List_of_submarines_of_World_War_II

List of submarines of World War II

List of submarines of World War II

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This is a list of submarines of World War II, which began with the German invasion of Poland on 1 September 1939 and ended with the surrender of Japan on 2 September 1945.

This is a dynamic list and may never be able to satisfy particular standards for completeness. You can help by adding missing items with reliable sources.

Germany used submarines to devastating effect in the Battle of the Atlantic, where it attempted to cut Britain's supply routes by sinking more merchant ships than Britain could replace. While U-boats destroyed a significant number of ships, the strategy ultimately failed. Although U-boats had been updated in the interwar years, the major innovation was improved communications and encryption; allowing for mass-attack naval tactics. By the end of the war, almost 3,000 Allied ships (175 warships, 2,825 merchantmen) had been sunk by U-boats.[1]

The Imperial Japanese Navy operated the most varied fleet of submarines of any navy, including Kaiten crewed torpedoes, midget submarines (Type A Ko-hyoteki and Kairyu classes), medium-range submarines, purpose-built supply submarines and long-range fleet submarines. They also had submarines with the highest submerged speeds (I-201-class submarines) and submarines that could carry multiple aircraft (I-400-class submarines). They were also equipped with one of the most advanced torpedoes of the conflict, the oxygen-propelled Type 95.

The submarine force was the most effective anti-ship weapon in the United States Navy arsenal. Although constituting only about 2 percent of the U.S. naval force, submarine force destroyed over 30 percent of the Imperial Japanese Navy, and over 60 percent of the Japanese merchant fleet, The Royal Navy Submarine Service was used primarily to blockade trade and military supply routes to Africa and the Near and Far East, but also obtained the only mutually submerged submarine-to-submarine combat kill of World War II. This occurred when the crew of HMS Venturer engaged the U-864, manually computed a successful firing solution against a three-dimensional moving target using techniques which became the basis of modern torpedo computer targeting systems.[2][3][4][5]

Excluding special underwater craft such as midget submarines, the German Kriegsmarine lost 765 submarines to all causes during World War II[6] in addition to 150 submarines scuttled in German-held ports in northern Europe during the first week of May 1945 by their crews to avoid surrendering them to the Allies,[7] while Japan lost 129 submarines[8] and Italy 91.[9] The Royal Navy lost 73[10] and the U.S. Navy 52 submarines,[11][12][13][14] while France lost 59.[15] The Soviet Union′s submarine losses are not necessarily fully known, but the Soviet Navy probably lost 98 submarines.[15]

Submarines show submerged displacement in long tons.

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See also

References

  1. [1]
    Crocker, H. W. III (2006). Don't Tread on Me. New York: Crown Forum. p. 310. ISBN 978-1-4000-5363-6.
  2. [2]
    "Hulls Listed by Name". Naval Vessel Register. Archived from the original on 2007-06-30.
  3. [3]
    "US Navy Inactive Classification Symbols". Naval Vessel Register. NAVSEA Shipbuilding Support Office. Archived from the original on 18 January 2012. Retrieved 21 April 2015.
  4. [4]
    "Index". Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships.
  5. [5]
    "Royal Navy operations in the Second World War". The National Archives. Retrieved 2016-03-29.
  6. [6]
    Helgason, Guðmundur. "Chart of U-boat losses 1939-1945". Uboat.net. Retrieved 26 March 2022.
  7. [7]
    "German Submarine Casualties in World War Two". Naval History and Heritage Command. January 31, 2017. Retrieved 26 March 2022.
  8. [8]
    "Japanese Submarine Casualties in World War Two". Naval History and Heritage Command. January 31, 2017. Retrieved 26 March 2022.
  9. [9]
    "Italian Submarine Casualties in World War Two". Naval History and Heritage Command. January 31, 2017. Retrieved 26 March 2022.
  10. [10]
    "Major British & Dominion Warship Losses in World War 2: Submarines". Naval-history.net. 1 December 2010. Retrieved 26 March 2022.
  11. [11]
    Elfrink, Tim (November 11, 2019). "A WWII submarine went missing for 75 years. High-tech undersea drones solved the mystery". The Washington Post.
  12. [12]
    "Navy Submarine, Missing for 75 Years, Is Found Off Okinawa". The New York Times. November 10, 2019.
  13. [13]
    Lange, Katie (November 14, 2019). "The Legacy the Recently Discovered USS Grayback Left Behind". U.S. Department of Defense.
  14. [14]
    "3D Archaeological Models of Newly Discovered US WWII Sub". Sea-Technology.com. August 16, 2019.
  15. [15]
    Helgason, Guðmundur. "War losses: Submarines". Uboat.net. Retrieved 26 March 2022.

Bibliography

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