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Originally Posted by ColonelSandersLite
U-boats are direct drive, not diesel-electric. In their case, the electric motors are also the generators. They had systems of clutching the diesels and electrics. During economy cruise, one engine would be running in direct drive mode turning the screw, while the electricity generated by the electric motor in charge mode on the same shaft would be used to turn the opposing shaft. In charge mode, the diesel on one side would be running in direct drive mode providing some power, while the opposite engine would be disconnected from the screw and just turning the electric motor in charge mode.
Compare this to a US fleet boat where any one or more of 5 engines can be generating electricity and the screws are always turned by the electric motors.
I can't answer the question about historical SOP, though I very much doubt that it was general practice to run the battery all the way down. More likely they tended to recharge when battery charge was at some specific percent of capacity, or on a time table, or perhaps just tended to run with the snorkel up continuously if the strategic situation allowed.
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Interesting. I didn't know. In the latter case do you think they'd have run both diesels turning the shaft and recharging at the same time (or just the shaft as the situation should call for) with the snorkel up or do you think they'd run one diesel recharging both batteries and have the e-machines turning the shafts?
Quote:
Originally Posted by Rockin Robbins
See, the problem with the Type XXI was that it never had enough people trained to use it that it was used in battle. Therefore, any pie in the sky claim could and would be made about it, much in the same way as the other "super weapons" the Germans designed, maybe even produced a few but never had their limitations tested.
So all we're left with is the grandiose stories the originators used to sell the products to a military starving for stuff that worked! "Crap! We need some weapons bad. Weapons that work."
"Hey we have a future weapon that MIGHT work!"
"Here's the last of our dwindling resources: build it."
A fair plan, executed today, beats a perfect plan to be executed tomorrow. And the perfect plan is only perfect while it's just a dream. And it might not start tomorrow. And....we'd best go with the fair plan and work it to death.
The Type XXI was full of undiscovered flaws and a few of them would have been fatal. A big one was that the snorkel was one incredible radar target. So they'd be sitting there at snorkel depth, deaf, dumb and blind and the bombers would just have a party at their expense. The U-boat would just vanish and the Germans not a bit wiser for the experience. Fortunately for them they were unable to train enough crews for the boats to see action.
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You're probably correct, but to be fair, byfar the most precious and rare resource Germany had left to allocate by the end of the war was manpower. They could not afford to lose more men, especially good men. They could have spent all the money and resources they wasted on the V2 rockets on more fighter planes, but who would fly them? Teenagers?