zygoma
05-23-12, 08:53 AM
Hiya again, all.
I'm puzzled (not that that's an especially rare state for me) about what appear to be teensy vertical launch tubes on or near any of the guns mounted on or near the sail on the boats in this sim. They appear to be a little smaller in diameter than the hatch from the bridge to the interior of the conning tower.
F'r instance, on the Type XIX-C that I'm currently driving from Kiel to around Cape Horn (GR59), I've got *lots* of time to look around at stuff with TC set at 128 so I don't miss any chances to shoot at (or be shot at by) enemy craft. On the aft 37mm A-A gun deck ("wintergarden"?) there are six of these devices: one immediately to the outboard side of the ladders from the 37mm gun to the dual 20mm mount deck, and four taller ones flanking the decking between the 37 and the 20mm decks. The latter four seem to stick out of the deck by a half-meter, and are surrounded by what's possible armor walls.
The only thing that comes to mind is lockers for gun ammo and/or tools, or possibly lifeboats for the more optimistic members of the crew.
I don't see anything similar near the 88mm deck gun, although there are a few small square-ish deck plates.
In a virtual walk-through of a U.S. diesel-electric boat, there were horizontal locker spaces inset into the forward part of the sail, in which I believe the deck gun and its ammo could be stored when there was the luxury of time to do so before diving. On the U.S. boat (don't remember which class) there was also a pass-through from the enlisted mess to the gun deck so ammo could be handed up from storage nearby. Dunno if the U-Boats incorporated a similar facility, or if the discipline of having all watertight hatches secured during General Quarters would make this impossible.
All the cutaway diagrams I've been able to find online for U-Boats have been either too general or too small to make note of these.
Also, speaking of which -- the sides of the sail and bulkheads around the after wintergarden (if that's the right term) have apparent man-sized rectangular hinged hatches. I don't know if they're inspection or maintenance access hatches, and if the inboard side of them is to the spaces external to the pressure hull, or ??
<sigh> Some day (or weekend) I'll make it to Chicago, Germany, or Finland so I can see a real life, gen-u-wine U-Boat.
And some day when I'm rich & famous, or at least rich, I want to have a couple of wall-sized cutaway diagrams of popular U-Boat in my computer room/ham shack. I've already got Eve maps and ship identifier matrices on one wall.
My smarter half just kinda rolls her eyes when she walks through the den....
Thanks again,
-- Zygoma, the Perpetual n00b --
I'm puzzled (not that that's an especially rare state for me) about what appear to be teensy vertical launch tubes on or near any of the guns mounted on or near the sail on the boats in this sim. They appear to be a little smaller in diameter than the hatch from the bridge to the interior of the conning tower.
F'r instance, on the Type XIX-C that I'm currently driving from Kiel to around Cape Horn (GR59), I've got *lots* of time to look around at stuff with TC set at 128 so I don't miss any chances to shoot at (or be shot at by) enemy craft. On the aft 37mm A-A gun deck ("wintergarden"?) there are six of these devices: one immediately to the outboard side of the ladders from the 37mm gun to the dual 20mm mount deck, and four taller ones flanking the decking between the 37 and the 20mm decks. The latter four seem to stick out of the deck by a half-meter, and are surrounded by what's possible armor walls.
The only thing that comes to mind is lockers for gun ammo and/or tools, or possibly lifeboats for the more optimistic members of the crew.
I don't see anything similar near the 88mm deck gun, although there are a few small square-ish deck plates.
In a virtual walk-through of a U.S. diesel-electric boat, there were horizontal locker spaces inset into the forward part of the sail, in which I believe the deck gun and its ammo could be stored when there was the luxury of time to do so before diving. On the U.S. boat (don't remember which class) there was also a pass-through from the enlisted mess to the gun deck so ammo could be handed up from storage nearby. Dunno if the U-Boats incorporated a similar facility, or if the discipline of having all watertight hatches secured during General Quarters would make this impossible.
All the cutaway diagrams I've been able to find online for U-Boats have been either too general or too small to make note of these.
Also, speaking of which -- the sides of the sail and bulkheads around the after wintergarden (if that's the right term) have apparent man-sized rectangular hinged hatches. I don't know if they're inspection or maintenance access hatches, and if the inboard side of them is to the spaces external to the pressure hull, or ??
<sigh> Some day (or weekend) I'll make it to Chicago, Germany, or Finland so I can see a real life, gen-u-wine U-Boat.
And some day when I'm rich & famous, or at least rich, I want to have a couple of wall-sized cutaway diagrams of popular U-Boat in my computer room/ham shack. I've already got Eve maps and ship identifier matrices on one wall.
My smarter half just kinda rolls her eyes when she walks through the den....
Thanks again,
-- Zygoma, the Perpetual n00b --