U-boat summary

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Below is the article summary. For the full article, see U-boat.

U-boat, German Unterseeboot (“undersea boat”), German submarine. The first German submarine, the U-1, was built in 1905. During World War I Germany became the first country to employ submarines in war, and during World War II its U-boats dominated the Battle of the Atlantic until the Allies developed new antisubmarine tactics. The principal German U-boat was the type VII; the VIIC variant was 220.25 ft (66 m) long, displaced 769 tons on the surface, carried one 90-mm deck gun and five torpedo tubes, and was manned by a crew of 44. Modern German U-boats are built for the German navy and navies of allied countries; their sophisticated structures, electonics, and propulsion systems allow them to be used for intelligence gathering and special operations in addition to defending sea lanes and threatening enemy forces.

Battle of the Atlantic Summary

Battle of the Atlantic, in World War II, a contest between the Western Allies and the Axis powers (particularly Germany) for the control of Atlantic sea routes. For the Allied powers, the battle had three objectives: blockade of the Axis powers in Europe, security of Allied sea movements, and

World War II Summary

World War II, conflict that involved virtually every part of the world during the years 1939–45. The principal belligerents were the Axis powers—Germany, Italy, and Japan—and the Allies—France, Great Britain, the United States, the Soviet Union, and, to a lesser extent, China. The war was in many

Paul von Hindenburg Summary

Paul von Hindenburg was a German field marshal during World War I and the second president of the Weimar Republic (1925–34). His presidential terms were wracked by political instability, economic depression, and the rise to power of Adolf Hitler, whom he appointed chancellor in 1933. Hindenburg was

Erich Ludendorff Summary

Erich Ludendorff was a Prussian general who was mainly responsible for Germany’s military policy and strategy in the latter years of World War I. After the war he became a leader of reactionary political movements, for a while joining the Nazi Party and subsequently taking an independent,