German submarine U-121 (1940)

For other ships with the same name, see German submarine U-121.

History
Nazi Germany
Name	U-121
Ordered	28 September 1937
Builder	Flender Werke, Lübeck
Yard number	269
Laid down	16 April 1938
Launched	20 April 1940
Commissioned	28 May 1940
Fate	Scuttled 2 May 1945 at Bremerhaven
Status	Raised and scrapped, 1950
General characteristics
Type	IIB
Service record
Part of:	Kriegsmarine U-Bootschulflottille 21st U-boat Flotilla 24th U-boat Flotilla 31st U-boat Flotilla
Commanders:	Karl-Ernst Schroeter Otto Harms Adalbert Schnee Egon-Reiner von Schlippenbach Gert Hetschko Ernst von Witzendorff Otto Westphalen Otto Hübschen Ewald Hülsenbeck Friedrich Horst
Operations:	No patrols
Victories:	No ships sunk or damaged

German submarine U-121 was a long-lived Type IIB U-boat built during World War II for service in the Kriegsmarine. U-121 spent the entire war as a training vessel and was scuttled at the end of the conflict.

U-121 was one of two Type II U-boats built at Flender Werke in Lübeck. Like her sister boat U-120 (also built in Lübeck), she was originally constructed for export to China. The advent of World War II and the increased training needs of the U-bootwaffe led the German high command to assign U-120 and U-121 to the training command instead.

Built for China

The Chinese Nationalist Government used 1,0000000 Marks to order two Type IIB U-boats in 1937. They also dispatched 80 men to Germany for training in submarine operations. The Japanese Government complained over this transaction, so the Chinese took their money back and the pair of Type IIB submarines joined the Kriegsmarine after the outbreak of the Second World War in Europe. They were U-120 and U-121.

Sources

• Blair, Clay (1996). Hitler's U-Boat War: The Hunters 1939-1942. New York: Random House. ISBN 0-394-58839-8.
• "The Type IIB boat U-121". uboat.net. Retrieved 2010-11-21.