Recent uboat pictures

[Von Hilde]

GUPPY torpedos, Hydrogen and oxygen and karosene same fuel for the V2 and the Me 163, some volitile stuff to be fooled with. I didnt know you were a TM. Some of my best friends and shipmates were TMs. They had an "A"school at Key West back in the 60s. I think the Germans had a Kurtz nozzle on some of their tin fish instead of the conventional fin mounted controls. The fins were kept to keep the torpedo in the launch tracks, but they were modified to mount the nozzles. I know there were some that were aboard the type XXIs we took after the war. They had one up in New London at the museum sitting outside on a stand rusting away for years. Walter Rocket powered was the G7ur the Walter turbine power was the G7ut which was seawater injection with ingolin/dekalin/florian fuel. The T-VII was also an earlier Walter turbine, altho wasnt as fast as the G7ur (48kts) or the G7ut around (35kts) The G7 ut and ur didnt get deployed with around 100 completed during tests, all were captured and utilised by the Russians and USN for post war testing. There were major issues with the detonation system during the German and Allies tests. Some of the early Walter turbine powered torpedos were deployed attached to seehunds as well. Quit a bit of German engineering in all phases of weaponry at the end of the war was too little too late and no funds. If Hitler would have stayed out of Russia for a year or so and let the development of the wonder weapons catch up, We would all be speeking German now. Hindsight is always 20-20 my dad always said.

[He Who Shall Not Be Named]

Now ... that was interested reading!

Yeah, I did my A-school at the Key West 'Annex'. A bit of a shock after graduation from BEE school at Great Lakes in January. Got onto the plane with piles of snow either side of the runway. Landed in the land of palm-trees and hot trade-winds.

Our TM-A school classes were some of the first after the SCORPION loss -- and man! did they pound into us to NEVER use A-cables for in-rack weekly checks! No instructor ever said why the emphasis. But, decades later, I put two-and-two together and figured that at that time (1967) they thought that SCORPION suffered an in-tube or in-room hot-run of a MK 37, likely the result of getting firing current across the AK and little-U (battery electrolyte squib) pins through incorrect alignment of the test cable(s) during the weekly PM checks.

[Von Hilde]

That was the summer of 68. You might know Kenneth (Dinaling) Lingle TM3 off the Gillmore. He was over there at the school about that time. Did you go thru the Munsonlung training tower we had over at Trumbo by the seaplane hanger? we put bunches of TM strikers and SO A school guys that were going bubble after graduating A schools, FFt to the fleet. We even did a demo lock out with some on the Archer fish. I pushed the lung in front of me in one of the forward tubes. Not enuff room to wear one of those bags on your chest. That was fun. We wernt underway or anything dramatic like that, in fact we were tied up at the outer moll pier. Just took on a little balast and wet the deck. Was the H19 Pearl Harbor Ko Hyo Teki sitting outside the Chief's club on the way out the Main Gate when you were there?

[He Who Shall Not Be Named]

Names escape me. Was he staff? Small world, I wound up on the GILMORE (steam shop) four years later, after four cold years proofing torpedoes aboard the AKL-17 out of Keyport NTS.

I remember the hangars at the Key West Annex, right next door to the barracks. No sea-planes at the time, but a few ASW helo squadrons operated out of there and the NAS up the road. Don't remember an escape training tower, never did any lock-out training there.

Never went to sub-school or did escape-training (would teach at the New London Tank in later years, but always from the fifty-foot lock) -- I cross decked off the GILMORE straight to a boat that needed young, dumb, Torpedoman. The TRUTTA. Qualification was a *****, but nine months later I had my pin. At that time my boat 'owned' The Boat Bar on Duval street.

You were a Frog? We did pier-side escape training to support the UDT school from the TRUTTA, but always from the forward trunk. And from the crushing depth of ten-feet.

David

[Von Hilde]

My barracks was right behind the Shark, across from the mini sub. The Boat bar had a sign out front, with a sub hangin and a replaceable "rocker" with the name of whatever boat was in at the time. Ill bet you remember the old cripple guy that played pool in there. Sam he was a fixture for years. We did a lot of training off of several subron8 and 12 boats all around that pier. You would barely recognise any of that area now. A few of the old Navsta buildings left, Admin bld 1, the old boat bar circa 1960s. Hospital, Little White House, Quarters A and B are now big privately owned homes, but still look the same.

[greenman407]

I found another website that promises to yield many a good picture. Ill start coming thru it today............dudes.

[greenman407]

Ive gone back thru my files and have pulled up some of my favorites to repost. I hope that no one will mind too much.

[greenman407]

[Von Hilde]

The type IX picture with the construction workers appears to be a movie set. No pressure hull, for one thing. The detail is incredable as far as propper placement of equipment. Considerable work in painting weathered effects. The 2nd flotilla emblim indicates it was a Lorient boat at the time. the "Wappen" (coat of arms) on the side of the tower is not recognisable as one used. These were the coat of arms for the city of which were particular to the crew members, which would indicate the actual boats number. A few real minor details are noticable. Periscopes are misplaced and disproportinate. Observation scope should be forward and the scope head is a bit oversize. The attack scope head is a bit large and not the correct shape as well. There are issues with the insulators on the jumper wires, and no ground wire attachments to the tower (lightning rods) Other than that its better than any repo I have seen to date. My question is, What are they going to do with it? The picture of the typeXXI schnorkle head detail is great. I wonder if the "chicken wire" covering is a radar deterant aplication or a surface wake vortex interupter.

[alad61]

It looks like a production still from U571 filmed in Malta. Jonathon Mostow made the comment that historical records of Uboats was far better than those of American and British subs from WWII when it came to building the sets etc. I also recall that there was a sea going boat made for the open sea exterior shots along wiith some pretty good miniatures too.

[goshawk823]

The type IX picture with the construction workers appears to be a movie set. No pressure hull, for one thing. The detail is incredable as far as propper placement of equipment. Considerable work in painting weathered effects. The 2nd flotilla emblim indicates it was a Lorient boat at the time. the "Wappen" (coat of arms) on the side of the tower is not recognisable as one used. These were the coat of arms for the city of which were particular to the crew members, which would indicate the actual boats number. A few real minor details are noticable. Periscopes are misplaced and disproportinate. Observation scope should be forward and the scope head is a bit oversize. The attack scope head is a bit large and not the correct shape as well. There are issues with the insulators on the jumper wires, and no ground wire attachments to the tower (lightning rods) Other than that its better than any repo I have seen to date. My question is, What are they going to do with it? The picture of the typeXXI schnorkle head detail is great. I wonder if the "chicken wire" covering is a radar deterant aplication or a surface wake vortex interupter.

if I recall correctly, that is an anti radar covering.

[Von Hilde]

Alec, the models and mock ups for the 571 were type VIIsnone were full size, All the existing type IXs that have been restored have turm II towers. The lorient boat above is indicative of a IX-B or early C, with an original #1 tower. and as far as I know there arnt any authentic ones above sea level at this time. With a little Sunday morning investigation, I checked which type IXs out of Lorient would be most likely to require a movie that would require details and nor fantisy interpritations which usually go along with dramatic movies. I came up with U 156 which was the only boat to have the city of Plauen coat of arms. It was one of the 4 boats, 156, 506, 507, and the Itialian sub Cappellini that rescued the passengers on the WWII RMS Laconia. That is a big time story. After the Allies attacked the boats that were running on the surface towing strings of life boats with survivors and the decks of the u boats full of survivors pulled from the water. They were displaying the red cross flag and Donitz had ordered the boats broadcast their position in order to facilate the rescue, but American Liberator anti sub aircraft spotted the group and were told by their command to ATTACK! ATTACK!! All the boats managed to get away but Hitler was furious and told U Boat command no more rescues and no prisoners. This was called the Laconia order. Thats when the Nazis machinegunning life boats after sinking, myth started. In actuality if a U boat stayed in the area and not submerged and left the area immiediatly, they would sometimes give the survivors water and some food if the could spare it before they proceded on patrol. The IX prop was for a 2010 BBC documentry type film rather than a dramatic move feature. All type IX interior shots came from the U 534. Here is a still from that documentry with actor of the Kapt and mockup the city of Plauen coat of armsU 156 movie prop during filming of the documentry was built in Scotland by Talkback Thames producions. Wood fiberglass and metal over a raft of series of watertite containers.

[Von Hilde]

Concidentaly The front page of the Key West Citizen sunday edition Headlines. WWII oil tanker that was sunk by a u boat off of key west, may 42 is leaking oil. The boat that torpedeoed the Joseph M Cudahy was the U 507 which sank another tanker M T Ball that day. 506 was operating with 507 during that patrol and they proceded on up to the Mississippi Gulf area and sank several ships. I will be including this story in my book, [U boats in the Gulf stream], and the displey for the Key West Maritime History Museum. Kapt. Lt Harro Schacht of the 506 needs a spot of recognition as one of the U Boat "Aces" during the war and is indeed an honorable Knight.

[greenman407]

Speaking of U571 I took some screen shots of my DVD. Screen shots are not very clear but they can help our mental imaging.

[greenman407]

A couple more.