Peenemuende

---

Peenemunde!

Firstly I must be honest and say that we really only intended to visit Peenemunde because of the submarine, and thus we didn't really spend much time looking anywhere else... but there wasn't really that much else to see either!



If you like military stuff then you should visit and read on. If you don't then I don't see any attractions for you and I would recommend skipping this blog and waiting for my next one on Zinnowitz, which without giving too much away is just amazing!



We arrived at Peenemunde at around noon on Monday and made our way down to the submarine. As everyone may be aware there had been freezing temperature around Europe due to cold air coming from somewhere really cold, so it was no surprise to see the U461 encased in ice and most of the harbour frozen as well. The temperature itself was bearable but the wind added to that made for a really uncomfortable time and it was a real relief to finally make our way into the bowels of the sub.



So as I said in my last blog U461 due to its name could be mistaken for a German sub which all get named with a U which is an abbreviation of 'Untersee' which translates to 'undersea' in English. So U-Boot translates to 'undersea boat', make sense right. The owners obviously thought that there would be more appealing to have a German submarine name then to have the original soviet name of K-24.



The Juliet class submarine which had nuclear capable cruise missiles was decommissioned in 1994 and sold to its new owners.



While doing research I stumbled upon an interesting story about the original german submarine which had the name U-461 which was a type XIV replenishment U-boat. It was sunk while operating in the Bay of Biscay by an Australian Sutherland aircraft No.461, and having the registration U made it known as U-461!.....Cue spooky music from twilight zone... do do do do, do do do do......



K-24 is a big sub, allot bigger than HMS Otus. Complete with a crew of mannequins it make for interesting viewing but unlike Otus there are more areas that are chained off and out-of-bounds. I actually feel like I missed a lot of what was to see because of that....but what can you do? I thought the mannequins were a bit creepy and would have preferred to have an empty sub rather than the feeling of being watched by Russian sailors. One was even on the dunny having a shit! The poor bloke has no privacy at all, see attached photo.



The most interesting part of the sub I thought were the launching tubes for the missiles....massive! I've never seen anything like it before. To imagine the devastation one sub could deliver with four nuclear warheads. I find it hard to imagine how many warheads are currently stored in the current classes of nuclear capable subs worldwide.... waiting.



But you can't dwell on the threat of nuclear Armageddon so we left K-24 to catch the train back to Zinnowitz where we would be staying for three days. Keep posted for my next blog on that gem of a holiday spot :-D



Over and out!

---