Germany's Super Sub, the Type XXI U-Boat | Sails and Salvos

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Today we look at the Type XXI (21) U-Boat. This submarine was built by the Germans during the latter stages of WW2 with a host of new features making it a true super sub of its time. Stay tuned to learn all about this influential design.

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Script by Baron Von Teapot

Sources:

Stokes, P.R. (1998). Hydrogen Peroxide for Power and Propulsion. Science Museum, London.

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#sailsandsalvos #history #ww2 #uboat

[ConeOfArc]

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[lordcaptainteapot]

Had a great time writing this one, so much stuff packed into this one submarine! Keep your eyes out for the equally interesting XXIII and some other neat stuff coming later!

[enoughothis]

The Type XXI deserves far more attention than it gets. It is the forefather of all modern submarines, both in tactics and in it's sleek hydrodynamic design. There were even plans to mount rocket pods on it to attack surface vessels.

[lonelypotato]

I think it's interesting that unlike with other 'Wunderwaffen' they actually considered how to optimize mass production in the design itself

[brendonbewersdorf]

I hope the brief mention of the Walter turbine means we will get a video on those submarines to! They are a really fascinating design!

[ShoalsSkipper]

Well done! The picture you show is U-3008 surrendering in Portsmouth (NH) harbor, at the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard, May 1945. I'm privileged to know a chief torpedoman who served on this boat after it gave up. Yes, he's just over 95 today, and was assigned to this boat after she came to Portsmouth. The Navy retained essential German crew on board to train the US crew. Bill and crew (...and Bill said they were always trying to sabotage the boat) were sent to Key West to work with our destroyer fleet for search and detection exercises. Bill told me the sub was so good at outmaneuvering surface craft, our navy never did come up with a 'search & destroy' strategy against the Type XXI. Sadly, the boat was later subjected to a firing exercise, and lies on the bottom near Fort Jefferson, off Key West.

[warmstrong]

Just imagine if Germany had these at the start of the war in significant numbers. Great Britain would've likely been starved into submission and the USSR not long after. The Type XXI was probably the most potentially devastating wonder weapon Germany had at the time.

[FrankyBoy]

The schnorkel (snorkel) was already used on Dutch submarines before the war and when the Netherlands were occupied in 1940, the Germans got hold of this technology.

[macroglossumstellatarum]

The main problem with the Walther Turbine and why it wasn't used for submarines was that hydrogenperoxide is a really nasty chemical. It had a tendency to evaporate out of the engine and spontaneously combust. This didn't damage the engine in any way, but still at to dealbreaker in an enclosed space.

The Wilhelm Bauer museum ship has a really awesome book containing almost everything you'd want to know on submarines in general and the Typ 21 and 23 in particular. If you can read German, anyways.

Also, a funny detail, Wilhelm Bauer was never officially part of the West German navy, as they weren't allowed to have subs that size. So they removed the torpedo tubes and AA guns and it was allowed to be a civilian experimental sub.
The German Navy started with two Typ 23s coastal subs, U Hecht and U Hai. That's pike and shark, respectively. Both were raised after being scuttled, though they would unfortunately both sink later.

[Lord.Kiltridge]

I would really like to see that torpedo loading process animated.

[williamromine]

Thank you for your detail on the sub. I am 82, and over the years, I would see a reference about the sub, but there wouldn't be any details given. Finally, at last, you described how advanced it was. It's a good thing the Germans didn't have such subs at the start of the war. The British might have been out of the war by the time of Pearl Harbor.

[stephenlightfoot]

I remember reading somewhere that they also had a rubberised coating to absorb sonar, making them less detectable.

[randolphstead]

I enjoyed the video, but wish to address one small point: subs have a pressure hull, not a pressurized hull.

[attilavs]

I actually visited the prototype in germany, is really close to modern designs in the idea and even in functionality relative to the tech of the time.

[mbryson]

I toured U-505 (a type IXC) U-boat at Chicago's Museum of Science and Industry) many time between ages 8 to 15.

Impressive, and impressively cramped, especially compared to U.S.S. Pampanito (a _Balao_ class) in San Francisco.

I can't imagine serving in such a boat.

Thanks for the video. I learned some things, such as the torpedo autoloader.

[Balmung]

The funny thing is Japan pretty much independently had many of the same ideas with the I-201 class, which also eventually served as the basis of Japan's first post-war submarines.

Also, Britain experimented with many of the concepts that would later be seen in Type XXI and I-201 with the R-Class.

[franzliszt]

Note the anti-radar coatings of the snorkel. The last action of the Kriegsmarine was the sinking of 3 ships in the Firfth of Forth - submerged, solely on data - although this was the smaller brother of the type XXI, the typeXXIII. One of the captured subs took President Truman underwater ( so much for “couldn’t dive”). The captured XXI was also used in exercises with the U.S. Navy, typically evading detection and mocking its pursuers.
As it was during the war, the American and British strategic bombers and aircraft eliminated this weapon by causing endless delays and disruptions. Germany tried to mitigate bombing effects by hardening and dispersion of factories at immense cost only to find the waterways and rail transportation networks ripped to shreds.

[stringmanagmaildcom]

My uncle Bob served on type 21 U-2513. This is what my dad said about his service history, "After the close of World War II, he was transferred to a German U-boat, the U-2513, a prize of the German Navy, at Key West, Florida. This ship was virtually new and the best the German technology could produce. The object of this assignment was to test it to destruction to determine what the strength and weakness was of that design, for the benefit of the U. S.

[Jewclaw]

Dude I’ve been obsessed with the construction and engineering of early submarines. There’s not a lot of info out there on the differences and timeline of submarine upgrades and construction.
This is a great video

[roykliffen]

Fun Fact: The first submarines used by the Kriegsmarine that were equipped with snorkels were the captured Dutch submarines O-25 and O-26. However, the Germans did not quite understand the system which they interpreted as being "crew-comfort" systems only meant to provide the crew with fresh air when submerged. The Germans were not entirely wrong as the Diesel engines drew their air from within the submarine and the snorkel replenishing the stale air drawn out by the engines with fresh outside air which likely improved the crew comfort inside the hull. They did not recognise the system as a means to allow the diesels to be run while submerged and considered the resulting fresh air supply as an unnecessary luxury which added cast and complexity. Consequently before the Dutch subs were integrated into the Kriegsmarine, they were "upgraded" to German standards, which also meant removing the snorkels. Only later in the war the snorkels were re-introduced on all German subs when they started to recognise the importance of the system where it came to being less detectable.
Off course one can ridicule the Germans for not recognising the value of the snorkel-system, were it not that the remaining Dutch submarines integrated into larger allied navies like the Australian or British navies had to remove the snorkels too.