Recent uboat pictures

[He Who Shall Not Be Named]

Good catch, Manfred. Refresh us with some shots of your little V80, please.

David

[MFR1964]

Your will is my command oh Master Of The Logo:biggrin:




The design itself by Helmuth Walter was made as hydrodynamic as possible.







When you drive her at 50% power she runs without submerging the bow.



Taking her down to the tower gives allready a different reaction on the rudders and divingplanes.



I always keep her slightly positive trimmed.



Once running at the right speed, she acts like a true peroscope runner.


Manfred.

[Warpatroller]

A lot of interesting photos in this thread. First time I have looked at it. Greenman sure has been busy accumulating them.

[modelnut]

Manfred,

Is this from http://www.amazon.com/NOVA-Hitlers-L...tlers+lost+sub ?



If so, I think I want to see that show in its entirety.

- Leelan

[MFR1964]

Leelan,

It's the same story, they published it on youtube in 12 parts, U869 was found in the gulf of Mexico, she was reported missing near Gribraltar accourding to the german reports.
She carried the newest T 5 Zaunkonig torpedo's, the fore father of the acoustic torpedo, those things where pretty advanced those times, only drawback was, no friend or foe detection onboard, that factor sunk the U869 by hitting it with her own torpedo.


Manfred.

[Von Hilde]

U 869 was found off the coast of New Jersey, It was indeed hit by its own T5 a "circle runner" Which is when the torpedo looses contact with the inital target and then homed in on the u boats acustic signal, however it was eventually sunk with all hands by a destroyer. The only u boat that didnt return from the gulf of mexico was u 166. The recovery of a crewmans knife with his name engraved was the first clue as to which boat was found during the first dives on the wreck. The UZO and several othar artifacts from the wreck had identifing numbers from the boats construction, and thats how it was finally identified in the late 90s. There were two other u boats that had malfunctioning T 5s and were sunk by their own shots. U 972 and U 377 in 1944. Incidently U869 was schedualed to go to Gibralter after the East coast US Patrol, snd was assumed lost near Africa by the DKM

[greenman407]

Warpatroller, google translator has your signature translated as " We Get Them Unknown". Im just dying to know.

[MFR1964]

I've dugged into the archives for some pics about the T5,



This was the start with the feeler type ignition they used during the early years.





Inside and outside of the second generation T5 sensorhead.



The first generation had only three sensors, the second one four sensors, the second generation also could detect the difference between a towed noisemaker and the ship itself, and would go for the ship and not the decoy.



Some retrieved T5 torpedo's from the type IX which now is located at England.

And if you guys wondered if they allready had wire guided torpedo's, yes they had, i have to digg in in my archive, but i recalled something about the T11, which was wireguided and acoustic, all those where exported to England as a warbooty after the end of the war.
To be continued.


Manfred.

[modelnut]

Thanks, Manfred!

I might watch the show on YouTube or I may just spend $10 and get the DVD.

- Leelan

[Von Hilde]

I have seen several "Battle for the Atlantic" series on the History channel as well as the Smithsonian series, Lots of great movies of the boats and post war crewmen interviews. and narration. It seems there are quit a few that have been produced in the past 68 years, but a lot of the same footage

[Warpatroller]

Warpatroller, google translator has your signature translated as " We Get Them Unknown". Im just dying to know.

The correct translation is "We come to them unknown"...

[MFR1964]

I was wrong about the T11, they called their wireguided torpedo the Lerch,



This is a scematic drawing from the book i have, they did some succesfull testing on attacking a testboat, and succeeded in doing three passes within a few meters of the bow and the stern.
Later planning was, to combine this torpedo with a active sonar device, which could take over in the intial attackfase, pretty space stuff in the late 40's!, luckely for the allies, not ready to go in mass production.



They also did research on different propulsion methods, the picture above shows a waggle tail propulsion, strange as it sounds, it worked!!!, but having that much moving parts at a delicate mechanism as a torpedo is asking for trouble during maintenance, sometimes the germans over-designed things to be rather unpracticle.



As for a more reliable propulsion they also designed a pumpjet as propulsion, this was placed on a Igolin Walter torpedo, designed by the same Helmuth Walter, which also designed the V80 and type XVIIb.
It ran on the same fuel as used in the boats, getting speeds above 40 knots, reading all those things, that were made in the 40's !!!!!, i wonder if we at the present time are re-inventing the wheel again, as usually offcourse.


Manfred.

[He Who Shall Not Be Named]

This is all new to me. And most interesting. As a Torpedoman in the US Navy, I never heard of these developments so long ago. Wonderful stuff, Manfred. Thank you.

David

[MFR1964]

Yeah, makes us feel like cave man,

That pumpjet i mentioned, isn't a pumpjet after all, i reviewed the book again and found out that it was actually a rocket propelled torpedo, blimey!!, i was wondering where that claimed speed came from, that thing used a freaking rocket chamber!!!, weird guys those germans.


Manfred.

[He Who Shall Not Be Named]

If that's a rocket propelled torpedo, what appears to be intakes ahead of the stabilizers make it an augmented rocket -- it draws in water to add mass to the exhaust flow. An eductor. Neat!

You find the neatest stuff!

David