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Originally Posted by Mikhayl
@Sea Tiger : I'll agree with Latemail here, I've seen some pics showing schnellboote entering home base with open tubes too, but my guess is that it was pure lazyness from the guys. When reloading after the first shot they most probably had to close that door didn't they ?
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Hi Mikhayl
I think (although I don't know for certain) that Sea Tiger could well be correct. He sounds pretty emphatic. Maybe he could cite his source.
The S-Boot was a proper deep hulled ocean going vessel, and carved through the water rather than skimming/planing over the surface like the MTB and ELCO opposition.
In
S-Boote: German E Boats in Action by Jean Philippe Dallies-Labourdette ,there are numerous photos of S Boots at speed (including one in a high speed turn at an angle of about 45deg) and the tubes are well clear of the water. The spray effect starts aft of the tubes in all of these pics.
Also in this book is a passage illustrating the Schnellboot's seagoing capabililites:-
In May 1945 two SBoots left Den Helder for Felixstowe to sign the surrender of the German naval forces in Holland. They were met offshore by a British escort of 10 MTBs and some English officers transferred over to the S-Boots. One officer, Captain Peter Scott left the following account:-
We still had a few dozen miles to cover before arriving at Felixstowe. This was the first time I had ever sailed on an enemy boat and I was immediately impressed by the size of the S-boot. The general silhouette was hardly visible above the surface of the water and everything seemed to have been designed to offer minimum resistance to the elements and maximum protection for the crew when the boat was travelling at full speed. In spite of the rolling we soon reached 30 knots. The MTB's behind couldn't keep up, and inspite of the speed we kept perfectly dry, while my colleagues on our boats had to pull on their oilskins.
Having said this, some of the photos show spray reaching the rear decks. So maybe the tarpaulins over the side rails, which Boris has mentioned a few times, would be a good idea.
Cheers
Cheapskate
PS: The reloading aspect may not have been an issua anyway. It seems spare torps were seldom carried as they added extra weight and unbalanced the boats.
PPS: To all concerned ....Fantastic work
