The Type U 63 was a class of U-boats built during World War I by the Kaiserliche Marine. Three Type U 63 submarines were ordered at the beginning of the war and these were commissioned in 1916. Two were lost during the war and the remaining one surrendered to the Allies and was scrapped.
The three Type U 63 U-boats were ordered from Germaniawerft in March 1915 as an alternative for the six cancelled Type UF U-boats. The Type UF U-boat was a single-hull large U-boat designed to be built quickly before the anticipated end of the war in 1915. But as AG Weser delivered U-57 - U-59 five months earlier than planned, and building time for the Type U 63 was reduced to less than eleven months, the Type UF was not needed anymore. The construction could be reduced by using diesel engines from a cancelled Russian order, and by simplifying the construction which involved installing less diving tanks.[2] These were also the first Germaniawerft-built U-boats without the typical step with tank decks, instead the upper deck was incorporated completely in the second, outer hull.[3]
Characteristics
Type U 63s had an overall length of 68.36m (224ft 3in) The boats' beam was 6.30m (20ft 8in), the draught was 4.04m (13ft 3in), with a total height of 7.65m (25ft 1in). The pressure hull had a length of 55.55m (182ft 3in) and had a diameter of 4.15m (13ft 7in). The boats displaced810 tonnes (800 long tons) when surfaced and 927t (912 long tons) when submerged.[4][1][5]
Type U 51s were fitted with two six-cylinder two-stroke Germaniawerft diesel engines with a total of 2,200 metric horsepower (1,618kW; 2,170bhp) for use on the surface and two Siemens-Schuckert double-acting electric motors with a total of 880kW (1,196PS; 1,180shp) for underwater use. These engines powered two shafts, which gave the boats a top surface speed of 16.5 knots (30.6km/h; 19.0mph), and 9 knots (17km/h; 10mph) when submerged. Cruising range was 9,170 nautical miles (16,980km; 10,550mi) at 8 knots (15km/h; 9.2mph) on the surface and 60 nautical miles (110km; 69mi) at 5 knots (9.3km/h; 5.8mph) submerged.[4] Constructional diving depth[a] was 50m (164ft 1in).[6][1]
The U-boats were armed with four 50cm (20in) torpedo tubes, two fitted in the bow and two in the stern, and carried eight torpedoes. Most boats received initially two 8.8cm (3.5in) SK L/30deck guns. Some boats had one of the deck guns replaced with a 10.5cm (4.1in) SK L/45 gun. The boats' complement was four officers and thirty-two enlisted men.[4][1]
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Imperial German Navy