Quote:
Originally Posted by Subnuts
How fast are you going? The US Navy's official report on U-2513 and U-3008 gives the following submerged ranges: 365 miles at 5 knots on one battery, 285 miles at 5 knots on two batteries, 170 miles at 8 knots, 110 miles at 10 knots, and "one hour" at 17-18 knots.
The entire, rather detailed, report can be read here: http://www.uboatarchive.net/Design/D...iesTypeXXI.htm |
I stand thoroughly corrected. I didn't know there were so many problems with the Type XXI. This report is downright scathing. I'm disappointed that this report mentioned almost nothing about the diesels' performance while snorkelling. All of it's figures for submerged speed and endurance are when using the electric motors and batteries. How fast could it go with the diesels when snorkelling? Was it ever intended to do so or were the diesels just meant to charge the batteries? Would it just have run off the electric engines with say one diesel engine up to keep the batteries at full charge?
It also mentions nothing about the length of time required to charge the batteries. From the constant complaining about the low performance of the diesels I could imagine it taking a fair long while, but it doesn't say.