The Royal Netherlands Navy Submarine Service ( nl, Onderzeedienst, link=no; OZD) is a department within the Royal Netherlands Navy that is responsible for the deployment of Dutch submarines. It was established out of the Netherlands Torpedo Service on 21 December 1906, and merged with the Netherlands Mine Service on 15 July 2005.

History

Early history

The Royal Netherlands Navy Submarine Service (OZD) was established on 21 December 1906. In this year the Royal Netherlands Navy commissioned its first submarine, . The OZD was tasked with taking care of the equipment of the submarines and the training of the crews. At this time there were still doubts about the usefulness of submarines. Royal Netherlands Navy officers did indeed see an "interesting and ingeniously constructed mechanism in the vessel," but were hesitant about their practicality. Trial sailing slowly but surely removed the doubts in the naval command. Only under the influence of the

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

did the officers get more interested in the new type of war material.

World War II

During World War I and the

interwar period In the history of the 20th century, the interwar period lasted from 11 November 1918 to 1 September 1939 (20 years, 9 months, 21 days), the end of the World War I, First World War to the beginning of the World War II, Second World War. The in ...

, the Royal Netherlands Navy ordered and built many submarines. As a result, at the start of

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, the OZD had more than 20 submarines at its disposal. On 10 May 1940, the Royal Netherlands Navy had three operational submarines in the Netherlands, namely , , and . was being repaired, while and were undergoing maintenance. Meanwhile, and were active at the time in the Caribbean. Furthermore, seven submarines were in various stages of completion at different yards. On the other hand, the Dutch navy had 15 operational submarines in the

Dutch East Indies The Dutch East Indies, also known as the Netherlands East Indies ( nl, Nederlands(ch)-Indië; ), was a Dutch colony consisting of what is now Indonesia. It was formed from the nationalised trading posts of the Dutch East India Company, which ...

. These submarines played an important role during the war, by confronting and sinking enemy ships. For example, and sunk several Japanese ships in 1941. However, there were also losses in this theater, both HNLMS ''O 16'' and ''K XVII'' were sunk in December 1941.

Expansion

After 1945, the OZD had eight submarines, but due to intensive use in the war these were in a bad condition. Also the fact that the fleet consisted of different classes was a problem. It made maintenance and exercise of crews very pricey. Due to the economic malaise and the high costs caused by operations in the Dutch East Indies, there was no money left for new construction. In the end the navy managed to take four submarines on loan from the British and the Americans. In 1946, the Netherlands still had a total of eight operational submarines in service: , , , , , , , and . Since the home port at Den Helder was in ruins, these submarines were for the time being using the

Waalhaven Waalhaven Airport in 1932, with the Graf Zeppelin in the background. The Waalhaven is a harbour in Rotterdam, the Netherlands. It used to be home to an airport, Vliegveld Waalhaven (Waalhaven Airport). It was the second civilian airport in the ...

in Rotterdam as their base. For the OZD, this period just after World War II meant depending on Dutch pre-war submarines and second-hand British and American submarines. The commissioning of the s in the early 1960s was an important milestone. The four boats formed the backbone of the OZD during a large part of the

Cold War The Cold War is a term commonly used to refer to a period of geopolitical tension between the United States and the Soviet Union and their respective allies, the Western Bloc and the Eastern Bloc. The term '' cold war'' is used because the ...

; they were in service from 1960 to 1992.

Cold War

The Dutch submarine fleet never reached the size it had before the World War II again. The new global power relations also generated a new package of tasks. In cooperation with other

NATO The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO, ; french: Organisation du traité de l'Atlantique nord, ), also called the North Atlantic Alliance, is an intergovernmental military alliance between 30 member states – 28 European and two No ...

countries, these are mainly non-attack tasks. Since the Dutch submarines were ideally suited for unnoticed explorations, the OZD was mostly focused on gathering intelligence during the Cold War. This happened, for example, during the

West New Guinea dispute The West New Guinea dispute (1950–1962), also known as the West Irian dispute, was a diplomatic and political conflict between the Netherlands and Indonesia over the territory of Dutch New Guinea. While the Netherlands had ceded sovereignty ov ...

in the early 1960s, when three Dutch submarines patroled the Indonesian ports, to warn against possible invasions of

West New Guinea Western New Guinea, also known as Papua, Indonesian New Guinea, or Indonesian Papua, is the western half of the Melanesian island of New Guinea which is administered by Indonesia. Since the island is alternatively named as Papua, the region ...

. In the period from 1970 to the 1990s, the crew of the six Dutch submarines secretly gathered information about the Soviet Union. Most of the other missions the OZD carried out remain secret to this day.

Vessels

References

Footnotes

Bibliography

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External links

* * {{Authority control 1906 establishments in the Netherlands Military units and formations established in 1906 Organisations based in the Netherlands with royal patronage

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 ...