 TheU-1406, a vessel of the same class as HMSMeteorite / U-1407 | |
| History | |
|---|---|
 Nazi Germany | |
| Name | U-1407 |
| Ordered | 4 January 1943 |
| Builder | Blohm & Voss,Hamburg |
| Yard number | 257 |
| Laid down | 13 November 1943 |
| Launched | February 1945 |
| Commissioned | 13 March 1945 |
| Fate |
|
 United Kingdom | |
| Name | HMSMeteorite |
| Acquired | 1945 |
| Commissioned | 25 September 1945 |
| Decommissioned | September 1949 |
| Fate | Broken up |
| General characteristics[1][2] | |
| Class & type | Type XVIIBsubmarine |
| Displacement | |
| Length |
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| Beam |
|
| Draught | 4.3 m (14 ft 1 in) |
| Propulsion |
|
| Speed |
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| Range |
|
| Complement | 19 |
| Armament |
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| Service record (Kriegsmarine) | |
| Part of: |
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| Identification codes: | M 47 655 |
| Commanders: | |
| Operations: | None |
| Victories: | None |
HMSMeteorite was an experimentalU-boat developed in Germany, scuttled at the end ofWorld War II, subsequently raised andcommissioned into theRoyal Navy. The submarine was originally commissioned into theKriegsmarine on 13 March 1945 asU-1407. She was built around aWalter engine fueled byhigh-test peroxide (HTP), the fuel known asT-Stoff in German service.
The three completedGerman Type XVIIB submarines were scuttled by their crews at the end of theSecond World War,U-1405 atFlensburg andU-1406 andU-1407 atCuxhaven, all in theBritish Zone of Occupation.[4]U-1406 andU-1407 were scuttled on 7 May 1945 byOberleutnant zur See Gerhard Grumpelt even though a superior officer,Kapitän zur SeeKurt Thoma, had prohibited such actions. Grumpelt was subsequently sentenced to seven years' imprisonment by a British military court.[5][6]
At thePotsdam Conference in July 1945U-1406 was allocated to theUnited States andU-1407 to theUnited Kingdom, and both were soon salvaged.[4]
U-1407 was salvaged in June 1945, and transported toBarrow-in-Furness, where she was refitted byVickers with a new and complete set of machinery also captured in Germany, under the supervision ofProfessor Hellmuth Walter. Because she was intended to be used solely for trials and possibly as a high-speed anti-submarine target, her torpedo tubes were removed.[4] She wascommissioned into the Royal Navy on 25 September 1945 and renamed HMSMeteorite.
During 1946Meteorite carried out a series of trials under the guidance of Walter and his original team fromGermaniawerft,Kiel. The trials raised considerable interest in the possibility of HTP as an alternative to nuclear power asair-independent propulsion and theAdmiralty placed an order for two larger experimental Walter boats based on the German Type XXVI, theExplorer-classsubmarinesHMS Explorer andHMS Excalibur, to be followed by an operational class of 12 boats.
Meteorite was not popular with her crews, who regarded the boat as a dangerous and volatile piece of machinery. She was officially described as "75% safe".[7]She was difficult to control due to aircraft-type controls and a lack of forwardhydroplanes.
Meteorite's Royal Navy service came to an end in September 1949, and she wasbroken up byThos. W. Ward ofBarrow-in-Furness.
