U-boat Types


The XXI which was designed from the XVIII plans

XVIII

Large combat version of a Walter boat

On 4 Jan, 1943 contracts were granted to Deutshce Werke in Kiel for 2 XVIII Walter submarines (werk # 330 and 331). These boats (U-796 & U-797) were intended to be the first real combat Atlantic submarines based on the Walter design and they had incredible potential on the drawing board.

These boats were transferred to Germaniawerft in Kiel on 14 Dec, 1943 for completion but were cancelled in favour of the XXI on 28 March 1944. The XXI electro boat was extremely similar in appearance and size but used massive amount of batteries (3 times the power of the VIIC) to reach submerged speed of 17 knots.

U-796 and U-797 were broken up on the slips at Germaniawerft in 1944.


Technical information

Displacement
(tons)

1485 sf
1652 sm
1887 total

 Length
(m)

71.50 oa

 Beam
(m)

8.00
6.20 oa
5.30 ph

Draught/
Height (m)

6.36

 Power
(hp)

4000 to
4400 ehp sf
396 ehp sm
15,000 ehp sm*

Range
(nm/kts)

3000/17 sf
45/4 sm
202/24 sm*

 Speed
(kts)

17.0 to
18.5 sf
7.0 sm
24.0 sm*

Oil Supply
(tons)

124 max + 204 (H2O2)

Torpedoes
(Max #)

23

Max Depth
(meters)

Unknown

sm = submerged, sf = surfaced, ph = pressure hull,
oa = overall, hp = horsepower, nm = Nautical miles
* Walter turbine