Engineering:Type U 63 submarine

Short description: German World War I submarine class

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 - 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. 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.

Characteristics

Type U 63s had an overall length of 68.36 m (224 ft 3 in) The boats' beam was 6.30 m (20 ft 8 in), the draught was 4.04 m (13 ft 3 in), with a total height of 7.65 m (25 ft 1 in). The pressure hull had a length of 55.55 m (182 ft 3 in) and had a diameter of 4.15 m (13 ft 7 in). The boats displaced 810 tonnes (800 long tons) when surfaced and 927 t (912 long tons) when submerged.

Type U 51s were fitted with two six-cylinder two-stroke Germaniawerft diesel engines with a total of 2,200 metric horsepower (1,618 kW; 2,170 bhp) for use on the surface and two Siemens-Schuckert double-acting electric motors with a total of 880 kW (1,196 PS; 1,180 shp) for underwater use. These engines powered two shafts, which gave the boats a top surface speed of 16.5 knots (30.6 km/h; 19.0 mph), and 9 knots (17 km/h; 10 mph) when submerged. Cruising range was 9,170 nautical miles (16,980 km; 10,550 mi) at 8 knots (15 km/h; 9.2 mph) on the surface and 60 nautical miles (110 km; 69 mi) at 5 knots (9.3 km/h; 5.8 mph) submerged. Constructional diving depth was 50 m (164 ft 1 in).

The U-boats were armed with four 50 cm (20 in) torpedo tubes, two fitted in the bow and two in the stern, and carried eight torpedoes. Most boats received initially two 8.8 cm (3.5 in) SK L/30 deck guns. Some boats had one of the deck guns replaced with a 10.5 cm (4.1 in) SK L/45 gun. The boats' complement was four officers and thirty-two enlisted men.

Ships

Name	Launched	Commissioned	Merchant ships sunk (nbr / GRT )	Fate
	8 February 1916	11 March 1916	70 / 194.208	Surrendered on 19 January 1919 and scrapped in Blyth in 1919
	29 February 1916	15 April 1916	45 / 123.146	Lost on 17 June 1918 sout-east of Sardinia
	21 March 1916	11 May 1916	48 / 77.715	Scuttled on 28 October 1918 off Pola

Bibliography

• Gröner, Erich; Jung, Dieter; Maass, Martin (1991). German Warships 1815–1945, U-boats and Mine Warfare Vessels. 2. London: Conway Maritime Press. ISBN 0-85177-593-4. 
• Herzog, Bodo (1993) (in de). Deutsche U-Boote : 1906 - 1966. Erlangen: Müller. ISBN 9783860700365. 
• Möller, Eberhard; Brack, Werner (2004). The Encyclopedia of U-Boats. London: Chatham. ISBN 1-85367-623-3. 
• Rössler, Eberhard (1981). The U-boat: The evolution and technical history of German submarines. London: Cassell & Co. ISBN 0-304-36120-8.