German submarine ''U-1'' was the first
U-boat (or
submarine
A submarine (or sub) is a watercraft capable of independent operation underwater. It differs from a submersible, which has more limited underwater capability. The term is also sometimes used historically or colloquially to refer to remotely op ...
) built for
Nazi Germany's ''
Kriegsmarine
The (, ) was the navy of Germany from 1935 to 1945. It superseded the Imperial German Navy of the German Empire (1871–1918) and the inter-war (1919–1935) of the Weimar Republic. The was one of three official branches, along with the a ...
'' following
Adolf Hitler's abrogation of the terms of the
Treaty of Versailles in 1935, which banned Germany possessing a submarine force.
A
Type IIA
In theoretical physics, type II string theory is a unified term that includes both type IIA strings and type IIB strings theories. Type II string theory accounts for two of the five consistent superstring theories in ten dimensions. Both theories ...
U-boat, she was built at the
Deutsche Werke
Deutsche Werke was a German shipbuilding company that was founded in 1925 when Kaiserliche Werft Kiel and other shipyards were merged. It came as a result of the Treaty of Versailles after World War I that forced the German defense industry to ...
shipyards in
Kiel, yard number 236, her keel being laid on 11 February 1935 amid celebration. She was commissioned on 29 June 1935 after a very rapid construction, and was manned by crews trained in the Netherlands.
Design
German Type II submarines were based on the . ''U-1'' had a displacement of when at the surface and while submerged. Officially, the standard tonnage was , however. The U-boat had a total length of , a
pressure hull length of , a
beam
Beam may refer to:
Streams of particles or energy
*Light beam, or beam of light, a directional projection of light energy
**Laser beam
*Particle beam, a stream of charged or neutral particles
**Charged particle beam, a spatially localized grou ...
of , a height of , and a
draught of . The submarine was powered by two
MWM RS 127 S four-stroke, six-cylinder
diesel engines of for cruising, two
Siemens-Schuckert PG VV 322/36
double-acting electric motors producing a total of for use while submerged. She had two shafts and two
propeller
A propeller (colloquially often called a screw if on a ship or an airscrew if on an aircraft) is a device with a rotating hub and radiating blades that are set at a pitch to form a helical spiral which, when rotated, exerts linear thrust upon ...
s. The boat was capable of operating at depths of up to .
The submarine had a maximum surface speed of and a maximum submerged speed of . When submerged, the boat could operate for at ; when surfaced, she could travel at . ''U-1'' was fitted with three
torpedo tubes at the bow, five
torpedoes or up to twelve Type A torpedo mines, and a
anti-aircraft gun. The boat had a
complement of 25.
Service history
Her pre-war service was unremarkable, but she did gain a reputation as a poor ship. Her rapid construction, combined with the inadequacy of the technology which was used to create her, made her uncomfortable, leaky and slow. When war came, there were already plans to shelve her and her immediate sister boats for use as training boats only.
Despite this however, owing to a shortage of available units she sailed on 29 March 1940 against British shipping operating off Norway, close to the limit of her effective operating range. She failed to find a target, but was sent out again on 4 April, in preparation for
Operation Weserübung (the invasion of Norway).
Fate
''U-1'' sent a brief radio signal on 6 April, giving her position, before she disappeared. She was struck by a mine in British minefield ''Field No. 7'' in the
North Sea north of Terschelling at position . The entire aft section of the boat was blown off and all hands lost. In June 2007, the wreck of ''U-1'' was located by divers.
She was the first of over 1,000 U-boats to serve during the
Battle of the Atlantic
The Battle of the Atlantic, the longest continuous military campaign in World War II, ran from 1939 to the defeat of Nazi Germany in 1945, covering a major part of the naval history of World War II. At its core was the Allied naval blockade ...
, and one of over 700 to be lost at sea.
References
Bibliography
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External links
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{{DEFAULTSORT:U0001
German Type II submarines
U-boats commissioned in 1935
World War II submarines of Germany
U-boats sunk in 1940
1935 ships
Ships built in Kiel
U-boats sunk by mines
Maritime incidents in April 1940