Quote:
Originally Posted by sharkbit
I'm reading Clay Blair's "Hitler's U-Boat War: The Hunted" and it sounds like by mid to late 1943, new production VII's didn't have the external torpedo canisters installed and the IX's had reduced external storage.
 |
My bad...I got this backwards. U-Boat command wanted all
existing type VII external torpedo canisters removed and all new production type VII boats to have strengthened steel canisters. They also wanted all type IXB's and IXC's to remove their external canisters as well unless they were patrolling to the Americas or to West Africa. They could mount six canisters instead of the usual eight.
According to Clay Blair, this was because German engineers tentatively determined that the external canisters may have been ruptured and flooded due to close depth chages, causing the boats to be de-stabilized and causing losses.
I found this pretty interesting. It is the first time I've ever heard this before.