German midget submarines

Hecht (Pike)

These 3-man midget-submarines were of type XXVII of which 53 (U-2111 - U-2113 and U-2251 - U-2300) were commissioned into the Kriegsmarine. Designed in 1944 to attach limpet mines to ships at anchor but the vessel was required to do more tasks which forced a change in design which proved unsatisfactory in most aspects.

This boat really had too limited range (78 miles at 3 knots surfaced and 40 miles at 6 knots submerged) for successful torpedo attacks. The first of 53 boats was delivered from Germaniawerft in Kiel, in May 1944 and 3 of these boats were outfitted with one magnetic mine holder instead of a torpedo but none of those saw action. The Hecht boats were only used for training purposes.

Hecht midget submarines

Below are all the Hecht midget boats we know of.

2111, 2112, 2113, 2251, 2252, 2253, 2254, 2255, 2256, 2257, 2258, 2259,
2260, 2261, 2262, 2263, 2264, 2265, 2266, 2267, 2268, 2269, 2270, 2271,
2272, 2273, 2274, 2275, 2276, 2277, 2278, 2279, 2280, 2281, 2282, 2283,
2284, 2285, 2286, 2287, 2288, 2289, 2290, 2291, 2292, 2293, 2294, 2295,
2296, 2297, 2298, 2299, 2300.

53 Hecht midget submarines commissioned.


German midget submarines