Original German U-Boat propaganda video

[Seeteufel]

Many of you probably know the u-boat videos on uboat.net...

Here (found in the SH III ubi-forum) you can see a better quality version of the On board video on uboat.net.

"Das Boot von Kapitänleutnant Endrass auf Feindfahrt im Atlantik"

Faked from the beginning to the end, but fun to watch!
Note the funny scenes where two crewmen (Tiefenrudergänger) are leaning to the right to pretend the boat is making a steep dive, while the Tiefenmesser points to 5m...
...or the DC attack from the "enemy" destroyer at the same depth...

But there are other interesting scenes, here are some stills from the film:

Deck gun in action:












Some more stills:






...hope you liked it...


...Leb wohl mein Schatz - Leb wohl mein Schatz - lebwohl, l-e-b-e-w-o-h-l
denn wir fahren - denn wir fahren - denn wir f-a-h-ren - gegen Engeland, Engeland...

[KL Seestern]

Yes, quite amusing! The voice-over specifically said that it was an armed merchant steamer ... would Endrass really have surfaced to attack such a target with his deck gun??

[Catfish]

Hello,
yes, there were a lot of armed merchants later in the war, which seem to have fired at U-boats now and then, but there is no report or evidence that a merchant's gun ever hit a U-boat. The sinking of smaller single merchants with the deck gun happened quite often, at least early in the war.
And despite of all those reality discussion you see that here is a water tight compartment with shells right undernath the deck gun, and an additional one in the basis of the conning tower. Despite it is a propaganda film showing the ship going down in minutes i wonder whether reloading of the deck gun really took more than a minute per shell, as it is modded in the Rub mod. I get the impression that some capabilities seem to be underestimated in the reality mods
Greetings,
Catfish

[Seeteufel]

I found it most surprising how fast the crew jumped out of the conning tower to man the gun. Although the scene is faked (...the cameraman is outside, waiting for the action to start, looks like a drill, boat is showing her broadside while firing, etc...), and the weather conditions are excellent, the crew is quite fast.

Also the loading of the first rounds goes quite fast....

...really sad that there's no way to create a Mod which simulates the different reload times depending on where the nearest ammo is stored.

fast reload = a few dozen shots from the deck compartments.
quite slow reload = the rest from inside the boat.

Or a way to "reload" the deck compartments after the action, to have no disadvantage the next time....

[Ula Jolly]

So-called "Q-ships" did score some hits on the submarines.

Hello,
yes, there were a lot of armed merchants later in the war, which seem to have fired at U-boats now and then, but there is no report or evidence that a merchant's gun ever hit a U-boat. The sinking of smaller single merchants with the deck gun happened quite often, at least early in the war.
And despite of all those reality discussion you see that here is a water tight compartment with shells right undernath the deck gun, and an additional one in the basis of the conning tower. Despite it is a propaganda film showing the ship going down in minutes i wonder whether reloading of the deck gun really took more than a minute per shell, as it is modded in the Rub mod. I get the impression that some capabilities seem to be underestimated in the reality mods

[Catfish]

Hello,
Ula Jolly, you're certainly right, but i would not describe "Q-ships" as armed merchants but combatants.
B.t.w. in the first days of the war when the prize regulations were still in effect, a lot of british or "neutral" ships were stopped, searched and then sunk with the deck gun by U-boats, giving the crew time to man the lifeboats. The installation of guns on merchant ships as well as the existence of "Q-ships" was one (welcomed) reason for the unrestricted U-boat war.
Greetings,
Catfish