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https://pimeakronikka.blogspot.com/p/why-germans-made-type-xxi-class.html
Kimmo Huosionmaa
This is the text about Type XXI Walther turbine boats, not Type XXI electro beats, what were equipped with the conventional diesel-electric system was produced 114 units. So if here is mentioned the XXI-U-boat it means the Walther boat. And I don't know about winnings of this type of submarines. Some The Type XXI U-boats served in allied navies after the World War II and their mission was to help to create new submarines for the U.S and the other allied navies.
The reason for German secret military projects is simple, the losses of the U-boats and aircraft were so big, that the Nazi-government must try to create new kind of equipment for replacing the old things. The losses of the U-boats were grown very high, and that was the reason for creating the new type of submarines. Type XXI was the fiasco in many ways because the technology was not advanced enough, that the planned systems could be made in full-scale submarines.
There was one U-boat before type XXI where the Walther-propulsion were tested. That thing was a V80-class submarine, what made the record in underwater speed what was 38 knots, and that record was broken until the Albacore-class submarine broke it in the 1950's. The Walther propulsion was the turbine, what used hydrogen peroxide and water to create steam for the turbine.
But when we are thinking about Type XXI U-boat the Walther propulsion was too radical for working that large U-boat, and I sometimes have thought, that why the V80 class U-boat were just equipped with torpedos? Of course, the Soviets could make the records with closed-cycle diesel-electric submarines, but I can't get data about the speeds of the Soviet submarines. And here I'm writing about non-nuclear submarines, not nuclear vessels. The fate of the Walther-powered type XXI U-boats was that they were scrapped in 1944, and that metal was planned to use in tanks. The XXI U-boats were technically advanced, but they were the operational fiasco, and they were ever sunk a single ship. The Walther turbine was a brand new design, and at that time nobody had the experience to make turbine power submarines, and the wartime was not right to make those experiments.
The reason why this unique power system was created, is that there was the distress of fuel in Germany. And that was the reason, why Germans must create the fuels, what can be produced without natural oil, and there is one mystery, why in the airplanes were not tested to use Ethanol. That thing was used as the fuel of V-2 rockets, and it would be very easy to produce. But for some reasons, it was not used in aircraft motors. But the Walther was tried to sell his exotic turbine, what used the mixture of hydrogen peroxide and water to aircraft. The reason why this aircraft ever produced, that the producing the hydrogen peroxide in large scale, that it could replace Benzin was impossible.
Probably the reason, why alcohol was not used in combustion motors was that it could produce illegally, and that's why the control of the aircraft and cars was not working because somebody could produce it at home and drive the car without permission as long this person wants, and there would be no markings in the fuel diary. That would not be pleased the Gestapo what mission was control the usage of the vehicles.
But the problem was that tanks couldn't cut the supply from America. The losses of U-boats were very high because the SONAR and radar gave the allied opportunity to surprise the German U-boats. And in 1943 those boats were equipped with extended anti-aircraft flak and schnorkel-system, what allowed to drive underwater with diesel. Schnorkel was actually two tubes. Another tube was used for the air inlet in diesel, and the other was removed the exhausted gas. This system was very advanced, but the submarine was very close to the surface, and if the aircraft noticed the exhaust gas the depth charges were dropped.
Technical data:
https://uboat.net/technical/
https://uboat.net/types/v80.htm
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Albacore_(AGSS-569)
https://uboat.net/media/boats/types/xxi_2d.gif
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