The (English: 1st Submarine Squadron) is a submarine squadron of the

German Navy 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 ...

. It is based at Eckernförde,

Schleswig-Holstein Schleswig-Holstein (; da, Slesvig-Holsten; nds, Sleswig-Holsteen; frr, Slaswik-Holstiinj) is the northernmost of the 16 states of Germany, comprising most of the historical duchy of Holstein and the southern part of the former Duchy of Sc ...

, and forms part of '' Einsatzflottille 1'', headquartered in

Kiel Kiel () is the capital and most populous city in the northern German state of Schleswig-Holstein, with a population of 246,243 (2021). Kiel lies approximately north of Hamburg. Due to its geographic location in the southeast of the Jutland ...

History

The ''1st Ubootgeschwader'' (1st UG) was set up on 1 October 1961 in Kiel. It was initially under the control of the , before it was subordinated to the newly established on 1 November. The 1st UG received its first submarine, the newly-commissioned

Type 201 submarine The Type 201 was Germany's first U-boat class built after World War II. Design They were built out of amagnetic steel to counter the threat of magnetic naval mines, but the material had been insufficiently tested and proved to be problematic ...

''U-1'', on 21 March 1962. The ''U-1'' was the first submarine constructed in post-war Germany. ''U-1''s sister ship, ''U-2'' followed in May 1962. The former

R boat The R boats (''Räumboote'' in German, meaning ''minesweeper'') were a group of small naval vessels built as minesweepers for the ''Kriegsmarine'' (German navy) before and during the Second World War. They were used for several purposes during th ...

''Merkur'' was assigned to the squadron as a support ship. The Type 201 submarines were eventually found to be unsatisfactory and were decommissioned early. The successor class, the

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 ...

, entered service in the following years, with eleven boats joining the squadron between 1962 and 1969. In 1964, the two submarine tenders ''Lahn'' and ''Lech'' entered service with the 1st UG. ''Lech'' was decommissioned in 1966 and assigned to the . ''Merkur'' left service the same year. As part of the the was made a part of the 1st UG on 29 August 2013. Since October 2016 the German submarine arm consists of six

Type 212 submarine The German Type 212 class (German: U-Boot-Klasse 212 A), also Italian ''Todaro'' class, is a diesel-electric submarine developed by Howaldtswerke-Deutsche Werft AG (HDW) for the German and Italian navies. It features diesel propulsion and a ...

s. However because of damage and missing spare parts, none of the six boats were in active service as of October 2017.

Composition

* Six

s ** ''U-31'' ** ''U-32'' ** ''U-33'' ** ''U-34'' ** ''U-35'' ** ''U-36'' *Three ''Oste''-class fleet service ships ** ''Oste'' ** ''Oker'' ** ''Alster'' *One ''Elbe''-class replenishment ship ** ''Main'' *

References

{{reflist Military units and formations of the German Navy Submarine squadrons