![]() The U-1406, a vessel of the same class as HMS Meteorite / U-1407
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History | |
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Name | U-1407 |
Ordered | 4 January 1943 |
Builder | Blohm & Voss, Hamburg |
Yard number | 257 |
Laid down | 13 November 1943 |
Launched | February 1945 |
Commissioned | 13 March 1945 |
Fate |
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Name | HMS Meteorite |
Acquired | 1945 |
Commissioned | 25 September 1945 |
Decommissioned | September 1949 |
Fate | Broken up |
General characteristics [1][2] | |
Class and type | Type XVIIB submarine |
Displacement | |
Length |
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Beam |
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Draught | 4.3 m (14 ft 1 in) |
Propulsion |
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Speed |
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Range |
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Complement | 19 |
Armament |
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Service record (Kriegsmarine) | |
Part of: |
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Identification codes: | M 47 655 |
Commanders: | |
Operations: | None |
Victories: | None |
HMS Meteorite was an experimental U-boat developed in Germany, scuttled at the end of World War II, subsequently raised and commissioned into the Royal Navy. The submarine was originally commissioned into the Kriegsmarine on 13 March 1945 as U-1407. She was built around a Walter engine fueled by high-test peroxide (HTP).
The three completed German Type XVIIB submarines were scuttled by their crews at the end of the Second World War, U-1405 at Flensburg and U-1406 and U-1407 at Cuxhaven, all in the British Zone of Occupation.[4] U-1406 and U-1407 were scuttled on 7 May 1945 by Oberleutnant zur See Gerhard Grumpelt even though a superior officer, Kapitän zur See Kurt Thoma, had prohibited such actions. Grumpelt was subsequently sentenced to seven years' imprisonment by a British military court.[5][6]
At the Potsdam Conference in July 1945 U-1406 was allocated to the United States and U-1407 to the United Kingdom, and both were soon salvaged.[4]
Meteorite's Royal Navy service came to an end in September 1949, and she was broken up by Thos. W. Ward of Barrow-in-Furness.