What is the 'spur' on the prow of the boat for?
 

I assume it is intended to ram boats due to the serated leading edge, or possibly fending off boats by pushing the u-boat deeper. But they don't look very strong at all...?

http://centroeu.com/uboote/187k.jpg

It's a net cutter.

I see. Suppose it would help the conning tower get through the net, but surely the dive planes would get caught. Not very efficient I'd guess.

They became obsolete early in the war, which is an indication of their "usefulness"!

If i may!

I german they're called Netztabweiser...which direct translation means "Net-deflector" :know: Cool eh!

I guess they were actually better at deflecting nets than cutting!
:hmm:

:up: Go to one of the Enemy Harbours Go Diving and ram your boat into a net and see if it works

Well...to tell the thruth I did it by accident and Result was ''FATAL''

I think the "net cutter" or "deflector" was more intended to deal with fishing nets, then sub nets.

Btw its utterly rediculous that the subnets can kill in SH3. Their main purpose was to prevent subs from entering, and notifying local patrol boats if one tried to ram through (and it was quite possible for them to break through a net). They are not brick walls :P

Never run into one before...but can we actually mod them to be less fatal and more of a Boot stopper? Sorry of somewhat off topic:doh:

I dont belive it can be modded as they dont have to my knowledge a damage value assigned to them, i think they just use the rather screwy sh3 collision rules.

hmm fishing nets... howd you like to run into that fish.... :rotfl:

Maybe it is a "sea cow catcher". :p

Well its happened before where subs have gotten snagged up in towed fishing nets, or abandoned drifting ones.

Not to mention that a rope or cable in your propeller can really ruin your day.

Wow, quite heavy! Are there any famous incidents concerning fishing-nets and U-boats?:hmm:

actually there is, on 20 Sept, 1943, u-338 fired torpedoes at convoy ON.202 and suck one merchant ship carrying miscellaneous items, many of which were oddly enough fishing nets. the boat went missing presumably by being tangled in these nets as the ship went down.