The Type 201 was
Germany
Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...
's first U-boat class built after
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 opposing ...
.
Design
They were built out of
amagnetic steel to counter the threat of magnetic
naval mine
A naval mine is a self-contained explosive device placed in water to damage or destroy surface ships or submarines. Unlike depth charges, mines are deposited and left to wait until they are triggered by the approach of, or contact with, any ...
s, but the material had been insufficiently tested and proved to be problematic in service with the
Bundesmarine
The German Navy (, ) is the navy of Germany and part of the unified ''Bundeswehr'' (Federal Defense), the German Armed Forces. The German Navy was originally known as the ''Bundesmarine'' (Federal Navy) from 1956 to 1995, when ''Deutsche Mari ...
. Microscopic cracks in the pressure hull forced the cancellation of nine of the twelve ordered submarines and the rebuilding of the first two boats as
Type 205 submarine
The Type 205 was a class of German diesel-electric submarines. They were single- hull vessels optimized for the use in the shallow Baltic Sea. The Type 205 is a direct evolution of the Type 201 class with lengthened hull, new machinery and sen ...
s. Responsible for the design and construction was the Ingenieurkontor Lübeck (IKL) headed by
Ulrich Gabler
Ulrich Gabler (1 October 1913 – 24 February 1994) was a German shipbuilding engineer, who specialized in the design and development of diesel-powered submarines.
During World War II he served as chief engineer in the U-boat force on and , the ...
.
List of boats
''U-3'' was loaned to the
Royal Norwegian Navy
The Royal Norwegian Navy ( no, Sjøforsvaret, , Sea defence) is the branch of the Norwegian Armed Forces responsible for naval operations of Norway. , the Royal Norwegian Navy consists of approximately 3,700 personnel (9,450 in mobilized state, ...
and served under the name ''Kobben'' from 1962 to 1964 before being commissioned in the German Navy.
References
*
Taucher.net(in German)
{{Ship classes of the Deutsche Marine, noshipclass=yes