The Type 201 was

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

's first U-boat class built after

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

Design

They were built out of amagnetic steel to counter the threat of magnetic

naval mine A naval mine is a self-contained explosive weapon placed in water to damage or destroy surface ships or submarines. Similar to anti-personnel mine, anti-personnel and other land mines, and unlike purpose launched naval depth charges, they are ...

s, but the material had been insufficiently tested and proved to be problematic in service with the

Bundesmarine The German Navy (, ) is part of the unified (Federal Defense), the German Armed Forces. The German Navy was originally known as the ''Bundesmarine'' (Federal Navy) from 1956 to 1995, when ''Deutsche Marine'' (German Navy) became the official ...

. Microscopic cracks in the pressure hull forced the cancellation of nine of the twelve ordered submarines and the rebuilding of the first two boats as

Type 205 submarine The Type 205 was a class of Germany, German diesel-electric submarines. They were single-hull (watercraft), hull vessels optimized for the use in the shallow Baltic Sea. The Type 205 is a direct evolution of the Type 201 submarine, Type 201 class ...

s. Responsible for the design and construction was the Ingenieurkontor Lübeck (IKL) headed by

Ulrich Gabler Ulrich Gabler (1 October 1913 – 24 February 1994) was a German shipbuilding engineer, who specialized in the design and development of diesel-powered submarines. During World War II he served as chief engineer in the U-boat force on and , then ...

. The price per unit was around 12 million

Deutsche Mark The Deutsche Mark (; "German mark (currency), mark"), abbreviated "DM" or "D-Mark" (), was the official currency of West Germany from 1948 until 1990 and later of unified Germany from 1990 until the adoption of the euro in 2002. In English, it ...

List of boats

''U-3'' was loaned to the

Royal Norwegian Navy The Royal Norwegian Navy () is the branch of the Norwegian Armed Forces responsible for navy, naval operations of Norway, including those of the Norwegian Coast Guard. , the Royal Norwegian Navy consists of approximately 3,700 personnel (9,450 i ...

and served under the name ''Kobben'' from between 10 July 1962 and 20 June 1964 before being commissioned in the German Navy.

Design

List of boats

Citations

References

Further reading