This is an old revision of this page, as edited by Herostratus (talk | contribs) at 04:03, 30 September 2005 (+2 internal links (this makes the "see also" section reduntant but i left it)). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.
Revision as of 04:03, 30 September 2005 by Herostratus (talk | contribs) (+2 internal links (this makes the "see also" section reduntant but i left it))(diff) ← Previous revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff)Type X (XB) U-boats were a special type of German submarine (U-boat). Although intended as mine-layers, they were later used as long range cargo transports, a task they shared with the Type IX-D1 and Italian Romolo class submarines.
These XB boats, designed in 1938, were laid down as ocean-going submersibles. They could carry up to 66 SMA mines in 30 vertical mine shafts, and up to 15 torpedoes. The XB class boats were special in that they had only two torpedo tubes, at the stern. As transport boats they carried freight containers in the mine shafts (or had the freight containers welded on top of the lateral shafts, preventing their use for mines). At 2710 tons submerged and fully loaded, they were the largest German U-boats ever built, and they had to trade off diving speed and agility.
Six of the 8 boats built were sunk during the war (5 with all hands) but two survived the war. One survivor was U-234, which was infamous for a its 560 kg cargo of uranium-oxide en-route to Japan. Other cargo included two Me-262 jet fighters and 10 jet engines. The other type XB to survive was U-219 which reached Djakarta in December 1944 with a cargo including dismantled V-2 rockets for Japan.