Immersive techniques for the true subsimmer!

[les green01]

anyone else plays with wearing U-Boat Captain cap i just order one

[bstanko6]

Always!

[les green01]

since i started reading the books steel boat iron hearts,das boot,iron coffins,commander handbook and u-boat tactics my playing has gotten better on the polish mission i got two polish warships,two polish merchants and a british uboat with only one eel missing and remembering to load eels in the tubes on the surface now way Hans Goebeler talk like it took them almost all night to load the tubes up i think he said 6 hours if so seem like the game is loading them to fast

[Tonci87]

Originally Posted by les green01

since i started reading the books steel boat iron hearts,das boot,iron coffins,commander handbook and u-boat tactics my playing has gotten better on the polish mission i got two polish warships,two polish merchants and a british uboat with only one eel missing and remembering to load eels in the tubes on the surface now way Hans Goebeler talk like it took them almost all night to load the tubes up i think he said 6 hours if so seem like the game is loading them to fast

6 hours? That is not possible. Maybe he was talking about the reloading of external reserves. Or the regular maintenance for torpedoes where you had to take them out of the tubes, service them, and then load them back in.

[les green01]

way he talks in the book or least way im understanding it there was bunks in the room that had to be folded up when in combat or maintenance,Once the torpedoes were launched the U-boat would withdraw, on the surface, hoping to evade the escorts. Then, and only then, would time be taken to reload torpedoes, which were stored below the decking, outside the pressure hull.Took anything up to an hour and a half.Each torpedo weighed about 1.5 tons and had to be manoeuvred through a hatch, into the torpedo room and then into the tube.so way i'm also taking it is they didnt even have eels in the room at all ok Werner now says that eels was put in racks inside the boat then cover with boards then bunks and took a hour to load which sounds better and would match after patrol reports i have read Hans Goebeler was under meds and dying when he did his book so i think he was probly talking about loading external reserves so im just going go with a hour to reload and call it good

[Tonci87]

Originally Posted by les green01

way he talks in the book or least way im understanding it there was bunks in the room that had to be folded up when in combat or maintenance,Once the torpedoes were launched the U-boat would withdraw, on the surface, hoping to evade the escorts. Then, and only then, would time be taken to reload torpedoes, which were stored below the decking, outside the pressure hull.Took anything up to an hour and a half.Each torpedo weighed about 1.5 tons and had to be manoeuvred through a hatch, into the torpedo room and then into the tube.so way i'm also taking it is they didnt even have eels in the room at all ok Werner now says that eels was put in racks inside the boat then cover with boards then bunks and took a hour to load which sounds better and would match after patrol reports i have read Hans Goebeler was under meds and dying when he did his book so i think he was probly talking about loading external reserves so im just going go with a hour to reload and call it good

Yeah, he is talking about reloading torpedoes from the external reserve.
normal loading time per torpedo is about 15 minutes, depending on crew training and readiness.
Why is it taking this long? The torpedo needs to be checked before it is loaded, and then it also needs to be lubed to get it into the tube. Therefore the whole surface of the torpedo is covered with grease.

[bstanko6]

Hey guys. I started another YouTube channel several months ago. It’s the War Room channel featuring war board and PC games. It’s fairly new and I’m looking for support.

If you are interested, come check it out. I just featured Steel Wolves: the German submarine campaign, by Compass Games. It’s a solo board game where the player assumes the role of Karl Doenitz commanding BDU.

Check it out!

[John Pancoast]

Originally Posted by bstanko6

Hey guys. I started another YouTube channel several months ago. It’s the War Room channel featuring war board and PC games. It’s fairly new and I’m looking for support.

If you are interested, come check it out. I just featured Steel Wolves: the German submarine campaign, by Compass Games. It’s a solo board game where the player assumes the role of Karl Doenitz commanding BDU.

Check it out!

That game sounds interesting; what's your take on it ?

[bstanko6]

It’s grand strategy. It is a really long game. But if you ever wanted to know what it was like to be Doenitz in the war, this is the one way of doing it. Is your role for each ship, and there are a lot of ships, you’ll be experiencing loan ships, tankers, and convoys. You’ll have to figure out what to do when your boats have to come in for repair and they’re stuck in repair for long periods of time. All the while, you will receive missions from the Luftwaffe, OkB, BDU, and German high command. These missions will give you certain perks later on the war, well if you don’t do them they may hurt you.

Great game, just very very long. Lots of die rolling.

The fact they made it digital, makes it much more easier to handle.

[John Pancoast]

Originally Posted by bstanko6

It’s grand strategy. It is a really long game. But if you ever wanted to know what it was like to be Doenitz in the war, this is the one way of doing it. Is your role for each ship, and there are a lot of ships, you’ll be experiencing loan ships, tankers, and convoys. You’ll have to figure out what to do when your boats have to come in for repair and they’re stuck in repair for long periods of time. All the while, you will receive missions from the Luftwaffe, OkB, BDU, and German high command. These missions will give you certain perks later on the war, well if you don’t do them they may hurt you.

Great game, just very very long. Lots of die rolling.

The fact they made it digital, makes it much more easier to handle.

Thanks !

[Storm501]

Continuing discussion about external torpedos, I remember reading that Otto Krechmer didn't even take externals for his patrols. He concluded that loading them at sea made the Uboat too vulnerable.

Although it is difficult to resist loading all torps you can before patrol, I find myself leaning to the same conclusion over time. Each time I initiate transfer at 0000Z, in complete radio silence, it is still nerve-wrecking to be stuck on the surface for hours with the hatches open. What if there is a sudden DD patrol or leigh-light ASW aircraft...

So perhaps next time I need to consider the priorities at base. Which one is #1, crew survival or sunk tonnage?

[John Pancoast]

Originally Posted by Storm501

Continuing discussion about external torpedos, I remember reading that Otto Krechmer didn't even take externals for his patrols. He concluded that loading them at sea made the Uboat too vulnerable.

Although it is difficult to resist loading all torps you can before patrol, I find myself leaning to the same conclusion over time. Each time I initiate transfer at 0000Z, in complete radio silence, it is still nerve-wrecking to be stuck on the surface for hours with the hatches open. What if there is a sudden DD patrol or leigh-light ASW aircraft...

So perhaps next time I need to consider the priorities at base. Which one is #1, crew survival or sunk tonnage?

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 !

[Aktungbby]

...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.

[Storm501]

There was some discussion that in reality hydrophones were quite rarely used, especially outside combat.

What I don't understand that why didn't they submerge during night for hydrophone search. At night one would think that it is difficult to visually spot any blacked out ships, outside a range of few kilometers. So why not stay at hydro depth where you should be able to hear further?

Of course I understand that commonly at night U-boats charged their battery on the surface, but if batteries were full, why not hydro search the night if you are patrolling at station...

If someone broke light discipline like smoked on the merchant, then visual searching could grant a real lottery win. But it is my impression that blackout always held.

[John Pancoast]

Originally Posted by Storm501

There was some discussion that in reality hydrophones were quite rarely used, especially outside combat.

What I don't understand that why didn't they submerge during night for hydrophone search. At night one would think that it is difficult to visually spot any blacked out ships, outside a range of few kilometers. So why not stay at hydro depth where you should be able to hear further?

Of course I understand that commonly at night U-boats charged their battery on the surface, but if batteries were full, why not hydro search the night if you are patrolling at station...

If someone broke light discipline like smoked on the merchant, then visual searching could grant a real lottery win. But it is my impression that blackout always held.

Hydrophones were considered old tech and were not used in escorts sub hunting. Not heard of them not being used by subs unless you mean for attacking.
In terms of using them for night attacks, mobility was one of the very understandable main reasons for the surface night attacks. Once submerged that edge (u-boats on the surface were faster than some escorts) was gone.