Calling all Kriegsmarine U-boat Type XXI fans

[thebunkerparodie]

I don't think Alberich was necessarily applied to the snorkel (you may be thinking of the radar-absorbing coatings that were). Alberich absorbed active sonar, so the entire hull would have been covered. Since the snorkel is so small compared to the size of the hull, it would not have been particularly important to cover it in the Alberich tiles.

The book at the beginning of the thread is a good reference for the Type XXI. I can also recommend R�ssler's U-boottyp XXI.

Jacob

the conning tower would've also be covered right?

[Vepr157]

Yes, the conning tower would be covered as well. But Alberich was only applied to a handful of U-boats on an experimental basis, and problems with adhesion (which still plague modern anechoic tiles) prevented it from being applied to more U-boats.

There were far more than just three un-comissioned Type XXIs. The Soviet Union obtained 24 Type XXIs: 5 completed and 19 not completed. The latter were never completed by the Soviets, leaving the 5 boats completed by the Germans to serve as training ships and floating electrical power stations. The completed Soviet Type XXIs did not have flak turrets. The idea that the Soviets completed unfinished Type XXIs came from Western post-war intelligence estimates. The Soviets much preferred their own Project 613 Whiskey and Project 611 Zulu classes, which were much improved over the Type XXI.

Jacob