What do you do if you see enemy aircraft?

[Kielhauler1961]

Originally Posted by Paul Riley

Regarding Metox,i'm not sure,but were'nt the emissions really miniscule,and hard for RAF bomber command/planes/ships to detect?.I havent had this device yet,but know a little about it,as it gave the uboat a few vital seconds to prepare for an incoming aerial attack! , and also notified the crew that they were being tracked by radar.
It sounds like a very vital piece of equipment to me,better than having nothing!.

Herbert Werner, like the rest of the U-Bootwaffe, were "suckered" into believing this one. Metox was a 'passive' system for listening-out for signals only. It did not transmit so, therefore, could not be detected. It's like believing your hydrophones are giving your presence away to enemy ASDIC. British propaganda at its best - wonder how many boats were lost because they believed the story and turned the equipment off? The Germans became suspicious of Metox in the summer of 1943 because it suddenly seemed to have stopped working. Boats were being surprised by aircraft in the Bay of Biscay without a "peep" out of the RWR. This was because the Allies had moved to centimetric radar, something the Germans didn't think was possible to make small enough to fit in an aircraft. They were already suspicious of their own equipment and it only needed a little 'nudge' to tip them over the edge.

The main problem the U-Boats had was that they were too 'talkative.' Old technology brought up to date: High-Frequency Direction Finding (Huff-Duff) caught their radio transmissions 90% of the time from mid-43 onwards. That's why I keep 'schtumm' after leaving port.

[Paul Riley]

Originally Posted by Kielhauler1961

Herbert Werner, like the rest of the U-Bootwaffe, were "suckered" into believing this one. Metox was a 'passive' system for listening-out for signals only. It did not transmit so, therefore, could not be detected. It's like believing your hydrophones are giving your presence away to enemy ASDIC. British propaganda at its best - wonder how many boats were lost because they believed the story and turned the equipment off? The Germans became suspicious of Metox in the summer of 1943 because it suddenly seemed to have stopped working. Boats were being surprised by aircraft in the Bay of Biscay without a "peep" out of the RWR. This was because the Allies had moved to centimetric radar, something the Germans didn't think was possible to make small enough to fit in an aircraft. They were already suspicious of their own equipment and it only needed a little 'nudge' to tip them over the edge.

The main problem the U-Boats had was that they were too 'talkative.' Old technology brought up to date: High-Frequency Direction Finding (Huff-Duff) caught their radio transmissions 90% of the time from mid-43 onwards. That's why I keep 'schtumm' after leaving port.

Its very rare I break radio silence at all myself,the only time I use the radio if I have to,is at night after which I will make a mandatory dive for an hr or so just in case the signal was intrecepted,and when absolutely certain I am clear of any allied radar centres,like the main ones based at Britain for example.I will also use the radio if I need to report a contact that I was unable to sink due to various conditions,and again,I will make the standard dive just after broadcasting.

[Sailor Steve]

Originally Posted by Paul Riley

Regarding Metox,i'm not sure,but were'nt the emissions really miniscule,and hard for RAF bomber command/planes/ships to detect?.I havent had this device yet,but know a little about it,as it gave the uboat a few vital seconds to prepare for an incoming aerial attack! , and also notified the crew that they were being tracked by radar.
It sounds like a very vital piece of equipment to me,better than having nothing!.

Mexox's emmissions were indeed very weak, and pretty much undetectable, but due to quick thinking on the part of a captured Brit the Germans came to think otherwise, and stopped using it.
http://www.uboat.net/technical/detectors.htm

[Puster Bill]

Everytime I see an enemy aircraft, I submerge. Usually it's voluntary, but sometimes it has not been

[meduza]

I wonder, if you replace your Metox with modern system (like Naxos), will it be able to detect an older type of radar emission?

For example, the Naxos is a S-band detector, but what if the airplane still has a older VHF band radar? Wil you be able to detect it with Naxos?