April 30, 1945: New Generation U-Boat Too Little, Too Late

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Wired
By Tony Long
April 30, 2007

1945: In the waning days of World War II, U-2511, under Korvettenkapitan Adalbert Schnee, puts to sea from Bergen, Norway. It marks the first and only combat patrol by a Type XXI Elektroboot, the German U-boat that profoundly influenced modern submarine design.

Luckily for the Allies, production problems and limited shipyard capacity delayed the appearance of the Type XXI until Germany was literally in her death throes. Naval experts generally agree that had the boat been accorded a higher priority in the armaments pecking order and become operational a few years earlier, the Battle of the Atlantic might have turned out very differently.

While on patrol, Schnee had the opportunity to demonstrate the new boat’s ability to elude enemy detection technology. On May 4, U-2511 evaded a destroyer screen and closed to within 500 meters of the British cruiser HMS Norfolk without being picked up by sonar. Schnee went through the preparations for firing his torpedoes, lined up the target ... and then withdrew without attacking. Schnee had received the general cease-fire order a few hours earlier, a fact he mentioned to the incredulous (and presumably relieved) Norfolk's officers a few days later when he met them in Bergen after Germany’s surrender.

If Schnee knew he was commanding a special boat, the Allies realized it soon enough, too, when a number of these boats came into their possession at war's end. The Type XXI would be used as a prototype for the design of the Cold War generation of both U.S. and Soviet subs.

Displacing 1,620 tons and armed with six forward torpedo tubes, the boat's revolutionary technology centered mostly on her ability to remain submerged for up to 60 hours at a time. There were also quantum leaps in sonar and radar technology, an area where Germany had lagged throughout the war. Outwardly, the Type XXI's influence on modern designs can be seen in her streamlined hull, which sets her apart from any other World War II-era sub.

Not that any of that did U-2511 any good. She was surrendered to the British at the end of the war and scuttled off of Northern Ireland on Jan. 7, 1946, as part of Operation Deadlight.

(Source: Uboat.net)


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