Technology and Operations
This forum is for discussing technological & operational matters pertaining to U-boats.
Re: Torpedo Launching
Posted by:
kurt
()
Date: October 30, 2003 06:22PM
Robert et al:
The issue of cracking the hatch has come up before. I think we should hesitate before we label the U-boat commanders as being in error just because they failed to crack the hatch to bleed off built up internal air pressure before throwing open the hatch, though given the thousands of combats surfacings that happened operator error certainly might be the culprit.
A number of U-boat commanders were injured when they were shot out of the conning tower hatch by internal air pressure when the hatch was opened - other posters have listed a number of incidents - this clearly was not an uncommon event. I do not recall any such injury occuring to a US crewman during the war.
U-boats, especially the Type VII, had a lot less internal volume, and so may have tended to build up pressure more than a US fleet boat. U-boat operations, especially in the later years, operated in a more intensely hostile environment in terms of enemy air power, and did not have the radar sets fleet boats did for most of the war to warn of approaching aircraft.
The overwhelming need of a U-boat crew upon surfacing was to get the watch crew up topside as fast as possible. Every second spent on the surface while cracking the hatch, blind as to what was up there, endangered the entire boat. It may be that the U-boat crews, unlike US crews, emphasized throwing open the hatch and moving immediately topside regardless of any pressure differential. The risk of the occasional injury may have been thought to be more than offset by the reduced chance of being surprised by enemy aircraft.
As an analogy, speed in diving by all WWII submarine forces was emphasized to the point that the bridge crew poured down the conning tower hatch so fast that injuries were not uncommon - ranging from bruises to broken limbs - these could have been avoided by simply taking a little more time to get the crew inside.
But instead both US and German navies emphasized speed in submergence above injury prevention because both realized that every additional second taken to 'safely' get the crew inside greatly increased the risk of the boat to destruction in a real combat situation.
Perhaps the German U-boat crews took a similar tact to crew safety in surfacing; emphasizing a rapid manning topside over the risk that occasionally someone was going to get hurt, whereas US operations may have instead emphasized taking a few seconds to equalize pressure to prevent injury. Without knowing the specifics of German crew training and operational behavior, we should hesitate to draw conclusions.
Regards,
Kurt
The issue of cracking the hatch has come up before. I think we should hesitate before we label the U-boat commanders as being in error just because they failed to crack the hatch to bleed off built up internal air pressure before throwing open the hatch, though given the thousands of combats surfacings that happened operator error certainly might be the culprit.
A number of U-boat commanders were injured when they were shot out of the conning tower hatch by internal air pressure when the hatch was opened - other posters have listed a number of incidents - this clearly was not an uncommon event. I do not recall any such injury occuring to a US crewman during the war.
U-boats, especially the Type VII, had a lot less internal volume, and so may have tended to build up pressure more than a US fleet boat. U-boat operations, especially in the later years, operated in a more intensely hostile environment in terms of enemy air power, and did not have the radar sets fleet boats did for most of the war to warn of approaching aircraft.
The overwhelming need of a U-boat crew upon surfacing was to get the watch crew up topside as fast as possible. Every second spent on the surface while cracking the hatch, blind as to what was up there, endangered the entire boat. It may be that the U-boat crews, unlike US crews, emphasized throwing open the hatch and moving immediately topside regardless of any pressure differential. The risk of the occasional injury may have been thought to be more than offset by the reduced chance of being surprised by enemy aircraft.
As an analogy, speed in diving by all WWII submarine forces was emphasized to the point that the bridge crew poured down the conning tower hatch so fast that injuries were not uncommon - ranging from bruises to broken limbs - these could have been avoided by simply taking a little more time to get the crew inside.
But instead both US and German navies emphasized speed in submergence above injury prevention because both realized that every additional second taken to 'safely' get the crew inside greatly increased the risk of the boat to destruction in a real combat situation.
Perhaps the German U-boat crews took a similar tact to crew safety in surfacing; emphasizing a rapid manning topside over the risk that occasionally someone was going to get hurt, whereas US operations may have instead emphasized taking a few seconds to equalize pressure to prevent injury. Without knowing the specifics of German crew training and operational behavior, we should hesitate to draw conclusions.
Regards,
Kurt
