THOMAS:

More info...........

It was pure coincidence that the concept of a rocket-launching submarine was first introduced in 1942. Dr. Ernst Steinhoff, the chief of the BSM (Bordgerate, Steuerund, and Mabwesen - on-board instruments, guidance and measuring equipment) Heere_
sanstalt Peenemunde, engaged in development work on A4 (V2) rockets, invited his brother Kptlt Friedrich Steinhoff, to carry out sea
trials with rockets using his type IX B vessel.

In 1944, a launch site installed at a depth of 100m at the Kreigs- marine experimental facility at Lake Toplitz, Austria was put into effective use by testing solid fuel rockets. These tests were supervised by Dr. Determann within Project Ursel. The rockets
featured steering and ignition systems manufactured by the firm of Anshutz, Kiel, which enabled a high accuracy. Some evidence exists that the trials were carried out using a small U-boat (?). In
the fall of 1944 a submerged UA was very successfully used to fire
missiles from a depth of 70m near the island of Bomholm in the Baltic Sea. Having intercepted most of the documentation
concerning these experiments at war's end, the Americans developed their own program under the name "Regulus."

The first in history launch of a rocket from a submerged vessel was carried out in May 1942 in the Baltic Sea, near the small island
of Griefswalder Oie, not far from Peenemunde. The U-511 had a metal rack fitted on the deck aft of the conning tower for 4 rockets, a standard army type used on land. The rocket engine exhausts were sealed with wax and connected, using an electrical firing
cable, with the submarine's bridge. The rockets were launched from a depth 2.5 to 7.0m.. On account of its density, water proved to be extremely effective to stabilizing the initial phase of flight of a
launched rocket. Further testing followed in June 1942, when
U-511 fired rockets from a depth of 12m.

Later,

ROBERT M.