Where in the world can you still see German WWII U-boats or U-boat pens?
1 Answer
Preserved U-boats [1]:
1) Maritime Museum, Bremerhaven, Bremen, Germany
- U-2540 / Wilhelm Bauer, Type XXI scuttled near Flensburg 1945, salvaged 1957, relaunched 1960 as 'Wilhelm Bauer', became museum ship 1984
2) Laboe Naval Museum, near Kiel, Schlweswig-Holstein, Germany
- U-995, type VII-C/41 surrendered 1945 to British at Trondheim, Norway, 1952-1965 became Norwegian submarine Kaura, became museum ship at Laboe 1971
- Laboe Naval Memorial (Marine-Ehrenmal) - Tripadvisor
- thanks to @CarlChristian for posting it in this question about Kiel
3) Birkenhead, Merseyside, UK
- U-534 Type IXC/40 sunk by RAF bomber 1945 in the Kattegat (Denmark), salvaged in 1993 by a Danish team, brought to Birkenhead in 1996, museum since 2009
4) Museum of Science and Industry, Chicago, Illinois, USA
- U-505, Type IXC captured by US Navy, June 4, 1944, renovated and became museum ship in 1954, moved to indoor exhibition hall 2004
5) Finnish submarine Vesikko, Helsinki, Finland
- Type CV-707. Technically originally built for Germany (1933), but operated by Finland 1937-44, not scrapped 1945 unlike the rest of the fleet, renovated as museum piece 1973
U-boat bases:
- The five bases in occupied France were Lorient, Brest, Saint-Nazaire, La Pallice(/La Rochelle), and Bordeaux. Some parts of those pens remain.
Sources:
- Drawing of all WW2 German Submarine Types(1933-45): https://naval-encyclopedia.com/ww2/germany/u-boats-german-submarines
-
6Last time I went to the sub pens at Bordeaux (Nov 2021) they had an astonishing son-et-lumiere installation that projected huge Klimt images onto the walls, while playing Wagner (and other composers) through enormous speaker systems. Wonderful experience, and more to your point, those pens are definitely still open. Jan 15, 2022 at 8:43
-
1
-
1There is a prototype of the Type II class on display at on the fortress island of Suomenlinna just outside Helsinki, Finland suomenlinna.fi/en/visitor/museums/vesikko This is a list of surviving midget submarines uboat.net/fates/midget.htm I can add that there is also a Marder one-man torpedo at the Marine Museum in Aalborg, Denmark, springeren-maritimt.dk/en I have not been there in many years, but online photos suggest that it is still there. There is a U-boat assembly hall at Gdansk, Poland. I can't speak for the experience. Jan 15, 2022 at 13:55
-
2en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valentin_submarine_pens might also be of interest, somewhat close to the Sub in Bremerhaven (< 50 miles). See denkort-bunker-valentin.de/index.php?id=108– schlenkJan 15, 2022 at 16:50
-
1@smci: events there are not meant as a sign of disrespect towards fallen soldiers/sailors/civilians. Since the buildings will probably always be there, the locals might as well use them to celebrate life. It took a few generations after WW2, though. What is there to see in Vannes? Jan 16, 2022 at 17:14