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Originally Posted by Puster Bill
INo pictures, which I imagine are still classified, but there is this:
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Good enough. I stand corrected.
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We are now in the middle of row 2 of the convoy, close behind row 1. Lots of steamers in front, beside and behind us. Closest distance is 500 to 600 meters. Steamers are now beginning to get closer to each other so our freedom of movement is restricted. There were about 8 to 10 ships in a row. During the whole time torpedoes were reloaded. At about 24.00 hours 3 tubes are ready to fire
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The major thing was that the torpedoes were constantly reloaded and that this fact was only achieved by the excellent job of the crew led by the second watch officer, LtzS Böning.
So, yeah, they did reload in combat conditions. And it could have easily worked out that they would have been still reloading had they been attacked, and the crew would have had to scramble to secure the torpedoes while depth charges were being dropped.
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My point here was that having a torpedo swinging from hoist change and suddenly changing the dive angle would be exceedingly dangerous. But in this case I also have to use my own criterion against myself - while the source you provided doesn't say it was done while being depth-charged, it also doesn't say specifically that they weren't, so I'll gladly concede that point.