Who’d have thought Turkey had the No.2 largest submarine fleet in Europe?
Winston Churchill must be spinning at about 3500 rpms at this point. HMs submarine forces are tied in third place (hull-wise) with France and Greece.
Image via Navy Graphics:
Category Archives: submarines
Warship Wednesday Oct. 7, 2015: Los Submarinos!
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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Budget ASW patrol with Reaper
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.”
Hunley is clean again
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
The new SubSea Craft Diver Delivery Unit (DDU)
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(?)
Short tour inside the Soviet’s old Dr. Evil U-boat pen
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.
So it looks like the Chinese found somebody’s sea glider.
These things are used for oceanography data collection and have even crossed the Atlantic (in 221 days, no one said they were fast!). They work by adjusting their buoyancy to create forward movement but usually have a set of wings. Kind of like one of those cereal-box submarines that you had as a kid, but without the need for baking soda. Their commo is via satellite.
But the funny thing is, it took the Chinese 3 years to figure out its not theirs…or at least three years to make the statement known.
According to Chinese news sources:
When Huang Yunlai from Hainan province found a one-meter-long, torpedo-like device while fishing 3 years ago, he took photos of it and informed the province’s National Security Bureau immediately. Experts preliminarily concluded it was suspicious and brought it back for further analysis.
It is now confirmed that the unmanned underwater machine, disguised to look like a torpedo, is an intelligence device capable of taking pictures with fiber-optic and satellite communication. It was secretly placed in the water by a foreign country to obtain information on the Chinese navy fleet’s operations at sea.
Inside the sneaky dope sub
The Coast Guard Cutter Stratton crew seizes cocaine bales from a self-propelled semi-submersible (SPSS, a/k/a/ sneaky dope sub, a/k/a narco nautilus) interdicted in international waters off the coast of Central America, July 19, 2015. The Coast Guard recovered more than 6 tons of cocaine from the 40-foot vessel.
Interesting footage of the Stratton‘s 35 foot LRI-II notching in the rear ramp of the big 418-foot National Security Cutter. I’ve done it on a 17 footer in the back of a WPB and it was a blast so I can only imagine the scale involved here.
More on Stratton‘s epic 8.4 ton seizure here.
USS Pennsylvania gets an escort from King Poseidon
Video shows Ohio-class ballistic missile submarine USS Pennsylvania (SSBN 735) underway in the vicinity of Hawaii. Video by Petty Officer 1st Class Jason Swink | Commander Submarine Forces Pacific | Date: 06.28.2015
The fourth ship of the United States Navy to be named for the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania (1837 140-gun ship of the line, 1863 screw steamer, 1903 armored cruiser, and the famous BB-38 of the World Wars), SSBN-735 was commissioned in 1989 and is home ported at Bangor.
She just completed her Engineered Refueling Overhaul (ERO) at Puget Sound Naval Shipyard in 2012 and is expected to serve well into the 2030s at which point she will be pushing a half-century with the dolphins.
Swedes stumble on a wrecked mini-sub in their waters
You may remember a few months back when the Swedish coastal artillery and naval forces went ape shit on a possible non-NATO (read= Russki) midget sub in their territorial waters– and reportedly dropped a good number of ASW weapons on active contacts. Well, it seems like they have found a 20m (66 foot) long 3m (10 foot) abeam submarine in their waters with Cyrillic letters on its hull.
Note the groovy Steampunk hatch
As reported by The Express, a Swedish newspaper, the submarine is just under two miles off the coast of Sweden, although Ocean X, the team that discovered it, are not disclosing its exact location.
It was discovered last week, and the Swedish armed forces confirmed to the paper that the images of the craft are currently being analyzed.
HI Sutton over at Covert Shores thinks it could be an unknown Russian midget, possibly a variant of the Piranha-M.
While Per Andersson, a retired lieutenant colonel in the Swedish Coastal Artillery, says he is “sure” it is a much older submarine, and says he has been in touch with former military colleagues who agree with him.
Electric Boat built the Fulton (renamed the Som/Catfish) in the U.S. then disassembled her in 1904 and shipped the craft to Russia
They feel it could be the old Tsarist Navy’s Som, the 66-foot long, 11-foot abeam craft built originally as the private submarine Fulton by the Electric Boat Company in 1901 and sold to the Tsar during the Russo-Japanese war.
Som at dock. Note the Cyrillic letters on her hull (big up)
Som ensnared in fishing nets, DOH! Note the Cyrillic on the hull (Click to big up)
The humble Som was lost in the Baltic in 1916 but her grave has been lost to history.
Either way, its going to be interesting to find out just which one it is.
UPDATE:
It looks like its the Som.
