typeracer

Finally the Germans got it right; the U-19 - they finally quit giving the boats names - was launched in 1912 with two-stroke diesel engines, four torpedo tubes and two deck guns, and able to dive to 164 feet. At the opening of WW1, Germany had 28 U-boats in service; in the first ten weeks, these sank five British cruisers. So effective were the U-boats that the Treaty of Versailles forbade the construction of German submarines. But, the U-boat fleet was rebuilt, and by the end of WW2 the boats had sunk some 2779 ships (confirmed) totaling 14.1 million tons - roughly 70% of Allied losses in all theaters. In 1955 West Germany was allowed to have a navy again... and promptly started building U-boats, the latest being the non-nuclear U-35, commissioned in March 2015.