepest of any military submarine at that time. The streamlined hull also offered a much smaller sonar signature and with her silent running capability, and high underwater speed, she was a much more difficult boat for enemy ASW vessels to find or detect. Equipped with a sophisticated echo chamber, which could identify, track and target multiple vessels, the Type XXI could fire blind from up a depth of 160 feet. Her firepower was also increased significantly. With a new rapid reloading hydraulic system, the Type XXI could launch three six torpedo salvos or eighteen torpedoes in just under 20 minutes; whereas it took over ten minutes to reload just one tube on the Type VIIC. This meant that the Type XXI could attack more vessels in a single engagement. The increased space also allowed more torpedoes to be carried – 23 instead of 14 on the Type VIIC.

The Germans had made a quantum leap in submarine design and development, but as with all new technology, teething problems were encountered. Due to the desperate situation at sea, the Type XXI was given the highest priority with orders for all other types cancelled. To speed up production, the submarine was constructed on a modular basis, with different modules built by different shipyards. The prime reason for this was to utilize shipyard resources to the maximum, and to present the strategic Allied bombings with many smaller scattered targets. In order to spur the scarce manpower to greater endeavors, tight deadlines were set with production forecasts set to be deliberately over optimistic. As a result of this, tremendous strain was placed on the production line and so great was the urgency, that in an attempt to meet the schedule, improperly constructed modules were often sent forth, even when they had not been thoroughly fabricated. These modules often did not meet the fine tolerances required to be assembled by the next link in the chain, causing further confusion and delays to the process. Constant allied bombings, logistical headaches and shortages of material and labor added to the problem. On numerous occasions, politics had also influenced the program with the more prominent occasion being that the first Type XXI was to be launched in time for Hitler’s birthday. Although this was achieved, but the ill completed submarine had to be kept afloat by buoyancy bags and immediately towed to the dry dock after the presentation. The outcome of all the pressure and trimming of corners meant that the completed boats had to be returned to dock to be reworked and repaired, resulting in further delays in attaining full service status.
By 1945, the situation grew hopelessly worse for the Type XXI program. Massive allied bombings resulted not only in the destruction of shipyards and construction facilities, but also of completed submarines while fitting out or in some cases while undergoing trials. Seventeen completed Type XXIs were destroyed while in harbor between December 1944 and May 1945.
The reality was that Germany could not afford to undertake such an ambitious project in such a short space of time. Too much was demanded of those involved, that the system ultimately collapsed under its own strain. The reasons were diverse, but in part it was due to the fact that Germany did not have much time left. With every passing day, the U-boat force was being defeated on the Battle of the Atlantic – and something had to be done, anything – to prevent defeat.
Of the 120 submarines built, only two had entered operational status. Given their limited deployment, the new submarines were quite successful, and would have caused the allies serious problems. However it was a case of too late and there were never enough of these new boats to make any real difference. After the war, the design of the Type XXI continued to influence modern submarine development in many countries, including the Soviet Union who based their W-Class on the Type XXI.

Combat Service

Only two war patrols were carried out in the Type XXI.
April 30 1945, the situation at sea was nearly hopeless for most U-boat captains. But for KK (Korvettan Kapitan) Adalbert Schnee, his situation was different. Of the two new operational Type XXIs, he was in command of one of them – U-2511. Schnee was under orders to sail from Bergen, Norway, and to make his way to the Carribbean. His orders were not to attack any ships on his outbound journey, but the boat was detected by an anti-submarine patrol group. Traveling faster underwater than the escorts could on the surface, he easily outran the escorts. He was in command of a new boat, one which would make hunting as easy as it had been during the “Happy Time”. Then on May 3 1945, the unthinkable, but inevitable happened. A message from BdU: Germany had surrendered. All U-boats were ordered to cease hostilities and were to sail to the nearest allied port under a black flag. Nevertheless, U-2511 had the British cruiser HMS Suffolk in its sights. Schnee carefully evaded the heavy escort screen, closed in to 600 meters of the cruiser, and raised the periscope. The torpedoes were primed, and he ordered the tube doors opened. As the British cruiser crossed the targeting crosshair on his periscope - instead of giving the order to fire, he simply cursed, lowered the scope, dived under the target and made off for Norway, unknown to those sailing above him.
The other Type XXI, Kptlt. Helmut Manseck of U-3008 had just sailed from Wilhelmshaven on May 3, 1945. Shortly after departing, the message of Germany’s surrender was received, Manseck spotted a British convoy and carried out a dummy attack. He slipped away undetected and returned to port.

Wartime and post-war service

 The Type XXI design directly influenced the two most advanced post-war submarines, the Guppy class submarine and the Soviet submarine classes known by the NATO reporting names Whiskey and Zulu  

Soviet Whiskey classe submarine

Whiskey classe

Zulu classe submarine

 

 

The only boat that survives intact is the Wilhelm Bauer (U-2540). However, the wrecks of other Type XXI boats are known to exist. In 1985, it was discovered that the partially-scrapped remains of U-2505, U-3004, and U-3506 were still in the partially-demolished "Elbe II" U-boat bunker in Hamburg, Germany. The bunker has since been filled in with gravel for safety reasons and lies beneath a car park, making the wrecks effectively inaccessible.
The U-2513, lies in 213 feet (65 m) of water, 70 miles (110 km) west of Key West, Florida. The boat has been visited by divers, but the depth makes this very difficult and the site is only considered suitable for advanced divers. Four other boats lie off the coast of Northern Ireland, where they were sunk in 1946 as part of Operation Deadlight

.

Germany

Wilhelm Bauer (U-2540)

U-2511 and U-3008 were the only Type XXIs to go on war patrols, and both failed to sink any ships.
In 1957, U-2540, which had been scuttled at the end of the war, was raised to become the research vessel Wilhelm Bauer of the Bundesmarine. She was operated by both military and civilian crews in a research role until 1982. In 1984, she was opened to the public by the Deutsches Schiffahrtsmuseum (German Maritime Museum) in Bremerhaven, Germany.

France

The U-2518 became French submarine Roland Morillot. She saw active service during the Suez Crisis in 1956, and remained in commission until 1967. She was scrapped in 1969.

Soviet Union

Four Type XXI boats were assigned to the Soviet Union by the Potsdam Agreement; these were U-3515, U-2529, U-3035, and U-3041, which were commissioned into the Soviet Navy as B-27, B-28, B-29, and B-30, later B-100 respectively. However, Western intelligence believed the Soviets had acquired several more Type XXI boats; a review by the U.S. Joint Intelligence Committee for the Joint Chiefs of Staff in January 1948 estimated that at the time the Soviet Navy had 15 Type XXIs operational, could complete construction of 6 more within 2 months, and could build another 39 within a year and a half from prefabricated sections, since several factories producing Type XXI components and the assembly yard at Danzig had been captured by the Soviets at the end of World War II. U 3538 — U 3557 (respectively TS-5 – TS-19 and TS-32 – TS-38) remained uncompleted at Danzig and were scrapped or sunk in 1947. The four boats assigned by Potsdam were used in trials and tests until 1955, then scuttled or used for weapon testing between 1958-1973. The Type XXI formed the basis for the Project 614, essentially a copy of the Type XXI, and many of its characteristics were also incorporated into the Project 613 submarine (known in the West as the Whiskey class).

United Kingdom

The U-3017 was commissioned into the Royal Navy as HMS N41. She was used for tests until being scrapped in November 1949.

United States

The United States Navy took over the U-2513 and U-3008, operating them both in the Atlantic. In November 1946 President Harry S. Truman became the first American President to travel on a submarine when he visited U-2513, the submarine dived to 440 feet (130 m) below the surface with the President onboard. The U-2513 was sunk as a target ship in 1949; the U-3008 was scrapped in 1956.

Scuttled at 0708hrs on 3 May, 1945 at Hamburg. Wreck broken up.

Surrendered at Bergen, Norway in May 1945

Scuttled on 3 May, 1945 at Kiel. Wreck broken up.

3 Type XXI boats in the Elbe II in Hamburg

These boats were virtually missing until 1985 when the boats were discovered through research by Jak P Mallmann-Showell, Wolfgang Hirschfeld and Walter Cloots in the mostly demolished Elbe II U-boat bunker in Hamburg.
The Elbe II bunker is located on the southern bank of the Elbe river at the Vulkanhafen. This area is within the Freeport of Hamburg and to access it you should have to present your passport.

The bow of U-3004 inside the Elbe II bunker. - Photo by Carl

Hatch 5 of U-3506 inside the Elbe II bunker. - Photo by Carl

The boats lying there are U-2505, U-3004 and U-3506. They are lying on the surface at low tide but are not accessible to the casual observer and stationed on a private property. I believe the bunker has been filled with gravel now to prevent injuries as the area is considered dangerous.

Souvenir hunters at work. - Photo by Tim

The boats have been partially scrapped (two are missing conning towers and engine sections) sometime after the war. U-3506 is lying trapped under the heavy roof and is the most intact boat.

The bow of U-3004 inside the Elbe II bunker. - Photo by Tim

The bunker has been filled with gravel as far as I can see and the boats are buried under it, no longer accessible to anyone.

Welthauptstadt Germania ("World Capital Germania")

er liked Berlin. He saw it as a dirty, liberal-minded place and was disdainful of its leftist political leanings. But he had an idea for fixing it after World War II came to an end. His famous vision of Berlin for 1950 -- planned in detail by his architect, Albert Speer -- was a grand Fascist city called "Germania"

Welthauptstadt Germania ("World Capital Germania")

refers to the projected renewal of the German capital Berlin during the Nazi period, part of Adolf Hitler's vision for the future of Germany after the planned victory in World War II. Albert Speer, the "first architect of the Third Reich", produced many of the plans for the rebuilt city in his capacity as overseer of the project, only a small portion of which was realized between the years 1937-1943 when construction took place.
Some projects, such as the creation of a great East-West city axis, which included broadening Charlottenburger Chaussee (today Straße des 17. Juni) and placing the Berlin victory column in the center, far away from the Reichstag, where it originally stood, succeeded. Others, however, such as the creation of the Große Halle (Great Hall), had to be shelved owing to the beginning of war. A great number of the old buildings in many of the planned construction areas were however demolished before the war and eventually defeat stopped the plans.

The name "Welthaupstadt Germania"

The combined name "Welthauptstadt Germania" for the project was coined by Albert Speer in his 1969 memoirs Inside the Third Reich. Although it was never used in any official capacity by the Nazi government nor even by Hitler himself, it has since become synomynous with the Nazi-era construction plan for Berlin, which was named the "Comprehensive Construction Plan for the Reich Capital" (German: Gesamtbauplan für die Reichshauptstadt).
According to Henry Picker's records of Hitler's Table Talk of 8 June 1942 Hitler toyed with the idea of renaming the renewed Berlin into 'Germania', in order to give a Greater Germanic world empire a clear central point:

"Just as the Bavarians and the Prussians had to be impressed by Bismarck of the German idea, so too must the Germanic peoples of Continental Europe be programmatically steered towards the Germanic concept. He [Hitler] even considers it good that by renaming the Reich capital Berlin into 'Germania', we'll have given considerable driving force to this task. The name Germania for the Reich capital would be very appropriate, for in spite of how far removed those belonging to the Germanic racial core will be, this capital will instill a sense of unity.

—Andreas Hillgruber: Henry Picker. Hitlers Tischgespräche im Führerhauptquartier 1941–1942, p. 182. Munich, 1968.

The term Welthauptstadt (World Capital) was already used by Hitler three months prior on the night between the 11th and 12th of March 1942 in the Wolf's Lair:

"Berlin as the World Capital will only be comparable with Ancient Egypt, Babylon, and Rome! What are London and Paris compared to that!"

—Werner Jochmann: Adolf Hitler. Monologe im Führerhauptquartier 1941–1944, p. 318. Munich, 1980.

The title 'Welthauptstadt' was chosen because it was felt that Berlin's architecture was at that time too provincial and that there was need to put Berlin on a par with and exceed the quality of other world capitals such as London, Paris and especially Rome

Monumental architecture planned

The first step in these plans was the Olympic Stadium for the 1936 Summer Olympics. This stadium would promote the rise of the Nazi government. A much larger stadium capable of holding 400,000 spectators was planned alongside the Nazi parade grounds in Nuremberg but only the foundations were dug before the project was abandoned due to the outbreak of war. Had this stadium been completed it would remain the largest in the world today by a considerable margin.
Speer also designed a new Chancellery, which included a vast hall designed to be twice as long as the Hall of Mirrors in the Palace of Versailles. Hitler wanted him to build a third, even larger Chancellery, although it was never begun. The second Chancellery was destroyed by the Soviet army in 1945.

The Avenue Of Splendours

 

 

 

Almost none of the other buildings planned for Berlin were ever built. Berlin was to be reorganized along a central 5 km-long boulevard known as the Prachtallee ("Avenue or Boulevard of Splendour(s)"). This would run south from a crossroads with the East-West Axis close to the Brandenburg Gate, following the course of the old Siegesallee through the Tiergarten before continuing down to an area just west of Tempelhof Airport. This new North-South Axis would have served as a parade ground, and have been closed off to traffic. Vehicles would have instead been diverted into an underground highway running directly underneath the parade route; sections of this highway's tunnel structure were built, and still exist today. No work was ever begun above ground although Speer did relocate the Siegesallee to another part of the Tiergarten in 1938 in preparation for the avenue's construction.
The plan also called for the building of two new large railway stations as the planned North-South Axis would have severed the tracks leading to the old Anhalter and Potsdamer stations, forcing their closure. These new stations would be built on the city's main S-Bahn ring with the Nordbahnhof in Wedding and the larger Südbahnhof in Tempelhof-Schöneberg at the southern end of the avenue.

The Großer Platz

 

 

At the northern end of the avenue on the site of the Königsplatz (now the Platz der Republik) there was to be a large open forum known as Großer Platz with an area of around 350,000 square metres. This square was to be surrounded by the grandest buildings of all, with the Führer's palace on the west side on the site of the former Kroll Opera House, the 1894 Reichstag Building on the east side and the third Reich Chancellery and high command of the German Army on the south side (on either side of the square's entrance from the Avenue of Splendours). On the north side of the plaza, straddling the River Spree, Speer planned to build the centrepiece of the new Berlin, an enormous domed building, the Volkshalle (people's hall), designed by Hitler himself. It would still remain the largest enclosed space in the world had it been built. Although war came before work could begin, all the necessary land was acquired, and the engineering plans were worked out. The building would have been over 200 metres high and 250 metres in diameter, sixteen times larger than the dome of St. Peter's.

The Proposed First World War Arch Of Triumph and the Related Post-War Soviet War Memorial

 

 

Towards the southern end of the avenue would be a triumphal arch based on the Arc de Triomphe in Paris, but again, much larger; it would be almost a hundred metres high, and the Arc de Triomphe (at the time the largest triumphal arch in existence) would have been able to fit inside its opening, evidently with the intention of replacing the rather long history associated with this Arch and in particular the unique ceremonies, with reference to the history of France, connected with it, see the French government website on this history. As a result of the occupation of Berlin by Soviet troops in 1945 a memorial was constructed with two thousand of the Soviet dead buried there in line with this proposed 'Triumphal Arch'. It had been intended that inside this generously proportioned structure the names of the 1,800,000 German dead of the First World War should be carved, that which presumably was known to amongst others the Soviet leaders.

This war memorial was built to honour the Soviet soldiers that fell in the battles against the German army in the Second World War. It was located at the 17 June Street very close to the German parliament - the Reichstag - in what would soon become West-Germany which meant that it was beyond everyday reach for the Soviet Army. To be able to visit the memorial it was agreed that Red Army troops had free passage to the memorial on certain days of remembrance. Around the time in the early 1960ies when the Berlin Wall was erected the presence of Soviet troops on the streets of Berlin awoke much anger among the West-Berliners and Soviet military veichles was on many occassions bombarded with stones from angry protestors.
The memorial is constructed as an arch with a bronze soldier on top pf it. The design actually resembles the Brandenburger Gate which is located only 100 metres away.

Planning

 

 

Doubts persisted at the time as to whether the marshy Berlin ground could have taken the load of the proposed projects, leading to the construction of an exploration building (Schwerbelastungskörper, literal translation: Heavy load-bearing body), which still exists on the site where the Arch of Triumph would have been built. It is basically an extremely heavy block of concrete used by the architects to test how much weight the ground was able to carry. Instruments monitored how far the block sank into the ground. The Schwerbelastungskörper sank 18 cm in the three years it was to be used for testing, compared to a maximum allowable settlement of 6 cm. Using the evidence gathered by these gargantuan devices, it is unlikely the soil could have supported such structures without further preparation.
At the time of the initial invasion of the Soviet Union (Operation Barbarossa) in June 1941, Hitler expected to win victory in World War II by 1945, and he then planned, after completing the construction of the Welthauptstadt Germania plan, to hold a great World's Fair in Berlin in 1950 and then retire to his hometown of Linz.

In popular culture

The alternative history novel Fatherland (1992), by Robert Harris envisages a Nazi Germany that won the Second World War, and has eventually realised Hitler's and Speer's vision of a rebuilt and monumental Berlin by about 1964.
The 2004 film Downfall portrays Hitler wistfully looking over a model of the planned city. He later makes a comment about the city while awarding Iron Crosses to Hitler Youths outside the Führerbunker.
The 1996 film The Empty Mirror shows Hitler in the underground bunker where he and his clan of loyal backers strive to outlast the destruction of the Third Reich. It is a fictional drama set within the scope of a delusional fantasy; that attempts to explore a psychotic scenario surrounding Adolf Hitler. He interacts with others, among them children, to whom he shows his Welthauptstadt Germania, saying that it was to be made for them.

Project Germania underground tunnels


From 1934 on, the city planners and architects of the Third Reich were building large representative structures, wherein the extent of the underground levels surpassed all previous buildings. A typical example can be seen in the extension of the Reich bank with its three underground floors and the largest safe in Germany. Also the Tempelhof airport, then the biggest building in the world, has in addition to an underground train connection, over 4.3 kilometres of traversable supply canals wherein the entire infrastructure of the building is housed.
In order to prepare Berlin for the 1936 Olympic Games, construction began in 1934 on north-south tunnel of the S-Bahn. For this large project, the new rulers were able to make use of plans from the 1920s. The project was also used successfully for propaganda purposes, in that with one stroke thousands of workers were able to be employed, who dug the trench more or less by hand. Slogans like: “we thank the Fuehrer that are building here” were hung above the construction site.

Berlin maps with the tunnels that were operacional in 1945

were part of the project several tunnels coming in and out from Berlin that would integrate massive highways, these tunnels would reach 8000 km in extent and there are news of that at the date of fall of Berlin had already been built about 800 km , you are going to see in the following documentary that these tunnels exist and have been hidden from the general public, thanks to some intrepid archaeologists today we are raising the tip of the veil on this issue.

 


The network of subway and city transit line tunnels could be used for covered movements by both friendly and enemy troops. In case of necessity they could be blocked at various points by setting off explosive charges that had already been planted. In the course of the battle the city transit line tunnel under the Landwehr Canal was blown up, after which it filled with water. It could not be determined at whose orders this measure was carried out. With the blowing up of the Ebert Bridge (east of the Weidendamm Bridge) the city transit line tunnel there was also destroyed, although this was apparently unintentional. Because of these and other explosions, water flowed into large parts of the subway and city transit line tunnels in the heart of the city.
It could not be proven that any appreciable loss of life resulted from the flooding of these tunnels, but it can be seriously doubted that it was justified by military necessity.
The tunnel leading from the Zoo railroad station (Bahnhof Zoo) to Ruhleben was heavily used by troops and civilians trying to break out toward the west.