Welman submarine
This article's lead section may be too short to adequately summarize the key points. (September 2014) |
Staines
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Class overview | |
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Name | Welman submarine |
Builders | Morris Motors Limited |
Operators | United Kingdom Special Operations Executive |
Completed | 100+ |
General characteristics Welman submarine | |
Type | midget submarine |
Displacement |
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Length |
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Propulsion | One electric motor, 2.5 hp, powered by a 40v 220amp/hr battery. |
Speed | 3 knots (5.6 km/h) |
Range | 36 nautical miles (67 km) at 3 knots (5.6 km/h) |
Test depth | 300 ft (91 m) (reduced to 100 ft (30 m) after trials) |
Crew | 1 |
Armament | 1 x detachable charge of 425 pounds (193 kg) of Torpex |
The Welman submarine was a
Design
Designed by the Commanding Officer of SOE's Inter Services Research Bureau (ISRB), Lt Col. John Dolphin, as a method of delivering a large explosive charge below an enemy ship, the Welman was a submersible craft 20 feet 6 inches (6.25 m) in length (including explosive charge), weighing about 2,000 pounds (910 kg). Unlike the "Chariot" human torpedo, the operator was enclosed within the craft, and did not need to wear diving gear. The Welman could transport a 425-pound (193 kg) time-fused explosive charge of Torpex, which was intended to be magnetically attached to a target's hull.[2] Vision was through armoured glass segments in the small conning tower, and no periscope was fitted.
Production
Following trials in the
Despite the craft's inability to cut a way through
Production was halted in October 1943 when
Operational service
In early 1943 the Royal Navy establishment on board the submarine depot ship
HMS Titania was relocated to Loch a' Chàirn Bhàin, south of Cape Wrath, in the north west of Scotland, which became a secret training base for all mini submarine operations. A Welman (W10) was lost on exercise in Rothesay Bay on 9 September.
By autumn 1943, sufficient trained operators and craft existed for the Welman to be considered for operational use.
In the autumn of 1943 the Combined Ops commander, General Sir Robert Laycock (who took over from the then Lord Louis Mountbatten) decided that the Welman was unsuitable for their purposes, so the craft were returned to the Royal Navy. Admiral Sir Lionel Wells, Flag Officer commanding Orkney and Shetland, thought they might be useful for attacks on German shipping using coastal waters inside the Leads off Norway.
Pedersen's W46 encountered an anti-submarine net and was forced to the surface, where she was spotted by a German patrol craft. Pedersen was captured along with the Welman, surviving the war in a prison camp. The other three, having lost the element of surprise, could not press the attack and so eventually had to be scuttled. Their operators made their way north with the help of Norwegian resistance members and were picked up in February 1944 by MTB653. The failure made the
Subsequent to the failed attack the Germans salvaged one of the craft. Even though the German navy were appalled by the unsophisticated quality of the engineering they found in the Welman, there is some similarity between it and the Biber midget submarines used against Allied shipping in 1944.
The major drawback of the Welman from its operators' point of view was that it had no periscope. Without a way of viewing its surroundings without surfacing, it was impossible to navigate covertly. It was also found that when travelling on the surface the operator's eye level was so close to sea level that objects more than two miles away were not visible.
See also
Citations
- ^ "Midget Submarines, 1939 - 1952: Welman Type Midget". submariners.co.uk. Archived from the original on 18 July 2009. Retrieved 26 April 2009.
- ^ a b Akermann, p. 462
References
- Akermann, Paul (2002). Encyclopedia of British Submarines 1901–1955. Periscope Publishing Ltd. ISBN 1904381057.
- Kemp, Paul (2002). Underwater Warriors. Brockhampton Press. ISBN 1860199917.