For Newbies

I haven't seen this posted since 2005 on another site, but once you get your snorkel, keep it raised at all times while on the surface. If you have to crash dive the snorkel being already up will allow you to keep your diesels running an extra 3 to 4 seconds. That means your U-boat will still be pushing 16+ knots as your bow dips below 19 meters. You will rocket through the 20s and rapidly attain 35 meters in record time. In fact I do this every time I wish to do a sound check - as soon as the diesels switch off below water I cut all engines and continue to glide down without wasting my batteries. Then I blow tanks once to re-engage my diesels.

It is also important to keep your snorkel up in heavy weather as this will keep your electrics from kicking in every time a huge wave engulfs your boat.

[Alyebard]

Originally Posted by Wave Skipper

I haven't seen this posted since 2005 on another site, but once you get your snorkel, keep it raised at all times while on the surface. If you have to crash dive the snorkel being already up will allow you to keep your diesels running an extra 3 to 4 seconds. That means your U-boat will still be pushing 16+ knots as your bow dips below 19 meters. You will rocket through the 20s and rapidly attain 35 meters in record time. In fact I do this every time I wish to do a sound check - as soon as the diesels switch off below water I cut all engines and continue to glide down without wasting my batteries. Then I blow tanks once to re-engage my diesels.

It is also important to keep your snorkel up in heavy weather as this will keep your electrics from kicking in every time a huge wave engulfs your boat.

Maybe good for a game but totally unrealistic, IRL snorkel was used only submersed :hmm:. But every one plays as wants :rotfl:

[ichso]

That's the topic title for: 'For Newbies'

The realism fanatics make themselves the game even harder than the simulation wants it to be. Like when waiting for good weather + submerged to reload the external torpedo reserves.

[d@rk51d3]

Dont forget that high submerged speeds with the snorkel engaged, would rip it clean off of the boat.

Technically it could only be used at relatively slow speeds. Modelled in AOD, but not SH3.

but it does point up one thing - Germany should have designed such a snorkel! A little extra metal to strengthen it would have saved a lot of lives. Now in the game you can travel at 15 knots with snokel up - so I will test to see if going 15 knots and diving makes a big time difference - LIKELY IT WILL - at least by adding another few knots speed to the dive. You know in the military not many are creative. But sometimes creative men do make it into war and they survive long enough to do some really interesting things.

Take "Panzer" Meyer for example. The things that guy came up with sometimes caused those around him to shake their heads with disbelief. And yet his natural asymmetrical creative ideas won many battles and turned seeming disaster into outstanding victory. I think his most asymmetrical on the spot tactic was when he ordered a platoon of Tiger I crews to take on board sacks of grenades and to drive down the enemy foxhole line throwing the grenades out of all their hatches into the enemy defenses. It causes his own troops to shake their heads in disbelief (it was certainly NOT BY THE BOOK). But it worked in splendid form. It was an emergency - a situation where no one was certain what to do and suddenly crazy Panzer Meyer showed up, barked a few wild sounding orders and in a few minutes the fortunes of the German line were restored.

Personally I believe had I been in charge of the Bismarck after its rudder was damaged I could have got the silly ship turned around with a little CAN DO effort.
I also think that the Titanic had enough crates and wood to keep everyone out of the freezing water had the Brit crew THOUGHT OUT SIDE THE BOX.

Actually some German U-boat captains did try off the wall ideas and sometimes showed good results.

[Maraz]

Originally Posted by Wave Skipper

but it does point up one thing - Germany should have designed such a snorkel! A little extra metal to strengthen it would have saved a lot of lives.

A raised snorkel would have been very visible and would have defeated the whole purpose of U-Boot design.

Remember that U-Boote were designed so that the commander's or watchman's head was the higher thing on the boat, so they could follow enemy ships keeping only the top of their masts in sight, being sure they could not be seen.

For this reason they had very short periscope lodging (not higher than the turret itself) even though this led to a very short periscope, that made difficult keeping periscope depth without having the top of the turret come out of water in rough sea. But all was designed to be functional to surface attacks (as opposed to submerged attacks).

With a raised snorkel they would have been spotted much more easily against the horizon.

Even raising the periscope (that is much smaller than the Schnorkel) while surfaced (e.g. for having better sight), was strictly forbidden fie U-Boot commanders.

Maraz

First - I just ran several tests in detail. I was doing 21 knots in a type IX D and hit the command to go to 25 meters depth.

GUESS WHAT: the sub slowed down to just 15 knots just as the water reacher the base of the snorkel. So the entire argument about how water would tear the snorkel down was WRONG. In the game the maximum snorkel speed IS 15 knots. So how does the snorkel make the sub reach 30 meters faster? Simply because it raises the 19 meter speed from 7 knots to about 12 to 14.

2nd - too high? Silly. The US subs had towers higher than that snorkel and the snorkel is only a little higher than the conning tower itself. Radar might pick it up, but radar would likely pick up the giant sub and conning tower before it caught the thin snorkel anyway. Old radars were great at picking up flat sided metal ships. Picking up a rounded pole that was in some ways a bit stealthy in 'shape reflectivity' was possible but not at great ranges. At the ranges where the pipe would be easily seen the whole sub would be brightly reflecting radar anyway.

The conning tower of the type XXI was about as high as the snorkel on an older sub. And as I said the American subs had a lot more up top than a German snorkel would present. All these arguments are just silly and proven wrong.

Perhaps the type VII and IX would have been in danger a bit of going under too steep at such speeds. But a crew could likely learn how to guard against that.

Here's a thought - we actually know every little about what most subs did. Perhaps ONE captain did use this method and just never got it recorded. Perhaps he tried it out - it worked - but he later died before he could tell his fellow captains. I know this - if crazy Panzer Meyer had been commanding a U-boat he would have at least tried it once. He'd try anything once. So you guys keep on slow diving and I will keep on rapid diving. Since my game is just me anyway its really no one's business.

It is possible that in heavy storms the waves might damage a snorkel if you tried to keep it raised while cruising on the surface. I will live with that possible flaw since I hate having to constantly order my crew to stop switching over to electrics and THEN TYRING TO RECHARGE THE BATTERIES after the big wave hits and subsides. When I am trying to make speed I find that in some wind configurations my sub will always switch to recharge mode while I am in time warp. SO I will find my U-boat going 12 knots when I ordered 18. Thus I will pretend that I was a savvy captain who got my snorkel strengthened back in port, paid for out of my own pocket from my vast Estate in Prussia, and the added price of a few bottles of schnapps - thus I will live with this.

Here to make it more real for you - let's say my captain lived in the USA for 8 years prior to returning to Germany - and so he, like so many American skippers who rigged up special things on their subs, knew how to think outside the box of his cadet training.

[KLARCH]

Originally Posted by Wave Skipper

GUESS WHAT: the sub slowed down to just 15 knots just as the water reacher the base of the snorkel. So the entire argument about how water would tear the snorkel down was WRONG.

Don't you read the posts before you reply? He said that in real life the snorkel would tear off, not in the game. Just play whatever silly unrealistic way you'd like.