![]() ![]() In 1720, Russia built the first military submarine which was armed with “fire tubes”, weapons akin to flame-throwers. In 1605, the first submersible was constructed by Magnus Pegelius. In 1578, the Englishman, William Bourne, designed one of the first prototype submarines. The roots of personal submarines can be found in early the 16th century in an Islamic painting depicting Alexander the Great being lowered in a glass submersible. The history of submarines (not personal submarines but submarines in all) is about 5 centuries old. In 1996, an Internet-based society named Personal Submersibles Organization (PSUBS) was formed which was recognized as an authority to promote discussion and sharing of information relative to the safe design, fabrication, and operation of small privately-owned manned/unmanned submarines for recreational use. The history of personal submarines is a bit unknown. ![]() Usually, 5-9 seater submarines are used for research purposes, and submarines with higher capacity are used for tourism purposes. Their capacity ranges from 1 person to 25+ persons. They are usually small in size and sometimes called mini-submarines. They are usually used for recreational underwater experience, exploration, or sometimes for scientific research. The rest of the machines in the kit have only numbers on the tower.Personal submarines are those submarines that are owned by some person as personal property (and not owned by a government or any public organization). The latter and also one grey Biber were also decorated with a shark mouth. The decal sheet brings markings for four overall grey Bibers and one bearing a camouflage scheme consisting of four colours. The A sprue offers the fuselage halves, B sprue has the torpedoes. The kit’s components come on two grey styrene sprues and one with clear parts. The kit is 3D designed and injection moulded using metal moulding blocks. Some of the surviving machines have been put to display in museums. Several Biber submarines were captured during the war, but the Allies did not seem to find interest in them and tested them only very briefly. Moreover, the Biber although being rather manoeuvrable and stable on the surface, was clumsy while under the water. The conning tower lacked in height causing the submarine pilot, who was equipped only with wrist compass, difficulties in finding his way to the target. Some trouble also occured due to the exhaust fumes getting into the operator’s station and many Bibers were lost just to this reason. Bibers did not enjoy much success in the torpedo-carrying role, mine-laying missions suited them better. The Biber prototype, known also as Adam, was put to tests on 29 March 1944, though the tests were not quite successful and several improvements had to be implemented before German admiral Karl Dönitz approved building of further four prototype Bibers and later also the large scale production, which gave a total of 324 Bibers from Flanderwerke, Ansaldo and Klökner-Humbolt-Deutz plants.īibers were put into so-called K-flottillen numbered 1 to 9, which saw action in the English Channel during the Allied invasion, in the North Sea off Norway, in the Scheldt estuary and also in the river Waal during the attack on the Nijmegen bridge. The hull was so diminutive that its operator (only a crew of one was possible) did not have much space in the conning tower. It could carry either two G7e torpedoes or mines. The Biber could submerge down to 20m, in emergency to 30m. The Biber’s displacement was 6.6 tonnes, on the surface it was powered by a 32 HP Otto Blitz petrol engine and while submerged, the propulsion was provided by a Siemens SSW GL231 electric motor. Allegedly, Bartels was influenced by captured British Welman W46 midget sub. The original idea of the Biber sub came from Korvettenkapitän Robert Bartels and first prototypes were built and the production took place at Flanderwerke in Lübeck, the development being led by Hermann Bunte. Along the Neger, Marder and Hai manned torpedoes, also the Biber and Molch midget submarines were to stop the invasion fleet. ![]() In 1943 it became clear that the Allied invasion would take place soon somewhere on the Atlantic coast of the continent and the German military began to seek and develop new and rather unorthodox weapons to avert the invasion. The Biber was one of the weapon systems developed during the Second World War at the time when the situation on both fronts was gradually becoming worse and worse for Germany. ![]()
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