Walter and Electro-Boots - U-Boats of the Future, Today(ish)

Today we take a look at the development, design, issues and brief operational history of the last generations of German U-boats in WW2.
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'Legionnaire' by Scott Buckley - released under CC-BY 4.0. www.scottbuckley.com.au

[@Drachinifel]

Pinned post for Q&A :)

[@bkjeong4302]

Considering the ineffectiveness of Japanese ASW efforts, did anyone besides Eugene Fluckey think about using submarines to land ground troops on Japanese-held territory?

[@AptWaffleMantis2278]

Do you think battleships will return for naval combat in space? Why/ why not

[@WarrantOfficerWill22]

if the Hydrogen poroxcide powered models had made it off the production line, would hydrogen peroxide have been more common on cold war subs?

[@baxter9725]

dAY 107 please could you dry dock on what if the Bismarck broke into the Atlantic

[@AmvC]

2:40 Tsā-un [König] :wave:

[@tomhutchins7495]

I know just enough chemistry that just hearing the words “80% solution of hydrogen peroxide” gave me anxiety.

[@scootergsp]

It's amusing to contemplate that it's actually safer to split atoms than use hydrogen peroxide for your power needs... 🤔

[@CAP198462]

As many pilots of the Me-163 Komet found out.

[@HansLasser]

No worries! Don't get white hair about it! Oh! Oups! Sorry!

[@conspiracyscholor7866]

@@scootergsp The virgin nuclear energy vs the Chad H2O2 concentration

[@tz8785]

After the war, the UK tried to make it work as well. The test submarines HMS Explorer and HMS Excalibur acquired the nicknames Exploder and Excruciator respectively.

[@quentinking4351]

There's got to be a "Das Boots are made for Walter" joke around here somewhere

[@ricardokowalski1579]

solid dad joke👍

[@jeffbybee5207]

You may have made the one and only

[@Toneman012000]

You win today 😅😅😅😅😅

[@SynapseDriven]

seems legit

[@AmbuBadger]

"🎵... and one of these days Das Boot is gonna Walter über you! 🎶"

[@kemarisite]

I work at a permitted hazardous waste facility that services a bunch of mad acientists employed by the US Navy, and I have never seen 80% hydrogen peroxide solution. Even the piranha bath I have seen and shipped out was only 50% solution.

[@hlvscomendandeche8744]

In poland we use close to 100 as a rocket fuel oxidizer It is surprisingly stable

[@jbepsilon]

@@hlvscomendandeche8744 Surprisingly stable, until suddenly it isn't, you mean? ;)

[@AmbuBadger]

​@@jbepsilonAs in, "we saw it, handled it, and lived."

[@slome815]

HTP (high test peroxide, meaning above 85% hydrogen peroxide) is a very common rocket propellant for small manoeuvring thrusters. It's a lot safer then some of the other propellants commonly used for this like hydrazine. It also has the advantage of being able to be used as a monopropellant, as it forms steam when run over a catalyst.

[@kemarisite]

@@slome815 my local mad scientists are more focused on solid fuel rocket motors.

[@windfall35]

To my layman's ear, this presentation seems very well researched and well explained - Having been a student of the Uboat war for years, this presentation added a great deal of new insight into a dynamic program carried out during the war. Well done!

[@Carrera-gp9od]

23:28

[@Carrera-gp9od]

23:35 24:01 24: 25:12 25:19

[@davidbrennan660]

These videos that are endangered by their own Engineering are always fun….. having Drach demonstrating this in his bath tub could only have bettered this interesting video.

[@Yandarval]

Oh no. The danager of losing Drach is high enough when he plays around with Greek Fire mixtures. Messing around with Hydrogen Peroxide is just asking for trouble. gargling with Hydrocloric Acid would be safer. As Drach will have to concentrate his own HP. As 80% is not going to be buyable on the open market. Its too damn dangerous to store and transport. For comparison, hair bleaching is 3% strength HP. 80% is the minimum required for rocket fuel.

[@johnfisher9816]

Excellent presentation!! My final project for an MA in war studies, received in May this year, was on the Type XXI U-Boat. I've forwarded the link for this video on to my professor for that project. Well done. Thank you!

[@AmbuBadger]

Plot twist: "You just forwarded a link to my own video." --sincerely, Your Professor

[@BishopStars]

Can I recommend a fiction book featuring the Type XXI? Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson

[@44WarmocK77]

Nuhuh, my favorite category of WW II submarines - apart from the development of midget submarines up to WW II ^^ Fun fact about the V-80: at max speed it tended to list to the side quite a bit due to the massive torque of the propeller.

[@gow1044]

"Captain! I believe that the ship is spinning. Some of the crew are saying it sounds like a good trick. What do you think?"

[@mpetersen6]

Next time ve build mit counter-rotating propellors.

[@johnbazaar8440]

An episode as deeply informative as this must take weeks to prepare. Hats off to you, my friend. Well done again.

[@davidmyers6238]

As a former scientist who used to work with cytochrome c peroxidase, I'll note modern usage of peroxide and superoxide denote twp different things. Peroxide is O2(2-) while superoxide is O2(*-) where * represents a free radical. The latter is far more reactive.

[@Hailfire97]

"Walter and the Electric Boots" sounds like a 2015 synthpop band you'd hear on Alternative radio, somewhere between Fitz and the Tantrums and Florence and the Machine

[@weldonwin]

Or possibly a German Electro band, in the same vein as Kraftwerk

[@presidentmerkinmuffley6769]

​@@weldonwin Either or perhaps both you know the crossover album....

[@c1ph3rpunk]

Kraftwerk cover band.

[@waskoNzoo]

Peter and the test tube babies...(punk)

[@theawickward2255]

Or maybe a Jojo character named Walter with the stand Electric Boots. There's considerable overlap between these two sets, however.

[@Kerndon]

I visited U 2540 just 3 days ago. Entry fee is only 4€, and it is quite interesting indeed.

[@adminagh8371]

We want more sub/u-boat videos! Great content... ❤ Edit: Not many good quality videos on u-boat aces and their adventures.

[@presidentmerkinmuffley6769]

Be the change you want to see in the world.

[@sthenzel]

Another great video! Just one small thing - the name is spelled like "hell mood" (which to English speakers may not sound good, I know!). Helmut and Helmuth are pronounced exactly the same, it´s just that in the old days the German "T" pretty often was accompanied by an "H", like in "Thal" (valley) or "Thür" (door), mostly to signal the accompanying syllable to be a long, soft one.

[@HowlingWo1f]

Having insomnia it’s so frustrating. However I really appreciate your videos. it’s my nightly routine they are very interesting with ur calming voice they help my mind relax & fall asleep. I’m sure I’m not the only one. So Thank you so much.

[@cupajoe7258]

Have to get up several times to feed the baby and put her back to bed. These vids make the loss of sleep bearable

[@chipeling8386]

You may find the following of passing interest. During the late 1970s I worked with a German boiler attendant (this was in Sydney, Australia), who had grown up in Hamburg (being in his early teens when the war ended). One of the stories he told me was that at the end of the war, the local authorities had lowered a couple of U-boat sections (containing the diesel engines and generators) into the harbour to hide them. Later when rebuilding was progressing and power was required these sections were recovered and used to generate electricity for local industry and residences. I have always assumed that these would have been sections of type XXI boats. I wonder if you have ever heard of such, and whether or not the relevant sections of the type XXI would have been able to be submerged in this way. Thanks for another interesting video.

[@kurgisempyrion6125]

Take a drink every time Drach says "Type" - best make it non-alcoholic though otherwise you will die.

[@waynesworldofsci-tech]

But you’ll spend a lot of time in the loo.

[@kennethdeanmiller7324]

You do realize that people have died by having too much hydration? And I stopped drinking alcohol in 2006 except that my wife and I shared a frozen margarita in 2007 after dinner on a particularly hot summer evening. Actually she didn't become my wife until October 2 following that frozen margarita. That being the last time I've had any alcohol. However, lately I've been considering having a shot of liquor before falling asleep to improve blood circulation. But so far I haven't decided to go that route yet. I originally quit drinking alcohol as a pact my wife & I made. It seemed when we drank alcohol we got into horrible arguments. After we quit drinking we may have mildly disagreed about something but never a heated argument. It improved our relationship immensely! The night that I had the idea for us to quit drinking, I had just gotten home from working & she had been drinking. And if I hadn't turned & looked when I did, she was about to hit me with an iron. I hadn't done anything to make her want to hurt me, she was just drunk & mad at me for some reason. So the next day I told her, "if you quit, I'll quit, & I think it will improve our relationship." Smartest deal I ever made! She died in 2015 but we had 12 really great years together. And even though she is gone I don't feel like I'm missing anything by not drinking. Actually, I see the way a lot of people act when they are drunk & it makes me proud I don't drink.

[@mikewindsor5759]

@@kennethdeanmiller7324 Super story! I remember back in the day (last century) when I worked in an office, the people who worked for me took great pride in telling anyone who'd listen that they'd had a great weekend drinking, the best being so great that they didn't even remember it. I always wondered what emptiness in people's lives caused them to want to spend the majority of their time out of work getting drunk, to blot out whatever the reality of their lives was for them. I drink from time to time, so I'm not unaware of the joys of moderate drinking, but to try to blot out the wonder of being alive really baffles me.

[@presidentmerkinmuffley6769]

Not dead just about to sleep very well, in the safety position with a bag just in case.

[@kantetoast]

You can die from to much water too :D

[@rem26439]

I think the next time I hear "the Allied strategic bombing of Germany was a waste of efforts" trope, I'll refer people to this video! The disruption in production and the direct impact on submarine output of the air raids have had very tangible consequences here! (Also, 80% hydrogene peroxyde?!! What!?)

[@classicalextremism]

I have a laugh every time I hear that. They always point to total production figures of things like planes and tanks saying "see it didn't drop it stayed constant through the war!" Yes, never increased. While everyone else ramped up. Strategic bombing works.

[@Anon4859]

There's a great paper called 'THE FAILURE OF GERMAN LOGISTICS DURING THE ARDENNES OFFENSIVE OF 1944' that goes into specific detail on the effect of strategic bombing on German war readiness, not just in terms of production but also transport and operational rationing. Including looking into how the disspersion of German war industry to avoid concentrated bombardment later caused logistical bottlenecks when the transport infrastructure became a high priority target, how disruption of supplies in the rear caused a significant number of troops to complete training courses without practical experience or demonstration, and how the crippling inability to move what stockpiles were centrally avaliable created localised shortages even in stocks for which Germany didn't technically suffer deficit. There's even a breakdown of some units operational impact, such as the 2nd Panzer Div heading into combat with more than half of its vehicles missing - despite being constructed - because they could not be moved from factory to frontline without sacrificing the transport of fuel and munitions for forces already in staging areas.

[@grizwoldphantasia5005]

The real problem with that trope is the air power fanatics who claim air power won the war, refusing to admit that it just helped. Ground forces won the war because territory has to be occupied, but they couldn't have even gotten to Europe without merchant ships, and the merchant ships couldn't have made it across the ocean without naval warships. Of the three, the only dispensable one was air power. It would have been a lot harder and bloodier, but it could have been done.

[@Anon4859]

@@grizwoldphantasia5005 The same arguement could be made that without air power spotting and attacking U-boats merchant shipping would have been crushed globally with the same rapid tempo as was recorded before we closing the mid-atlantic gap except across the whole Atlantic, without air recon D-Day couldn't be planned accurately meaning it likely looks more like Dieppe on a larger scale, without pressuring Germany into building millions of AA weapons nearly three times the number of 75+ mm barrels would have been fitted to AT and IS weapons, without CAS a lot more hardpoints would have become slaughters, without friendly air superiority enemy CAS would have been deadly, without logistics planes entire army groups would have starved like the German's after Operation Flax, while leaving enemy air logistics unopposed. Without naval strike planes the Pacific war would be entirely different, with an unopposed kido butai likely able to sink the entire US fleet before any marine got their boots to sand. There is a reason no nation has won a war without air superiority since 1939. Saying it's dispensible is the same as the Old Guard moaning that tanks are worthless because they still need infantry to hold ground - or the 19th century French naval designers arguing big ships were just a compensation and well trained captains should be able to get close in massed torpedo boats. These ideas don't work. Weapons systems are a complicated web of mutual support. Losing one, let alone and entire category, weakens the system as a whole.

[@grizwoldphantasia5005]

@@Anon4859 No, that's not the same argument. The Allies could not have won the war under any circumstances without land and naval forces. They could conceivably have won without air power, but it would have been a bloody mess and the public might not have put up with it.

[@gbcb8853]

Heinrich Dräger was a scion of the family run firm of Dräger known for its anaesthesia machines. His rebreathing technology was used to great effect by the British 1953 Everest expedition for oxygenation when the climbers were sleeping.

[@emjackson2289]

They've got a factory in Blyth, Northumberland as well.

[@Simon_Nonymous]

@@emjackson2289 and you can see it off the A189! I think they also make breathalysers there (possibly.)

[@beargillium2369]

​@@emjackson2289is that why we call it getting "drugged" or is that just coincidence

[@shaider1982]

18:00 sounds like something also encountered by the IJN when designing the long lance torpedoes. Solved by careful design of the oxgen lines for their case.

[@OtakuLoki]

With the electro-boots - my understanding of the technology of the batteries of the time period was that they required fairly regular maintenance, and access. In particularly the electrolyte solutions for the batteries had to be sampled, tested, and adjusted, as necessary. With the battery compartment for the Type XXII and XXIII in a separate watertight compartment, how much space was there for personnel access in there? Because the idea of crawling on top of a massive submarine battery array is almost as horrifying as the high purity hydrogen peroxide.

[@depressedTrent]

Having kit of type XXI with interior, actually quite a lot. Definitely much more than in type VII. If Revell's depiction is faithful enough, there was even aisle going in the middle.

[@markiangooley]

A couple at a restaurant: the guy asks for H2O, the gal says, “I’ll have H2O, too!” So he gets water and she gets hydrogen peroxide! (Might as well join in the Dad jokes…)

[@foo219]

Reminds me of a bottled water branded as "H204U" (H20 for you). The actual chemical H204U, I have been told by people better educated than I, is something one should not ingest.

[@Merlinemryys]

Your knowledge and research never ceases to be amazing.

[@johngillespie9459]

Love your final analysis for these, as the first true submarines versus merely submersible surface vessels.

[@cpawp]

An neighbour was drafted as a 'Elektroheizer' - electrician for service of the e-engines - on a Type 21. They left Kiel in a small convoi of 3 boats, his boat at the last position, and saw the middle boat suddenly blown up by a bomb attack. They made it through the Skagerrak and survived, capitulated in their boat somewhere in the North Sea ...

[@lefr33man]

You know, if hydrogen peroxide is the "safer" option, maybe you need to pause and take a long, hard look at what you are doing.

[@humphreybumblecuck5151]

I mean as far as oxidizers go it’s fairly benign.

[@nilo9456]

Thank you for this very informative video. I've known of some of these boats for a long time, this is the first time I've seen diagrams of entire systems.

[@salfox1820]

Been waiting on this one for a while. I read about these as a kid in the Time Life WW2 books as a kid, the only place I remember hearing about them. Always intrigued by this idea…

[@shaider1982]

I read those in my High school library. Had a volume dedicated to the hightech weapons developed then.

[@Kaiser_Kenny]

Please do more sub videos. They are great.

[@xdassinx]

This comment works well on naval history channels and certain only fan pages.

[@Kaiser_Kenny]

@ lmao

[@vidowski_airsoft]

Best reply ever 😂​@@xdassinx

[@Cardinal_Number]

For anyone who’s interested in reading more about shenanigans with high concentration peroxide and other such *fun* chemistry, the book Ignition! is a pretty interesting read about the early development (through 1960s-ish) of rocket propellants.

[@tomfowler2091]

I agree, Ignition! is an excellent book and a great read.

[@onenote6619]

And they worked with materials that made high-test peroxide look mild and friendly by comparison. Liquid Fluorine with molten Lithium, for example.

[@Ragefps]

"A combination conducive to ones health"😂Classic Drach wit! I wonder how many of the sailors knew they were sailing an unstable steam bomb waiting for a chance to do some chemistry.

[@nomadmarauder-dw9re]

Early U boat = a ship that can submerge. Late U boats = an underwater vessel that can run on the surface when necessary.

[@alangreenfeather2422]

52:40 "Sunk on the surface by mosquitoes" takes on a hilarious meaning if you're not familiar with WW2 British air planes.

[@onenote6619]

Some of those Mosquitos were equipped with 50mm cannon. Your average submarine would find that very un-funny.

[@dorn0531]

Now I picture a tiny, blood-sucking bug with a 50mm cannon

[@williamgreen7415]

Thanks!

[@unistrut]

In "IGNITION!" John D. Clark said of working with high test peroxide "Name a substance at random, and there’s a 50-50 chance (or better) that it will catalyze peroxide decomposition."

[@Fulcrum205]

I used to hold a DOT and ATA Hazmat shippers certification. I read Ignition with my big Bible of dangerous stuff book open to look up the compounds they were testing. Rocket chemists are lunatics.

[@AllanSmith-i9h]

I would like to thank Drach. for posting this. I haven’t studied, I don’t have either a naval, chemistry or engineering background, but I do remember reading about the type 21 back in the seventies. I even remember an image of a Type 21 with multiple beam tubes, I think it was in a Purcell or Phoebus guide at about this period. Because the article didn’t elaborate on the design it made the image about as believable as a Buggs Bunny cartoon. HMS Meteorite was mentioned as well, the post war British run Walter submarine, but not in any detail. But now it all makes sense. It also explains why they didn’t manage to get any of them to work properly before time ran out. Also in the seventies, Commando Comics drew up a fantasy story around what was clearly a type 21, the U9001- and I do mean fantasy... the ship had a full electronic countermeasures suite -but it did hint at what might have happened if these ships had got past the prototype stage before the war ended. Just glad they didn’t...

[@rolanddunk5054]

An amazing story brilliantly narrated,The amount of waste of creative energy and material is staggering.Thank you.Roly🇬🇧.

[@dorn0531]

That’s a good description of Nazi Germany: a staggering waste of engineering know-how & creativity.

[@paulipippola2575]

Great, literally just yesterday I spent a good while googling stuff about walter engines and elektroboots. I'm sure that after this I know everything I need to know about them.

[@markrowland1366]

Thankyou for provideing so much information as all I had gathered could be the subjecy of a single paragraph.

[@paulkluegel317]

Thank you...your level of research on these boats is impressive

[@Trooper_-pg3cu]

@drachinifel: When you talked about the Kriegsmarine's efforts at mass production of the electroboots thru prefabricated sections that this wasn't the 1st time the Germans had attempted such a project, can you describe these earlier building efforts in more detail? Did they try this earlier in the war with the Type VII's, or even during WW1 with the Type UB III's? I read that the Imperial German navy was able to commission 95 of them in the last 1 1/2 years of that war

[@BalshazzarWastebasket]

oh god, another u boat post. the lore of drachinifel never ceases to amaze. he is our captain , guiding us through the ocean of ignorance

[@tedbyron1499]

Drach, finally you did it. You covered my 1 of 2 favorite naval developments in WW2. The other being the Scnellbootwaffe (I'm hoping to see indepth coverage of that soon). I too own, Eberhard Rössler's book. But, to see you go through this extremely interesting development in the U-Boats arm in your inimitable style, is wonderful to see. Unfortunately for them, they wasted huge amounts of time and resources on the Walter-process boats. If they just went with the type XXI's (or even the type XVIIk's) in 42 or 43, it would not have been outside of the realm of possibility that Köln or Duesseldorf would've been nuked instead of Hiroshima or Nagasaki. I feel this would be the case if the Allies were prevented from suppling Western Europe with material- let alone ground troops by 1944.

[@calumdeighton]

I really enjoyed this video. Anything on Submarines is a win for me.

[@billistefansson5309]

Greetings and Salutations! Thanks for another fascinating video. The amount of work and research that goes into this is truly impressive. Thank you. All the best, Billi. (P.S., don´t forget, I´ve requested a video on the exploits of the HMS Ashanti)

[@FW190A8UW]

U 3503 was scuttled in Swedish waters and then later salved and scrapped. It shows in the "Hajen" class of submarines later built in Sweden.

[@hmsverdun]

The Hydrogen Peroxide v pure oxygen spiel amused me greatly. PArtly because Drach managed to explain it well but also jnowing that Drach as an engineer is going I do not like these substances, these are not good(essentially one dangerous bleach/rocket fuel v an essential component to mix with another if you add hydrogen or in a U boat then Apollo 1 shows why enclosed spaces high pressure Oxygen and cables should not mix together).

[@jimadamson8563]

07:58 - I'm not getting in ANY kind of vehicle, submarine or not, which has a component called the "Disintegrator" for love nor money!

[@stonebear]

THANK YOU for recognising WATU! Too many do not...

[@SynapseDriven]

As a kid reading about the Me-163 and the Walter powered U-boots, I never looked the same way at a bottle desinfectant when I had a cut.

[@twanzai2218]

The screaming sound of the last blast of the intro spacca I like it

[@CAP198462]

Side note, hydrogen peroxide was also called T-Stoff in Germany. Helmut Walther was mad for the stuff.

[@onenote6619]

As with so many Nazi mad-scientist ideas, promising the world to leadership was a means to avoiding time on the Ostfront. Working with high-test peroxide was - very likely - far more safe and comfortable than getting up close and personal with aggrieved Russians and their weather.

[@McRocket]

Interesting and entertaining - all as per usual. Thank you. ☮

[@Michael-t3b5b]

This was the Kreigsmatines version of the Luftwaffes ME 163 Comet which was a greater threat to the pilot than to allied bombers

[@shaider1982]

It's interesting that Stirling engines, invented during the 19th century, weren't used in subs until the present day.

[@onenote6619]

Stirling engines need a good, reliable heat source and sink to work well. Until nuclear subs, those were not available.

[@pdmacguire]

During the 2005 naval exercises HMS Gotland, a Swedish submarine (using the Sterling cycle descendant of these early boats) sank USS Ronald Reagan.

[@Svenne-man-1880]

No she did not she managed to get close enough through a limited and diminished anti sub warfare protection grid and system to launch a torpedo attack that would NOT have sunk the carrier if any damage control systems were used.

[@acid6urns]

yeah no. that exercise is severely misrepresented. the ASW defenses of the carrier and it’s escort’s were severely restricted to an unreasonable amount. the conditions of that exercise were beyond unreasonable and unrealistic for a US carrier deployed in a combat zone.

[@Svenne-man-1880]

@@acid6urns To true but hey one does not learn from always winning and sadly no one can match the Good old USA in warfighting, almost like the rest of the world does not even try anymore.

[@StarlightSocialist]

That carrier was 100% 'dead' in terms of the exercise, but had the attack been "real" it would not have dealt nearly enough damage. The Gotlands a good boat, and i'm fond of her, but the same qualities that make her an excellent comabatant for the Baltic are hamstringing her here. 6 torpedo tubes but only four are 21 inch in diameter. (We'll get to the other two in a minute). The sweedish torpedo of that size, in that time frame was the 613 and at best it's carrying 600lbs of explosives. Thats pretty standard, same as the US mark 48 of the time. Its also less than what many WWII torpedoes were packing. (The fearsome type 93 long lance has a whopping 1090 lbs!) And in the WW2 era carriers were much smaller. A modern nuclear powered 'super carrier' isn't going to be 'fine' after eating a literall ton of torpedo warhead but it aint goin to the bottom just from that. The other two torpedo tubes the Gotland carries are lightweight electrics, great for hunting subs but they're slower and much shorter ranged than a propper 21inch. (even if they hit the warhead is like half the weight)

[@mikewindsor5759]

@@Svenne-man-1880 I wonder if you have not been following news stories lately. I'm worried that the USA has only around 20% of the population fit for military service these days (due to chronic unhealthiness from vrious sources including poor diet), and the worrying reports following on from the recent bomber crashes seem to indicate specatcular complaceny as a dominant culture in parts of the US military, from high levels downwards. I just hope the stories I read are not the full picture! China and Russia are working together these days to make a formidable adversary, and seem to be winning the hearts and minds of many others, including the likes of India and South Africa, whom we would dearly love to be on our side!

[@MikeHunt-fo3ow]

ships can go just as deep as subs if youre not concerned about them coming back up

[@dorn0531]

🤣🤣

[@mpetersen6]

There's a video out there on a very high isp chemical rocket fuel/oxidizer combination that was looked at that makes this look safe as houses. The oxidizer was Fluorine. Scott Manley and Alexander the ok for channels

[@zopEnglandzip]

Sublimation: solid to gas Evaporation: liquid to gas

[@Mosquitobomber1]

"and another was similarly sunk on the surface by mosquitoes" :D For the split second before I realized he was talking about the mosquito bomber (ironic, given my @ handle...), I was treated to the mental image of an angry swarm of actual mosquitoes poking holes in that poor sub XD

[@rjeder57]

What a way to slay a giant....to be slaughtered by pins! HA!🤣

[@guestmatejek9029]

Thx Drach, this video is awesome.

[@Simon_Nonymous]

24:14 "being able to stay submerged for days at a time"; I appreciate yes it would have enough battery storage to facilitate this, but I didn't hear anything about any new technologies in the Type XXI to scrub the air etc, as this is the other limiting factor. Or did I miss it?

[@onenote6619]

Carbon Dioxide can be absorbed by soda lime (Calcium and Sodium Hydroxide mix), which is an old technology and well known at the time of WW2. Did submarines carry a significant quantity on board? I'm doubting it - subs are cramped enough already. Maybe enough for emergency use, but that's about it.

[@Simon_Nonymous]

@onenote6619 yes that seems likely. I don't think it was until nuclear subs that there was enough power to electrolyse water to extract oxygen etc so the XXI would have been as limited as most subs of it's era?

[@onenote6619]

@@Simon_Nonymous I suppose the primary limitation would be 'How uncomfortable can the crew get without dying or staging a mutiny'. As Drachinifel discusses in his 'Lawn darts of the sea' video about the K-class subs, K13 was underwater for a couple of days and there were survivors. In the film 'Das Boot', a damaged U-boat stays under for 16 hours to make repairs, which I am fairly sure is based on true events. Something similar might happen if a sub has to stay on the bottom because the most obstinate destroyer captain in the world is circling above. Of course, after something like that, the crew would be largely non-functional for quite some time afterward.

[@GrateScot]

I am sensing a new admiral's video in the near future. Maybe Doenitz or Rickover?

[@houraisanproductions5879]

“Jesse we need to design better U-boats”

[@chronus4421]

Great video, thank you!

[@MadMax-bq6pg]

slightly alternate history: Mr MacGoering discovers the usage of aircraft parts in the experimental version, takes over the Kriegsmarine & has all u-boats equipped with hypergolic rocket engines. Derfuhrer is pleased with the fish like design but demands a V2 production & launch facility be incorporated along with a cruise propulsion to make the sub emulate a flying fish. The entire design team defects to soviet union.

[@onenote6619]

There was, in fact, a plan to have a submarine tow a capsule containing a V2 offshore of the US and light it off. Engineering studies were done and drawings produced. Suffice to say it was a very bad plan and nothing came of it.

[@depressedTrent]

​@@onenote6619 they actually got into stage of practical testing of that pod, but that's all I was able to found about decade ago when digging into history of Type XXI. It wasn't really as bad idea as it may seem... Don't forget that fist nuclear weapons on both American and Soviet submarines were literal V-1 with nuclear warhead stored in container slapped on top of it's submarine and launched from rail just attached in front of it to submarine's surface that hydraulics would rise one end up, not dissimilar to japanese I-400. Not that much better idea, to be honest... The towed pod is arguably safer for the sub and it's crew

[@oliversmith9200]

One can see the hull form of the Type 21 in the USS Nautilus of nuclear powered polar navigation fame.

[@lancerevell5979]

And, the four boat Skate class. Not to mention Nautilus's half-sister Seawolf.

[@emjackson2289]

The still 00:25:01 - amazing how modern that looks compared to an early war U-Boat or A.N. Submarine of the allied navies.

I always wondered how much influence the Type 21 had on later subs

[@tulliusexmisc2191]

At 41:38 was it "designated Type XXVIA" as in the narration, or XVIIA as shown in the illustration?

[@gregsutton2400]

So were the "operational" boats at the end of the war fully operational in all their systems? The sonar and automated loaders and the schnorkel were worked out?

[@Drachinifel]

In theory, the ones that were near the end of their working up or on training had everything working.

[@simongeard4824]

@@Drachinifel "In theory", presumably because maintaining quality control is difficult when people keep bombing your factories and shipyards?

[@cyberfutur5000]

for a second I was confused what you meant by "Nein! Not maximum" :D

[@civishamburgum1234]

Now that you have delved so deep into the design and produciton history of these boats. i think it might also br interesting, to make sucxh videos on the hostroy of notable shipyards. After all. hat is were a lot of the development of navy vessels, takes place.

[@mpetersen6]

As Sallah said in Raiders of the Lost Ark. "Very Dangerous"

[@lewiswestfall2687]

Thanks Drach

[@Roger-my5in]

I’m probably not the only one to notice or mention this…24:59 in; best of my knowledge, when mentioning sloops, there was only one model. I believe it has a USN variant, but it was a UK design. I think Canada got a bunch of em as they were made there predominantly. I want to say it was the Flower class but I’m fuzzy on that. What other ‘sloops’ were there in world war 2?

[@Duececoupe]

I'm a simple man, I see Drachinifel....I click!

[@KilledMind1985]

In minute 5 is a huge error. Storing oxygen in a pressure vessel has no fixed ratio of weight to weight. It is dependent on the square cube law. Doubling the outer dimensions of a tank, increases the volume by a factor of eight while the surface area goes up by four. The area the pressure acts upon goes up by four and the circumstances by 2. As the pressure is contained by the circumstances, the tension per until of circumference doubles. So we need to double the wall thickness. Surface area of the tank times four and wall thickness two times increases weight eightfold. Great, I debunked my own hypothesis while texting.

[@TomFynn]

The V80, prequel to The Real Genius:" Now if we can just keep it from exploding."

[@salvadorsempere1701]

I wonder if instead of going full Type XXI would not be more interesting for Germany puts some kind of Guppy project for their Type 7 and Type IX. The conversion of Pomodon, the first US submarine to be converted take just 9 months to be completed and the sub went from 8.75kn to 18 knts submerged, and from the second half of 43 Germany have type VII and Type XIX idle to spare and send to be converted

[@bernhardzunk7402]

-Such a project existed as the Type IXD1 which had a submerged range of 120 nautical miles at 4 knots and even entered service, way above any other allied or -German uboat and even the Japanese I-201 (in range at speed) The typical Type IXA, IXB, IXC had a underwater top speed of 7 knots with a submerged range of 57 nautical miles at 4 knots. The smaller Type VII managed 7.5 knots and a submerged range of 80 nautical miles at 4 knots. The US Tench and Balao classes, as big as the Type IXC, managed 8.75 knots but a range of 115 nautical miles at a very slow 2 knots. Some cube law maths suggests a range of only 30 nautical miles at 4 knots. The US subs probably used thinner plate batteries to get more speed but paid a price in range. The Guppy II and Guppy IA conversions increased submerged speed to 18-20 knots and range to 120 nautical miles at 6 knots. They basically doubled battery size but most of the gains must have been in streamlining. It should be noted that a Type XXI at 6 knots could go 256 nautical miles at 6 knots. With the Type IXD came an attempt to drastically increase range and speed with a lengthened hull for more batteries and fuel. There were two models The IXD2 with an increased surface range of 23500 nautical miles with a 3rd diesel engine for more rapid battery charge but no change in submerged speed or range. -The IXD1 had rather than extra fuel had extra batteries for a submerged range of 120 nautical miles at 4 knots. Unfortunately, rather than use then standard diesels as in the IXD2 but instead of the 3 standard MAN diesels 6 Daimler Benz Diesels were used to increase surface speed and their poor reliability ruined the class. Had they not used these engines the Type IXD1 would have worked. -There appears to have been not attempt to improve streamlining. I'm estimating a 33% reduction in drag from a new conning tower said with removal of deck guns and a halving with a stronger effort. That should lead to a 10% increase in top speed of 7.6 knots and a cruise speed of 4.4 knots at 130 nautical miles range Or if a halving of drag perhaps 8.4 knots and 150 nautical miles range at 4.8 knots. This gives the abillity to escape an allied search pattern.

[@Myomer104]

Will you do a video of the Type XXI's Japanese counterparts, the I-201s?

[@Zonkotron]

Fun fact. The Walter company still exists today and is one of the word leaders in ice cream cone waffle baking and rolling machinery. My friend works there, i have interned. Mwahahaha

[@volkerkalhoefer3973]

today(ish)😁😁

[@hugod2000]

Give Drach an MBE Give me a Gin.

[@greggweber9967]

24:38 Unless it was near the end of its power supply and now had hours at most left. One could get overly careful or skittish at that point.

[@randyhavard6084]

Great video

[@MakeMeThinkAgain]

A great reminder of why it usually isn't a good idea to introduce new weapon systems during a war. Better usually being the enemy of good enough.

[@dorn0531]

Good rule of thumb but innovation during war gave us the tank, the aircraft carrier, bomber aircraft & rockets. Sometimes mid-war development is needed & can be very successful.

[@stscc01]

The problem for the Kriegsmarine was that the conventional simply weren't "good enough" anymore in 1942 or 1943. The same applies to most other German weapons that would have been "good enough" from an Allied perspective, where you almost always outnumbered your enemy, and a steady stream of resupplies kept coming from the USA to make up for your losses. Germany didn't have that luxury, so they had to go for the "better" to have at least a theoretical chance of winning. In most cases, the time was running out for all those principally good ideas. Or the raw materials were simply missing... If you look at post-war submarines, you can see that the German designs were going in the right direction and like jet airplanes could have been very deadly weapons...

[@AsbestosMuffins]

before there was Spicy Rock, there was exploding water

[@sdcoinshooter]

I tried to understand the explanation of O2-hydrogen-diesel-combustion…. But my head exploded.

[@samnelson9038]

"Welcome to the U-Boat of tomorrow!"

[@jebise1126]

how were forced underwater with radar? was asdic not there any more?

[@Drachinifel]

ASDIC had a shorter range and more limited arc than radar, and could also only be used at slow speeds.

[@jebise1126]

@@Drachinifel is that shorter range for ship using it? got it. thanks

[@Drachinifel]

@jebise1126 yep, centimetric radar could spot a surfaced sub far further than the ships ASDIC could, escorts had to then chase down the contact and hope the sub hadn't dived and moved out of position by the time they got to ASDIC range, but simply forcing a sub to dive when it didn't want to could put it out of position to be able to attack.

[@onenote6619]

It's not just ships with radar. Maritime patrol aircraft were also equipped and had a much better range because of their altitude. Add that to their speed, and an aircraft could be on top of a sub very quickly. U-boats responded with passive radar detectors and more AA guns. Aircraft responded with high-power searchlights (the Leigh light) to blind gunners and improve their accuracy. Also bear in mind that Admiral Doenitz liked his captains to regularly report in. Direction-finding and Ultra meant that the aircraft knew pretty much exactly where to look.

[@purpleldv966]

Excellent!

[@Rom3_29]

Wonder how many hidden vital apparatuses had purposely sabotaged? Few of the inner screws left slightly loose, misaligned or gasket installed upside. Or pieces of dirt or dirty rag left to wear our gears or plug oiling passages. Overheating. Valve ‘O’ ring not greased or left out of the sealing groove. Causing valve to leak or fail. All these have to be triple checked and tested. Causing delays and brake downs later on.

[@TDOBrandano]

Is the picture at 30:00 a retouched image? The design of the white safety helmet and the clothing on the guy walking in front of the bow seem a bit anachronistic.

[@AndreasMarx]

It's a post-war image showing the one boat the West Germans used (Wilhelm Bauer). Note also the changes to the sail (no AA guns!) and the torpedo tubes (bottom set removed and ports welded shut; middle set replaced with a different type, to test wide-guided torpedoes).

[@jeraldsamuel5598]

What about a similar sub using OTTOFUEL instead of hydrogen peroxide + diesel?

[@molybdaen11]

I did not know that they planed submarines capable to fire backwards in this setup. 12 backwards tubes is a lot. The plan was probably to deploy 4 mines each and keep chasing destroyers away long enough?

[@jebise1126]

so what did germany tried to build in modules before type XXI?

[@d.thorpe2046]

I think if they offered tiktok and reddit the only limiting factor for subs would be food. 58:20

[@Graham-ce2yk]

I belive these submarines were referred to as 'The blank unappealing face of square one' in some quarters when their existence was revealed.

[@ogscarl3t375]

One day we’ll get the finale to the destroyer design history series

[@whiskywolff]

Good lord... If you're interested, just look up when hydrogen peroxide decomposes into water (H₂O) and oxygen (O₂). But for lazy people in a closed space, this decomposition releases oxygen gas, which can increase the pressure. In small, airtight containers (like in a submarine hull), the pressure buildup can eventually lead to a rupture or explosion if the concentration is high enough...