Here
she is in all her glory. Type XII introduced streamlining in U-Boat
design, resulting in a quantum leap in underwater performance. All
submarines before this one were basically designed to submerge and stay
under the surface in one place (sans minor pedestrian manoeuvres using
electric power). Type XXI could easily steam in circles around any
Allied convoy – all under water. sourceU-2540
was an advanced submarine which entered service on 24th February 1945.
Less than 3 months later, on 4th May, she was scuttled by her own crew.
In
1957, she was raised and returned to service on 1st September 1960 as
the research submarine Wilhelm Bauer. She served in a civilian role
under various research projects before decommissioning on 15th March
1982. On 24th April 1984, she was transferred to the Deutsches
Schiffahrtsmuseum (German Maritime Museum) as the Technikmuseum Wilhelm
Bauer.
The
entrance to the museum is adorned by two propellers, one of which is
shown here. I’m quite certain that these are the original propellers of
this U-boat. sourceIn
the spring of 1943, Germany was clearly losing the battle of the
Atlantic. Improvements in Allied escort material and tactics, combined
with cracking the German military code dramatically increased the
U-Boats´ losses, rendering them near useless. The German high command
saw its best reaction in the speedy development of improved submarines.
