It was the result of discussions between the Allies at the Potsdam conference in 1945. The British and American governments wanted to get rid of the German submarine fleet, and the only acceptable solution was for the majority of it to be scuttled. Churchill and Truman did not want the Russians to benefit significantly from the U-boats, either technologically, or by adding to their submarine fleet. This meant that sharing them out equally amongst the Allied powers was impossible. Any solution that favoured Britain, America or both over Russia would be vetoed by Stalin. It was hence agreed that 30 submarines would be shared out evenly amongst the Allies for technical study, and the rest scuttled. The French attempted to stake a claim as well, but the Russians would veto this. However, the RN would transfer two of its U-boats to the French. A Tripartite Naval Commission was set up to determine which boats should be saved. This chose the thirty craft on the 10th October 1945, but deferred a decision on the remaining boats to the end of the month. At this point, they agreed that the remainder had to be sunk, in water deeper than 100m, by the 15th February 1946. This scuttling was carried out by the RN, as the vast majority of captured U-boats were in British ports.