German World War II submarine
The German submarine "U-6" was a long-lived but very inactive Type IIA U-boat built before World War II for service in Nazi Germany's "Kriegsmarine".
As she was one of the first batch of boats built following the renunciation of the Treaty of Versailles, she was capable of only coastal and short cruising work. This led to her being reassigned to training duties after the Norwegian campaign in 1940.
Design.
German Type II submarines were based on the . "U-6" had a displacement of when at the surface and while submerged. Officially, the standard tonnage was , however. The U-boat had a total length of , a pressure hull length of , a beam of , a height of , and a draught of . The submarine was powered by two MWM RS 127 S four-stroke, six-cylinder diesel engines of for cruising, two Siemens-Schuckert PG VV 322/36 double-acting electric motors producing a total of for use while submerged. She had two shafts and two propellers. The boat was capable of operating at depths of up to .
The submarine had a maximum surface speed of and a maximum submerged speed of . When submerged, the boat could operate for at ; when surfaced, she could travel at . "U-6" was fitted with three torpedo tubes at the bow, five torpedoes or up to twelve Type A torpedo mines, and a anti-aircraft gun. The boat had a complement of 25.
Service history.
Built at Kiel in 1935, "U-6" was a prestigious position for a captain in the "Kriegsmarine" during the years running up to the war, her commanders were all First World War veterans. On 31 August 1939, before the outbreak of World War II, the U-6 spotted three destroyers of the Polish Navy, the "Burza", "Błyskawica", and "Grom", executing Peking Plan, on their way to Great Britain, but no action was undertaken. However, once war began, it was painfully clear that "U-6" and her sisters were not capable of competing with other nations' larger and faster boats, and so after an initial patrol in the Baltic Sea, "U-6" was not deployed again until March 1940, when every ship available to the "Kriegsmarine" was sent to support the invasion of Norway. During the month-long campaign, "U-6"'s sister boats suffered numerous losses, and gained a reputation as something of a liability, which led them to be withdrawn to a training squadron in the Baltic for the remainder of the war.
In the Baltic, "U-6" trained officer cadets in the skills needed to fight in the Battle of the Atlantic. Some of her patrols even verged on Soviet territory following Operation Barbarossa but, unlike some of her sister boats, "U-6" never found a target on these missions. In the summer of 1944, with fuel and resources in short supply and the reputation of the Type II boats plummeting following a number of fatal accidents, "U-6" was removed from service and laid up at Gotenhafen with a skeleton crew to perform maintenance. There she remained until May 1945, when a demolition team blew her up at her berth to prevent her falling into enemy hands.
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