Historical Question regarding Watch Officer
 

Is here anybody who exactly knows if the WatchOfficer is ALWAYS on the Conningtower if the Uboat is surfaced? Or only sometimes, for example if the watch crew saw a ship.....

I ask, because perhaps I have a mod idea to stop this nonstop extremely bothering "Ship spotted", if there is a ship near the limit of the detection range of the watchmen.......


h.sie

The WO's (there were few of them on a Boot) were the officers in charge of their representative watch.

Whenever there was a watch on the Tower, a WO had to lead it!

Which reminds me to ask:

Who was required to stand watch on the bridge? Was it all the sailors? POs as well? I seem to remember reading somewhere that the diesel guys were not required to but now I'm not sure. Also, in the game we have a guy in radio and a guy in sonar sonar. I remember that in Das Boot there was just Hinrich doing both. Or was that just a convenience for the audience? Were there as many guys for the radio/sonar as there were watches? Sorry if this has been asked before.

Hinrich was obviously a cut above the norm and well capable of multi tasking. :DL

As far as I'm aware, a Watch Officer was always up top supervising his men. :hmmm:

The watch officer is in charge of the ship during his watch (4 hours). The captain would have his standing orders as to when the watch officer should notify him of something happening. Eg. ship spotted, change in weather, Under what conditions to orderi the boat to crash dive, change course without prior concent of the captain.

Cool. Then my mod idea makes sense.....

http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/showthread.php?t=154745

Probably YES, so you can start making that specific WO mod! :up:

And superhuman as well, since he seems to be on duty 24/7.

The Watch Officers were the German equivalent of the British Mates, or Lieutenants. Originally the Royal Navy didn't have separate ranks; they had the Captain and then the First Lieutenant, Second Lieutenant etc. The First Watch Officer is the equivalent of the American Executive Officer, or XO. On surface ships the officer heading the watch (the Americans call him the OOD, or Officer Of the Deck) is a junior officer, but a submarine doesn't have that many to spare, so even the 1WO stands a bridge watch.