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The U-boat Wars 1939-1945 (Kriegsmarine) and 1914-1918 (Kaiserliche Marine) and Allied Warships of WWII - uboat.net

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The U-boat War in World War Two (1939-1945) and World War One (1914-1918). Over 30,000 pages on the officers, the boats, technology and the Allied efforts to counter the U-boat threat.

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Light does not penetrate very far into the ocean, so submarines must navigate through the water virtually blind. However, submarines are equipped with navigational charts and sophisticated navigational equipment. When on the surface, a sophisticated global positioning system (GPS) accurately determines latitude and longitude, but this system cannot work when the submarine is submerged. Underwater, the submarine uses inertial guidance systems (electric, mechanical) that keep track of the ship's motion from a fixed starting point by using gyroscopes. The inertial guidance systems are accurate to 150 hours of operation and must be realigned by other surface-dependent navigational systems ( GPS, radio, radar, satellite). With these systems onboard, a submarine can be accurately navigated and be within a hundred feet of its intended course.

To locate a target, a submarine uses active and passive SONAR ( sound navigation and ranging). Active sonar emits pulses of sound waves that travel through the water, reflect off the target and return to the ship. By knowing the speed of sound in water and the time for the sound wave to travel to the target and back, the computers can quickly calculate distance between the submarine and the target. Whales, dolphins and bats use the same technique for locating prey (echolocation). Passive sonar involves listening to sounds generated by the target. Sonar systems can also be used to realign inertial navigation systems by identifying known ocean floor features .

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­ Light does not penetrate very far into the ocean, so submarines must nav­igate through the water virtually blind. However, submarines are equipped with navigational charts and sophisticated navigational equipment. When on the surface, a sophisticated global positioning system (GPS) accurately determines latitude and longitude, but this system cannot work when the submarine is submerged.

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This website and my uncle.

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Summary

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submarine, any naval vessel that is capable of propelling itself beneath the water as well as on the water’s surface. This is a unique capability among warships, and submarines are quite different in design and appearance from surface ships.

Submarines first became a major factor in naval warfare during World War I (1914–18), when Germany employed them to destroy surface merchant vessels. In such attacks submarines used their primary weapon, a self-propelled underwater missile known as a torpedo. Submarines played a similar role on a larger scale in World War II (1939–45), in both the Atlantic (by Germany) and the Pacific (by the United States). In the 1960s the nuclear-powered submarine, capable of remaining underwater for months at a time and of firing long-range nuclear missiles without surfacing, became an important strategic weapon platform. Armed with torpedoes as well as antiship and antisubmarine missiles, the nuclear attack submarine has also become a key element of naval warfare.

Britannica Quiz

Submarines, Ships, and other Watercraft: Fact or Fiction?

Has a naval vessel reached depths of more than 10,000 meters? Was the first nuclear submarine launched in 1945? Test the depth of your knowledge in this quiz of submarines, ships, and other watercraft.

Following is a history of the development of submarines from the 17th century to the present. For a history of other warships, see naval ship. For the weaponry of modern attack and strategic submarines, see rocket and missile system.

Early hand-powered submersibles

The first serious discussion of a “submarine”—a craft designed to be navigated underwater—appeared in 1578 from the pen of William Bourne, a British mathematician and writer on naval subjects. Bourne proposed a completely enclosed boat that could be submerged and rowed underwater. It consisted of a wooden frame covered with waterproof leather; it was to be submerged by reducing its volume by contracting the sides through the use of hand vises. Bourne did not actually construct his boat, and Cornelis Drebbel (or Cornelius van Drebel), a Dutch inventor, is usually credited with building the first submarine. Between 1620 and 1624 he successfully maneuvered his craft at depths of from 12 to 15 feet (four to five metres) beneath the surface during repeated trials in the Thames River, in England. King James I is said to have gone aboard the craft for a short ride. Drebbel’s submarine resembled that proposed by Bourne in that its outer hull consisted of greased leather over a wooden frame; oars extended through the sides and, sealed with tight-fitting leather flaps, provided a means of propulsion both on the surface and underwater. Drebbel’s first craft was followed by two larger ones built on the same principle.

A number of submarine boats were conceived in the early years of the 18th century. By 1727 no fewer than 14 types had been patented in England alone. In 1747 an unidentified inventor proposed an ingenious method of submerging and returning to the surface: his submarine design had goatskin bags attached to the hull with each skin connected to an aperture in the bottom of the craft. He planned to submerge the vessel by filling the skins with water and to surface by forcing the water out of the skins with a “twisting rod.” This arrangement was a forerunner of the modern submarine ballast tank.

First use in war

The submarine was first used as an offensive weapon in naval warfare during the American Revolution (1775–83). The Turtle, a one-man craft invented by David Bushnell, a student at Yale, was built of wood in the shape of a walnut standing on end (see photograph). Submerged, the craft was powered by propellers cranked by the operator. The plan was to have the Turtle make an underwater approach to a British warship, attach a charge of gunpowder to the ship’s hull by a screw device operated from within the craft, and leave before the charge was exploded by a time fuse. In the actual attack, however, the Turtle was unable to force the screw through the copper sheathing on the warship’s hull.

Robert Fulton, famed U.S. inventor and artist, experimented with submarines several years before his steamboat Clermont steamed up the Hudson River. In 1800, while in France, Fulton built the submarine Nautilus under a grant from Napoleon Bonaparte. Completed in May 1801, this craft was made of copper sheets over iron ribs. A collapsing mast and sail were provided for surface propulsion, and a hand-turned propeller drove the boat when submerged. A precursor of a conning tower fitted with a glass-covered porthole permitted observation from within the craft. The Nautilus submerged by taking water into ballast tanks, and a horizontal “rudder”—a forerunner of the diving plane—helped keep the craft at the desired depth. The submarine contained enough air to keep four men alive and two candles burning for three hours underwater; later a tank of compressed air was added.

The Nautilus was intended to attach an explosive charge to the hull of an enemy ship in much the same manner as the Turtle. Fulton experimentally sank an old schooner moored at Brest but, setting out to destroy British warships, was unable to overtake those he sighted. France’s interest in Fulton’s submarine waned, and he left for England, offering his invention to his former enemy. In 1805 the Nautilus sank the brig Dorothy in a test, but the Royal Navy would not back his efforts. Fulton then came to the United States and succeeded in obtaining congressional backing for a more ambitious undersea craft. This new submarine was to carry 100 men and be powered by a steam engine. Fulton died before the craft was actually finished, however, and the submarine, named Mute, was left to rot, eventually sinking at its moorings.

During the War of 1812 between the United States and England, a copy of the Turtle was built, which attacked HMS Ramillies at anchor off New London, Conn. This time the craft’s operator succeeded in boring a hole in the ship’s copper sheathing, but the screw broke loose as the explosive was being attached to the ship’s hull.

American Civil War and after

The next U.S. attempt at submarine warfare came during the Civil War (1861–65) when the Confederate States resorted to “unconventional” methods to overcome the Union Navy’s superior strength, exerted in a blockade of Southern ports. In 1862 Horace L. Hunley of Mobile, Ala., financed the building of a Confederate submarine named Pioneer, a craft that was 34 feet long and was driven by a hand-cranked propeller operated by three men. It probably was scuttled to prevent its capture when Union forces occupied New Orleans (although some records say the Pioneer was lost with all those aboard during a dive while en route to attack Union ships).

The second submarine developed by the same builders was a remarkably advanced concept: a 25-foot iron boat intended to be propelled by a battery and electric motors. Not surprisingly, no suitable motors could be found, so a propeller cranked by four men was again adopted. The submarine sank without loss of life in heavy seas off Mobile Bay while seeking to attack the enemy.

The third submarine of the Confederacy was the H.L. Hunley, a modified iron boiler lengthened to between 36 and 40 feet. Ballast tanks and a system of weights submerged the craft; it could travel at a speed of four miles an hour, powered by eight men cranking its propeller. Its armament consisted of a “torpedo,” filled with 90 pounds (40 kilograms) of gunpowder, towed behind the submarine at the end of a 200-foot line. The Hunley was to dive under an enemy warship and drag the torpedo against its hull. After a successful test against a barge, the Hunley was moved by railroad to Charleston, S.C. There the vessel suffered several disasters, sinking three times and drowning a number of crewmen including Hunley himself. Manned for a fourth time, the Hunley was fitted with a “torpedo” on the end of a long spar, and the craft made several successful dives. On the night of Feb. 17, 1864, the submarine attacked the Union warship Housatonic in Charleston harbour. The torpedo’s detonation exploded the warship’s magazines: the Housatonic sank in shallow water with the loss of five men, but the Hunley was also destroyed by the explosion, and its crew was killed.

One of the more intrepid submarine inventors of the same period was Wilhelm Bauer, a noncommissioned officer of Bavarian artillery who built two boats, Le Plongeur-Marin (1851) and Le Diable-Marin (1855). The first boat sank in Kiel harbour on Feb. 1, 1851, but Bauer and his two assistants escaped from a depth of 60 feet after the craft had been on the bottom for five hours. His second craft, built for the Russian government, was successful and reportedly made 134 dives before being lost at sea. In September 1856, during the coronation of Tsar Alexander II, Bauer submerged his submarine in Kronshtadt harbour with several musicians on board. An underwater rendition of the Russian national anthem was clearly heard by persons inside ships in the harbour.

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submarine, any naval vessel that is capable of propelling itself beneath the water as well as on the water’s surface. This is a unique capability among warships, and submarines are quite different in design and appearance from surface ships. Submarines first became a major factor in naval warfare d…

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What did you navigate?

"I was a navigator on a ballistic missile submarine during the Cold War, from 1965 to 1968. I took part in 3 deterrent patrols (with nuclear missiles for protecting the United States from the Soviet Union). At that time I was a Lt. Commander on board the USS James K. Polk (SSBN 645) as part of the blue crew. Boats had 2 crews, "Blue" crew and "Gold" crew, and we would rotate every 3 months back to home port of Submarine Base Groton, Connecticut, for training and crew turnover (roughly 1/3 of crew)."

What did you do?

"I was responsible for the accurate location of the ship at sea at all times. If, God forbid, we had to launch nuclear missiles against the Soviet Pac, the Polaris missiles had to know where they were starting from to reach targets accurately. We had to know where the ship was at all times because you never knew when you might get orders to launch.

I was the navigator. If anything went wrong, I was called. Any time we went to periscope depth, I was in the Nav Center (Navigation Center) or the Control Room monitoring navigational procedures. And then occasionally I stood watch, as the officer of the deck. In a submarine that means you run the ship."

What was the purpose of the Nav Center?

"The output of the navigation center was to provide the ship's position and attitude (latitude, longitude, ship's velocity, roll and pitch) to the missile control system for input into the Polaris missiles continuously. Patrols normally lasted 60 days. So the Nav Center was the heart of the ship and manned 24/7 by specially trained submarine sailors and electronics specialists."

What technologies do you use to navigate?

"We used the Transit satellites, Loran C, bottom-contour navigation and celestial navigation fixes to update the Ship's Inertial Navigation Systems (the SINS)."

What was the SINS?

The SINS (Ship's Inertial Navigation System) was in the Navigation Center of the ship, as was all the navigation equipment. The SINS maintained the ship's position at all times through a system of gyroscopes, accelerometers, and velocity meters. All this equipment was controlled through the Navigation Data Computer, a big computer in the Nav Center. This was one of the first large-scale computer systems in the Navy. When these ships went to sea in the '60s, it was the first time digital equipment was used in a weapons systems. It was a breakthrough, like the MARDAN and the Navigation Data Computer. We had six or seven computers-the MARDAN that ran the SINS, a computer that ran the Transit system, and a computer that ran the LORAN system, and over the top of all of these, we had the NAVDAC (Navigation Data Computer). SINS position was plotted every half hour on graph paper. These positions were compared to fixes taken by LORAN C, Transit, bottom-contour or celestial navigation fixes. If the SINS position exceeded the required accuracy based on external fixes, the SINS position was corrected through the computer system.

What is Bottom-Contour Navigation?

"Bottom-Contour Navigation used specific bottom-contour charts and sonar to fix a ship's position. These were very highly measured areas, and we'd run across them several times and fix position with soundings . For the soundings, we could vary the power of the sonar-we were putting sound in the water--to avoid detection."

Why did you use LORAN-C?

"The mission of the ship was to remain undetected, so that no one knew where the boat was. Any activity at periscope depth with mast exposed could result in detection, either by friendly or unfriendly forces. So the captain wouldn't let me go up as often as I wanted and made me rely on LORAN C. LORAN C was continuously copied on a floating wire antenna while remaining deep, because of its frequency. The antenna floated just below the surface, trailed behind the ship out to, I think it was 1500 feet. LORAN C was less accurate than Transit.

How did you use a satellite system, like Transit, if you were underwater?

"For Transit fixes, we had to go to periscope depth and raise a special antenna. In those days we didn't get a Transit fix very often, maybe once every 3 days, because we had continuous LORAN coverage. We were at periscope depth for about 15 minutes, and we'd track the satellite from time of rise to the time it set."

Why did it take so long compared to GPS?

"It was the Doppler system with 2 frequencies and we had to listen for a period of time to both frequencies."

How did you use celestial navigation?

"We used a specialized periscope with a very accurate built-in sextant to compute the ship's position and heading, using normal celestial sighting procedures. The periscope system had its own computer, it had all the stars in the computer, and the timing was in the computer. And it did all the calculations to compute the fix. You prepared for it by coming up, and asking the computer-based on current position-what stars were available, and then all the stars were loaded. You got the results in half a minute, a beautiful piece of work. The periscope was computer -controlled, and the computer contained all the celestial information needed to detect, measure the position of stars, and compute the fix. The drawback was when using the celestial periscope; you had to be at periscope in clear weather, which increased detectability of the ship. We did this maybe once a week. This periscope was removed from use when the Poseidon missile replaced the Polaris missile in the early '70s, because of improvements in the SINS. The SSBNs didn't need celestial navigation any more, but it was still used by the attack boats."

What were some challenges you faced while being a submarine navigator?

"We had to maintain specific accuracy requirements for speed and position. The requirements were for missile accuracy if we had to launch. Performance was monitored after the patrol by Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) under government contract. Every piece of data, navigations and weapons data, were part of the package provided by the ship to APL. The IBM typewriter printed out everything the SINS was doing, and that was part of the patrol report. During the patrols the crews were tested on their ability to launch by random exercises to conduct simulated launches on a no-notice basis. We had pop quizzes. These tests were evaluated by Johns Hopkins APL after every patrol. These tests evaluated the ship's performance in navigation, missile accuracy, missile readiness and ship's communications. Every six months, a report evaluating the performance of the fleet ballistic missile submarine force went to the Joint Chiefs of Staff. They cared very deeply about that performance, because they wanted to see how effective the nation's nuclear deterrent was against the Soviet Union."

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Submarine Navigator, U.S. Navy, Ret. | Time and Navigation

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"I was a navigator on a ballistic missile submarine during the Cold War, from 1965 to 1968. I took part in 3 deterrent patrols (with nuclear missiles for protecting the United States from the Soviet Union). At that time I was a Lt. Commander on board the USS James K.

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The U.S. Navy's Virginia Class attack submarines are formidable weapons platforms. They carry advanced-capability (ADCAP) torpedoes and Tomahawk land-attack cruise missiles. But apparently this is not enough. They are to be the first subs in the world armed with a powerful laser as well.

The US Navy project will fit high energy lasers (HEL) onto a mast of the Virginia Class attack ... [+]
H I Sutton (author)

Documents suggest that the High Energy Laser (HEL) could be incredibly powerful, around 300 kilowatts. And eventually be up to 500 kilowatts. The power will come from the submarine's nuclear reactor which has a capacity of 30 megawatts. And there are indications that it may already have been tested using a towed power generator instead.

It is likely to be incorporated into the periscope system of the submarine. The periscope mast, nowadays called a Photonics mast, is already a highly sophisticated device. It isn't like periscopes of old where the captain looked directly through it. Instead it has an array of cameras which can snap high resolution photos in 360 degrees. So the submarine only has to put the mast up for a fleeting moment to get full all-round awareness. With the laser, if it can see it, it can kill it.

It is unclear why the Navy wants to fit a laser to submarines. One of the possible uses will be as a last ditch defense against aircraft such as drones and anti-submarine helicopters. Traditionally submarines were equipped with machine guns to defend against air attack when they were on the surface. But postwar submarines spend very little time on the surface. The U.S. Navy hasn't built subs with guns for around 70 years.

During the Cold War the British developed the Submarine Launched Airflight Missile, or SLAM. This used a mast with an optical sensor and 6 Blowpipe missiles which could be slaved to the periscope. The missiles had a very short range but could engage enemy helicopters. SLAM was to equip Israeli submarines but it was ultimately never fitted. Today the German Interactive Defense and Attack System (IDAS) uses missiles fired from the torpedo tube to engage aircraft.

But the high energy laser could have some advantages over missiles. The submarine will only have to reveal itself briefly to zap the threat. And because the laser travels at the speed of light it is very difficult to defend against. Low cost drones are proliferating and submarines operating inshore may face swarms of them. A laser would be cheaper per-kill and not run out of ammunition in the way that a missile system would.

The laser may also be intended for swarms of speed boats such as those used by Iran and North Korea. Individually these are not worth expending torpedoes on and also move very fast which makes torpedo attacks harder. In the old days submarines would surface and use their deck guns on lower value targets. But today the submarine has to let them pass so the laser could provide an alternative.

Finally the laser may be intended to strike coastal targets such as radar stations, submarine piers or communications masts. The target would have to be of sufficiently high value to warrant the inherent risks of placing the submarine so close however.

For the moment the Navy is not providing very much information on the project. So it may be years before the full capabilities of this system are revealed. Whatever the rationale it could quickly become a differentiating capability for American subs.

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The Navy Is Arming Attack Submarines With High Energy Lasers

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The U.S. Navy's Virginia Class attack submarines are formidable weapons platforms. They carry advanced-capability (ADCAP) torpedoes and Tomahawk land-attack cruise missiles. But apparently this is not enough. They are to be the first subs in the world armed with a powerful laser as well.

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Nuclear submarines carry a wide array of offensive and defensive weapons, both nuclear and conventional, with which they conduct their secret operations. They must be able to deploy these weapons with little notice, and ensure that they are accurate and successful in accomplishing their objectives. Ballistic missiles are the most powerful and far-reaching of these weapons, but there are many others in a nuclear submarine's arsenal which define its threat and maintain its ability to hide and seek, as well as strike. Anytime and anywhere.

Copyright © 2000, The National Museum of American History

Nuclear submarines carry a wide array of offensive and defensive weapons, both nuclear and conventional, with which they conduct their secret operations. They must be able to deploy these weapons with little notice, and ensure that they are accurate and successful in accomplishing their objectives. Ballistic missiles are the most powerful and far-reaching of these weapons, but there are many others in a nuclear submarine's arsenal which define its threat and maintain its ability to hide and seek, as well as strike. Anytime and anywhere.

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Nuclear submarines carry a wide array of offensive and defensive weapons, both nuclear and conventional, with which they conduct their secret operations. They must be able to deploy these weapons with little notice, and ensure that they are accurate and successful in accomplishing their objectives.