Design
In the earliest stages of the First World War the German Army's rapid advance along the North Sea coast found the German Imperial Navy without submarines suitable to operate in the narrow and shallow seas off Flanders. By 18 August 1914, two weeks after the German invasion of Belgium, the planning of a series of small coastal submarines had already begun.
The German Imperial Navy stipulated that the submarines must be transportable by rail, which imposed a maximum diameter of 10 feet 4 inches (3.15 m). The rushed planning effort—which had been assigned the name "Project 34"—resulted in the Type UB I design, created specifically for operation from Flanders. The boats were to be about 92 feet (28 m) long and to displace about 125 tonnes (123 long tons) with two bow torpedo tubes.
Boats of the Type UB I design were built by two manufacturers, Germaniawerft of Kiel and AG Weser of Bremen, which led to some variations in boats from the two shipyards. The eight Germaniawerft-built boats were slightly longer at 92 feet 2 inches (28.09 m) length overall, while the twelve Weser-built boats came in 8 inches (20 cm) shorter than their counterparts. All were 10 feet 6 inches (3.20 m) abeam and had a draft of 9 feet 10 inches (3.00 m). The boats all displaced 127 tonnes (125 long tons) while surfaced, but differed slightly in displacement submerged. The slightly longer Germaniawerft boats displaced 142 tonnes (140 long tons) while submerged, as they weighed 1 tonne (0.98 long ton) more than the Weser boats.
The drivetrain of the boats consisted of a single propeller shaft driven by a Daimler (Germaniawerft) or Körting (Weser) diesel engine on the surface, or a Siemens-Schuckert electric motor for underwater travel. The Weser boats were capable of nearly 7.5 knots (13.9 km/h) on the surface and a little more than 6 knots (11 km/h) submerged. The Germaniawerft boats were about 1 knot (1.9 km/h) slower than their Bremen-made counterparts. The boats were equipped with two 45-centimetre (17.7 in) bow torpedo tubes and carried two torpedoes. They were also armed with a single 8-millimetre (0.31 in) machine gun affixed to the deck.
Read more about this topic: German Type UB I Submarine
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