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Submarine Construction

Date	boats in service	Entered service during the year	Losses during the year	Making up (balance)
1/I 1936	13	22	-	--
1/I 1937	35	1	-	--
1/I 1938	36	9	-	--
1/I 1939	45	18	- 9	+ 9
1/I 1940	54	50	- 21	+ 29
1/I 1941	83	219	- 36	+ 183
1/I 1942	266	222	- 92	+ 130
1/I 1943	316	292	- 230	+ 62
1/I 1944	458	329	- 243	+ 86
1/I 1945	544		- 137	war's end
SOURCE SOURCE

After the carrying out of the armistice conditions and the signing of the Versailles Treaty, any practical continuation of the work in the field of the submarine arm was impossible in Germany. Germany had submarines in operation only 3 months after the denunciation of the Treaty of Versailles and had no less than 18 submarines in service in March 1936, at the critical time when the Rhineland was reoccupied; these facts the German Navy itself described as "astonishing". In 1937 the German Navy compiled a secret document entitled "The Fight of the Navy against Versailles." (C-156, Pros. Ex. 139) This document throws much light on the circumstances which made possible the rapid development of the German Uboat arm after Hitler came to power.

In 1920 Krupp's Germania shipbuilding company, with the approval of the German Admiralty, sold its blueprints of projected German submarine types to Japan, and Japan adopted these blueprints as the basis for the construction of its own submarine cruisers. The construction of submarines in accordance with these blueprints, at the Kawasaki shipbuilding company, was carried out under the supervision of German submarine constructors and under the personal direction of the chief submarine constructor of the Germania shipyards, Dr. Techel. A German naval officer, with extensive experience in submarine warfare, participated in the trial runs of these submarines and, of course, reported his observations to the German Admiralty.

A much more important step was the establishment in 1922 of a dummy Dutch company called the "Ingenieurkantoor voor Scheepsbouw" (commonly abbreviated Lv.S.). A Krupp memorandum (NIK-12294, Pros. Ex. 140) 1 written just before the establishment of this company states that its purpose was "the preservation and further implementation of German U-boat experiences," and makes it clear that the connection of this company with the Krupp concern (through the Germania shipyards) was kept strictly secret in order to conceal the obvious breach of Articles 168, 170, and 179 of the Treaty of Versailles. The German Navy's secret history, referred to above, (C-156, Pros. Ex. 139)2 shows that this company was established in Holland with the approval of Admiral Behnke of the German Admiralty, and that the purpose of the Lv.S., from the standpoint of the Admiralty, "was to keep together an efficient German submarine office and, by practical work for foreign navies, to keep it in continuous practice and on top of technical developments."

This cloaked branch of the Krupp shipyards fulfilled its purpose highly efficiently; it not only engaged in submarine research and design but actually built submarines for sale to other governments. Two submarines were built and sold to Turkey before 1927. Other submarines were built in Spain and Finland in accordance with designs developed by the Lv.S. in Holland.

The layman might think that this clandestine fooling with a few submarines in Japan, Holland, and Finland amounted to very little in terms of modern naval warfare. The German Navy, however, in its secret history, credited these projects with having made possible "astonishing facts". During the period of extensive but necessarily secret rearmament, which immediately followed Hitler's accession to power, the navy could play only a subordinate role to the army. Tanks and artillery can be kept hidden more readily than submarines and battleships. The navy could and did prepare, however, for the moment when the Treaty of Versailles would be openly repudiated. In this it received the full cooperation of Krupp.

By October 1934 the Germania shipyards received orders to build six submarines. Two months before Germany unilaterally denounced the Versailles Treaty, the keels of these boats were laid. Two months later, the first one was delivered. The design for these boats was the product of the Lv.S. The value of the work done prior to 1933 thus proved itself again.

After the carrying-out of the Armistice conditions and the signing of the Versaille Treaty, any practical continuation of the work in the field of the submarine arm was impossible in Germany. In spite of that, it was possible to put the first submarine into service only 3Y2 months after the restoration of military sovereignty declared on 16 March 1935, that is on 29 June 1935, and then at intervals of about 8 days to put new submarines continuously into service, so that on 1 October 1935, 12 submarines with fully trained personnel were in service.

The construction and detailed testing of the boat type was the necessary prerequisite for the fact that in 1933-35 the parts for U-1 to U-24 could be procured by Lv.S. and Igewit long before the order for the assembly was issued, and the assembly itself could be prepared in detail, as this was actually done while fully preserving secrecy. For this purpose the firm Igewit rented a big storehouse from the Deutsche Werke Riel, where the ordered machines, apparatus, and assembly parts for 12 submarines were stored. Furthermore, it ordered the erection of a construction shop at the Deutsche Werke in which, out of sight of the outside world, 6 submarines could be assembled at the same time. The individual parts of the 2 flag submarines U-25 and -26, too, were prepared in secret for assembly before the order for assembly was given. Therefore, the assembly of these big boats required a period of only 10 months.

Raeder, the Commander in Chief of the Navy, was preparing as early as 1934 to oppose England. Hitler considered it vital that the navy be increased, "as no war could be carried on if the navy was not able to safeguard the ore imports from Scandinavia." On 7 March 1937 during the critical moment of the occupation of the demilitarized zone on the western border, 18 submarines in service were available, 17 of which had already passed the test period and in case of emergency, they could have been employed without difficulties on the French coast up to the Gironde.