Soviet Submarine: the U-434 in Hamburg

The B-515 museum submarine

In the years after the fall of the Soviet Union the Russian navy's budget was dramaticly cut. This meant that some creatifity was needed to accuire the nessasary funds to keep the once so proud Russian navy afloat. One way was selling (absolete) equipment to the highest bidders. Some European and American businessmen or musuem directors ceased the opportunity and bought Soviet submarines to be used as tourist attraction or party location. Currently several soviet submarines can be visisted like the: B-39 in Fokestone, B-143 in Zeebrugge, B-413 in Kalliningrad, B-39 in San Diego, B-427 in Long Beach (all Foxtrot class), B-80 in Amsterdam (Zulu class), B-515 in Hamburg (Tango class), U-359 in Nakskov (Whiskey class) and the K-77 in Providence USA (Juliett class). All of these are diesel sumbarines build in the sixties and seventies of the last century. The list above makes clear that the Tango class is rare as a musuem piece, so visiting the U-434 while in Hamburg is time well spend.

History of the U-434

The submarine B-515 now renamed U-434 was build at the Krasnoe Sormovo shipyard in Gorki in 1976. It was placed into the service of the Soviet North Sea fleet based in Severomorsk near Murmansk and remained in serivice until 2002. The U-434 was used as espionage submarine and was active during the Cuba crisis, perfomed spy missions on the US East coast and parolled the Soviet territorial waters. In 2002 it was bought by the U-boat musuem in Hamburg and towed from Murmansk to Germany. The Russians took the weapon systems out but other then that lef the sub in original condition. The ship was restored arBlohm und Voss, the most famous German shipyard from Hamburg known for builing the Bismarck, Schramhorst, Admiral Hipper, Wilhelm Gustloff and many of the word war 2 U-boats. Then it was docked on it's current location in the Baakenhafen and can be visisted as a musuem. A shop, a visitors center and a large parking are avaliable near the submarine. The musuem submarine can be reached by a 15 minutes walk from Messhafen metro station. There is also a bus shuttle (the Hamburg Hummelbahn) that has a stop near the submarine.

U-434 musuem facilities

Besides the submarine are there also some other facilities that are part of the museum. There is a visitors center with photo's about the history of the U-434 and some artifacts like a torpedo and a door from from the U-434. An East 60M electric torpedo is displayed outside. The U-434 has 6 torpedo tubes and cvan carry 24 torpedos. The lengt of the torpedo is 8.23M with a weight of 2 tons. The torpedo's were loaded intp the vessel along an upper deck ramp trough the torpedo loading hatch. A special loading system made it possible to load 2 torpedos at the same time in eight minutes and make the submarine ready for combat. There is also a Russian welding system from the U-434 displayed. A museum shop sells all kind of souvenirs relating to the U-434 and Soviet submarines in general.

The hull and sail of the U-434

The project-641b (Tango class) submarine build in 1976 has the looks and characteristics of a modern submarine. It is tall, round and streamlined where its predessesors like the Zulu and Foxtrot class still look like world war 2 submarines. The sail has six windows typical for Soviet submarines used for navigation when the submarine in not submerged. Currently a round chamber welded on the front site of the hull that as used as the entrance. Two of the topedo launch tubes are vissible above the water on the bow. The two wings used for manoeuvring are extracted witj thier place is the hull sealed.

The torpedo room

Visitors enter the Soviet project-641b submarine in the front torpedo room via a spiral staircase. Appropriate music and dummy's in Soviet naval uniforms bring the visitors in the right mood. In this large room the are tow rows with each three torpedo tubes. The first things that strike the visitors is the heat and the enormous amount of tubes, wires, switches, volves, leavers etc. On both side of the room are 3 torpedo holders one original torpedo is still in its storage location. 10 sailors worked in the torpedo room whith 24 533mm torpedos each weighing 2 tonns. At the end of the torpedo room is a round hatch leading to the next compartement.

The living quarters

From the torpedo room a hatch leads to the next compartiment where the rooms for the senior crew and officers mess are located. The hatches between the compartement fairly narrow and on ground level so visitors must put in some effort to go trough. In the center of the crew compartment runs a narrow hallway. The officers mess is the largest room in this compartiment, it is actually quit spaceious concidering the limtited room avaliable in the cramped submarine. Interesting detail is a picture of the statue of liberty in New York photographed from a submarines telescope. It is unclear if this is a creative element added by the German museum staff or an original pciture from the submarine. The U-434 being a spy submarine would make it possible that this is a trophy shot to renember a succesfull spying mission!

The control room

At the end of the living quarters is a pair of stairs, on goes down a level to a battery room the other one goes up a level to the submarine control room. Unfortunately was the control room closed during our visit of the U-434, normally it should be open to the public. The control room is partially situated in the submarine’s sail but is part of the pressure hull. The equipment in the control room of was state of the art technology during the U-434’s deployment in the cold war. The captain and the helmsman have their seats in the control room from where they operate the submarine. There is also a map room for the navigation of the sub in the control room.