麻豆约拍

A stark reminder of the Nazi menace that most frightened Winston Churchill during World War II has found a new home at Birkenhead鈥檚 Woodside Ferry Terminal.

U-534, one of only four U-Boats left in the world, will open to the public as part of a new museum display on Tuesday, 10 February.

U-Boats were central to the Battle of the Atlantic, the fight to keep Britain supplied during the war years, a battle that almost brought the country to its knees.

The sinking of merchant ships making their way from the United States to Britain was so high that Prime Minister Winston Churchill later admitted, 鈥淭he only thing that really frightened me during the war was the U-Boat peril.鈥�

The U Boat is in four sections

U-534 has been on Merseyside since 1996, it formed part of the Historic Warships Trust exhibition at Birkenhead until the museum closed in 2006.

Liverpool played a central role in the Battle of the Atlantic, operations were run from a secret HQ beneath Liverpool鈥檚 Derby House, and the Royal Navy attack ships that hunted the U-Boats departed from Liverpool鈥檚 docks.

Known as the Citadel, the control complex for Western Approaches at Derby House ran 2,200 convoys from 1941 to the end of the war, monitoring the movements of 75,000 merchant ships.

Germany's final U-Boat

U-534 was the last U-Boat to leave Germany before the war ended.

Sailing towards Norway she was sunk by depth charges dropped by an RAF Liberator bomber on 5 May, 1945.

The boat was raised from the sea bed in 1993 in an operation funded by a Danish millionaire.

As the boat was the last U-Boat to leave Germany before hostilities ceased there were rumours that it was carrying gold or high ranking officials.

However when the boat was raised in 1993, with four of the airmen who bombed her in attendance, all the secret sailing theories were dashed with no sign of gold or secret passengers being found.

On the opposite side of the Mersey to U-534鈥檚 new site, a statue commemorates one of Britain鈥檚 U-Boat hunters.

Captain Johnny Walker was based at Gladstone Dock from where his 2nd Support Group hunted U-Boats out in the Atlantic and turned the ocean war in Britain鈥檚 favour.

Leaving port in HMS Starling, with the tune of a 鈥淗unting We Will Go鈥� blaring from his ships tannoy, Walker sank more U-Boats than any other Allied commander, once sinking 5 U-boats in 10 days while escorting a convoy from Gibraltar.

He died before the war ended on July 9th 1944 aged 48, his death attributed to exhaustion.

The statue of Captain Johnny Walker

At Captain Johnny Walker's funeral service in Liverpool Cathedral, Sir Max Horton, Commander in Charge Western Approaches paid tribute to the ultimate U-Boat hunter, "Victory has been won, and should be won by such as he.

"May there never be wanting in this realm a succession of men of like spirit in discipline, imagination and valour, humble and unafraid.

"Not dust, nor the light weight of a stone, but all of the sea of the Western Approaches shall be his tomb."

After a procession through the streets of Liverpool, Johnny Walker was embarked on HMS Hesperus and buried in the waters of Liverpool Bay.

The new display at Woodside Ferry Terminal, which also includes a rare Engima coding machine, sees U-534 stood in four blocks each illuminated from the inside with glazed panels placed on either end.

U-534鈥檚 early life is unclear, there is little or no record of the boat appearing in combat flotillas, and it鈥檚 believed that for a year and a half it was used to train new crews.

An Enigma coding machine.

The boat only began combat duties in May 1944, it was mainly used for weather reporting and avoided contact with the enemy.

U-534 came to the Mersey in 1996 when it became part of the collection of the Warship Preservation Trust in Birkenhead.

When the museum closed in 2006 the U-Boat鈥檚 future was uncertain until it was acquired by Merseytravel and moved to Woodside Ferry Terminal.

Prior to its move the U-Boat was cut in to four separate sections, each of which weighing up to 240 tons.

An individual section took a day to move by the floating crane Mersey Mammoth.

There are three other surviving U-Boats, two are in Germany and the third is at the Museum of Science in Chicago.

The U-Boat Story opens on Tuesday, 10 February, 2008, admission is 拢5 for adults , 拢3 for children.