This is a less known German U-boot tender Bolkoburg converted from a nearly completed
Polish passenger ship captured in a Dutch shipyard in 1940.
She is "famous" for accidentally sinking a friendly submarine U-670 during training routine in 1943. She burnt after being attacked by Allied aircraft in May 1945. Her wreck was returned to Poland after the war ended.
Carl Peters class torpedo boat tenders. Both were launched in 1939; Carl Peters sunk after hitting a mine in 1945; in 1946 Adolf Luderitz was transferred to the Soviets as "Pinega" and served till 1964.
Submarine tenders of Lech class were modified steam reefers. After the war both ships ended up being taken by the Allies: Lech by Americans, Isar by Russians.
Wilhelm Bauer and Waldemar Kophamel U-boot tenders. Both were sunk by bombs but Waldemar Kophamel got raised by Russians, renamed "Kuban" and joined the Soviet Navy in 1955. She served as a submarine tender and later as a floating barracks and finally was scrapped in 1978.
Hela, although classified as a fleet tender, technically was a command ship. She survived the war and was taken over by the Russians in 1945. She joined the Soviet Navy in 1946 under the name "Angara" and served till the 1990's. And now, according to
CharterWorld.com she is being converted to a luxury yacht! This IS German engineering. The Kriegsmarine way
Launched in 1934 Tsingtau was the first purpose-built S-boot tender in Kriegsmarine. She survived the war and was used for minesweeping afterwards. She was scrapped in Great Britain in 1950.
This is the first purpose-built U-boot tender in Kriegsmarine: Saar. She survived the war and became French
Gustav Zede.
S-boot tender Tanga was essentially an enlarged Tsingtau. She was built for China but after Japan joined Anti-Comintern Pact the Kriegsmarine confiscated the ship. She survived the war and ended up in Denmark as a submarine tender
A560 Ægir. She was scrapped in 1967.
These two torpedo boat tenders were laid down in Netherlands as Polish reefers "Lewant II" and "Lewant III". The Germans captured the unfinished vessels in docks in 1940 and in 1942 the construction was continued on a new project.
"Gustav Nachtigal" was launched in May 1944 and a month later got sunk by a British torpedo bomber.
"Hermann von Wissmann" was launched in December 1943, survived the war, and was taken over by Great Britain as "Royal Herald". In 1950 she was transferred to Belgium as the training ship A957 "Kamina".
The last drawing in this series: Otto Wunsche, the largest German sub tender, a further development of the Wilhelm Bauer class.
There were 6 ships ordered but only one got completed. After the WW2 she ended up in USSR as "Pechora" and served till the late 70's.