Sonar and radar usage

07-15-09, 07:53 AM

In Real Life how did a usual U-Boat execute its patrol ?

For example, did they submerge every 20km to perform a hydrophone sweep to see what's in the area ? Or did they mainly run on the surface at 2/3rds speed and only submerge when forced to ?

I ask because there are scenes in Das Boot when the U-Boat is toughing it out in a storm when its obviously better to be 60m down in calmer water and where you'd have more chance of detecting something using the Hydrophones than eyes.

Yet in books i've read there is no mention of submerging every 20km to make optimum use of the Hydrophone, the lasting impression is that they only submerged when they had too aside from the daily dives to fine tune the trim.

My ultimate goal is to employ the same patrol procedures as in they did in Real Life (in between contacts) so any help here would be greatly appreciated.

Mucho Cheerso...

07-15-09, 07:53 AM	#28
Uber Gruber Stowaway Posts: n/a Downloads: Uploads:	In Real Life how did a usual U-Boat execute its patrol ? For example, did they submerge every 20km to perform a hydrophone sweep to see what's in the area ? Or did they mainly run on the surface at 2/3rds speed and only submerge when forced to ? I ask because there are scenes in Das Boot when the U-Boat is toughing it out in a storm when its obviously better to be 60m down in calmer water and where you'd have more chance of detecting something using the Hydrophones than eyes. Yet in books i've read there is no mention of submerging every 20km to make optimum use of the Hydrophone, the lasting impression is that they only submerged when they had too aside from the daily dives to fine tune the trim. My ultimate goal is to employ the same patrol procedures as in they did in Real Life (in between contacts) so any help here would be greatly appreciated. Mucho Cheerso...