A Lathe onboard !

[Jeff-Groves]

Right on Mate! I hope to get a chance to go back.

[derstosstrupp]

Just went back 2 weeks ago, always great! I’m in touch with curators to take pictures and hopefully view anything in collection not on display to help Neal out with Wolfpack, we’ll see!

[Leoz]

A couple of thoughts.



Unfortunately on a IXc both the night scope and attack scope are up in the tower so there is no way for any mobility challenged tourist to see what is up there so I assume that is closed off?



Do they have any scopes setup in that side display on the floor area near the sub that one can look through?


Again the sit down attack scope is amazing and would be great if they had it.



Would be great to see a C/9 night scope with either the monocular viewing or the upside-down "V" binocular eyepiece.

[Aktungbby]

Originally Posted by YellowFin

The German wikipedia entry for the type XXI said that most of the XXI were equipped with a 'lathe' (didn't know this term, but the tool in the picture is the one mentioned in the article).

The lathe was fitted because the project "Ursel" wasn't ready. Ursel was a weapon system featuring a solid fuel rocket booster torpedo for active defense against destroyers / sub-hunters.

https://www.practicalmachinist.com/f...-thing.222545/

The usual lathe on a type VII was a Hommel UWG that´s related to the Astoba. So there are U-boat lathes. The Hommel can even be an U-boat mill and an U-boat shaper.

Even the USS Pampanito, moored at Fishereman's Wharf San Francisco carried one: as even Onkel Neal and his motley Wolfpack crew can attest: all of which gets us to Operation Ursel: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rocket_U-boat and submarine towedV-rockets on underwater barges!!?

Plans for the rocket U-boat involved an attack on New York City using newly invented V-2 rockets; Unmanned and unpowered containers with V-2 rockets inside were to be towed within range of the target by a conventional U-boat then set up and launched from its gyro-stabilized platform. With thoughts of hitting targets in the United States and in the United Kingdom, a 32 m (105 ft)-long container of 500-tons displacement was to be towed behind a submerged U-boat.

This was countered by Operation Teardrop :

Operation Teardrop was a United States Navy operation during World War II, conducted between April and May 1945, to sink German U-boats approaching the Eastern Seaboard that were believed to be armed with V-1 flying bombs. Germany had threatened to attack New York with V-1 flying bombs and rocket U-boats. After the war, it was determined the submarines had not been carrying either. The plan was executed in April 1945 after several Type IX submarines put to sea from Norway bound for North America. Five of the seven submarines in the group stationed off the United States were sunk, four with their entire crews. Thirty-three crew members from U-546 were captured, and specialists among them were interrogated under torture. One destroyer escort was sunk, with the loss of most of her crew. The war ended shortly afterwards and all surviving U-boats surrendered. Interrogation of their crews found that missile launching equipment was never fitted to the U-boats, which was further confirmed after the war. U-546 was responsible for the last combat sinking of a United States Navy vessel in the Atlantic Theatre, during Operation Teardrop. On 24 April 1945 U-546 sank the destroyer escort USS Frederick C. Davis, (133 out of 209 crew lost) but was in turn sunk by combined fire of five other US destroyers.

.... lathes or not, U-boat rocket-towed warfare is deadly business

[Shadowblade]

I didnt know they had them onboard but it could be very useful for repairs.

[Gerald]

Originally Posted by Aktungbby

https://www.practicalmachinist.com/f...-thing.222545/
Even the USS Pampanito, moored at Fishereman's Wharf San Francisco carried one: as even Onkel Neal and his motley Wolfpack crew can attest: all of which gets us to Operation Ursel: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rocket_U-boat and submarine towedV-rockets on underwater barges!!? This was countered by Operation Teardrop : .... lathes or not, U-boat rocket-towed warfare is deadly business

5 year's Vinnie...🤔

[Aktungbby]

Originally Posted by Gerald

5 year's Vinnie...��

...in a forum based on 80+ year-old failed WWII weaponology and tactics no less! How else to mingle operations: Ursel, Teardrop, a foto of Onkel Neal, the Pampanito & lathe ...and the last warship sunk by a U-boat...all in 1 enlightening post!

[Gerald]

Originally Posted by Aktungbby

...in a forum based on 80+ year-old failed WWII weaponology and tactics no less! How else to mingle operations: Ursel, Teardrop, a foto of Onkel Neal, the Pampanito & lathe ...and the last warship sunk by a U-boat...all in 1 enlightening post!

Good riddance!😊