News

14 April 2008

U-Boat Visitor Exhibition Centre

German U-boat U-534 is being moved to Woodside Ferry Terminal where it will be on display to the public as part of a wider exhibition explaining the link between the ferries and the history of underwater warfare.

We have been working with Merseytravel, who rescued the U-boat, to design the visitor exhibition centre. For technical reasons U-534 was cut into five sections and special viewing platforms have been designed to allow visitors to view inside through high quality glazed panels covering the end of each section.

The scheme will be a tourist attraction complementing the wider regeneration of the Woodside area.

History of U-534

U-534 was launched in February 1942 and for the first year and a half of its life never appeared in the records of the combat flotillas. It is thought that during this period it was used as a school boat, kept in the Baltic to train new crews and test new systems.

In May 1944, U-534 was released for operational duty but it was not sent on offensive patrols. It was assigned the duty of weather reporting and required to avoid contact with the enemy to ensure regular reports.

On May 5th, 1945 U-534 was sailing in the Kattegat, North-West of Helsingor and although Admiral Dönitz had ordered all his U-boats to surrender as from 08:00 May 5th, U-534 refused to do so.

She was heading north towards Norway, without flying a flag of surrender, when she was attacked by a Liberator aircraft from RAF 547 Squadron which dropped depth charges.

U-534 took heavy damage and began to sink by the stern. Forty-nine of the 52 crew members survived including five who escaped via a torpedo hatch as she lay on the sea bed.