Woodside Ferry to be new home for rescued U-boat

My pics of U534, news story by Liam Murphy Liverpool Daily Post

A GERMAN U-boat which was part of Wirral’s historic warship collection is to be moved to Woodside Ferry terminal as a spectacular new visitor attraction.
Merseytravel announced plans to rescue the stricken U534 which has lain on Birkenhead docks since the warships museum closed last year.
The U-boat, which was launched in February 1942, will be re-sited at the Woodside Ferry Terminal, and plans submitted to Wirral Council include a visitor exhibition centre, which will also house artefacts from the submarine.
The boat will be cut into three sections for transportation to its new site by water, using a floating crane.
When it arrives at Woodside, huge, high-quality glazed panels installed over the end of each section will allow visitors to see inside the submarine from specially-built viewing platforms.
Neil Scales, chief executive and director general of Merseytravel, which owns and operates the Mersey Ferries, said the plan to create the attraction at Woodside would reaffirm the position of the ferries as the region’s most popular paid-for attraction.
Mr Scales said: “We are still in negotiations with specialists about moving U534, but work can start as soon as we receive planning permission which, we anticipate, will be in September.”
He added: “Our scheme will also complement the wider regeneration of the Woodside development, which is the subject of a master plan.”
U534 was never involved in active combat during WWII but used for training and later meteorological purposes.
On May 5, 1945, the U-boat was sailing in the Kattegat, northwest of Helsingor and ordered to surrender, but refused to do so. Without flying a flag of surrender, she was attacked and took heavy damage, with 49 of the 52 crew members surviving.
David Ball, head of housing and regeneration at Wirral Council, said the authority was “supportive” of the plans, which he said could “do for Woodside what Spaceport has done for Seacombe”.