Recent uboat pictures

[greenman407]

There are so many type 209s out there used by so many countrys. Im just going to lump them all together under German U-boats. Because they, are in fact, made in Germany.

[Von Hilde]

the deck that is presently on 995 is "visitor friendly" and is just planks, bolted to the metal stringers. The access hatches for the torpedo loading and storage , as well as most of the other large thruhull access hatches were planked over. I assume it was to keep the visitors from mucking about, and perhaps becoming a liability.

[greenman407]

Manfred, the book with the great pictures, that you do not own, can you give me the title so that perhaps I can acquire one?

[greenman407]

I am under the impression that this first picture is extremely rare.

[MFR1964]

Sorry for my late respons, must have missed your post, i'll ask my friend, be patient, nice pic of the type XXI, must be taken at the end or just after the war, she still has the 20 mm AA guns.

Manfred.

[greenman407]

[MFR1964]

The Uboat on the right has some strange lines on top of the deck near the bow, at first i didn't know what that was, but i found another picture which explaines everything.



They use this contraption during the winter to protect the bow from ice, those brackets on top of the deck made the lines on the last picture.



Another strange one, they used a type IX to test the tower of the type XXI.



Some drawings of the used version.


Manfred.

[greenman407]

Priceless! In the first picture you can see the difference between the type 7 and type 9 in girth and sail form. Ive never seen the two side by side before. Thanks

[trout]

Good study on the ice plow piece. I had never seen/noticed this before!
Thanks Manfred!

[Von Hilde]

I would guess those were to keep the ice from forming inside the outer tube doors, thru all the limber holes forward, while berthed. Im sure they removed them when they got underway, and wern't used as ice breakers to plow thru the harbor.

[Von Hilde]

also the biggest noticable differance between the 7 and the 9 was another 10 meters in the LOA

[trout]

O.K., I see what you are saying. Thank you.

[greenman407]

[MFR1964]

Yep, you guys are right about the protecting nature of the bow piece, it was only used during the first period of winter when the ice wasn't too thick, this way the bow and torpedo hatches stayed intact.
Now some pics about the strange things about the type VII that i've collected during the research on my own boat, pictures.



During the late period of the war the germans developed a counter measure to mess up the asdic, the called it Bolt, this version eject bubbling stuf into the water to blind the asdic with bubbles.
There was also a version with perforated cans, which they could eject from ejectors inside the hull, it reacted with the salt water creating a cloud of bubbles like a kind of smokescreen, if i remeber right the type XXIII had it on his equipmentlist.



Two schnorkelheads, the type above is called a ringswimmerschnorkel, the one below is a electric pneumatic schnorkel, both are from the final period of the war.



This is the kugelschnorkel, one of the early types they employed during the first fase of getting the schnorkel equipment on to the boats.
Compared with the two above this was a real airsucker, once the ball was closing the inlet by a wave, the diesel sucked up all the air inside the boat, imploding the eardrums of the crew.
Both later types like the upper ones had switches connected to the diesels, so submerging the schnorkelhead shutted down the diesels, this way the imploding effect was countered.
The kugelschnorkel they use on a type XXI also had the same provisions like the ringswimmer and the electro pneumatic one, they certainly had learned their lessons.



A drawing which i used to build my schnorkel device for my type VII, this drawing shows the latest example, which allready was placed during the build on the shipyard, difference between both connections is,the late one's had their connections under the deck, the modified early boats had a kind of flange which connected to the mast, all stuff plain in sight.



One of the positions they tried to employ their early passive sonar, the german name for this device is Gruppen Horch Gerat or Balcony Gerat, later on during testing, the most prone position on the bow proved to be the best for maximum detection.



Due to this position near the kiel of the ship damage was encountered while positioning the boat on the seabed floor.



This one i already posted, but it's showing the final position of the GHG.





Manfred.

[greenman407]

Thanks for the great info!