HMS ''Meteorite'' was an experimental U-boat developed in Germany, scuttled at the end of World War II, subsequently raised and commissioned into the Royal Navy. The submarine was originally commissioned into the ''

Kriegsmarine The (, ) was the navy of Germany from 1935 to 1945. It superseded the Imperial German Navy of the German Empire (1871–1918) and the inter-war (1919–1935) of the Weimar Republic. The was one of three official branches, along with the a ...

'' on 13 March 1945 as ''U-1407''. She was built around a Walter engine fueled by

high-test peroxide High-test peroxide (HTP) is a highly concentrated (85 to 98%) solution of hydrogen peroxide, with the remainder consisting predominantly of water. In contact with a catalyst, it decomposes into a high-temperature mixture of steam and oxygen, with n ...

(HTP).

History

The three completed

German Type XVIIB submarine The Type XVII U-boats were small coastal submarines that used a high-test peroxide propulsion system, which offered a combination of air-independent propulsion and high submerged speeds. Background In the early 1930s Hellmuth Walter had designed ...

s were scuttled by their crews at the end of the Second World War, at

Flensburg Flensburg (; Danish, Low Saxon: ''Flensborg''; North Frisian: ''Flansborj''; South Jutlandic: ''Flensborre'') is an independent town (''kreisfreie Stadt'') in the north of the German state of Schleswig-Holstein. Flensburg is the centre of the ...

and and ''U-1407'' at Cuxhaven, all in the British Zone of Occupation. ''U-1406'' and ''U-1407'' were scuttled on 7 May 1945 by '' Oberleutnant zur See'' Gerhard Grumpelt even though a superior officer, '' Kapitän zur See''

Kurt Thoma The Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross (german: Ritterkreuz des Eisernen Kreuzes) and its variants were the highest awards in the military and paramilitary forces of Nazi Germany during World War II. The decoration was awarded for a wide range of ...

, had prohibited such actions. Grumpelt was subsequently sentenced to seven years' imprisonment by a British military court. At the Potsdam Conference in July 1945 ''U-1406'' was allocated to the United States and ''U-1407'' to the United Kingdom, and both were soon salvaged.

Royal Navy service

''U-1407'' was salvaged in June 1945, and transported to Barrow-in-Furness, where she was refitted by Vickers with a new and complete set of machinery also captured in Germany, under the supervision of Professor Hellmuth Walter. Because she was intended to be used solely for trials and possibly as a high-speed anti-submarine target, her torpedo tubes were removed. She was commissioned into the Royal Navy on 25 September 1945 and renamed HMS ''Meteorite''. During 1946 ''Meteorite'' carried out a series of trials under the guidance of Walter and his original team from Germaniawerft, Kiel. The trials raised considerable interest in the possibility of HTP as an alternative to nuclear power as

air-independent propulsion Air-independent propulsion (AIP), or air-independent power, is any marine propulsion technology that allows a non-nuclear submarine to operate without access to atmospheric oxygen (by surfacing or using a snorkel). AIP can augment or replace the ...

and the Admiralty placed an order for two larger experimental Walter boats based on the German Type XXVI, and , to be followed by an operational class of 12 boats. ''Meteorite'' was not popular with her crews, who regarded the boat as a dangerous and volatile piece of machinery. She was difficult to control due to aircraft-type controls and a lack of forward hydroplanes. She was officially described as "75% safe".

Fate

''Meteorite's'' Royal Navy service came to an end in September 1949, and she was broken up by Thos. W. Ward of Barrow-in-Furness.

References

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