Inside A Real TypeII
 

after having little success searching the web for pics of the insides of a TypeII, i decided on a different track... maybe there would be some info available about the Finish sub that was the prototype for the TypeII...

i was lucky enough to stumble upon this site...

http://www.dutchsubmarines.com/pictu...es_vesikko.htm

--Mike

Great find with these pics :up: I was also looking for better pictures of the Vesikko..Im really concerned that its left in the outdoors :-? It really should be conserved properly and put indoors.Is this the only suviving type II?

:88)

A nice finde Mike.

Deamon

very interesting! :up:

Yes it is. It's a great miracle that one of each major uboat types has survived:

- Vessiko - Typ II prototype in Helsinki (Finland) used by the Finnish Navy against Russia. Now a museum.
- U 505 - Typ IX in Chicago (USA) captured by US Forces near the African coast.
- U 995 - Typ VII in Laboe (Germany) interned in Norway after the war and used by the Norgwegian Navy. Later given back to Germany for use as a memorial.
- U 2540 - Typ XXI in Bremerhaven (Germany) scuttled by crew in 1945. Raised and restored by the German Navy and used as a modified test uboat.

Two Typ XXIII which also were scuttled by their crews in 1945 were raised in the 50s by the German Navy and used for testing (U-Hecht and U-Hai) But both sank trgically due to accidents. The small boats were prone to capsizing and unstable in high waves.

BTW: all boats except U 505 are kept in the open. U 2540 is even still afloat.

Great find....... :up:

Looks in good condition, bet it would not take that much to get her going again.
p.s don't forget U534

Where is dat sub sha?

I would love to go on a U-Boat tour vacation package. My wife and kid would be bored to insanity but I would love it. Maybe there is such a thing.

Well. This is not the ship you would like to have on a patrol in the Channel in 1943.

I remember reading somewhere that there were two Type XXI's in a sealed-up U -bunker somewhere - possibly near Hamburg. If memory serves, the bunker was sealed up with concrete after a young man was exploring the bunker and fell, and ended up getting himself killed.

edit - Ah yes, here it is - the Elbe II Bunker THREE Type XXI's are down there, still.

http://www.uboat.net/history/hamburg_elbe2.htm

http://www.uboat.net/flotillas/bases...rg_bunkers.htm

The bunker is no more, it has been built over / razed in order to make room for a new container-terminal

Hmmm. Kinda sad, in a way - that the boats were never salvaged. But I understand the need to develop, despite the historical artifacts in situ.

I imagine it is quite a balancing act in Europe - preserving historical sites vs. the need for appropriate land use. I understand that all over Belgium and Northern France there is quite a bit of development that is happening over the old western front battlefields. A number of the important ones are being preserved, but otherwise they are disappearing. The upside of the digging is that quite a few WW I dead are turning up and are being properly interred, even if they are unidentifiable.

That issue is also quite prominent in the Eastern USA where a number of Civil War battlefields are being 'developed'.