German submarine ''U-651'' was a German

Type VIIC Type VII U-boats were the most common type of German World War II U-boat. 703 boats were built by the end of the war. The lone surviving example, , is on display at the Laboe Naval Memorial located in Laboe, Schleswig-Holstein, Germany. Conc ...

U-boat 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 It superseded the Imperial German Navy of the German Empire (1871–1918) and the inter-war (1919–1935) of the Weimar Republic.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 ...

'' for service during World War II. She was ordered just after the war started in 1939, laid down on 16 January 1940, launched on 21 December that year and commissioned the following 21 February. She was commanded by '' Kapitänleutnant'' Peter Lohmeyer. Her career was a short one. She took part in only one patrol and sank two ships in convoy Convoy HX 133: the merchantmen ''Brockley Hill'' and . On 29 June 1941, she was sunk by the escort for the same convoy but 45 of her crew were rescued by the Royal Navy and interrogated by the

Admiralty Admiralty most often refers to: *Admiralty, Hong Kong * Admiralty (United Kingdom), military department in command of the Royal Navy from 1707 to 1964 *The rank of admiral * Admiralty law Admiralty can also refer to: Buildings *Admiralty, Tr ...

Design

German Type VIIC submarines were preceded by the shorter Type VIIB submarines. ''U-651'' had a displacement of when at the surface and while submerged. She 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 Germaniawerft F46 four-stroke, six-cylinder

supercharged In an internal combustion engine, a supercharger compresses the intake gas, forcing more air into the engine in order to produce more power for a given displacement. The current categorisation is that a supercharger is a form of forced induct ...

diesel engines producing a total of for use while surfaced, two Siemens-Schuckert GU 343/38-8 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-651'' was fitted with five torpedo tubes (four fitted at the bow and one at the stern), fourteen torpedoes, one SK C/35 naval gun, 220 rounds, and a C/30 anti-aircraft gun. The boat had a complement of between forty-four and sixty.

Ships credited for the sinking of ''U-651''

Destroyers * * Corvettes * * Minesweeper *

Summary of raiding history

References

Bibliography

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External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:U0651 World War II submarines of Germany 1940 ships Ships built in Hamburg U-boats commissioned in 1941 U-boats sunk by depth charges U-boats sunk by British warships World War II shipwrecks in the Atlantic Ocean German Type VIIC submarines U-boats sunk in 1941 Maritime incidents in June 1941