U-boat summary

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Below is the article summary. For the full article, see U-boat.

U-boat, German Unterseeboot (“undersea boat”), German submarine. The first German submarine, the U-1, was built in 1905. During World War I Germany became the first country to employ submarines in war, and during World War II its U-boats dominated the Battle of the Atlantic until the Allies developed new antisubmarine tactics. The principal German U-boat was the type VII; the VIIC variant was 220.25 ft (66 m) long, displaced 769 tons on the surface, carried one 90-mm deck gun and five torpedo tubes, and was manned by a crew of 44. Modern German U-boats are built for the German navy and navies of allied countries; their sophisticated structures, electonics, and propulsion systems allow them to be used for intelligence gathering and special operations in addition to defending sea lanes and threatening enemy forces.

Learn how the Third Reich utilized U-boats in the Battle of the Atlantic to destroy Allied supply convoys

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