Well let's think about it. There was a support device in the forward torpedo room to hold two internal reserve torpedos on the floor level.
This device was in such a bad position, it made it impossible to store steamers on it?
Would they have relocated the device? There may have been some weird U-Boot design reasons to hinder a reconstruction, a relocation of this support device.
Would they have installed an adapter, something to divide the support point into two seperate support surfaces, sparing the desired area to enable access as necessary? (And what maintenance was necessary with a G7a possible in the tubes but not possible outside?)
This position is the overall best storage area in the U-Boot concerning access - safe on the floor, not under plates, not in the tubes. And here they managed to cause such a problem?
In the aft compartment they were able to remove a G7e torpedo from the tube to maintain it, but couldn't lift the internal reserve from under the floor to do it?
How did they ever manage to load the reserve?
I know the Germans were funny enough to document misinformation, just in case the papers went into the wrong hands. Not sure, if this is the case here.
Someone mixed aft and forward, Eto and Ato, above and under the floor plates in this documentation. Maybe per design, maybe a mistake in translation.
In the forward compartment, the underfloor reserve was limited to two steamers in both center positions, because this area was not accessable while fully armed.
This makes sense to me (as the information concerning the deck containers).
Any person responsible for torpedo stowage would have known what to put where, they wouldn't have had to check this documentation.
As you stated yourself, the situation 'suddenly changed' in 1943, because you found some documentation of two Etos in the aft compartment.
Greetings.
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