HMS Meteorite

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 on 13 March 1945 as U-1407. She was built around a Walter engine fueled by high-test peroxide (HTP), the fuel known as T-Stoff in German service.

The U-1406, a vessel of the same class as HMS Meteorite / U-1407
History
Nazi Germany
Name	U-1407
Ordered	4 January 1943
Builder	Blohm & Voss, Hamburg
Yard number	257
Laid down	13 November 1943
Launched	February 1945
Commissioned	13 March 1945
Fate	Surrendered on 5 May 1945 at Cuxhaven Scuttled on 7 May 1945 Raised, seized and rebuilt by United Kingdom in 1945
United Kingdom
Name	HMS Meteorite
Acquired	1945
Commissioned	25 September 1945
Decommissioned	September 1949
Fate	Broken up
General characteristics [1][2]
Class and type	Type XVIIB submarine
Displacement	312 long tons (317 t) surfaced 337 long tons (342 t) submerged 415 long tons (422 t) total
Length	41.45 m (136 ft 0 in) o/a 27.30 m (89 ft 7 in) pressure hull
Beam	4.5 m (14 ft 9 in) o/a 3.3 m (10 ft 10 in) pressure hull
Draught	4.3 m (14 ft 1 in)
Propulsion	1 × Deutz SAA SM517 supercharged 8-cylinder diesel engine, 210 PS (210 shp; 150 kW) 1 × AEG Maschine AWT98 electric motor, 77 PS (76 shp; 57 kW) 1 × Walter gas turbine, 2,500 PS (2,500 shp; 1,800 kW) 1 shaft
Speed	8.8 knots (16.3 km/h; 10.1 mph) surfaced 5 knots (9.3 km/h; 5.8 mph) submerged (electric drive) 25 knots (46 km/h; 29 mph) submerged (HTP drive)
Range	3,000 nmi (5,600 km; 3,500 mi) at 8 knots (15 km/h; 9.2 mph) surfaced 76 nmi (141 km; 87 mi) at 2 knots (3.7 km/h; 2.3 mph) submerged (electric drive) 123 nmi (228 km; 142 mi) at 25 knots (46 km/h; 29 mph) submerged (HTP drive)
Complement	19
Armament	2 × 53.3 cm (21 in) torpedo tubes (bow) 4 × torpedoes
Service record (Kriegsmarine)
Part of:	5th U-boat Flotilla 13 March – 5 May 1945
Identification codes:	M 47 655
Commanders:	Oblt.z.S. Horst Heitz[3] 29 March – 5 May 1945
Operations:	None
Victories:	None

History

The three completed German Type XVIIB submarines were scuttled by their crews at the end of the Second World War, U-1405 at Flensburg and U-1406 and U-1407 at Cuxhaven, all in the British Zone of Occupation.^[4] 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, had prohibited such actions. Grumpelt was subsequently sentenced to seven years' imprisonment by a British military court.^[5][6]

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.^[4]

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.^[4] 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 and the Admiralty placed an order for two larger experimental Walter boats based on the German Type XXVI, the Explorer-class submarines HMS Explorer and HMS Excalibur, 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 officially described as "75% safe".^[7] She was difficult to control due to aircraft-type controls and a lack of forward hydroplanes.

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.