U-Boat Typical Watchstanding Schedule

[Tomcattwo]

Someone (Bridger I think) asked in another thread what the standard watchstanding routine was on a U-Boat. I pulled the following information from the book U-Boats: The Illustrated History of the Raiders of the Deep by David Miller (2000 by Pegasus Publishing, republished by Brassey's, Washington DC):

In combat, every man in the crew was on duty, either doing his designated task or standing by to deal with any emergency that might arise. At all other times the crew was divided into watches. The seaman's division worked a three-way system (8 hours on duty, 8 hours of sleep, and 8 hours of miscellaneous duties about the boat) while the engineers worked a two-way system (6 hours in the engineroom, 6 hours asleep) and the communications worked a split system with their day being divided into three four-hour watches between 0800 and 2000, and two six-hour watches between 2000 and 0800.

When on the surface there was a bridge watch, consisting of an officer and four lookouts. The watchofficer was found from the IWO and 2WO, who did two four-hour shifts each day, and the Obersteuermann and Oberbootsmann, each of whom did one four-hour shift per day. The lookouts were found from the seamen who each did one four-hour shift per day and these men were crucial, since the survival of the boat and all in it depended upon their rapid reactions to a threat, particularly from the air. From the bridge they could see about 6 nautical miles (12km) at sea-level on a clear day, but obviously much less in fog, rain, clouds, and at night. One feature that made life more difficult for the lookouts was that U-boat bridges were deliberately low to make them difficult to spot by enemy ships or aircraft, but for the watchkeepers this meant that spray and waves frequently interfered with their effectiveness.

Miller's book is an exceelnt reference for any U-boat enthusiast and is highly recommended.
R/
TC2