Type 202 submarine

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Class overview
BuildersAtlas Werke, Bremen
Operators German Navy
Built1961–1966
In commission1965–1966
Planned40
Completed2
Cancelled38
Retired2
General characteristics
TypeMidget U-boat
Displacement
  • 100 tonnes (98 long tons), surfaced;
  • 137 tonnes (135 long tons), submerged
Length23.10 metres (75 ft 9 in)
Beam3.40 metres (11 ft 2 in)
Draft2.7 metres (8 ft 10 in)
Propulsion
Speed
  • 6 knots (11 km/h; 6.9 mph), surfaced;
  • 13 knots (24 km/h; 15 mph), submerged
Range
  • 400 nautical miles (740 km; 460 mi) at 4 knots (7.4 km/h; 4.6 mph), surfaced;
  • 160 nautical miles (300 km; 180 mi) at 3 knots (5.6 km/h; 3.5 mph), submerged
Test depth100 metres (330 ft)
Complement6
Armament

The Type 202 submarine was a short lived class of German submarines. Design of these very small submarines started in 1957 by Ingenieurkontor Lübeck (IKL). It was intended to build 40 Type 202 mini submarines with a six-man crew but technical difficulties and doubts about their usefulness reduced them to three, and of those three for trials, to be further reduced to two. The boats were in service only a few months and were scrapped shortly after.

They were one of the few military U-boats not bearing "U-numbers", probably since they were never intended for combat use. Instead they were named after important German engineers in submarine constructions (like Wilhelm Bauer).

Hans Techel was built with traditional propeller and rudders (similar to the Type 205 submarines), but Friedrich Schürer had a rotatable Kort nozzle instead.

List of ships[edit]

Pennant
number
Name Laid down Launched Com-
missioned
Decom-
missioned
Fate
S172 Hans Techel 10 October 1961 15 March 1965 14 October 1965 15 December 1966 scrapped
S173 Friedrich Schürer 10 October 1961 10 November 1966 6 April 1966 15 December 1966 scrapped

References[edit]

  • Karr, Hans (2014). Deutsche Uboote seit 1956 (in German). Stuttgart: Motorbuch. ISBN 9783613037083.
  • Die U-Boote der Marine seit 1955 - Spiegel online (in German)
  • Die deutsche U-Boot Waffe Archived 2008-12-07 at the Wayback Machine - www.die-marine.de
  • Klasse 202 oecd.de