OT: The purpose of U-boat aerial rigging?

[mookiemookie]

Does anyone know what it's purpose was? It's not radio equipment as far as I know...I believe the radio antenna was on the conning tower. What purpose did the rigging serve?

Paging Sailor Steve... :rotfl:

[AVGWarhawk]

Hold the conning tower steady perhaps? These are darn thick cables and probably provide stablity to the design...similiar to bridges with cable support?

[melnibonian]

Hold the conning tower steady perhaps? These are darn thick cables and probably provide stablity to the design...similiar to bridges with cable support?
I think that must be the reason. I am not too sure about it but it makes sence

[IceGrog]

Hold the conning tower steady perhaps? These are darn thick cables and probably provide stablity to the design...similiar to bridges with cable support?
I think that must be the reason. I am not too sure about it but it makes sence

Didn’t someone here in the forums show a little animated thing of these being used to load the torpedoes?

[AVGWarhawk]

Hold the conning tower steady perhaps? These are darn thick cables and probably provide stablity to the design...similiar to bridges with cable support? I think that must be the reason. I am not too sure about it but it makes sence
Didn’t someone here in the forums show a little animated thing of these being used to load the torpedoes?

True Ice, could have been used to load the torpedos that were stored outside.:hmm:

[melnibonian]

Hold the conning tower steady perhaps? These are darn thick cables and probably provide stablity to the design...similiar to bridges with cable support? I think that must be the reason. I am not too sure about it but it makes sence
Didn’t someone here in the forums show a little animated thing of these being used to load the torpedoes?

True Ice, could have been used to load the torpedos that were stored outside.:hmm:
They could have been used as raillings for the torpedoes but I think they were using man-power to load them into the boat.

[IceGrog]

let's see if this works

Haven`t been here at Subsim for a while, but I remember this little animation from last time I saw this topic discussed
http://www.u-boote-online.de/waffen/torpedos.php?location=uboote

[melnibonian]

let's see if this works

Haven`t been here at Subsim for a while, but I remember this little animation from last time I saw this topic discussed
http://www.u-boote-online.de/waffen/torpedos.php?location=uboote
Case closed then;) :up: :up: :up:

[mookiemookie]

Case closed then;) :up: :up: :up:

Maybe not. You can clearly see the pulley and winch system they used, but it doesn't look like the rigging is a part of it:

http://img201.echo.cx/img201/7772/reload18eb.jpg


http://img110.echo.cx/img110/4895/reload27if.jpg

[danurve]

The look on that crewmans face say's it all..

"This one better not be a dud."

[johnno74]

This page has some info: http://www.uboatwar.net/equipment.htm


The jumper wires that are such a distinctive part of most Second World War U-boats were in fact short-wave radio antennae (3-30MHz). Stretching both fore and aft of the conning tower, the forward portion was used to transmit while the stern twin wires were for reception. The antennae were connected to the radio within the U-boat by a thin insulated wire entering the conning tower facade. Coupled with their primary use was also the value of using the jumper wires as a means of attaching life lines for crew working on deck in bad weather.

[Herr Russ]

Yep, radio antenna... We still use them on almost every US Navy ship. The blocks seen are actually insulators and they use the hull as a ground plane.. we call them "Fan Wires"

[mookiemookie]

Ah ha! I THOUGHT they were antennas but was thrown off by the fact that they had an antenna on the side of the conning tower as well.

Now I can sleep at night. :up: Thanks for everyone's input on this.

[AVGWarhawk]

I'll buy that. Notice some thin wires hooked to the larger cables. Now case closed. You have to admit the torpedo loading demonstration is cool. Makes it look easy but I bet it was no party.

[Sailor Steve]

Paging Sailor Steve... :rotfl:
Ummmm............................I 'on't know:88)

I would have guessed antennas, but it would have been a guess.

Next time page johnno74. The definition of an expert is 'the guy who knows where to look it up'.:up:

[johnno74]

Next time page johnno74. The definition of an expert is 'the guy who knows where to look it up'.:up:

Cheers. My l33t google-foo skilz are legendary :up:

Since I've started playing SH3 I've developed an insatiable hunger for u-boat info. I often find myself wondering stuff like "what sort of food did they eat on long u-boat missions?"

The more I learn, the more in awe I am of those guys, and what they did.

[Cerberus]

It would be a good idea for the crew to be cautious around the transmitting aerial.

As the toilet facilities on submarines was pretty primitive, it was common practice for the watch to take a leak over the side when they got the chance.

The command 'cease transmitting' was often given on British subs.
I'm not sure who first found out painful it could be if the aerial was live - but I bet it brought a few tears to his eyes.

[SilverGhost]

The forward cable was the radio transmission cable. The aft two cables were for receiving. Remember, this was all ultra low freq stuff.

The cables were also used as shown above for utility work and as tie-offs for the crews' harnesses when topside. The cables were marked with a yellow flag with a red lighting bolt when in port to designate the danger of electrical shock from static discharge.