Danelov
09-10-06, 03:13 PM
In reality, the use of the recognition book(Weyers editions in the Kriegsmarine)by the U-Boot commanders was for identification of warships, to know for example: is a "York" or a "Dorsetshire" Heavy cruiser class?
With the identification confirmed,the commandar can know the aproximative speed of this type of ship, his weapons, tonnage and others general details.
But Nothing too detailed. There was a lot of speculation ,dicted by the experience of the commander and his officers, many issues of the merchant navy.
The identification of merchants ,tankers and others when that was possible , was vocal, asking the survivors in the cannots and expecting some type of colaboration from him.
But of course many captains or crews of sunken ships were not so"colaborative".
Other way were looking the life preservers, debris of the sunken ship, intercepting is SOS-SSS transmissions in the frequences utilised by the allied,etc.
With the name of the ship in hand the commander was capable of write this information in the Log, and then the ship can be identificated with his official tonnage by the Lloyds register.
This one were available and certainly not actualised by the Kriegsmarine ,because the programme of new constructions of the Allied was not published in the press and was top secret.A hard work of spionage was done via neutrals nations ,consuls and others ,but was impossible to recollect so many informations.
Was possible to identified a cargo builded before 1939 but the things go much more difficult after this date.
The tonnage declared sunk by the commandar was speculative, a aproximative calcul after ther experience of him. Sometimes overestimed in 50% ,others times mainly with tankers ,underestimes(ballast tankers are not so easy of identication with many of his structure under the water).Of course ,the propaganda make nothing to change the numbers if there were a lot of overstimed tonnage sunken in the patrol; the photos were taked of the sucessfull U-Boot returning in port with his periscope full of pennants ,with the smiling crews in deck and the declared tonnage sunk taked as the sole "verité".Only in Berlin the near real tonnage sunk was know.
In the early time the numbers of tonnage sunk were more near of the real ones , but after specially with the intensification of convoy attacks the whole situation come much more complicated.The ships of the convoy were numbered , and the SOS-SSS transmissions were emited using the number , impossible for a possible hearing submarine to know the identification of this number.
B Dients work hardly in the war to obtain informations of all type , but unlucky for the Kriegsmarine and Dönitz the estimations of new contructions tonnage by the Allied,specially by the USA yards, were a lot underestimed. That was one of the most biggest strategical mistakes of the Kriegsmarine in WWII, specially by BDU. Calculs and stadistic were make based in this wrong number to fix a certain number tonnage to be sunk to gain the "Battle of the Atlantic".
Recognition book as auxiliiar for aiming
Well , here where are near of Science Fiction .The U-Boot commander was there ,exaclty for that:experience.The general weakest point of ships were well known, in tankers,(Stern .machine room ,tunnel of the shaft), in cargos, boiler section and base of the forecasttle ,etc.
Nothing of top secret of exceptional here, that was well know for evry normal submarine commander or torpedo specialist in all Navy of the world. He dont needed to consult the recognition book for aiming this points.Already ,in convoy ,in the middle of the night aproaching in surface or submerged, with the stress of be discovered in the next seconds, he had not time for this type of things.Some commanders were also experimented to visual identified a well known ship,mainly ex passenger ships used as transports.
He aiming his torpedos at the general spot points described before, but nothing like a " 2 meters a the right of the mampare H", "left at the base of the boiler no.4","5 meters at the right of the forecastle".
The aiming of the torpedos device together with the imperfections of this last and still the sea conditions making this type of "Aiming syle laser" ,utopic and nothing more far of the reality.
The deep of the torpedos was also speculative after the general parameters of constructions of ships in all world yards.
The utility of this recognition book or the Lloyds annuary come when the ship was neutral, had changed of the nationality and sail under another flag , to know his possible maximum speed,etc.Identification or recognition as is described by his name. And mainly ,for the identification of warships.
With the identification confirmed,the commandar can know the aproximative speed of this type of ship, his weapons, tonnage and others general details.
But Nothing too detailed. There was a lot of speculation ,dicted by the experience of the commander and his officers, many issues of the merchant navy.
The identification of merchants ,tankers and others when that was possible , was vocal, asking the survivors in the cannots and expecting some type of colaboration from him.
But of course many captains or crews of sunken ships were not so"colaborative".
Other way were looking the life preservers, debris of the sunken ship, intercepting is SOS-SSS transmissions in the frequences utilised by the allied,etc.
With the name of the ship in hand the commander was capable of write this information in the Log, and then the ship can be identificated with his official tonnage by the Lloyds register.
This one were available and certainly not actualised by the Kriegsmarine ,because the programme of new constructions of the Allied was not published in the press and was top secret.A hard work of spionage was done via neutrals nations ,consuls and others ,but was impossible to recollect so many informations.
Was possible to identified a cargo builded before 1939 but the things go much more difficult after this date.
The tonnage declared sunk by the commandar was speculative, a aproximative calcul after ther experience of him. Sometimes overestimed in 50% ,others times mainly with tankers ,underestimes(ballast tankers are not so easy of identication with many of his structure under the water).Of course ,the propaganda make nothing to change the numbers if there were a lot of overstimed tonnage sunken in the patrol; the photos were taked of the sucessfull U-Boot returning in port with his periscope full of pennants ,with the smiling crews in deck and the declared tonnage sunk taked as the sole "verité".Only in Berlin the near real tonnage sunk was know.
In the early time the numbers of tonnage sunk were more near of the real ones , but after specially with the intensification of convoy attacks the whole situation come much more complicated.The ships of the convoy were numbered , and the SOS-SSS transmissions were emited using the number , impossible for a possible hearing submarine to know the identification of this number.
B Dients work hardly in the war to obtain informations of all type , but unlucky for the Kriegsmarine and Dönitz the estimations of new contructions tonnage by the Allied,specially by the USA yards, were a lot underestimed. That was one of the most biggest strategical mistakes of the Kriegsmarine in WWII, specially by BDU. Calculs and stadistic were make based in this wrong number to fix a certain number tonnage to be sunk to gain the "Battle of the Atlantic".
Recognition book as auxiliiar for aiming
Well , here where are near of Science Fiction .The U-Boot commander was there ,exaclty for that:experience.The general weakest point of ships were well known, in tankers,(Stern .machine room ,tunnel of the shaft), in cargos, boiler section and base of the forecasttle ,etc.
Nothing of top secret of exceptional here, that was well know for evry normal submarine commander or torpedo specialist in all Navy of the world. He dont needed to consult the recognition book for aiming this points.Already ,in convoy ,in the middle of the night aproaching in surface or submerged, with the stress of be discovered in the next seconds, he had not time for this type of things.Some commanders were also experimented to visual identified a well known ship,mainly ex passenger ships used as transports.
He aiming his torpedos at the general spot points described before, but nothing like a " 2 meters a the right of the mampare H", "left at the base of the boiler no.4","5 meters at the right of the forecastle".
The aiming of the torpedos device together with the imperfections of this last and still the sea conditions making this type of "Aiming syle laser" ,utopic and nothing more far of the reality.
The deep of the torpedos was also speculative after the general parameters of constructions of ships in all world yards.
The utility of this recognition book or the Lloyds annuary come when the ship was neutral, had changed of the nationality and sail under another flag , to know his possible maximum speed,etc.Identification or recognition as is described by his name. And mainly ,for the identification of warships.