The U-boot Museum in Hamburg has some tourists confused. First of all, the pennant number U-434 was not the vessel’s number – it was B-515. Furthermore, it is not an infamous German U-boat from WWII, it was a Soviet submarine that was decommissioned only in 2001 and converted into a museum a year after.
The word “U-boot” in German just means submarine in English, it’s not a specific term relating to U-boats. A real U-boat from WWII is moored at Bremerhaven as a museum, but not in Hamburg.
The vessel belonged to the Soviet Tango-class diesel-electric submarine designed to ambush NATO nuclear submarines. Its 6 cm thick rubber coating made it difficult to detect with sonar as it absorbed most of the signal. It could stay submerged for a whole week before needing to surface to charge its batteries. The last submarine of its class was only decommissioned in 2016.
I have been to Hamburg thrice and visited the submarine twice. The first time was a general pleasure trip to enjoy Hamburg’s sights. The second time was when I had to pick up my father from the airport in Hamburg because both Berlin airports went on strike. We used that opportunity to look at everything mother wasn’t interested in, namely military history, before I returned to Hamburg a third time with both parents.
