Subs photos

Hello.

On my recent business trip to Hamburg, Germany I was lucky to have the opportunity of visiting two subs – ex-Soviet Tango class sub (named, somewhat confusingly, U-434 by its new owners) in Hamburg harbor, and of course well known U-995, last remaining Typ VII German WW2 boat in Laboe near Kiel.

Being a long time fan of computer submarine simulations, naval history buff, and (computer) journalist by profession, I've decided to make these pages to share my impressions regarding these visits hoping someone might find them interesting...

Tango class (U-434)

First, U-434 (Tango) in Hamburg. Apparently this sub was in commission with Russian Navy (Northern Sea Fleet) as training boat up to few years ago. Then "zwei privatpersonen" (two private persons, supposedly businessmen) from Dresden, Germany, made an offer to Russians to buy it for 1 million Euro, they did so, renamed it to U-434 (it wasn't its original name, of course), put it in the Hamburg harbor, and made it into museum. I was told that costs of transporting the sub from Russia to Hamburg were (another) 1 million Euro, though it's kinda hard to believe.

U-434 is confusing choice for name, because you're led to believe it's some German sub, perhaps from WW2. It is not. I'm not sure but I think I read somewhere this sub's official designation while in Russian service was B-515.

Sub is now on display in Hamburg harbor and is open to public daily. It is among the less known public attractions in Hamburg, and museum staff complained to me that city authorities do not let them put signs leading to sub location on roads, nor to advertise it in "usual" tourist media (city guides etc.). Perhaps German post-WW2 "sensitivity" towards all things military has to do something with this, but it's just my speculation.

Sub is located in very isolated and desolate part of the harbor, and I do not recommend going there after dark (not that the boat itself is open to public after dark, anyway). It's not easy to find unless you have good city map, so take care to have one if you plan on visiting. Get more info on www.u-434.de.

It is interesting to note that this boat (as well as others from this class) was built in shipyard in Nizhni Novgorod, city that is hundereds of miles away from sea coast, almost in the middle of continental Russia. Novgorod's shipyard was among the most active shipyards in Soviet Union (though perhaps not as much as those in Severodvinsk, Amur, or Nikolayevsk in Ukraine) and finished boats were transported to sea using the intrincate web of Russian rivers, canals, and waterways.

I won't go into technical details regarding Tango class since they can be found on many places on the net... It's diesel-electric sub, among the largest non-nuclear subs in the world, built on late 60s-early 70s technology... this particular boat was built in 1976. and used, as the guide says, for espionage and special purposes. Tangos are obsolete by today's standards, but boats like these can still make life very hard for any group of ships. Museum guides say this sub was used to "spy inside the New York harbor" though I think it's exaggerated story aimed at casual visitors to make their visit more interesting.

OK, these are the photos I made, listed in chronological order... If you click on a small photo, you'll get a bigger one. Small photos show only a selected detail of the larger ones. Larger photos are around 100 kB apiece on average. Large photos are in fact just one third of the size of the original photos. Original photos weigh cca 2 MBs apiece (highest possible resolution for the camera – 2272 x 1704 pixels) and are too large to be put on the web without resizing. If anyone needs original photos in their full size, with amazing detail, let me know via e-mail. Beware though – whole pictorial in original sizes as transferred from the camera is over 100 MB.

All the photos are made with Canon Digital Ixus 400 camera which I can't recommend warmly enough. 256 MB CompactFlash memory card was used as storage (anything less than that and I wouldn't be able to make so many hi quality photos without "reloading"). This little camera RULES!

This is the part of the Hamburg harbor where Tango is located (harbor itself is enormous – I think it's the largest in Europe, and holds several world records as well). Note the general bleakness of the surrounding area and the sub some distance away.

These little "turrets" where the gangway ends are not original, of course, they were added to accomodate the visitors. Visitors (myself included) generally enter at bow and leave at stern.

Sub's bow. Note the retractable fins and emergency buoy.

Another outside shot.

Sail as viewed from the bow.

Forward torpedo room, accomodating six torpedo tubes – in fact, *the* torpedo room, since on Tango subs there are no aft torpedo tubes. Note the torpedo and tubes themselves in the background.

Torpedo room. They (current owners) really did a *bad* job here, as – you notice – stairs for visitors are built right in the middle of the torpedo room, which looks bad, and degenerates the largest "open" space in the whole sub. You can't really make a good photo of the torpedo room because of that.

Escape hatch in the torpedo room.

This is the hatch used when loading torps into torpedo room. It is "angled" ie. at an angle of approx 45 degrees. It's right next to the escape hatch. I call it an escape hatch as I am told it wasn't used normally – in regular conditions crew entered and left the sub thru doors on sail, and then thru control room (we'll come to that later).

From the torpedo room you enter, through "circular" typical submarine door in the bulkhead, into a passage with officer's quarters. This is the captain's room. In fact it's the room of, as the guide said, "some other officer" (presumably XO) but "his room is identical to captain's". The captain's room itself is right next to it but was closed for unspecified reason.

This is officers mess (ie. where officers eat, drink etc.). It's right opposite of the captains and XO's rooms. Note the original Russian fleet artwork on the wall. This room has strong lighting and long table and is used as (medical) operations room in case of emergencies. (I assume lotsa broken bones because of the way the sub is built – I guess they haven't heard of ergonomy in Soviet sub designing bureaus.)

Doctor's room. I was told there were two doctors on the sub (or a doc and paramedic I'd say more likely). Note the plastic "mannequin/model/dummy" of Russian Navy doctor :o) They use dummies like this all thru the sub to make the experience for visitors more believable but I just found them funny. Two medics share this room.

Infirmary – ie. where the sick guys are held and isolated from the rest of the crew. Bunks for two people. Again note the dummy :o) This dummy is radioman I assume, judging from his shoulder patch. He'll be OK in just a few days and resume his duties Comrade Kapitan. Otherwise we'll kill him and feed him to the sharks :o) I hope he's careful not to bump his head in those valves that are right above his forehead.

One of the two toilets on the sub. This is the "forward toilet" (we're still into first third of the sub's length).

Right next to the toilet is the shower. Several guys usually share the shower at the same time. I hope they don't share anything else :o)

Some electrical gauges, apparently used to control the charging of forward batteries. (Batteries are everywhere, I assume 30% of sub's total space is occupied by batteries, though they are generally "invisible" for visitors and regular crew members.) Note from photos such as these how well the Sonalysts artists "emulated" the Russian sub look in Sub Command.

This is Jacob, the guide, and very likeable guy, sitting in one of the "passageways" (??) in the bulkhead – up to this point on the sub we already went thru 2-3 such doors.

OK, now we're in the control room, we climbed up there using the ladder (we "changed" levels, and used ladders twice up to this point on the sub, once to go down one level, and now to go up two levels). This is the "drivers wheel". Note the unusual "aircraft" yoke. I say "unusual" because subs usually have separate stations for planesman (or planesmen) and rudderman (or helmsman)...

...Tango class has them combined into aircraft-like yoke control that controls rudder and planes at the same time. Apparently the Russians went back to separate station design in their following sub classes, so Tango is one of the rare classes where this model of driving control is used.

Driver's instruments up close...

Still more close...

Wow, it's Oleg (me) in the driver's seat! :o) Jacob did the photo. Are we gonna sink some heavy shit with this baby or what?? Where are those damned Chechen insurgent kayaks?

This is where – as Jacob explained – various torpedo fire control instruments were installed, but they were taken away before the sub was sold, as much of the hardcore military equipment. This station is located rith next to the drivers seat (left of it).

On the same level where the control room is situated (and that's below the sub sail) is small room for sonar techies. This and few next photos are made in sonarman room, and again show how well Sonalysts artists emulated look and feel of Ruskie equipment.

In case you wonder "Pribor" means equipment.

"Rezhim" means mode of operation (I guess so, I don't speak Russian, but Slav languages are very similar and I am Croatian). Again, most of the electronic stuff is actually taken away before the sub is sold, but "casings" remained.

More knobs and instrument casings from the sonar room.

View to the sail. Periscopes are located there. Visitors are not allowed to go into sail, not even if they try to flash their "International Journalists Association" card as I did :o)

Some burned out stuff left of the driver's seat. What you see is captain's chair. He sits left of the "driver", and left of him is the weapons officer. Fire control equipment is taken out as I said. This photo is taken standing below the hatch to the sail (previous photo).

Engine telegraphs. Tango class subs have three diesel engines. "Levaja" – left, "srednaja" – middle and "pravaja" – right. Again note how Sonalysts artists emulated their look in SC and DW.

Gauges for depth (left), rise/dive gradient (middle) etc.

This is where subs ballast tanks are controlled – electrically. Backup mechanical valves are located elsewhere. We are in the corridor few meters behind the "driver's wheel". You wonder what's this red switch? Yes it's emergency blow ballast :o)

Going towards the stern, and again down one level using ladder. Me sitting at the table in the NCO's (unteroffizier) mess. Nice place, perhaps even nicer than officer's mess. Note the sinks and again original Russian Navy art in the background. Jacob took the photo.

Jacob in the NCO mess. Box in the back is used for stowage of the dishes, cups etc. Again note the artwork on the wall.

NCO mess artwork up close.

NCO mess artwork up close. Hey this is actually lyrics to Russian national anthem. It would be nice touch if Sonalysts added details like this to their sub artwork :o)

Right down the hall this is (or was) "listening room" – not for sonar, but for radio, and various spy listening equipment. It's a mess now, and equipment was taken out and canibalized in a rather messy way as you may notice.

NCO and enlisted men quarters. Looks OK compared to what I expected to see.

NCO and enlisted men quarters with appropriate dummies :o)

Diesel engine room. Telephone for communicating with the con.

Some electrical gauges.

Jacob operating engine telegraphs in the diesel engine room.

Engine telegraph up close. This one is for "levaja" (left, port) engine.

Variuos diesel engine gauges.

This is schnorkel air intake (?) in diesel engine room. They say this is the only place on the sub where it was allowed to smoke, when schnorkeling.

Electric engine control and gauges in engine room.

More electric engine controls and gauges in engine room.

Gauges in electric engines room.

Second (stern) toilet. This one is also a shower, with unlimited amount of warm water (because of the proximity of diesel engines, and the water being used as coolant for diesels).

This tube is port decoy launcher. It is located aft of the engines, overhead.

This is starboard decoy launcher. Note it's located at knee-level, while the port launcher is at over-head level, so this one is diagonally opposite from the port launcher. I don't know why it's like that.

This is sub propeller (screw) in the aft room. They didn't carry replacement screw like this on the sub on cruises of course, but this one is placed here besides the dummy to give the visitors the impression of the size.

Crew accomodation in the aft room. This guy was member of some boy band just a few days ago (as witnessed by his haircut and boyish face) and now is sub sailor in Northern Fleet, bullied by his rough sailor mates and forced into this unpopular bunk for newbies – life is sometimes cruel...

You can see double hull construction from this picture – kind of...

I'm outta here! Happy to see bleak Hamburg skyline and breathe the city smog again.

Stern emergency buoy.

Collection of antennas, scopes, etc. on the sail. Note the windows – "windowed" area is flooded when the sub is underwater (part of the double hull construction), you can go there only when it's surfaced. So forget about fish-watching when underwater...

That's it, 56 photos in all... You may proceed to Part Two, with photos from U-995.

On to Part Two (U-995)

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