How´s it possible?

[Mush Martin]

in RL often they would do it with decks awash as it made torpedo
handling much easier and the job go faster.
M

[Jimbuna]

Here's a few scanned photos to give everyone an idea of what such an operation entailed.....I have a few more, and will try to dig them out after I've had a bite to eat

[Wilcke]

Great pictures! That looks like a really miserable operation there. Even in calm seas.

[candy2500]

nice photos jimbuna, looks like they had there hands full loading them torps.

[vodkavera]

Very nice photos jimbuna.
That really gives an idea how it was and nothing that was done in hard weather.

/VV

[Jimbuna]

Decks Awash

[Skubber]

I just have it as a personal rule that I do not load externals unless seas are calm, and i do not load internals on the surface in very bad weather.

Also, if I am attacked mid-way through loading an external, I consider my u-boat unable to submerge. So I tend to not even try to load these if I am in a hot spot for enemy warships.

[K-61]

I also play by this honour rule, not loading external reserves unless the seas are reasonably still. My last patrol I came back to port with my stern external reserve still in its canister, as the weather was miserable all the way back to port. I've never been jumped yet while moving externals, but other players have reported that if they are jumped, they consider this torpedo abandoned in the haste to dive and make a point of not using it.

External torpedoes were stored below the deck plates in a watertight tube. The normal practice was to wait until the boat was in an area where they weren't likely to be surprised by an aircraft or enemy vessel. As shown in the photos above, it required a type of winch to be erected. In the game, you cannot move your stern external torpedo to the bow, or vice versa, but in real life they could; by tying flotation vests to the torpedo and tying lines to it, it could be floated fore or aft and then taken inside.