Notable Point · 5:22:45-5:23:55

Why surviving U-boats are an uneven sample of the wartime fleet

U-995, the Type IX survivors, and U-2540 illustrate how museum survival can distort impressions of the wartime fleet.

Museum Ships Naval Historiography Type IX U-Boat Type VII U-Boat Type XXI U-Boat U-995 U-2540

Notes

U-995 survives as a Type VIIC/41 even though the more numerous standard Type VIIC has no surviving example in the comparison. Type IX boats in Chicago and Birkenhead broaden the preserved selection, with the Birkenhead hull described as being in sections. U-2540 supplies a Type XXI example at Bremerhaven. The nearby medieval cog also receives a recommendation. What visitors can see therefore follows the survival of particular hulls, rather than the relative numbers of each wartime submarine type.