Type XXIII wooden deck.

[redboat219]

I read somewhere that the wooden deck on the Type XXIII were only put on when the boat was in port and removed on deployment. Can anyone confirm this?

[goshawk823]

Pretty sure that’s true. I see a lot of photos with the deck in place, but I can check my Type XXXIII reference books.

[redboat219]

Some post-war photos of the Type XXIII with and without the wooden deck.

[Das Boot]

The 32nd Parallel XXIII boat I built in 1990 had no wood deck.

[DrSchmidt]

I think all photos above are from the post war boats that served as first subs in the Deutsche Marine. So I'm notrs sure how representative they are for the Nazi XXIII

[redboat219]

U2326 surrendering after the war. Note the lack of the wooden deck.

[wlambing]

Something to consider- The wood walking deck pieces make an excellent hiding cover for 1/8" holes in the hull for air escapement. Besides, looks way cooler with the deck in place! ;)

[redboat219]

Something to consider- The wood walking deck pieces make an excellent hiding cover for 1/8" holes in the hull for air escapement. Besides, looks way cooler with the deck in place! ;)

Point taken. But dislike the tan "varnished wood" color depicted on some models. Didn't they treat it with preservatives?

[trout]

Yes removable. As far as color of wood, all I ever found were photos showing a darker colored wood. Was that because it was wet? Hard to tell. Did the wood get treated? Well since it was not installed while underway, I do not think so. It does make sense that it was painted dark to not make it so visible to aircraft.

[Sam Victory]

A part of this PDF will explain the issues related to U-boat wood deck color.
PDF link：Microsoft Word - U-boat_colours_with_photos_3.rtf (rokket.biz)

[redboat219]

Thanks for the information Sam.

[wlambing]

I know that the Type VIIs used some sort of dark stain/preservative on their wooden deck sections, so I did a dark gray wash on mine. The contrast seems to enhance the visibility.

[Sam Victory]

Thanks for the information Sam.

A small thing, I think I can provide a few more color photos of the U-boats. Those are algorithmically filtered and colored, and while there will certainly be color differences from the real submarine, they are at least very informative.

Sam V