German submarine U-64 (1939)

Construction U-64 was ordered by the Kriegsmarine on 16 July 1937 as part of Plan Z and in violation of the Treaty of Versailles. Her keel was laid down on 15 December 1938 by AG Weser in Bremen as yard number 952. She was launched on 20 September 1939 and commissioned on 16 December under the command of Kapitänleutnant Georg-Wilhelm Schulz. Design Type IXB submarines were slightly larger than the original Type IX submarines, later designated IXA. U-64 had a displacement of when at the surface and while submerged. The U-boat had a total length of , a pressure hull length of , a beam of , a height of , and a draught of . The submarine was powered by two MAN M 9 V 40/46 supercharged four-stroke, nine-cylinder diesel engines producing a total of for use while surfaced, two Siemens-Schuckert 2 GU 345/34 double-acting electric motors producing a total of for use while submerged. She had two shafts and two propellers. The boat was capable of operating at depths of up to . The submarine had a maximum surface speed of and a maximum submerged speed of . When submerged, the boat could operate for at ; when surfaced, she could travel at . U-64 was fitted with six torpedo tubes (four fitted at the bow and two at the stern), 22 torpedoes, one SK C/32 naval gun, 180 rounds, and a SK C/30 as well as a C/30 anti-aircraft gun. The boat had a complement of forty-eight. ==Service history==

U-64 went to sea on 6 April 1940. For eight days, she roamed the North Sea in search of Allied convoys heading to Norway in support of the campaign centred around that country. During that time she encountered no enemy vessels. On 13 April, the eighth day of her first patrol, she was hove-to in Herjangsfjord in Norway, around 50 yards from the shore; the crew were repairing a minor problem with the submarine's periscope. The U-boat sank to the bottom of the fjord. Eight crew went down with her but 38 escaped. They were picked up by German mountain troops stationed ashore and would later form the crew of . The wreck of the U-64 was raised in August 1957 and moved to Sandnessjøen in Norway, where it was scrapped. ==References==