Real german subs and diesel engine damaged?

[Schunken]

Hi captains...

I make my way 1/3 to the first Book "The Hunters" of Clay Blair and...

...beside of the giant torpedo problem I noticed another big problems of the Kriegsmarine:

I read more than 30 times that german submarines must cancel the patrol because dame to the diesel engines.

Was the diesel engines at this times so unreliable? I mean they did not make high rpm and have a own engineer who nurse them all the time....

Anybody know what the problem was? Valves, Pistons or overheating???

Todays 6-cylinder Diesel engines in a bick truck make often more than 500.000 miles....


Enlight me, gentleman


Andreas

[Weather-guesser]

Originally Posted by Schunken

I read more than 30 times that german submarines must cancel the patrol because dame to the diesel engines.

Those "dames" on boats will get you every time!

[Sailor Steve]

Don't know the answer to that one. Doesn't he say?

i would think the biggest issue was spare parts, space is so limited on a sub what parts do you have room for?

i think a few basic tools and some seals, bearings, and gaskets would be about all they had room to carry and anything that got bent broken or seezed needed a replacement part or machining.

[AVGWarhawk]

Originally Posted by Webster

i would think the biggest issue was spare parts, space is so limited on a sub what parts do you have room for?

i think a few basic tools and some seals, bearings, and gaskets would be about all they had room to carry and anything that got bent broken or seezed needed a replacement part or machining.

You made the parts Webster. At least the US boats had work tables, vise and tools to weld, create new parts while at sea. Known gasket that cause trouble had spares put aboard. US boats anyway. In particular were radar shaft bearings and seal issues. Sea water, bearings and electronics were never best friends. Also, if sea water entered the fuel oil or engine combustion chambers....forget it. The US boats had the capability to lift off cylinder heads to make repairs. I believe the Germans had similar.

[Nisgeis]

US Boats had a lathe on board - did the German boats have similar?

[AVGWarhawk]

You are correct Nisgeis. The lathe is located in maneuvering against the bulkhead between maneuvering and the aft torpedo room. all tools to make parts at sea!

[gandalf71]

Moin

putting into consideration that there were more than 700 Type VII boats built and how many patrols they fulfilled during the war, 30 aborted missions due to engine failures doesn´t sound like a major issue to me.

On the other hand missing spare parts and tools were certainly an issue during a patrol and if one diesel was out of action the risc of continuing a patrol with only one engine working was not acceptable.

Another issue I can imagine was that the decreasing quality of boats might have been an issue during the war. Caused by shortages in certain raw material and increased production numbers with less qualified workers.

Cheers,
Michael

[AVGWarhawk]

Good right up on diesels:

http://www.maritime.org/fleetsub/diesel/chap1.htm

Early diesel were unreliable. The HOR in particular. I was pronounced 'whore' as the HOR was that bad. Not to sure about the German diesel. It was an intricate machine. More so than I would say Fairbanks Morse used in the US submarines.