Type IXB (9B) External Torpedo Storages & Loading

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Indeed! I've been searching old discussions on just that:

Originally Posted by JohnPancoast

Well, they weren't transferred at night anyway for obvious crew safety reasons; tricky enough dealing with a heavy torpedo on a moving platform during daylight, i.e., let alone in the dark.

If you want to follow the historical timeline there should be no externals after 5/43. If not, load 'em up !

Originally Posted by ME

...in another related thread we (Fubar, Pancoast) recently discussed concluded that none of the type IX carried reloads due to air cover and I noted that Hardigan the drumbeater only carried 16 in his American coast raid. Air cover and the particularly miserable weather conditions of the Atlantic precluded convenient loading times -generally 4 hours -to wrangle fresh steam eels below deck. The electric eels were never carried above deck. Also even a near DC attack would render the top-stored eels inoperative and not worth risking an expensive Uboat and crew to find out which ones. The type IX's, in addition to being at 2/3 eel complement, were removed from the Atlantic main convoy routes by '43. Aces Silent Otto and the Bull of Scapa were long gone by then.

BOTTOM LINE: Only steam eels were ever carried in the external storage as batteries (requiring prelaunch heating up were susceptible to damage outside the U-boat's hull). tom2189's inquirey past 5/'43 is essentially moot. John Pancoast even has a mod for historical correctness on external eels: https://www.subsim.com/radioroom/sho...84&postcount=1