U-boats were naval submarines operated by Germany, particularly in the First and Second World Wars. The term is an
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The first submarine built in Germany, the three-man Brandtaucher, sank to the bottom of Kiel Harbor on 1 February 1851 during a test dive. Inventor and engineer Wilhelm Bauer had designed this vessel in 1850, and Schweffel a… See more

During 1914, the U-boats operated against the British fleet: on 5 September 1914, the light cruiser HMS Pathfinder was sunk by SM U-21, the first ship to have been sunk by a submarine using a self-propelled torpedo. On … See more

The Treaty of Versailles ending World War I signed at the Paris Peace Conference in 1919 limited the surface navy of Germany's new Weimar Republic to only six battleships, six cruisers, twelve destroyers and twelve torpedo boats. … See more

During World War II, U-boat warfare was the major component of the Battle of the Atlantic, which began in 1939 and ended with Germany's surrender in 1945. British Prime Minister Winston Churchill later wrote "The only t… See more

From 1955, the West German Bundesmarine was allowed to have a small navy. Initially, two sunken Type XXIIIs and a Type XXI were raised and repaired. In the 1960s, the Federal Republic of Germany (West Ger… See more