But note that the way the word “Blitz” (which indeed means “lightning” in German) is used differently in German even in a WW2 context. AIUI, in English, it primarily refers to the Battle of Britain. In German, it’s usually used for the land invasions of Poland and France, the speed of which came as a surprise even to the German commanders - they had expected protracted fighting over trenches as in WW1.
At the grocery store where I work, we use long six-wheeled carts with handles on both sides when we’re hauling cases of product from the back room out onto the floor to be stocked, like so;
The term we use for them within the company is “six-wheeler”.
The industry standard term is “U-boat”.
If you ever get a chance to see a submarine from the inside, take it! I have not visited the sub in the above post, but I have visited HMAS Onslow, docked as a museum ship in Sydney Harbour (Australia).
Onslow was one of the Oberon-class subs built by the British, and purchased by various Commonwealth coiuntries. Australia, obviously, but also Canada, which bought four of them. Diesel-electrics. And oh yeah, they have diesels, as a visit to the engine room will tell you just by scent.
Holy hannah, the living conditions. Hope you’re not taller than six feet, because the bunks are 2’ by 6’. Actually, being under 6’ tall is a bonus, because there is very little headroom anywhere. Everywhere, there is a valve, or a conduit, or something that affects the sub’s operation somehow. You pee into a urinal in the middle of a hallway. After visiting HMAS Onslow, I have nothing but respect for submariners.
Regarding U-boats, I rewatched the film Das Boot the other night. Same thing really, just in a different language. Again, submariners, you have my respect.
In Neil Stephensons Cryptonomicon, there’s a passage that stood out for me. Bobby Shaftoe, one of the main characters, has been rescued/captured by the German sub that torpedoed the ship he was aboard. Paraphrased “Shaftoe was marched along the central walkway and into a broom closet. Shortly the subs captain joined him. Turned out the broom closet was actually the captain’s office.”
Hell, this is an actual photo of U-505’ kitchen, taken by yours truly;
Imagine cooking three meals a day for 60 men in that space.
Nitpick, but not quite. “Blitz” is used in the UK as both noun and verb to refer to the concentrated bombing of London and other cities from September 1940 onwards (by analogy, I suppose, with the massive destruction of the bombing of Warsaw and Rotterdam), rather than the aerial war over the summer of 1940, which is usually what is understood as the Battle of Britain.
Here’s maybe a better cite: GE U25B - Wikipedia. The Universal Series locos were designed & sold for export. Only the U25B & direct successors was designed and sold for North American service. And only they were nicknamed "U-boat"s.
Thirding this sentiment, regardless of the era, but the older the more amazing to me.
Baltimore MD & San Diego CA also have subs you can tour. I’m sure there are others, but I couldn’t quickly find an extensive list.
I haven’t been in a real U-Boot, but in 1985 my school class visited the Bavaria Film Studios near Munich in which “Das Boot” had been produced a few years earlier, and one exhibit was the realistic replica of the interior of U-96 in which most of the scenes had been filmed. We could walk through the whole “boat”, and it gave you the same impression of claustrophobia I would expect from a real U-Boot.
New York has the Growler, which is docked on the west side of Manhattan just north of the USS Intrepid.
Huh. I knew the U25s was by far the most popular but I’d never noticed it was because it was the only one not exported – not even when I pulled up that page.
The subs are called U-boats, because U-hoagies and Grinder-booten sounded stupid.
Tough for the cooks. But U-boat crews supposedly ate much better than those in other armed services.
I cheated. Since I knew nothing about them before your post, I had to read the page. 
Which clued me in on the distinction between domestic and export models. Admittedly that’s not one of wiki’s best intro paragraphs.
Interestingly, there are or have been permanent “museum subs” in many of the ports where the S-49 stopped during her cruising years 1933-1941:
Chicago, Manitowoc, Cleveland, Buffalo, Salem (MA), New York, Baltimore, Washington DC.
Portland, OR has the USS Blueback.
On the other hand, E-Boat had no relationship at all to the German term for fast torpedo boats.
The Germans called them S-boots, for ‘Schnellboot’. They were called E-boats by the British: ‘E’ for ‘Enemy’.
Definitely!
There is a WWII submarine in Mobile, the USS Drum. She used to be in the bay next to the USS Alabama but is on land now. I got to tour her when I was a kid. It was claustrophobic and fascinating and we had to walk way too fast; I could have spent days looking at everything.
I have been aboard the South African SAS Assegaai, formerly in service with our navy, and now a museum piece out of the water.
I found it (and the tour) really interesting, and I thought my kids, then aged 8 and 10, would be thrilled. Unfortunately for me, we had to abandon the tour and go for ice-cream… clearly my kids are not as nerdy as I am.
The siren call of ice cream is irresistible.