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Type U 43 submarine
German World War I submarine class From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Type U 43 was a class of U-boats built before and during World War I by the Kaiserliche Marine.
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Construction
The first two Type U43 U-boats were ordered on 10 July 1913 from the Kaiserliche Werft Danzig ( KWD ). A third boat was ordered on 22 June 1914.[2] When World War I broke out, the German Navy abandonned its scheduled building program and on 7 August 1914 ordered a further five Type U43 U-boats from KWD in its emergency war building ( 'Mobilisation' ) program.[3]
Design
The Type U43 was the continuation of previous double-hull U-boats design but featered a few novelties: these boats were the first U-boats with frames mounted on the exterior of the pressure hull. A further departure of previous U-boat designs was the relocation of the living quarters between the diesel engine compartment and the control room, which as a consequence moved the conning tower above the control room more forward. The boats also lacked the typical step with tank decks, instead the upper deck was incorporated completely in the second, outer hull. Longer periscopes were installed so that periscope depth rose to twelve meter. Type U43s were also the first boats to be equipped with six torpedo tubes.[a] Although the longer range G7 torpedo became available the Type U43 were still equipped with G6 torpedoes as no space was available for the longer G7, and as a U-boat was expected to make its attacks on short ranges of less than one kilometer, the range of the G6 was considered adequate enough.[4]
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Characteristics
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Type U 43s had an overall length of 65 m (213 ft 3 in) The boats' beam was 6.20 m (20 ft 4 in), the draught was 3.74 m (12 ft 3 in), with a total height of 8.7–8.04 m (28 ft 7 in – 26 ft 5 in). The pressure hull had a length of 51 m (167 ft 4 in) and had a diameter of 4.18 m (13 ft 9 in). The boats displaced 725 tonnes (714 long tons) when surfaced and 940 t (930 long tons) when submerged.[5][1][6]
Type U 43s were fitted with two MAN six-cylinder four-stroke S6V41/42 diesel engines with a total of 2,000 metric horsepower (1,471 kW; 1,973 bhp) for use on the surface and two AEG double-acting electric motors with a total of 880 kW (1,196 PS; 1,180 shp) for underwater use. These engines powered two shafts, which gave the boats a top surface speed of 15.2 knots (28.2 km/h; 17.5 mph), and 9.7 knots (18.0 km/h; 11.2 mph) when submerged. Cruising range was 11,400 nautical miles (21,100 km; 13,100 mi) at 8 knots (15 km/h; 9.2 mph) on the surface and 51 nautical miles (94 km; 59 mi) at 5 knots (9.3 km/h; 5.8 mph) submerged.[5] Constructional diving depth[b] was 50 m (164 ft 1 in).[7][1]
The U-boats were armed with six 50 cm (20 in) torpedo tubes, four fitted in the bow and two in the stern, and carried eight torpedoes. All boats received initially one or two 8.8 cm (3.5 in) SK L/30 deck guns. Some boats had their sole deck gun replaced with a 10.5 cm (4.1 in) SK L/45 gun. The boats' complement was four officers and thirty-two enlisted men.[5][1]
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Footnotes
Bibliography
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