Type 202 submarine

Class overview
Builders	Atlas Werke, Bremen
Operators	German Navy
Planned	Forty
Completed	Two
Retired	Two
General characteristics
Type	Type 202 U-boat
Displacement	100 t, surfaced; 137 t, submerged
Length	23.1 m
Beam	3.4 m
Draft	2.7 m
Propulsion	350 hp diesel-engine 20 kW electric motor
Speed	6 knots (11 km/h), surfaced; 13 knots (24 km/h), submerged
Range	400 nmi at 4 knots, surfaced; (740 km at 7 km/h) 160 nmi at 3 knots, submerged (300 km at 6 km/h)
Complement	6
Armament	2 short (3.5 m) torpedo tubes, 2 torpedoes or 4 naval mines

The Type 202 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

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

References

• Die U-Boote der Marine seit 1955 - Spiegel online (in German)
• Die deutsche U-Boot Waffe - www.die-marine.de
• Klasse 202 oecd.de