Seehund Midget U-Boats

Type XXVIIB

Dimensions	11.9m X 1.7m
Displacement	14.9t
Propulsion	60hp Büssing diesel engine / 25hp AEG electric motor.
Max Speed	6.5kts surf / 5.3kts submerged
Crew	2
Armament	2 torpedoes.
Number constructed	285

The Seehund (Seal) was the first - and most successful - real "midget submarine" that the Kriegsmarine constructed, rather than the stop-gap measures that comprised the majority of midgets and human torpedoes. Two designers (Marinebaudirektor  Fischer and Marinebaurat Grim) completed the first five prototypes by June 1944. Powered on the surface by a 6-cylinder Büssing truck engine and underwater by a small electric motor, the Seehund was able to dive up to 70-metres (although rated in shipyard trials for 30m) and had the remarkably short diving time of 3 seconds. 

Suffering extremely difficult working conditions the crews of the Seehunds tied considerable numbers of Allied ships and aircraft to the North Sea in order to keep the midget threat in check. By the end of the war Seehunds had operated on 142 Sorties (including two resupply missions to the defenders of Dunkirk during April 1945), sinking nine ships (18 451-tons) for the loss of 35 of their own number. The small U-boats were extremely difficult to destroy with depth charges and required swift direct hits from aircraft to be disabled. It is believed that the majority of losses occurred as a result of bad weather conditions. 

 

Known Seehund Crews and Boats

It is very difficult to replicate an exact order of battle for the Seehund units as there is little by way of original paperwork from the flotillas still in existence. However, the boats listed below carried the crews attributed to them though at various times other men may have been rotated to and from these boats.

 

Seehund Crews — Boats Unknown

LzS Hoffmeyer / MaschMt Seger

LzS Klaus F. Kallmorgen / Lt(Ing) Martin Vogel

ObltzS Kiep / Olt(Ing)Heinz Palaschewski

LzS Schultze / Macy

LzS Weber / Lt(Ing) Knupe

OltzS Wolfgang Ross / Oblt(Ing) Vennemann

OlzS Seiffert / OMasch Stiller

LzS Horst Gaffron / MaschMt Hubert Köster

LzS Walter Habel / MaschMt Karl Rettinghausen

LzS Maximilian Huber / Lt(Ing) Siegfried Eckloff

LzS Schulte / MaschMt Suessmaut

LzS Rodloff / MaschMt Braute

LzS Fritz Wilhelm Meyer / Lt(Ing) Hans Krug

LzS Luwig Jahn / MaschOmt Langer

LzS Winfried Scharge / MaschMt Rösch (1^st F)

LzS Burkhard von Detten / Lt(Ing) Günter Schulte

LzS Gaffron / Btmst Köster (1^st F)

/Oberbtsmn Gertmayer

Oberfhnr Bremer/Heinz Schneider (survived)

Rowand/Kurt Keil

Obersteuermann Kluge/kern

Herbert Senf

Günter Müller

Gerhard Herrwich

Oblt Hartmann.

LzS Schultze / Macy

 

 

Crews killed from unknown boat number:

 

Obltzs Heinz Paulsen  / Ofhrn Gerhard Huth

OltzS Felix Schäfer / Ol (Ing) Wolfgang Wurster

LzS Adolf Dörr / MaschMt Erwin Frommhold

LzS Dieter Scharfenort  / MasnMt Rapp

LzS Wolfgang von Ebener / MaschMt Truske

LzS Gerhard Schlien / MascOGef Werner Gaubatz

LzS Gernot Göhler / ObMsch Georg Kässler

LzS Karl-Ludwig Konrad / Kaldenberg

LzS Heinz-Georg Plottnik / Omasch Paul Mayer

LzS Friedrich Wilhelm John / MaschMt Oskar Teichmüller  

LzS Joachim Hase  / Omasch Walter Traue

LzS Rudolf Horstmann / MaschMt Herbert Nitschke

LzS Hans-Georg Krüger / MaschMt Johann Meyer

LzS Werner Preusker / ObMasch Gerd Ambrust

LzS Wolfgang Reppe / Omasch Walter Broscheit

LzS Alfred Rohler / MaschMt Alfred Opitz

ObStrm Martin Dräger / MaschOGef Kauper

ObStrm Helmut Warnest  / Omasch Horst Nöbeling

 

Killed from unknown boat and crew

 

---

 

 Article from the "Hamburger Abendblatt", 11th May 2001.

Before Fehmarn: Midget U-boat recovered after 56- years. 

Corpses of the two sailors are identified 

Two dead sailors and the wreck of a German midget submarine was recovered yesterday before Fehmarn, revealing an underwater drama that happened within the Baltic Sea 56 years ago. The Kriegsmarine Seehund type submarine was located by sonar at a depth of twelve meters by the German research ship Deneb (home port Rostock) and has been examined by divers of the Federal Seeschifffahrt und Hydrographie office (BSH, Hamburg). The submersible lay almost undamaged on its side between large rocks. The remains of a crewmember, probably the commander, still lay beside the boat, the second crewmember within the small conning tower. Parts of the uniforms have been recovered also. 
The identity discs brands of the two dead men have not yet been found. Possibly, they are in the inside of the boat, or possibly corroded to nothing. The police are to attempt to identify the corpses in order to notify relatives of the dead sailors. 
Within the last few days, however, the BSH-Wracksucher had located another Seehund before the peninsula Darß (Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania). It too was recovered. Because the boat is hardly damaged, it should be displayed after an overhaul in the Militärhistorischen museum in Dresden."

Seehund Midget U-Boats

Type XXVIIB

Dimensions	11.9m X 1.7m
Displacement	14.9t
Propulsion	60hp Büssing diesel engine / 25hp AEG electric motor.
Max Speed	6.5kts surf / 5.3kts submerged
Crew	2
Armament	2 torpedoes.
Number constructed	285

The Seehund (Seal) was the first - and most successful - real "midget submarine" that the Kriegsmarine constructed, rather than the stop-gap measures that comprised the majority of midgets and human torpedoes. Two designers (Marinebaudirektor  Fischer and Marinebaurat Grim) completed the first five prototypes by June 1944. Powered on the surface by a 6-cylinder Büssing truck engine and underwater by a small electric motor, the Seehund was able to dive up to 70-metres (although rated in shipyard trials for 30m) and had the remarkably short diving time of 3 seconds. 

Suffering extremely difficult working conditions the crews of the Seehunds tied considerable numbers of Allied ships and aircraft to the North Sea in order to keep the midget threat in check. By the end of the war Seehunds had operated on 142 Sorties (including two resupply missions to the defenders of Dunkirk during April 1945), sinking nine ships (18 451-tons) for the loss of 35 of their own number. The small U-boats were extremely difficult to destroy with depth charges and required swift direct hits from aircraft to be disabled. It is believed that the majority of losses occurred as a result of bad weather conditions. 

Known Seehund Crews and Boats

It is very difficult to replicate an exact order of battle for the Seehund units as there is little by way of original paperwork from the flotillas still in existence. However, the boats listed below carried the crews attributed to them though at various times other men may have been rotated to and from these boats.