Date visited 16 April 2023
Second visit today was to the U-boot Museum on Fehmarn Island - a small island in the Baltic that is connected to the mainland by bridge. The museum is in a small fishing village on the southern side of the island.It is a small museum with a few artifacts/photos etc., and the small German post-war submarine U-11, which has been hauled up out of the water, and suspended over an artificial pool at the waterfront. The tour route takes you in the bow compartment, and then out about 2/3 of the way down the sub, which means that while you can walk right to the tail, you then have to double back and push your way past the visitors following you to get out.One interesting feature of this submarine, is that they cut the access doors through the ballast tanks, which provides visibility of both outer, and pressure hulls, and you can see the supporting structure between the two (through Perspex panels installed to stop people trying to crawl in!).There are a few of these submarines around as museum ships - U-9 is at TechnikMuseum Speyer, and I think U-10 is at Wilhelmshaven (I should find out tomorrow), plus U-17 is currently being prepared to be shipped to Sinsheim (possibly as a replacement for U-9 - I haven't been able to positively confirm whether TechnikMuseum has two sites at Speyer and Sinsheim, or whether they are just different descriptions for the same place).If I was just going to see one - I would probably go to either Speyer or Wilhelmshaven simply due to the number of other exhibits at the same place, whereas this one is pretty much by itself.
Links and References:
Blase, A, 2005, U-Bootmuseum Fehmarn GmbH