(1) PHOTO WWII German Submarines Photograph B&W snapshot U-Boats pre-war photo

Description

(1) PHOTO WWII German Submarines Photograph B&W snapshot U-Boats. Condition is "Used". Old photo with wear and torn corner.  This is one photo. There are two images in the listing that are closeups if the one photo just to give detail. Small snapshot. Shipped with USPS First class mail.
Thie following info is courtesy of the Archivist at the U.S. Navy Submarine Force Museum, Naval Submarine Base New London. Groton, CT whom i asked for some help with identification.
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The submarines in the photograph you have are German.  They are examples of the original Type VII class submarines launched in 1936/7.  The Type VII submarine would go on to have several variant designs; VIIB, VIIC, VIID, and VIIF.  All totaled, there were over 700 of these U-boats built (primarily of the VIIC design).  It was the largest class of German U-boats ever built, and accounted for the largest share of Allied shipping losses during World War Two.  The Type VII U-boat is often thought of as the quintessential U-boat, the one that comes to mind whenever the subject of the Battle of the Atlantic in WWII is discussed.
Some notes regarding your photo:
The fact that the hull numbers are still painted on the conning tower in the photograph you have indicates that the picture was taken early in the boats’ careers, prior to the outbreak of WWII.  Once hostilities broke out and the U-boats began making war patrols, the numbers would have been painted over.  Also, the net-cutter – seen on the bow of the U-boat in the foreground (U-34) only shows up in photos taken prior to the war.
The U-30 (4th boat from the pier in the front row in your photograph) would play a significant role at the start of World War II, when it carried out the first attack by the German Navy – torpedoing and sinking the British passenger liner SS Athenia on September 3, 1939, just two days after German forces had invaded Poland initiating a state of war between Britain and Germany.  Athenia was the first British ship sunk in WWII.  The captain of the U-boat had mistaken the passenger liner for a merchant ship or a troop transport ship.  The sinking was immediately condemned as a war crime.  Because of the U.S. civilian casualties among the passengers, Nazi propaganda tried to deflect blame by portraying the incident as a deliberate act of British sabotage in an effort to turn neutral opinion against Germany and bring the US into the war.  It wasn’t until the Nuremberg Trials after the war that the full account of the events came to light and the Germans admitted responsibility.
If you are interested in what war patrols aboard Type VII U-boat were like, I recommend watching the German film “Das Boot.”  (It was a popular film here in the US and versions with English subtitles or voiceovers are available.)  The film is based on a German novel of the same name written by Lothar-Gunther Buchheim and is a fictionalized (but highly accurate) depiction of his experiences aboard U-96 (Type VIIC) in WWII during the Battle of the Atlantic.
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