Hi,

Apparently it looks as if the first rocket launched from a U-boat, operating under the surface, was done by Germany in 1942.

I did get these comments on the matter on another Forum, not WW II related :


The Germans indeed planned to fire the V2 from submarines because the range of this missile was not big enough to cross the Alantic Ocean.

They planned to tow one V2 in a special submarine (a very simple one without motors/engines and torpedoes) with a conventional submarine across the Atlantic. Approximately 200 km away from the coast both submarines would surface, the towed submarine would be opened and the rocket put into a vertical direction. Then the start was planned.

Official plans were made to start the first of these rockets against New York in 1946/47 (?).

I´m sure the whole thing wouldn´t have worked at all (alliied attacks on the surfaced/submerged submarine, stability problems, etc.).

I don´t know when the first fully controlled rocket was fired from a submerged submarine. Can you or somebody else help?

AND :

" In the summer of 1944, three U-Boats of the Black Sea 30th flotilla were secretly equipped with rocket launchers. These were mounted midships below the waterline of U-24 and U-9 and on the deck of U-19. The weapons were allegedly deployed against Soviet harbor facilities and moored ships during the German retreat. Although the records do not mention damage sustained in the attacks, this first combat use of a submarine launched missile was an historic event."


Do any of you specialists on WW II subs know more on this matter ? Anyone ever seen a drawing or photo from one of these installations ?

Thanks and best from Johan