General Discussions
This is the place to discuss general issues related to the U-boat war or the war at sea in WWII.
RE: thanx
Posted by:
joe brandt
()
Date: December 04, 2000 10:34PM
<HTML>U-boat AA guns did not use tampons or plugs at the end of the gun barrel . This would prove impractical in use and the water was drained out when the bolt was opened to load a fresh clip of ammo and load the chamber with a fresh round. If you look at pictures of U-boats that had a deck gun you will see a rope wrapped around the barrel leading to this plug, you never see this on AA guns. Most U-boats later in the war had 2 twin 20mm guns and 1 quad 20mm gun , that is eight barrels to plug , very impractical when you need to crash dive !
` The holes you see in the barrel is not for drainage at all. The holes are not even in the barrel but in an outer jacket , these guns were air cooled and the jacket was fitted to cool the barrel when fired , it is simply called a barrel jacket. If a barrel had holes in that close to the chamber the hot gasess would escape and burn the loader next to the gun and cause a very rapid lose in muzzel velosity also.
U-boat AA guns were very prone to salt water corrosion and this is why that had a very high rate of stoppages and jam ups. The reason why the quad 20mm was used in the first place was due to the original army 37mm gun fairing very poorly under U-boat conditions, this was corrected when the 3.7cm Flak M 42 ( for marine use ) came into service.
All U-boat AA guns were heavily greased but other than that they just were subjected to the saltwater and pressures of the deep. The big change between marine and army AA guns was in the use of metals in the gun construction, U-boat guns used various metals that would stand up to the corrosive effect of salt water better than their land base cousins, like trigger sears and bolt recoil springs, I would think that the barrels would be chrome plated.
</HTML>
` The holes you see in the barrel is not for drainage at all. The holes are not even in the barrel but in an outer jacket , these guns were air cooled and the jacket was fitted to cool the barrel when fired , it is simply called a barrel jacket. If a barrel had holes in that close to the chamber the hot gasess would escape and burn the loader next to the gun and cause a very rapid lose in muzzel velosity also.
U-boat AA guns were very prone to salt water corrosion and this is why that had a very high rate of stoppages and jam ups. The reason why the quad 20mm was used in the first place was due to the original army 37mm gun fairing very poorly under U-boat conditions, this was corrected when the 3.7cm Flak M 42 ( for marine use ) came into service.
All U-boat AA guns were heavily greased but other than that they just were subjected to the saltwater and pressures of the deep. The big change between marine and army AA guns was in the use of metals in the gun construction, U-boat guns used various metals that would stand up to the corrosive effect of salt water better than their land base cousins, like trigger sears and bolt recoil springs, I would think that the barrels would be chrome plated.
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Subject | Written By | Posted |
---|---|---|
what happened to the anti air guns?? | Dave McQueen | 12/02/2000 05:35PM |
RE: what happened to the anti air guns?? | Fin Bonset | 12/02/2000 08:23PM |
My two cents.... | Ben B. | 12/02/2000 09:35PM |
RE: My one cent....!~ | Les | 12/02/2000 09:53PM |
thanx | Dave McQueen | 12/02/2000 10:02PM |
RE: thanx | Les | 12/04/2000 04:57AM |
RE: thanx | DUPRE | 12/04/2000 12:29PM |
RE: thanx | Craig McLean | 12/04/2000 02:00PM |
RE: thanx | Dave McQueen | 12/04/2000 06:44PM |
RE: thanx | joe brandt | 12/04/2000 10:34PM |
RE: thanx | dave mcqueen | 12/04/2000 10:37PM |
RE: thanx | Rainer Bruns | 12/05/2000 03:42AM |
RE: thanx | Antonio Veiga | 12/05/2000 08:20PM |
What happened to guns | Romulo P. Figueiredo | 12/06/2000 01:29AM |