The Type I U-boat was the first post– World War I attempt to produce an oceangoing submarine 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 It superseded the Imperial German Navy of the German Empire (1871–1918) and the inter-war (1919–1935) of the Weimar Republic.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 ...

''. Only two Type IAs were built, but the decision to halt production on further boats is believed to be because of political decisions and not because of major faults in the Type I design. Although the boats did not have any major design faults, they were known to be difficult to handle due to their poor stability and slow dive rate. The type was based on the design of the Finnish ''Vetehinen'' class and the Spanish Type E-1, designed by

Ingenieurskantoor voor Scheepsbouw NV Ingenieurskantoor voor Scheepsbouw (''Dutch: engineer-office for shipbuilding''), usually contracted to IvS, was a Dutch dummy company set up in The Hague and funded by the ''Reichsmarine'' after World War I in order to maintain and develop Ge ...

(the company also designed the

Soviet S class submarine The S-class or Srednyaya (, "medium") submarines were part of the Soviet Navy's underwater fleet during World War II. Unofficially nicknamed Stalinets (, "follower of Stalin"; not to be confused with the submarine L-class L-2 ''Stalinets'' of ...

). The design later served as a basis for the development of other types of boats, primarily the

VII VII or vii may refer to: the Roman numeral 7 Art and entertainment * The Vii, a video game console * vii, leading-tone triad, see diminished triad * ''VII'' (Blitzen Trapper album) * ''VII'' (Just-Ice album) * ''VII'' (Teyana Taylor album) * ...

and IX classes. Constructed by

Deschimag Deutsche Schiff- und Maschinenbau Aktiengesellschaft (abbreviated Deschimag) was a cooperation of eight German shipyards in the period 1926 to 1945. The leading company was the shipyard AG Weser in Bremen. History The Deschimag was founded in 19 ...

Bremen Bremen (Low German also: ''Breem'' or ''Bräm''), officially the City Municipality of Bremen (german: Stadtgemeinde Bremen, ), is the capital of the German state Free Hanseatic City of Bremen (''Freie Hansestadt Bremen''), a two-city-state consis ...

, the first Type IA was launched on 14 February 1936. The two boats produced, and , were primarily used as training vessels and for propaganda purposes to fly the Nazi flag. In 1940, the boats were called into combat duty due to the shortage of available submarines. Both boats experienced short, but successful combat careers. ''U-25'' participated in five war cruises, sinking eight enemy ships. On 3 August 1940, while on a mine laying mission near Norway, ''U-25'' struck a mine and sank with all hands on board. ''U-26'' carried out eight war cruises, sinking three merchant ships on its first mission laying mines. On its second war cruise it became the first U-boat during World War II to enter the Mediterranean Sea. ''U-26'' participated in three other successful war patrols, sinking four additional merchant ships. On its eighth war cruise the boat sank three merchant ships and damaged another ship the next day. The attack on this ship led to severe depth-charging by two British warships, including . Unable to dive, ''U-26'' was forced to surface where she was bombed by a Sunderland flying boat. The crew scuttled the submarine and were rescued by

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warships.

List of Type I submarines

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References

Bibliography

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External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Type 001 Submarine Submarine classes World War II submarines of Germany