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Fidd · 09-23-23, 12:05 PM

51. "Alarm" bells in every compartment? I don't know if this was the case, but it seems to me very odd that there are not alarm bells in the engine rooms, NCO mess, officer's mess and forward torpedo room. I'd be really interested to know if these existed elsewhere in the boat other than the control-room. I'm fairly confident that they must have, if only to ensure crew went to their battle-stations, or were primed to run forwards to assist with the dive angle change required to dive quickly. (Oh for an animation with running footsteps of crew vaulting into the torpedo room as fast as they can! There may not have been the alarm switches to start and stop the alarm bells, but I'd be extremely surprised if there were not additional bells in those compartments - or - that the alarm bell in the control room wasn't so loud it's use wasn't missable in the messes, forward torpedo room and engine rooms. It's possible that alarm-bell switches were in those room, in order to alert the whole crew to an onboard fire or chlorine being present....?

[EDIT] Since writing this idea, Stosstrup has written to me and shewn me what appears to be wartime drawings, demonstrating that repeater alarm bells were indeed present in most compartments, however, that the switches that turned them on were indeed limited to the control-room and conning tower.

09-23-23, 12:05 PM	#66
Fidd XO Join Date: Apr 2005 Location: Blighty! Posts: 431 Downloads: 10 Uploads: 0	51. "Alarm" bells in every compartment? I don't know if this was the case, but it seems to me very odd that there are not alarm bells in the engine rooms, NCO mess, officer's mess and forward torpedo room. I'd be really interested to know if these existed elsewhere in the boat other than the control-room. I'm fairly confident that they must have, if only to ensure crew went to their battle-stations, or were primed to run forwards to assist with the dive angle change required to dive quickly. (Oh for an animation with running footsteps of crew vaulting into the torpedo room as fast as they can! There may not have been the alarm switches to start and stop the alarm bells, but I'd be extremely surprised if there were not additional bells in those compartments - or - that the alarm bell in the control room wasn't so loud it's use wasn't missable in the messes, forward torpedo room and engine rooms. It's possible that alarm-bell switches were in those room, in order to alert the whole crew to an onboard fire or chlorine being present....? [EDIT] Since writing this idea, Stosstrup has written to me and shewn me what appears to be wartime drawings, demonstrating that repeater alarm bells were indeed present in most compartments, however, that the switches that turned them on were indeed limited to the control-room and conning tower. Last edited by Fidd; 09-25-23 at 06:07 PM. Reason: addition of final paragraph.