Type 205 submarine

Type 205 submarine U-1 (S180)
Class overview
Builders:	Howaldtswerke, Kiel Copenhagen Naval Dockyard
Operators:	German Navy  Royal Danish Navy
Preceded by:	Type 201 submarine
Succeeded by:	Type 206 submarine
In commission:	1967–2005
Completed:	13
Laid up:	1
Retired:	9
Preserved:	3
General characteristics
Type:	Submarine
Displacement:	450 long tons (457 t) surfaced 500 long tons (508 t) submerged
Length:	43.9 m (144 ft)
Beam:	4.6 m (15 ft 1 in)
Draft:	4.3 m (14 ft 1 in)
Propulsion:	2 × 600 hp (450 kW) Mercedes-Benz 4-stroke V12 diesel engines each coupled to a BBC generator 1 × 1,000 kW (1,300 hp) SSW electric motor
Speed:	10 knots (19 km/h; 12 mph) surfaced 17 knots (31 km/h; 20 mph) submerged
Range:	4,200 nmi (7,800 km) at 5 kn (9.3 km/h) surfaced 228 nmi (422 km) at 4 kn (7.4 km/h) submerged
Test depth:	100 m (330 ft)
Complement:	4 officers, 18 enlisted
Armament:	• 8 × 533 mm (21 in) torpedo tubes • Torpedoes and naval mines

The Type 205 was a class of diesel-electric German hunter-killer U-boat submarines. They were single-hull vessels optimized for the use in the shallow Baltic Sea. The Type 205 is a direct evolution of the Type 201 class with lengthened hull, new machinery and sensors. The biggest difference though is that ST-52 steel is used for the pressure hull since the Type 201's non-magnetic steel proved to be problematic. Type 206, the follow-on class, finally succeeded with non-magnetic steel hulls.

The Type 205 was in service with the Royal Danish Navy until 2004, in which it was known as Narhvalen class. The Danish boats differed slightly from the German ones to meet special Danish demands.

List of boats

Submarines built for the Bundesmarine:
Pennant number	Name	Call sign	Launched	Com- missioned	Decom- missioned	Fate
S180	Technikmuseum Speyer
S189	Wilhelmshaven
S190	Burgstaaken, Fehmarn
S191	Kongelige Dansk Marine:
S320	Narhvalen		September 10, 1968	February 27, 1970	October 16, 2003	scrapped
S321	Nordkaperen		December 18, 1969	December 22, 1970	February 2, 2004	scrapped

These last two boats were built by the Howaldtswerke, in Denmark at The Naval Dockyard, Copenhagen.

Notes:

• U-1 and U-2 were originally built as Type 201 submarines with pressure hulls made of non-magnetic steel, but were rebuilt as Type 205 with new pressure hulls out of normal steel after corrosion problems and small cracks were detected.
• U-1 was given back to Nordseewerke and was used to test an experimental closed-cycle diesel air-independent propulsion system before being scrapped
• U-11 was transformed to a Type 205A double-hulled boat (the outer hull filled with polystyrene foam to make it unsinkable) and used as torpedo target
• U-12 was used for sonar trials as Type 205B

See also

• Kobben class submarine

External links

• Submarines of the Narhvalen class - Danish Naval History