The Typ XXI U-boat

Blair152

Banned
Have you ever heard of the Type XII U-boats? They were Germany's last
roll of the dice in World War II and ran on compressed air which would have
made them hard for the Allies to detect. Fortunately, they weren't completed, and those that were, fell into Allied, (RE: American), hands.
The three boats we got were used test the possibility of running submarines on pure oxygen alone. The experiments weren't successful and the three Type XXIs we got were eventually scuttled after being declared worthless. So
what do you think would have happened had more of them built and sent out into the Atlantic?
 
When the Allies captured the Department of Naval Architecture in Berlin the unearthed a treasure trove of advanced [unbuilt] submarine designs.
These were shared between the Victors, and fro the next 20 years, all conventional Subs built, were based on these German Designs.

Now by 1945 the Allies Anti Sub Techniques were advanced enuff that a few AIP Subs would not have had much effect on the War.

However If the Wartime Germans** had a Few working AIP Subs in Production and Use, It would have Greatly influenced Post War Submarine Design.


** Wartime Germans, -- as Today's Germany is one of the Leaders in new AIP Submarine Design & Construction.
 
We've said it in the other thread, the Type XXI was a friggin death-trap to anyone who had the misfortune to crew it.
There was a very good reason that despite starting construction in 1943 none ever sunk anything and only two went on patrol.
The Royal Navy got there hands on one after the war and then built two experimental subs based on her, which was nicknamed HMS Exploder and HMS Excruciator.
While the Type XXI did provide ideas for new post-war designs it wasn't because of its insanely dangerous HTP propulsion. The Germans were pretty stupid to build them in the first place and all they would have done is to make life as a U-boat crewman (the most deadly job in the entire war) even more deadly.
Anyway by 1944 the Royal Navy had won the Battle of the Atlantic, new subs wouldn't have changed that.

Get them to dump the HTP propulsion and build them in Shipyards then you have a useful weapon which would have killed some more Merchies, though by the time they could have come along (1944), it wouldn't have changed anything. Liberty ships were simply being built too fast.

Also though I am not the exemplar of perfect spelling and grammar could you please spell check you posts. Its one thing if someone obviously unfamiliar with the English language doesn't do it, but I suspect its you first language, its not much effort and it makes people take you more seriously.
 
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