
Above: Elektroboot – the smooth lines of U-2540, now a tourist attraction.
Until the birth of Elektroboots, submarines had essentially been “submersibles”, i.e. warships with the temporary ability to submerge.
Elektroboot U-boats were the first true submarines, i.e. warships specifically designed to operate entirely submerged, rather than a temporary means to launch an attack or evade detection.
There was nothing in the Allied arsenal that could match what was thought to be the parameters of the new type of German U-boat then thought to being built in considerable numbers. Naval intelligence and encounters by Allied shipping revealed there to be a new and substantially faster U-boat (the Type XXI), that could remain fully submerged for unheard of lengths of time.
Elektroboot submarines (1935 – 1955) – battleoftheatlantic19391945
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