Changing Torpedoes rear tube to front

[kungfuserge]

Hello
Thanks for your help
I would like to know if it's possible to change Torpedoes rear tube to front tube or vis-versa ; like in the real submarine , when amunitions were missing on one side it was possible to move them .
If its possible how could I move them ?, (clic & drop doesn't work)

[Rockin Robbins]

I'd be real curious to see where that was done in a real submarine. I don't know of any examples of this exceedingly dangerous and low payoff routine. If I were Lockwood and somebody tried it I'd export the sub skipper to the Japanese and let him work for them.

[MonTana_Prussian]

Originally Posted by Rockin Robbins

I'd be real curious to see where that was done in a real submarine. I don't know of any examples of this exceedingly dangerous and low payoff routine. If I were Lockwood and somebody tried it I'd export the sub skipper to the Japanese and let him work for them.

Agreed. I don't believe this would be possible. Much easier to just turn the boat...

[seafarer]

Originally Posted by kungfuserge

Hello
Thanks for your help
I would like to know if it's possible to change Torpedoes rear tube to front tube or vis-versa ; like in the real submarine , when amunitions were missing on one side it was possible to move them .
If its possible how could I move them ?, (clic & drop doesn't work)

How on earth would they do that in a real submarine How do you move a 3280lb mk.14 torpedo down the entire length of the boat, through narrow hatchways and over high hatch combings, with no lifting gear, overhead rails or winches?

It's certainly not possible in game (wasn't in any of the Silent Hunter series).

[AVGWarhawk]

I believe the Germans did by letting he water do the carrying while it was pulled.

[Raptor1]

Don't forget that had it been possible (And the Torpedo wouldn't have blown the sub in half because of it), such a thing would make so much noise you might as well have gone flank speed, turned on every radio and phonograph on the boat and stuck up your periscope with a big flag saying "I'M HERE, KILL ME" while screaming at the top of your lungs...

[Nuc]

I have read of at least two wartime accounts where this was done. I will have to look them up, but in both cases it was an all night evolution done in calm seas. The hoisting rigs were set up aft; the torpedoes (at most two) were lifted out and lowered on to the boat's rubber rafts and floated forward. The rigging was broken down and reassembled forward. The torpedoes were lifted and stowed forward.

[M. Sarsfield]

Do you remember why they would have gone through that much trouble? If a tube was damaged and all other ordnance was expended, then I would have just sailed the boat home.

[Platapus]

Originally Posted by seafarer

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How on earth would they do that in a real submarine How do you move a 3280lb mk.14 torpedo down the entire length of the boat, through narrow hatchways and over high hatch combings, with no lifting gear, overhead rails or winches?

Even if you could, you would end up with a Mk XIV in the forward torpedo room with the torpedo facing aft! Launching them props first would be interesting

Not only would getting the torpedo from the aft racks to the forward racks be tough but how do you flip that sumbitch around?:hmm:

[M. Sarsfield]

As Nuc said, they used the torpedo loading hatches in the deck and some rafts, but it still sounds like more trouble than it's worth. Maybe the crews were asked to do it to study the feasibility. I'm still wondering how a few life rafts were able to hold up something that heavy.

[Torplexed]

I must confess I also fail to see the point of such an exercise.. Got only stern torps left? Then think out your approach and attack with that in mind. Firing from the stern tubes does make for a quicker getaway. You're already pointing in the right direction.

[Powerthighs]

Anyone know the specifics of how did the Germans remove the torps from their external storage tubes? Just curious.

[Rockin Robbins]

Originally Posted by Nuc

I have read of at least two wartime accounts where this was done. I will have to look them up, but in both cases it was an all night evolution done in calm seas. The hoisting rigs were set up aft; the torpedoes (at most two) were lifted out and lowered on to the boat's rubber rafts and floated forward. The rigging was broken down and reassembled forward. The torpedoes were lifted and stowed forward.

Can you provide references so we can read about it? Such an amazing and dangerous procedure HAS to have a great story behind it.

I cannot recall at the moment the book I read it in, but I have read of this done, and in one case I recall, and I will try to look up the reference tommorow, in one case caused EXTREME friction between the C.O. who ordered it done in a perilous situation and the subordinate officers who thought it was madness in the state the boat was in at the time...it involved being surfaced in this case and dragging the torps over the deck to a hatch in the front, setting up some kind of frame....the details escape me...I will see if I can locate it.

[Nisgeis]

Originally Posted by M. Sarsfield

As Nuc said, they used the torpedo loading hatches in the deck and some rafts, but it still sounds like more trouble than it's worth. Maybe the crews were asked to do it to study the feasibility. I'm still wondering how a few life rafts were able to hold up something that heavy.

I remember from the manual on torpedo tube operation that the weight lost by firing the torpedo would be compensated for by the weight of water taking its place in the torpedo tube after firing. I just did a rough calculation and based on a density of sea water of 1.025 kg per litre and a cylinder 21" in diameter and 20'6" long and that comes out to 3,148 pounds for the weight of sea water displaced. Take a bit off that for the roundness of the nose and the stubby propeller at the end and really roughly that's about 3,000 sea water displaced by a torpedo, so the weight of a 3,280 mark 14 torpedo in the water would be about 280 pounds. So, if the torpedo were suspended from rafts, or rafts slung underneath as buoyancy aids and lightly inflated, it should be possible, if a bit risky if one of the rafts slips round the torpedo.