Under the terms of the Treaty of Versailles, Germany had been forbidden to retain or build any submarines. In actual fact the greater part of her fleet that was to take to the seas in 1939 was barely four years old. In the period 1919–34 German submarine development had continued. Her vessels had been built in foreign shipyards to German design, and co-ordinated and controlled by German technicians. Vessels were built in Turkey and in Finland, for example.
Gür was built in 1932 for the Turkish navy. She was 237 ft 6 in. long with a submerged displacement of 960 tons, and had six torpedo tubes and one 102 mm gun. Vesikko was built in Finland in 1933, and was essentially a coastal submarine, 133 ft 10 in. long with three torpedoes, a small gun and a submerged displacement of 300 tons. Vesikko was essentially the prototype of the Type II U-boat, and U-1 was launched in Kiel in June 1935. Further refinements were made until the Type IID was brought in in 1940, a larger vessel with a longer range. The Type I was based on Gür, as well as UB-49 from the First World War. These would become known as the Type VII, and they would become the mainstay of the German submarine fleet.
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