My local Sub.

[[SJ]nailz]

I think one of the main reasons that I use the IX is because of this;

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_submarine_U-534

My workplace was literally across the road from her for 2 years before she was chopped into 3 big lumps (like a sausage) and moved 2 odd miles to her final, final, final resting place!

[ryanglavin]

nailz;1268357']I think one of the main reasons that I use the IX is because of this;

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_submarine_U-534

My workplace was literally across the road from her for 2 years before she was chopped into 3 big lumps (like a sausage) and moved 2 odd miles to her final, final, final resting place!

Hmmm why would they chop her up?

Edit: Hmm they chopped her up to allow easier viewing, but no access... ? I would have just left her in 1 piece then fixed her up.

[Jimbuna]

Plenty of shots here:

http://www.mikekemble.com/ww2/uboat534-2.html

A fitting letter/observation here:

http://www.uboat.net/forums/read.php?3,76668

[krashkart]

^^ Thanks jimbuna for the link to those photos. :salute:

It's a shame they had to dismember her and leave it all rusty inside.


EDIT: Pulling a quote from the second link jimbuna posted. I hope that's okay to do.


One winter's day in mid-Atlantic, a destroyer escorting the convoy in which my father's ship was sailing detected a submerged U-boat, shadowing the convoy until nightfall, and called in two corvettes to join in the attack. The U-boat commander must have been taken by surprise and his boat was mortally wounded by the first salvo of depth charges. My father's ship arrived at the scene just as the U-boat's stern rose out of the water at a steep angle, poised there momentarily before her death-plunge.

Everyone on deck was cheering and applauding. As he saw the U-boat's stern disappear beneath the waves, my father, a sensitive, compassionate man, could only say to himself, "Poor buggers". After the war, when he saw newspaper articles using the term "Nazi U-boat" he would say to me, "They weren't Nazis, they were sailors and, thanks to politicians, they were in the @#$%& just the same as we were - and little more than kids, most of 'em", just like most of our lot". My dad would tell me, if I asked him, how he saw the grey paint on
the U-boat's hull, the black paint underneath, the propellers still turning, and the two rudders. "That sight", he would say, "is burned into my brain. When I saw topedoed sailors horribly burned and coughing up black oil and you knew they were going to die, it didn't make me feel any better about the U-boat,
just worse; equally brave men, good men, on both sides, dying horribly."

[Jimbuna]

That quote clearly sums up the futility of war :hmmm:

[KL-alfman]

That quote clearly sums up the futility of war :hmmm:

a very true and very sad sentence.

[[SJ]nailz]

Just found this, in the first shot, the big grey building behind her, with the white roof, was my place of work.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JeCJu5mjE0I

[krashkart]

Goodness, that is a fine beast of submersible technology. I'll have to watch the rest when I get back home tonight. The opening shot gives me an excellent idea on just how big the IX is/was.

Your post is a really interesting share, [SJ]nailz. I never really did get into the naval history of WWII as much as the ground and air wars when I was younger. The combination of Silent Hunter 3 and Subsim is turning me toward learning quite a bit more.

[flag4]

nailz;1268357']I think one of the main reasons that I use the IX is because of this;

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_submarine_U-534

My workplace was literally across the road from her for 2 years before she was chopped into 3 big lumps (like a sausage) and moved 2 odd miles to her final, final, final resting place!


there used to be a photo thread here somewhere, i had been to see this at the exhibition with my two children. took some photos of the inside all rusty and old, they are in the thread... http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/showthread.php?t=144308&page=20. it is a lovely boat to see in in its completness. i love the photo you have in the link, you can see the depth charge blast against the side. the black and white photo does it justice too!

shame they sliced it up though, you can not appreciate the gorgeous shape!

hope the link works

cheers:salute:

[Jimbuna]

This is what the butchers did:

http://www.uboat.net/gallery/index.html?gallery=U534F&amp%3Bimg=5

[krashkart]

It is a sad sight indeed, yeah Jim?

A couple of posts there gives an idea of why they had to do that:

http://www.uboat.net/forums/read.php?3,76668,76788#msg-76788
http://www.uboat.net/forums/read.php?3,76668,76808#msg-76808

Hopefully they can come up with enough scratch that "she can be stitched back together in the future..."

[Jimbuna]

It is a sad sight indeed, yeah Jim?

A couple of posts there gives an idea of why they had to do that:

http://www.uboat.net/forums/read.php?3,76668,76788#msg-76788
http://www.uboat.net/forums/read.php?3,76668,76808#msg-76808

Hopefully they can come up with enough scratch that "she can be stitched back together in the future..."

Somehow I doubt it :nope:

[Damo]

Firstly, the costs involved in moving her whole would probably have been high enough to make the likelyhood of her being scrapped a definite possibility, so chopping her up is the only compromise. Also, there is the access issue, if I were a wheelchair user with my interest in U-boats, I'd really be quite offended if somebody were to argue that I should be denied the chance to see her in her entirety just because they didn't want her to lose her shape.

I think what they've done is respectful in that it preserves her interior as she was found which probably provokes more awe than if she were restored, and nobody is denied the chance to experience her to the same level as anybody else. I'd hate to be told 'You wait out here while I go inside and see things you can only dream about'.

Cutting her was best for her and everybody who wants to see her. It wasn't done by 'butchers'.

[flag4]

Firstly, the costs involved in moving her whole would probably have been high enough to make the likelyhood of her being scrapped a definite possibility, so chopping her up is the only compromise. Also, there is the access issue, if I were a wheelchair user with my interest in U-boats, I'd really be quite offended if somebody were to argue that I should be denied the chance to see her in her entirety just because they didn't want her to lose her shape.

I think what they've done is respectful in that it preserves her interior as she was found which probably provokes more awe than if she were restored, and nobody is denied the chance to experience her to the same level as anybody else. I'd hate to be told 'You wait out here while I go inside and see things you can only dream about'.

Cutting her was best for her and everybody who wants to see her. It wasn't done by 'butchers'.

wheelchair access surrounds 534 - ramps and the like, but you can not go 'inside.' each section is screened off with perspex to view each section from outside. it is very rusty inside and probably dangerous, but, one of the sections has a camera inside that you can use from a screen to view and rotate.

i was really looking forward to get a U-534 t-shirt, no such luck though. the souvenier section really lets it down. the rest of it is very good but a little short. you also get to use a rig-up of the enigma: my children were faster at than me:oops: :rotfl2:

"Cutting her was best for her and everybody who wants to see her"
dont know about this?.

i think lack of creativity and money were the paths persued. still its worth a visit just to see, after all how many u-boats do we get to see in england?

how many did we sink?

[Jimbuna]

i think lack of creativity and money were the paths persued. still its worth a visit just to see, after all how many u-boats do we get to see in england?

how many did we sink?

Precisely http://www.psionguild.org/forums/images/smilies/wolfsmilies/pirate.gif

[krashkart]

One of these days I'll go to England with my folks and haul them over to see 534. :yep:

[Damo]

"Cutting her was best for her and everybody who wants to see her"
dont know about this?.

Think about it, without her cut up, wheelchair users would not be able to see the interior period, unless it's all displayed via cameras, in which case you might as well save yourself a trip and fire up YouTube..

i think lack of creativity and money were the paths persued.

I agree, but keeping her whole would have required the interior to be restored or at least made safe for visitors to explore and see, which would not include wheelchair users and would have added to the cost by a large margin. When all is said and done, it's these factors that make cutting the most viable option, any other route would have been deemed uneconomical and she'd probably been scrapped or broken up into smaller artifacts and spread to God knows what corners of the earth.

Years ago, I visited the Gosport submarine museum with my Dad as a youngster and there was a sub with side access that you walked through from stern to bow (have no idea of it's identity or country of origin), I remember it being very cramped and there was no way a wheelchair would be able to gain access, I'd be interested if they adapted the sub to cater or whether it still is only accessible to able bodied visitors, might have to pay another visit.