German Type IIA submarine
U-1, a Type IIA submarine and lead ship of the class
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| Name: | Type II Submarine |
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| Built: | 1934 -1940 |
| In commission: | 1935 -1945 |
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| Type: | Coastal submarine |
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| Test depth: | 150 m (490 ft) |
| Complement: | 3 officers, 11 non-commissioned officers, 11 enlisted |
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Gruppenhorchgerät |
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The Type II U-boat was designed by Nazi Germany as a coastal U-boat, modeled after the CV-707 submarine, which was designed by the Dutch dummy company NV Ingenieurskantoor voor Scheepsbouw den Haag (I.v.S) (set up by Germany after World War I in order to maintain and develop German submarine technology and to circumvent the limitations set by the Treaty of Versailles) and built in 1933 by the Finnish Crichton-Vulcan shipyard in Turku, Finland. It was too small to undertake sustained operations far away from the home support facilities. Its primary role was found to be in the training schools, preparing new German naval officers for command. It appeared in four sub-types.
Germany was stripped of her U-boats by the Treaty of Versailles at the end of World War I, but in the late 1920s and early 1930s began to rebuild her armed forces. The pace of rearmament accelerated under Adolf Hitler, and the first Type II U-boat was laid down on 11 February 1935. Knowing that the world would see this step towards rearmament, Hitler reached an agreement with Britain to build a navy up to 35% of the size of the Royal Navy in surface vessels, but equal to the British in number of submarines. This agreement was signed on 18 June 1935, and U-1 was commissioned 11 days later.
The defining characteristic of the Type II was its tiny size. Known as the Einbaum ("dugout canoe"), it had the advantages over larger boats of the ability to work in shallow water, diving more quickly, and being more difficult to spot due to the low conning tower. However, it had a shallower maximum depth, short range, and cramped living conditions, and could carry fewer torpedoes.
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