L1290672 U534 at Woodside - a photo on Flickriver

U534 at Birkenhead Woodside on February 13, 2009 shortly after the opening of the "U Boat Story" Museum.

The conning tower is not the original, this is a replica constructed after the submarine arrived at the Historic Warships site in Birkenhead in 1996.

At present U534 which was sold to Big Heritage CIC by Merseytravel in 2021 remains closed pending the redevelopment of the Woodside area and refurbishment of the Woodside Ferry terminal completion of which is not expected until at least 2026.

Click here for more photographs of U534: www.jhluxton.com/Shipping/Historic-Ships/U534

German submarine U-534 is a Kriegsmarine Type IXC/40 U-boat built in 1942 in Hamburg-Finkenwerder by Deutsche Werft AG as yard number 352.

She was launched on 23 September 1942 and commissioned on 23 December with Oberleutnant zur See Herbert Nollau in command.

U-534 is one of only four German World War II submarines in preserved condition remaining in the world, the others being the IXC boat U-505 in Chicago's Museum of Science and Industry, the VIIC/41 boat U-995 at the Laboe Naval Memorial near Kiel and the XXI boat U-2540 in Bremerhaven.

U-534 was used mainly for training duties; during her service she sank no other ships. A Royal Air Force bomber sank her on 5 May 1945 in the Kattegat 20 kilometres northeast of the Danish island of Anholt. All her crew of 52 managed to escape by swimming out of a torpedo tube though three perished before being rescued.

U-534 was salvaged on 23 August 1993 and was moved to the Historic Warships site at East Float, Birkenhead Docks in 1996. Unfortunately the Historic Warships Museum became insolvent. However, Merseytravel bought the submarine for display at the Woodside Ferry Terminal in Birkenhead to create an attraction known as “The U-Boat Story”.

For technical reasons and to facilitate economical transportation to its new site, the vessel was cut into five sections, two of which were subsequently re-joined. It is now displayed in sectioned form to allow visitors better visibility without entering the U-boat.

Merseytravel claimed that preserving the hull intact would have created prohibitive transport costs. Engineers began a month-long operation to divide U-534, using a diamond wire cutter, on 6 February 2008.

In early 2008, the sections, each weighing as much as 240 tonnes, were transported over several days by the floating crane MERSEY MAMMOTH.

The “U-boat Story Museum” opened in February 2009. In 2021 the Museum was transferred to the ownership of Big Heritage CIC operators of the Battle of the Atlantic Museum in Liverpool. However, the museum remains closed pending the redevelopment and refurbishment of the Woodside Ferry terminal and surrounding area and is unlikely to reopen until at least 2026.

Taken in: UK / England / Birkenhead (show map)

Taken on: February 14, 2009

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U534

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SUBMARINE

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HISTORIC WARSHIPS

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LEICA DIGILUX 3

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John H. Luxton Photography

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Camera: Leica V-LUX 1, f/5.0, 1/640 sec, 7.4mm, ISO 200 (more info) (hide info)

Camera:	Leica V-LUX 1
Aperture:	f/5.0
Exposure Time:	0.002 sec (1/640)
Focal Length:	7.4mm
ISO:	200
Exposure Bias:	0 EV
Flash:	On, Fired
Exposure Program:	Aperture-priority AE
Exposure Mode:	Auto
Metering Mode:	Multi-segment
White Balance:	Auto
Light Source:	Flash
Gain Control:	Low gain up
Sharpness:	Hard
Color Space:	sRGB
Software:	Adobe Photoshop 25.6 (Windows)
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