U-Boat Firing V-Rockets

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Edward L. Hsiao
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U-Boat Firing V-Rockets

#1

Post by Edward L. Hsiao » 20 Apr 2019, 01:03

The Germans tried for the first time in the Eastern Europe the experiment immersion launched V-rockets from a sub at Batumi 1944. Who could tell me what rockets were they and the name of the U-Boat. I got this information from another topic of naval warfare of the Black Sea of this forum.


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mark harrison
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Re: U-Boat Firing V-Rockets

#2

Post by mark harrison » 20 Apr 2019, 18:58

Hi The boat you are interested in is U 511, you can check it out on Uboat.net or search for it on this forum.

Regards MH.


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Re: U-Boat Firing V-Rockets

#3

Post by Edward L. Hsiao » 24 Apr 2019, 05:06

I remember reading an article about four Black Sea U-boats fitted with rocket launchers with rockets in them and used them in action against Soviet land installations. Were there anymore instances of U-boats using rockets for bombardment of enemy land installations? Too bad the U 511 was only testing the firing of these V-rockets at Batumi 1944. The rockets were not fired in combat at all.


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Re: U-Boat Firing V-Rockets

#4

Post by Ironmachine » 24 Apr 2019, 07:40

Look here:
U 511 and Missiles - U 511, U 1063 and plans for U-boats armed with seabased missiles
http://dubm.de/en/u-511-and-missiles/

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Re: U-Boat Firing V-Rockets

#5

Post by Sejanus » 24 Apr 2019, 08:59

Edward L. Hsiao wrote:
24 Apr 2019, 05:06
Too bad the U 511 was only testing the firing of these V-rockets at Batumi 1944. The rockets were not fired in combat at all.
Too bad? Why?

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Re: U-Boat Firing V-Rockets

#6

Post by Edward L. Hsiao » 24 Apr 2019, 09:48

Dear Sejanus,

I was hopping that the U 511 was firing the V-rockets at some important Soviet installations in combat. Turned out it was just a test firing which of coarse was first important step in this development. U 511 never had a chance to fire the rockets in combat at all which was too bad in my opinion.

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Re: U-Boat Firing V-Rockets

#7

Post by Atrevida » 24 Apr 2019, 17:33

In December 1944 in a radio broadcast, Armaments Minister Speer promised that U-boats would strike at New York with U-bombs U 1 and U 2. Because later journalists did not know what U-bombs were, they assumed they must be the V 1 and V 2 launched from U-boats. An unpromising towed barge was designed for this purpose.

"The New York Times" carried an article at page 5 of its edition of 22 October 1944 from its London correspondent Harry Vosser entitled "Germans are still striving to perfect new V-Weapons":

"Neutral sources describe the U-bomb as resembling an aircraft in shape...there is no doubt that the Germans are straining every nerve to complete it and put it to use before the oncoming onslaught by the Allied armies." The article went on to describe how the expansion of the explosion would be greatly increased by an additive detonated simultaneously which changed the constitution of the air surrounding the explosive.

A postwar article published by an RAAF Wing-Commander in "Flight and Aircraft Engineer" magazine, the official organ of the Royal Aero Club, stated that a U-bomb "was many times more destructive than the V 2". A 24-pound bomb alone would have a destructive force "equal to the 1-ton explosive charge of the V 1".

In his published diaries, Ambassador von Hassell, who attended Wednesday Club meetings, where he consorted with Professor Heisenberg, mentioned during the previous two years his knowledge of a "rocket gun which with one round fired from a great distance could lay waste whole districts of a city."

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Re: U-Boat Firing V-Rockets

#8

Post by Grzesio » 24 Apr 2019, 20:58

The rocket U-Boots in the Black Sea were small submarines of the type II, including U 9, U 19 and U 24. They were armed in the summer of 1944 in Constanta with launchers for small artillery rockets, allegedly 21 cm Wgr 42 Sp, 30 cm Wk 42 Spr or naval 8,6 cm rockets. Tests were conducted from June to August 1944.

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Re: U-Boat Firing V-Rockets

#9

Post by Edward L. Hsiao » 25 Apr 2019, 05:14

I only wonder if the Germans managed to complete and test fired the U-bomb before using it in action? The question was that did the U-bomb was used in action against some other cities in Europe? New York City in the US was not bombed at all.

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Re: U-Boat Firing V-Rockets

#10

Post by Grzesio » 25 Apr 2019, 09:19

And what on earth is the U-bomb? :)
By the way, one more aspect of rocket U-Boots: viewtopic.php?f=110&t=218190

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wm
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Re: U-Boat Firing V-Rockets

#11

Post by wm » 25 Apr 2019, 13:08

rocket, atom, freezing and plague bombs.jpg

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Re: U-Boat Firing V-Rockets

#12

Post by Polar bear » 25 Apr 2019, 13:33

HI;
Edward L. Hsiao wrote:
24 Apr 2019, 09:48
U-511 never had a chance to fire the rockets in combat at all which was too bad in my opinion.
I beg to differ. I think we can be glad that the rockets weren't fired in anger.

By the way, there was a "u-boats firung V-rockets scare" in 1945 : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Teardrop

greetings, the pb
Peace hath her victories no less renowned than War
(John Milton, the poet, in a letter to the Lord General Cromwell, May 1652)

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Re: U-Boat Firing V-Rockets

#13

Post by Atrevida » 25 Apr 2019, 22:13

THE U-BOMB

The U-bomb started life in the laboratory of Dr Zippermayr at Lofer in the Austrian Tyrol. The initial idea was a flak projectile containing an explosive of coal dust and liquid air which, when exploded at up to 914 metres altitude, would create an artificial whirlwind sufficiently strong to bring down a bomber.
Source: Brian Ford, Barrie Pitt and Sir Basil Liddell Hart, Armas Secretas Alemanas, Madrid,1975 at p.28.

This is confirmed in the declassified file of US Forces Austria, CIC Salzburg Detachment, Zell am See section, report dated 4 August 1945, case No. S/Z/55 Dr Mario Zippermayr, NARA RG 319. : "Dr Zippermayr's laboratory was situated at Weimarer-Strasse 87, Vienna, with a staff of 35. His main project was a coal dust explosive for the Enzian flak rocket strong enough that upon exploding the concussion could break the wings of a bomber. This was ready by August 1943 but work was then halted...." for development trials to be carried out by the SS ("Brandt, Himmler's scientific adviser was shown a photographic album of the destruction at Döberitz by Standartenführer Klumm", see BIOS report below.)

"Extremely good results" were obtained from a 40:60 mixture of coal dust and liquid air on trials at Döberitz in 1944 using an 8kg charge. A fuller report on the earlier effects using an additive can be found in the BIOS Final Report 142(g) "Information Obtained from Targets of Opportunity in the Sontfhofen Area), publ.HMSO.

A substance known as "Schwere Luft" (heavy air) which greatly increased the force and extent of an explosion when detonated simultaneously with the explosive was then tested at Ohrdruf military depot in the Harz on 4 March 1945. Although fantasized by many recent writers as a "tactical nuclear weapon" the U-bomb was simply a large flak projectile exploded with "Schwere Luft".

It was expected that the efficiency of the explosion would be increased at least tenfold but it went far beyond that, killing several hundred concentration camp inmates present together with their SS guards. The bodies were burnt on funeral pyres and the ashes spread across the Harz by aircraft. The fear that the explosive might react unstoppably in certain meteorological conditions led to a halt being called to the project. Although it was not a "nuclear weapon" a minor degree of radioactivity was reported which emanated from the additive substance. In the laboratory operation to create "Schwere Luft" it is likely that uranium in some form was used as an ingredient, thus giving the bomb the name "Uranium-Bombe". (The atom bomb in German is Uran-Bombe.)

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Re: U-Boat Firing V-Rockets

#14

Post by Grzesio » 26 Apr 2019, 00:32

You mean, a heavy Flak projectle detonated with "heavy air" killed several hundred people?

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Re: U-Boat Firing V-Rockets

#15

Post by Atrevida » 26 Apr 2019, 01:56

The concentration camp "workers" and their SS guards were spectating at the trial at what was considered a safe distance. The explosion spillled over due to the climatic conditions. Whether the weapon combination was in a flak projectile or shell, mortar bomb or a large tin can, that information is not available.

I can copy you the effects reported in the official BIOS report for the 8kgs experiment in a tin can, and for two aircraft bombs of 25 kgs and 50 kgs dropped on the Starberger See. Let me know and I will post it on Saturday (about 250 words).

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