U-31 in a hurricane
 

45min documentation by German TV on U31 leaving for an international training with the British navy and needing to pass right through a hurricane (Orkan). And the channel. Nothing new. :D

This film is already 6 years old, but I have seen in twice already, and now a third time, that good it is. Maybe it has been posted before, I don'T know. It certainly is worth to be seen repeatedly. Use subtitles and autotranslation, if needed.

The boat cannot dive to escape the storm's surface effects , because the waters in that part of the noth sea are not deep enough to avoid the surface'S phyiscal turmoil, they would have needed 50m, the ocean had just 40m. As a result, the waves play tennis with the boat.

Cool guys: bilious humor, high professionalism paired with the greatest serenity - simply strong. And this special humour... What submarine captain gives his nightwatch orders in form of a cartoon he draws...? :) (crew member: "And again I dont get the joke." LOL)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1wvCwEeDOJo

I could not stand the limited space. This kind of stuff is not for me. I can stand limited spaces to a certaind egree, even like the protective "castle-feeling" - but in such crowded small spaces like these in the film, on such a small sub, and then overcrowded, claustrophobia could become an issue for me.

A very interesting video indeed. While watching it I came to think of scenes from Das Boot.

I wonder why we build so small U-boats when there's so many on board
In Sweden the crew consist of officers only.(Someone has told me that there are a few sailor with them)

Markus

No doubt would have enjoyed it more if I knew what was being spoken :)

Again, use Google auto translation to English. I checked it for 5 minutes into the film, it works, and well enough. To be accessed via youtube movie options.

Wave heights up to 12 m in Channel, and a broken signal mast that could not be cut off due to the threatening sea condition. In such a small boat, not submerged. :o Cannot have been fun. And that was no exercise. That mast could have seriously damaged them.

@22:25 when Jan Paschek enters the engine room. Brought back memories, on the 110 foot patrol boats I served on we had to go through the engine room to get to our berthing area. Walking in between two 16 cylinder Paxman Diesel choo-choo train engines running at top speed in bad weather just to get to bed was an experience I’ll never forget.

I watched the video with German subtitle

Markus

Those are default. You can manually switch them to English.

Why!? I understand and read German And this was also an opportunity to exercise my reading skills.

Markus

Okay, I then misunderstood why you said what you said.

Yeah. Up until the very end when they start talking about "enema beers". :o