The last surviving U-Boat 995 Type VII-C

While in Kiel , Germany, I am always looking for historical places to visit. Since Kiel was, and still is, a major shipping port of Germany during the WW-II and was also home to one of the biggest ship building city, specially the submarines or the famous U-Boats. And I was happy to know that one of the last surviving U-Boat 995 type VII was docked near the naval museum in the town of Laboe, not far from Kiel. So on a rather cold and windy day, we boarded the bus to Laboe to visit the U-Boat.

 The welcome sign to Laboe - that reads: Laboe harbour is more than just sea

We reached Laboe alright - but the language problem was one big hurdle in getting to know the directions to the U-Boat. This consumed a lot of time to finally find someone who could point in the direction - but that was a long walking along the beach in cold and windy almost evening. Had we known that there was a lot of walking, we could have come earlier. 

So we walked and walked and when finally reached the Naval Museum, the museum had closed and so the boat too. So we had just time before the evening to see the museum (below) and the boat from the outside.

Laboe Naval Memorial (above), also known as the Laboe Tower - the 72 meters high tower wit an observation deck on top was constructed by 1937 in the memory of German sailors who died during WW I 

And the U-Boat: This particular U-Boat 995 Type VIIC class was commissioned in 1943 and had the honour of sinking three ships, one auxiliary ship, one war ship and one another. At the end of the war, the boat was at the Norwegian port Trondheim and surrendered to the British. It then became part of the Norwegian Navy, called Kaura. It retired from the active service in 1965 and was sold to Germany, and thus became part of the Laboe Naval Memorial in 1971.

 Posing in  front of the massive boat

While for me the U-Boat was a thriller, the youth was enjoying para gliding in the windy Baltic Sea. We hurried back as it was almost evening and we had a bus to catch to reach back Kiel.

However, we had time to visit a few souvenir shops - and from one of these I bought a replica of U-Boat that now lies atop the computer speakers of my desktop - reminding me of a memorable visit!!


Originally posted in my blog Jaho Jalal at:
Jaho Jalal: Laboe, Germany – home to the lone surviving U-Boat

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