Type IX submarine

The Type IX was a class of large ocean-going U-boats built for the German Kriegsmarine from 1936 to 1945 and designed for long patrols far from home support. It was derived from the earlier Type I, with a more powerful nine-cylinder supercharged diesel engine, a more streamlined bow and a wider upper deck that held ten spare torpedoes in watertight containers. Successive subtypes, IXA, IXB, IXC, IXC/40 and the longer IXD, added fuel storage and range, and the IXD2 could cruise about three times as far as the first boats. Of the 194 commissioned between 1938 and 1945, many came from the AG Weser yard at Bremen of the Deschimag combine, which built all fourteen Type IXB, while Seebeck and Deutsche Werft built others. Two survive as museum boats, U-505 in Chicago and U-534 at Birkenhead.