Germany has spent something like 120~ years making top-notch submarines. In fact, other than the 80 or so Romeo/Ming class diesels operated by the Chinese and the Norks, the most numerous modern submersible operated in the world are the 61 German-made Type 209 class submarines built and commissioned between 1971 and 2008.
However, if it wasn’t for the earlier Type 206 design, there never would have been a 209.
Designed in 1964 by Ingenieur Kontor Lübeck (IKL), these cute little 159-foot diesel-electric boats weighed but 500-tons at full load when submerged. However, they could stay at sea, floating in as little as 16 feet of water when surfaced and hiding in 10 fathoms when submerged if needed, for over a month.
Further, they carried 8 modern 533mm torpedoes which could be delivered all at once, allowing them the capability to sink virtually any warship found at sea–to include a Soviet battlecruiser– with a single salvo.
Some 18 were built for the Bundesmarine (West German Navy), numbered U13-U30, commissioning between April 1973 and March 1975, just under two years, which isn’t bad. Had the balloon ever gone up in the Cold War, these hardy craft would likely have given the Soviets, East Germans and Poles a lot of hell in the Baltic.
They were so nice, in fact, that the Israelis ordered three slightly modded variants they termed the Gal-class as a follow-on, which were delivered in 1976-77.
Further, another 15 very similar (535-ton/155-foot) Type 207s were built as the Kobben class for the Royal Norwegian Navy by 1966 and have gone on to serve not only that fleet but the Danes and Poles as well (the latter of which still have five of these in service) proving the design still holds water after a half-century.
The Germans kept their 18 Type 206’s in service for over 30 years in some cases, decommissioning the last four in 2011 while the Israelis did more or less the same.
In all, the 36 boats of the Type 206/207/Gal design did what they were intended to for their respective users and have gone on to live a second life to a degree. Indonesia looked to pick up as many as five, but then backpedaled, while the Germans shopped both the Type 206s and the surplus Gal-class vessels for a while.
Gal herself is now on display at the Israeli Naval museum in Haifa while two (the recently retired U15 and U17) are laid up in Germany and four have gone on to Columbia. Two, ex-U16 and ex-U18, were sold as spare parts hulks while another pair, U23 and U24 were given length (2012-2015) refits in Germany and shipped to Colombia as the ARC Intrepido and ARC Indomable respectively to begin their new careers.
Two German Type-206 submarines outbound from Kiel to Columbia, 2015.
After all, even at age 40, they are still effective.
Warship Wednesday, Dec.23, 2015: The lost jewel from Bizerte
960×633
Here we see the French Émeraude-class diesel-electric submarine (Sous-Marin) Turquoise (Q46), captured by the Turks, in a dry dock undergoing repairs in Constantinople, 1916.
The French got into the submarine business about the same time as the Americans, launching Admiral Simeon Bourgois’s Plongeurin April 1863.
Before the turn of the century, the Republic had flirted with a half dozen one-off boats before they ordered the four boats of the Sirene class in 1901 followed quickly by another four of the Farfadet-class, the two Algerien-class boats, 20 Naiade-class craft in 1904, Submarines X, Y and Z (not making it up), the two ship Aigrette-class and the submarine Omega.
All told, between 1900-1905, the French coughed up 36 submersibles spread across nine very different classes.
After all that quick learning curve, they proceeded with the Emeraude (Emerald) class in 1903. These ships were an improvement of the Faradet (Sprite) class designed by Gabriel-Émile-Marie Maugas. The 135-foot long/200-ton Faradet quartet had everything a 20th Century smoke boat needed: it was a steel-hulled hybrid submersible that used diesel engines on the surface and electric below, had 4 torpedo tubes, could dive to 100~ feet, and could make a stately 6-knots.
Farfadet-class boat Lutin (Q10), leaving port in 1903.
While they weren’t successful (two sank, killing 30 men between them) Maugas learned from early mistakes and they were significantly improved in the Emeraudes. These later boats used two-shaft propulsion– rare in early submarines–and were 147 feet long with a 425-ton full load. Capable of making right at 12 knots for brief periods, they carried a half dozen torpedo tubes (four in the bow and two in the stern). They also could mount a machine gun and a light deck gun if needed.
Again, improvements!
Profile of the Emeralds surfaced.
Class leader Emeraude was laid down at Arsenal de Cherbourg in 1903 followed by sisters Opale and Rubis at the same yard and another three, Saphir, Topase, and the hero of our story, Turquoise, at Arsenal de Toulon in the Med.
Launching 1908
Turquoise was commissioned on 10 December 1910 and, with her two Toulon-built sisters, served with the French Mediterranean Fleet from the Submarine Station at Bizerte.
She repeated the bad luck of the Farfadet-class predecessors and in 1913 lost an officer and several crew swept off her deck in rough seas.
When war erupted in 1914, the jewel boats soon found they had operational problems staying submerged due to issues with buoyancy and were plagued by troublesome diesels (hey, the manufacturer, Sautter-Harlé, was out of business by 1918 so what does that tell you).
To help with surface ops, Topase and Turquoise were fitted with a smallish deck gun in 1915.
Saphir probably would have been too, but she caught a Turkish mine in the Sea of Marma on 15 January trying to sneak through the straits, and went down.
Topase and Turquoise continued to operate against the Turks, with the latter running into trouble on 30 October 1915. Around the village of Orhaniye in the Dardanelles near Nagara there were six Ottoman Army artillerymen led by Corporal G Boaz Deepa who spotted a periscope moving past a nearby water tower.
Becoming tangled in a net, the submarine became a sitting duck. With their field piece, they were able to get a lucky shot on the mast, and, with the submarine filling with water, she made an emergency surface.
French submarine captured at Dardanelles by Charles Fouqueray
There, the six cannoneers took 28 French submariners captive and impounded the sub, sunk in shallow water.
Turquoise’s skipper, Lt. Leon Marie Ravenel, was in 1918 awarded the Knight of the Legion of Honour as was his XO. These sailors suffered a great deal in Turkish captivity, with five deaths.
“Das frühere französische U-Boot Turquoise welches von den Türken gefangen genommen wurde und jetzt als Mustedjb oubaschi in türkischen Diensten steht.” (The former French submarine Turquoise which was captured by the Turks and is now in Turkish service as Mustedjb oubaschi.) Paul Hoffman & Co. postcard in the NYPL collection
The Turks later raised the batter French boat and, naming her Mustadieh Ombashi (or Müstecip Ombasi), planned to use her in the Ottoman fleet.
The news of her capture and use under new management flashed through the Central Powers. This is from the Austrian archives:
“Französische Unterseeboot Turquoise” via Osterreichisches Staatsarchiv
Ottoman Uniforms reports her conning tower was painted with a large rectangle (likely to be red), with the large white script during this time.
Via Ottoman Uniforms
However, as submariners were rare in WWI Constantinople, she never took to sea in an operational sense again and in 1919 the victorious French reclaimed their submarine, which they later scrapped in 1920.
Her wartime service for the Turks seems to have been limited to taking a few pictures for propaganda purposes and being used as a fixed battery charging station for German U-boats operating in the Black Sea.
As for the last Bizerte boat, Topase, she finished the war intact and was stricken on 12 November 1919 along with the three Emeraudes who served quietly in the Atlantic.
Turquoise/Mustadieh Ombashi has been preserved as a model, however.
If you have a further interest in the submarines of Gallipoli, go here.
Specs:
1884×1543
Displacement 392 tons (surfaced) / 427 (submerged)
Length, 147 feet
Bean 12 feet
Draft 12 feet
No of shafts 2
Machinery
2 Sautter-Harlé diesels, 600hp / electric motors (440kW)
Max speed, knots 11.5 surfaced / 9.2 submerged
Endurance, nm 2000 at 7.3kts surfaced / 100nm at 5kts submerged
Armament:
6×450 TT (4 bows, 2 sterns) for 450mm torpedoes with no reloads
1x M1902 Model 37mm deck gun, 1x8mm light Hotchkiss machine gun (fitted in 1915)
Complement 21-28
Diving depth operational, 130 feet.
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The International Naval Research Organization is a non-profit corporation dedicated to the encouragement of the study of naval vessels and their histories, principally in the era of iron and steel warships (about 1860 to date). Its purpose is to provide information and a means of contact for those interested in warships.
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Text from All Hands magazine, May 1952 edition, courtesy of Stan Svec & . Official USN photo # NH 97019, from the collections of the Naval Historical Center. Image via Navsource
Here we see the Tench-class diesel-electric hunter killer submarine USS Pickerel (SS-524), surfacing at a 48 degree up angle, from a depth of 150 feet, during tests off the coast of Oahu, Hawaii, 1 March 1952.
“The purpose of this operation was to enable the Navy’s submarine experts to evaluate the sub’s capabilities and characteristics of the GUPPY-snorkel type sub.
This picture was taken from Sabalo (SS-302). Her sonarmen kept Pickerel under observation while she was submerged and preparing to surface. During Pickerel’s maneuvering the sonar gear delivered the constantly changing relative bearing which enabled the photographers to make this shot as she broke the surface.”
Note: The official record of the “surfacing” pictured above is that it started at 150 feet and reached a 48 degree up-angle. From a crew-member manning the helm during this evolution:
“We started at 250 feet, flank speed. The surfacing order included ‘use 60 degrees’ (the highest reading on the -bubble-type’ angle indicator).
“We overshot, and lost the bubble at 65 degrees. The maximum angle (72 degrees) was calculated later by the highwater marks in the Pump Room bilges. Thinking back, even with the bow sticking above water up to the bridge fairwater, the screws wouldn’t have been much above where we started, still pushing us upward.
“First message from the Queenfish (SS-393) which was accompanying us: ‘What is the specific gravity of your Torpedo Room bilges?’
“As you may imagine, the C.O. was something of a competitive wildman, pushing to find out what the limits were for these new GUPPY boats, after putting up with the older WW2 boats. And, we had to beat the Amberjack’s (SS-522) record of 43 degrees.”
Decommissioned 18 August 1972 after 23 years in the fleet which included wartime service in both Korean and Vietnamese waters and a circumnavigation of South America. She was transferred to Italy the same day as Primo Longobardo (S-501) who retained her in NATO service in the Med for another decade, though likely did not surface with such gusto as her 1952 crew.
Here at LSOZI, we are going to take off every Wednesday for a look at the old steam/diesel navies of the 1859-1946 time period and will profile a different ship each week. These ships have a life, a tale all of their own, which sometimes takes them to the strangest places. – Christopher Eger
Warship Wednesday, Dec.2, 2015: The Brass Tiger Fish of the Lifeguard Service
Photo via Navsource. Courtesy of John Hummel.
Here we see the Tench-class diesel-electric submarine USS Tigrone (SS-419/SSR-419/AGSS-419), at the Philadelphia Navy Yard sometime circa 1964 as she is preparing for her next role in the fleet after her first two had proved remarkably different.
With the brilliant success of the Gato-class fleet boats in the first part of the war in the Pacific, the Navy soon ordered 84 follow-on Tench-class boats to an improved design starting in 1944. The same 311-feet long overall as the Gatos, the Tenches were slightly heavier and had longer legs, being able to cover 16,000 nautical miles over their predecessor’s paltry 11,000. This meant they could roam further and stay away longer if needed.
While the Gatos were finished in time to bloody the Japanese fleet, few craft worthy of a torpedo were still around when the Tench class began to reach the Pacific. In fact, just 10 of the class were completed during the war and a further 55 were canceled just after.
Of the 10 that made it to the fight, one is the hero of our little tale.
Named after a species of the tiger shark, USS Tigrone (SS-419) was laid down at Portsmouth Naval Shipyard, Kittery, Maine just a month before D-Day. Her crew nicknamed her the Tiger Fish and she is the only ship on the Naval List to have carried the moniker.
Commissioned on 25 October 1944, she got her first combat patrol underway from Guam on March 21, 1945, with three other U.S. fleet boats in a Yankee wolf pack. Although they spent the better part of two months in Japanese waters, they found few targets and her only brush with combat was to bombard a reef with her rear 5″/25 deck gun (she had a 40mm Bofors single forward).
Her second patrol was more exciting.
On May 25, she took up a lifeguard station off the coast of Honshu, Japan, and by end of the week had a full house, picking up the crews of two B-29s that had ditched as well as three fighter pilots. U.S. submarines rescued 504 downed airmen– to include future President George Bush– during WWII lifeguard duty.
“TIGRONE has saved the Air Force and is now returning to Iwo Jima with 28 rescued zoomies,” radioed her skipper, CDR. Hiram Cassedy, USN.
Back on station by June 26 and then soon had to set course for Guam, arriving on 3 July to disembark another 23 waterlogged aircrews plucked from the water. These 52 airmen Tigrone returned to land throughout the patrol constituted a new submarine-force record.
The Commander Submarine Force, Pacific Fleet extended his congratulations to, “the commanding officer, officers, and crew for this outstanding patrol” and commended them for “the excellent judgment, splendid navigation, and determination displayed by the TIGRONE in effecting these rescues….”
The Tigrone‘s lifeguard service patrol was so inspiring that she received her own episode of the 1950’s documentary series The Silent Service (season 1, episode 8) “Tigrone Sets a Record” which aired on 06 May 1957 and is below in its entirety.
On her third patrol, she came within sight of the Japanese home islands on lifeguard duty and saved an aviator as well as breaking out her big gun again on Aug. 13 when she bombarded Mikomoto Island (Pearl Island), scoring 11 hits on a radio station and lighthouse tower in one of the last exchanges of hate in the war as the Empire sued for peace on the 15th.
When peace came, she was part of the massive armada in Tokyo Bay on Sept. 2, 1945, and received two battle stars for her service.
There she is, all the way to the end…
Soon after, she found herself in red lead row in Philadelphia.
Dusted off in 1948, Tigrone was designated SSR-419 (radar picket submarine) and given the MIGRAINE I conversion that included AN/BPS-2 search radar sprouting from the after portion of the sail, and the height finder mounted on a freestanding tower just abaft it.
Tigrone, left, after refitting as SSR. Her sister ship USS Thornback has been GUPPY’d. Thornback would later serve 28 years in the Turkish Navy and is preserved there as a museum ship today.
This put the 15-foot search antenna some 40 feet above the water, with the height finder only a little below. Also came a below deck CIC for the radar, an extra generator to help push the volts needed to run it all, and guidance equipment for mid-course control of Regulus cruise missiles. In exchange, the boat sacrificed her stern tubes and surface armament.
Tigrone (SSR-419), underway in Grand Harbour, Valetta, Malta, c1952.
Between 1948-56 no less than 13 SSRs– including several Tench-class boats– were put into service, roughly split between Atlantic and Pacific with Tigrone spending her time as a picket boat with the Second Fleet in the Caribbean and North Atlantic, with regular participation in NATO exercises and periodic deployments to the Mediterranean as part of the Sixth Fleet.
By 1 November 1957, a decade as a radar boat had ended, replaced by more modern vessels, and Tigrone again found herself a member of the Atlantic Reserve Fleet, Philadelphia.
However, the Navy wasn’t through with her by a long shot.
The Tigrone (AGSS-419) is underway in a channel, between conversions
Recommissioned 10 March 1962 and reclassified Auxiliary Research Submarine (AGSS-419), for the next decade Tigrone operated in conjunction with the Navy Underwater Sound Laboratory (part of the Naval Undersea Warfare Center at Newport), conducting underwater systems tests, and evaluating new equipment. The information provided by these tests, utilizing experimental transducers, would prove invaluable in sonar development.
In late 1963, the Bottom Reflected Active Sonar System (BRASS) II Transducer and system were installed on Tigrone, and, after 1965, the much-upgraded BRASS III system was installed.
Note the unique side-facing rear sonar rack near the sail that came with the BRASS III conversion
While conducting her tests, she was often trailed by Soviet intelligence collection ships, which on at least one occasion felt the full force of the BRASS rig.
I cannot tell you how many watts the BRASS was capable of transmitting into the water, but suffice it to say it far exceeded anything else in anybody’s Navy at that time and maybe even today’s Navies for all I know. To give you an idea of the sound level it produced, all hands forward of the engine rooms were required to wear enginemen’s hearing protection when it was operating!
The overhead of that boat was festooned with enginemen’s earmuffs, hanging from every possible location to be readily available when the word was passed: “Now rig for BRASS Ops!” There were no torpedo tubes on the Tigrone at that time.
The after room had been turned into a bunkroom and held tier after tier of racks for the crew. The forward room was dedicated to the sonar system including its very own MG set to power that monster. The sonar men stood their watches on standard AN/BQR-2B passive sonar set which was in a little corner up forward where the tubes used to be. The Port half of the forward room was all the equipment the civilian USN/USL personnel used to operate the BRASS. It was a very sophisticated system, capable of varying both the amplitude and duration of the pulses it generated and if I can attach the picture, you will note a huge “shit can” mounted where the bow should be. Inside that huge and cumbersome protrusion was a transducer which looked like a huge log lying on it’s side atop a round table. The round table could be rotated, thereby presenting the horizontal length of the “log” in whatever direction was desired. In addition to the horizontal training, this transducer “log” was constructed in staves (like a barrel) and the operators could select which staves were to be used, giving them the ability to direct the transmitted beam in whatever direction they would like it to go.
We would go to test depth off the Azores and transmit a pulse in a South Westerly direction so that it could be received by the USS Baya [SS/AGSS-318, a Balao-class submarine modified in 1958 to accomidate LORAD, an experimental long-range sonar and 12 scientists] who would be operating off the Tongue of the Ocean in the Bahamas!!!!
Like I said, BRASS put a LOT of power into the water. Needless to say our activities drew the attention of the Russians and one of those ‘fishing boats’ brisling with antenna, would follow us around, undoubtedly listening to and recording every transmission we made. Well one day we were pounding away with the BRASS when one of the civilians asked me where the Russian fishing boat was. I was standing a regular passive sonar watch and I need to explain that whenever the BRASS transmitted a relay in my sonar set would cut out my audio for the duration of the pulse and then cut back in. When the audio returned, I could hear the reverberations from the transmission bouncing off the bottom, off waves, off thermoclines and maybe off the Azores themselves for several minutes, it was deafening!
I reported that the ‘fishing boat’ was dead astern making 80 RPM’s, just enough to keep up with our three knot submerged speed. “Keep us posted if anything changes.” I was told and I sat up to pay closer attention. Pretty soon I noticed a decrease in the amplitude (power) of the transmitted pulses from the BRASS. The same was true of the pulses following that and so on, until the BRASS was barely making a ‘b-e-e-p’ for each transmission. “He’s picking up speed and closing,” I announced to the civilians who were twisting the dials on the BRASS equipment and watching me to see if their efforts were producing the desired results. “Tell us when he’s directly overhead,” was the request as the pulses became weaker still. Evidently, the Russian figured that we had sped up and were leaving him behind; as the very loud transmissions we had been making were now so weak, he could hardly hear them. “He’s making 220 turns and coming right up our stern,” I reported. The USN/USL boys made some more adjustments to their equipment, “Is he overhead yet?” they asked, “Almost”, I said, wondering what in hell they were going to do. Just then, he came out of our baffles and I could hear his diesel engine roaring above the sound of his cavitating propeller blades, as he picked up speed.
“HE’S OVERHEAD NOW NOW NOW!!” I shouted and just then, the relay in my audio circuit cut my sound. It didn’t matter, I could hear the prolonged blast of a BRASS transmission coming right through our hull, it seemed that it would never end. I didn’t realize they could extend the pulse length so long! The operators had turned the transducer table until the ‘log’ was crosswise to the length of our hull, then they had selected just the top staves so that all that transmitted energy went straight up to the Russian Trawler who listening equipment was undoubtedly turned up has far as it would go in an effort to hear our previously weaken signals over their own ships noise. You guys know what test depth was in those old boats, so you know just how far away his receiver was from probably a million or more watts being aimed directly at him. We fried his sonar system . . . cooked it . .. blew every transistor . . . toasted every tube . . . Probably rendered the operator deaf for life. You’ve heard the old saying, “That noise was ten dB above the threshold of pain” well can you imagine what sound level BRASS could produce at that short a distance? It was a wonder we didn’t blow a hole in his hull and sink him.
For the next week, the only time that ‘Fishing Trawler’ caught up with us was when we surfaced after a day’s work. He could still pick us up when we were on the surface with his radar, but he couldn’t find us when we were submerged and BRASS was transmitting. After about six or seven days, a second trawler showed up and relieved him. They would follow us, but never got real close to us. Once burned, twice shy….
USS Tigrone (AGSS-419) with experimental bow sonar, off Ponta Delgada, Azores, 1967
April 1970 USS Tigrone (419) leaving Halifax after Exercise Steel Ring
Tigrone continued her quiet Cold War service until 27 June 1975 when she was decommissioned after more than 30 years with the fleet– all but about six of those in active service.
She was the last active submarine in the Navy that had served in WWII, which is something of a record in and of its own right.
USS Tigrone by William H. RaVell III
While she was expended as a torpedo test target on 25 October 1976 in deep water off the North Carolina coast at 36deg. 05.2′ N x 71deg. 15.3′ w, she is remembered at Submarine Force Museum and the Arkansas Inland Maritime Museum as well as by an active veterans group.
Of her sisters, 14 were transferred to 9 foreign navies and one, ex-USS Cutlass (SS-478) remains semi-active in Taiwan’s Republic of China Navy as Hai Shih (meaning “sea lion”) at age 70.
Three are maintained as museum ships:
USS Requin as a museum ship is about as close as you can get to Tigrone. Image via Wiki.
-USS Requin (SS-481) at the Carnegie Science Center in Pittsburgh, PA. This ship was also converted to an SSR in the late 1940s and served with Tigrone in the Second and Sixth fleets during the 1950s.
-USS Torsk (SS-423), moored at Pier Three, Baltimore’s Inner Harbor, (alongside the National Aquarium in Baltimore) in Maryland.
-TCG Uluçalireis (S 338) (ex-USS Thornback (SS-418)), on display at Rahmi M. Koç Museum, Golden Horn in Istanbul. She is shown above in the comparison shot next to sister Tigrone.
The International Naval Research Organization is a non-profit corporation dedicated to the encouragement of the study of naval vessels and their histories, principally in the era of iron and steel warships (about 1860 to date). Its purpose is to provide information and a means of contact for those interested in warships.
Nearing their 50th Anniversary, Warship International, the written tome of the INRO has published hundreds of articles, most of which are unique in their sweep and subject.
Here at LSOZI, we will take off every Wednesday to look at the old steam/diesel navies of the 1859-1946 time period and profile a different ship each week. These ships have a life, a tale all of their own, which sometimes takes them to the strangest places. – Christopher Eger
Warship Wednesday, Oct. 7, 2015: Los Submarinos!
Submarino S-01 leaving the harbor, 1962. She looks remarkably like a Type VIIC U-boat. Hey, wait a minute…
Here we see what could have very well been the last of old Adolph’s U-boat fleet in fleet operations, Submarino S-01 of the Armada Española.
Starting life as U-573, a Type VIIC U-boat built for Germany’s Kriegsmarine, she was laid down on 24 October 1939, roughly 76 years ago this month, at Blohm and Voss in Hamburg. As such, she was a war baby, with the German invasion of Poland beginning some two months before. She cost the Germans 4 million marks.
The Type VIIC design was the backbone and icon of the U-boat force, with 568 commissioned from 1940 to 1945. For instance, the submarine in Das Boot, U-96, was a VIIC.
These 800-ton, 220-foot long vessels had great range (8,500 nm), could make 17.7 knots on the surface which was faster than most merchantmen of the day, and carried 14 advanced torpedoes and an 88mm SK C/35 gun with some 200~ rounds for those ships not worthy of a torp.
Commissioned on 5 June 1941, on the cusp of the invasion of the Soviet Union, U-573 completed four combat patrols in eight months between 15 September 1941 and 2 May 1942. Spending 119 days at sea, her inaugural skipper, Kptlt. Heinrich Heinsohn, helmed the vessel the whole time.
U-573 in German service
The city of Landeck in Tyrol adopted the submarine within the then-popular sponsorship program (Patenschaftsprogramm), organizing gifts and holidays for the crew, earning her the honorary name “U-573 Landeck,” and she carried that town’s coat of arms briefly.
U-573′s four patrols produced lackluster results, only chalking up one kill, the 5,289-ton Norwegian flagged steamer Hellen, sunk by two of three torpedoes fired by the submarine about 4 miles off Cape Negro. The bow broke away and the Norwegian sank shortly after midnight without loss of life. All 41 crew members were picked up by the armed trawler HMT Arctic Ranger and landed in Gibraltar the next day.
SS Hellen
Speaking of Gibraltar, on April 29, 1942, U-573 was encountered on the surface by a Lockheed Hudson bomber (U.S. A-28) of RAF Sqdn. 233/M who promptly dropped 325-pound depth charges on her until she submerged.
Damaged, the submarine was again attacked by Hudsons from No. 233 the next day.
Lockheed Hudson of No. 233 Squadron RAF preparing for take-off in August 1942, with the Rock of Gibraltar in the background. Taken by Lt. G.W. Dallison, War Office official photographer – This is photograph GM 1405 from the collections of the Imperial War Museums; captioned A Royal Air Force Lockheed Hudson III of No. 233 Squadron RAF leaves its dispersal at Gibraltar for a reconnaissance sortie.
With one man killed, his batteries leaking, a crack in his hull that prevented submergence to more than 45 feet, and numerous other issues, Heinsohn made for the closest friendly harbor– that of neutral but pro-German Spain– arriving at Cartagena on 2 May.
There, under the howls of British diplomatic protests, the Spaniards allowed the sub 90 days to patch up and get back into the Med. However, the battered U-573 was too far gone for pierside ersatz repairs against a waiting British blockade. On 2 August 1942, Germany sold her to Franco for 180 million pesetas (1.5 million marks) in a warm handover, minus torpedoes and shells, which were destroyed to help keep the British happy. Her flag, books, code machine, and crests were given to the German ambassador.
Handover. Note the caps!
Her 43-man crew, officially to be interned for the duration, snuck back to the Reich in small groups and was replaced by a few civilian German naval technicians who remained with Spain’s new sub as advisers until well after the war.
(Note- One other German Type VIIC sub, U-760, was interned under the guns of the Spanish cruiser Navarra at Vigo harbor in 1943 and, her engines dismantled, was towed away by the British in 1945.)
While the war ended and Hitler was swept away with all of his legions of VIICs (Heinsohn himself and most of Crew 33, were killed on other U-boats after they returned home), U-573, rechristened G-7 by the Spanish, endured.
Why G-7? You see Franco had planned to build six of their own VIICs that were to be numbered G1 to G6, but that never happened.
G7 during her reconstruction
The thing is, the sole Type VIIC the Spanish did have was still a wreck. A floating wreck to be sure, but far from operational by any stretch of the imagination.
It wasn’t until 17 November 1947, after an extensive refit in dry-dock to include much German contract labor, salvaged gear from Hamburg, and new (American) batteries, that she was in active service.
Painted gray, she still carried her 88mm Rheinmetall Borsig forward although her 20mm AA gun was landed. The Armada had acquired 12 working 533mm torpedoes and mounted a 7.62mm MG3 on her tower when needed. Still, she was far in advance of the few smallish pre-WWII subs the Armada had been using.
Tested to 120 meters depth (half or original design), her Spanish crew consisted of a Commander, Deputy Commander, Chief Engineer, Deputy Engineer, three CPOs, 13 Cabos (NCOs), and 24 ratings.
Her 88mm was kept standard in working condition until 1970.
Across her tower was installed “Todo por la Patria” (All for the Fatherland) in place of the old Landeck crest.
The most modern Spanish submarine until the 1950s, she was the fleet’s pride and frequently appeared in period movies and film footage portraying German U-boats for obvious reasons.
“U 47 – Kapitänleutnant Prien,” a 1958 German film starring one U-573/Submarino G-7
In 1961, refitted with the help of the U.S., she was repainted black and renamed S-01.
Submarine (G-7) on its visit to the port of Alicante 1952
Los submarinos G-7 y D-2 petrolean el 6 de Mayo de 1953
Spanish submarine S-01 in Barcelona in June 1962. In the background is the famed circa 1903 Port Vell Port Authority Building, designed by Julio Valdés
Her skippers:
CC. D. GUILERMO CARRERO GARRE of –.–. 1947 to 26.9.1949
CC. D. Ayuso SERRANO JACINTO of 26/09/1949 to 27/11/1952
CC. Joaquín Florez of 27/11/1952 to 19/11/1954
CC. D. TOMAS NAVARRO CLAVIJO of 11/19/1954 to 17/04/1956
CC. Juan A. MORENO AZNAR from 04/17/1956 to 04/05/1960
CC.D. ENRIQUE ROMERO GONZALEZ of 05/05/1960 to 09/29/1961
TN. D. Luis Rodriguez Mendez-Nunez 09.29.1961 to 15.02.1965
CC. D. LUIS FERNANDO MARTI NARBONA of 15/02/1965 to 20/09/1966
CC. ENRIQUE SEGURA Agacino of 20/09/1966 to 04/16/1968
CC. JAVIER GARCIA CAVESTANY of 16/04/1968 to 05/10/1969
CC.D. AREVALO EMILIO Pelluz of 05/10/1969 to 02/05/1970
Docked for the last time in February 1970, she was stricken from the Armada on 2 May that year. Plans to preserve her as a museum fell through and she was sold for about $25,000, her value in scrap metal.
She was replaced in service 11 months later by USS Ronquil (SS-396), a Guppy’d Balao-class smoke boat that became SPS Isaac Peral (S-32)— with much of S-01‘s former crew aboard. Ironically, Ronquil was also a movie star, having appeared as the fictional USS Tigershark in the film Ice Station Zebra.
While numerous submarines are preserved in museums, including 9 in Germany, there is only one Type VIIC on public display– U-995 at Laboe, Germany. Like U-573/S01 she was a Blohm and Voss boat and is a near sister.
(Note, U-505 at the Museum of Science and Industry, in Chicago, Illinois is a type IXC).
Submarino S 01 Ex U573 y G-7 1941-1970 By Martin Garcia Garcia
Specs:
Displacement: 769 tonnes (757 long tons) surfaced
871 t (857 long tons) submerged
Length: 67.10 m (220 ft 2 in) o/a
50.50 m (165 ft. 8 in) pressure hull
Beam: 6.20 m (20 ft. 4 in) (o/a)
4.70 m (15 ft. 5 in) (pressure hull)
Height: 9.60 m (31 ft. 6 in)
Draft: 4.74 m (15 ft. 7 in)
Propulsion: 2 × supercharged 6-cylinder 4-stroke Germaniawerft diesel engines totaling 2,800–3,200 PS (2,100–2,400 kW; 2,800–3,200 shp). Max rpm: 470–490. Two Brown, Boveri & Cie GG UB 720/8 double-acting electric motors
Speed: 17.7 knots (32.8 km/h; 20.4 mph) surfaced
7.6 knots (14.1 km/h; 8.7 mph) submerged
Range: 8,500 nmi (15,700 km; 9,800 mi) at 10 knots (19 km/h; 12 mph) surfaced
80 nmi (150 km; 92 mi) at 4 knots (7.4 km/h; 4.6 mph) submerged
Test depth: 230 m (750 ft)
Calculated crush depth: 250–295 m (820–968 ft.)
Complement: 44-52 officers & ratings
Armament: 5 × 53.3 cm (21 in) torpedo tubes (4 bow, 1 stern)
14 × torpedoes or 26 TMA or 39 TMB mines
1 × 8.8 cm SK C/35 Rheinmetall Borsig naval gun with 220 rounds
1x Rheinmettal 20mm antiaircraft
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General Atomics has unveiled a new capability for its MQ-9B Guardian maritime UAV (a navalized 9B Reaper), presenting a sonobuoy capability along with other modifications to the Royal Navy in a bid to market the Guardian as an unmanned maritime patrol aircraft to supplement the likely procurement of a manned maritime patrol aircraft.
“What we’re really looking at is a Predator B carrying sonobuoys, controlling them, and sending sonobuoy information back to the ground station over a SATCOM link,” King says.
“The work has seen us put the system together in a lab and carry out ground testing and prove it end to end. We were ready to go flying in 2015, but the aircraft were diverted to more urgent work. So we will be flying this early in the new year to prove the system.”
For more than a century, the CSS Hunley rested at the bottom of the ocean just outside Charleston harbor, its crew entombed, its hull gradually encased in hardening encrustations.
When it was raised 15 years ago off South Carolina, it looked more like a barnacled sea monster than the world’s first operational submarine, sunk in battle during the winter of 1864.
The remains of its eight sailors were removed in 2001, but research has continued, and Thursday, a conservation team announced that experts have now removed more than half a ton of the encrustations.
The result: the Hunley has much of the look and menace of a modern sub and is clearly the ancestor of the U-boat and the nuclear submarine of today.
The uncleaned stern of the historic Confederate submarine, CSS Hunley, is seen in a photo provided by the group Friends of the Hunley. The sub has recently been cleaned of the 1,200 pounds of undersea concretions that had accumulated over the 136 years the sunken sub rested on the bottom outside Charleston harbor. Courtesy of Friends of the Hunley via The Washington Post
The cleaned stern of the historic Confederate submarine, CSS Hunley, cleared of the 1,200 pounds of undersea concretions that had accumulated over the 136 years the sunken sub rested on the bottom outside Charleston harbor. The work is being done at the Warren Lasch Conservation Center in North Charleston, S.C. The Hunley is considered the 1st submarine in history to sink another warship. Courtesy of Friends of the Hunley via The Washington Post
During DSEI 2015 which took place in London from 15-18 September, UK based engineering company SubSea Craft unveiled a revolutionary new submersible called the Diver Delivery Unit (DDU). The DDU is modular and offers mission-specific capability on and under the surface. It is scalable and reconfigurable for a variety of roles. The DDU features a unique catamaran design and can deploy up to 8 special forces operators including the crew of two.
Of course, it seems about 2-3 times too wide for U.S. Navy submarine dry deck shelters, but could have some use from surface ships with well decks such as LSDs, LPDs, LHDs etc. Or maybe Independence-class tri-hulled LCS platforms(?)
Formerly known as Facility 825 GTS, the top-secret military facility was used as an underground submarine base in the Crimea near Balaclava during the Cold War. Built in the 1950s hollowed out mountain lair was turned over to the Ukrainians in 2000. It could house upto 14 submarines in its galleries and some 3,500 personnel.
![USS Tigrone (AGSS-419) with experimental bow sonar, off Ponta Delgada, Azores, 1967 [1400×843]](https://i0.wp.com/laststandonzombieisland.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/uss-tigrone-agss-419-with-experimental-bow-sonar-off-ponta-delgada-azores-1967-1400c397843.jpg?resize=519%2C313&ssl=1)
