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Type | Naamloze vennootschap |
---|---|
Industry | Shipbuilding |
Founded | 21 July 1922 |
Defunct | 1945 |
Fate | Dissolved after World War II |
Headquarters | Kiel (1922-1925) The Hague (1925-1945) |
Key people | Hans Techel |
Products | Warships |
Parent | AG Vulcan, Germaniawerft and AG Weser |
NV Ingenieurskantoor voor Scheepsbouw (Dutch: engineer-office for shipbuilding), usually contracted to IvS, was a Dutch dummy company set up in The Hague and funded by the Reichsmarine after World War I in order to maintain and develop German submarine know-how and to circumvent the limitations set by the Treaty of Versailles. The company designed several submarine types for paying countries, including the Soviet S-class submarine, as well as the prototypes for the German Type II submarines and Type VII submarines.
The company was a joint venture by the German shipyards AG Vulcan Stettin (located in Stettin and Hamburg), the Krupp-owned Germaniawerft in Kiel, and AG Weser in Bremen. Design work was carried out at the facilities of these companies in Germany.[ citation needed ]
At the time of IvS, the Germans were bound by the Treaty of Versailles, signed in 1919. This treaty, among other terms, demanded that all German U-boats be destroyed or given to other nations. Thus the Reichsmarine was left without a submarine capability, and IvS was created to work around these restrictions. The work of the company was a major factor in the foundation of the Kriegsmarine of World War II.[ citation needed ]
NV Ingenieurskantoor voor Scheepsbouw (IvS) was founded on 21 July 1922 and initially was led from the Germaniawerft in Kiel, Germany. [1] [2] [3] During this time the company gradually built up a team of skilled and experienced German and Dutch engineers that were led by technical director Hans Techel, the former director of U-boat design at Germaniawerft. [4] [5] In 1925, after resolving their legal technicalities with the Dutch government, IvS finally opened its office in The Hague and the eleven-man staff that were leading the firm from the office in Kiel moved to the Dutch office. [4] [1] This office at the corner of the Wagenstraat and Gedempte burgwal would be used by IvS till its dissolution in 1945. [4]
At first IvS used the old UB III and UC III boats of the Imperial German Navy as starting point for their new submarine designs. [6]
IvS first designed two submarines based on the World War I UB III submarine of the Kaiserliche Marine . Both were built by the Fijenoord shipyard in Rotterdam in 1927 and sold to Turkey, where they formed the Birinci İnönü class. [7] [8] [9] They were followed by the Submarino E-1 built in 1930 by the Echevarrieta y Larrinaga shipyard in Cádiz, Spain, initially for the Spanish Navy, but mainly as a prototype of the German Type I submarine and Type VII submarine. [10] [7] However, the Spanish lost interest in the E-1, and it was also sold to Turkey in 1935 as the TCG Gür . In 1936 it was reported in the media that there had been negotiations between Turkey, IvS and Dutch shipyards about a potential order for another four submarines, however, due financial concerns it came to nothing. [11]
The E-1 also attracted the attention of the Soviet Navy; with significant modifications the E-1 became the E-2 project. Construction of the first two prototypes started in December 1934 at the Baltic Shipyard in Leningrad, using German diesel engines and electric batteries. They were followed by the third prototype in April 1935. With further modifications to use less-expensive Soviet equipment, full production began in 1936 of the Soviet S-class submarines. In 1945 the Soviet submarine S-13 was responsible for the sinking of the German military transport Wilhelm Gustloff and the General von Steuben with heavy losses of life.[ citation needed ]
From 1927 to 1933 four IvS-designed submarines were built by Crichton-Vulcan Oy in Turku, Finland. One of these, CV 707 (later the Finnish Navy Vesikko ), was the prototype of the German Type II submarine, while three larger Vetehinen -class submarines served as the prototypes for the Type VII. A fifth IvS design was the small submarine Saukko , built in Helsinki by the Sandvikens Skeppsdocka och Mekaniska Verkstad shipyard, and originally planned to be deployed in Lake Ladoga.[ citation needed ]
The contracts were worded in such a way that IvS employees (many of whom were former Kaiserliche Marine and Reichsmarine personnel) were involved with crew training and selection, and were also allowed to take part in submarine service trials. The Germans - who were, at the time, tightly restricted from using submarines themselves - thus gained first-hand knowledge of how their prototypes worked in practice.[ citation needed ]
The company also designed the Finnish Navy coastal defense ships Väinämöinen and Ilmarinen in the late 1920s. Both ships were also built by Crichton-Vulcan Oy, entering service in 1932 and 1934, respectively.[ citation needed ]
The IvS was also involved in designing plans for a Royal Netherlands Navy project to build battlecruisers. Battlecruisers were deemed by some to be essential for the defense of the Dutch East Indies against possible Japanese expansion, especially as the Netherlands lacked any large surface ships. The designs were heavily influenced by the German Scharnhorst class and the final design was similar to the IvS design, because the Germans were expected to at least furnish the gun turrets for these ships, as constructing them was beyond Dutch capabilities. In the end, political disagreements delayed the decision-making process and none of the projected ships were laid down, as on May 10, 1940 the Germans invaded the Netherlands.[ citation needed ]
In 1933, the Reichsmarine established a training school in Kiel for U-boat crews, called the Unterseebootsabwehrschule ("Submarine Defence School"). This program provided for a small fleet of eight 500-tonne submarines, later doubled to sixteen.
Later plans for an actual U-boat fleet included designs for submarines referred to as "Experimental Motor Boats". Deutsche Werke in Kiel was selected to build the new submarines, and a new U-boat base was to be built at Kiel-Dietrichsdorf. Submarine components were gathered there surreptitiously, in preparation for the order to begin production. The following submarine types were initially planned:
From then on more boats were built, leading up to wartime production.
Type VII U-boats were the most common type of German World War II U-boat. 703 boats were built by the end of the war. The lone surviving example, U-995, is on display at the Laboe Naval Memorial located in Laboe, Schleswig-Holstein, Germany.
The Type II U-boat was designed by Nazi Germany as a coastal U-boat, modeled after the CV-707 submarine, which was designed by the Dutch dummy company NV Ingenieurskantoor voor Scheepsbouw Den Haag (I.v.S) and built in 1933 by the Finnish Crichton-Vulcan shipyard in Turku, Finland. It was too small to undertake sustained operations far away from the home support facilities. Its primary role was found to be in the training schools, preparing new German naval officers for command. It appeared in four sub-types.
U-boats were naval submarines operated by Germany, particularly in the First and Second World Wars. The term is an anglicised version of the German word U-Boot, a shortening of Unterseeboot, though the German term refers to any submarine. Austro-Hungarian Navy submarines were also known as U-boats.
German Type XXIII submarines were the first so-called elektroboote to become operational. They were small coastal submarines designed to operate in the shallow waters of the North Sea, Black Sea and Mediterranean Sea, where larger Type XXI electric boats were at risk in World War II. They were so small they could carry only two torpedoes, which had to be loaded externally. As with their far larger sisters—the Type XXI—they were able to remain submerged almost all of the time and were faster than conventional U-boats, due to the improved streamlining of their shape, batteries with larger capacity and the snorkel, which allowed the diesel engines to be used while submerged. The Type XXI and XXIII U-boats revolutionized post-war submarine design. Nearly a thousand Type XXIII boats were projected towards the close of World War II, but most of these were either cancelled, scrapped incomplete, or only projected.
The Type I U-boat was the first post–World War I attempt to produce an oceangoing submarine for Nazi Germany's Kriegsmarine. The type was based on the Spanish Type E-1, designed by Ingenieurskantoor voor Scheepsbouw. Only two Type IAs were built. They were not a succesfull design : due to its single rudder they had a large turning circle and were not very manoeuvrable. The gravity center of the U-boat was too forward so on surface the type I had its propellors exposed when she was pitching. Whilst submerged there were problems with depth keeping and stability as air bubbles in fuel tanks wobbled back and forth. Diving was very slow : at full speed and with six tons of negative buoyancy it took forthy seconds to reach ten metres depth. As a result, the type was discontinued and a new type IX class oceangoing U-boats was designed.
Vesikko is a submarine, which was launched on 10 May 1933 at the Crichton-Vulcan dock in Turku. Until 1936 it was named by its yard number CV 707. Vesikko was ordered by a Dutch engineering company Ingenieurskantoor voor Scheepsbouw in 1930 as a commercial submarine prototype, being the prototype for the German Type II submarines. Purchased by the Finnish before World War II, she saw service in the Winter War and Continuation War, sinking the Soviet merchant ship Vyborg as her only victory. After the cease-fire with the Allies in 1944, Vesikko was retired. Finland was banned from operating submarines after the war and she was kept in storage until she was turned into a museum ship.
Plan Z was the name given to the planned re-equipment and expansion of the Kriegsmarine ordered by Adolf Hitler in early 1939. The fleet was meant to challenge the naval power of the United Kingdom, and was to be completed by 1948. Development of the plan began in 1938, but it reflected the evolution of the strategic thinking of the Oberkommando der Marine over the two decades following World War I. The plan called for a fleet centered on ten battleships and four aircraft carriers which were intended to battle the Royal Navy. This force would be supplemented with numerous long-range cruisers that would attack British shipping. A relatively small force of U-boats was also stipulated.
Friedrich Krupp Germaniawerft was a German shipbuilding company, located in the harbour at Kiel, and one of the largest and most important builders of U-boats for the Kaiserliche Marine in World War I and the Kriegsmarine in World War II. The original company was founded in 1867 but went bankrupt and was bought out by Friedrich Krupp. Krupp was very interested in building warships and in the time before the First World War built a number of battleships for the Kaiserliche Marine, including SMS Posen, SMS Prinzregent Luitpold, SMS Kronprinz, and SMS Sachsen. A total of 84 U-boats were built in the shipyard during the war. After the war it returned to the normal production of yachts and transports.
The Type XVII U-boats were small coastal submarines that used a high-test peroxide propulsion system, which offered a combination of air-independent propulsion and high submerged speeds.
The Type UB I submarine was a class of small coastal submarines (U-boats) built in Germany at the beginning of the First World War. 20 boats were constructed, most of which went into service with the German Imperial Navy. Boats of this design were also operated by the Austro-Hungarian Navy and the Bulgarian Navy. In the Austro-Hungarian Navy, it was called the U-10 class.
Seehund, also known as Type XXVII, was a midget submarine built by Nazi Germany during World War II. Designed in 1944 and operated by two-man crews, it was used by the Kriegsmarine during the closing months of the war, sinking nine merchant vessels and damaging an additional three, while losing 35 boats, mostly attributed to bad weather. The French Navy used four captured boats after the war until 1953.
SM U-1, also known in English as the German Type U 1 submarine, was the first U-boat class of the U-boat series of submarines produced for the German Empire's Imperial German Navy. Only one was built. The U-1 was constructed by Germaniawerft in Kiel and was commissioned on 14 December 1906. When World War I began in 1914, the U-1 was deemed obsolete and was used only for training until 19 February 1919, when it was struck by another vessel while on an exercise.
The S-class or Srednyaya submarines were part of the Soviet Navy's underwater fleet during World War II. Unofficially nicknamed Stalinets, boats of this class were the most successful and achieved the most significant victories among all Soviet submarines. In all, they sank 82,770 gross register tons (GRT) of merchant shipping and seven warships, which accounts for about one-third of all tonnage sunk by Soviet submarines during the war.
Crichton-Vulcan is an abandoned shipyard in Turku, Finland, that once formed the cornerstone of the Finnish shipbuilding industry. The shipyard is best known for the World War II coastal defence ships and submarines it produced.
The Vetehinen-class submarine was a Finnish 500-tonne submarine class of three vessels that was designed and built in the 1920s and early 1930s. The Vetehinen class served in the Finnish Navy during World War II. The class was designed by the Dutch front company Ingenieurskantoor voor Scheepsbouw den Haag (I.v.S) and built by the Finnish Crichton-Vulcan shipyard in Turku. The class was based on the German World War I Type UB III and Type UC III submarines and served as prototype for Type VII submarines.
The Type U 66 was a class of five submarines or U-boats operated by the German Imperial Navy during World War I. The class is alternately referred to as the U-66-class or the Type UD. The class was built by Germaniawerft of Kiel to their 506d design as the U-7-class for the Austro-Hungarian Navy. The five boats were sold to the Imperial Germany Navy at the beginning of World War I when it was thought impossible for the submarines to reach the Mediterranean for delivery to Austria-Hungary.
The V-80 was a 76-ton experimental submarine and the only representative of the German Type V design produced for Nazi Germany's Kriegsmarine.
TCG Gür was a German-designed submarine built in 1929-30 by the Echevarrieta y Larrinaga Shipyard in Cádiz, Spain, and bought by the Turkish Navy in 1935 where it served until 1947. During its development and tests in Spain, it was designated Submarino E-1, but actually it was a prototype of the German Type IA submarine.