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The Collaborative International Dictionary
U-boat

Submarine \Sub`ma*rine"\, n.

  1. A submarine boat; a ship that can travel under the surface of the water. Most such ships are ships of war, as part of a navy, but submarines are also used for oceanic research. Also called sub and (from the German U-Boot) U-boat. esp., (Nav.), a submarine torpedo boat; -- called specif. submergible submarine when capable of operating at various depths and of traveling considerable distances under water, and submersible submarine when capable of being only partly submerged, i.e., so that the conning tower, etc., is still above water. The latter type and most of the former type are submerged as desired by regulating the amount of water admitted to the ballast tanks and sink on an even keel; some of the former type effect submersion while under way by means of horizontal rudders, in some cases also with admission of water to the ballast tanks.

  2. A stowaway on a seagoing vessel. [Colloq.]

  3. A submarine sandwich.

    Nuclear submarine A submarine powered by a nuclear reactor.

    Attack submarine A submarine designed to attack other ships, including other submarines.

Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
U-boat

1916 (said to have been in use from 1913), partial translation of German U-Boot, short for Unterseeboot, literally "undersea boat."

Wiktionary
u-boat

n. Any German submarine of the First World War or Second World War, or any Austro-Hungarian submarine of the First World War.

Wikipedia
U-boat

U-boat is the anglicised version of the German word U-Boot , a shortening of Unterseeboot, literally "undersea boat". While the German term refers to any submarine, the English one (in common with several other languages) refers specifically to military submarines operated by Germany, particularly in the First and Second World Wars. Although at times they were efficient fleet weapons against enemy naval warships, they were most effectively used in an economic warfare role ( commerce raiding), enforcing a naval blockade against enemy shipping. The primary targets of the U-boat campaigns in both wars were the merchant convoys bringing supplies from Canada, the British Empire, and the United States to the United Kingdom and (during the Second World War) to the Soviet Union and the Allied territories in the Mediterranean.

Austro-Hungarian navy submarines were also known as U-boats.

U-boat (disambiguation)

U-boat (German: U-Boot) is a German military submarine of World War I and II.

U-boat or U-Boot may also refer to:

  • U-Boot (beer cocktail), a cocktail made with vodka and beer.
  • Das U-Boot, computer software, a GNU GPL boot loader.
  • "U Boat", a song on the album Kasabian by the band of the same name
  • U-boat also refers to the "Universal Line" diesel locomotives built by General Electric; see List of GE locomotives.
  • U-boat also refers to an Australian class of interurban railcars.
  • U-Boats are also carts which are used in the retail industry to move boxes and supplies more quickly and safely through short passageways such as aisles of a retail store
  • U-Boat was a term for Jews hiding as non-Jews in Nazi Germany. See Stella Kübler, a "U-Boat" catcher.
  • The Southern Railway's U and U1 class locomotives were nicknamed "U-boats".

Usage examples of "u-boat".

There were Big Boys and U-Boats and Alcos, Baldwin diesels and Budliners.

In antisubmarine warfare, air search proved so valuable for locating and destroying U-boats that every effort was made to extend and enlarge the coverage.

In the spring, when the nights became shorter and the ineffectiveness of our antisubmarine warfare had been demonstrated, the U-boats became bolder and attacked in broad daylight, even surfaced.

The Organization of Antisubmarine Warfare Having described the havoc wrought by the U-boats during the first six months of the war, we may now relate some of the principle countermeasures adopted, which bore fruit in the latter half of the year and in 1943.

The U-boats, which had by August begun to work from Biscayan ports, took severe toll of our Atlantic convoys without suffering many losses themselves.

They have new systems for locating our boats and are inflicting heavy losses on us, fifteen to seventeen U-boats a month.

According to Rohwer an increase to around 300 boats could not have been achieved by 1942 within the framework of the accepted peacetime restrictions, even with a trash programme of U-boat construction.

The little U-boats pitched and rolled, and played at standing on end, while everyone inside clung on desperately to pipes and steel projections a foretaste of how these boats would behave in the heavy storms of the North Atlantic.

Meanwhile, as though in peacetime, I had become a trained and experienced U-boat commander, and a whole year had passed Later, when there were more new boats but also more losses training time was curtailed and this would have its consequences.

If, despite everything, a U-boat did succeed in latching onto a convoy, it was not itself allowed to attack but had to maintain contact and report position, course and speed by radioed short-code signal to the C-in-C U-boats, who would call up all the boats within reach.

Then British patrol boats and a destroyer appeared, whose machine-gun fire wounded half a dozen U-boat men and prevented scuttling.

The disposition of the boats now deviates in numerous points from the plan originally laid down for the U-boats.

That touched us U-boat men to the quick, seeing that we would have to hand over our boats to the Anglo-Americans without a fight, whether they were at sea, in Norwegian harbours or in home bases.

And all the other commanders in the home ports did the same, so that, as far as could be ascertained, 15 U-boats sank in Wilhelmshaven in the first week in May, 1945, in Hamburg 10, in Travemiinde 31, in Kiel 26 and in Flensburg 56.

The warrants triangulated, using a sender at Tobruk and another at the Gambia, and a flight of Lancaster bombers had been sent to investigate a possible U-boat nest.