What is the object on the deck of my boat?

[spork542]

Forgive me, I don't know that much about U-Boats. What is the large red and white striped object on the aft deck of my IIA? Is it a hatch of some sort? I'm curious as to why it would be there and why they have it painted in such colors.

[JonZ]

Forgive me, I don't know that much about U-Boats. What is the large red and white striped object on the aft deck of my IIA? Is it a hatch of some sort? I'm curious as to why it would be there and why they have it painted in such colors.

I think it an emergency hatch or buoy or something... I remember having see the same thing on the sank submarine Kursk :cry:

[Suicide Charlie]

I've always thought this to be some kind of emergency exgress hatch because I've seen the same pattern on similar "hatch" like structures on a lot of different submarines. I used to have a huge book that documented just about every submarine post-World War II to about 1998. It had cross sections, weapons/equpment load outs, etc., etc. From what the book documented in photos and drawings a large majority had such a hatch.

I also remember seeing a quite mammoth Soviet sub that was dedicated to search and rescue. It had two smaller submersibles that it carried in berths on the aft deck. Both of them carried a red and white color scheme that was similar.

[pythos]

That would be the "sub sunk" bouy. It was released from inside the pressure hull when a sub bottomed in shallow waters and could not get back to the surface, usually during training, all subs had them, though the type II was the only type that had it brightly disignated.

Those bright things on the kirsk, if I am recalling the ones I think you are refering to are actually the exit ports for venting radioactive steam from the power plant. Not nice areas to hook a rescue sub to, or walk near when at shore. These were also used in emergency times only.

[andy_311]

A target becpn in the later years of the war they haveto aim somewhere? and a light at sea is like a beacon attracts of unwanted attention.