For centuries, navies and shipping companies have sought to improve their ship designs in order to
achieve higher and higher top speeds. This has seen the change of ships from being powered by
sails, to steam, to diesel and the overall design of ships going from large tub-like shapes to sleek
and thinner styles. During the 1920s and early 30s, the fastest ships could go at most about 39
knots (44 mph/72 kmh), which was respectable but still not as fast as many would prefer.
However, during the 1930s and 40s, the German Kriegsmarine worked to try and remedy this through
the designing and testing of various projects - some incorporating some truly strange techniques.
While many of these boats we look at today are just that,
boats, let’s start with the largest project that aimed to design a completely new type of ship.
The main problem when it comes to speed of ships is how their hull reacts with the water,
with the conventional design being a bow that is able to cut through the water and waves in order
to streamline the ship’s movement. But what if you could make a ship that could go even
faster than conventional ships and at the same time not be a massive target? That was the idea
of Rudolf Engelmann in the 1930s, to develop a hull that could be used for a new class of
destroyers or torpedo boats that could reach the speed to 39 to 50 knots (46-58 mph, 74-93 kph).
In March of 1934, Engelmann submitted his design to the patent office which depicted a strangely
shaped semi-submersible ship. As you can see in the drawing, most of the ship’s hull was placed
under the water with a small superstructure above it. This presented an extremely streamlined shape,
and in 1935 the design would be finalized to the vessel which was eventually built.
With these updates, Engelmann caught the attention of the Kriegsmarine due to the
ship’s revolutionarily unique design. In 1938 it was decided that there was potential for a
ship that could attack its target at high speeds with little to no detectability and therefore
a prototype was ordered. The ship was built in 1940 and launched in 1941 with the name
Versuchs-Schnellboot 5 (Research Fast-Boat 5).
She was powered by 4 MAN L11Z 19/30 diesel engines and was 160 ft (48 m) long with a draft of 11’10”
(3.6 m) - her superstructure only extended 12’6” (3.8) m above the water. With the ship only
displacing 292 tons it was projected to reach Engelmann’s goal of 50 knots. For weaponry it
was planned to be armed with two torpedo tubes and two 20mm cannons. Some sources state that she was
capable of sinking herself like a submarine, but would not be able to move if done so.
While a revolutionary design, VS5 was quite ahead of its time and as a result she had many issues
that the Kriegsmarine did not have time to deal with during the heat of WWII. The small size of
the superstructure meant that the ship would often go under waves in heavy seas, which is
not preferable due to potential for sinking if the ship was not prepared ahead of time. Another
problem stemmed from its single propeller, which in conjunction with her cigar shaped hull and
small superstructure would cause the ship to list 14 degrees to either side. Unfortunately these
problems would not see Engelmann’s proposed fixes, such as the implementation of two propellers,
nor the ship itself go any further. She was abandoned in 1942 and subsequently disappeared.
At the same time as Engelmann’s development of the VS5, other designers around Germany worked
on another type of ship that had the capability of reaching impressive speeds. This design would be
the Tragflügelboot, otherwise known as hydrofoils. The concept of a hydrofoil is relatively simple,
as it works to give boats high speeds by lifting the entire body out of the water and gliding on
two or more fins that are still in the water. The propellers are kept in the water by the use of
very long driveshafts, or they are attached to one or multiple of the fin struts. With the benefits
brought about by the inclusion of hydrofoils, the boats themselves could be given more unique
shapes to maximize them for different tasks. Let’s take a look at some of the more interesting ones.
These next two might be familiar to War Thunder naval players, they are two prototype
boats - known as VS8 and VS10 and built by the Sachsenberg Shipyard from 1940 to 1942.
VS8 and VS10 departed from the normal convention of the previous hydrofoil boats due to them being
much bigger, with VS10 being 76 ft (23.3 m) long and VS8 being 104 ft (31.9 m). With a
longer ship also came a heavier weight, with VS10 displacing 46 tons and VS8 a hefty 70 tons.
VS8 was originally meant to be a new class of these hydrofoils and its larger size is
due to it being ordered as a form of landing craft for Afrikakorps units. It would be able
to transport materials and vehicles under 26 tons, but not be at the same risk due to
their high speed and smaller size than regular transport ships. In order to load a vehicle,
the aft bay would be flooded in order to allow for a specially designed pontoon to be floated.
This pontoon was equipped with two 40 hp engines that would allow for it to be driven to shore
or a dock and then a vehicle would be driven on it - it has been stated that this would be either
cars or tanks such as the Panzer 38(t) or even the Panzer III or IV. When testing the pontoon,
it was found that it only took 2 minutes to load and less than a minute to unload. It is unknown
how a vehicle such as either of these may have affected its hydrofoiling capabilities, as tests
were either never conducted with simulated vehicles or the records were lost. Another
proposed use for the boat was as a minelayer, where it would use its high speed to reach
critical locations and drop its load of 15-20 mines. Both versions included 4 15mm MG151 machine
guns in 4 plexiglass turrets for defense. VS8 was completed and commissioned for testing in 1943,
but quickly ran into issues. First off, she was supposed to be equipped with two 2500 hp MB 511
diesel engines but these were replaced by two 2000 hp MB 501 engines that caused the ship to lose its
speed from the projected 41-45 knots to only 37 knots. She was also found to not be tall enough
under sail, and that her hull was not reaching high enough out of the water to clear waves in
moderate to rough conditions - further hindering her performance. On top of this, the boat was
also found to be heavier than designed by 5 tons and that sea spray quickly started corroding her
forecastle. The boat continued to be tested by the Kriegsmarine until September of 1944,
when she ran aground and was abandoned. It is unknown what happened to her after the war.
Another boat similar to VS8 was VS10, but this one was ordered for a more conventional role
as a torpedo boat. It was equipped with 4 1500 hp ASM 185 engines and reportedly
able to reach a top speed of 58 knots. She was armed with two torpedo tubes and 6 15mm
MG151s in single turrets. It is unknown what exactly happened to her after testing.
Now at this point, you may be thinking that these past few vessels were not
too weird - but now we have reached the truly crazy designs. We saw earlier that
one of the planned benefits of Engelmann’s VS5 was that it would be hard to detect,
but what if you tried even harder to be undetectable without using a submarine?
Well this is where the Borgward company, the same ones that made the Goliath mine,
came in. In 1944, the Germans knew that the Allies were planning to land somewhere in
France and Borgward was tasked with the creation of boats that could be used in the defense.
It was a very small frameless boat, only reaching 22 ft (7m) long with a miniscule draft of only 1
ft (.55 m). They were made of sheet metal and designed to be mass produced quickly. Due to
its shape, the boat was called the Schlitten (or Sled) and it was equipped with a 90 hp engine.
It was armed with two torpedoes that would be attached to either side. Despite its small size,
the engine was very underpowered and the torpedoes did not help it - the prototype only reached 12
knots (13 mph, 22 kph). Without torpedoes, it could only reach 18 knots (20 mph, 33 kmh) - much
lower than the projected maximum speed of 25 knots (28 mph, 46 kph). Due to these disappointing
results, a second version was created named the Schlitten II. It was about the same size
and draft, and had a much better speed due to a more powerful 600 hp BMW aircraft engine. It had
two crew members, and carried two torpedoes. It could reach 30 knots (34 mph, 55 kph) with its
armament, and after releasing would speed up to 48 knots (55 mph, 88 kph) to escape.
48 knots might be a nice speed, but what if you wanted to go even faster? There have been plenty
of designs incorporating aircraft engines in history, but what if you took it a step further
and strapped on an engine from a cruise missile? Yes, you heard that right - the Kriegsmarine and
the K-Verband were not finished with their crazy plans for ultra-fast attack boats.
One of these was the Sprengboot Tornado, a catamaran that was to be connected by a
centre section that held the Argus As-014 pulse jet from the V-1 missile. The concept of this
boat was similar to the Japanese Shinyo boat in that each pontoon would be packed with 770
pounds (350 kg) of explosives and driven into a target. However, unlike the Shinyo the boat was
to be radio operated. One was built in 1944, and was reportedly able to reach 48 knots but was hard
to control at this speed. A smaller version, more resembling the Shinyo, was built in 1945
and named the Seedrache (Sea Dragon). The pulsejet was more successful with this design,
allowing it to be tested up to 60 knots (69 mph, 111 kph), but at the cost of making the boat so
unstable that it could capsize at any time. Both boats were destroyed after the surrender in 1945.
Arguably the most interesting of the jet designs was the Project 5B,
which returned to the hydrofoil concept. This was arguably the craziest looking of the hydrofoils,
with very tall struts and a design differing from many other patrol boats of the day. The
5B was to be powered with either two pulsejets from the V1 or Junkers Jumo 004 turbojets mounted
on either side of the boat. These would provide over 2000 hp and propel the ship over 40 knots,
some sources stating even up to 70 knots (80 mph, 129 kph). The boat was to be armed with
a top turret consisting of 2-4 15mm or 20mm cannons, with some sources showing the boat
with additional mounts to give a total of over 10 cannons and machine guns. It is not known if
the boat would be given torpedoes, but given the necessity for anti-ship capability at the time,
two torpedoes would likely be mounted in the rear. The Project 5B did not go any further
than the drawing boards, but a hydrofoil with very similar characteristics was created in 1954
by Friedrich Wendel and is currently on display at the German Maritime Museum.
It is well known that throughout history, wartime conditions have caused some of the most
interesting technological developments to be created from attempts to gain battlefield
superiority. This was no different in the case of WWII, especially when it came to Germany.
As we have seen through this video, the Kriegsmarine was willing to try
anything to create an ultra-fast attack boat that could engage the enemy without detection.
This saw the creation of a semi-submersible ship, the relatively new concept of hydrofoils, and even
strapping a pulsejet from the V1 onto boats to throw at the enemy. Fortunately for Allied
ships but unfortunately for naval history none of these designs got past their testing phases,
and nearly all of them disappeared after the war. We may never know how they would have performed
if deployed, but we can certainly marvel at the wacky designs of German shipbuilders.
Hopefully you enjoyed today's video, if you did and you want to see more ship related content
like this be sure to let me know in the comments and check out the full sails and salvos playlist.