questions about snorkel

[shegeek72]

I'm in a 1942 campaign and when I go to snorkel depth nothing happens. From some research I did the snorkel was used to run the diesel engines and allow O2 into the sub while submerged. Was it only available in later years? Since planes can spot me at night I'm limited to the amount of time on the surface to charge the batteries.

'Sailorman' eh? "guk, guk, guk"
--

dont think its available ingame till like 1943 even then you gotta spend renown to get it installed

[STEED]

Don't wast your renown on it the allies will still home in on you when you stick the darn thing up.

[horrgakx]

As mentioned previously it becomes available after a certain date (click the "?" in the screen where you can equip your sub in order to see the timeline). Then you need to use the Z key (I think?) to raise the snorkel when at sea.

I've had a play with it and you can force the sub lower than the snorkel depth 'shortcut key' and still make use of it - I think from memory about 14m. This reduces your profile on the surface to a minimum and allows use of the diesel engines. Be aware though that the diesel's are MUCH louder than electric engines and it is foolish to use this configuration in the presence of destroyers hunting for you.

I've used it primarily to run deep enough to allow my sonar to work efficiently but shallow enough to move quickly when (for example) trying to flank a convoy.

Dave

[Qairyl]

I've noticed a couple of times that having the snorkel up at periscope depth makes it much harder for enemy planes to hit you (stock). This may only have been a fluke since I've only had to do it maybe once or twice since I got a snorkel.

-Qairyl

[bigboywooly]

A submarine snorkel is also a device that allows a submarine to operate submerged while still taking in air from above the surface. It was invented by the Dutch just before World War II and perfected by the Germans during the war for use by U-boats. Its common military name is snort.
Until the advent of nuclear power, submarines were designed to operate on the surface most of the time and submerge only for evasion or for rare daylight attacks. In 1940, at night, a U-boat was safer on the surface than submerged because ASDIC could detect boats underwater but was almost useless against a surface vessel. However, with the continued improvement in methods of detection and attack, as the war progressed, the U-boat was forced to spend more and more time underwater running on electric motors that gave speeds of only a few knots and with very limited endurance.
The 1940 defeat of the Netherlands by the Wehrmacht was a stroke of luck for the Kriegsmarine. The Dutch had been working on a device that the Germans called the Schnorchel. The Dutch navy had been experimenting as early as 1938 with a simple pipe system on the submarines O-19 and O-20 that enabled them to travel at periscope depth operating on its diesels with almost unlimited underwater range while charging the propulsion batteries.
The Kriegsmarine, at first, gave some consideration to the snorkel as a means to take fresh air into the boats but saw no need to run the diesel engines underwater. In 1943, however, as more U-boats were lost, it was retrofitted to the VIIC and IXC classes and designed into the new XXI and XXIII types.
The first boat to be fitted with a snorkel was U-58 which experimented with the equipment in the Baltic during the summer of 1943. Boats began to use it operationally in early 1944 and by June 1944 about half of the boats stationed in the French bases had snorkels fitted.
On Type VII boats the snorkel folded forward and was stored in a recess on the port side of the hull while on the IX Types the recess was on the starboard side. The XXI and XXIII types both had telescopic masts that rose vertically through the conning tower close to the periscope.
Snorkels created several problems for their users. A U-boat with a snorkel raised was limited to six knots to avoid breaking the tube and its sound detection gear was deafened by the roaring of the air being sucked down the tube. A submarine that stayed underwater for more than a few hours encountered various disposal problems and had to store garbage internally, further fouling boats already infamous for their odors.
Most dramatically, snorkels were equipped with automatic valves to prevent seawater from being sucked into the diesels, but when these valves slammed shut the engines would draw air from the boat itself before shutting down, which was extremely painful to the ears of the crew and sometimes even ruptured eardrums. This last problem still exists in modern submarines, though their larger internal air volume mitigates the pain somewhat.

Ouch lol and IIRC the British had access to the snort when Dutch uboats sailed to England to avoid being caught in port in 1940 but the British decided they were too dangerous to use and took them off the Dutch boats


REAL early schnorkel use http://uboat.net/articles/index.html?article=63

[NeonSamurai]

Hehe wow thats alot of links