In the Berkeley Hotel Reception

[flag4]

Hi hunters.
i was in the Berkeley Hotel in Beaumaris, Anglesey( North Wales) a few weeks back. we had popped in for a drink and couldnt find the bar(!) so i went to the reception to ask for help. and there above was this painting. i have never seen a real painting of a u boat before and was most suprised. i had the thought "..this will be the first thing guests will see as they approach reception.."

could any one tell us what types we are looking at - u boat & plane


http://img835.imageshack.us/img835/8764/uboatattack2.jpg

http://img338.imageshack.us/img338/6595/uboatattack1.jpg

http://img185.imageshack.us/img185/885/uboatattack3.jpg

maybe some one recognises the artist too. my only thought other than amazment at this being where it was, is that the nose cone seems to be flying slightly away from the wings. but i still sat with my drink and looked on fondly - what a lovely surprise!!

[ediko]

Alright the plane is PBY catalina and the uboat is a VII (Can't tell which model could be A;B;C but I'm not an expert so just wait a bit and you'll get a definite answer). Great painting by the way.

[Hans Uberman]

What a fine painting! Thank you for sharing it with us. Now I'm going to have to purchase some form of U-Boat artwork.

[Gerald]

Type VIIB I could guess at, :hmmm:

[Weiss Pinguin]

Is it strange that I saw the flak bursts before anything else and thought 'Yeah right' :lol: But great painting, does the Berkeley Hotel have any connections to WWII or did someone just pick it out cuz they liked it?

[Draka]

From this page:

http://www.uboat.net/technical/flak.htm

I don't see any boat with that exact set of AA. Looks like artist's license - but the closest would be a VIIC from late war.

[timmy41]

actually, it could possibly be the double twin 13.2mm guns and the 20mm, and the forward gun is probably just someone with an mg34?

[K-61]

Also, what U-boat would have that amount of AA guns and still retain the deck gun? By a certain point of the war it became a useless appendage. I am in 1942 and have long since failed to find an opportunity to use it. All the merchantmen are armed so I can't even risk surfacing to finish off a cripple. I am about to remove it via SH3 Commander. Does removing it in the game provide any streamlining bonus for the boat? I would think that in real life the removal of the deck gun would give a slight increase in performance and the room formerly devoted to ammo storage could be used for other purposes, such as laying in extra stores or AA gun ammo.

[Draka]

MG34's were normally pintle mounted - so if there is one on the starboard side I'd expect one on the port side as well - either manned or just depicted empty. As a lot of Kaleuns kinda mounted whatever they could scounge up I suppose that when they got the upgraded Wintergarten that they tried to retain the old pintle mounts with the extra MG34's .......

[Sailor Steve]

The plane is a Consolidated PBY-5, called Catalina Mk 1 by RAF Coastal Command. It can be distinguished from the earlier PBY-4 by the large teardrop gun blisters on the sides (the -4 had open gunports) and from the later PBY-5A by the lack of retractible landing gear.

[Hans Uberman]

I am about to remove it via SH3 Commander. Does removing it in the game provide any streamlining bonus for the boat? I would think that in real life the removal of the deck gun would give a slight increase in performance and the room formerly devoted to ammo storage could be used for other purposes, such as laying in extra stores or AA gun ammo.

This is a good question. I don't know myself, but I somehow doubt it. Sounds like a good idea for a mod though with regard to the slight performance increase. ;) I'm in December of 1941 right now, and have only used the gun 2-3 times in the last 6 months. Only at 6k range though, and with a lot of evasive maneuvers. More trouble than it's worth.

So, flag4? Did you bring a laptop with SH3 with you or were you on shore leave? It's alright to admit it. :oops:

[FIREWALL]

@ flag4 :DL You need to play a little more GWX. :haha:

Great pics. :up:

[K-61]

I certainly don't leave home without it. GWX Gold on a gaming notebook; goes everywhere I do.

[Pebble Monkey]

RAF Valley is on Anglesey, and in 1941 saw the arrival of Catalinas under RAF coastal command, could be the link as to why it's there

[flag4]

RAF Valley is on Anglesey, and in 1941 saw the arrival of Catalinas under RAF coastal command, could be the link as to why it's there

..very handy for nipping out and sinking those dasterdly subs !


Is it strange that I saw the flak bursts before anything else and thought 'Yeah right' :lol: But great painting, does the Berkeley Hotel have any connections to WWII or did someone just pick it out cuz they liked it?

@ Weiss Pinguin..as Pebble Monkey has said. its interesting, though, that in the foyer of the hotel is a cabinet dedicated to The Beatles (?) i would be hard pushed to connect the mop tops to bombing u boats - maybe they stayed there, i dont know?

i had the feeling it was a type 9. and thank you FIREWALL for the excellent advice :shucks:

[Tessa]

Removing the deck gun doesn't give you any extra speed or advantage. Agreed that after a point it does pretty much become useless, unless you move into a VIIC/41 which doesn't have the option of using one I generally leave them on just in case your out of torpedos and you've got a stray merchant ablaze like a forest fire and it only needs a little more damage before it goes down, firiing from 2,000-4000m for a few quick shots is usually safe enough even late in the war with just a single ship around and plenty of time to submerge or leave the area.

This place has a lot of great u-boat artwork as well as other areas of interest (tanks, planes), many with original signatures from the u-boat captains:

http://www.u-boat-art.com/