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Type U 57 submarine
German World War I submarine class From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Type U 57 was a class of U-boats built during World War I by the Kaiserliche Marine. Six Type U 57 were ordered at the beginning of the war and these were commissioned in 1916. A further six were ordered in 1915 and commissioned in 1917. Seven were lost during the war and the remaining five surrendered to the Allies and were scrapped.
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Design
When World War I broke out on 28 July 1914, the German Navy initiated an emergencey war building program, the so-called mobilisation program. This mobilisation program called for the immediate construction of seventeen U-boats by the two submarine building shipyard in Germany: the Germaniawerft in Kiel and the Kaiserliche Werft Danzig. The Kaiserliche Werft received an order for five Type U 43 U-boats and the Germaniawerft would have received an order for the remaining twelve U-boats, but since this yard experienced serious delays in the delivery of the previous order of eleven Type U 31 U-boats, only six Type U 51 U-boats were ordered from Germaniawerft on 23 August 1914 and the remaining six were ordered as Type U 57 from a new yard AG Weser.[1]
When in August 1915 AG Weser had capacity to build extra U-boats, six more Mobilisation U-boats U-99 - U-104 were ordered from AG Weser based on the same Type U 57 design.[2][3]
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Characteristics
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The first three U 57s were fitted with two MAN six-cylinder two-stroke 8SS35 diesel engines with a total of 1,700 metric horsepower (1,250 kW; 1,677 bhp)t for use on the surface, the other nine Type U 57 U-boats were fitted with two more powerful S6V45/42 MAN diesel engines with a total of 2,400 metric horsepower (1,765 kW; 2,367 bhp). All Type U 57 had two Siemens-Schuckert double-acting electric motors with a total of 880 kW (1,196 PS; 1,180 shp) for underwater propulsion. These engines powered two shafts.[4] Constructional diving depth[a] was 50 m (164 ft 1 in).[5][6]
All twelve Type U 57 U-boats were armed with four 50 cm (20 in) torpedo tubes, two fitted in the bow and two in the stern. U-57 - U-62 carried seven torpedoes and U-99 - U-104 carried ten to twelve torpedoes. Most boats received initially one or two 8.8 cm (3.5 in) SK L/30 deck guns. Some boats had one 8.8 cm 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.[7][6][8]
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