Nazi Midget Submarine: Seehund

Today we travel to the final months of the Second World War when the Germans began to develop midget submarines. The allies had crossed the channel and invaded Normandy in June 1944 and were slowly battling their away through France towards Germany. The Russians meanwhile were making huge advances in the east. German UBoats continued to fight in the Atlantic but by this period their potency had been blunted by new tactics and technology which had turned them from the feared hunters of the early years of the war to prey. It was at this moment that designs for midget submarines were finalised and construction begun, in a last and desperate throw of the dice in the under-sea naval war. To find out more Dr Sam Willis travelled to the German Maritime Museum in Bremerhaven to explore the Seehund, one of only a handful of these craft to still survive. Sam spoke with Nils Theinert, an expert on German submarines. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.