Question about the deck Gun

[Schütze]

Guten tag, fellow Kaleuns!

My compliments to everyone involved in making Silent Hunter III closer and closer to a true Das Boot experience.

I have rather two questions but the deck gun is my most vital question for know. It seems like a lifetime since i (and we) could perhaps sank the whole Royal Navy with the deck gun alone. Remember in stock Silent Hunter III prepared with 200 plus shell shot plus the extra 200 panzer breaking plus the light shot with the ship sinking just after a 10 shot or so, dependless of were the shot hit.

Enjoying my time as a commander know (U-48, Wegener flottile) equipped with GWX 3.0 gold and SH3 Commander it seems like a whole new game and with the possibility of having NONE benefits with the deck gun, which is more closer to the historical accuracy. As i have understand it, the deck gun was mostly used during the early period in the war when the Sub commanders were bound to the prise regulation. And you have guessed it correct, i want to be as much close to the history as possible.

My question then: How were the deck gun used and how long were the reloading? I have read every book of Clay Blair and his "Hitlers Uboat-war" and despite some few comments in the first book there isn´t much infomation about the Deckgun. It is said that the deck gun is a "fastshooting-fastreloading 8.8 cm" and that could motivate the four second reloading time but somehow i can´t belive it. I have also read that the ammunition was stored under deck and this is what you have to take into account when guessing the actual reloading-time, unless the crew weren´t prepared with all of the ammunition and had removed it from under deck before the shooting. Via SH3 Commander i have set the reloading time to 20 sec taking into account the time of removing the ammunition under deck and the reloading-time but i don´t know if im historical correct with it, but sure wan´t to be close to it.

Using the deck gun seemed like a process not in a hurry. It took f.ex Kapitänleutnant Bleichrodt a whole lot of hours and the whole ammunition store to sank a ship (can´t remember which one) close to the American east-coast.