Hello all, here is today's article posted on TheArmoryLife.com. It is titled "Stopping the U-234: Hitler’s Atom Bomb Submarine" and can be found at https://www.thearmorylife.com/stopping-the-u-234-hitlers-atom-bomb-submarine/.
Stopping the U-234: Hitler’s Atom Bomb Submarine
- Thread starter Mike H.
- Start date
Sld1959
Ronin
Along with the Natural History museum in Chicago, a true favorite visit.
Annihilator
Emissary
Interesting article Mike, thanks
Talyn
SAINT
Japanese submarine I-52 (1942) - Wikipedia
H-033-1 Yanagi Missions
H-Gram 033, Attachment 1 Samuel J. Cox, Director NHHC July 2019
World War II: Yanagi Missions -- Japan's Underwater Convoys
A series of top-secret Japanese submarine missions could have altered the course of World War II.
www.historynet.com
World War II Cargo-Transport Submarines
The sketch of the Type XX-boat. The vast bulk of cargo should be placed outside the pressure hull in wet storage. Inside the pressure hull, there was only about 220 cubic metre of storage space for…
weaponsandwarfare.com
Type X submarine - Wikipedia
rehjaeger
Alpha
It doesn't seem to be mentioned here, but that boat is a Type IX-B, the so-called "Milchkuh" or "Milk Cow" that was used primarily as a resupply vessel due to their large size and unwieldiness in defensive maneuvers. The U-505, which can be seen at the Chicago Museum of Science (if you're brave enough to go there) was of the same type. However, don't expect to learn anything from the tour guides. I still vividly remember ours referring to Allied anti-submarine aircraft (in general) as "jet fighters." I corrected her a couple of times and then gave up.
The Japanese also seized some Italian subs in Singapore when Italy surrendered and subsequently turned them over to the Germans.These became part of a transport scheme code named "MerKator" which never came to fruition with the subs finally being taken over by Japan when Germany surrendered then ending up as war prizes and being sunk by the US Navy after the war.
Thanks for letting us know about this! I reached out the author, and he had this to say:
"As a total land-lubber the author apologizes for being too aggressive on the trigger with the "0" key! Displacement for the Type X Submarine Minelayer is listed as 1,735 tons (surfaced) and 2,143 tons (submerged). Based on my meat-bread-cheese diet, that is very close to my own displacement! "
rehjaeger
Alpha
Interesting. I have to admit I mis-identified this boat, having never seen a picture of the Type X. I also have to admit my relative ignorance of them. Probably because they weren't intended as anti-surface ship combat boats, but of course that's no excuse. Thanks for the clarification, Mike.
SSBNSAILOR
Alpha
New member / submarine vet / reactor operator here. This was a very interesting story; I've long been interested in what Germany was trying to get out at the end of the war, and to where.
I can tell you that Germany did not place a high priority on its atomic developments. German scientists and engineers did in fact attempt to assemble a working reactor at Haigerloch right at the end of the war, but due to some basic physics assumptions on their part being wrong the reactor could not possibly have been made critical. All of the components were found after the war and their effort was judged years away from any success, be it a working reactor or (further on) a weapon. Since they did not know what a critical assembly looked like (physically and operationally) they could not have even begun to consider what a weapon core would look like.
(We had a working reactor in 1942, and I am fortunate to own a tiny slice of the graphite from it, encased in a lucite paperweight given to me as a gift some years ago.)
What the Japanese would have done with the blocks found on the submarine is questionable. I will add that the blocks from the Haigerloch reactor were dispersed far and wide to US laboratories and universities and they still surprise people by turning up now and again, after being forgotten in a locked storage box or something for years.
I can tell you that Germany did not place a high priority on its atomic developments. German scientists and engineers did in fact attempt to assemble a working reactor at Haigerloch right at the end of the war, but due to some basic physics assumptions on their part being wrong the reactor could not possibly have been made critical. All of the components were found after the war and their effort was judged years away from any success, be it a working reactor or (further on) a weapon. Since they did not know what a critical assembly looked like (physically and operationally) they could not have even begun to consider what a weapon core would look like.
(We had a working reactor in 1942, and I am fortunate to own a tiny slice of the graphite from it, encased in a lucite paperweight given to me as a gift some years ago.)
What the Japanese would have done with the blocks found on the submarine is questionable. I will add that the blocks from the Haigerloch reactor were dispersed far and wide to US laboratories and universities and they still surprise people by turning up now and again, after being forgotten in a locked storage box or something for years.