Info on the U-434

[IceBergSlim]

Currently I am working in Hamburg and saw a tourist attraction for the Submarine Museum U-434.

Excited about visiting a WWII era German U-Boat "on air" I headed to the site and was surprised to see a red star and white dancing bear painted on the side. Even though I enjoyed the experience I was a bit surprised that a cold war era Russian sub was labeled as a U-Boat and with a number analogous with a true WWII hunter.

My minimal research tells me that the German U-434 was sunk in Portugal in 1941. The information provided at the museum tells me that this sample was a "U-434-Tango Class (project 641B) built in 1976 in the shipyard Krasnoe Sormovo/ Gorki.

I am pretty ignorant of German subs and their history. To be honest the only ones I have ever been inside of have been under water.

Sorry for the long winded preamble but does any one know why a Russian sub would be labeled with the same name as a dead German one?

 

[Mike Manthe]

Hi,

Although this is an old posting I want to write some lines. I can't tell you why they named a soviet sub U 434 - maybe to get tourist on board. Ther is another soviet sub at Peenünde. It's a Juliett class ballistic missile sub nowadays named "U-461" http://www.u-461.de/frameset_e.htm

Not far away from Hamburg (apprax. 120 km) in the vicinity of Kiel is a VIIC/41 U-boat. U 995 is the only surviving Type VII U-boat and part of the Naval Memorial in Laboe at the mouth of the Kiel Firth. The U-boat was in Norway at the end of WWII and served several years in the Norweguan navy as HNoMS Kaura. In 1965 she returned to Germany and became a museum. German submarine U-995 - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Another WWII U-boat can be visted in Bremerhaven. It's a Type XXI U-boat - a class which was a revolution in submarine design and model for soviet and american subs after WWII. U2540 was sunk by her crew in 1945, salvaged in 1957 by the Federal German Navy and used as an experimental sub until 1982 German submarine Wilhelm Bauer - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

There are other submarines in Germany, e.g. the first U-boat of the imperial navy U 1 in munich http://www.deutsches-museum.de/en/collections/transport/maritime-exhibition/u1/ and Wilhelm Bauer's Brandtaucher in Dresdenhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brandtaucher

 

[Zieg]

Definitely get over to Kiel and see the U-Boat on display there. There is also a memorial to the German sailors and submariners lost in the two world wars and worth seeing. I visited the site in 1979, and the U-Boat looked like it was ready to go to sea.

 

[Gilldiver]

Another WWII U-boat can be visted in Bremerhaven. It's a Type XI U-boat - a class which was a revolution in submarine design and model for soviet and american subs after WWII. U2540 was sunk by her crew in 1945, salvaged in 1957 by the Federal German Navy and used as an experimental sub until 1982 German submarine Wilhelm Bauer - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This boat is a Type XXI, not a Type XI

 

[Mike Manthe]

OMG ,

I deleted the very important second "X". Of course "Wilhelm Bauer" (xU 2540) is a Type XXI (Elektroboot).

Type IX (U 505 in Chicago is a Type IX C) was - like Type II and Type VII - a design more or less based on the WWI u-boats of the imperial navy (btw: is it correct to name German WWI submarines U-boats or is this just a term used for German WWII subs?)

Best regards

Mike

 

[Gilldiver]

U-boat was used in both wars. If you want to be totaly correct, a WWI boat should be listed as:

SMS U-XXX

and a WWII boat as:

DKM U-XXX

 

[Mike Manthe]

Hi,
Thanks for the information, but:

The correct prefix of a WWI boat is SM U ## (Seiner Majestät Unterseeboot) - like the British HMSm

DKM (I guess it should stand for Deutsche Kriegsmarine) or KMS have never been used officially (at least in german sources) - maybe it's something used in post war sources written in English.