U-Boot Museum U-995, Laboe, Germany
Laboe is known not only for the naval honor but also for his “submarine on the beach”. And always the question is asked: “How did it get there?”. In 1965, the Norwegian Navy decided to make the boat a sign of reconciliation to the German Bundesmarine. Thus the tug “Fairplay II” on 14 October 1965 took the war veterans on the hook and with him the long way to Kiel
On September 16, 1943 U-995 was put into service under the name “Pike” in the Hamburg shipyard “Blohm & Voss”. It belonged to Type VII C, from which a total of 693 units were completed by 1945. Until his retirement on 8 May 1945 in the Norwegian town of Drontheim, U-995 was mainly used in the North Sea.
After the end of the Second World War, the U-boat was taken over by the Royal Norwegian Navy in 1947 together with two other VII C-boats. From December 1952 it drove as a “Kaura” (NATO designation “S-309”) under Norwegian flag. With a crew of 45 men, it was used in coastal defense and as a school boat. In the following years he participated in numerous NATO flotations.
Visit Germany. Epic German Adventure route © Monika Newbound