Dive Alarm?

[Bubblehead1980]

So did U Boats use a dive/surface alarm along the lines of the American and British klaxons? Did they use the ringing bells or ?

[derstosstrupp]

They used a ringing bell, as can be heard in Das Boot. On a U-boat however, that bell was only for an alarm dive and was not used at any other time.

[Bubblehead1980]

Originally Posted by derstosstrupp

They used a ringing bell, as can be heard in Das Boot. On a U-boat however, that bell was only for an alarm dive and was not used at any other time.

I thought so. Interesting. I wonder why they only used alarm for emergencies, not to signal all when diving/surfacing.

[Mad Mardigan]

Originally Posted by Bubblehead1980

I thought so. Interesting. I wonder why they only used alarm for emergencies, not to signal all when diving/surfacing.

Not completely strange... when you consider the size difference between Uboats & U. S. fleet boats.


For general dive situations, the crew were... in very much, close proximity to each other, so.. preparing to dive to say... peri depth, really didn't require fancy bells & whistles to do.


Now, take an emergency situation... the bell, was perfect to grab the crews attention to danger & react to it, like... a bat outta Hades.


At least, that's My take on it all.








M. M.

[Fifi]

Furthermore I think the bell was ringing only for crash dives because this way all the crew knew instantly they had to run at the front torp room… gaining few seconds more

[derstosstrupp]

True, however the all hands forward maneuver was not standard practice, it was only if the L I could not get the bow down in time. Normally the flooding of MBT 5 and the bow buoyancy tank, and the forward planes being hard down was enough to get the bow down quickly. If not, the all hands forward was an option but not part of a standard crash dive, although the movie makes it seem that way. Was a dangerous maneuver since the LI could easily lose control of the dive.