Type U 31 submarine

U-38, a Type U 31 U-boat
Class overview
BuildersGermaniawerft, Kiel
Operators Imperial German Navy
Preceded byType U 27
Succeeded byType U 43
In commission3 September 1914
Completed11
Lost7[1]
General characteristics
Displacement
  • 685 t (674 long tons) (surfaced)
  • 878 t (864 long tons) (submerged)
Length
Beam
  • 6.32 m (20 ft 9 in) (o/a)
  • 4.05 m (13 ft 3 in) (pressure hull)
Draught3.56 m (11 ft 8 in)
Installed power
Propulsion
  • 2 × shafts
  • 2 × 1.60 m (5.2 ft) propellers
Speed
  • 16.4 knots (30.4 km/h; 18.9 mph) (surfaced)
  • 9.7 knots (18.0 km/h; 11.2 mph) (submerged)
Range
  • 8,790 nmi (16,280 km; 10,120 mi) at 8 knots (15 km/h; 9.2 mph) (surfaced)
  • 80 nmi (150 km; 92 mi) at 5 knots (9.3 km/h; 5.8 mph) (submerged)
Test depth50 m (164 ft 1 in)
Boats & landing
craft carried		1 dinghy
Complement4 officers, 31 enlisted
Armament

Type U 31 was a class of U-boats built during World War I by the Kaiserliche Marine.

Between 1912 and 1915 eleven were built on Germaniawerft in Kiel, amongst these top-three-scoring U-35 with the famous Lothar von Arnauld de la Perière as commander, U-39 with Walter Forstmann and U-38 with Max Valentiner. Together these U-boats sunk more than 1,198,139 gross register tons (GRT).[2]

Later admiral and head of the Abwehr from 1935 to 1944 Wilhelm Canaris also served as commander on two different Type U 31 U-boats. He first took over from Max Valentiner on U-38 and later on U-34.

  1. ^ Helgason, Guðmundur. "WWI U-boat Types: Type U 31". German and Austrian U-boats of World War I - Kaiserliche Marine - Uboat.net. Retrieved 16 April 2007.
  2. ^ Farley, Robert (18 October 2014). "The Five Best Submarines of All Time". The National Interest.