Hi all,

In the 1920's and 30's the Swiss firm Sulzer in Winterthur built 6-cilinder 2-stroke diesels for submarines, among others for the Dutch subs O9 to and including O14. The O12 was confiscated by the Germans and became U-D2. She was scuttled in May 1945 in Kiel.

Before the O9 and from 015 onwards the Dutch navy had been using MAN diesels for her submarines.

My question is if somebody knows anything about the performance of those Sulzer diesels in subs. Sulzer has always been an excellent diesel engine but the smaller engines like those 2-stroke engines of 600 and 900 bhp were not very popular on small merchant ships. Right after WW2 some of those engines that were originally meant for submarines were used in Dutch ships because they were the only engines available at the time. They weren't a succes. A lot of maintenance.

Hence my question if anybody knows how they were performing in submarines.